What the Heck is “Trail Rated”? This Where Jeep Gets its Off Road Chops!
Scotty Reiss
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The Lyman Trail is where Jeep proves its capability so you know what this baby can do.
You’ve seen it on the sides of Jeeps for a while: a Trail Rated badge announces the capability and bravado of the Jeep brand. Not all Jeep models are trail rated, though all are capable on most on the trails that they may come across.
But how does Jeep know if a vehicle is capable of driving through water, mud, and gravel? And in deep snow, on steep hills and badly rutted roads? And how do they know that each improvement or evolution of a part or process will meet the demands of Hell’s Gate or the Rubicon Trail? We took it off road to find out.
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Lyman trail gives drivers a choice in the road they want to take… challenging or even more challenging. Photo: Scotty Reiss
But first, an off-road test trail
To test out each new development, they have their own off-road test trail at the Chelsea Proving Grounds in Chelsea, Michigan to be sure it is worthy of pursuing further. From there each vehicle tests in other places, but this is where it starts.
Once a new design is approved, engineers take it out to the proving ground and test it against the criteria that it’ll face in the real world. We got a chance to drive this trail and test out the well-proven Jeep Wrangler on the trails that Jeep uses to challenge each feature on their four-wheel-drive systems.
Here are the challenges that Jeep puts its vehicles through to ensure they are worthy of what being labeled “Trail Rated.”
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The ground clearance section demonstrates how the Jeep’s height from the ground helps it to easily get past rocks and uneven trails. Photo: Scotty Reiss
The Jeep Bog is a wet, muddy section; it can be hard to see exactly what is ahead of you on the trail. Photo: Scotty Reiss
The Jeep bog; yes it looks muddy but there may be more ahead, like ditches, mounds, and fast sinking mud. Photo: Scotty Reiss
The Maneuverabilty challenge illustrates how Jeep is designed ro let the driver maintain control even when the trail is challenging. Photo: Scotty Reiss
We climbed these rocky mounds and quickly descended into shallow gullies; the Wrangler handled it easily. Photo: Scotty Reiss
The articulation challenge on Lyman Trail. This will spill your coffee. Photo: Scotty Reiss
The articulation challenge has rutted and mounded parts of the road that may actually take wheels off the ground. Photo: Scotty Reiss
Don’t you want your car to be able to climb steps? Jeep can do that! Photo: Scotty Reiss
The Steps challenge lets you drive over logs and tree roots easily, or if you like, go around them; you can see the steps to the left of the Wrangler ahead of us. Photo: Scotty Reiss
The traction challenge takes drivers up a steep gravely hill and over it; the Jeep has to keep traction both going up the hill and down; downhill descent control helps to let the Jeep regulate its downhill speed. Photo: Scotty Reiss
The water fording area illustrated how the Jeep is designed to drive through up to 20″ of water; its systems are designed to protect the Jeep and still keep you solidly moving through the water and whatever is under it. Photo: Scotty Reiss
The water fording area shows how capable the Jeep is of making it through muddy water without getting stuck. Photo: Scotty Reiss
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What we listened to in the Jeep Wrangler
While off-roading you probably want to listen to the sounds of the forest, the splashing of the mud and the rocks as your Jeep crushes them. You should also listen to your Jeep to know that the engine, transmission, suspension, and scrape plates are doing their job. But getting to and from the trail, you need a good soundtrack. This is what we listened to in the Jeep Wrangler.
