back in 89 my dodge 4x4 cummins was built by Chrysler specifically for me to take to Moab to show Ford and Chevy "HOW IT WAS DONE"
When the magazine guys saw it, they christened it "DODGEZILLA" . There's a picture on the cover of one of the off roading mags of her with me standing on the hood on the top of the imperial dunes surrounded by a gaggle of paddlewheeled, fuel injected and blower ladened jeeps taken a few months later
No one could remember anyone EVER getting a truck up there -"Too BIG, too damned heavy for the sand" In fact, she may have been the first.
Hell of a trip to moab that year tho, there used to be a rock slab trail there up a thing called 'Lionsback' which is what it looked like. dangerous as hell climbing that fin if you didn't know your stuff. The year before, I was two cars behind a cj5 crawling up that thing like at train of catepillars. the cj driver missed an indentation and the jeep reared up like a wild mustang coming right over on its back sliding back down the rock face.. There was NO place on that rock to hide, cliffs on either side, 80 maybe a hundred ft on one side, little less than that on the other, most of it less than two early (cj5's and cj3's) jeeps wide.
Pucker factor was EXTREME!!! fellow started sliding towards the edge,then a Miracle, one bar of his roll cage caught on a small rock bump, spun him around and he started sliding towards the other side. Bout six passenger guys jumped out of their jeeps, ran up and grabbed the slowly moving cj and started throwing winch cables/tow straps whatever they had handy to get the guy stopped. Driver was frozen white hanging upside down in his four point harness with the injected motor still turning, gas everywhere. Battery cables were cut, fellow dragged to safety, and the cj secured. Then we got the hell off the rock, was gas Everywhere which made the 'slickrock' REALLY FRIGGin SLICK!!
That night, we all sat around discussing how much would've been bet that the guy would've bought it and figguring out how the hell to get that cj down off of there. A few drinks and a lot of jawboning, and it was finally decided.
The next morning a crew of us went up to get it. Snaked a few jeeps up the hill behind it, (no small feat itself), stablized it with a few below and then we rolled it over with winches, and dead sticked it back down the fin. Been a while but I *think* the cj owner had the cojones to deadstick his own vehicle back down while tethered to a bunch of inline strapped/winched together jeeps. Took most of the day.
Sometime later the park service closed Lionsback to vehicles of any kind.
Gotta tell you, i was the second vehicle below that guy (and on the really narrow part of the fin) when the cj reared up and over. All I could visualize was him plowing in to the guy in front of me and all three of us going over the cliff. NOT a good picture.
Even had a few nightmares bout that for some months later. God only knows how the driver felt :(
Moab is a beautiful place, but it can be seriously unforgiving. I quit going when the idiot drunks started spring breaking the Easter Safari. Killed some people, got others hurt, incredible vehicle carnage. Oh and yeah, about that MUD!