BAWC Forums

[quote=""alienviking""]Curious question Vira - and this isn't meant bad at all.. how would your back handle the roughness of overlanding and off roading? Think it would hold up for it?[/quote]

No offense taken! Valid question!

(warning, wall of text)

I'm in a tough mental place with what I want to do and what I 'should' do. I am an adventurous person! I want to go on a dune-buggy ride, and rafting adventure in Vegas at the end of the month. I thought I was going to do another RFA next week, but looks like I'm calling that off (topic for another thread). So, now I'm questioning if I should still do it.

It's all about the pain, right? Pain management. I'm going be going to a conference that week in Vegas before Jeff comes down to end it with vacation time. I'm just as concerned about making it through an 8 hour conference day just walking around and sitting in bad chairs.

I have some crutches I rely on for bad pain, like hydrocodone. I avoid it because I don't want to be dependent or an addict. When I hurt I usually just get off my feet, lay down and rest. In the cases where I 'have' to do something, I have to take my meds. I just avoid it. When I do too much, I am in crippling pain.

So, what do I do about activities like dune buggies, rafting and off-roading that I don't 'have' to do? Don't do them at all? Give up? It's a tough choice...

My preference would be to A. fix my back. B. reliable, non-addictive pain management. C. Sit at home and do nothing.

But everyone tells me "Sitting is the new smoking", "get your 10k steps in". So sitting at home and doing nothing really gets to me mentally.

So how will it handle the roughness? IDK until I try. :d ontknow:

A lot of what I've seen is going relatively slow down backwoods trails and some tougher terrain, which I can step out for, if necessary.

I just don't want to say 'I can't', until I try.

I say give it a try on a short trip. Spend a morning finding a trail and taking your time. If it sucks then turn around and come back.

I will say this, offroading is just as addictive as racing a fast car and brings the same type of high with it. What is nice though is you can pace yourself easier than an all out car race. Stopping to take brakes, or enjoy the scenery.

Dont knock it until you try it.

[quote=""ChargerX3""]I say give it a try on a short trip. Spend a morning finding a trail and taking your time. If it sucks then turn around and come back.

I will say this, offroading is just as addictive as racing a fast car and brings the same type of high with it. What is nice though is you can pace yourself easier than an all out car race. Stopping to take brakes, or enjoy the scenery.

Dont knock it until you try it. [/quote]

See, that sounds AWESOME to me. I got into 'racing' for a second. (just going down a 1/4 a half dozen times, autoX once) and I LOVED it! Such a high.

Offroading seems more attainable now. I grew up camping and being outdoors with my dad. I like going into the woods adventuring. I miss it.

My friend has invited us to do this. We still haven't bought any equipment (straps and such) to be prepared for something like this.

https://www.facebook.com/events/213081943426950/

Yea, its a lot of fun. I miss it, but as soon as the little ones get a bit bigger we will be doing similar camping trips.

You could honestly hold off on a lot of equipment and just go out with friends that already have it. No need to tackle large obstacles yet either. Just do some fun off-road trails and build upon it. As you enjoy it more and more you can get into more accessories.

It's a >170k mile truck. Nothing is obviously wrong other than the misfire and the clutch issue, but I only know how to prep it for road use. Not rocks and logs. I dread the idea of not just breaking and getting stuck somewhere, but being "the asshole with the Hummer" who ruined everyone else's outing.

My back always felt better after walking than sitting around.

But a trail rig is sitting around. So I don’t know how I feel about if it would bother your back or not.

Jeff, you don’t go on the most bad ass trail first time. You go on easy ones, find issues, make friends, then get bigger and bigger...by that time if you break down your friends would help you and not hold it against you.


Coop

[quote=""Jeff V.""]It's a >170k mile truck. Nothing is obviously wrong other than the misfire and the clutch issue, but I only know how to prep it for road use. Not rocks and logs. I dread the idea of not just breaking and getting stuck somewhere, but being "the asshole with the Hummer" who ruined everyone else's outing.[/quote]

You won’t be the only guy with a higher mileage rig on the trails. Stuff will eventually break. Yea you will sometimes feel stupid and your buds might joke about it, but it’s a fun bonding experience if you let it be. You might even be able to help a broke down stranger well before you break yours.

Again I would say pace yourself. Don’t do anything dangerous or overly uncomfortable. Wheeling with people more seasoned than you is a lot more fun anyways. They can help spot, give input and you can just tag along and soak it up.

Hit vitas buddy up and see what gear he already has and what he suggests you get. You already have the truck and good tires. Which is 90% of it. Straps can wait but might pay to grab a set of radios. Other than a solid spare, basic tools, and a Jack you are good to go.

overlanding is cool. I plan on doing some with the fozzy once i can get the heads rebuilt, i just dont feel comfortable with that tapping noise until i narrow it down for sure. Though its been going on for 5k miles.

As far as gear goes, I started buying shit after i got stuck in the snow. So far the basics are attained pretty cheap. A decent compressor, shovel, axe, and some traction boards. I also have a comealong until i can get a winch. Next ill get a 5g dummy can, 5g water can, kinetic strap, and a tree saver. Here is my list on amazon of some of the stuff i plan on picking up, some of it i already have.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GK3F4GX/?c ... _lig_dp_it


oops, heres the list

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2 ... _=wl_share

Also want to get my ham license because thats the only thing that works in some of those areas


posted some updates in my thread if you care

Or just get a ham. Baofeng is an excellent buy. You are supposed to have a license but nobody cares on the trails.

https://www.motortrend.com/news/nomad-k ... 3B8A3E40F7

Kitchen for you overlander guys!

$1100, Jesus. I’d rather build my own.

Finally finished this up yesterday.

We've needed a new roof rack since the one that came on the truck was totally wrong and unsafe. Chinese knockoffs of the OEM rack are ~$120 and used originals are close to $300 with shipping. I've heard the Chinese ones don't grip the rails that well. I knew there had to be something else that would work.

I snagged this off a Jeep Commander at Pick n Pull a couple months ago. $30. I had to cut some of the plastic off the pillars and move the thumbscrew holes inward, but it seems to fit pretty well now. The heaviest thing we'll put up there is a 70 lb kayak, so it should be fine.

The basket came with the truck. I put it back on just to get it out of the basement. The brackets look like they were specifically made for the Commander rails. That was a nice bonus. I also installed the new H3 roof rails I picked up, so there's no more gouged out holes in the plastic from the old rack.

Glad a Jeep could come to the rescue.

Looks good, does anyone ever actually use them though? I see tons of people with them but. Ever any thing in them except maybe a spare tire that would be pain to get down if you needed it.


Coop

It may be a pita but look at it like a gun. It's better to have it and not need it, than to not have it at all.

[quote=""DCIV""]Looks good, does anyone ever actually use them though? I see tons of people with them but. Ever any thing in them except maybe a spare tire that would be pain to get down if you needed it.


Coop[/quote]

One day, one day if we actually ever overland.

[quote=""vegasidol""]One day, one day if we actually ever overland. [/quote]

What do those guys put up there?


Coop

I had to run down to the office tonight. The basket is noisy at 65

It's not really a big deal. But it's noticeable.

I decided to finally install my backup camera this weekend. As usual, it's still not done. I had to pull the back seats out to get the trim panel off to run the cable. It's a mess. At least I just need to snap everything back together now.

There's one weird problem though. The radio won't switch over to the camera when I go into reverse. The little network adapter box won't enable the reverse trigger wire.

I think it's because the truck is a manual, and the adapter is looking for a network message from an automatic. I might look into this later. For now I can hit the CAM button on the faceplate to switch over to the camera manually.

I also modded the OnStar mic in the roof to work with the Kenwood radio. That part at least was fairly straightforward.