Alpine 4×4/Off-Road driving tip’s, #1
So everyone has advice on driving off-road/4×4, why should mine be worth reading?
That is a good question and I will try and not Boast so I will admit that I am not the hardest core Rock Crawler guy there has ever been! What I have got is a lot of practical experience after 25 years of Jeep Tour driving in the San Juans. I do have a lot of tips and opinions that I will share on these posts, so I am going to keep this an on going collection of posts
and add to it as thoughts pop into my head so check back regularly!
#1-Driving and dealing with narrow,cliff hanging roads.
It never ceases to amaze me where you can squeeze two vehicles by each other when you have to, after awhile you will begin to develop a feel as to if you can fit or not, but this will often be hard to convince the novice in the rental Jeep. In general the uphill driver has the right away, but common sense is still the most important rule. Always try to keep a look ahead at what is coming, if you see someone coming across a narrow section and you have a wide spot, even if you have the right away it makes sense to wait for them in the wide spot right? But there will be times when you both meet up in a narrow section and will need to fit around each other. The best way to approach this is to pass each other on the wrong sides (unless you are British) as this will put the drivers on the important side, like the edge of the road and it is better to gauge how close you actually are. I always say that I would rather scrape a little paint on the rigs then slip off a 600ft drop agreed? But you do want to be aware of the two vehicles, especially the tops as in roofs and roll bars as the edges of the road generally are higher then the center and the two rigs will lean in at the top towards each other and hook the roll bars and such. Always tell your passengers to keep clear of such meetings as they always tend to want to help and it just looks like a great way to loose a few fingers! Now passing on the wrong side is another difficult concept to sell to novice rental Jeep folks. I had one lady tear into me one time that I was on the wrong side of the road so I asked her to show me the center line then we could discuss it further!
But as I stated as you get a feel you will also be amazed as to where two vehicles can really fit when they have to!
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The Shelf Road on the way towards Tomboy where you will often get to practice passing!
