okay... Watching the sunrise on a beautiful
sand mountain sure is an amazing way
to start the day. By the way I'm your host
Rich Klein and I'm here with our special
guest Steve Nantz from Sand Hollow off-road and you're
watching Drivers Seat, the show that takes
you the viewer along to the ride with
some of the biggest names of sport. Today
we're on Broken Chain which is rated 12
here in Sand Hollow in Hurricane, Utah. So
we're on Broken Chain right and it's a
10 rated trail here at Sand Hollow
there's up to a 15 rating right,
so
you're coming from Moab and Moab
4x4 Outpost where they were in the 1 to
10 range. right. what what's some of the
things that in Moab you saw on what
warrants the the 1 to 10 there and why
we need maybe a little bit more rating.
(Steve)-Well so the thing about Moab is that you
know it's a beautiful place but the
majority of the trails in Moab are
really pretty easy trails you, Know we've
got a lot of easy trails in Moab and a
few hard trails out hereat Sand Hollow
it's the opposite it's more hard trails
and a few easy trails though Rich is
making a very good effort to break open
some easier trails. Of course there's
lots of Jeep trails and stuff around
here. I think there's I think there's
over 115 trails in this area which is
just absolutely incredible. (Rich)- yeah we've
got about 115 in southern Utah alone and
that kind of that's outside of Sand Hollow
as well.
So with Sand Hollow off-road itself being here
local you moved here about how long ago
I guess. (Steve)- I've been here about almost two
years now
the reason one of the main reasons why I
really wanted to move here was just
because you know professionally you know
rock crawling professionally in the pro
class I need a place to practice and
Moab just really was not doing it for me
as far as getting the practice that I
needed to get a little better at what I
do. 
(Rich)-yeah well this is a kind of hardcore
heaven as well you know we we got so
many different trails here that are so
extreme right and today being on Broken
Chain rated 12. Our rating systems a
little funky so everyone knows of our
rating system between you know
originally it was 1 to 5 right.
when you first got in the sport and then
it eventually evolved into 1 to 10
because the level of difficulty of the
trail had increased and therefore the
vehicles also increased right the
capabilities. (Steve)- absolutely (Rich)-so from there
now you're looking at an increased
rating now the vehicles of with
competitions and whatnot like you're
talking about the the level of
difficulty has to match the vehicles
itself again so we've created a 1 to 15
and the 15 is usually what we call like
a trail breaker type trail we're
generally speaking nobody has finished
it without any aid. Once one person
finishes it it drops to a 14, five people
finish it drops to a 13, and so on and so
forth
(Steve)-well it's it's as fast as the technology
is moving in this industry it's probably
not going to be uncommon to see people
doing these 15 trails and knocking those
ratings down in the near future you know
within the next few years
these cars they're just like little
spiders I mean it's just amazing what
they do yeah so we're coming up to the
first obstacle here at Broken Chain
what are some of the things that you
think about with this kind of side Hill
crack, really articulates the vehicle or
you have your lockers on, do you use rear
steer, what are you going through? (Steve)- well
I'm gonna try today to not use the rear
steer as much as possible I mean there
may be some instances where I may turn
it a little bit but you know I want to
let the dragged axle guys know that they
can actually do this with little
perseverance this obstacle I've got I've
got my lockers on and I'm just going to
go nice and slow here you know a little
bit of a side hill but but usually
nothing nothing a buggy can't handle for
sure so this turn here this turn right
there where I'm coming up to right now
it's a little difficult and the fact
that it really does cross you up and and
it's a little bit hard to make this turn
it's pretty tight right through here so
(Rich)- what are the some of the things that
you've done to your vehicle to make it a
little easier to navigate on Trails like
this? (Steve)- well I mean the first and foremost
thing is probably the Jesse Haines
fabrication portal setup. you know gives
you four more inches of ground clearance
on the diffs and that's absolutely huge
when you're doing these harder trails
like this and then of course lots of
articulation and keeping the buggy as
lightweight as is absolutely possible.
This car weighs just a little over 2,900
pounds with water in all four tires and
so it's pretty lightweight vehicle. the
reason why we put water in the tires is
just for increased traction especially
when you're you're climbing a really
steep obstacle those front tires
we'll bite a little bit harder and and
help you pull the buggy up over
the obstacle. (Rich)- yeah so you take a lot of
what you've learned in extreme rock
crawling and the competitions and
whatnot in trail braking and you apply
that to customer vehicle at Sand Hollow
off-road as well right? (Steve)- oh absolutely I
mean there's no sense of building a
vehicle if you can't make it the best
that it can be it doesn't matter if it's
a Jeep or a buggy or you know a toyota or whatever you know you always want
to make everything the best it could
possibly be and use the technology
that's available so. it takes years of
learning to I mean as far as the on a
fabrication standpoint on how to build
vehicles that actually do work yeah and
it's a lot of practice and a lot of
trial and error and that's why you know
for years I built myself a new vehicle
every you know every couple years
because it's you know as a fabricator
it's fun to build and you always got as
soon as you get one car done you've got
ideas for the next car and so you know
not just you know it just increases your
skill level. (Rich)- what I like is that you take
all that engineering you've learned all
the little tricks sorry tricks of
the trade and you put it into a
real-world situation for your customers
so whereas when they come out to a place
like Sand Hollow, which is for a lot of
people pretty intimidating, you're able
to make it really work for them you know
let the vehicle do the work for you. (Steve)-absolutely so I'm going up this this
first big crack here and and this one's
a little tricky, you know obviously
anytime you're in a crack you want to
just straddle that crack and try not to
slip in but but this one you want to
turn out of it
a little sooner than you think if you
don't and you're gonna you're going to
scrub down
and that that passenger tire will scrub
down the rock and then you will have to
take it back up. back up necessarily
aren't bad but sometimes it cracks it
can be bad because you can get yourself
in worse situations kind of like a
couple years ago in Trail Hero for me
when I was in that humongous humongous
crack at the Trail Breaker and I had to
back up and I got a little off the line
and then I ended up slipping in the
crack and and that pretty much ended my
day right there. so you really got to
watch those cracks. (Rich)- I'll tell you as a
host on the show typically being able to
ride with a driver this is considerably
more difficult to hike up stuff
that generally speaking, you're driving
up. I'm driving up. (Steve)- well you know the
funny thing about that is and I always
say it's it's funny that you can't hike
up these obstacles but you can drive up
them I mean these these vehicles are
just so amazing (RIch)-yeah it is uh, is
definitely difficult to hiked up
something like that waterfall you just
drove up with insanely easy for you but
difficult to walk up for sure. (Steve)- right I
mean you can fill the angles in these
cars you know when you're climbing out
that big stuff and and I mean you can
really tell how steep that stuff really
is. (Rich)- you've recently brought your son into
it as well tell us a little bit about
Tyler's efforts. (Steve)- well Tyler you know when
he was really young
you know we started him out setting in
that in my lap and driving and and then
eventually progressed him up to you know
driving the obstacles on his own and and
now he actually is driving a car very
similar to mine. it's actually a world
class car it's Jesse Haines's prickle
and I believe that Jesse probably won
the national championship in that car
only five or six years so it's a really
good car and Tyler super excited all I
can say these really spoiled so well I
know. (Rich)- as a dad I know I think every
father wants to be able to give that to
their son a little bit you know. (Steve)- yeah
yeah you know he enjoys it and I enjoy
it and the funnest thing for us is we
can do it together, okay so this you know
talking about tricks of the trade
bringing that back this is a good a good
obstacle here where typically obstacle
like this I'm going to throw it in
front-wheel drive only and going to turn
my locker on in the front and it just
basically makes that front climb a
little bit easier you will see up here
further into the trail there's there's
obstacles like this but are much much
bigger and definitely will be more
obvious so just throw it back into
four-wheel drive there I'm going to stay
a little bit high on the right just so I
don't slip down in this track down here
and you know sometimes if you flip down
into crack you can get yourself pretty
stuck so (Rich)- yeah so now you're kind of on
this side hill right as you kind of
traverse over this next couple spot what
are some things you do to kind of keep
the vehicle from sliding downhill. (Steve)- well
you always got to think ahead that's the
biggest thing you always want to look at
your line that way when you get to that
portion of the trail you know what
you're going to do this again I'm going
to just kind of stay to the high side
that's that's pretty standard when
you're leaning over you know you know
it's pretty standard the one is just
stay to the high side so you don't get
yourself wedge down in the crack so I'm
thinking there's a big crossover right
up here
we're we're we're we may go ahead and
put it in front-wheel drive again it's
just coming up here pretty soon. (Rich)- I know
the the crossovers on this trail our
pretty Jurassic they are there's one
that's got to be what like a five-foot
wall almost ride (Steve)- right yeah you're going
to get you know you're gonna get some
off camber stuff on this trail and I you
know personally I always enjoy the off
camber I like pushing my car and myself
to the extreme because then you know
what your car can do especially when you
get in a competition setting you'll know
exactly what your car will do well and
(Rich)- One of the things is you're coming
around here we're gonna go over to
Val's video you can see the valley in
the background I'm there you'll see me
wave how the lake there and just this
trail is very very scenic as well now
you're going to want to (Steve)- Right, I missed
the turn yeah no big deal man you know
that's that's kind of the neat thing
about this area is a lot of these trails
are so new that you know they can be a
little difficult to follow and I know
that that's why rich is doing what he's
doing as far as this mapping and and
doing these certain things like this so
that when people do come out that have
never been here they will have the
ability to follow these trails (rich)- So when
you're going to make a turn like this
off camber going over to your left like
this right what what are you doing
inside the cab (Steve)- Well what I'm going to do
is I'm going to put it in neutral I'm
going to put it in front-wheel drive
only I'm going to put it in Gear gonna
pull my cutting brakes and I'm going to
turn I'm just going to let this car
slide around
like so and then now just we're going to
pop it back into gear again so that's
what they call a front burn and it's a
really a quite easy way to make a good
sharp turn we use that a lot
I mean trail ride and in competition
it's something that if you practice you
will use it a whole bunch pretty much
anybody that has an atlas or the ability
or their transfer case has the ability
to have twin sticks then anybody with
those twin sticks can do those maneuvers
(Rich)- yeah in twin sticks you can actually
take an old jeep transfer case and
modify it to do the same trick.
(Steve)- Absolutely
Dana 20 Dana 300 you can you can
definitely twin stick those in fact this
transfer case in this car is the Dana
300 this is out of like a early to mid
80s Jeep CJ (Rich)- How funny is that if you're in a
you know essentially if one of the most
capable rock crawlers in the world and
you're using old 1970s technology right
(Steve)- Right well you know it is lighter and
smaller than an Atlas tonight I do swear
by Atlas' I mean they are most
certainly the best transfer case on the
market but for this application because
this car is so small I decided to go
with the 300 so this this obstacle here
is is quite tough it took me a few tries
to really figure out the line on this
one so I'm going to just kind of stay
close to this left wall and you'll see a
little bit of a notch I'm going to put
my drivers tire and this little notch
right here and I'm going to try to keep
that tire right up against that rock
this is really going to flex out another
thing I'm going to do is I'm going to
I've got my front Locker on I've got my
rear Locker off and I'm going to pull on
this this cutting brake on this drivers
rear tire to just try to keep me from
Slipping down this big wall (Rich)- And now you kind of see
the vehicle pivot right. (Steve)- or uh yeah yeah
you can really you can really feel that
vehicle I mean artic articulate to the
max right there okay so now I've got my
fronts up so I'm going to go ahead and
lock my rear Locker in and then I'm
going to just kind of try to keep that
same line with these rear tires just
going to keep right up against this
little notch right here and it's really
gonna pitch you over so just be ready
for what it does (Rich)- and it definitely feels
like you're gonna roll over. (Steve)- Yeah right
right here feels pretty crazy but you
know in reality I think you're pretty
safe of course with these these BFG
tires there's a lot of traction so we
were able to just walk that today
believe me I'd struggle on that numerous
times so we're starting to get into the
real fun stuff up here doesn't (Rich)- this
kinda separates you know that the
vehicles and the driver skills and and
whatnot it this obstacle we you have
quite a bit of rollovers kind of just a
funky little notch right (Steve)- Yeah this one
here this little believe it or not this
notch doesn't look big but it still it's
a little funky I usually just drive up
and then I try to get my my drivers tire
up on this rock ledge here and just
bring it on around like that (Rich)- Now your
rear just fell in that hole that's where
most people kind of canter over or roll.
(Steve)- Right yeah if your if your front tire is up on this big ledge your front drivers
Tire it's going to help kinda
counteract that when that rear tire
drops in that hole and and then you know
if you if you really finess you can
just drop that tire in just nice and
gentle (Rich)- kind of a just slow controlled
drop right (Steve)- Right I found through the
years of doing this that I like to just
just creep and crawl all these obstacles
I don't I don't really throttle down
unless I absolutely have to
(Rich)- I think I'm right there with you I can't
stand bouncing my vehicle around (Steve)- right
absolutely
okay so I'm going to do another burn
another front burn right here I'm going
to lock this rear tire in the notch of
this this rock and that's another good
trick you know if you can lock a rear
tire in I'm going to put it in front
wheel drive pull my cutting brakes a
little bit and just kind of bring this
puppy around like so and you know any
time you you're in front-wheel drive you
usually always have the ability to throw
it into four-wheel drive on the move so
like just like in this crack for
instance we're going to start off in
front-wheel drive just to get the front
tires up and while I still have pressure
on all the gears I'm going to just put
it in four-wheel drive I'm not going to
stop I'm just going to slide it into
four-wheel drive and that keeps you from
slipping off the rock (Rich)- Well one thing I
noticed when you made that pivot was
that you had the rear disengaged
so one tire was moving forward even
though it was under not under power
(Steve)- Right right and sometimes we'll do that
we'll leave it in 4 Wheel Drive and just
get one tire to do a thing so here I'm
gonna wiggle it wiggle the tire a little
the wheel a little bit and I'm just
going to try to get these fronts to pop
up on this rock there we go we're
starting to pop up. op Slippling down and
that's that's what I was saying if you
stop a lot of times you're going to slip
down so a lot of times while we're we're
getting those front tires worked up
we're just going to slap it into
four-wheel drive and just like any crack
you want to try to keep your vehicle
level so you want to go real slow real
slow and if you feel it start to slip
down on one side then you turn to that
side and bring that side back up again
so yeah this is just a pretty good crack
I mean it's probably ten foot deep by
the time you're setting up top here oh
yeah and so I just felt my driver-side
start to slip down a bit so I turn a
little bit driver just to bring it back
up you always want to watch those rear
tires in the crack because that's what's
going to get you in trouble and so if
you feel like the rears slipping down
which my passenger rear is right now I'm
just going to turn a little bit
passenger not much just try to bring
that tire back up (Rich)- The nice thing is just
trying to feel the car right what the
car wants and a lot of that is dictated
by the back axle so you get into this
position and you want to rear tire to
start climbing you start hunting the
front tires where you need the rear tire
to go and then once you get the rear
into place you can work the front for an
non-rear steer vehicle this is vital because
you don't have control over where you
put the rear tires besides with just
your front steering (Steve)- Right absolutely
yeah it's it's super critical with a non
rear steer car to really watch those
rear tires
you know rear steer car it's easy you
just turn the rear steer and put it
wherever you want but the non rear steer
guys you really have to watch your front
tires to position your rear tires where
they need to be so here's another
another example put it in for front
wheel drive and I'm going to try to get
these front tires to climb up but then
once they start to climb up I'm going to
just going to pop it into four-wheel
drive
(Rich)- And it's kind of like a seamless move
right as soon as it kind of you do you
apply pressure pop it back in let the
vehicle kind of maneuver and eat that
way. (Steve)- absolutely yeah because if you if you
lift those gears relax 90 percent of the
time it's going to slip off the rock
okay (Rich)- As you have been wheeling out here
and you got a little bit of a break in
front of you now what uh so how long
have you been driving this vehicle how
is it that you feel this comfortable in
your car now that you you know when the
rear tire is gonna drop and and what to
do to keep the vehicle on all four tires?
(Steve)- Right so I built this car about two
years ago and I really built it to step
up my game for the competition setting
and you know moving out here to Sand
Hollow it allows me to go out and push
this car to the absolute limit which is
so important if you want to get really
good at this sport and so you know able
to come out and you know figure out it's
you know sidehill capabilities and it's
climbing capabilities and how it drops
off and and fine tune the car so after
driving this car for about a year now it
just feels like a comfortable chair to
me I mean it's you know I'm very
comfortable in it I know what it will do
and and I know where the limits are now
(Rich)- One of the things I think is really cool
is even though you might be located
you know previously in Moab now here in
Hurricane, Utah you've got customers from
all over the world right? (Steve)- oh I do yeah
I've got customers as far as Lichtenstein and yeah all over the world I you
know I the moab store and I love Moab I
do miss Moab you know it's a great place
I met a lot of really great people I do
believe this Sand Hollow will be the next
Moab I think it's going to get really
super popular and so I decided to get my
foot in the door and get here (Rich)- I think
that says a lot to not just the terrain
itself but also you know maybe the city
and how its business friendly and you
know there's a local community embracing
the off-road life (Steve)- yeah absolutely I mean
look at Sand Hollow in itself I mean
it's just an OHV area you can drive if
you want to drive on that rock over
there you go over and you drive on that
rock you know and I think that is just
absolutely incredible you do not see
that really I mean virtually anywhere
else in the country (Rich)- So this is one of
those unique spots crossovers right?
Steve)- Yeah this is this is one of the bigger
crossovers from comparison you have 42
inch tires yeah 42 and again I'm gonna
put it in front-wheel drive and I'm just
gonna kind of nose up to this thing and
I'm gonna get those front tires to climb
up on top and then while they're
climbing up on top I'm just gonna slip
it into four-wheel drive so okay so you
fill these tires coming up getting
little a little crooked here hopefully
they're gonna climb there we go and then
I'm just gonna just pop her in
four-wheel drive and just just keep this
momentum going (Rich)- And it's good to be
crossed up on the crack like this right
you don't really want to square up to it. (Steve)- No, if you square up to it a lot of
times you're just going to belly up and
and that's always a problem when you
belly up because obviously you're stuck
so so this is this is a pretty tight
turn right through here
I might actually taken this turn a
little bit late
but tell you what we're going to do
we're going to we're gonna put it in
rear-wheel drive this time and we're
going to do is we're going to push our
brakes going to drive forward and we're
going to just flip this rear down if we
can well on one thing that my help is
being a long I gotta I gotta lock my
rear ok we're going to try that again
yeah and so sometimes two if you turn
your tires one direction and then you
start your burn and then you turn those
tires see how it's just bringing that
car down yeah and that's kind of a cool
little trick of the trade okay so I
think I'm burned down as far as I can so
I'm just gonna put it back in four-wheel
drive I'm just gonna drive forward kind
of get myself into a little bit of a
pickle here
there we go like say I'm really trying
not to use this rear steer (Rich)- Well and one
of the things that is interesting and
I've known this as a driver of doing
this show is trying to talk about what
you're doing while you're doing it in
very difficult situations it's really
difficult I mean as a driver it's a
whole other element to the Wheeling
experience right so it's just kind of
cool to to be able the experience this as a driver is a totally different
challenge but at the same point it is
it's very nerve-wracking right (Steve)- Yeah well
Well my character I'm just
kind of quiet anyhow I mean anybody that
knows me will attest to that
and so it does make it a little hard to
talk and drive and and watch your lines
but you know I'm having a great time and
I hope everybody out there watching this
videos having a good time too
(Rich)- Yeah I think that just getting a
little insight on to who you are as you
come up to the next obstacle you know
recently you brought Tyler into the
sport and you got a new rig so why don't you tell us a little bit about that
(Steve)- So you know like I said before we ended up buying prickle from Jesse Haines
you know kind of funny story he has he
didn't have the car for sale but I
bugged, I kept bugging him about three
years ago like hey sell me that car sell
me that car and he always told me he
said okay well I'll give you a first
option if I ever decide to sell it and
and so recently about he's oh six to
eight months ago he approached me and
said hey look I'm gonna sell the car you
want it and so I was kind of committed
at that point so I ended up buying it
from him and and but it's really been a
blessing because you know I can get out
with my son and do these things that we
both enjoy so we got one big wall right
here ahead of us this thing here I
usually try to take it a little bit
higher on the left side I'm sure you
could probably shoot just straight up
the wall but I kind of like the
challenge of getting a little high on
the left side and and obviously as soon
as we get over the top of this we're
going to make a sharp left anyhow so I'm
going to put it in two-wheel drive again
again just wiggle these tires it's gonna
wiggle these tires and get them to start
to climb up okay so you can see my tires
won't go any further so I'm just gonna
pop it into four-wheel drive and then
just just kind of keep that going so now
my car so everybody knows my car is 105
inch wheelbase which is quite short so
you know anybody that's out here with a
little bit of a longer car
you should really not have an issue then
(Rich)- I run a hundred and eight inch wheelbase
and it's only I mean just a tiny bit
difference but it makes it a whole
difference on the trail (Steve)- oh it's huge I
mean every couple inches in a car makes
a big difference on climb ability the
nice thing about this car is it's
balanced really well so it climbs as
good as a you know 108 inch
wheel based car yeah it and (Rich)- Give me yourlow center of gravity the weight bias
all has a play to do with that and then
of course the suspension geometry and
setup as well (Steve)- right yeah all that all
that stuff certainly comes into play so
I got note it's not a little crack here
turn my locker on again we just want to
try to keep it you know just try to keep
your car level this turn this is another
kind of a funky little turn you're
probably going to drop drop a tire in it
but that's okay
we're just going to let it go down nice
and gentle
there we go
(Rich)- yeah I think that uh you know being a local definitely has its advantages on
this trail as well you get a chance to
uh get on it a couple times and know the
line and I know the people traveling
here they're gonna really appreciate the
fact that you took the time to talk
about how you get through this trail
which is one of the most difficult
trails here at Sand Hollow.
(Steve)- yeah I really enjoy doing the hard stuff and and I you know would hope that
people would want to do this trail and I
think there's a lot of people that are
gonna want to do this trail and you know
the thing is is we want to let people
know but hey you can do a hard trail
like this and you don't need to be
scared you know just take your time pick
good line and you don't need to you know
you don't need to break your vehicle you
just need to take your time and get
through the trail and you'll be just
fine yeah (Rich)- I think that one of those
ideas you know take your time don't
break your vehicle there's little tricks
like going in front big only not being
all locked up and so what's one of the
things why does not being locked up
what's that do to the vehicle if you get
into a position where you have to use
front dig instead to maybe alleviate
pressure
(Steve)- well you'll you'll see you've probably
have seen this video a lot that I'm
turning my lockers on and off I you
normally don't even have them on until I
need them and it really helps as far as
making the turn you know if you've got
these lockers on all the time you're
gonna have a really hard turn in your
car and not only that it's really
stressful to the components of your car
so I'm run without the lockers until I
need them yeah so I'll get it over an
obstacle turn them you know turn them on
get over the obstacle and when I was
done with the obstacle I just shut them
off again so so this this little wall
right here I found that it usually works
best if you really kind of take this at
a diagonal if you square up on this wall
your front tire is going to hit this big
ledge up here and it's just kind of like
a double whammy
so we're gonna take this one just in a
little angle and then once these, once
these front tires are up I'm actually
going to turn to the driver and I'm
going to really try to really try to get
this at an angle here because one thing
again or one thing about this obstacle
is you'll belly up really easy on this
one so by turning your front tires to
the drivers it's going to give you that
clearance that belly pan clearance
that you need to just crawl right up it
like that (Rich)-  It's amazing you just drove up
a straight vertical wall that's taller
than your vehicle is (Steve)- Yeah these vehicles
are absolutely crazy
well you don't with that being said you
know trail, I'm sorry, Rich puts on an
event called Trail Hero and I'm sure
most of you have heard of it but you
know first of all it's a fun family
event if you want to just come out and
trail ride you know if they have
registered trail rides they have golfing
tournaments they have beach parties they
have water slides they have I mean
everything just about everything you can
imagine but one of the events that they
have is called the Trail Breaker and
Rich will pick the nastiest hardest
stuff out here and he'll put ten of the
best drivers in the in the world on that
course and it's a it's a time
competition they the guy that gets
through all the courses the fastest is
going to win but (Rich)- It surely isn't a rock
race (Steve)- No it's not a rock race I mean
because the obstacles are challenging
enough that you I mean you can't go fast
but you've got to go a little faster
than the next guy but you know the
Trail Breaker
I mean he said you know you look at that
wall that I just climbed and it's really
nothing compared to the stuff that Rich
is putting us on in that in that
Trail Breaker competition it's it's it's
certainly
the most extreme stuff that I probably
have ever done and that's that's exactly
why I enjoy it (Rich)- Well one of the things that
I enjoy is watching you guys do this
kind of crazy stuff as well and then
knowing that you know you've been in a
sport for a long time
competition-wise trail riding wise,
building vehicles and heck you've
won two of these things now these Trail
Breakers (Steve)- Well I have and I've been lucky
and I've been blessed and I hope I can
hold on to that title for a little
longer (Rich)- Yeah I just I think it's so cool
that before you won the Trail Breaker
competition wise you know traditional
rock crawling competitions the you know
how many wins did you have in you know
old school rock crawling type events?
(Steve)- Right you know I've I've had a few wins
here and there nothing nothing
substantial you know I'm always I'm
always close to the top and never quite
never quite there but I really enjoy it
and that's why I do it so Rich we've got
two options here this is basically the
top of the trail and you know in my
opinion I think the normal line or the
normal trail is probably just as hard as
the optional line which way do you want
to go Rich (Rich)- Well I'll be honest we're
going to probably end up going the more
extreme route which is actually for your
vehicle and your skill level pretty easy
and it's a route that I actually have
had a really difficult time doing it I
always taken a different line than
everyone else through it right and
fortunate enough to have you on the
Trail with me yesterday in this site same spot
and you showed me the line and then and
then I just drove right up it so once
you see the line I think I think it
actually is easier than the standard
trail
(Steve)- I agree I agree with you right there
buddy well you know and once you saw
that line I mean you popped up in two
seconds I mean it was no big deal so
it's very intimidating but, but it's also
really super exhilarating (Rich)- Yeah it's it's
definitely it looks crazy and it's hard
to imagine a vehicle just driving right
up but but do you do it in it and you do
it pretty dang easily (Steve)- Yep so this one
here it's you can kind of see that this
rock is kind of at a diagonal angle I
usually just kind of line up on that
diagonal and I just kind of drive up
that ramp there's probably other ways to
do this obstacle but but I found that
this works pretty good what's gonna
happen though is your rear at the very
end here and you'll see your rear is
gonna want to slip in it's gonna it's
right rear passenger rear tire is gonna
want to slip in this track and that's
okay you're not going to go anywhere
I just keep driving up and then I kind
of wait till the last minute here and
then I turn a little bit into it and
come right up so that is a tricky spot
I've seen people roll over there (Rich)- Yeah
I'm one of them (Steve)- Okay so here we're at
the big this is the big optional climb
this is kind of a finale I'm gonna cinch
my belts up here a little bit you know
lockers on (Rich)- Well now I wanna walk to the
front of this and kinda show everyone
how how big this is right I'm at the
bottom this is actually right right here
is where you want your tires to come on
the driver's side tire right there right
now at the bottom of this Crack here and
you see up here that's where you you
want to get your front tires but it's
really difficult to to imagine driving
up this that way (Steve)- Yeah the thing is is
this this is going to want to kick your
front to the right so you got to be
careful because if you go on if you if
you hit this a little hard you could
potentially kick your front tires to the
right far enough to where you're going
to roll down in the sand
so we're going to want to hit it with
just enough
Momentum that we don't kick it too far but
we got it we have to have to have enough
momentum to actually get the front tires
up and (Rich)- So it's kind of like a not a not
a bump really not really even like a get
it and not a crawl it's just that a
couple ticks above across it's kind of a
steady drive (Steve)- Just a steady drive yeah
you definitely don't want to hammer down
here because it probably won't work well
for you so the biggest thing is get
these get your front left tires in that
crack and it doesn't even look like that
should be the line but trust me I've
tried it many different ways and this is
the line I mean you get your front tires
in this crack that's where you want to
be and that includes the rears you got
to make sure that your rears are gonna
go right where your front tires are so I
am gonna I'm gonna kind of maneuver this
rear over a little bit with this rear
steer just just for the sake of saving
some time but once you get lined up
lockers on seatbelt tight helmet on
everybody should wear helmets nowadays I
mean with this stuff that we're doing
super-important I've had you know
several buddies that have rolled over
and and cut their heads open everything
else so you know helmets are just a good
thing to wear but we're gonna see if we
can make this in one shot so I'm going
to just kind of roll into it and then
when I feel like I'm ready I'm just
going to kind of trottle it just a
little bit so so here we go okay so you
saw the front kick around and that's
what you got to watch because if this
front passing your tire falls off of
that ledge you're probably going to roll
over so what we're going to do now is
we're going to turn left and we're just
going to just try to creep up just just
nice and easy nice and easy
now you're going to want this left front
tire to get up on that wall and if you
have rear steer go ahead and turn your
rear steer to the left as well it's
going to help level you out
and then just just creep up it and
that's that (Rich)- It's kinda crazy how you just
made it like it was nothing
like it it just baffles me that you're
able to do that (Steve)- Well there's lots of
lots of I guess you could say experience
you know just all the years of competing
and pushing myself to the limit but you
know anybody can do that I saw you do it
yesterday Rich (Rich)- Yeah I mean kind of just
it's crazy (Steve)- Yeah just just as easy I mean
you'd popped right up and just as easy so
and (RIch)- And that's one of those that you
don't really need rear steer it is
helpful but it's not one of those things
that's real necessary (Steve)- No it is not (Rich)- So
this next little climb is at this point
the trail is just about done you've got
one little climb break over and drop
Super simple really a JK to do
this if if need be sure but this is a
about the tail into the trail right (Steve)- Yeah
yeah we've got this this climb and maybe
one other and then you know the nice
thing is once you get over that right
there you know that hey I'm good yeah so
you made it yeah yeah we made it
I guess it's not over til it's over but
these last couple climbs, really no big
deal
you know sometimes I wonder what some of
these guys were thinking when they made
some of these trails well but you know
I'm very happy they did so (Rich)- I don't know
what I was thinking when I made this
trail right to be honest we were just
kind of goofing around out here you know
it right and it kind of hunting
obstacles and having fun with it and the
next thing you know we're we've got a
route kind of plan and and then you know
now we're now we called it a trail right
and so labeled you know mapped
advertised known trail (Steve)- Well you know if
for the people out there that don't know Rich used to
design rock crawling courses for W.E.ROCK
and so he can really you know he can
really look at the rocks and he can
really see these lines and maybe some
other people can't see you know he just
got that talent and you know maybe under
you know what is this guy thinking but
you know in reality he's picking really
good lines and he's making really
awesome trails
(Rich)- There's the end of it really appreciate
everyone tuning in to Broken Chain here
with Sand Hollow Off-road, of course we'll see
you on the trail next time (Steve)- Okay sounds
great all right
