What is the appeal of off-roading?

[TNcoupe]

Have you ever met people?? There tends to be no people where I go and that's why I go there.

Sponsored

 

[Callelk]

Wow, just found out that Rick "Super Hunky" Sieman passed away yesterday. He an I used to email back and forth about Maicos (he had one of the first 501's), Husky's, CZ's and the like while he was living in Old Mexico. We chatted on the phone a number of times and always meant to stop in and meet him during one of my Baja fishing trips but you know how it is.........

Sorry, to hijack this thread.........

 

[shawn6107]

For me it’s the same reason I love snow skiing. When I’m on a difficult obstacle, the only thing I can think about is what’s under my tires. I can’t think about the past, the future, or what anyone else thinks about what I’m doing. It’s being truly present and in the moment which tends to create a state of flow. For someone like me, that presence and flow is highly addictive and highly needed to de-stress and recharge.

 

[Callelk]

No. Been riding sxs a long time. U can get a brand new 1000 Wolverine x2 or Honda Talon for around $20k or less. If u can only get 1 vehicle then of course a sxs doesn’t make sense I’m just saying u can get a more basic Bronco trim AND a sxs if u really wanna off-road seriously and have more fun.

Like me, I was originally looking at the Can Am Defender Pro but with heater, roof, doors, glass and all your at $35K and you still need a trailer and a place to keep it. My 4-car garage is full of motorcycles, atv's, boat and a machine shop. By the time I add everything up I was looking at $37K plus $200 or better a month for storage.

 

[thesocalexplorer]

It's a great feeling to not be bound to paved roads. Also, like many others said, being able to get to remote campsites is such a game changer.

As I always joke with my friends, off roading on fire roads gives you the views & benefits of a long hike....with zero effort!

 

[MyATV]

No sneering. Not even needlessly. The original poster has a Bronco Sport. I asked him/her a question about it.

 

[dejones64]

The solitude of a remote campsite?

This is my answer. I’m not a rock crawler or extreme off-roader, but I want to get to dispersed campsites, away from the crowds, and far far away from any city.

 

[lil_mule_4x4]

That spirit of adventure?

For me it's not even the camping or overlanding aspect (maybe one day in the future) - it's just the excitement of seeing things and places that most people can't.

Plus how many places in modern society are truly quiet? Once you get off the paved roads back in some national park or forest - there's no car sounds, no electrical lines, in some places not even planes flying over head and you're struck by this incredible sense of peace.

(at least for me)

For example, I regularly cave dive - I get to see ice age bones and evidence of human activity deep underground in a flooded cave that maybe only a couple of hundred people have seen in the world. That's pretty effing cool.

(pic for attention)

That spirit of adventure! Enough said... hard stop. As a previously active diver, I can wholeheartedly agree with Draughon's response. Besides his debate ending and epic spelunking pic, we should all heed his advice and immediately plan a trip to the unknown. Well done draughon!

 

[FloridaBurgBronco]

There are lots of types of off roading. I hate mud, too much cleaning involved. I love more technical stuff. I like rock crawling, but we have basically two parks in Florida that are worth going to for that and that's about it. To me rock crawling is a super high adrenline rush for such a slow speed event. Sounds weird, but when you can get past difficult obstacles, it's just fun to do. Now, about damaging the vehicle, you want to take it slow and stay within our skills and within the limits of the vehicle to reduce or eliminate any damage. I don't consider scratches on the skid plates and undercarriage as a big deal, that's actually what they are for. Oddly enough, I don't really see the point of getting a 4X4 unless you do actually take it off road a fair bit. Why pay the extra money for the 4X4 systems and extras unless you use them? Having said that, I'm not into mudding adn overlanding, neither has any appeal. Too much cleaning involved with mud and I like a warm cozy bed versus overlanding. But I get the appeal for others to those things.

 

[FloridaBurgBronco]

No sneering. Not even needlessly. The original poster has a Bronco Sport. I asked him/her a question about it.

Yes also not making fun of the Bronco Sport, but the way a Bronco owner views off roading and the way a Bronco Sport owner views off roading is a bit different. I would never attempt half the stuff I do with a Bronco Sport, but I have a 2 door Bronco Badlands, marketed by Ford as "for extreme off roading". But if I owned a Bronco Sport, I would still go off road and do fun stuff.

 

[the poacher]

As many have state previously, a Bronco allows you to explore, to go to places for your first time, and to experience true wilderness, unblemished by mankind. Something the majority of people on our beautiful earth do not get to enjoy.
Use your Bronco to expand your horizons...

 

[Aonarch]

Over landing I like. Being out in nature, solitude, etc.

Off-roading I do not like. I also hate huge groups of Jeeps and 4x4s going at a snails pace off-roading. You sit behind a queue of them all day just slowly crawling along, parking, getting out to watch others try to get over the same rocks, etc. not a fan.

Meaning specifically going to off-road trails to beat on my vehicles. Climbing rocks etc. Not a fan.

I do ride dirt bikes, so I guess that is my off-roading. But I like to haul ass on them.

 

[Durangatan]

To the OP: off-roading as an end to itself is completely pointless to some of us.

I with you. For me my Bronco is a personal and professional transportation appliance for access to more remote backcountry trailheads.

I also don’t get the comments about peace and tranquility. Combustion engines and peace and tranquility seem mutually exclusive to me. “True wilderness “? You won’t find it where you can take a motorized vehicle.

Where I am at the moment, and not a Bronco within 100s of kilometers. This is the land of the Hilux. People simply don’t rock crawl here, because breaking down is the real deal with help days away. You are much more likely to run into Gauchos than an “off-roader”.

View attachment 590873

 

[broadicustomworks]

Adventure. Serenity. Beauty. Soul replenishment. Memories. Fun.

There are mainly 5 camps that most fall into:
1. Never off pavement
2. Some medium-level fire roads to get to a campsite and back out.
3. Overlanders/adventurers/explorers.
4. Rock crawlers/technical wheeling
5. Desert/sand dune or even beach only runners.

I fall heavily into 3 and 4.
For many reasons.
So many expanses and locations just in this country alone many have never seen and never will.
Some places have been untouched by humans for decades or centuries.
Getting to those places and seeing those things is something worth far more than the value of a vehicle or a thing to hold in your hands.
I don't know what the future holds for my children.
I pray it is a good life with the ability to follow their dreams and passions, have the time, means, and freedom to see the world as they desire.
In the interim I feel it is MY job as a parent to get them to places they may never have been able to see without me getting them there.
Have them hold the memories and have the experiences to tell their children about.
To get away from the busy pavement life most of us are stuck to every day.
To get back to nature.
To soak in the sunrise over the desert in Big Bend, to watch the sun set over Big Sur, to see the Redwoods, Devil's Tower, to watch Bighorn sheep with their young in the evening sun. To wake up to the splendor of Canyonlands and the time around a campfire the night before.
To get them to places only a 4WD can get to and the disconnect from the world await them once there.
Who is to say any of these places will be accessible to them when they have the means to get there themselves?
Who is to say the world and society is even in a position to allow it if/when they have the means?
That solidifies #3 for me.

#4 is just plain fun. Adrenaline, the feeling of conquering something. The absolute joy to see someone else conquer that fear or trepidation for their first time. The camaraderie and friends gained that otherwise you would never have had.
But #4 is purely objective and limited by one's comfort level and skill. And at times, the capacity of the vehicle itself.
I know people who wheel with no regard for the potential damage, deal with it as it comes and wheel on another day.
I also know people who get visibly shaken and nauseous with the first skid plate screech.
It is hard to put into words how gratifying it is to get a small group of first-timers on some intermediate stuff, help them through it, and see the sheer pride and joy in their faces that they slayed the beast themselves. They walk away with a new sense of their own capacity for adventure, and find their limitations were mainly self-imposed. If freedom had a tangible way to measure it, it would be that moment.

 

[RBF 1401]

P.S.... Being in Northern Ontario I appreciate access to nature and exploring / camping. I guess that's what is called overlanding.

What I'm referring to are the folks going out as a group in their new expensive vehicles for a day and tackling rocks, mud etc. Every single video I've seen their vehicles are bottoming out on rocks, getting scratched etc, with repairs obviously required.

I know you want justification for the "rock crawling" aspect of off-roading, and the responses are very heavy on the exploring/camping stuff. While few have talked about the challenge and accomplishment aspect, I haven't seen much about how I see it...

I see it as preparation and practice.

You say you don't understand the group of Jeeps getting scratched up? But for me, the occasional group trail ride that includes going over obstacles makes it much easier to do the stuff that I really want to do. While I am not intentionally driving on a bad road for the sake of the obstacles, the obstacles exist.

It isn't always a sure thing that your dirt road is going to be smooth and easily passable. Sometimes a desert wash has been completely covered in giant rocks, or the road is washed out. A road that was a walk in the park the last time you took it, is suddenly difficult to traverse.

When you go with a group, and do some difficult stuff, it is like practice. It makes the unexpected obstacles on your next solo trip to the secluded wilderness less stressful.

Sponsored