Today I went to our local Hollister Hills State Vehicular
recreation area. They have a number of trails for 4x4s,
and a special 4x4 obstacles course. There were lots
of vehicles, but I was the only one with "import" vehicle !
All others were Jeeps & GM trucks.

I have 31" A/T tires, 3" lift, Ranchos 9000X, my rear sway
bar is removed.

I went thru about all trails. Everything was fine.
Then I went to the obstacle course, made several obstacles
without problems, then approached the stairs, and there
I had a problem. I could not get up stairs on slickrock.
I tried hard, but no way.

Several vehicles made the obstacle relatively easy. All of
them had open diffs and monstrous mud tires - around 35".
Now I wonder what was the main reason why I did not make it:

1. My tires are A/T tires. Is it so important on slickrock ?
I thought that A/T is better than M/T on rocks.

2. My tires are just 31". Is it the difference between
diameters of 35" and 31" which let larger tires to get over
staircase much easier ?

3. Others vehicles were noticably heavier than my Rodeo.
For example, I saw a pretty silly Suburban, without any
obvious mods except 35" mud tires, which make the stairs
very easy. Is it the weight pressure which makes the
difference ?

4. I have open diffs. Probably, locked diffs would help.
But as far as I could see, others vehicles also had open
diffs and still did it.

5. I have stock 2.05 TC on my Rodeo. May be, this ratio is
too high and I could not control the vehicle properly ?

6. May be, I am just a bad driver ?

To CA, Bay Area guys: was anybody able to make those
stairs in Hollister ?

Oleg
Rodeo 4WD 2002