This is what real Off Roading means:
The version I was told decades ago was similar: You have to make it home on your own vehicle, on its own power and park it.
By Miguel.GFZ
Semi-retired like Vito Corleone before the heart attack. Consiglieri to J.Kb and AWA. I lived in a Gun Control Paradise: It sucked and got people killed. I do believe that Freedom scares the political elites.
My brother use to do “off-roading” and gave me a piece of advice for when I’m going off road for “real reasons” I.e. the range is at the other end of this dirt track. Not “Let me see if I can drive across this swamp”
If you keep your vehicle in 2 wheel and can make it down that dirt road/off-road chunk, then all is good. If you are in 2 wheel drive and don’t have the traction, switch to 4 wheel drive, get yourself out, then back to 2 wheel.
His advise of thinking of 4 wheel drive as a “get out of a jam” instead of “I can gt there” has stood me in good graces.
True… specially years ago when switching to 4WD would drink fuel like crazy and not a gas station in miles…or roads
I second that for winter driving. There are idiots out there who think 4WD or AWD means “I won’t lose traction in snow.” It best they get themselves stuck. More often, they slide into you.
I third that motion.
Too many people think 4 wheel drive means 4 wheel stop. It doesn’t. It just means that if your front tires slip, your back ones (hopefully) do not. Want to drive 65MPH through that blizzard? Go ahead. The tow company does not mind the emergency call out along with its premium pricing.
Or, as a wise friend once told me: “Four wheel drive will get you stuck in better scenery…”
O2
Having mis-spent much of my adolescence in a land where 4 wheel drive was often synonymous with “fishin’ truck,” I’ve pushed my share of 4 wheel drive vehicles out of bogs, mud holes and creeks. On one memorable occasion we had to leave a Jeep stuck in the mud and hitch a ride to a telephone (pre cell days) and have someone pick us up. A couple of days later my old 2 wheel drive pickup pulled the Jeep out of the mud hole. 4 wheel drive just gets you stuck farther in and deeper in the muck.
I had a Jeep CJ-5 I bought from my dad my senior year of High School. Took the top off in April and it didn’t go back on until October. I didn’t head that warning very well as I used to drive it around the dirt bike track my buddy had in the woods behind his house. I rolled it on more than one occasion (not going very fast) around that track and busted up the clutch once, Had to push it the last 6 blocks home when the clutch pedal stayed in the floor trying to go from first to second.
I bet that ingrained the lesson, huh? We all have a similar story 🙂
No. Once we fixed that I went back out again. And did the crap like Nuke and CBMT said, just figured hell, I can go anywhere, snow didn’t bother me. And to it’s credit that Jeep did go everywhere I told it, didn’t matter how much snow we got. it went where I told it. I just ended up rear ended by a Caddy that couldn’t stop one wintery night and that was the end of that.