Training New Off-Roaders at Cleghorn — Dirtnation Takeover
Watch the whole video for tons of surprises and cool trucks.
This isn’t the first time that Dirtnation has taken over the trails at Cleghorn to train legions of new drivers to inspire them to try things that they never would have tried on their own. For takeover number two, the crew picked 10 drivers from an Instagram raffle and paired them with trainers to help coach them through this fairly simple off-roading experience.
Starting With The Basics
Before anyone hit the trail, the trainers took all the drivers through the basics of off-roading, including going over their vehicles, guiding them through the steps to get ready for the trail including airing down their tires to 15 psi to improve traction and getting them familiar with the instructions that they might be given on the trail.
This batch had a lot of Toyota trucks and a lot of 4-Runners, as well as some Land Rovers, Jeeps and even a Lexus.
This step might take a while but it’s important to ensure that everyone is ready for the obstacles that they’re about to take on. And of course, it’s important to reiterate the most important rule of off-roading — “Always bring a buddy, never go by yourself, it could be dangerous!”
Winding Through The Obstacles
Once this wagon train got moving, it was clear that they wouldn’t have any trouble making their way over the obstacles. Cleghorn is circled by a fire road with some optional obstacles that branch off the main road. The first obstacle on this trail is a gnarly looking hill climb but Dirtnation designed their training drive like that because while it looks scary, it’s actually one of the easier obstacles. It’s a great confidence builder for the new drivers because once you conquer that hill the rest of the trail looks easy by comparison.
That isn’t to say that the drive was without incidents. A blue-gray Toyota SUV drove by Pete nearly flipped over backward on the second obstacle because he hit the gas a little too hard trying to climb that part of the trail.
By the time they reached the third obstacle, the drivers were starting to gain some confidence. Watching a Hummer make its way through the channel on the third obstacle was impressive, as was watching the obviously upgraded suspension on an old Toyota truck. It moved from side to side, following the irregular terrain like it was made for it.
That is the difference between the new drivers and more experienced off-roaders. Most of the trucks that the raffle winners brought were stock and other than reducing the amount of air in their tires, they didn’t get a lot of modification. This truck has been fully modded for off-roading and it was a pleasure to watch it rule the trails.
Looking Toward the Future
By the time they made it back to the starting line, everyone had climbed everything except for where the trucks had steps or other accessories that were too low and would have been damaged by the terrain. This is the second trail takeover that Dirtnation has staged but with as popular as the last two have been, we bet that they’ll be back out on the Cleghorn before too much longer with a fresh class of new drivers to train.