just wondering how you guys got into this hobby. a few years back i used to look at offroading like "why the hell would anyone take a car they bought w/ their own money and get it dirty and slam against rocks?"
but then i actually went w/ one of my friends (and his jeep) and i was immediately hooked.
the feeling of being out in the open, no racers cutting you off, the air is fresher, and the simple feeling of playing in the dirt and mud . and the fact that you can be proud of how well your vehicle performs in terrain normal cars would avoid at all costs.
if i wasn't so busy w/ school and work, i think i'd be out there w/ my xterra everyday.
what got you guys into it? what suv/truck and how long have you guys been into it?

In a word: GOX. I was on the Yahoo board as were many of the people who have been around since the beginning of the X. Then Ian proposed GOX, I had never been off-raoding and thought that it would be interesting so I signed up. A month later, I finalized the purchase of my Xterra and 3 months after that I was off-roading for my first time ever and in the mountains. There were many people that helped me along with instruction and many new friends that were meet. I became one of the original members of HXOC and have helped, along with the other members, develope it into the club that it is now.

I got hooked when I went on my first HXOC xcursion. Since then, I try to make it to as many as I can. Hell, I even took a little detour to offroad this afternoon on my lunch break. I don't know which is more addictive, the mods or just screwing around in the mud!

My father purchased a new CJ-5 Renegade back in 1980 to get him to the hunting grounds. His friends, their kids and I would make regular trips to the Pine Barrens in NJ to shoot target and traps and before I was a teen I could properly handle a firearm and drive a stick through the mud Although I did enjoy the target practice, the first time my dad let me drive around solo was something a kid will never forget. I eventually bought the Jeep from him in 1990 and regrettably sold it in '96. After 2 Datsun Z's, getting married (a family isn't content in a 240Z or a CJ on a daily basis; the CJ will sleep three but not in comfort...my wife will attest) and a lot of research, I'm back to a daily 4x4 driver that spends alot of time off-road with no regrets!!

Getting out and up in the hills is why I do it.

What really got me was the outing to Hollister with NCCX (the very first club outing). Finally found some folks who wanted to get their rigs a little dirty.

After that, too many mods to count...

Gettin' STUCK in 2WD...

Well, the original GOX had something to do with it I think. I had Mountain Biked all the passes in the San Juans, but my wife doesn't get to see all of that great scenery because she lost a leg in a motorcycle accident years ago. So, after some "friends" took us on some fairly nasty trails, we went to GOX, and shortly after that RMXC was born, thanks to Ian. My wife and I enjoy the scenery, and have really enjoyed getting to meet new people. There are a lot of great places to go here in Colorado, and Moab isn't too far either. We are hooked now!

When I initially got my X I was gonna use it as a grocery getter. I was surfing the web when I came across a 4x4 group, they offered to take me out, and after one day of sloshin around in the mud and climbing hills, I was hooked like a crack fiend.....even after taking damage the first time out....Now I'm an addict! Thanks HTR!!!!!!

My buddy has '74 Bronco, and we went out to the AZ desert...about 7 years ago. That got me started... Since then...'82 Toyota PU, '97 Nissan PU, '91 Jeep Cherokee, and now Xterra! Yes, they are all 4x4.

Next to sport cars at stoplights in 6 inches of snow, and saying, bye,bye!!
J/K, Gator

I've been hooked ever since I tore the exhaust pipe off my MGB trying to drive down a dirt road to a shooting range in (geez I'm old) 1975. My first was an FJ40 Landcruiser and my current is my Cloud White SE. In betwixt I've had an occasional sports car, but I always come back to 4x4s. Them Eclipses and Z-cars just don't climb rocks worth a crap!

I grew up in a rural area of coastal South Carolina. It seemed like everybody (except my family) used a 4 wheel drive for hunting, fishing, etc. Driving my family's old 2 wheel drive pickup, I routinely got stuck in the mud and deep sand. After getting stuck for the umpteenth time, my Dad and I started looking around and about a year later bought my first "car" ... a used 1976 CJ-7!

damn, i thought i loved wheeling before...
i went wheeling this morning after a night of rain (which is all we socal people can hope for) and damn was it fun. there were some hairy moments where i thought i would tip over when my right side sunk into some mud though. and i've always been somewhat skeptical of what an xterra can do...but after this morning i'm happy to say i'm very impressed. i aproached a steep muddy bank thinking i would end up having to back up and try another way around, but once i put it into 4lo i made it up pretty easily. there's nothing like the feeling of doubt disapearing when you suddenly feel your truck making it over something you didn't think it could do.
now i just have to get some sliders. i bent one of the stock side rails (yes, i know i should take them off) and it's about 1/2 inch from hitting the body panel. i got lucky i guess.

What got me into offroading was my first trip out to Ocotillo Wells, Ca., with a bunch of motorhead buddies of mine, my Xterra and more gassoline and wood than one can invision. A night of 20' tall bonfires and bottomless ice chests set the wheels in motion, quite litterally. Everyone was getting stuck in the flooded washes and I was managing to pull everyone out with ease. These guys thought they were really pushing their vehicles to the limit but the X and I were still outdoing them. By dawn, the X had made a new name for its self and I haven't been able to hold the same regard for pavement ever since....

i grew up in a small place in the cascade mountain range called Sisters, Oregon, and 4x4 was a way of life... if you wanted to get to the store, you were gonna need a 4x4.... lol.. winter could get pretty bad. Started out with a 1972 Jeep Waggoneer, then a CJ... brother has a 4runner, and we went wheelin one day up on some BLM land, and i saw a guy with a kickass X that was getting through some places the bigger trucks couldnt go... saw how agile and nimble it was, and i was hooked... i had to have an Xterra.

BTW... am i the only one who thinks the X has a REALLY tight turning radius for an SUV? Damn thing turns sharper than a civic... lol

When I was younger, my uncle had a K-5 Blazer on 40's. Ever since then I've been hooked on big trucks and offroading. I still get nervous about wheelin' in my new X though, which why I've only been out once in it.

That is one thing that I am amazed with on the X, it turns tighter than most any other vehicle out there...when my wife was driving a Honda Accord, I could make a circle where she would have to backup and make another attempt at it.

What got me hooked....hmmm, I like getting the X dirty, but my dad had an old Jeep Cherokee that we used to paly with when I was a kid, and I loved playing in 4WD...so I think that I have always been hooked....

Wheelin' is fun! Why do I like it?

A few years ago a friend took me wheelin for the 1st time. We were waaaaaay back in the woods when he ran into a tree and popped a hole in his radiator. So we hiked a couple of miles until we came upon this squatter living in a tent/trailer/thingy and we had to beg him for some water. We walked away $10 poorer and we filled our radiator. We then drove another 1/2 mile closer to civilization before our radiator was empty again. ( the chewing gum didn't work) Then we hitch-hiked back into town to get a pickup to tow our 4 X 4 out of the woods. By the time we got back into the woods it was 2AM. It was this time that we discovered that we had a flat tire on our pickup and my friend had left his spare at home. So we hooked up the 4 X 4 and towed it home with our pickup that had one flat tire. By the time we got back to civilization we were riding on the bare rim and sparks were flying everywhere.

Damn that was fun!

I was hooked after that!

Dave

Clay Larson...
He was a friend of my Dad's when I when around 10 and took us fishing into the Sierras in his Flat Fender...guessing it was around a '51 Willys, four banger flat-head. When he first put it into 4low and climbed some wash board to get us to the fishin' hole..that was it...when I turned 16 my first ride was a Willys utility wagon with Lincoln reversed wheels and a 4" lift...man, that was sportin' in those days...it did make it through Rubicon...yeah, some carnage! Been going back ever since though..
Thanks Clay!

MVM

My first car was a '78 AMC Concorde....one of those stylish, late-seventies AMC monstrosities of automotive design...with a twist...it was 4 wheel drive. So, my buddies and I spent a great amount of time going places, doing things you just shouldn't be able to do in a 4 door sedan. There was something very humorous about banging around the local mudholes with all the "big" trucks in my POS, Landau-topped sedan.

Since then, I have owned mainly economy cars or sportscars, but I traded in on the Frontier Crewcab when it first came out, and then to the Xterra, when the dealership actually could keep stock on the lot.

It's like being 16 all over again. Except I don't look as odd trying to mod my Xterra as I was trying to mod the AMC. Should have kept it tho....damn thing was solid axle up front, I think.

Simple, XOC message board. I've always loved 4wheelin' but never really had the chance to go on my own. (This is MY first 4x4.) I thought about it when I first bought my truck and decided to look on-line. Then I found XOC message board and what people were doing with their X's. Now thanks to message board I go 4wheelin' all the time.

Thanks, message board.

*MESSAGE BOARD BY WHAMMO. TRY DELUXE MESSAGE BOARD FOR SUPPORTING MEMBERS* results with message board may vary.

I do a lot of hiking and to get to some of the trailheads you need a 4x4. Now I've turned into a desert rat. Love going out to the desert and heading up a canyon to set up camp away from the rest of the world. The people at work thinks it's really cool that I own a 4x4 and actually go off-road. There are alot of posers around town. You can always tell my parking spot at work, it's the one with the dirt around it from dried mud falling off. A guy down the street owns a jeep wrangler and admitted to me the other day that he's never even had it in 4wd, he's had it for 4 years! To each his own I guess.

won't there be problems w/ the front diff or 4wd if a part-time isn't engaged often? i mean 4 years is a damn long itme.
i barely let a week go by for me.

That's what I told him but he just shrugged it off. Odds are he'll never use 4wd. What a waste.