yew shout out from Santa cruz
Just joined here a few days ago
Going out to Frank Raines OHV this weekend!

 

U gonna be there sat or sundauy

 

Saturday lets go punt around in da mud!

 

Welcome to the forum, nieghbor!!

 

gonna get some rain tomorrow to help soften it up! have a blast guys! dont forget the pics

 

livermore here always ready to go out

 

Stuck at the bottom of I-5 due to snow. They wont let me up, but i have an xj so its alright. Off-road training camp at Badlands off-road adventures in 4hours... sleep? Maybe...

 

imin castro valley and always looking for peps that do what we do

 

A big shout-out welcome to the newbs out there! Hey C.V. I grew up in Castro Valley from 1948 to 1965 (and then on to Viet Nam---what a down turn!!!!). Now I play in my Cherokee...life is grand (what an up-turn!!!). Representing Guerneville here Yo

 

WELL WHAT HAPPENED?????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????

 

Sorry! we slept in the jeeps that night, last friday. Woke up, had Denny's and saw people moving up the hill so we got back in the car and went out to wait in line. 20 minutes later we were on the road. Another 20 minutes just outside Lebec we stopped at a little camp spot, this was the "classroom" part of the training. We talked about the basics of wheel cheat, recovery options and hill climbing/descending, as well as the parts of the vehicles that made 4 wheeling possible. By the way, it was cold as ***** down there, especially with a biting 10 mile an hour wind at your back. Theres my sister and brother on the left, and me fumbling with some water powder stuff on the right. (first pic)

After about 4 hours in the classroom we passed around walkies and these neat little air down tools that stop at a pressure you set with a screw. ( second pic) 10 minutes down these dirt roads we came to the entrance of Hungry Valley, pretty place out in the desert. (third pic)

Our ragtag group was as follows; stock tj, stock jk, chevy 2500 long bed (only one that got stuck), lifted tj that was a rental, my sister's zj (green machine), my xj (Jerry), an LR3, another lifted tj (wish i had a picture, that thing was badass: bilstien's with reserviors, RE long arms, G2 axles and armored to hell) then the main instructors Land cruiser on some long arms and 33s.

we spent a large portion of the 4 hours we had left at the obstacle course, while we were airing down we saw a pretty well built 4runner destroy a rear fender panel, and later in the day a nicely built jk would do the same. We did rut crossings and uphill line picking and strategy, as well as downhill control forward and reverse. I got a little zealous and tried a series of pipes, luckily I had freshly installed sliders haha! sorry no pic my phone died. We finished up at the obstacle course and did a trail or two, nothing very exciting, little ruts and hill climbs (where the 2500 got stuck, high centered). Ill post the day two stuff tomorrow morning, I'm quite tired.

 

Thanks Jerrythejeep ! What did you think about the training camp? How much, how long, how was it, how was the second day? Do you recommend it? Good job!

 

For a guy like me who had never been wheeling but new about the basics and components of a vehicle, It was an absolute blast. My brother fell asleep during the classroom session but he wasnt very interested with the whole thing, until he got behind the wheel haha! I cant tell you anything about the price as it was a gift road trip from my dad, i didnt have to pay for anything. If you've already been wheeling for a few years and know enough about your vehicle and its capabilities I would not reccommend it. This is a very basic beginners class, and the second day was an advance beginners class (we are fast learners).

It started with a quick 50 mile trip from Mojave down highway 58. we came to a little station called "jawbone Canyon" where we discussed what we would do today. Along with the instructor there was another "helper" who tagged along in a mostly stock tj with chrome nerf rails we traveled along a small road and came to a clearing with a bunch of sage brush and sand that was some portion of an OHV park for atv's and dirtbikes. Here we laid out the blind spots of the vehicles from a normal sitting position (relaxed) and an "active" sitting position (holy **** am I about to hit that?). My brother is 6'5 and Im 6'2. My drivers side front blind spot, extended from the front of the drivers front tire, decreased 4 feet between positions. my brothers, decreased by 8 feet. you could almost hide an entire car in that spot haha. Next we laid out a line of 2x4's about a foot long in a line through a little trail. We did a series of exercises involving wheel cheat, the tendency for a rear tire to follow a smaller radius than the front tire. this ranged from slaloming between the logs, alternating passenger and driver side tires hitting the logs, and visualization of the logs in relation to the vehicle.

We then moved to a location about 10 miles away near Ridgecrest, and aired down. this was all flash flood area, there were wide washout areas of fine silty riverbed and carved rock, as well as some deep canyon type trails with large storm driven boulders blocking the way. We had very little issue with the obstacles that were there, and we learned the importance of locking down a vehicle and getting out and inspecting things before taking them on. We also put our new sliders to good use out there, and lost a bit of chrome It was a very fun time, I cant wait to put the skills I learned out there to use at Hollister or Frank Raines.

 

Nice pics looks like fun! Man I gotta get out and wheel soon..

 

Jerrythejeep....Thanks very much--great narrative, great pics. Good job! J