Dealer Sponsored 101 Offroad Experience Word of Caution

[JWM PLAYS]

I'll not name names but a dealer in our area sponsors an off road event regularly at a local off road park where they pay for your access to the park and promise an intro to off-roading experience with a seasoned veteran as your guide.

Be as me nor my wife have ever done anything off-road and her Jeep is our first ever Jeep, this seemed like a perfect opportunity to learn the ropes. As the event starts in the morning, they let you know that you will get the usual stripes from rubbing against brush but they state that they will be taking it easy the first part of the day and will make sure you don't get into a situation where you're going to get body damage. They explain that after lunch, they will take it up a notch and if you choose, they will take you through much more advanced obstacles.

They divided us up in groups of 4-6 Jeeps with each group being led by our veteran guide. Suffice it to say, it was very shortly after heading off that I realized we weren't getting the "easy" 101 exposure to off roading that was promised. I realized once it was too late that we were way over our heads not only in experience but in terrain that my wife's Gladiator could navigate in it's current state.

The lesson learned was that once you sign the waivers, all bets are off and no one can care as much about your Jeep as you do. I'm in the process of getting quotes for the repairs from our "easy" 101 off road experience and I can say that we will never blindly place our trust in someone to "guide us" in an off road experience. If I had it to do all over again, I would have paid my own way in the off road park and chosen my own trails to take and we wouldn't be making repairs the first time out with a new Jeep.

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[Pescatoral Pursuit]

Live and learn.

On the bright side there may be some culpability regardless of the waiver you signed.
If the damage isn't too expensive, consider it a lesson learned, (and they usually cost real dollars.)
If it is, consult a lawyer. You may have a case.

 

[bleda2002]

What kind of damage did you end up with?

 

[Mtpisgah]

Pictures please. We’re you the only one to sustain damage?

 

[DocMike]

Sadly there is a lot of subjectivity in off road trails.
As I was cutting my teeth I learned that one person's easy trail is another's demanding trail.
Vehicle build, driver skill, weather can all play into how well your day goes.

Did they air you down or conduct any sort of driver meeting before hand?
Did they have spotters?
What kind of damage did you receive?

 

[Sandevino]

I've participated in guided events and you always have a wide range of skills and abilities that turn up and liability is always signed away.

 

[JWM PLAYS]

What kind of damage did you end up with?

One fender flare is heavily damaged and will need to be replaced. The rest is trail rash which luckily, I detail as a hobby and have everything to be able to polish the clear coat. Now, they did warn everyone up front that you would be getting "some" trail rash and I was okay with that. Because we were taken down trails that her Jeep couldn't clear most of the time, she had to drive on the far right and far left often. When we got back to the muster point, I was looking at all the other Jeeps and I did not see another one that had trail rash all the way up both sides as bad as hers.

 

[JWM PLAYS]

Pictures please. We’re you the only one to sustain damage?

I will load pictures tonight. It was a very large group, hard to say but I noticed her Jeep looked in way more rough shape than all the others I was looking at. No one in our group sustained any damage but they were all running built rigs with lifts and tires.

 

[JWM PLAYS]

Sadly there is a lot of subjectivity in off road trails.
As I was cutting my teeth I learned that one person's easy trail is another's demanding trail.
Vehicle build, driver skill, weather can all play into how well your day goes.

Did they air you down or conduct any sort of driver meeting before hand?
Did they have spotters?
What kind of damage did you receive?

We aired down on our own and they did have a full meeting before it started. They grouped us in groups of 4-6 with a seasoned veteran as our guide/spotter. One thing I learned the hard way, they didn't group us with other Gladiators with minimal mods even though there were some there. Everyone in our group had built Wranglers except 1 Gladiator that was also built with a lift and 37's. They did however promise that on the morning run, they wouldn't put anyone into anything that was going to damage their Jeep but that isn't what we experienced.

 

[JWM PLAYS]

I've participated in guided events and you always have a wide range of skills and abilities that turn up and liability is always signed away.

Without a doubt, we signed away liability. We just felt gutted and betrayed that we were taken by a seasoned veteran who claimed he's "been on these trails 1000 times" into a situation that was way over our comfort level that ultimately resulted in damage we were in no way prepared to sustain. My point in sharing this was just as a word of caution to other newbies like us. I much rather would have gone out the first time just us without the "help" of a "veteran" during an "offroading 101" class. We would have left with her Jeep in much better condition than we actually did.

 

[DocMike]

Give you an handheld GMRS?
Stock JT can handle a lot with the right coaching and guidance.
You will drag a bit.
I'm sorry you had a shitty experience.

We aired down on our own and they did have a full meeting before it started. They grouped us in groups of 4-6 with a seasoned veteran as our guide/spotter. One thing I learned the hard way, they didn't group us with other Gladiators with minimal mods even though there were some there. Everyone in our group had built Wranglers except 1 Gladiator that was also built with a lift and 37's. They did however promise that on the morning run, they wouldn't put anyone into anything that was going to damage their Jeep but that isn't what we experienced.

 

[Sandevino]

Without a doubt, we signed away liability. We just felt gutted and betrayed that we were taken by a seasoned veteran who claimed he's "been on these trails 1000 times" into a situation that was way over our comfort level that ultimately resulted in damage we were in no way prepared to sustain. My point in sharing this was just as a word of caution to other newbies like us. I much rather would have gone out the first time just us without the "help" of a "veteran" during an "offroading 101" class. We would have left with her Jeep in much better condition than we actually did.

I appreciate you sharing this with us as there are marketing events like this that have no up side. I’m sorry you sustained damage.

On the flip side, you now know more about your skills and abilities. Knowing what you don’t know was the hardest thing for me to figure out.

 

[JWM PLAYS]

Give you an handheld GMRS?
Stock JT can handle a lot with the right coaching and guidance.
You will drag a bit.
I'm sorry you had a shitty experience.

No GMRS. To our guides credit, he did take extra time coaching my wife more than the others but he kinda had no choice after he took us into stuff we never would have been able to make it out of otherwise. Yeah it drug alot and honestly, I'm not upset about that at all. Before we even showed up to one of these events, we had put full rock rails to include bed corners, front and rear bumpers, winch and front skid plate so we felt we had done our part to not show up with a completely unprepared rig. We didn't want to show up with a bone stock Sport expecting miracles so we spent some decent pocket change and time installing all this expecting to be reasonably prepared. Perhaps that's what made it sting worse to think we had prepared and yet still left with damage. I appreciate your kind words, really. I've reached out to the Dealership just to let them know our experience but I don't expect any feedback especially since I'm claiming damage when they were assuring us no damage.

 

[Mtpisgah]

I will load pictures tonight. It was a very large group, hard to say but I noticed her Jeep looked in way more rough shape than all the others I was looking at. No one in our group sustained any damage but they were all running built rigs with lifts and tires.

i did not realize there were built rigs in your group, I thought they were all more or less stock. It is really crappy of them put a mix of vehicles in one group on a dealer outing like that. Put like vehicles with like vehicles.

 

[bleda2002]

Was the spotter guiding you on lines or were you picking your own? Did the other lightly modded gladiators also run the same trails? Also did you try running through the obstacles first or just bypass? A stock gladiator will rub, smack, and make all manner of ugly sounds but it can get over a lot of obstacles as someone else mentioned.

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