Take a look at this year’s Myrtle Beach Jeep Jam course. How to cross without “breaking” your car

Myrtle Beach Jeep Jam 2024 is here and wranglers from all over are in the Grand Strand to test their off-road skills on the festival’s obstacle course.

Last year was “relatively easy,” but this year’s course will be a tough one, according to Thomas Lee Mauldin, who has designed Jeep Jam’s obstacle courses for the last four years.

“I like to see a ton of people on it,” Mauldin said. “It’s like a chef. He’ll sit there and cook all day, and he probably won’t eat at all, but he sits there and watches everybody else eat his food.

The course this year features felled pine trees, culverts, tractor tires, massive concrete blocks, broken concrete “boulders” and even old cars.

Spots to do the obstacle course have been filled, but Jeep Jam set up bleachers to watch the course and spectator tickets can be purchased for $10 for adults and kids get in free.

Although the course is challenging, it’s designed to be navigable for Jeeps with tires of at least 37 inches. Mauldin has never seen a Jeep flip or roll at Jeep Jam, but plenty have stalled out and gotten stuck.

The most tame obstacle this year is a bumpy course in the sand Mauldin calls The Whoops because “it just whoops you up and down.” The Whoops are placed at the beginning of the obstacle course, so it’s a good place to get your bearings.

The toughest obstacle this year will be something Mauldin calls The Breaker. Located in front of the VIP tent, The Breaker is made of trees, culverts, concrete blocks and tires.

“This is where people are going to break their vehicles, right here, to be honest with you,” Mauldin said of the obstacle.

The trick to successfully navigating the steep obstacle is taking The Breaker at an angle, according to Mauldin.

“You can’t just go straight on. If you go straight on, you’re gonna end up bottoming out and losing traction and everything else,” Mauldin said. “So if you just, if you just go up at an angle, then you got a whole lot better shot at it.”

Jeep Jam volunteer “Hippie” Mike Rabon, who demonstrated how to navigate The Breaker and the course’s mud pit for The Sun News, said it’s best that drivers take their time and go easy on the obstacle course.

While drivers tend to be more cautious going up the obstacles’ steep ascents, it’s also important to navigate the inclines cautiously when going back down the other side, Mauldin said. He noted that Jeep Gladiators, which are pickup truck models, might have more trouble on the inclines because of the length of the car’s rear bumper.

The dirt used to create all the other obstacles is excavated from Jeep Jam’s iconic mud pit. Filled with dark muddy water, the pit’s sloped sides give spectators on the bleachers a view of the messy obstacle.

Drivers who aren’t prepared for the pit sometimes stall out in the mud and have to reverse to take the obstacle again or even call in reinforcements. Mauldin said he uses an excavator to pull out Jeeps stuck in the murky mud.

“You want to get about halfway through it before you start hitting it so you get up the hill on the other side,” he said.

As with the rest of the obstacle course, a driver’s experience in the mud pit can be different day by day or even hour by hour. As Jeeps push through the mud, the terrain and water is shifted across the pit, which can make for a more challenging drive.

Although the course took about four days to create, Mauldin estimates clean up will take roughly a day. After Jeep Jam wraps up for the year, the tires and concrete will be stored for next year, the cars will return to a scrapyard and everything else will be tossed.