Off-roading 101 class in our R1S

[superfluid]

Last weekend, my wife and I took an off-roading class in Bryan, TX, in our R1S. We got the R1S to open up new adventure possibilities: overlanding, primitive camping far from the grid, and off-roading. We decided it'd be a good idea to get professional training before we (mostly I) break something in the middle of the desert. We wrote up a blog about our experience. Highly recommend the class for first-time off-roaders!

https://themanasas.exposure.co/its-the-driver-not-the-car

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[R1Thor]

That looks SUPER steep!!

I am also planning on taking a class at some point--I was thwarted as the next 'Rivian'-biased class near me is on the same weekend as my son's birthday.

Next time for sure!!
Thanks for sharing!

 

[SoCal Rob]

Last weekend, my wife and I took an off-roading class in Bryan, TX, in our R1S. We got the R1S to open up new adventure possibilities: overlanding, primitive camping far from the grid, and off-roading. We decided it'd be a good idea to get professional training before we (mostly I) break something in the middle of the desert. We wrote up a blog about our experience. Highly recommend the class for first-time off-roaders!

https://themanasas.exposure.co/its-the-driver-not-the-car

Your blog post has great pictures and is beautifully written! If you do go to Turks and Caicos, try Sharkbite Bar & Grill https://www.visittci.com/providenciales/sharkbite-bar-and-grill
Fair warning: it may have changed since we were there in January of 1997, but it was delicious food in a scenic setting for reasonable prices back then.

Did the Offroading 101 team address suspension heights, live-axle versus independent suspension, and drive mode setting or did they leave everything in whatever setting you had on arrival and treat all participant vehicles the same? I’m just curious since I noticed there are some differences in dealing with different types of obstacles based on the vehicles’s hardware when we switched from a Land Rover Discovery 2 (live axles with diffs hanging down - more like a Wrangler) to a Land Rover LR3 (four-wheel independent suspension, height-adjustable suspension, with different drive modes - more like a Rivian).

Thanks for sharing!

 

[endress14]

Looks great! Did you use the cameras at all for wheel placement/guidance? You had mentioned being blind about sliding into a rut, so curious if the cameras were not helpful or if you weren't using them. It's great to have a knowledgeable spotter, but I would for sure be cross referencing what they say with what i am capable of visualizing from the cabin. Also you mentioned that it didn't matter why the spotter gave you specific instructions: maybe they went over the reasoning after the fact, but unless you take them with you on your personal adventures I'd wager it's important to know why they had you make specific moves. Great read and thanks for sharing.

 

[usulio]

That looks SUPER steep!!

Rotate the picture so the clouds and horizon are flat, lol.

Nice blog post, sounds fun.

 

[superfluid]

That looks SUPER steep!!

I am also planning on taking a class at some point--I was thwarted as the next 'Rivian'-biased class near me is on the same weekend as my son's birthday.

Next time for sure!!
Thanks for sharing!

Highly recommend! FWIW, our class wasn't geared toward Rivians or EVs at all, but was instructive nonetheless. Good luck!

 

[superfluid]

Looks great! Did you use the cameras at all for wheel placement/guidance? You had mentioned being blind about sliding into a rut, so curious if the cameras were not helpful or if you weren't using them. It's great to have a knowledgeable spotter, but I would for sure be cross referencing what they say with what i am capable of visualizing from the cabin. Also you mentioned that it didn't matter why the spotter gave you specific instructions: maybe they went over the reasoning after the fact, but unless you take them with you on your personal adventures I'd wager it's important to know why they had you make specific moves. Great read and thanks for sharing.

Great questions.

I didn't have underside cameras. I asked a veteran wheeler (30 years, runs the Houston wheeling club) about that. He said the problem with underside cameras is that it's very hard to understand what they're showing in 3D terms. They might confuse more than clarify. Of course, if you don't have a spotter, maybe cameras are better than nothing.

About not waiting for an explanation from the spotter: It could be that I didn't know enough to make it worth it for the spotter to explain what was going on. It was probably safer for a newbie like me to take the instructions at face value. That said, I learned most from watching the spotter tell someone else what to do. I could infer why. But yes, it would have been great to get more detailed explanations for why they were choosing certain lines, etc.

Thanks for reading!

 

[superfluid]

Your blog post has great pictures and is beautifully written! If you do go to Turks and Caicos, try Sharkbite Bar & Grill https://www.visittci.com/providenciales/sharkbite-bar-and-grill
Fair warning: it may have changed since we were there in January of 1997, but it was delicious food in a scenic setting for reasonable prices back then.

Did the Offroading 101 team address suspension heights, live-axle versus independent suspension, and drive mode setting or did they leave everything in whatever setting you had on arrival and treat all participant vehicles the same? I’m just curious since I noticed there are some differences in dealing with different types of obstacles based on the vehicles’s hardware when we switched from a Land Rover Discovery 2 (live axles with diffs hanging down - more like a Wrangler) to a Land Rover LR3 (four-wheel independent suspension, height-adjustable suspension, with different drive modes - more like a Rivian).

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks much! We'll look for Sharkbite Bar & Grill if we end up in Turks and Caicos.

The instructors did go over things like approach angle, brakeover angle, and suspension setups, locking differentials, etc. I do think they could have established a more technical foundation before we headed out to do obstacles. I gave them that feedback. Yes, we did go through the different modes, but of course there were a number of different vehicles with different capabilities, so we only went over them on a high level.

You're completely correct that different vehicles handled different obstacles in different ways. They talked us through how to navigate the obstacles based on what our vehicles did, but they didn't necessarily go through it in a lot of detail. I hope that the 201 class will be more in-depth.

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