Beginner Guide to Going 4x4 - First Time on a Trail

what's going on guys welcome back to the channel my name is Casey and this is my Jeep and on this week's upload I wanted to make a video for anybody who has not ever gone off-roading and you're kind of wondering what should you be doing to prepare and what cut things should be thinking about before you head out and I'm hoping that by watching this video I help out all the new wheelers and off-roaders that haven't gone out before and you can find some useful information in this video if you're already a seasoned off-roader stay and watch a video maybe there's a few things that you maybe haven't thought about before or maybe there's something I'm not thinking about go ahead leave a comment down below and that'll just help out all our new off-roaders that are watching this video this is your first time stopped by the channel welcome I would love to have you guys as a subscriber on the channel every week I upload a video whether it's a vlog out off-roading it's a new product that I'm reviewing or doing an installation guide or sometimes I'm just covering what's happening in the Jeep and off-road community news so think about hitting that subscribe button if you already subscribed thanks so much for coming back to channel appreciate all the new subscribers that have joined us here on the channel the first tip that I want to give to you guys is find some other people that are interested in wheeling it may vary a little bit in your region but I highly recommend checking out some of the other off-road communities in your area whether it's a club or Facebook group or a forum or something don't go out off-roading alone if it's your first time find somebody else and go with a group go with some other people that know the area and understand off-roading and you will have a great time your first time out everybody that I've always met with four-wheeling is always happy to share information and teach others and just spread the knowledge so the next tip go prepared guys you never know what you're gonna encounter when you're out on the trail for the day so clothing make sure that you've got a Twitter second set of clothing make sure you've got a warm jacket I always will with a rain jacket waterproof pants make sure you have proper footwear when you're going out and the other thing is take some food I usually bring a lunch with me I bring several snacks and then I bring a little bit of extra food I keep some some protein bars in my glove box because if you end up they're an extra three or four hours and you start getting hungry you're just not going to enjoy yourself in addition to clothing and food make sure you're heading out on your first off-roading trip with a full tank of fuel you don't know how far away the trail is going to be if you're going with another group you want to make sure you're fueled up I always like to fuel up at the last gas station before the trail so I make sure I'm hitting the trail with as much fuel as possible so the next thing I want to talk about is and you know you may not even think about this this is something pretty simple but this is your spare tire guys check your spare tire before you go first of all make sure it has air and it's ready to use one of the most common breakdowns that you're gonna encounter when you're out off-roading is a flat tire and you want to have that spare tire ready to go ready to use one thing that I notice guys when I first bought my Jeep and I went to take my spare tire off those bolts those lug nuts that were holding it on were completely seized so if I would have gone and had to use my spare tire when I was out off-roading and I didn't check to make sure that I could get it off of the back of my Jeep I would have had a really difficult time and I had to use a breaker bar in order to get those lug nuts off and you may have a hard time getting them off make sure you can get your spare tire off as well as it being aired up make sure that you can remove it and that's gonna lead me into my next piece of advice make sure that you have your jack in the Jeep the factory jack that comes with your your Jeep or any vehicle for that matter will do a pretty good job if you're not out into any crazy terrain so make sure that you've got your jack in your Jeep or your offer vehicle whatever you're taking out you don't need to have a fancy high lift or a bottle jack or any special off-road jack in most circumstances your factory Jack will do just fine for changing a tire all right the next piece of advice I want to give you is know a little bit about your rake whether you've got a Jeep or whether you have some sort of other off-road vehicle know how to use it now not I guess what I'm trying to say here is understand how it goes into four-wheel drive how you put it into four-wheel low you know it can be a little bit finicky things like you on the JK's for instance it's easy to put it into four-wheel hi you just click under sir speed I think it's 50 or 60 kilometers either you can just click it into for real hot but if you want to go into 4-wheel oh you need to stop put it in neutral and then put it down into four-wheel low and then put it back into drive or if you have a manual same thing take it out of gear put it into neutral put it into 4-wheel low now there's some quirks so you may want to just if you have a driveway or straight stretch or Road practice and make sure you're familiar with putting your Jeep into four-wheel low don't go driving around too much but just if you're able to drive 30 or 40 feet down the road make sure you can get it into four-wheel low make sure there's no problems with fork the four-wheel drive engaging things like that you want to be able to make sure you can get into your four-wheel low before you go out on your adventures and that you're familiar with it you know another kind of quirk with the Jeeps with the JK's anyways is if you want it to put it in four-wheel low or come out of four-wheel low if you just recently turned a corner on a trail you got to drive straight for 50 or 60 feet before it's gonna let you pop out of that four-wheel low into neutral and back up to two-wheel drive and so you can always be coming in and out of it you want to be familiar with how to do that and you want to be able to do it quickly and confidently because if there's a line of of rigs out there of off-road vehicles you don't want to be sitting there trying to figure out how to get it out of four-wheel low and back into two-wheel drive so that you can go through a straight long stretch to another trail or something like that so be familiar with how your jeep works you know that advice also carries forward - if you're gonna be say disconnecting your sway bars if you have a Rubicon it has an electronic sway bar disconnect maybe you've added aftermarket manual disconnects to your sway bar just understand how that works if you've got a Rubicon and you're going to be using lockers or you've got lockers and your Jeep understand how that works as well okay guys that Rubicon lockers are a little bit particular until you get used to them you've got to be in four-wheel low and when you hit the locker button it's gonna start flashing it doesn't lock up immediately sometimes you have to move forward a little bit before the lockers gonna engage you hit it a second time it's going to enable the locker on the front so just understand some of the basics of how your Jeep works some of the features you wouldn't find in a normal cool and that's gonna be around four wheel drive that's gonna be around the sway bars and that's gonna be around using lockers depending on whether or not you have those so there's some essential gear that I think you should have in your Jeep before you even consider going off-roading the first get a first aid kit guys make sure you have a first aid kit so you can deal with some minor injuries when you're out on the trail you can order these up pre pre-configured off Amazon there may be 40 or 50 bucks it's a great investment to have in your Jeep just to give you a little extra preparedness if anything unfortunate happens when you're out okay that's gonna be the first thing the second sort of safety thing I like to have our couple emergency blankets they're like those they look like tinfoil something happens you stay a little bit warmer for a little bit longer it's nice to have some emergency blankets in there if you're not bringing rain gear you can get emergency ponchos as well off of Amazon they're a couple dollars you put them in your glove box or a storage area in your vehicle and if it starts pouring rain you got to be doing something outside you can pull that emergency poncho out throw it on and you're gonna stay dry and especially if it's colder and you're off-roading in the winter you're you wanna stay as dry as possible because if you get wet you're gonna get really cold okay a couple other things that I think you should really have in your Jeep before you go off running as well some shackles guys go out and grab a couple shackles the good ones will cost you a little bit of money I suggest looking at some of the reputable brands you want one that won't fail is good quality and has enough weight rating to use for your Jeep it's really nice if you're going out off-roading and your Jeep gets stuck and somebody else is helping pull you out it's really nice to have your shackles available so they don't have to go digging through all their gear and if they're hooking you up to their winch or using a tow strap or something like that which is the next thing i really suggest getting a tow strap if you haven't gone out and spent the money to buy a winch at least bring a tow strap with you it that way you can help you know bring your own gear out and support your own recovery if you get stuck and somebody needs to pull you out you've now got your shackles hook it up to your vehicle and then you can hook it up to the vehicle that's going to be rescuing you and get you pulled out of that situation make sure you have some attachment points to mount a winch or shackles to aftermarket bumpers or the factory bumpers on the jeeps have tow hooks on the front but the factory Jeep the factory JK bumper doesn't have anything so either you want to look at having an aftermarket bumper or there's an attachment point that you can get the put into your trailer hitch receiver and it gives you a point to hook on to if you're doing a recovery front and rear recovery points are essential in your off-road vehicle do not go out unless you can be recovered from the front or the rear of your vehicle there's events like Jeep Jamboree that I'm going to that you cannot attend unless you have recovery points in the front and back of your vehicle now the last piece of gear that I think is really important but it's a little bit expensive and you may want to think about this depending on how much off-roading you're doing is a winch guys I use my winch all the time I can pull people out I can pull myself out if I'm stuck and a tree saver to hook onto a tree if you need to pull yourself out so just some really basic gear at the very least bring shackles bring a tow strap make sure you have recovery points on the front and back of your rig and if you're off-roading often I would highly suggest getting a winch for your vehicle as well another really important piece of gear I think is a really good thing to bring with you is a fire extinguisher and not one of those little 2-pound guys I bring one of the larger five-pound fire extinguishers I always keep it in the back you never know when something may happen whether there's a vehicle fire you could save that entire vehicle with that fire extinguisher so I highly suggest bringing a fire extinguisher keeping it in your vehicle in your trunk space if you want get a couple of the smaller two-pound ones and mount them to your roll bar or maybe under your seats or something like that but bring one of the larger fire extinguishers keep it in the back of your Jeep you never know when you might need to use it and if you do you will be super appreciative that you brought it with you another thing to consider bringing with you guys is a radio find out what the people in your area are using for radios and go out and buy one if it's a VHF radio you can get the small handheld ones on Amazon for 40 or 50 dollars if that what people are using just keep in mind that ham radios are a regulated bandwidth and you want to make sure that you understand exactly how they work and the regulations in your area but I'm not gonna get into that too much but find out what people are using for communications especially when you're new it's really helpful to be able to talk to the vehicle in front of you and behind you if you get separated a little bit it's really nice to be able to radio and say hey guys I'm a little bit behind things like that whether it's a CB radio or VHF radio it's gonna be you know around a hundred dollars give or take depending on what you buy maybe they're just using hand-held gmrs or FRS radios they don't have as much range but at least you can have vehicle to vehicle communication if they're close enough to you but I highly recommend something I really don't like to wheel without a radio at all and if anybody's coming with me I really like to make sure they have a radio I like to be able to talk to everybody in my group when I go out so find out whoever you're going with what they use and take a look at some of the options available to you and I highly recommend considering to get a radio of some sort so you communicate with the other vehicles in your party when you're out off-roading so something else you may want to consider and this will make your trip a lot more comfortable is airing down your tires there's several really good tire deflator out on the market and if you do purchase one understand how to use it and what tire pressure you're gonna set your vehicle to now if you're not running B locks I highly recommend staying above fifteen psi in your tires that way you don't risk rolling one of your beads off of your rim when you're out there lower air pressure in your tire is gonna do two things one it's gonna make your ride a lot more comfortable if you're going across really bumpy roads and surfaces to get to the point where you're doing some actual wheeling it's gonna absorb those bumps and not transfer as much up into the mechanical components and basically into you so it's gonna improve your ride the other thing is it's going to improve your traction when you air down your tires it expands the footprint of your tire on the surface that you're traveling on so if you're going over rocks or trees or or whatever obstacles that you may be off-roading over when you air down you get a much larger footprint for your tire obviously a bigger footprint equals more traction that's gonna allow you to get over obstacles better it's gonna require less gas or skinny pedal when you're going over things it's just gonna make your jeep work for you a little bit better essentially you want to be able to get over obstacles as with as little speed and momentum as possible and use as much of your jeeps capability as you can because if you have to start relying on the skinny pedal to get over things you're just gonna end up breaking more things so if you're only going down to 15 psi it's probably not as critical that you air up the immediately after you leave the trail but you don't want to drive for too long with your tires air down what happens is with that expanded surface area your tires are gonna generate more heat it's basically gonna wear out your your tires faster by driving them on low pressure a lot of people have onboard air whether it's air compressors or a power tank with compressed co2 maybe one of the people that you're wheeling with will let you use that onboard air to fill up but in general if a gas station is not too far away from the trail that you're exiting drive to that use their air filter tires backup but airing down when you go off-roading is a super important technique to get your vehicle performing better as well just a more comfortable ride when you're out on the trail so one thing that I absolutely make sure is always in my Jeep and something else for you guys to consider is tools make sure you have enough tools to at least change your spare tire so they get your tire off get your wheels off of your your Jeep or your offer vehicle and be able to change those tires and it's nice just to have a general basic tool set with you in your vehicle the other tool it's kind of a tool is navigation of some sort but I like to have a tablet in my Jeep as well with I use an application called backcountry Navigator there's quite a few out there they vary a little bit depending on what region you're in the very least you can use your phone and you can put Google Maps on it and you can offline the Google Maps and probably get a good idea of where you're going where you're heading for the day and what the trails may look like can always go and get a map book depending on where you are as well depends on your area but the people that you're wheeling we'll have a good idea to tell you you know where can you get maps from what kind of maps should you be using that are the best for your area whether they're standard physical maps or whether you're going with an electronic map it's really nice to have some sort of map and navigation system with you in your vehicle so that you can just see where you're going I also like to use it to record where I've been so I know where I've gone I know the areas that I've been to and I can use those the next time I'm out there or I can help somebody else and show them where some of the trails are where some things may be harder obstacles and whether or not we need to go around them or we can go right through them depending on who's with us in our group that day all right guys that pretty much wraps up the list of things that I wanted to talk about to give anybody that is thinking about going off-roading 4x4 Inc anybody that's thinking about giving it a try going out for the first time in isn't sure what they want to bring what they should be bringing or what kind of questions they should be asking or just generally how to get out for your first time some of you guys that offer it a lot or being offering a long time thanks so much if you've stuck if you stuck along this far in the video if there's anything that you can think of that I maybe didn't cover that would be really good advice for anybody to think about getting into off-roading leave it down in the comments below as well if you're thinking about going off running and you've never been before and you have other questions leave them down below I read all the comments that everybody leaves on every one of my videos and I try to reply to every single one with the best advice that I can give you guys so leave those comments down below also if you enjoyed this week's video guys make sure to smash that like button I really do appreciate it it helps my videos get noticed on YouTube and then they get recommend to other people and more people watch them and it just helps the channel grow and I really do appreciate everybody that has joined the channel has subscribed already if you're not smash that subscribe button make sure you have those notifications turned on so you can see when I upload a new video I would love to have you as a subscriber here on the channel I will be continuing to make these videos every single week all year long if not one two videos a week whenever I can and I they will be a variety as I said before I like to do vlogs when I go off installation guides reviews of any new products that I bias that you guys know whether or not you should buy them as well and I like to cover any news that I find around jeeps or off-road type events and I will be making videos about all of those things throughout 2019 so help me grow the channel guys hit that subscribe button thanks so much for watching this week's video I hope that you found it helpful and informative as always and I will see you guys in the next upload

Channel: Casey 250

Views: 105,249

Keywords: offroad beginner guide, off road beginner guide, 4x4 beginner guide, jeep wrangler beginner guide, jeep jk beginner guide, how to off road, how to offroad, first time off roading tips, jeep jk beginners, jeep jl beginners, jeep tj beginners, first time 4x4, how to 4x4, how to go jeeping, beginner guide to going offroad, beginner guide to going 4x4, how to go offroading, preparing to 4x4, 4wd tips for beginners, off-roading tips, how to off road jeep

Id: 404gSLeosDE

Length: 18min 7sec (1087 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 11 2019