Just realized I've been overbuilding my suspension for years after a simple trail in Sedona.

I was crawling up Broken Arrow with a buddy in a stock Gladiator and he kept up with my fully linked rig, no sweat. Are we all just adding weight and cost for bragging rights instead of real capability?

3 comments

3 Comments

derek_ramirez10d ago

How much of that extra travel do you actually use on a normal trail day? I've seen guys with insane setups that just crawl the same lines at a different angle. The stock trucks now are so good, all that money might just be buying you a harder recovery when you get stuck. Feels like we're solving problems that don't exist on most trails.

hugo_nelson10d ago

Ever notice how the guys with the most travel are also the ones who never air down? It seems like a lot of builds are chasing a spec sheet number for parking lot talk, not actual trail performance. What specific trails near you actually require more than, say, ten inches of wheel travel to get through without damage?

nina_harris394d ago

Take the devil's advocate side here @hugo_nelson... that extra travel isn't just for the trail, it's for when you find yourself in a bad line and need to fudge it without body damage. I've seen guys on the Rubicon with 12 inches of travel still tap their sliders because they misjudged a rock ledge. Go to a place like Fordyce Creek or the Dusy Ershim, where the shelves are uneven and the rocks are sharp... 10 inches might get you through clean on a perfect line, but nobody runs a perfect line every time. That extra 4-5 inches of travel is insurance, not a spec sheet brag, and it saves you from having to winch out when you drop a tire into a hole you didn't see.