Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Have you ever been off-roading?

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Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 10-10-2004, 10:17 PM:

Today was my first experience in shotgun passenger off-road driving. It was exciting and terrifying all at the same time. Holding on for dear life and hoping that we don't drive off a cliff on the sharp turns or flip over because it was an SUV(Explorer '04). At over 40 mph most of the time.

It was with my cousin... I was forced into it because I could not just jump out of the SUV while he suddenly decided to go from paved road to dirt road at 40 mph. I managed to get footage of it(which I will post on my web site soon). But it basically looks like a lot of camera shaking. Although it is in fact off-road driving. Which was at Black Canyon City right after we got gas(before running on empty). "Exciting stuff" we had 65 miles until getting back to Phoenix and he didn't want to get gas when it was on "E"... But he was just scaring me, I played along anyway. Freaking out is what I do best. [Razz]

The SUV was a rental [Big Grin]

... So, he would have done even more extensive damage if it was his own car. But if any real damage did happen to the rental, the company that my cousin works for would cover it. He works for Ford, so he test drives cars all the time.

A picture of my cousin and the SUV after about 10mins of off-roading to make sure the body of the car was still intact.

The whole trip was just supposed to be to Sedona, Flagstaff, and back to Phoenix. But instead my life flashed before my eyes so many times I got a headache. My cousin is one crazy ........

Anyways, have you ever been off-roading?

[ 10-11-2004, 03:25 AM: Message edited by: Jennifer Pan ]

Posted by Joshua Lott (Member # 240) on 10-10-2004, 10:22 PM:

This is the truck that I use for off roading. [Smile]

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 10-10-2004, 10:24 PM:

OK Jen! I **TRIED** to read your post, but gave up! I could give a crap less as to what you posted!

Your ID pic is just toooo F*CKING HOT and a major distraction...

Ummmmm... EVEN for ME! [Wink]

Edit: JFC Josh! I hope the hell that "white stuff" in you pic ain't like SNOW or whatever! If so! That's it! Our date is OFF! I'm going to Mt. St. Helens! [evil]

>>> Phil

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 10-10-2004, 10:32 PM:

Aww... Phil [Smile]

I knew you wouldn't like what I posted... I just felt like posting so you could just see my ID pic [Wink]

Posted by Joshua Lott (Member # 240) on 10-10-2004, 10:39 PM:

That white stuff scares you away.... hmmmmmm....

Now I know why I am living up here. [Big Grin]

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 10-10-2004, 11:02 PM:

Sorry Josh...
I grew up and lived near Detroit Michigan until I was 23...and while in college. While I really enjoyed the summers and we lived on a lake so I was a big-time water-skier, I grew to HATE it! I really felt how useless it was to try to control one's car in the snow and ice in the winters and how hot and humid it was in the summer..

I specifically remember one incident when I was a 16mm newsreel cameraman for ABC... We were at the top of the freeway on ramp...stopped for a red light. Then, we just slide down the hill and crashed into all the other cars at the bottom...there was NO controlling it... Mother Nature was in control. Yeah! Snow/ice is COOL!

You know... I came to understand...why bother having your hands on the steering wheel when the ice and wind will take the car where IT wants... GOD! I HATED the snow, ice, and cold.

SoCal is God's country. Been here 30 years... unfortunately since I'm not working,, God also charges an arm and leg to live here... so I'll probably move Texas! HAhahaha

>>> Phil

Posted by Dean Kollet (Member # 1789) on 10-10-2004, 11:55 PM:

I had a '78 Jeep CJ-7 and a 99' Wrangler that I took off-road a lot. Can't beat a Jeep off road.

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 10-11-2004, 02:14 AM:

Off topic... But I don't feel this was necessary to start a new thread. This is just a comment on how awesome of a weekend I'm having... With all the traveling because my cousin is in town.

But anyways... About 2 hours ago my cousin decides that its really boring just sitting at home and that we should go cruisin' or something. So we do and we drive by "college town" (downtown Tempe, AZ)... and I point out the Improv club. So we go there and believe it are not some guy needed a ride home and couldn't see the show, is outside the club. So my cousin... the crazy man himself just chit chats with him as I go up to the club to see when the shows start. So the guy gives us the tickets for free.. just for taking him home. Guess who's the main act "Jay Mohr" the comedian/actor. The tickets weren't fake and we got in just in time to see his act. It was extremely awesome [Smile]

considering the fact that it was also my first Improv/comedy show I've ever been to.

Back to cars... I kind of envy my cousin because of how great his job is. He gets to travel(not consistently, but during certain months of the year). But yeah, an engineer of something something or other... And test driving cars that are not even out yet is just plain awesome. He even goes off-roading in economy cars, tears those babies up without looking back. "oops... that will leave a mark [Big Grin]

... ooooh that didn't sound too good" (after hearing the bottom of the car being torn to shreds)

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 10-11-2004, 02:15 AM:

My most memorable off-roading experience was being talked into driving a truck pulling a friend's newly bought, inoperative VW convertible on a home-made tow bar; the bug moved like a prehensile tail on the towbar even at 45 mph, & somewhere in the uncharted regions of Georgia, in the middle of the night, in a pouring rain, jack-knifed and slung us all whirly whirly round & round ending up about 100 feet from the road in a swiftly, inexorably sinking sea of kudzu. Abandon ship! Run! Run! Or slowly slog through the waist deep, kudzu-covered mudhole to get back to the road.

God it was a horrible hitchhiking trip in the rain winding up in the cab of the truck with the carny people. The lady sitting by the door was surreptitiously but thoroughly & vigorously groping my petrified friend, & her husband drove next to me while chatting maniacally & showing me all the guns he had deposited around the cab of the truck.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-11-2004, 02:52 AM:

quote: Dean Kollet
Can't beat a Jeep off road.

There you go. We had a 1943 Willys Jeep that we used to take out in the hills in southern Montana. That thing would go anywhere. It would probably still drive rings around almost anything today and was a blast to drive too. I learned to drive a "stick shift" on that Jeep. I wish I'd taken pictures of those days, but I would have been crazy to carry a camera...it would have bounced out for sure.

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 10-11-2004, 03:50 AM:

Its a jeep thing!

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 10-11-2004, 03:58 AM:

Nice [thumbsup]

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 10-11-2004, 04:20 AM:

I got it stuck once when I first got it. It had cheap street tires on it, and I got caught in some soft sand. I haven't got stuck since, but I didn't found any real mud in Florida. Now that I live in Omaha......

Rick

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 10-11-2004, 12:01 PM:

Can a frameless (unibody) vehicle like most current light SUV's stand up to serious off-road use? My 'car', a Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited, fits that category but I've never used it that way. That was always the principle different between the Grand Cherokee and the boxier looking Cherokee; the Cherokee was built on a frame. Too bad it was discontinued in favor of the ugly POS "Liberty".

Posted by Dean Kollet (Member # 1789) on 10-11-2004, 03:57 PM:

Yes, it most certainly can. My father works for Chrysler (has for 25 years) and I've been to Jeep events since the Jeep Grand Cherokee came out in 93. That thing is almost as capable as a wrangler, althought the wrangler's 4 wheel drive system is a lot different. The Wrangler uses a 4 Wheel Drive system where all the wheels spin the same speed, so that it's like one unit. The Grand Cherokee has various types, but it's very capable. The only thing I (and my father) recommend is skid plates under the body and some decent tires. That thing will do nicely off road. And they take a beating too [evil]

Edit: PS - the Liberty does a great job off-road too, although probably the least of the 3 Jeeps. The Cherokee (sqaures) were an awesome split between Wrangler and Grand

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 10-11-2004, 04:22 PM:

This is what I use for offroading

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 10-11-2004, 04:39 PM:

Mike, is that one of them thar cars that has the propellers in the back for REAL off-roading?

>>> Phil

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-11-2004, 05:28 PM:

Here is what I use for offroading:

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 10-11-2004, 06:00 PM:

quote: Richard Hamilton
Now that I live in Omaha

Rick needs to change the location in his member profile. [Smile]

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 10-11-2004, 07:19 PM:

Phil - no, that thing in the picture is the "Trabant", the "People's Car" made during communist times in East Germany, about the most un-offroad vehicle (not extremely effective onroad either) I could think of. But I know the other car. It used to be made in Germany or Switzerland. A neighbor in Berlin had one, it actually worked. I think the original idea was not just for fun. Since the army had blown up most of the bridges across the bigger rivers during their retreat in 1944-45, there were many rural areas which still didn't have the bridges rebuilt many years later, and people sometimes had to take enormous detours just to cross to the other side. That's how the idea for this car was born...

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 10-11-2004, 09:15 PM:

http://www.amphicar.com/

As for Trabants, several years ago I saw a bunch of Trabis on the road in downtown Chicago. I think they were from a club on a cross country journey. No doubt they would have to have been modified because there's no way that thing as built would meet US pollution regulations.

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 10-11-2004, 10:29 PM:

quote: Adam Martin
Rick needs to change the location in his member profile.

I tried, But it asked for too much personal information. It wouldnt let me change my profile without revealing my life story to the world of "Film-Tech"

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 10-11-2004, 11:39 PM:

This is what Off Roading will get you when you miss the turn!
Piles of late model SUV's and cars at the bottom of one of the mountain canyons just above where I live.... taken last week. And this is one of several canyons that has this many vehicles at the bottom. I told you that Utah drivers are crazy.....

Mark

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 10-11-2004, 11:42 PM:

Wow, the foliage is breath taking though. [thumbsup]

Posted by Greg Davis (Member # 2687) on 10-12-2004, 12:22 AM:

Everyone and there mom in San Diego has a "baja buggy," a maxed out toyota with prerunner bars, a lift, hunched quarter panals and the whole deal. Kinda lame, everyone knows that the perfect truck for offroading is a '78 luv truck. Try rolling a car that weights less than half a ton, much less causing any real damage to the differentials!

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 10-12-2004, 12:57 AM:

quote: Jennifer Pan
Wow, the foliage is breath taking though.

That's not foliage, it's bloodstains.

Examination of correlation between mountain bikes & weenie failure:

http://www.medlina.com/impotence_&_bicycling.htm

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-12-2004, 01:05 AM:

I certainly don't doubt that, William. That's one reason I'm glad I grew up riding BMX. I rarely sit down, even on a mountain bike. I stand as I pedal, I stand as I cruise. In fact I have a hard time sitting down on a bike because I'm just not used to it. When I ride with my friends they sit at all times it seems.

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 10-12-2004, 01:25 AM:

Well, here's the footage I took inside the SUV from off-roading. Not for the weak stomach... or for people who hate camera shaking. Yes, I know I need to work on having the camera still... But then again, that's extremely hard to do in this situation. It almost looks like its going around in circles but we are in fact going up around the mountain and back down.

http://jenniferpan.net/video/offroad1.wmv
1.81 MB

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 10-12-2004, 01:50 AM:

Off-roading is not always the aim but frequently associated with rallying, & it grieves me to note that after DECADES, the SCCA announced this month that it's divorcing itself from rallying & turning those operations over to some entity called Rally America.

Whatever. It's the end of an era, from a grand past of SCCA members who understood that turning left on a track all day is boring, & that driving is much more enjoyable when you're accompanied by a passenger/navigator who's screaming his head off and/or crying uncontrollably.

There's a page of VERY slowly downloading rally videos with some from the 70s & 80s (when you could still afford rallying on your own dime & with your own car) at
http://www.car-videos.com/videos/rally.asp
The one with the Lancia is only 2Meg, takes forever to download, but has very enjoyable 70s disco music & Itallian narration under some funky old Lancia spending its time sideways. The ones with the Renaults or VW Golfs are probably good, too. Buffum's TR7's & TR8's were monsters in their time; I may spend the rest of the day downloading those clips. I guess if you only watched the videos, you'd get the idea that the cars only touched the earth on rare occasions & by accident.

People who enjoy NASCAR: more power to you, but SCCA rallying was much more fun from either side of the windshield.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 10-12-2004, 05:18 AM:

quote: Steve Kraus
As for Trabants, several years ago I saw a bunch of Trabis on the road in downtown Chicago. I think they were from a club on a cross country journey. No doubt they would have to have been modified because there's no way that thing as built would meet US pollution regulations.

There are pollution regulations here? Are you serious? [Eek!]

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 10-12-2004, 08:06 AM:

quote: Jennifer Pan
Well, here's the footage I took inside the SUV from off-roading.

That looks more like a shot out of a helicopter window and you're comming in for a landing!

Mark

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 10-12-2004, 01:51 PM:

I wish I was in a helicopter, I would have taken better pictures of Sedona.

Posted by William Leland III (Member # 1400) on 10-12-2004, 07:51 PM:

when i was in high school we would go mudding to a place we called the sand pits. to get to the sand pits u had to cross a small stream about 10' wide coming down a 40 foot steep hill. i would hit this stream at about 40 mph. i was driving my parents mazda mpv mini van, not some off road truck. my friends would say it looked like an old mountain dew commercial when i hit the water. water shooting out on both sides of the van.

the worst was when i got stuck. the van's hogs head was resting on the mud, the tires almost complete covered. my friend pulled me out with this chain that broke twice, one link popped and shout out like warp 10 just missing one of my friends head. i was scared as shit that there was damage to the van, but i was lucky.

Jennifer who is that band in the video footage?

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 10-12-2004, 10:03 PM:

That band would be No Knife... That song is called "The Red Bedroom".

Their Website:
http://www.betterlookingrecords.com/index.php?p=banddetails.php?bandid=10

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 10-17-2004, 02:38 PM:

quote: Jennifer Pan
Have you ever been off-roading?

Yep, every day...

('specially on the Cross Bronx, just off the GWB -- bumpity - bumpity - bumpity - bumpity ).

Posted by Jeff Taylor (Member # 443) on 10-18-2004, 09:00 AM:

Wish I had some pictures handy, but my son and I built a trail Jeep from the bones of three CJ-5's, including a new 360, Optima battery and warn winch, beefed up axles, 4" lift, two-stick transfer case, granny low, etc. We even replaced the body and fabricated our own roll cage. That was several years ago, but we took it to Jeep Jamborees all over the northeast and had a blast. It's still around and one of these days we're going to remove the spring over conversion, downsize the lift, and convert it back to a plowing/beach driving/boat towing mule.

Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 10-18-2004, 10:54 AM:

Getting my Range Rover a wee bit muddy

Dive, Dive, Dive!

Road? (no really, it IS a road) across the river Gary
Leaping Land Rover!

Scottish Off Road Club

Photos from this past weekends fun and frolics will be along in due course.

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 10-19-2004, 10:21 PM:

Now that is some extreme off roading.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 10-19-2004, 10:54 PM:

quote:
http://www.sorc.org.uk/

What happened to the guy in the middle? Looks like he has no legs [Eek!]

Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 10-22-2004, 12:02 PM:

LOL It's just a body shell, the chassis having been whipped out from underneath it to be used in the building of a 'Blitz'. Bob is, being Bob and kneeling in the engine bay.

Was a bit wet in the woods of Scotland last weekend!

SPLASH!

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-22-2004, 06:08 PM:

Why don't you upload your picture here instead of just linking to them?

Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 10-23-2004, 03:25 AM:

Here's a pic of me in my racing glory days:

I was a lot thinner then! [Big Grin]

Motocross rocks!! The ultimate off-road sport!

Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 10-23-2004, 06:07 AM:

quote: Joe Redifer
Why don't you upload your picture here instead of just linking to them?

'Cos for some reason it won't let me.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 10-23-2004, 09:54 AM:

quote: http://www.film-tech.com/uploadnew.html
The acceptable width for any uploaded picture is 550 pixels.