Outdoor Adventure USA

I am re-posting this here because I agree with Larry's comment below and not just because he will be working on my truck again soon!

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I went to 4x4 school!

I signed up for and attended day one and two of Badlands Adventures 4x4 training. The instructor Tom Severin is a certified professional 4WD Trainer by the International 4-Wheel Drive Trainers Association, there are only about 15 of these guys on the planet as far as I can tell. He is also a Wilderness First Responder which means he has special first aid training. Also as far as I know he has a black belt in 4x4 awesomeness and Jedi mind powers that make you follow him through some crazy terrain. Honestly, and I have said this before, I am a total newb to the sport but I think after two days of training with Tom I feel much more confident in my driving and my vehicle.

Advice is worth what you pay for it and I would rather learn from someone who has years of experience than my own mistakes or random people on a run with their own time interests in mind and not my own.

Day 1 we spent half the day in class learning about gearing, tire pressure, suspension, recovery gear, terrain types, hi-lifts and lots of factoids and working examples. We spent the second half of the day using the Hungry Valley practice area getting a feel for climbs, descents, climbing rocks, trying to get stuck and unstuck and other fun 4x4 things. We had 2 FJ's, 1 stock, and 2 pickups in the class. Tom and his other instructor use Jeeps. After the practice area we went out to do a trail run, we hit a wash, some big ruts, a few climbs etc. Part way through the run we found out some guy had dumped his quad off a steep hill. The quad driver was OK but we decided to divert to help him recover his ride. I got to use my winch to and other recovery gear I brought to haul this thing up about 20 feet up a hill side. We finished the day with some steep hill climbs.

Day 2 we spent doing a few exercises at the practice area then running trails for about 6 hours. I got to hit a lot of things in the park. I lost track of how many trails we did but Tom always took the time to explain anything I did right or wrong.

I got to ding up my rear bumper slightly, I got some good pin stripes now and I smacked my rock rails a few times. The FJ did awesome though and I am loving it more and more.

Things I learned (personal not course wise, I want you all to see Tom for the good info)
1) Get tire deflaters
2) Look into CO2, I am too lazy to stand around waiting for my compressor
3) Lock everything down, I had most things tied down but anything that wasn't went flying a few times
4) Wear more sun screen, even in the cab it's not hard to get some sun
5) Hitting rocks sounds worse than it usually is (i expect this to change as I hit sharper rocks)
6) Getting wheels in the air makes for cool pictures but bad control

Anyway, if you have not gone I recommend Tom's class. I am going to look into signing up for some more to supplement all my other outings.

This is where I found it... http://www.4x4training.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Pics follow a few posts down. The yellow FJ below is someone from this forum and I don't remember his forum name but it was nice to meet and ride with you!

Looks like a great run... I saw your post on waiting for a compressor to fill your tires. What compressor are you using???

It's a Viair 450p I think, it's pretty nice and might be relatively fast compared to some Costco and other bargain compressors I have seen. I am very impatient so my definition of slow might not be yours.

raYGunn wrote:I took day one and two of 4x4 training with Tom on the forum here. I wrote a report on my local FJ forum but I won't repost it here because I am too lazy and I figure you guys have all done it already... right!?

Thanks Tom!

I can't respond to the lazy comment ( ), but we would definitely appreciate your posting the info on this site as well for a few reasons:

1) Not everyone here is an expert, and even experts can learn new things

2) Many folks may lurk on this site without seeing the other site first - and we would like to continue to increase the traffic on our forum. More activity = more members, and more members = more diversity and more info useful to all.

3) TomS / Balland Adventures is a founding sponsor of OAUSA, so it would be fitting to have reports / reviews on his services here for people to allow them a more personal view of the great service he offers.

4) Reposting (or posting here first !!!) will help cure any tendency toward laziness you might feel you have !!!

Yea, I agree it's a little weird to belong to several forums where multiple members are reading all or some of them. I notice a lot of people post the exact same thing in every forum I find them on and I am not sure if this is the accepted standard or will majorly annoy someone. I read a lot of forums and have moderated a few large ones on a different subject but the topic at hand has caused me to post more than any other time and even though it isn't a lot for some people it is a lot of posting for me.

I will go ahead and re-post my write up here too, I'm not playing favorites I just know most people on my local FJ forum have not done this kind of thing and I might expose more people to the idea. Tom has lots of links here!

Day One:

Hungry Valley Training Area


Stock FJ had a few hard times I didn't but he did awesome overall








Lucky quad hit a tree before going much further


Setting up for the pull


Out


Climbing

Day Two:



Broke down Jeep (not part of the class)

I found some small children willing to clean the FJ in exchange for ice cream. I think I might keep them.

Also, and this goes along with creating a good participating community, I would love to get feedback on my write up because I will do more, I like documenting my learning process and if you want to see more detail, more pictures, maps etc let me know. Please comment here if you have time, I love feedback... especially praise.

I've gone with Tom on two different Mojave Road trips. The first Mojave trip in 2005 was what got me hooked on this type of recreation.

I've not yet attended any of his classes, but it is in my plans since there are some serious gaps in my knowledge.