... How was Lippincott? I have a full size van and may do it depending on current conditions.
At the first turnout on the way down I met a driver in a van who had just made the climb. It was a Sportsmobile Ford E-350 regular body with some very stout rocker panel protection. When I asked him about the conditions he mentioned a narrow washout, took a look at the rock sliders on my truck, and said I'd probably be fine if I hugged the wall.
I'm pretty sure the washout he was describing is the one in my photo above. That was the narrowest spot on the trail. I'm running it downhill; the van ran it uphill. That would be a challenge without a spotter to keep your right front tire from going over the edge.
If I recall, the wheelbase on a Ford van -- even the extended body -- is shorter than the 140.5 inches on my Dodge truck. The only place I had to back up to get a tight enough cut on a turn is also in the photo above. And I never used my rock sliders.
I do remember thinking about the weight distribution on the truck. Lightly loaded on this trip, my front axle weight was higher than the rear. That means that if a rear tire starts to drop into a hole it will eventually reach the limits of the suspension travel and become airborne while the front tires both stay on the ground and continue to pull the truck away from the edge.
As the rear tires take a lazier route around corners, this could become the critical factor on a tight, washed-out turn. Pretty sure that was the case in the photo above. Another thousand pounds in the bed could have increased the pucker factor significantly. Climbing instead of descending could also have transferred enough weight to the rear to make it more interesting as well.
With that said, recall that the Sportsmobile is most likely heavier in the rear than the front and that he made the trip uphill without a disaster. The shorter wheelbase may have helped here. And he may just be a much better driver than I am.
So, short answer: You'll be fine. Unless something goes wrong.
