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Are you in a 4WD Club?

Are you a member of a 4 wheel drive club?

  • Total voters
    170
  • Poll closed .
the beast

the beast

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I've been having a little debate (again) with some of my other wheeling community folks.

Please answer the questions truthfully. I have no agendas, just trying to do an informal study on the wheeling community

And just for the record, for the ease of data collection, belonging to a bulletin board service doesn't count in this instance (no offense Steve :D ) And we can debate that topic in another thread if you'd like. It has to be a charter type organization.

Please tell me why you do or do not belong to a club. How long you've been wheeling. How long you've belonged to a club. and your geographic location.

Also if you do belong to a club, please post a link (if applicible) to your clubs website. Maybe we can get a list of local clubs going later for those interested in our areas.

Thanks for all your help.

Sincerely
Roger Blank
Freedom TrailRiders Vice President
Club Delegate to the Northeast Association of 4 Wheel Drive Clubs
 
Never been a member of a club... never wanted to be either. Call me a loner or whatever, thats just the way it is. I never wheel alone, I just don't need some organization above me to go on trail runs. There is really only one good reason for 4x4 clubs to exist and that is to lobby to keep existing trails open and to open/build new ones. If said groups have raffles or events or whatever, I will support that kind of effort. Pretty much everything else clubs do isn't my cup to tea. I don't want a club president telling me what to do or a club treasurer telling me my dues need to be paid. I have enough bosses/rules/regulations/politics etc in my life as it is.

I think a lot of people join 4x4 clubs because they think of wheelin trips as social occassions. I know Im in the minority, but I don't think of them that way. Honestly, if it could be done safely with just 1 vehicle, I'd do it by myself. Im out there to wheel, not chat.

j
 
I've been a member of my club for a little over a year. I'm from so cal but I travel to mammoth (nor cal) quite a bit. there are no shortage of clubs or people to go out with around so cal but when I'd go up north i didn't know really anybody in the town. I found out their was a local 4x4club so I went on one of their beginner runs just to meet everybody and everyone was great. They talked about the trips they do and it sounded great even though I had been going up there my whole life I never really did any major exploring 4xwise. So i ended up joining to support the club and have only missed 1 or 2 trips since i joined up. Even though the wheeling may not be the hardest the places we go are incredible and everybody comes to have fun. We also have annual clean ups at the local shooting range to help keep it open for everyone to enjoy and we are a sponsor in adopt-a-highway.

If anyone is ever up in mammoth or near there get in contact with me as I'm there alot and we can go out an play. You can get in contact with me through the club website http://www.mammoth4x4.4t.com/ just post up on the message board.
 
I checked yes in the poll but the club is not offical yet. Me and a buddy started our own club at texas state university but we havent finished the constitution to bet sactioned by the school yet. Summer came to quick.
 
i'm unofficially in a club. i don't have a rig yet but when i do i'll join officially. it's a small club that just started last year. i've been wheeling for 4 1/2 years now. (atvs).

there's not a lot of politics cause that's not what anybody wants. there's a bigger "jeep only" club, but the leader of our club started this one cause he didn't like the politics (among other things), i don't mean that in a meanspirited way. it just didn't suit him.

dues are cheap, we have a forum, and it's fun meeting other people who like the things you do.
 
If my group of friend's were a club, very few or no one would show up at the meetings or events, no one would afford to be able to do anything, everyone would be broke down or just broke financially at all times, and everyone would forget about any activities we'd plan.
 
in my area there is no real legal places to play. and no real clubs. the one big one is kind of a joke.
 
I am currently in a club. I used to be in the same camp as jekbrown. Until I met this latest group. There are a few rules, but nothing that isn't just good common sense. I did it mainly to find new trails and areas to wheel. I too am in it to wheel. I can't stand when the "wheeling" trip turns into a "bullsh*tting" trip. This group that I belong to now does a formal wheeling trip once a month and there are at least 3 or 4 more informal trips pre month. It works for me now. If it ever doesn't, I'll quit the club.
 
shane74 said:
I am currently in a club. I used to be in the same camp as jekbrown. Until I met this latest group. There are a few rules, but nothing that isn't just good common sense. I did it mainly to find new trails and areas to wheel. I too am in it to wheel. I can't stand when the "wheeling" trip turns into a "bullsh*tting" trip. This group that I belong to now does a formal wheeling trip once a month and there are at least 3 or 4 more informal trips pre month. It works for me now. If it ever doesn't, I'll quit the club.
Click to expand...

:thinking:

j
 
Long Post

I am not in any club, I guess because of work hours. I have been 4 wheeling for almost 30 years. Mostly Jeeps of any style but quite a lot of Chevy trucks as well, including S 10's. I have had a few Dodges with some very powerfull engines and even had a darn Chevy Tracker a few years ago.
I like mud more than rock climbing and have done both, but mud is where it is at. I have wheeled in Michigan, Ohio, Arkansas, and my now state of Tennessee. In Tennessee they drain the lake bottoms in the winter and that leaves miles of great muddy trails and large areas to wheel in. My present Chevy 4X4 is a automatic trans V8 and my last was a 75 CJ 5 and there is no words that can describe the difference between the two vehicles. I hate to say I miss my Jeep. I love the room of the truck though. And the V8 is awsome compared to the 258 in the Jeep. Income tax is a while off but a set of new tires are on the way when it gets here. Something in the line of some 38's is all I want. It has 31's on it now. NOT enough for where I go. I love the stock rally wheels and will have to stick to 15's so that will be the hold up. Long Live CHEVY... :grin: To see pics of my truck I have it posted on cardomain and I dont know it this is ok to post my web address here, if no I expect that a moderator will edit this post to remove it, I understand that, I guess you need to be a official member of the site to have a signature. The address for cardomain site is http://www.cardomain.com/id/mychevy4x4 More pics to come on my off days! MODS, delete this if I have made a error listing this here.
 
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im not in any clubs cause there are none that suit me in town, or any real good ones that im aware of for that matter. i would love to find one and just learn about some good trails and spots that i previously didnt know of. i was in the colorado full size jeep asociation when i had a 79' cherokee chief but having a blazer now thats gone, i think the full size jeeps and chevys are remarkably similar in the way they wheel.
 
Good Club

I am in a club and it has been a pretty positive experience for me. There are a wide range of rigs from Zuks to Toys to Jeeps to the one and only fullsize, me. My biggest problem with my club is also my biggest problem with people by and large who are enthusiasts in a certain field/activity. Opinions are like a$$holes, everyone's got em and they all stink. A couple of guys in the club who honestly know what they are doing and have very capable and well built rigs by themselves have told me to sell my K5 and buy a Jeep. Their reasoning being that by the time I am done with it and I am going to be able to keep up with them it will be a Jeep, but just like the guys who tells his best friend not to get married they have a right to their opinion. They are wrong in what my intent is. Sure I want to be able to do extreme stuff, but I like the fact that me, my wife, my son, my daughter, my dog, and all of our stuff can go somewhere for a week in the K5 and not tow a trailer or strap stuff to the top. That and the fact that I think you can build a chevy cheaper than a Jeep is why I went with what I did.

I wheel in New Mexico and I wanted to find a group to wheel with that did everything from Sunday drives to extreme week long adventures. I like them both. Sometimes I just wanna, put it in low and see some country, not neccessarily enter into a contest of wills with old mother earth. Sometimes though I think it's time to slap the old bitty on the a$$ and call her Sally you know. This club does that besides it gave me a group to wheel with when I moved to NM. There are people who bought brand new Jeep Rubicon's chucked the 44's and put 60's in them so they could run 33" tires. And there are guys who built a rig from scratch that runs 60s, detroits, 4 linked, sway aways, 4.3L and an atlas. If I was back home I would just run with my friends. But the NM4Ws are quickly becoming friends.
www.nm4w.orghttp://coloradok5.com/forums/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=1219960#
Smile
 
Sortof. I have been trying to organize and get off the ground Chicago 4x4 (link in profile). We are just a group of friends with the title of Chicago 4x4 for the most part. Sometimes we get new guys on the trail runs, some stick arround, others dont.

I have been to lots of "cliquey" club meetings, and others that i just didnt fit in to. I just want to go out because its what i enjoy, if i meet new people thats a bonus. I was in the same boat as Jek, i just want to go out and have fun. We have one "official" run per month, are working on an anual trip to somewhere further away, but a good chunk of us are on the trail weekly just having a good time. So long as i have anything to do with this club, it will stay this way.
 
I'm in two non-clubs. Neither has rules, elected officers, etc. One is called the "SOB's" short for "Some Other Brand" as when it was first put together none of us owned a Jeep. That has since changed. If anything we're more disorganized than when we started.

I'm pretty involved with the desert racing efforts (S-10 in Stock Mini) of one club member and most of his club crews for him. I think I'm about to achieve "mascot" status or something with them.

The local yoter club hints that I should join b/c of Patch, but they've got all of the typical club BS that I have no interest in.
 
Im in a club up at college in Virginia. Its a good club, mainly college students, although not limited to, we do have several "locals." Club is real laid back, we go on atleast 1 trip per semester to some offroad park far away from school. We go on bi-monthly organized runs on the local trails and of course several of us are always going. We have raffles and stuff and we do trail clean ups and are real good with the forest service and stuff. Our club is a good one...

Sinking Creek 4WD Association, Blacksburg, Va
 
I joined a club about three months ago. Did so primarily because there is only one legal trail that I know of in this state. (I know there may be a few more, I just have no idea where.)

While wheelin was the main reason I joined, I can't imagine the reasons anyone else joining a club being any different, at first at least. Some of us aren't so fortunate as to have a variety of different trails around, or even regular wheelin buddies.

A club provides all these things. And of course nothing is for free, so I'm happy to help out when I can whether it be on a trail cut, on land that I wouldn't otherwise be able to set foot on, or an adopt-a-road clean up. Hopefully the collective efforts of all members of all legitimate clubs will make this kick-ass hobby be around for a long while.

I've only been to one trail event of this club thus far, but that's all it took to realize that joining was the best thing I've done in awhile.

Deep Woods Extreme is based in southern NH, and isn't brand specific. I've been into offroad stuff since I was a wee one, but started building a truck only a couple of years ago.

www.deepwoodsextreme.com
New England folks should check out New England Online Wheelers: www.neow.net
 
clubbin'

I know there is a club here in town but from what I've read many of the members have quite a bit of money into their rigs. I'm not sure they would want a bone stock 72 Blazer tagging along. Most of my wheelin is trail riding, just finding an old logging road and see where it takes me. The name of the local club is Steep and Deep. Sounds like more hard core than I'm looking for. Still, I'd like to meet up with them sometime and check it out. I hear they have built a rock garden with boulders from a costruction site. That would be fun to see. Sounds like an active group.
 
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