What was your first off-road experience?

[chulyn1]

Bought my first brand new Jeep in November of 1999 (soft top, manual transmission and in line 6 cyl), retired February 1 of 2000, hitched the Jeep up to my 1973 26" GMC motorhome and took off traveling with my Bride for the next 15 years. (I dropped the Jeep off at 4 Wheel Parts a week after I bought it and had a 4" lift kit, ARB lockers front and rear, adjustable front sway bar, 33" tires and a few other goodies installed because I read on a Jeep Forum that you needed this kinda stuff for off road driving.) Made our first stop in Moab in March of 2000 and headed out on Hells Revenge because I liked the name. WOW!! Was I ever in for the surprise of my life. Met up with an older experienced crawler on the trail and followed him for the next few hours through Hells Revenge and Steel Bender. It was the scariest most thrilling day of my life. I've been hooked ever since.

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[Bktrip48]

Pine Barrens in NJ ( Wharton state park) i believe. This was back in 1984 with my 1979 CJ7 with V8 and 3sp manual.

 

[Whaler27]

Not my first four-wheeling, but my first hard lesson four-wheeling...

I was 17. I was in my first new vehicle, a CJ7. I had driven to visit a girl in Arizona and we were ripping around on dirt roads and open land south of Flagstaff. It was snow-melt season, and there had been some rain, but I was focused on showing off and getting lucky, so my brain was in neutral.

As I skidded around a corner on dusty double-track, I came upon a small stream. The road led into the stream. The entrance to the stream looked like a shallow concrete boat ramp, and there was a matching exit on the other side, so I assumed it was safe to drive through… We hit the water fast and hard. The resulting wave slammed the windshield and went over the roof. It was immediately apparent that we were floating/sinking.

We were rocking in the current, with the spinning tires only gripping the bottom intermittently as the jeep settled against the current. Water was leaking through the door seams and rushing through the holes in the floor...

We could see that the concrete road bed carried all the way across the stream, but it was only about 15 feet wide, and we were getting steadily pushed downstream. Each tire-grip would bounce us a few feet toward the opposite bank, but each time the jeep lost traction the current would push the back of the jeep closer to the edge. The current was also gradually rotating the jeep from perpendicular to the stream to quartering against it. As the Jeep sank deeper it recovered more traction, but the water was getting close to hood-height.

We felt the right rear tire slip off the road bed and into the loose river rock, but that helped the front tires get more traction. It was touch-and-go for a few very long seconds, but we could feel the front tire grip improving as the jeep started to straighten. When the right rear tire made it back onto the road, we bounced up, lurched forward, and crawled the last ten or fifteen yards to the opposite bank.

I have no idea how the jeep continued to the find the air it needed to run. We should have stalled. Had the water been an inch or two deeper, or had we entered a few inches farther downstream and closer to the edge, we probably would have been sunk. As it was, by the time we made it out, the water on the floor was almost even with the door sills. It took quite a while to drain out as we sat there watching the steam rolling out from water under the hood.

This incident was my first real reckoning with my mortality. The stream crossing was a major butt-pucker, but reaching the far side wasn’t the end of it: I didn’t know how to safely get back to the asphalt.. I had no map covering the area we were in. I also had no water, no fire-making materials, nothing — and nobody knew where we were. This was long before GPS and cell phones, of course… In retrospect I can’t believe how stupid I was.

We made it out, obviously, but I learned many lessons in the process. From that day forward I have focused on learning and being better informed and prepared.

 

[Flip]

Not my first four-wheeling, but my first hard lesson four-wheeling...

I was 17. I was in my first new vehicle, a CJ7. I had driven to visit a girl in Arizona and we were ripping around on dirt roads and open land south of Flagstaff. It was snow-melt season, and there had been some rain, but I was focused on showing off and getting lucky, so my brain was in neutral.

As I skidded around a corner on dusty double-track, I came upon a small stream. The road led into the stream. The entrance to the stream looked like a shallow concrete boat ramp, and there was a matching exit on the other side, so I assumed it was safe to drive through… We hit the water fast and hard. The resulting wave slammed the windshield and went over the roof. It was immediately apparent that we were floating/sinking.

We were rocking in the current, with the spinning tires only gripping the bottom intermittently as the jeep settled against the current. Water was leaking through the door seams and rushing through the holes in the floor...

We could see that the concrete road bed carried all the way across the stream, but it was only about 15 feet wide, and we were getting steadily pushed downstream. Each tire-grip would bounce us a few feet toward the opposite bank, but each time the jeep lost traction the current would push the back of the jeep closer to the edge. The current was also gradually rotating the jeep from perpendicular to the stream to quartering against it. As the Jeep sank deeper it recovered more traction, but the water was getting close to hood-height.

We felt the right rear tire slip off the road bed and into the loose river rock, but that helped the front tires get more traction. It was touch-and-go for a few very long seconds, but we could feel the front tire grip improving as the jeep started to straighten. When the right rear tire made it back onto the road, we bounced up, lurched forward, and crawled the last ten or fifteen yards to the opposite bank.

I have no idea how the jeep continued to the find the air it needed to run. We should have stalled. Had the water been an inch or two deeper, or had we entered a few inches farther downstream and closer to the edge, we probably would have been sunk. As it was, by the time we made it out, the water on the floor was almost even with the door sills. It took quite a while to drain out as we sat there watching the steam rolling out from water under the hood.

This incident was my first real reckoning with my mortality. The stream crossing was a major butt-pucker, but reaching the far side wasn’t the end of it: I didn’t know how to safely get back to the asphalt.. I had no map covering the area we were in. I also had no water, no fire-making materials, nothing — and nobody knew where we were. This was long before GPS and cell phones, of course… In retrospect I can’t believe how stupid I was.

We made it out, obviously, but I learned many lessons in the process. From that day forward I have focused on learning and being better informed and prepared.

This is great stuff bro. I'm laughing and have tears in my eyes. Glad y'all made it out safe though. There certainly are some hard lessons learned when it comes to off-road.

 

[Medsker]

The first off-road experience I remember was at a Father and Son church activity. There was a big dirt hill that everyone was trying to climb and couldn't make it. They were mostly Pickups. My Dad had a 1972 Blazer with the limited slip rear diff that would go anywhere. Blazers are just weighted right. He waited until everyone had tried and then drove right up it. He hardly slipped a tire as I remember. He then went back down, stopping half way down and reversing back to the top. I was one proud son!

The Blazer was just built for that type of stuff. That experience had such an impact on me that I bought a 1971 Blazer. It had a locked rear and like his, would go anywhere I pointed it.

 

[mark203]

I was at Camp Essayons, 6/37th Field Artillery, 81-82. We would take a cab into Uijongbu for 600 Won ($1). Fun times!

We missed each other by less than a year. I was in 6-37 until March of '80.

 

[jadmt]

Oh fuggg am I old...back in the mid 70's many of offroad adventures started with about a case of beer under the belt and a "think we can make that?" Lots of digging and walking out of stupid places for help...knocking on a farmer or rancher's door at 4am usually meant being chased by a mean dog or greeted with a shotgun being pointed at you.....

 

[Bravo]

Mall parking lot… it had just rained…

 

[Heimkehr]

What was your first off-road experience?

My first two off-road experiences, dating back to when I had just purchased my new YJ, both occurred when I inadvertently drove on private land that wasn't fenced or signed as such. Since I didn't see what wasn't there to see, I moved the transfer case lever into 4WD and got to work.

Thank Heaven I got away with it; I later learned that the owner of the one plot was known to shoot first and ask questions later. In hindsight, I might've done the same.

Both areas are now clearly marked as private. Whether or not my little visits had anything to do with that, I can't say.

 

[USNvet]

My first off-road experience, which left a big memory, happened in 1958 when I was a little kid. I got my first dune buggy ride out in the Glamis sand dunes in an old-school dune buggy built out of an old car.
It left a lasting impression.
Three VW buggies, a Baja Bug, three 4X4 trucks, and four Jeeps later, I'm still enthused.

The buggy looked something like this.

Now that era brings back some memories! It was about that year, or close to it I remember my childhood buddy Ron trying to kill his much older brother-in-law Jack out in the sand dunes near 1000 Palms/Palm Desert/Palm Springs before the I-10 freeway was built through that area.

Jack had built a sand buggy much as you have pictured, and I seem to remember it was Oldsmobile powered. As a carpenter Jack built a wooden sled to tow behind the buggy, and he had Ron, maybe 11 or 12 at the time, tow him across the dunes. I was riding shotgun, and I remember Jack's eyes must have been the size of silver dollars when he finally bailed off the sled to save his life as Ron accelerated faster and faster!

I wonder if Jack had anything to do with the naming of Oldsmobile Hill at Glamis! It was years later when I made my first runs up Competition Hill and Oldsmobile Hill in my 73 Power Wagon, pictured here back in camp:

 

[Jeffy56]

My brother and I walked out many times. 1974, L. Havasu AZ. That little circular badge, on the front fender, just below the beltline, proudly proclaimed "60 HP". I had this airbourne too. Literally off the ground. Jumped a washed out road after a summer monsoon storm. Had to pull over afterwards, I was shaking with rubber knees.

 

[Flip]

My brother and I walked out many times. 1974, L. Havasu AZ. That little circular badge, on the front fender, just below the beltline, proudly proclaimed "60 HP". I had this airbourne too. Literally off the ground. Jumped a washed out road after a summer monsoon storm. Had to pull over afterwards, I was shaking with rubber knees.

My memory isn't the best these days but I'm gonna give it a go. Is that a Datsun? If it's not I'll need to phone a friend @2nd 392

 

[2nd 392]

S

My memory isn't the best these days but I'm gonna give it a go. Is that a Datsun? If it's not I'll need to phone a friend @2nd 392

Sorry buddy, not the type of vehicle I would have had interest in. …. ie- on this phone’s screen about the size of a postage stamp I did recognize your Boss 9 pic. yesterday.

 

[2019JLUS]

in all seriousness it was when i was 18, started with humvees, then bradleys, then they switched out our humvees for mraps. I wish I knew as much as I know how about 4wd. Never understood the 4wd lever as a teenager and they also never taught us. We were lowly grunts but just teaching us the basics of 4wd would have helped a lot. The first time it snowed in Iraq since 1914, I put the mrap into a ditch because the sand turned into slush. There's been so many "offroad" scenarios from being knocked unconcious in the bradley because my driver drove straight into a ditch or dead trees and bricks falling into my hatch because we were literally driving our bradley through trees and walls. Even tried to drive over a vehicle one time with little success in our baby tank. Humvees also made me a big fan of IFS + portals. I tried to jump over a train track berm that was as tall as my humvee, but ended up landing directly on the rails without damaging any suspension or drive lines. All because my LT didn't want me to drive over someone's vegetables that was in our way. Also put the humvee on 2 wheels once, because I swerved too hard around a check point while trying to keep up as last vehicle. My gunner thought he was going to die and my commander chewed me out. I didn't know what the big deal was, I got us corrected right away. Was pretty cool having 14,000lb humvee on it's side like those arab driving videos.

my favorite part is probably gunning any wheeled vehicle, because you get to stand in the open with 50mph (fastest we can go fully uparmored) winds and shooting shit. I think this is why I love convertibles so much. It's also less jarring on your spine when you go off-road since you can use your legs to lessen the impact.

bradleys sucked unless you're driving with the hatch open, or standing up in the turret. You can barely see anything driving or gunning, but we were half mechanized so got stuck with them sometimes. I imagine there would be track maintenance in hell amongst other things.

I almost got a wrangler as my first vehicle, but I couldn't imagine getting out and dissembling my frigging ROOF just for some open air freedom since I got so used to just jumping in the turret.

 

[tk1700]

We missed each other by less than a year. I was in 6-37 until March of '80.

I was there Feb 81-Feb 82. Here are few more pics. We turned in the 3 155 batteries and got 2 more 8 in batteries while I was there.

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