[AZRC]

It was a blast! And long too. Our group started to meet at 8am at Carefree Highway & I-17. After some introductions and checking of equipment we got on our way. We made it to the dirt roads of Lake Pleasant by 9am. We had 14 vehicles in our group and a Bronco group with close to that many in front of us. Did I mention that we passed that Bronco group on the way. We rolled into Crown King about 3pm (with about 1.5 hours of stops along the way). There were all shapes and sizes of vehicles in our group including a 94 Isuzu Trooper bone stock (less ground clearance than my RC). I was the only RamCharger in our group but another one showed up in Crown King shortly after we did. I was really clean and straight, had about a 3-4" lift with 33" I think (could have been 35s). It was brown and had some nice rims. Looked like a 76-78 year model.

Nobody had to be pulled out of anything unless they were trying one of the alternate harder paths. The trail was very easy in the beginning and got more difficult (slower) as we got closer to Crown King. Most places where it looked difficult and some stock vehicles might have a problem there was always a way around that obsticle. Most people tried the hard line and if they could not make it up they just backed down and took the easy way. There were only two exceptions to that, one was the ledge talked about when rating this trail, and the other was a spot sometime before that (can't remember exactly when). Both of those places someone spotted and all got through with no or very limited underbody scrapping.

The guy in the Trooper actually had some really nice big topo maps and a GPS. I am hoping I can get some coordinates of places we stopped and where the two hard places were. If he passes those along to me I will post them as a new topic.

When we rolled into Crown King I was extremely glad they had a place to rinse off some dirt and have a beer. We were all ready for a hot meal too. Next time I might plan to stay the night. They have some nice accomidations up there from what I hear.

If you have any questions I will try to answer them. This is a trail not to be missed if you have the time. Very scenic!

 

[AZRC]

So that ledge is still there, and not blown up as was rumored?

It is still there and craggy as ever. If you don't take the right line there is a good chance you will damage something under your vehicle. With a good spotter - no problem.

 

[AZRC]

The RC did not let me down. I took the hard way many a time but towards the end of the trip my wife and child were a little worn out from all the bouncing and crawling and I started to take more of the easy alternate routes. The RC got a little hot under the collor too - temp at the edge of red a lot. I will have to look into why it was running that way, maybe normal for the crawl speed we had.

I wasn't hard showing up the Bronco club as we passed them! ....Actually one member of that club looked like he was having some mechanical problems / possibly overheating. I felt sorry for him as that is the last place you want to break down. It was another good example of friends sticking with friends as the Bronco club were all trying to help him. We offered to help also but they said it was under control.

I am not a Ford person but when they made those early Bronco's (Gen 1) those engineers did it right. Very capable vehicle, just like the RC.

 

[AZRC]

I have two auxillary coolers, one for trans and the other for oil. I think this did help but the electric fans are probably the key to running cooler, I currently only have the mechanical fan. A future mod for sure.

Your right, at that crawl speed the trans probably never got a break. My trans cooler sits right in front of the radiator (not helping the water temp), I may move this somewhere else and put a small electric fan on it.