Colorado and Hummer on Lockwood/Miller Jeep Trail

[Ron B]

Spent yesterday with a friend and his Chevy Colorado on Miller Jeep trail. I had not done this trail in over a decade so I forgot it was even there. It was good to see how well a near-stock Colorado did on the few challenges this trail has to offer.

My hummer is pretty stock except bigger tires, 2” body lift, and crap bolted to it. The Colorado is a long bed 4wd, has a 1.5” lift, 33” tires and sliders.

If you aren’t familiar with the trail, it’s really narrow for much of it (lots of brushrake) but generally pretty easy — it’s only rated difficult for two or three harder sections near the end (if starting in Frazier Park). The Colorado needed some careful spotting in these sections to avoid unwanted bodywork but overall it did very well. The Hummer had to do some 3 and 4 point turns on some of the switchbacks, but had no issues with the obstacles.

The Colorado suffered light carnage...a tire was sliced and the rear bumper and hitch really took a beating. The real heroes of the day were the rock sliders, they really saved the truck numerous times. Wish I had some pics of the harder obstacles but we were a bit busy at the time unfortunately.

 

[Superduty]

Did you guys go all the way to the top? That's a challenging trail for those two vehicles. Did either of the vehicles have a locker(s)? Sometimes, the Miller portion is pretty chewed up and it can be a difficult trail.

 

[Ron B]

Did you guys go all the way to the top? That's a challenging trail for those two vehicles. Did either of the vehicles have a locker(s)? Sometimes, the Miller portion is pretty chewed up and it can be a difficult trail.

We did go all the way from Frazier Park to Hungry Valley. It was indeed challenging for the Colorado — the wheelbase of the long bed was 10” longer (with at least 7” less ground clearance) than my truck which really contributed to a lot of belly scraping and some hang-ups. The rear bumper I believe took the most beating and the sliders my friend has were worth their weight in gold. A shorter bed and Diesel engine would have helped immensely in my humble opinion but with some careful spotting it made it just fine. I believe he has a rear locker but the computer decides when it’s turned on? Not exactly sure how it works. I have a Colorado as well for my daily driver but it’s a 2wd diesel, so a bit different.

I am not the biggest fan of computer traction control systems (at least ones that you can’t defeat and go manual — not likely to be found these days). The system reacts to issues when one is already knee-deep into the soup instead of we humans preemptively seeing what is coming, pulling the proper lever for the situation and chugging right through.

The hummer walked over most everything and made short work of the obstacles at the end. I only used my lockers once to stop some wheel spin on the obstacle pictured below (I borrowed this pic from google because I was a dummy and didn’t take enough — I think it’s from ‘06, the trail seems far more torn up now). The challenge for the Hummer was it’s fat ass in all those tight switchbacks — some serious pinstripping too!

 

[roving1]

Cool to to see a Colorado tackle it. That's a narrow trail for an H1, wow!

 

[luk4mud]

Good job! I have a GMC Canyon 4x4 with no lift and street tires, would not tackle Miller in it though.

 

[Ron B]

Cool to to see a Colorado tackle it. That's a narrow trail for an H1, wow!

I really wish I got some pics of my truck emerging from some of the narrow “tunnels” of brush. The racket it made was almost comical.

 

[Ron B]

Just testing video upload

 

[Ron B]

Not feeling the video posting love — must be pics only

 

[gnel]

It worked for me.

 

[Ron B]

It worked for me.

Good to know and so weird — I wasn’t sure which would load better so I did an mp4 and QuickTime version and still neither will play back for me! I’ll delete the second one. Thanks for heads up