What was the biggest suprise you got on a trail?

  • HTML tutorial

Jim SoG

Forums Manager
Staff member
Moderator
Member
Investor

Educator I

10,890
Reno, Nevada, United States
First Name
Jim
Last Name
Bro
Member #

12989

Service Branch
USAF DAV
I was on one and it led to a flat top hill in a mining area, I crep up, see ground and drive up, got about 10' in and seen that there was a HUGE HOLE (oops caps) in the ground, got out a seen I was on top of a giant hole and it was hollow under me. I slowly back the heck out....

Scarrrry...

What have you been surprised by? Good or bad.....

Jim
 

Kevin108

Rank V
Launch Member

Member III

2,741
Virginia Beach, VA
Member #

6632

The surprise in this story was one I gave my wife:

When she and I first met, I was sort of in between 4x4s. I had an 87 Chevy pickup, but I was DDing a new Corolla. My old truck liked to chew up locking hubs and spider gears and at 8 mpg, I didn't take it far from home. I had the axles to do a 3/4-ton swap, I just hadn't put everything together yet. After dating and living together for 5 years, I sold the car and bought an XJ. It took me a year, but I finally convinced her to go wheeling with me. While we were on the trail, I asked her to marry me. It has been great!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jim SoG

Jim SoG

Forums Manager
Staff member
Moderator
Member
Investor

Educator I

10,890
Reno, Nevada, United States
First Name
Jim
Last Name
Bro
Member #

12989

Service Branch
USAF DAV
Great place to ask her...out on a trail, yes and you know you got a keeper, no and throw her back....LOL
My wife lately has become more demanding of off roading/OBin than me.....Weird role reversal.

Jim
 

Smileyshaun

Rank V
Launch Member

Member III

2,779
Happy Valley, OR, USA
First Name
Shaun
Last Name
Hoffman
Member #

4799

not a actual trail but took my now fiance on her first off road experience on the Oregon back country discovery route for a week and everything went fine until I attempted to drove over a small sand dune at the beach , unknown to me was the stump on the other side of the small mound that flipped us on our side . Thankfully everybody was ok because we where going maybe 10mph. and she stuck around so that's a plus IMG_4099.JPG
 

Jim SoG

Forums Manager
Staff member
Moderator
Member
Investor

Educator I

10,890
Reno, Nevada, United States
First Name
Jim
Last Name
Bro
Member #

12989

Service Branch
USAF DAV
not a actual trail but took my now fiance on her first off road experience on the Oregon back country discovery route for a week and everything went fine until I attempted to drove over a small sand dune at the beach , unknown to me was the stump on the other side of the small mound that flipped us on our side . Thankfully everybody was ok because we where going maybe 10mph. and she stuck around so that's a plus View attachment 72165
Thank God nobody hurt......
 

DarrenD

Rank I
Launch Member

Traveler I

233
Orange County, CA, USA
First Name
Darren
Last Name
Delin
Member #

14793

IMG_7525.JPG

Found this guy on the trail. Got this truck last night and rolled it first thing in the morning. I asked if he wanted help rolling it back and he said no [emoji15].

Tried explaining the longer he was rolled the worse it was... still didn’t want help. So I
left him...
 
  • Like
Reactions: MazeVX

Smileyshaun

Rank V
Launch Member

Member III

2,779
Happy Valley, OR, USA
First Name
Shaun
Last Name
Hoffman
Member #

4799

Thank God nobody hurt......
that's one really good thing about sand , makes the landing softer
IMG_4100.JPG

that log behind the jeep is what flipped us on our side , it was sitting a little lower so I diddnt see it till I was on top of the little bump and at that point I had no choice but to drive over it and when the front tire made it over fine but when it hit the back tire it was more then the suspension could handle and tipped us over . I'm actually thankful I hit it with the tire if I had hit it straight on I'm sure there would have been drivetrain damage , thankfully it just dented the door a little the damage was very minor
 

Horse Soldier

Rank V
Launch Member

Pathfinder I

1,798
Louisville Ky
First Name
B
Last Name
Davis
Member #

12114

I found a quiet place on the Florida gulf to camp for the night and got asked did I need a date for the night, 3 mile of no one around and I but in to a hooker. The answer was no.
 

NotGumby

Local Expert Germany
Member
Investor

Influencer II

3,682
Frankfurt, Germany
First Name
Rick
Last Name
Vinnie
Member #

2380

Service Branch
Army Veteran 11B 54E
Two Italian customs agents at 3,000 meters between France and Italy on a dirt track in beautiful valley. No worries though, they were eating lunch and had no time for us.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MazeVX

DividedSky

Rank V
Launch Member

Enthusiast III

1,423
USA
Member #

11459

View attachment 72215

Found this guy on the trail. Got this truck last night and rolled it first thing in the morning. I asked if he wanted help rolling it back and he said no [emoji15].

Tried explaining the longer he was rolled the worse it was... still didn’t want help. So I
left him...
Trabuco?
 

DslDad13

Rank I
Launch Member

Traveler I

271
Goodlettsville, TN, USA
Member #

12410

Back a few years ago, my uncle and I were in his Scout on a trail on the banks of the Susquehanna river in NE Pa, went thru a tight spot of slate rock on both sides.....sliced thru all 4 tires.
Ended up walking about 10 miles till we found a small hole in the wall grocery store/bar and had to wait for a tow truck for about 5 hours....
 

Jim SoG

Forums Manager
Staff member
Moderator
Member
Investor

Educator I

10,890
Reno, Nevada, United States
First Name
Jim
Last Name
Bro
Member #

12989

Service Branch
USAF DAV
Back a few years ago, my uncle and I were in his Scout on a trail on the banks of the Susquehanna river in NE Pa, went thru a tight spot of slate rock on both sides.....sliced thru all 4 tires.
Ended up walking about 10 miles till we found a small hole in the wall grocery store/bar and had to wait for a tow truck for about 5 hours....
At least ya had drinks while you waited.......

I have sliced a tire, then the spare...I 4wd real slow to a waiting flat bead at the edge of pavement, LOVE AAA!

Jim
 

Pyrotech

Rank V
Launch Member

Enthusiast III

1,808
Austin Texas
First Name
Chris
Last Name
Hanson
Ham/GMRS Callsign
KB9ZKI
not really trail... but while working on power restoration during a recent hurricane we ended up running into a road washed out and with severe undercutting. It was the source of much laughter and grieve given to the kid who plotted the route.

Giant truck Eating Mud holes, Sunk a 6x6 truck to the frame, took 5 of us all day to dig it out enough where it could be pulled free.

In my younger years, came to a bridge washed out by heavy rains.

Coming down the mountain on the Sea To Sky highway on the way back to Whistler for the night, Came close to hitting a grizzly in the road.
 

ZRex

Rank VII
Launch Member

Explorer I

5,830
Elizabethton, TN
First Name
Mike
Last Name
Klepp
Member #

15512

Coming down the mountain on the Sea To Sky highway on the way back to Whistler for the night, Came close to hitting a grizzly in the road.
Also not really trail related, but I watched three cubs cross the Blue Ridge Parkway about 100 yards in front of me, then chewed holes in the seat of my bobber as I missed momma bear by no more than an arms length. Had to take a short break after that one!

Mike
 

Fozzy325

Rank V
Launch Member

Influencer II

2,808
Calgary, AB, Canada
Member #

15226

As an ex mountain rescue I have seen a few but for me personally was when my navigation system took me from an A road to to a B road then to a forestry trunk to a forestry supply road to an exploration track..

My Harley Davidson did not like it and. Lost so many bolts
 

RedBeard

Rank V
Launch Member

Influencer II

2,372
Vallejo, CA, USA
Member #

8896

So far my luck has held out pretty good, worse thing that's ever happened to me was up on Poker Flat. I was about 85% of the way to La Porte when I came to the water crossing. Not having done many I just went for it and the next thing I know, my front skid is slamming on the rocks because my driver wheel went into a hole in the river. Luckily I managed to back out of the hole, in a bit of a panic, and then we turned around and went back out the way we came in.
 

Kevtd

Rank 0

Contributor II

For sure my biggest surprise was taking a friend from the prairies out in the mountains (He had basically never wheeled on anything larger then a light slope nor in an actual forest) after a few hours of branches dragging along our paint and another tree across the road we decide to walk up around the corner to see if things get better and if the exposure we were on got worse. Few hundred feet up it looked like the road had collapsed into the gully completely and at the bottom maybe 100+ feet down is what looks to be an upside down Suzuki. Looked like it had been a while back but we turned around as quick as we could. I have a picture somewhere, still gives me shivers looking at it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Boort

RXV_POOR

Rank 0

Traveler I

60
Antigua
Pulling the shock shaft out of the shock and dropping a spring out on the same on obstacle on a test/industry run. The driver had to backup on the obstacle, I put the spring back in place and held it until tension was back on the spring. We installed the limiting straps on every test after that.