In my opinion we are at a crossroads in the hobby/ sport of off-roading with the ever increasing popularity of high performance competition style rock buggies. I mean these to include vehicles built exclusively for off road, extreme trail use and are not street legal. As the popularity and technology of these machines increases so does the toll on our few remaining open trails. Take Moab for example, I can go out there in my Tacoma and wheel all over the place on the established system of trails and it is very challenging and fun. There are limits to a street legal vehicle plain and simple, I don’t have 44+" tires, 3' of articulation, rear steer, 450hp, full tube frame/ exo-cage etc. Therefore, I must challenge both myself and my vehicle by trying to negotiate a trail such as Golden Spike with skill and finesse.
In a Competition style rock buggy one can go practically anywhere one chooses, off of the trail, up sheer rock races, etc. while in the process of tearing up the rock, land, and environment. If you run "Hells Revenge" every rock shelf next to the trail over 2' tall is stained with black rubber and markings to "keep off". This is the kind of thing that is going to close Moab, the Rubicon, and other well known "classic" trails to vehicles of any kind. I guess in some vehicles the "official" trail isn’t hard enough? Well then get the fawk off of the sissy trails and head out to the Hammers or area BFE, don’t destroy the classics for the rest of us.
Events like Competition rock crawling and the new rock racing are great as long as their held in a controlled environment on private land. The newer generations of vehicles keep raising the ability level increasingly higher and that is fine if kept on a closed course or private land. This kind of destructive wheeling has no place on public land in my opinion. Otherwise, the trails will be lost to all of us "normal" folks who just want to wheel with our friends and families in a responsible manner. Keep the "comp." buggies in the competitions and leave the public trails to street legal vehicles I say.
In a Competition style rock buggy one can go practically anywhere one chooses, off of the trail, up sheer rock races, etc. while in the process of tearing up the rock, land, and environment. If you run "Hells Revenge" every rock shelf next to the trail over 2' tall is stained with black rubber and markings to "keep off". This is the kind of thing that is going to close Moab, the Rubicon, and other well known "classic" trails to vehicles of any kind. I guess in some vehicles the "official" trail isn’t hard enough? Well then get the fawk off of the sissy trails and head out to the Hammers or area BFE, don’t destroy the classics for the rest of us.
Events like Competition rock crawling and the new rock racing are great as long as their held in a controlled environment on private land. The newer generations of vehicles keep raising the ability level increasingly higher and that is fine if kept on a closed course or private land. This kind of destructive wheeling has no place on public land in my opinion. Otherwise, the trails will be lost to all of us "normal" folks who just want to wheel with our friends and families in a responsible manner. Keep the "comp." buggies in the competitions and leave the public trails to street legal vehicles I say.