When traveling with this group of well-equipped Jeeps, I learned a little about their cost. A new Wrangler Unlimited (4 door), Rubicon model, costs around $35,000. The many addons to make them trail worthy on this kind of challenging trail will cost over $15,000. This includes taller all terrain tires. custom wheels onto which the tires are bolted, longer springs and shock absorbers, more skid plates on the bottom, bumpers, spare tire carrier, winch, air compressor, running boards, CB and sometimes ham radios, GPS and mount, and probably a lot of other items. The folks who have these vehicles choose this way to spend their discretionary dollars rather than on boats or airplanes or, in my case, camera collections!
The following pictures are all taken at a more challenging part of the trail. It looks like a 30 degree slope! This one probably has a name but I did not learn it.
One of the Jeeps ;in the group could not make it up this steep slick rock and had to be pulled up with a strap. A few rocks were thrown in the hole on which the left front tire of the Jeep in the next picture is resting and the rest made it on the first try!
The jeeps below are to me extreme in their being customized. While I am sure that they are trail worthy, the ones with the fancy paint jobs may never see a brushy trail.
I saw this one at a tire shop which fixed flats free as a part of the promotion for the rally. One of our tires picked up a foreign object resulting in its leaking, and it was fixed at no cost.
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