The Skyjacker run for the 2010 Easter Jeep Safari took on Golden Spike.

For seven years now, Skyjacker Suspensions has held an annual trail ride for customers, industry associates and friends. This year’s event was on Tuesday, March 30, and we met up in the morning in the parking lot of the Spanish Trail Arena. Although a strong wind was blowing, the rain was still a day away and we had plenty of sunshine on tap.

We had a pretty large group leave the arena, but we apparently still had a few more waiting for us at the start of the trail. As we aired down in preparation to start the trail, we counted 30 vehicles participating in the ride, the most ever for a Skyjacker trail ride at Moab. We set out on the Poison Spider trail, covering some ground we traversed at last year’s ride before breaking off onto the Golden Spike trail. The ride is popular with attendees but also employees of Skyjacker.

“We feel it’s important to interact with our partners in the industry, our customers, and it’s a time to test our stuff and really push it to the limit,” says Lee McGuire, director of marketing and operations for Skyjacker. “And it’s really a good networking opportunity for everyone – it’s really about networking.”

Robbie Pierce of Mastercraft crawls up the Launching Pad with relative ease.

Each year the event seems to grow, as regulars to the event return to the following year for more wheelin’. Mastercraft’s Robby Pierce and Kelli Wilmore were along for the ride, as was Light Force’s Chris Corbett and family, the M.O.R.E. (Mountain Off-Road Equipment) crew, folks from Daystar, Hellwig, Rock Hard 4x4, 4-Wheeler Magazine and Olympic 4x4.

Check out more photos of the trail ride here.

This might not have been the best line, but he made it through it with no issues thanks to the spotters.

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We started off heading through Poison Spider but eventually made our way to Golden Spike.

But probably the biggest surprise was the group of Chrysler engineers who showed up to tackle the trails with mostly stock Jeeps. We had a change to speak with Ray Durham, the chief engineer for the Wrangler brand, during one of the stops. Durham was making the run in a stock Rubicon with his son Nick. He felt this is a great chance for the team to interact with Jeepers.

“It’s a great opportunity to spend time with our customers, see what they’ve done, listen to them and let them tell us what they usually do in terms of upgrades and riding,” Durham said. “It’s really just an excellent venue. Here’s the key – this is a high concentration of our customer base, and it’s the customer that uses the vehicle in the way that it was designed for. That’s the rewarding part of it.”
Aside from watching their careful work at play, Durham and engineers wanted to prove, even if just to themselves, just what a stock Jeep vehicle was capable of doing. We noted at least one Wrangler, and one two-door and four-door Rubicon in the group, and no obstacle impeded their ride.

We made our way through the trail, tackling obstacles as we went while following our Red Rocks 4-Wheelers Club leader. Although we already had a member of the RR4W Club with us, apparently there was a mixup at the club and they sent over three more to lead our crew, despite the fact that our original leader, Tony, had just pre-run the course the day before. The bad news was it made for a longer day than Skyjacker had intended, but the good news was we had a more time for adventure on the trail – and we took full advantage of it.

Check out more photos of the trail ride here.

The Crack can get you lopsided - whether it's on accident or on purpose.

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It's a Skyjacker's ride, so you know they have to strut their stuff at some point.

One of the first major obstacles the group tackled was the “launching pad,” where many stepped out of their rigs to watch the group tackle the hill that resembles a lift off and listen to see if they avoid chirping their tires – the goal while going up the rock hill. Alan Ball even tackled it backward in his buggy (check out the video here).

There were a number of different obstacles over the course of the day, but the other two notable ones were later in the with “the crack,” which is basically a crack in the rock flooring of the trail that must be navigated properly to continue along, and the “double whammy,” which is tough since the double-stepped ledge basically requires the driver to gain traction with both the front and rears wheel on each ledge, respectively, to scale it. Only one vehicle was unable to make it, and we won’t mention who that is, but his wife did tell him to quit holding up the line and go around – ouch!  

The good thing about a Jeeper's ingenuity - you don't need fire to cook burritos.

Overall, it was a great day and a challenging yet fun trail. We made it back to the Arena just before time for dinner. Thanks to Skyjacker for having us along for the ride, and we look forward to next year’s ride.

Check out more photos of the trail ride here.