Easter Jeep Safari never disappoints. This year the R1 Concepts crew linked up with GenRight Off Road to take on one of Moab’s most notorious trails: Metal Masher. If you’ve never run it, just picture steep slickrock faces, loose ledges, and the kind of terrain that separates the built rigs from the stock ones real quick.
The star of the show was Banshee, a Jeep that’s been evolving since 2006. What started on 37s has turned into a full-blown trail machine with an LS swap, Bilstein coilovers, Currie axles, and the R1 Concepts big brake package. That last part matters more than you think when you’re pointed downhill on slickrock with nothing but gravity and 40-inch tires between you and the desert floor.
Off-roading puts your brakes through a completely different kind of abuse than street driving. You’re crawling up obstacles, holding position on steep inclines, and controlling descents where a single mistake sends you sideways. The R1 Concepts big brake kit gave Banshee the stopping power needed to handle Metal Masher’s steep rock faces with confidence. When you’re running 40s and an LS motor, you need brakes that can keep up with the rest of the build.
One of the best takeaways from the run: drive with your rears. You can place your front tires on just about anything, but if your rears aren’t lined up right, you’re not going anywhere. Finding the right placement for your rear tires on every obstacle is the key to making it through trails like Metal Masher without getting stuck or breaking something.
It wouldn’t be Easter Jeep Safari without a little trail damage. Banshee caught a center hit a little too hard on one obstacle and snapped a U-joint in the drive shaft. But that’s the whole vibe of EJS: you break stuff, then you fix stuff. The crew got together that night to wrench on the rigs and get everything ready for the next day. With about 20 Jeeps in the group, there was no shortage of hands or good times.
The ultimate goal for the day was Widowmaker at the end of the trail. It’s one of those obstacles that makes you stop and really think about whether you’re going to send it. A few years back, Banshee sent it. No promises on this run, but with the R1 Concepts brakes holding strong and GenRight’s off-road gear backing them up, the odds looked pretty good.
If you’re building a trail rig and want brakes that actually perform when it counts, check out the full lineup at R1 Concepts. Whether you’re hitting Moab or just getting your rig dialed in for weekend runs, having the right stopping power makes all the difference.