Hey all, Decided to test out my wife's Renegade Trailhawk on trail that is sort of well documented on video with other off road vehicles . The Fast Lane Truck uses it to test 4x4 vehicles on their youtube channel. The trail is an offshoot of The Switzerland trail Outside of Boulder Colorado. The Start of the short trail is 40.055473, -105.464468 . My Wife , Daughter and I set out in our Renegade to have a fun day in the mountains. I forgot my air tank so I was not able to air down my tires too much. The jeep did really well on terrain that was not sandy or loose. I was able to Climb some impressive inclines. When I reached the test trail dubbed "Cliffhanger 2.0" by TFL I thought it would be easy for the Renny. Did not look too crazy. The surface is a very loose sandy dirt with large rocks. The loose dirt is deep too, 5 to 6 inches in some spots. This would be the downfall of the Renny. I was not aired down and my tires were stock so I believe this to be the culprit. I was kinda disappointed in the performance of the Renegade. The video does not show, at all, how steep the grade is. I assure you it's very steep . My Video: TFL's video : 4 runner does not make it all the way. Similar issue as the Renny .I included it in my post for better trail representation. They film a whole lot better than my wife does.
I remember my first time four wheeling lol. Youll get better thats not a tough trail. Dont hate on renegade and next time test it out before u embarass urself in front of family. Grt some off road tires and lower the psi and be aggressive. Good luck.
Not New to 4 wheeling at all.... Own a 73 ford Bronco with 35s and a 2006 TJ . Switzerland trail is not hard at all. This is a unmarked offshoot. As I said in my previous post I was not able to air down. Did not bring my air tank to air the tires backup. In my experience I have yet to see any vehicle with out a locker or LSD rear diff make it up this trail. Same trail with a Different Renegade , did not make it near as far as I did. ""
Yeah, this little off shoot isn't easy at all. I had to lock in the rear diff on my Power Wagon because I was running street pressure because I am lazy and didn't want to air up.
My Rene did the same thing going up a steep incline of loose rock. The traction control is great for on road conditions but you should be able to disable it off road. For some stupid reason, the system defeats itself in this kind of terrain. 180 hp is great but only if you can actually use it. Better tires would definitely help but I'm not ready to fork out the dough, yet.
You can turn the traction control off. Push the "esc" button on the center console and you will see the off message on the dash display. If you push and hold the esc for about 5-7 seconds both the traction control and esc will turn off. Push the esc button again and they will turn back on. If you turn off the engine the settings will reset to normal.
Would not say it was the traction control issue for me. I was spinning the tires and just digging in.
I tried just about everything and I could not get it over 2000 rpm. Engine power is diminished when there's too much slip.
Did not look like he aired down at all. Airing down makes more of a difference than people realize. The TCS did look confused here though.
I would not air down Goodyear rsa tires. The side walls are super thin, I have seen f150 fx4s come from a ranch with cuts and tears from simple tearing around. Once you put that thin excuse for a side wall in contact with the right rock or ledge, it could chip or cut. Today I pulled a square piece of steel out of a GY Adventure AT. Looks like a beefed up SRA. Has the 'cool Kevlar sidewall patch' but this piece of rectangular something was about 8" long by 1.5 boxed hollow steel. Went through the shoulder of the sidewall. Now I've cut a BFG Radial Allterrain on my YJ back in the day, and they cut in the right creek bed with sharp rocks and all, but I just don't see airing down SRAs, or most Goodyears, to be a good idea.