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Moab camping - without a syncro?
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Mr. Electric Wizard
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 4:46 am    Post subject: Moab camping - without a syncro? Reply with quote

Is it even worth it to go on a camping trip in a 2WD Westy?
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 5:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

naw, if you don't have a fourwheeler, dirtbike, or 4WD vehicle, Moab is a complete waste of time Laughing
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tschroeder0
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 5:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

there is no need for a synchro in maob, tons of excellent places to camp that are both on and off the beaten path, it's an amazing place, enjoy!
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eighty3westy
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 5:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

so you wanna see some rocks?


yea. its badass! totally! Cool

been a few times and will always go again Exclamation
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 5:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

tschroeder0 wrote:
there is no need for a synchro in maob.


This.

You still have to get out and hike/ride a bike to get to the coolest stuff anyway.
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goskiracer
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 5:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

^^ agree. Go in a 2wd, 4wd, 1wd, or walk there. You won't regret going!
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 7:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

goskiracer wrote:
^^ agree. Go in a 2wd, 4wd, 1wd, or walk there. You won't regret going!


That 1wd comment reminded me that I went to the Moab Muni Fest once (muni = mountain unicycle). Unicycles all over the trails. Great fun.

Anyway, yes, there are plenty of great places you can get in a non-syncro van.
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:21 am    Post subject: Moab Reply with quote

Quote:
Is it even worth it to go on a camping trip in a 2WD Westy?


are you kidding? I go just about anywhere I want to go to. Whenever I have gone to Utah... I have almost no trouble anywhere.

ASWAH

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wyomingresident
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Absolutely.

However, If you are looking for the "Moab" vibe, with out all the motorheads, try Fruta, Co.

Way cooler.

I went to vancation trip to Moab on a road trip last year and hated the moterhead vibe, fat guys huffing smokes on $55,000 jeeps and riding dirt bikes around

I'm kinda a motorhead myself, so I don't want to be throwing stones...

I'm over it. Even just an hour or South, the air clears.

Moab (to me) = Shrine of the Holy Internal Combustion Engine.
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

oh, I liked your pictures and write up... The wifey and I and Beaumont are going somewhere for one week in two weeks... Maybe I should go for two weeks in one week?
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SCM
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

wyomingresident wrote:
Absolutely.

However, If you are looking for the "Moab" vibe, with out all the motorheads, try Fruta, Co.



... and once you get burned out on Fruita and the snotty attitude of many GJ mtn bikers, head west into the Swell.

To the OP, my buddy takes his 2WD to this area every year and does a fair bit of off roading. We've taken out Jetta Wagon to some great camping spots too although it's a bit hair raising with the lack of clearance. Once our 2wd Westy is up to snuff we'll have no qualms off roading it there either.
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Too funny about Fruta CO., my brother-in-law lives in Grand Junction so I visited last fall and mountain biked all over that area. Very true about the snooty bikers, much different attitude that here in the PNW. The scenery there is incredible though, next trip is Moab, good to know I can get around there with my 2wd.
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 11:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

2wd drive should be fine, just bring some get-unstuck gear. Syncros get stuck, jeeps and hummers get stuck, 2wd Vanagon may get stuck depending on where you go, they all get stuck. Just bring the get-unstuck stuff, the list is endless depending on how much manual work you wish to do or how much $ you'd like to spend: shovel, hi lift jack, sand rails, winches, straps, whatever level of risk you'd like to take to do it yourself vs ask/call for help.

Many moons ago we went offroading in a 2wd '66 Chevy van in the soft sand in the desert -- (with no gear except a cooler of beer and baloney sandwiches) so we ask the nearby experienced people for help. They said: "Get your own self unstuck, we are sick and tired of you unprepared people coming out here". Ok, so we dug the sand away from the wheels by hand, or with a beer can (can't remember), jammed some brush under there for traction, and went on our merry way.
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 11:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Look through this thread, http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=439039, mainly the last few pages. Also watch some of the videos posted in the thread. After you have done all of this it should pretty much be a no brainer and make you want to stay home.

Sorry to those that had bad experiences in Fruita/ GJ area mtn biking. I'm not a mtn biker, mainly because everyone and their brother is. Plus the last thing I need is another hobby that requires a ton of cash.

Matt
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 11:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

silversync wrote:
2wd drive should be fine, just bring some get-unstuck gear. Syncros get stuck, jeeps and hummers get stuck...


But they get stuck because they are there to go off roading and test the limits of the vehicle. If you are going to Moab to hike/bike and camp in some really cool places there is no reason you should get stuck with 2wd.



I've heard that moab is motorhead central before, but I've never experienced that there (I do avoid "jeep week" and the like though), typically I see stacks of westies and subarus with MTBs hanging off the back.

Goosberry Mesa is a good place to go if you want to go where vehicles are not allowed off road thus zero motorhead vibe, and its right next to Zion so the scenery is not too shabby.
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Sir Sam
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 12:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mineral Bottom is off the beaten path and is accessible in a 2wd van. There are many other places you can play around in too where you don't need 4wd.
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 12:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

there is a 4x4 trail book for moab, they sell it like in every store. just about all of the easy trails in the book can be done in 2wd, the only ones i would avoid are the ones that go in washes, but even those could probably be done.

if you get stuck in sand, pull you e-brake halfway and drive out of it, it like fools the diff and keeps both wheels spinning.

pucker pass/long canyon has some camping at the top that is really nice. you can easily make it down the pass in 2wd, but not up it. to get to the top just take 313 to dead horse, then go left onto a dirt road to long canyon. the camping is near the end where the road turns left and narrows. to get to that spot is easy, i've seen class A RV's there, but it's not common. i'm not sure if there are toilets there tho.

also, there's a killer campsite on the edge of porcupine rim, although it's a better as a tent site, since you can pitch the tent right on the edge of the rim, but it's still cool, and you can ride a mtn bike from there to the rim trail. just take sand flats road until you get to the castle valley overlook and take a left.

as for moab being a motorhead heaven he's right, but that's what i love about it. if people want moab without the motors camp and stay in arches NP and never leave. but really moab is so vast it can't be fully explored on foot or bicycle (sure you CAN go on a bike, but riding a 40 mile trail that's half sand is not my idea of a good time on a bike). taking a vehicle to arches and caves far out is so much nicer than going to arches NP and being mobbed with bus loads of people.
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Sir Sam
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 12:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I like canyonlands over arches.............needles district is pretty cool too.....
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 2:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

We just had syncro solstice down there 2 weeks ago. More than half the vans there were 2WD. We had a blast. VWLOVER was right. Any of the easy trails can be done in a 2WD. Moab is a fun place. Even the highway tours of Dead Horse, Arches, and Canyonlands are pretty awesome. You don't even need to go off road. Go back to Moab and have dinner and a beer at night. Moab is a blast. I have taken sports cars and bullet bikes to moab and had a great time. A 2WD vanagon is 100 times more capable than either of those and we still had a blast.
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 3:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

vwlovr wrote:
but really moab is so vast it can't be fully explored on foot or bicycle (sure you CAN go on a bike, but riding a 40 mile trail that's half sand is not my idea of a good time on a bike).


A syncro can't explore all of Moab anyway as a syncro can't make it through many of the jeep trails. You'd need a couple months and a purpose built jeep to explore all of moab, if that was your goal, and you would still miss a LOT of really cool places that you can only hike into.

40 mile trail that is half sand would suck on a bike, but just because a bike can't go there does not mean it is better than where a bike can go. There are how many miles of single track in Moab that are super awesome on a bike where jeeps/syncros are not allowed? I'm not saying those trails are better than ones where jeeps are allowed, but you catch my drift I'm sure.

In short, if you are not an avid 4 wheeler you will still have an extremely memorable trip to Moab in a 2wd van, I've been down there 3 times with my 2wd vans and always had a great time and all the coolest stuff I saw was always where a Jeep physically and legally couldn't get to, much less a syncro.

If I were to get bossed around inside a jeep for 6-8 hours in the Moab back country I'm sure I would get to some amazing places and see some amazing vistas, but getting bossed around in a van/jeep for a day is pretty near the top of my list of things I don't ever want to do, its just not my deal.
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