4x4 Park Ideas - Thoughts?

what about land that will not perk. its usually hilly and much cheaper. ill drive over an hour to wheel so i dont care where its at. nc would be best.
so how serious is this idea anyway?????
 
well i'm one of those guys with 32's and thats it. basically stock as can be. i havent been to tellico or uwharrie in my vehicle yet, ive only hitched a ride with friends. somewhere with beginner to intermediate trails would be perfect for me and my friends, plus its a learning experience before someone goes out on harder trails or a younger kid getting trail damage on their brand new wrangler. how about... when you sign the waivers, etc, make the local people pay like $10, and the ones that are further away pay a little more, like 15 or 20? that'll give you a common crowd at least.



and possibly hold fund-raising events?
 
Sorry if this comes across wrong, but...

I don't get the "stock guys" angst for not riding where ever... I mean band together, ride together, & learn together! Obviously, stay the heck away from the stuff you know or have been told is too extreme for your rig (they put reverse in just for you to TURN AROUND and go back the way you came!), but enjoy the rest... I'd bet most of the "big guys" here don't bother with 1/2 the trails at URE, exactly where the stock/newb needs to start!

I completely understand where your coming from (wheeled 5 different stock open diffed rigs over the years), but do NOT use the knuckleheads that whine about "some stocker's broke in the trail & holding me up" for an excuse! It sounds too much like the 9th graders skipping gym because "I don't want to shower with the seniors cause my peepee's too small"! :flipoff2:

Take it from me, when it's your time to crap out & hold up dozens of rigs, it's your time! Doesn't matter if your in a stock Liberty or an Abrams... they ALL break, get stuck, or hold others up at some point. The longer you go without, the closer you come to it happening! For me, this is as much a part of wheeling as trail riding...

At the same time, don't take this as an open invite to haul your barely running POS or way under equipted stocker w/o any snatch points/tools/parts/experience out "to tackle" [insert name of the "biggest baddest" obstacle or trail of your dreams] on the busiest weekend of the season...

:beer:
 
Well, my opinion is a mixture of all this. I'd start with the restrictions, allowing bigger rigs on club days. The only reason is the issues we see at URE. Trailer queens that were not mechanically sound enough to cross a parking lot are sent up trails to block people for hours. Your liability will increase with uninspected rigs.

Once you see a few good club days you could open harder trails, for bigger rigs. The biggest danger is always going to be drunks, people wanting to fight, and POS rigs.

Also, I would require tow hooks, straps, and first aid. You could also offer classes on winching, strapping, and driving. What kid here wouldn't love having a summer job of trail guide? If you could get enough quality rigs, you could do corporate team outings during weekdays.

Also a big money maker would be concessions, parts, and maybe even teaming up with a shop.

J
 
Got bored searched for land..
1st site not much to say just has a few places of interest for a possble park.
http://www.carolinaforestry.com/forsale.htm
2nd site Quite a bit of land here I just done a search for 200-500 acres alot more in the other acreage ranges.
http://www.elandusa.com/asp/search_...&ta=3&pt=&FormsButton1.x=79&FormsButton1.y=11
3rd Has a couple of places not many but may offer links to more sites. I really didn't look through all of this one.
http://www.sheelahclarkson.com/north-carolina-land-for-sale/

Edit: Just searched the second site for acreage between 501-1000 and found this 882.10 acres for $832,077. Located 15 miles west of Shallotte, NC, and 15 miles southeast of Whiteville, NC. Judging from a map looks to be somewhere near Lake Waccamaw. Just thought it was a good deal on the land.
 
It all depends on the terrain and trails!!

If it has a wide variety of trails and obsticles and room for people to camp and park and everything you could stand to make a ton of money. URE makes a lot of money but its worth it you know what I mean. People will pay for convienence and for the ability to have fun with friends and get a challenge. "If you build it they will come" from all over the US to be a part of something special. It better be MILD to WILD. Any pics of this place yet???? Thanks


PS. Only catering to the street queens and newbies will not only be a headache but will not generate the $$$$$$$ your looking for. All those crazy restrictions are :gay: so ease up on them and you should be fine. GOOD LUCK!!
 
DOUGHBOYDD2500HD said:
Any pics of this place yet???? Thanks
Click to expand...
Reading the thread is always a good idea. :shaking:
 
I am looking at turning my very small ranch in Texas into a park. The people next door are selling there land, fairly cheap too, it is about 120 acres. I plan on buying it and turning it into a large park. The terrian is like most west coast rockcrawling terrian. I was looking at cost and planning. There are about 10 offroad parks all within about 2 hours from San Antonio and they charge a lot. About the same as the first post in this thread or more. If you go to this website you will see http://www.texas4x4.org/showthread.php?t=4206
This is only a few, some where added later but some where not added but I have found just through searches.
All the parks have links. Just click and look through at prices and size of land. It is very exspensive I think. :D should be profitable for me:flipoff2:
Just kidding, not looking to make money. Any net profit will go towards more land for the park or better facilities. I am looking at liability and there does not seam to be too big of a deal. I will most likely go with the website route. Have anyone that is coming fill out a form and then they will waive all rights to injury, etc. Allstate, is the company I have the house insured with now and they dont seam to think it will even raise my insurance more than a couple hundred a year.
 
Consider the guy that has 33s and a locker, but otherwise stock and is perfectly happy with it. Or maybe even just 31s and wants to get it a little dirty and play a little. Just a few times a year, has no interest in going big and $$$ etc. (Especially not just to fix things on what's also a DD) Often it is hard for that guy to feel like he can "hang' w/ the Big Guys w/ 44s no exhaust huge motors, crawler boxes etc. He knows they are thinking "dinky" etc. He will be more comfy "playing" w/ a more mild crowd, and that the obstacles won't be crazy and 10' high rocks lol.
Click to expand...
Such as, just by way of example, me.

I'd love to know there's a place NEAR THE TRIANGLE that isn't "Devil's Playground 2", and that me and my S15 can maneuver around without knowing going in that I'll probably need to get winched out somewhere.

$20 a pop is a little much, though, if I CAN go to Uwharrie and at least hit some of those trails successfully for $5 a day instead.
 
Caver Dave said:
Sorry if this comes across wrong, but...
I don't get the "stock guys" angst for not riding where ever... I mean band together, ride together, & learn together! Obviously, stay the heck away from the stuff you know or have been told is too extreme for your rig (they put
reverse in just for you to TURN AROUND and go back the way you came!),
Click to expand...
I guess you think it's easy to turn a stock vehicle around on a trail that's ten inches wider than your truck is.
but enjoy the rest... I'd bet most of the "big guys" here don't bother with 1/2 the trails at URE, exactly where the stock/newb needs to start!

I completely understand where your coming from (wheeled 5 different stock open diffed rigs over the years), but do NOT use the knuckleheads that whine about "some stocker's broke in the trail & holding me up" for an excuse! It sounds too much like the 9th graders skipping gym because "I don't want to shower with the seniors cause my peepee's too small"! :flipoff2:
Take it from me, when it's your time to crap out & hold up dozens of rigs, it's your time! Doesn't matter if your in a stock Liberty or an Abrams... they ALL break, get stuck, or hold others up at some point. The longer you go without, the closer you come to it happening! For me, this is as much a part of wheeling as trail riding...

At the same time, don't take this as an open invite to haul your barely running POS or way under equipted stocker w/o any snatch points/tools/parts/experience out "to tackle" [insert name of the "biggest baddest" obstacle or trail of your dreams] on the busiest weekend of the season...
:beer:
Click to expand...
No argument there. Going out like that is exactly the same as trying to climb Mt. Everest with a good pair of golf cleats on your shoes. Or worse, with a good pair of Nike's.
 
Trebissky said:
I guess you think it's easy to turn a stock vehicle around on a trail that's ten inches wider than your truck is. No argument there. Going out like that is exactly the same as trying to climb Mt. Everest with a good pair of golf cleats on your shoes. Or worse, with a good pair of Nike's.
Click to expand...


How would you know if you've never even been? Reading your posts over the last year, you are still trying to get to Uwharrie ... good grief ... it really isn't that big a deal. You should wheel that POS a little bit before you offer up an opinion. And NO tanks don't count :flipoff2:

I think an offroad park within an hour and a half would be FANTASTIC.
 
I think that there are lots of possibilities for this to work. First off, you don't have to turn a profit. Might actually be better off if it was set up as nonprofit and all procedes went to nationally recognized offroad groups that thrive to support new wheeling. Then the land will most likely be taxed differently, and people won't bitch about 15 versus $20 because it goes to a good cause. Remember that employees of a nonprofit can still make a living.
Then you also need to accept that trailered rigs would come to play also. Setup the trails so that mild to wild can ride. Maybe a couple of rock gardens with a great place to sit and watch that are stacked for different level rigs. Trails for mild vehicles that give them the rideing experience and access to some hidden milg rock gardens to learn on. I would tend to lean away from mud pits and the like. The mud on the road really makes neighbors mad. 200 acres plus would be a great start. Shop space is a great idea. vending machines would be nice, as well as a place to clean up the rigs before leaving.
 
...and portajohns at a minimum, or better yet, a bath house like Crawford's has...

cause a lot of people won't just be making a day trip, especially if you offer primitive camping...


have you ever been to Devil's Playground? think DPG, but double or triple the wheeling areas...plus some trails to ride around on...

Greg
 
yeah buy that one. lol lol 882 acres sounds like a lot of fun. $832,077
wow.
 
yes not bad at all. but thats achunk to front when everyone is complaining over $15.00 to $20.00
 
i would pay $20.00 for a real good place to go. to me uwharrie is not really good but well worth $5.00 a day. not picking on anyone though.
 
im sure people would be likely to go more if it were cheaper. i know i would. but i will pay up to $20.00 perday for a really good legal place to go. thats a lot cheaper than a trespassing ticket that i will end up getting for the places ive been going. SORRY FOR SO MANY POST IN A ROW.
 
A couple of comments on the price comments made so far.

1. Personally I don't have a problem with the $20 cost for a privately funded venture. Make it worth my $20 and I'll pay to come visit. I don't see a problem with someone making some money off the place if they're going to put a fair amount into making the place a worthwhile place to go.

If you look at other similar parks, Superlift in Arkansas and Morris Mountain in Alabama, for example, you're in that price range. The thing is, here in NC we're spoiled. We have several places to go for $10 or less. In other parts of the country that is not the case. You may have to figure that in on your plans.

2. I saw someone suggesting a graduated rate per passenger. Personally I think that's a bad idea unless you're offering food or something that is consumed my more than one person. Otherwise what am I paying for with a family of 4 in one vehicle that you're not using with one person in a vehicle. It's easy for a single person to say charge per person, but when you're paying for 4, you can price yourself out of a customer pretty fast.

On a non-cost related vein, I see what you're saying about trying to shoot for a certain level of mods, but I'd offer that most of the other pay to play places offer everything from trails you can ride stock to trails where the big guys can play. If you lay the place out right, you can encourage the stockers and let them know they have plenty of places to play and still attract the big guys with some serious obstacles.

My 2 cents.

Jeff
 
Too many limitations. How many people now a days have under a 37" tire, let alone a street legal rig. You primary target would be semi-stock jeeps and other similiar rigs. And no way in hell id pay 40 a day, from the sounds of it it wouldnt be eventful enough to justify that kind of money. I could care less about the scenery, but for 40 i better have a boner all day long.
 
as far as tires.. I would not restrict it like that.. I would just make certian areas set aside for the stockers from the highly modified rigs..

Reason: us highly modified guys are the ones blowing all our money on the sport.. we have built rigs with lots of money in different vendors, tow rigs which need parts, trailer, campers, etc.. and we are the one usually willing to pay the high prices to wheel..

I would be willing to bet not many stocker rigs would be willing to pay $20 or $40 a day to wheel but you show me a park that will challenge me and I will pay with out even thinking about it...

You have to remember all of us highly modified rigs understand and know what it cost to run what we brung and that it cost to play.. stockers usually do not understand this yet.. they will learn....

But example.. if uwharrie changed its cost to $20 a day more then half the stock rigs would probably not run the park very much due to cost as highly modified rigs would not run it due to no hard obsticles.. so if you want an easy park you better keep your day prices down .. or just make a park for all types of rigs and charge $20 a day or more. people will pay to play..
 
Back
Top