Southern Utah is famous for lots of reasons – fascinating geology, Native American history, and a few amazing national parks. Lesser known is its pretty brilliant network of off-road trails, with most folks heading north to Moab instead. But to those in the know, the city of St. George is a stone’s throw away from some pretty cool obstacles – including the fearsome Chute, a near-vertical rock wall with some serious pucker factor.
The Chute can tax even the most comprehensively built trail rigs (as well as their drivers), which is why it’s doubly impressive to see an old tow truck from the Reagan Administration tackle it. Found on Alligator Performance’s Facebook page, this video shows exactly that: a square-body Chevrolet dually tow truck, creeping its way up the Chute with nary a problem. The driver of the Chevy K30 – David Hellman, if the video comments are to be believed – delivers a master class in off-road skill, picking a nearly perfect line up the obstacle and executing damned impressive throttle control to crawl up the rocks.
If it is indeed David motoring the dually up the trail, he’s clearly experienced. His Instagram has dozens of videos showing the truck taking on a variety of Utah trails. He also has used the hook to help recover stuck rigs, though any time it’s a Toyota or a Jeep, you can bet the full-size Chevy driver has a few fun taunts in his arsenal.
The Chevy in question is one of the enthusiast world’s most popular variants. The square-body design was built between 1973 and 1991, making it one of the longest-running vehicle generations in history. The specs of David’s truck aren’t immediately clear, but there’s definitely a gasoline V8 under the hood and solid driven axles front and rear. It’s got the grille from 1981 and 1982-model Chevrolet trucks, but that could have been added later along with those aftermarket LED headlights.
Whatever the case may be, the dually tow truck is one of the more interesting trail rigs we’ve seen out there, made even more impressive by how unstressed and relaxed it appears on the Chute. Here’s to more full-size trucks tacking obstacles like that.
