How are the four wheel drive roads rated?
The standard throughout the years has been a five-class rating scale, although I have seen some people adopt a ten-class scale in recent years. I personally feel the five traditional categories are sufficient for our purposes, perhaps even better since they use fewer descriptors, thereby keeping things easier to understand. To give you the general idea, a class-1 dirt road is drivable by many highway vehicles or sedans by nearly any experienced pavement driver. Two wheel drive is usually all that is necessary, and there is little need for higher clearance. A class-5 dirt road, on the other hand, is drivable only with a top-rated 4×4 vehicle by only very experienced and skilled backcountry drivers. It’s mostly all four wheel drive and definitely requires high clearance. A class-3 dirt road is theoretically midway between these extremes, and should offer just the right amount of challenge for most people. Class-3 requires four wheel drive and higher clearance, but is easily traversable b
