How to determine "ground clearance" for a rig?

[Air Cooled Nut]

All good input. I'm familiar with skill & experience making a difference. A saying of mine I would tell the kids at the track, "The car does not make the driver."

 

[grubworm]

this a good question...I live east of the Rockies and I doubt you will ever see a "high clearance vehicle" sign on this side, but I have seen plenty in the west and definitely have seen a lot of those signs in Colorado. I posted earlier about 10" being high clearance, but then I was wondering what the "official" definition would be. I looked up the National Parks Service to see what they quote it as and I found this:



That's the National Parks definition, so I would guess that since most of the high clearance signs are state or national park assigned, then that would be the official definition.

Long story short...the wife and I were going thru lower Colorado and came to the Continential Divide. Off the highway, there was a jeep trail going up the Continential Divide lookout and the sign said jeep trail and high clearance and 4x4 vehicles. I have a 4x4 tundra on 34's and so I proceeded up the trail feeling very confident. it was rough and I had to steer around some rocks or I would have bottomed out. I finally made it up to the top and there were several small cars already up there. Subaru AWD and a few others. it was obvious that they didn't have that much clearance, but they did make it. not just one, but several, so I guess high clearance for one might not be high clearance for someone else, but I guess the park's definition gives a safe baseline to go off of. maybe their definition of high clearance would be the height needed for a normal, not very skilled driver to make it thru.