Rock Bouncers!!! Are they for real?

[pappawheely]

If they brought one of those rigs and put a big name trophy truck driver in it RDC would blow up.

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[Tchajagos]

Those are some pretty bad as cages they have. Some of them look like demons! So bad ass.

[misfit]

There are a few of those guys that have some skills and the other drivers only use the skinny pedal. Koh has some tight technical sections that require some skill such as front dig and bumping and then having to turn left or right at the top not full throttle.

[irb4ur]

We just sponsored a rock bouncer event in Summertown, Tennessee. It was fun to watch, and a lot of what you are saying here is dead on. The bouncers do just that: they are suspended with little or no preload on their COs, so when they hit a ledge, if the suspension compresses any at all, the spring-back is violent, sometimes launching the buggy all four wheels off the ground. They make it look more difficult to do a vertical climb than it should be because they lose all forward motion every time they bounce.

And the throttle? 2 settings: off, and all 500 HP . . . nothing inbetween. There are a few on air shocks that crawl the hill and do quite well, but the big attraction is to bounce uncontrollably and make a lot of noise. Fastest to the top wins. That's about it. We had one buggy there with our ORI struts on D-60s. He did okay but only made one climb due to broken ring gear teeth. GM 14-bolt or Rockwells are the only survivors here.

[wizzo]

There are a few of those guys that have some skills and the other drivers only use the skinny pedal. Koh has some tight technical sections that require some skill such as front dig and bumping and then having to turn left or right at the top not full throttle.

i don't think front dig is necessary for KOH, i never saw anybody use it when i was out there watching. sitting at chocolate thunder you would have thought some of the drivers forgot how to crawl. either way, rock bouncing, rock crawling, koh/ endurance racing are all different and it takes different types of rigs to do well in each.

[irb4ur]

ORI Struts just today committed to sponsoring the SRRA finals in Arkansas this October. If all goes well we will be there with vendor display and the works.

I also had a chance to talk at length with one of the SRRA owners, Ty Turner. I was wrong about why they bounce. It seems that extreme bouncing in a difficult, vertical climb is not unintentional or necessarily out of control. They bounce the front wheels hard to, much like to bunny-hop a BMX bike, or to Ollie a skateboard, get all four wheels off the ground to help clear the rock ledges. True, they lose forward motion in the process, but despite all, they make it up the most difficult climbs. I suppose their 750HP also helps a little.

[Roscoes Rescue Rangers]

remember safety third!

[irb4ur]

You might also have noticed how rock bouncers many times end up off course or unintentionally climbing trees. In hard core high HP hill climbing they don't have time to engage/disengage lockers, so welded diffs rule. The trade-off is a very limited ability to steer: back up as far as you can for a good run at it, point, and shoot. A bit taller gearing in the front can help pull the bouncer straight during those brief moments the front wheels are actually touching dirt.

[Big Hock]

So do they not wear helmets to save weight then? Wtf?

[irb4ur]

So do they not wear helmets to save weight then? Wtf?

SRRS announced new safety rules coming for next season, including better helmets. Some of the helmets I saw this year were not much better than a hoodie.