Cliff

I actually haven't spent a ton of time looking at the job situation in Moab. I live in Castle Valley which is a small town about 25 minutes north. There is no commercial in Castle Valley but fortunately no one around here wants to do any manual labor either. So I am working for my self now doing moving, landscaping, carpentry and stuff like that. Plus sometimes I work with 2 other guys that do driveways and excavating. Its pretty good work if you don’t mind a bit of manual labor. Plus you set your own hours and I get between 12-15 bucks an hour cash depending on the job so that is nice. As far as Moab goes there are a few good jobs you can try to get into. There are quite a bit of Park Service jobs around but that is usually for stuff like trail building unless you go to college and become a ranger. Most of the park service jobs are also seasonal. Due to it being a tourist town work gets really scarce in the winter months and really abundant in the summer. I wanted to try to be a river guide sometime but again that is seasonal along with most of the other tour company jobs. You can pretty much find work cleaning hotel rooms and stuff like that all year round but that tends to be kind of sh!tty work. My dad did manage to get a decent government job working on the UMTRA project which is hauling uranium tailings from Moab to Crescent Junction. It’s going to take them like 16 years to complete it and they are hiring quite a lot of people. He works as a security guard at the front gate and gets 12 bucks an hour along with benefits and a government vehicle to drive. A lot of work around here is by word of mouth so you have to live here for a little while and then things start to pick up.

builtnotbought89'

Ya that's what I've heard its all seasonal & for a mechanic like me seasonal work in moab sounds like a joke! I'd end up living like the rock dwellers alonge the river! Lol

Desert Rat

I was thinking some sort of business taking the non experienced tourists on guided trail runs and possibly jeep rentals. Take them out in the back country feed them an awesome lunch or dinner, get paid for what I wanna do anyway. Definately need to learn alot more trails, and look into legal advise so as to be covered liability wise, I think the hardest part would be managing the business well enough to get through the off season. There is a lot of competition, but I think the markets going to see growth in the coming years.

builtnotbought89'

Ya that would be nice but it already been done mega! I would love to open another tire/lift shop down there that would run deals on bb lifts!
Like buy 4 tire & get a bb lift FREE!!!

Desert Rat

Yeah its already being done, do it better, at a better rate.

builtnotbought89'

Ya I've also thought about doing jeep rentals but out doin the others by having more capable rigs cause all the rental jeeps out there look like rubicons with a 2" bb lift! I'm talkin XJs with 6.5" long arms, winch, sliders, locker, & swampers! I'll call it Built Not Bought rentals!!! Lol

Cliff

Awww come on those aren't so bad... or you could live in a tepee like some of the Castle Valley residence LOL Yeah I don’t know how work would be for a mechanic. There are quite a few garages in town but it would probably take a long time to get into one of those and the only other hope would be at the 2 dealers in town but again that would probably be a really hard job to get. My buddy works as a fabricator at a local shop called Moab 4x4 Outpost... man was he lucky to get that! I would love a job like that.

I have seriously considered doing that! It’s like the dream job... getting paid to do what you love! Like you said there is quite a bit of competition but here is the thing. There is a lot of competition as far as jeep rentals, I don’t know if this town could support another jeep rental company. There is also some competition from tour companies that take you out in there vehicles to a few pre determined destinations. What I would do is have it so I would lead and take people with there own rigs out on trails of their choice. There are quite a few jeepers that come here with there own rigs but don’t know the area well. They also don't want to spend the whole day reading a map, book and GPS and hope they are going in the right direction. This way they could have there own rigs, still drive and not have to worry about route finding. Also you could tell them all about different obstacles, land forms and history of different things in the area as you go. There is no one in this town that does that as of now so it just might work. I have actually met up with people from other forums and went on trails with them and they said they would pay to have someone do that and that I should start a company. You could advertise on the forums and maybe get customers that way as well. Make an add like Going To Moab? Need A Guide? Call so and so or whatever. Then maybe you could also take people out in your rig with you driving for people who don’t want to drive.

That would be awesome! The only problem is I bet you would have a lot of breakdowns from idiots who think they jeep they just rented can go anywhere with no driver skill what so ever. Something around those lines is already being done only you drive one of there rental jeeps and follow there guide. http://www.outlawjeeptours.com/

builtnotbought89'

Damn it I'm always a day late & a dollar short! Thats what I was kinda thinking is u would have to guild them in ur rental rigs cause it could be bad handing a uncapable driver a rig like that!!!

builtnotbought89'

So let's see ur best/favorite flex pics guys!?!? I'll post mine hopfully tomorrow!

Desert Rat

I have'nt got a real good flex pic yet, I was too busy having fun and taking pics at Lil Moab to think I might want to hand my boy or someone else the camera, LOL!

Cliff

These are nothing extreme at all but some of my favorites...




Notice the rear wheel off the ground lol




My dad in his stock Cherokee in the same place lol










This isn't a flex shot but just a cool ledge from yesterdays Gold Bar Rim run

builtnotbought89'

Ya jeff next time we roll out we'll have to get u some good flex pics!!! I've been slammed at work so I haven't been able to get any pics loaded!
Oh & cliff I'm sooo jelous that u hit gold bar rim yesterday! When I hit moab last year I ran fins & things, hells revenge, & kanes creek, but next summer I want to run poision spider & gold bar rim!

X1994J

Hey Desert Rat, were you out to the snakes on Saturday morning?

Desert Rat

No did'nt get out last weekend.

Desert Rat

Right on man, I was just havin too much fun last time to give much thought to gettin photos of mine, I was in an all around Cherokee heaven, call it Jeep drunk, LOL! No worries, we'll have more oportunities. I hear you on the whole work thing, my company has my whole shop in chaos, to err is human, to really mess things up requires upper management! Now were all trying to keep up with the workload with their "new idea of efficiancy", gotta love working for a large company!