Street Legal Rock Crawling is a blast. The courses were way more difficult than I expected for a street-legal class. The people were great and we will definitely do it again.
Competition courses and basic rules.
This isn’t a comprehensive list of rules or intended to represent an official rule book.
For the event we attended at Rock Run Recreation Area in Patton P.A. there were three courses for the SLRC competitors.
Scoring was easy to understand although it could get a little complicated. you start at 0 and earn points for things like reversing, hitting a cone, and winching. If you tallied 40 points with any combination of those you were done. You could also time out on the course. Each competitor was given a maximum of 15 minutes to complete the courses.
There were bonus lines on the course that would allow a competitor to reduce their point total if they could complete the bonus during their run.
Winners were determined by lowest point total.
How did we do?
First some perspective. We drove up the night before, arrived past midnight after Alec thrashed to get his front shocks back on the Jeep and had already driven several hours that day to get home in time to try and leave again. To say we started off on the back foot is an understatement.
Most of you have seen Alec’s TJ in other articles. It’s a 2006 TJ with the stock 4.0, front and rear lockers, and 35-inch tires. The rear axle is a stout G2 Dana 44 and the front needs replaced. (Sorry Alec)
Here is a picture of the first obstacle on course 1.
Headed towards the second gate.
That’s where we discovered that the driver’s brake line had blown out and was no longer working. Thankfully Alec noticed this before we headed down the steep incline and really needed them. There was a convenient bail-out line and we were able to get off course and up to the parking area without incident. It also allowed us to get offline before we put brake fluid on the obstacles.
The rest of our day consisted of trying to repair the brake line and get the Jeep to a parts store to replace the brake line.
Some lessons for those who want to compete.
Remove any gear, equipment or other item that hangs off of your vehicle. Skid plates are your friend. You will hit things under your vehicle, protect it with a good set of underbelly skids. Fancy suspension won’t help you.
It’s better to focus on a good suspension setup and better tires. Proper gearing and throttle control will help you more than any fancy lift. Several of the best runs were done by rigs that had leaf spring suspension like this sick Samurai.
You should join us!
You should come out and join us at an event. Whether you want to compete or just come see what the event is like you should come out to a competition. The courses are close together, there is plenty for spectators to see and SLRC partners with other organizations so there are plenty of vehicles to watch on multiple courses.
Samurai was me! Thanks for the mention of me. I hope the brake fluid helped. I hope you got to do some more courses.
Alec will be at the next event. We are going to make a few changes to the Jeep to be better set up for the style of crawling. Remove some weight, drop some unnecessary accessories, and put the correct shocks on the front.
The fluid got us to the parts store to get a brake line and more fluid to get him home. It was definitely safer with your help!