Trails and Softroaders
[By Johnie Jonker]
[Adapted version published in Leisure Wheels, June 2010]
A while back, a trail I wanted to do – advertised as Grade 1-2 in Drive Out magazine – was indicated as Grade 2 – 4 on the brochure. This was a substantial difficulty “upgrade”, as the latter requires low-range. Whether this was done intentionally or not, the end result remained the same: Softroaders were excluded.
As extensions of their personalities, softroader owners could be divided into two categories:
Owner 1: Wants to take his car places and show it to crowds, where
Owner 2: Wants his car to take him from crowds and show him places,
the latter group being in the minority, in part (largely?) due to insufficient sharing of experience.
In a thread titled “Where did your Softi take you” under the Softroader section of the 4x4community.co.za forum, a reader comments on pictures of a Forester on the Witsand dunes: “Never knew the Forester was capable of that”.
Regardless of whether it was a Forester – it could be any other softroader for that matter – this presents the core of the problem. Not the fact that the reader did not know a specific vehicle’s capabilities, but rather, if he – a softroader enthusiast – did not know this, how many trail owners would?
To change this outcome is up to the softroader community itself, i.e. for those with the higher risk profiles to experience (sometimes the $hard$ way) their specific vehicles’ capabilities, then SHARING this on a public forum.
Most vehicle brands have their own forum where owners talk LR, Toyota, Pajero, etc. But as the active softroader community is very small, we can ill afford exclusive (selfish?) loyalty to own-brand forums, only preaching to the converted. You may have a particularly capable softroader/modification and could be sharing valuable information, useful to the newbie and the fed-up owner of a poor one alike.
Armchair polemics between proponents of the “low-range or not” brigades are mostly speculative and of no use, as it invariably ends up with both camps suggesting that the other “should know their place”. It is doubtful whether more than a handful of these “expressionists” have in actual fact driven both types of vehicle in applicable terrain.
Therefore, to the more adventurous softroader that actually takes his vehicle off the beaten track, I appeal – report back. Everyone in this group should consider himself a member of the “Patron Saints of Softroaders” collective, in the spirit of “Been there, done that, here’s the rub”.
Did you go during the wet or dry season? What was good/bad? If bad, try to suggest a solution, i.e. it may not be necessary to change softroaders to improve matters – just a relatively minor modification. You never know what innovation this may spawn.
Try to be specific. A statement such as “It was difficult” could for some mean that the air-conditioner had packed up and they had to wind the windows down. “We got horribly stuck” could mean: often, or at one specific place only. Then again, was it really the car, or were you simply driving like Mr Green?
To the (yet) less adventurous softroaders, read these reports, and learn. You are already reading LW – a good start – but the forum above seems a good widening of horizons with contributions which can form your opinion as to what works in practise.
In the defence of trail owners – they are in a Catch 22 situation: Opening a difficult trail to softroaders, gives them a bad reputation for irresponsible grading, due to the resultant vehicle damage or tricky recovery; applying conservative grading to avoid exactly this, results in them being regarded as dogs-in-the-manger.
However, even though this may seem like a case of fools rushing in, please don’t get me wrong – the sensible amongst us softroaders have no wish to attempt a Grade 4 or 5 route, but vice versa, realistic grading at the other end of the scale would be appreciated. If the low-range requirement is e.g. seasonal, this limitation could be stated and softroaders allowed only during the “easy” season.
Finally, the sooner the much-mooted off-road Driver Competency Certificate comes into effect, the better, as this would reduce the risk for both drivers and trail operators. The former by knowing whether he is taking a fat chance or just a calculated risk, and the latter by knowing that at least these options are considered.
JJJ