F150 on Moab Jeep trails?

[oosik]

I've had well over 50 years of 4-wheeling experience. Twenty plus in Alaska. I've learned that common sense is the best safety feature. Many just blunder in and then worry about retrieval. That can take all the fun out of any adventure trip.

 

[bdhsfz6]

In 2017, my brother and I rented a 4WD Ford Expedition to drive from Phoenix to Denver. We stayed 4 days in Moab and took that vehicle on some really awful trails. One of the notable ones was the Shafer Trail that runs from Canyonlands NP down into Moab.



The above pictures were taken on the relatively tame sections of the trail. The rest of the time we were too busy keeping the Ford on the road and getting out of ditches to take any pictures.

The Expedition had 1200 miles on it when we left Phoenix and almost 4000 when we turned it in at the Denver airport. We beat the hell out of that thing and except for a flat tire, we had no mechanical trouble. It's a good thing we had the full insurance package because the undercarriage looked like it had been dragged halfway to Denver!

 

[Bearsixty7]

Here is one of the best book on the trails there. It ranks them in difficulty and has a brief description for each trail.
I have an older version as we were there back in 2005 I believe it was. We ran the most difficult rated trails as well as spent a day at BFE.

Guide to Moab Backroads & 4-Wheel-Drive Trials

The best off road guide book for Moab Utah

funtreks.com

 

[ruffdog]

Two things to help a street vehicle go off-road...air down the tires and disconnect the anti-sway bars so your suspension can move.

 

[dodge man]

I don’t plan on going on any trails that I need to start taking sway bars loose. bearsixty7 thanks for that link for the book.

 

[dodge man]

We did some off roading today in our F150. We are spending time in Moab and drove what is called Potash Road into Canyonlands Park. Then Shafer Switchbacks takes you up out of Canyonlands to the rim. Most of it is just very rough slow going rocky road. Shafer Switchbacks on the other hand gets the pucker factor very high. A long climb, sharp turns, hardly one lane wide, and a huge drop off on one side. Took about 4 hours taking our time and glad I did it once.

I bought the off roading book recommended and they described this drive like you could almost do it in a car. 90% of it you could but that 10% is pretty bad. My truck is a stock F150 4x4. The front cross member drug once a the front spoiler drug a couple of times. I guess if your a serious off roader it is easy.

 

[Jstpssng]

It sounds like you had a good time. I'm not an off roader, yet a spoiler doesn't seem to stay on any of my pickups very long. They always seem to catch on something, and after a while I get tired of reattaching.

 

[dodge man]

I almost took it off before hand but figured if I ripped it off it didn’t belong. There is about a 8 minute YouTube video of a guy riding a motorcycle riding up Shafer Switchbacks. It gives a great idea of how far the drop off is. It’s almost harder to watch the video than to actually drive it.

 

[deserteagle71]

I almost took it off before hand but figured if I ripped it off it didn’t belong. There is about a 8 minute YouTube video of a guy riding a motorcycle riding up Shafer Switchbacks. It gives a great idea of how far the drop off is. It’s almost harder to watch the video than to actually drive it.

30+ years ago...when I was a "young" man in my late 40s I did the White Rim Trail, from Mineral Bottom all the way around and then up the Shafer Switchbacks, on a Honda XL500. Easy trip on a dirt bike, really. Not far from the Shafer switchbacks I saw someone staggering ahead of me. I mean literally, staggering, like he just couldn't control his legs any longer. So of course, I stopped to see if I could help. Turns out this was a young man in his early 20s - big boy, probably 6'2", but not in good physical shape. Said he was from Tennessee and was up on the Island in the Sky; he saw a trail leading off the mesa that to him didn't look so far to where I found him. He didn't realize just how big a drop that was - or how hard it is on the legs and knees going downhill. He knew he could never climb back up again to his pickup so he was hoping someone would come along and give him a ride back up on top. So, since the sun had already gone down, I told him I'd give him a ride if he wouldn't mind getting on the back of my bike. Well, he had never been on a motorcycle before. And my bike did not have passenger pegs for his feet so they were dangling and hitting the ground. The Honda had no problem carrying double weight - but going around each switchback, as I would lean into the corner the guy would lean the other way so we were wobbling all over the road. The grip he had on my ribs almost kept me from breathing! I did get him to his pickup without incident, though. That was an interesting ending to a great ride.

View from the Island in the Sky, looking at the La Sal mountains behind Moab to the east:

 

[dodge man]

I looked up if anybody had been killed on the switchbacks lately. About 4 years ago a Michigan woman lost control of her motorcycle and fell 150 feet and died. That would be a heck of a hike up the switchbacks. A couple of weeks ago when my adult children were here we stopped at Island in the Sky. Heck of a view.