The rocks and dunes of Valle del Fuego are no match for the Jeep
Whether overcoming rocks or the dunes of Valle del Fuego, in the state of Nevada (western USA), the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon and Grand Cherokee Trailhawk are the ideal tools to navigate the desert.
It's hard to think that the Valley of Fire, a natural park in Nevada, is only an hour northeast of bustling Las Vegas, known as the "city of sin" for its casinos, bars and strip clubs.
Created in 1935, in the Valley of Fire the monstrous hotels of Las Vegas are replaced by gigantic red sandstone formations, called "Aztec sandstone", and the glow of the city's luminous signs and screens has only the equivalent in the scorching sun that it falls even in November.
Rocks and dunes are precisely the great attraction of Valle del Fuego for fans of Jeep, the brand of SUVs of the Fiat Chrysler group (FCA).
But for two different reasons: the rock formations of the Valley of Fire are ideal to test the capacity of climbing and wading at low speeds of the new Jeep Wrangler 2018, the latest version of the vehicle perhaps more classic and, of course, the more sales, of the off-road brand.
The seventh generation of the Wrangler, inspired by the most classic versions of the model, the original of 1941, the CJ2 of 1945 and the CJ5 of 1954, is, in the United States, the vehicle of more sales of Jeep in 2018.
So far this year, Jeep has sold 204,269 Wrangler units, 25% more than last year.
Sean, one of the members of Jeep Jamboree, a kind of club that brings together owners of vehicles of the brand that organize trips to places like Valle del Fuego to get the most out of their Jeep, explains to Efe why the Wrangler is the vehicle with the most sales of the brand.
"It's the best Jeep, Punto," he declares bluntly as he gives instructions on how to deal with the goat track that the Wrangler Rubicon 2018 has to drive in Valle del Fuego equipped with a 3.6-liter V6 engine that produces 285 horses coupled to an eight-speed automatic transmission.
"Put the gearbox in '4LO' and do not avoid any rocks, the wheels have to step on the rocks, the opposite of what would be done with a conventional vehicle," explains Sean.
With the reducer in position 4LO, the climbing ratio of the Wrangler Rubicon with the automatic transmission is 77.2: 1, which allows the vehicle to move at very low speed, about two kilometers per hour without the need to press the accelerator, overcome the steepest ascents or descents.
This feature, along with axle lock and Jeep Jamboree scout instructions, allows any driver, with little or no experience, to make the Wrangler Rubicon ascend rock walls of more than 30 degrees of inclination, which It is equivalent to a 60% cost, as if it were easy.
The scouts are fundamental because they are the ones who can really see where the wheels are placed when the nose of the Wrangler Rubicon is pointing upwards and the only thing that can be seen in front is the blue sky without a single reference cloud.
And even when you return, the ascent becomes a roller coaster descent and the only thing that holds the driver and passengers to the seat is the safety belt.
In the dunes of Valle del Fuego, the technique is completely different aboard the Grand Cherokee Trailhawk 2019 equipped with a 5.7-liter HEMI engine in V8 that generates 360 horsepower.
"Here you do not have to loosen up. When you get to the dune, stomp, you have to keep up the momentum," warns Sean to prevent the Grand Cherokee Trailhawk from being buried in the soft red sand of the Nevada desert.
The Trailhawk version of the Grand Cherokee has a pneumatic suspension that offers more travel and wading capacity than the rest of the vehicle versions, which is especially useful in the dunes.
Once launched, the power of the Grand Cherokee Trailhawk with the HEMI engine allows it to travel through the sands of the desert is not much more difficult to do with the Landspeeder used by Luke Skywalker in the "Star Wars" of 1977.
