Worst Off Roading Mistake You've Made

I got two.

1. Never truly off road until we got the 4R. Signed up for Toyota Jamboree thinking it would be easy-mild off roading. WTF Texas? You guys dont play around. There were several times i thought....whelp this is where i roll the 4R, plus it was literally brand new. Still had a great time and met some amazing people.

2. This was before my 4R. Had an Acura MDX and we went out west to AZ. The wife wanted to go see some hyrogriphics (cant figure out how to spell that. Old paintings on rocks). We headed out and she didnt read all the way down on the pamphlet which clearly stated for lifted off road vehicles only. Someone pulled up besides us and told us, we need to turn around it gets worse up ahead. Keep in mind to that point he told us we were an hour into the journey and it was beyond difficult to get to that point.

 

1) Assuming the "Puddle of water" in front of me, wasn't 'that' deep. Only to find out it was a bottomless pit that swallowed up the entire front end. (This happened to me and a friend when we went off roading back when I was in the Army).

 

BRO. You literally made me LOL. Similar to your story, the wife and i were off roading in Florida. Came upon a huge puddle. I could not figure out how deep it was. So we started throwing big rocks into the water to try and estimate the depth. A week later on the news it had a piece about a lady who did the exact same thing i did with the rocks EXCEPT there was a big alligator in hers. It attacked her, she survived but me and the wife looked at each other and were like oh, damn. Yeah lets not do that again.

 

In college, way back in the day, my roommate had a Jeep Cherokee and I had a GMC Jimmy. We would go offroading in the blue ridge mountains near campus, and one time tried a new trail that had water. We thought we were being smart by getting out, walking the edges of the water and poking it with a stick to get the depth. What we didn't realize was that we were poking too far in, just past the ruts, and only getting the depth of the "middle". We thought we were good to go, so he went first and immediately got buried. My Jimmy only had a 4-cylinder and it was all it could do to pull him back out. Lesson learned.

 

This one time when I was overlanding...

 

I flopped my built 1st gen on a very routine forest road after a day of hard-ish wheeling. I felt like an idiot.
This was a lifted, double locked, crawler geared 1st gen on 35's that was pretty much aim and go.
As we were exiting the area on a routine forest road, I was driving one handed and drinking a Pepsi while looking around at the scenery. During that inattention, I wandered over to the edge of the road and slipped off into a big-ish side ditch - Kerplunk @#^#$@
My partners winched me out, 22-RE fires right up, ran a ratchet strap around the windshield to keep it in place and drove her home that way. Still a sad memory.

 

I think it's spelled b-e-e-r.

 

My worst was trying to straddle deep ruts on a sloped trail in nasty slick clay mud. After sliding into the ruts the first few times and nearly high siding, you'd think I'd quit. Being young and dumb are a bad combo. I finally got far enough down before sliding into the ruts that my side mirror stuck into the mud of the bank the ruts were up against. They only folded one way so when I backed out it broke off in the bank and I had to walk through the mud to retrieve it.

I finally gave up at that point

 

Ha!
Yeah, that wasn't it. I did drink then. (no more) But never wheeling/driving/anything with a motor.

 

I did some foolish things. I try to be safe and have been lucky so far. Some silly things (all of these are more than 20 years ago):

Impressing others:
- When I first met my wife, I had my FJ40, pretty stock with a locker. During a work lunch, I took her out on some undeveloped areas around Austin, TX. Got it stuck in 2' of mud with no way out. I had to call a coworker to get a tug.
- Another time we went to Big Bend NP and were camping all over. It was a great trip. I decided to go off-trail on a dry creekbed. I got a way in and decided to turn around. Asked her for a spot (she did not wheel at the time). I drove backward over a large flat rock and split it. The rock rotated up with the sharp point going into the sidewall and creating a 4" gouge! I drove it back out to the trail with the flat (did not want to get caught off trail). Then I realized I had my jack, but no lug wrench. Had to wait on the side of the dirt road for an hour waiting for someone to come by with a lug wrench. All the cars did not work because their lugs were too small.

The worst one for me was when I was wheeling a rough-built FJ40. I got stuck over a big rock and had a bunch of people working on the truck (under the hood) while I was trying to get out. Aparently someone had pushed on the brake master and one of the hoses dislodged as I got out of the obstacle and went to stop on the incline. Sprayed brake fluid 10 feet it seemed and had no brakes with people behind me! I slammed on the gas to not roll back further, shot rocks at everyone, but got out of there without hurting anyone!

I also flopped that rough-built FJ40 on some off camber ridges when I bent my tie rod. The group I was with continued on and I had to limp back by myself (not happy with that group still!). While trying to get off the obstacles (with a bent tie rod!), it flopped over. Because of the terrain, it was not fully on it's side and I was able to lift it back up on the wheels with another person helping (raw human power!) and then got out of there.

 

Wasn't exactly a mistake but definitely a bit of overconfidence on a hill climb. I don't have a good video of this unfortunately. Just the dash cam footage.



https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qm2uoCVk3Rk


IFS couldn't flex enough and I lifted a wheel a few feet. According to the video and the horizon I was passed 40 degrees. Which is just about where this thing starts to feel very tippy ime.

Luckily my rear extended travel suspension kept in contact with the ground and there was a small hill under my passenger front tire. This allowed the rig to pull through and set down. But I was closer to tipping here than I thought I'd be. Definitely a good reminder to not take obstacles or vehicle capability for granted. Complacency will bite you.


If you watch the video you'll see the section of this hill in the background was the crest... so it's pretty close to level. Provides a pretty good reference for angle.

I've had some other close calls but I think this is the closest I've been to setting it on its side.


Still, here are some notable mentions.

1.) The washed out drop in at Merus adventure in Palo Duro Tx. If you've been on the forum enough you've likely seen this photo. It also made cover image for dirt road coalition.


Off line by about three inches. Hit the rock wall on the driver side.



2.) This is probably next up. I led some friends at Jambo last year onto a trail called Sunday Drive. A 4/5 rating. SAS only recommendation from the park.
Video makes this section look like nothing because my buddy filming was standing up on a cliff edge about 20 feet above the rig. That downward angle really flattened this obstacle out. No damage but I came just a couple inches from smacking a boulder on the driver side. Would have made quick work of my quarter panel and rear door. I was worried about this so I picked up some speed at the end to avoid rocking or sliding into it.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QnM7dGeZdC8

Myself, two other mid travel 5th Gen's, and this beautiful 80 series got it done. But it was certainly another close call because I chose to ignore the park's recommendation for "solid axle only"



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPM0Dwb7P1o



3.) And here's two of my buddy's wife almost rolling their rig as well.

She has a tendency to turn away from the roll which got her in trouble on the first one. Second one was line choice. Luckily she backed off before it rolled over.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUXIRbrSsp4
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ytwpCaoZuDk



All mistakes with lessons to learn from.

 

Yeah. That's a dick move.

 

I was in my FJ-40 on a trail from Big Bear to Pioneer Town. I saw a side road thinking that I could set up camp for the night.
I drove through a 3' deep creek crossing and immediately up a steep and rutted out bank. Lost traction and because the brakes were wet, I slid back and to the right and almost high sided it back into the creek. But luckily it stopped at a right angle at about a 25* lean.
I then muscled the steering wheel (no power steering) back to the left and crawled back on to the trail and found a more scenic place to watch the stars for the night.
That is until some wild Burro's walked through my camp site in the pre-dawn hours and were pawing or rather, hoofing at my icebox.
So rude of them.

 

I was a newbie and went to the outerbanks in NC, more specifically to Corolla beach in my 2nd Gen Taco, 2wd only . I got stuck pretty quick and had to get the tow truck to come and get me. But not as bad as this guy that listened to the GPS and took the same path I was on. I mean...... He was there for half a day...

 

that is beyond a dick move. I was in Moab and came across a jeep, it was hot outside and they had the top off. The jeep kept overheating, I stayed with him and his wife all the way back to the entrance of the trail. Nice people. I would hope someone would do the same for me. They had no water to drink and the sun was blazing on them.

 

I got stuck in the outer banks with my 2wd Rodeo, good times. That fine sand between the parking lot and the beach is no joke.

Got pulled out by a friendly guy in a first gen Taco, along with a short lecture on sand (he was a civil engineer).

 

Just out of curiosity, what does that cost to be rescued from a beach

 

Deer hunting many years ago and while I was on stand, my buddy drove my Ford 4x4 in ruts until the truck sandbagged on the pumpkins. We couldn't get the jack under the bumper. No problem, a game warden in a suburban came down the trail a few minutes later. Offered to pull us out and hooked the chain on his bumper. I told him, "let me put the chain around your frame."

"It'll pull it." he said, got in his truck, tightened up the chain... and pulled the bumper off his truck.

He threw the bumper in the back of his suburban, didn't say a word and left us standing there 6 miles from the hard road... and it was 15 F and getting dark. Luckily a guy came down the trail just after shooting hours ended and tugged us out.

Never saw that warden again and never let my buddy drive again...

 

200 bucks at most. Is just the tow guy sitting a few miles away from the entrance. He is sitting there probably drunk and laughing at the suckers going by. The big truck on the pic had to pay 2k this was 20 yrs ago. It was comical. Made the local news at the time. Good laughs.

 

there are youtube videos about a tow truck that just sits and waits for people to get stuck on the beach, he doesnt mention how much he charges people

 

Sometimes people have to take some responsibility for themselves too.
I mean:
No water?
No roof?
Alone? (I get it, sometimes that happens)
Still, good on you to make sure they got out of there.

 

Life is something else though. That episode basically made me be ready for future battle as if it is the apocalypse , now I got all the tools and capability to go and not get stuck in the sand . But now, I don't have the time to go. And I said back then, this shit won't ever happen to me. It clearly hasn't happened to me because I don't go anymore. What's the lord trying to tell me?

 

I hear ya, but yeah im not going to let someone get heat stroke. It was hot and that heat just bounces off the rock. It took about three hours to get them back to the entrance. We told them to go ahead of us and every time they stopped we had them come sit in the air conditioning until the jeep cooled down. But to your point, the wife and i bring a 3-day survival kit and out kids bought us an emergency satellite "beacon". They bought it for us because we got lost off roading in Utah and almost ran out of gas. Stupid mistake. We ended up sleeping by a heard of sheep in our car. The next day a ranch hand came out and rescued us. But again to your point, we had the 3 day survival gear with us. We knew we would be rescued

 

My 03 Ranger 4wd 4.0 5 speed. Long story short we have been on this trail in Santa Clarita for 10 hours because 2 other guys were 2wd and I have having trouble because of crappy Goodyear Silent Armors and I didn't air down. I ripped out the rear brake lines going up a hill because took off with a clutch dump in low range and the parking brake on. I was tired and frustrated and I just wanted to get home.

 

It's either:
Get out more.
or
You're not the tough mother you used to be.

 

Yeah our group goes out pretty prepared and we often lend a tool or water or a tug.
I also put the caveat on the alone one because if you don't sometimes wheel or hike alone you'll never go anywhere. But you should still be prepped and someone should have a general vicinity idea of where you will be.

 

OMG im dying laughing - you have a section titled IMPRESSING OTHERS. Thats funny shit. Why? Because we have all done it

 

Way back in the 80s when I was younger and dumber than I am now, I drove a two wheel drive Olds Cutlass Supreme down onto the beach in Arcata, California. It was a little early in the morning, and cold.
While down on the beach, I got out of the car for some minutes. I was completely ignorant regarding whether the tide was low, or high, or whatever. Turns out, the tide was rising. I look over to my car and the wheels were down in the sand where the rising tide had washed the sand out from under the four wheels and the car was now bottomed out on the beach. Don't remember the cost of the tow, just remember the embarrassment of the dumb thing I did. Really liked that car. Had sand in the rear brake drums that ate the shoes as the car was driven. I worried that I had gotten sea water in the crankcase somehow. That car was not the same after being beached like that. I traded that car a few months later for something else.

 

So funny how a lot of the posts start with.......when i was younger and dumber.

 

Well, in fairness, I WAS younger. Dumber? I'm speculating. Hopefully it is true because I spend far more time considering consequences of an action BEFORE beginning said action.