OFF ROAD PARK OPENING NEAR HICKORY NC

upnover said:
As said, Gulches is 80 acres. Many of you have rode up at the Flats. we have 68 acres there.
I think it's doable. But much thinking and planning will have to be done.
The river...Keep EVERYONE out of it at all cost's
Motorcycles and ATVs don't mix, need an example, take a day trip to Brown Mountain during the spring in a buggy, and see how many close calls you have.
Possible solution would be to have 1st and 3rd weekend for ATVs and 2nd and 4th weekends for the crawlers.
To have a full blown shop at the same location I think is spreading it a little thin. With the shop, parking area, area for rigs to be worked on/picked up, would take a large part of the available land. Maybe a few carports for folks to work on breakage, with power and basic needs such as a welder,lift air, and so on.
Good luck with this, I hope it can become a reality.
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yea Brown Mtn is a death trap..Ive about smashed a few ATV'rs there..
 
at first we would be offering basic camping pitch your tint and have fun, eventually hope to offer rv hookups and the whole 9 yards. the shop would be on another 50 acres we own with one other business so it wouldnt take up the area for you guys to wheel. I joined this month just to see what kind of interest I would get before i try to make this happen, I have been wheeling for several years and got out of it when I got married and had my son. There is a Shop calle "wheeling in the country" that has a full blown shop you can either rent a bay to fix your rig if you break it, or they can fix it for you and that seems to work well for them, they make money off the shop and you guys can fix your rig at a reasonable cost instead of having to go home on saturday if you break it. We thought of offering food, having vendors come in at each event and sell food and drinks any thoughts on that? Hope to have it open by the end of this summer, but its a huge project to take on, insurance and lawyers alone for this is expensive, that is why we are seeing how big of a turn out we could get. If we could get atleast 80 people a week we would be able to do it, the business wouldnt turn a huge profit but enough to keep the doors open at the start. Thought about offering 7 days a week to wheel or for atvs and bikes how many people would be interested in that as well?
 
as for the guy whose dad owns 270 acres, starting a park is not an easy thing, I have 3 huge investors behind me, and the zoning and epa fees alone get expensive, its always easier to just develope the land and sell it off.
 
I'm sure there'd be a huge turnout almost all the time. There's not many places to go wheeling in this area that are as close as you're saying the land is. I'm sure even if people weren't coming to wheel they'd at least come to shoot the shit. Looking forward to this!
 
yeah, i had a guy smash into the back of the cruiser on his dirt bike before. BAM! outta no where. it was scary as hell, i guess he probably had to change his drawers too.


As far as 80 people a week.....ride down to DPG today and see whats going on there. My guess is there is atleast 20-30 rigs and a crap load of onlookers and thats on about 15 acres (and most of that is parking).

to get 80 a week it will probably have to be some interesting terrain. That feels pretty crowded so as long as there is a lot to do and everyone doesnt get buched up the obsticles it should be fine.
 
the greatest risk is not taking the risk at all, I think it is a great idea if you have the means to do it, keep us updated
 
id be in for that as well.. like said, make sure you check the local ordinances on everything... and make sure that the water is protected from runoff, so the EPA won't shut it down...

there are a number of ppl around hickory that would come/help, so if this takes off post up and it could be successful...
 
Kduncan getting the money is not the hard part. Paying it back is. I hope this does go well it would be nice to have somewhere else to wheel besides the backyard. :driver:
 
There would be at least 3-5 rigs with me each time I went. Most everyone goes with a group. I don't think 80 a week would be hard to accomplish at all. I've paid $25 a day to ride, $20 a weekend is phenomenal. Having food on site will go a long way. If it weren't for the hot dog guy and the outpost at URE we would starve. I mean who thinks of packing a lunch? :D

Another good idea is to have a pressure wash pit once you get further along. You could charge a nominal fee for the use to help cover your expenses. A lot of people like to get the mud off of their rigs right away so it doesn't stick.
 
Build it and we will show you! I can have 3-7 rigs and that's a low number come anytime we wheel. We need more diversity and if you do it right you'll always have people there. Just don't skimp on the parking, as for those of us who trailer our rigs, we use up alot of space. We will support you if you do it.:driver:
 
JC said:
And so it doesn't get all over the roads and give the 4wd community another black eye :)
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I try to keep it all on the truck or the trailer. It annoys my a$$hole neighbo so I park it out front for him LOL. He has to look at it from across the street. I thin k he sees it as he watches TV. I used to keep it in the back yard but he complained about it there so I figured I would move it for him LOL Just being a good neighbor.

cltdba said:
There would be at least 3-5 rigs with me each time I went. Most everyone goes with a group. I don't think 80 a week would be hard to accomplish at all. I've paid $25 a day to ride, $20 a weekend is phenomenal. Having food on site will go a long way. If it weren't for the hot dog guy and the outpost at URE we would starve. I mean who thinks of packing a lunch? :D

We usually have 3-5 rigs in our group as well. I have a family so we normally bring food with us. $20 a weeknd is a great price. Might look into sponsors for each trail to maintain it/and or sponsor them. A sign with the business could be placed at the entrtance. I am in Fayetteville but would b willing to make the trips a few times a year.

Another good idea is to have a pressure wash pit once you get further along. You could charge a nominal fee for the use to help cover your expenses. A lot of people like to get the mud off of their rigs right away so it doesn't stick.
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If done be sure to have a good containment/filter system to clear any contamination suits.
 
I would love to see this become a reality, but I am concerned how serious you really are.
Please dont get offended but I am just going to be real blunt here.
You have made a few statement that lead me to believe you are daydreaming and not doing the research.
already epa approved and zoned
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EPA Approved? It doesn't really work that way. And even if it is ok today, the minute you open for business they will be at every stitch of ground where water exits your property doing random tests, disturb the water flow and they can shut you down at any time. One of the parks I am working with for ECORS has 16,000 acres and they get ~25 EPA check/year

If you already have the land, the costs shouldnt be that high. Heck we have a 3MM ins policy for high speed competiton events, and its very manageable. Do your homework here.

Lawyers, yeah they cost a bit, but not a ton and you shouldnt need them much.

I don't know, I wish you well I will keep an eye on this and be glad to help anyway I can. Many here know that I headed a group that started something very similar but much larger 3 years ago, we had an approved business plan and a business LOC of 500k, that was in fun economic times though. Our plan included access fees, repair and parts shop, on site restaurant, lodging, and even rental vehicles to wheel. the problem becomes keeping everyone the same page .

Again, I wish you luck, and will be glad to share all the insight I gained from spending over a year pursing this but I am not sure how to take the comments made so far and I think many others feel the same.

$10 is not your big problem, ATV parks routinely charge $25/day or more...if its private land and worth traveling to, $25 is easy.
 
Upnover # 50 , JC #63 and Skyhik5 #67,makes a lot of sense to me and I think they speak of expeirence and knowledge. As you stated you joined the forum to get opinions and you are getting them. I think every one is for it and it might be a good thing to invest time and money into. As I said before, I wish you all the best.
 
I have done my research, you will need lawyers on a retainer all year, this is normally a ride at your own risk type of thing, but when its privately owned its easy for someone to get hurt and come after the owner. Places like URE dont have to worry about the lawsuists since it is a National forest and you would be trying to sue the government. i have been in contact with URE, carolina adventures in SC, the big dixie boggers, the rock farm, and other parks. this is a dream, but you cant just make this happen over night, you have to prove to both the bank and the other investors that it is a business worth opening, we could develope the land and sell it much easier that running a 4 wheel drive park, but my goal is to make this my business and my career fulltime. Like I stated before we are doing the research and that was part of posting to this forum to see if there is a big enough interest. I will try to keep you guys posted on the progress, this is not really a day dream, just a matter of making the others involved see its a good business and risk to take.
 
yeah....this conversation has been had over and over on here. lots of guys with this dream.


Get in touch with Skyhi, he's tellin the truth. he has already done the legwork and crunched the numbers. We have had a few threads on this and he is a wealth of knowledge on the subject.
 
We are working towards making this happen. All of you guys have done great, i am going to meet with the other partners next week on wednesday to show them the response I have recieved from this forum, and a few others, along with the response from local 4x4 shops and the atv and dirt bike community. The larger the numbers of the responses the more I have to show and provide that this business is worth while, I want this to happen as much as any of you would like to see it happen, I love wheelin and would love to run one of these parks as my career. These post are a part of my research this way I have solid numbers of people who would be customers to show the others. This is not a park or business that can be built over night, but as stated earlier we hope to have it open by the end of summer. So you guys please continue to help get your friends to post their input as well.
 
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