About three-quarters of the way up the obstacle, the Braille crack goes away. Keep your front tires pointed toward the top while your rear tire is still in the crack both guiding you and helping to hold the Jeep stable. Depending on your wheelbase and suspension, you may hang your driver-side front tire in the air a bit as you crest the top, but it will quickly come back to earth as you continue your lazy right hand turn up Tip Over Challenge. It's easy once you know how to do it right, but if you panic and shoot too far to the left or steer too sharply to the right, the result can often be a hard tumble and roll to the bottom.
GPS Coordinates
N 38.58735 W 109.54192
Minor Threat
For the past two years we've found ourselves on the Minor Threat trail at Area BFE recreational park in Moab, Utah. And while we admit it's not a high-draw trail and the obstacle we're highlighting isn't even named, we feel it's representative of enough obstacles you're likely to encounter across the country that it's worth inclusion in this story.
What we're dealing with here is a nearly vertical ledge about 3 feet tall situated in the middle of a steep climb up a mountainside. The rocks aren't particularly grippy, but they're not as smooth and slick as granite, so huge wheel speed isn't needed. To complicate matters further, there are loose rocks at the bottom and top of the ledge and some soft soil on the top of the climb on the driver side; the ledge also fades away from the Jeep as it goes up the hill on the right, so it's difficult to line up squarely on it.
Because of the way the ledge fades to the right, you've got to slowly climb your front tires up on top and make a slight left hand turn to get the rears to line up a little more squarely. But here's the rub: If you try to hit the obstacle hard to bang the rears up while lined up squarely, you'll wind up with your front tires in the bushes and rocks at the top of the obstacle. Try to bump the rear tires up while not lined up straight and the Jeep will lurch hard to the passenger side, nearly tipping you on your side.
Longer wheelbase rigs like Wrangler Unlimiteds, Cherokees, and so on, can crawl it slowly or can survive the side bump a little more easily than shorter CJs and Wranglers. For the shorter rigs, you've got to line up for the bump with your rear tires square to the obstacle and initiate a slight right hand turn as the rear is bumping up. It's sketchy, because if you fail to get the rears to climb during this operation you're more than likely going to end up on your two passenger-side tires for a second or two and may even tumble off the ledge. However, if you're not up for the bump-and-turn, you can move over to the right side of the ledge and take the easier line, but where's the fun in that?
GPS Coordinates
N 38.40667 W 109.40748