15 Off-Road Tips You’ll Actually Use

over the last year we've seen a lot of new off-roaders out here on the trail having a great time exploring and once upon a time we were new too and we had to learn everything that goes with off-roading including trail etiquette yep so there are 15 tips that we're going to share with you today in this video that you should know before you hit the trails [Music] welcome trail recon i'm brad i'm from gina and today we're going to share with you 15 trail etiquette guidelines that are well known by the seasoned off-road community so these guidelines really they're just common courtesy so that when we're out on the trail with each other we treat each other with kindness and respect and we all have a great day on the trail they also help keep us safe when we encounter certain situations we'll all know what's kind of expected how we're supposed to react and at the end of the day they help us take care of our trails keeping them clean and pristine and open so that we can come back and enjoy them for years to come yeah because that's the ultimate goal is to come out here with family and friends enjoy nature have great adventures and make memories that last a lifetime so whether or not you are new to off-roading or you've been doing it for a while and maybe just need a little reminder these 15 trail etiquette guidelines are going to help you have a great experience out here let's kick it off with number one now all of these 15 trail etiquette guidelines are extremely important but we didn't put these in any kind of particular order the first one i want to start with is keep the person behind you in your sights all the time it's important when you are in a group of vehicles to make sure you've got visibility on the person behind you because you don't know if maybe they made a wrong turn or they hit an obstacle that they weren't able to get through or maybe they broke down and so keeping an eye on them in your review mirror and your side mirror making sure that you've got visibility on them is very very important another thing is when you get to an intersection you need to make sure you stop before you make that turn so that they see you make that turn so they don't keep on going i can't tell you how many times i've been in a group where somebody forgot that rule and then the group got split up so make sure you're keeping the person behind you in your sights at all times the next trail etiquette tip is that when two vehicles are coming from opposite directions on an incline the vehicle going uphill has the right-of-way yeah there's a lot of confusion about this but the reason that the vehicle coming up has the right-of-way is because if they have to stop it's tough for them to get their momentum going again back up the hill whereas the vehicle coming down it's easy for them to maintain their momentum gravity now a little bit of common sense though has to come into play because maybe there's a big area behind the vehicle that's coming up that they can conveniently pull over to where it might be a narrow road and the vehicle going down be like half a mile for them to back up so it's a good idea to get out of the vehicle have a conversation and just decide what works best but as a general rule the vehicle coming up has the right of way the next piece of trail etiquette we want to share with you is simple stay on the trail when you go off the trail you are damaging wildlife plants habitats for animals and potentially widening the trail and we don't want to do that that's one bad for the environment and two that's how trails get closed so we want to keep them open and be kind in nature the other thing is if you encounter an obstacle a gatekeeper that you're having struggles with don't place a trail around it because as we just said that's bad for the environment and the trail but there's probably more of the same along the way so if you can't conquer that obstacle it might be a good idea to back off turn around and come back another day when you're ready to conquer it just remember this one's simple stay on the trail the next guideline is making sure that you're practicing good radio etiquette having good communication when you're out on the trail is extremely valuable and whether you're using cb radio ham radio or gmrs the ability to communicate is so important especially if you come to an obstacle or if there's a vehicle coming in the opposite direction maybe somebody got lost or somebody broke down you want to be able to have a good line of communication and so if you're on the radio talking about what you're going to have for dinner tonight for five minutes you're kind of clogging up the airways and there might be families in some vehicles so you don't want to be using foul language on the radio having good communication out there is going to make for a safe and a fun event so make sure that you're practicing good radio etiquette the next guideline is give way to larger groups if regina and i are out here on the trail or wheeling and we encounter a group of four or five or ten vehicles it just makes sense for the two of us to pull over out of the way and let them go through it's much easier for one or two vehicles to step aside than it is for a large group to do that plus there's less impact on the environment and you want to make sure that when you do find a place to pull over that you're not just trampling and flattening foliage and be on the lookout for dry grass if your vehicle goes over some tall dry grass it's possible that the heat from your vehicle could start a fire and that's the last thing you want so give way to large groups but be mindful of where you're pulling over now there is nothing wrong with this jeep wrangler 392. this thing appears like a kitten but the next tip is stop to assist and don't leave anybody behind on the trail it's frustrating when you have to pop the hood and you're trying to troubleshoot what's wrong with your vehicle and having great friends that can assist you get you back up and running is super important you know if you come across somebody that's got the hood up and they're sitting there trying to figure out stop to assist you might have the knowledge or the tool that they need to get back up and running and even if you can't don't leave them behind offer to tow them to the end of the trail where they can get cell service and maybe get a tow truck it's very very helpful when you have good friends and a good community around you to make sure that you're going to get off the trail safely so don't leave anybody behind and stop to assist so the next piece of trail etiquette we'd like to share is when you're with a group and it's time for a bathroom break boys to the left and girls to the right now this isn't because the guys are always driving because we know they're not it's because the girls are always right but seriously it's just to maintain a sense of privacy when you're taking care of business which reminds me if somebody is flying a drone during your off-road trek make sure they stop for obvious reasons when you're taking a bathroom break and another tip is pack it in and pack it out so i like to keep this little kit in my jeep hand sanitizer some extra baggies and some toilet paper so that when i'm done taking care of business i can take everything out with me you don't want to leave anything behind even biodegradable toilet paper really isn't biodegradable so just make sure you pack it out so remember the tip boys to the left girls to the right the next piece of trail etiquette is two attempts and then it's time to move on look we love getting out on the trail and trying to tackle and conquer some obstacles but sometimes it can be a struggle we've all been there i've been there many times where i haven't been able to get through an obstacle and i have to ask for a spotter or i've got a pole winch and in general you want to give it two good tries and then it's time to ask for assistance especially if there's folks waiting on you it's not very much fun if you're sitting there in a group of folks and you're waiting for this person to get through an obstacle and they've tried four or five times and they're still not through it it's time to either ask for a spotter pull some winch or maybe just turn around so give it two tries and then move on the next trail etiquette tip we'd like to share is yield to motorcyclists they're faster than you they are more nimble than you and it's just safer to pull off to the side of the trail and let them go on by and motorcyclists if you're listening it would be awesome if you could slow down and give us a little space too and not buzz on by and dust us out so remember yield to motorcyclists the next tip is communicate with hand signals how many people are in your convoy to oncoming trail traffic so if i have a group of four vehicles that means there are three vehicles behind me so i would hold up three fingers to the vehicle coming on and that lets them know that there's still three more vehicles behind me because maybe they can't visually see them because we're spread out or because of a turn or dust and it just gives them a good heads up and as they passed the next vehicle those vehicles would continue to count down and when they got to the last vehicle you'd hold up a fist look it's great to wave and say hello but it's also great to communicate how many vehicles are in your convoy the next trail etiquette tip is when it comes to gates leave them how you found them if it was open leave it open if it was closed leave it closed but always look for a sign just because a gate was closed doesn't mean you can't go through it and the sign will give you an indication as to whether or not the gate should be open or closed but if it says no trespassing then you don't want to go through that gate because well you'd be trespassing so the reason you may encounter gates is because ranchers graze their animals on public lands and other lands and the gates kind of help them to kind of control where the animals are at and where they're grazing so just remember if you encounter a gate leave it how you found it but look for a sign the next tip is one we talk about often when we're in large convoys sometimes with some new folks and that is maintain good safe vehicle distance on the trail right this is really important in low visibility conditions like where it's really dusty you just want to make sure they have room and you have room if they need to brake suddenly because if you're too close guess what you're going to rear-end them and you don't want to do that and if you're going around obstacles they need room and you need room for them to maneuver they may have to back up to get their wheel placement right so just make sure you give them room and same for going up and down hill yeah if you're going up a steep incline or a steep decline the rule of thumb is let that person in front of you crest the hill so that way in case they had lost their brakes or maybe they were a manual transmission they're not gonna smash back into you and they'll just feel more comfortable having that extra space and when you're descending down a hill let that person get to the bottom before you start going down it's just safer so make sure that you're paying attention and giving safe vehicle spacing out on the trail the next tip when you're out on the trail is don't stop in the middle of the trail look we all like to get out and soak up our environment take some pictures and yes i'm guilty i like to do some video when we're out on the trail but pull off to the side make room for somebody else that might be traveling the trail you don't want to congest the trail the last thing you want to have is traffic when we're out on the dirt exploring just pull off the side make sure you're doing it safely don't disturb a bunch of foliage but make sure there's room for folks to get by while you're stopping by having a break taking a picture or shooting some video so the next trail tip is slow down when you encounter hikers campgrounds and horses and the reason for this is when you're blazing down the trail you're kicking up some dust and people out there hiking exerting themselves and breathing heavy don't want to inhale that dust and when you're going by a campground and a family is enjoying their lunch they don't want to eat sand and gravel and horses it's really important they can get spooked so go slow or even better is just stop and turn off your engine until the person on horseback waves you on through or gives you a signal that it's okay to continue the last thing you want to do is spook a horse and have somebody get hurt so remember slow down for hikers when you're going by campgrounds and for horses and the last tip is leave it better than you found it it's so important to pack out what you've packed in but then if you come across some trash on the trail or maybe a camp you know just throw it in your trash bag on the way out yeah absolutely i mean we come out here to enjoy beauty and to be surrounded by nature not trash so there's nothing worse than sitting down to enjoy a nice lunch and there's like broken glass and beer bottles next to you so you know it's a total mood killer yeah and also when you are picking up trash watch out for plants like this that we've been walking around all day filming this video yeah i mean pack it in pack it out but don't pack out a case of poison oak because that would suck and ruin your day yeah for sure guys we wanted to share these tips with you to make sure that you have an amazing experience when you're out here and then we can keep these trails open for a long period of time and they were being courteous to other off-roaders so get out there have an awesome experience make some memories but remember those 15 trail tips hope you've enjoyed this video make sure you visit us over at trailrecon.com thanks for watching

Channel: TrailRecon

Views: 190,528

Keywords: trailrecon, jeep, wrangler, overlanding, 4x4, adventure, trail, review, light, lift, tires, led, overland, rock, crawling, desert, forest, rubicon, socal, California, product, jk, tj, yj, cherokee, toyota, fj, cruiser, overlander, truck, bronco, four wheel drive, offroad, off-roading, off-road, overland vehicle, news

Id: c0rjAapkPr4

Length: 12min 54sec (774 seconds)

Published: Fri May 20 2022