Outskirts Overland Podcast

Trail Ready: Essentials for Off-Road Beginners

• Charlie Racinowski

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Charlie shares essential knowledge and budget-friendly tips for newcomers to the off-road and four-wheeling community. He emphasizes practical advice based on personal experience and common mistakes he's observed on the trails.

• Every vehicle needs at least one recovery point front and rear—costs less than window tint but potentially saves your day
• A soft shackle ($40-50) and hard shackle are minimal essential recovery gear that could prevent disaster
• Guided trail difficulty ratings are subjective—"moderate" trails are often significantly harder than beginners expect
• Four-wheel high is designed for on-road snow conditions, not off-road use—using it off-road risks transmission overheating
• Always use four-wheel low and manual gear selection when tackling challenging terrain
• Brake fade is a serious concern—downshift to control speed rather than riding the brakes
• Understand your vehicle's specific limitations and operating procedures before hitting difficult trails
• Electronic parking brakes should never be used off-road—they can fail in extreme conditions
• Check your insurance coverage—many policies don't cover off-road parks but may cover Forest Service roads
• Perform quick pre-trail checks of lug nuts, recovery points, and undercarriage components
• Bring dollars and quarters for car washes to remove mud from wheels and brakes after off-roading


Speaker 1:

Welcome to the World of Warcraft, episode 1 the Warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft. Hey guys, welcome to Outskirts Overland. It's Charlie, it is Tuesday, april Fool's Day. I'm not going to do any April Fool's stuff to you guys, but it is April Fool's Day. So if you listen to this early and you're somebody who likes to prank people, today's your day. Today I am going to talk about, if you're new to off-roading, four-wheeling, some things that are pretty inexpensive that could help you out, and I'll kind of lead into guided trails a little bit too, just because I mean I even talked about it on my podcast, on the podcast with Benji, about guided trails being a huge pull for people. Like people really like to do guided trails and I was going to just get into that a little too. So first I want to talk about like I was talking to a friend yesterday and he was talking about taking some people on some trails. He said they were interested in going on some harder trails and and I was like that's awesome, you know. And he's like, yeah, the best way to learn is to go, and I totally agree.

Speaker 1:

But a couple of things that I think everyone should have. I think that it's extremely important, no matter how it works out, that you have one recovery point in the front and one in the rear. Now, if you vehicle, that's a recovery point. So like, say, say that that uh like in the rear of your truck, you don't have anywhere to tow it, but you put one of those like hitch, like Factor 55 makes a hitch link thing that's a recovery point. If you're in the front like my Tacoma had a little like I don't know tow point, you could use that and have like a D-ring for it, not a D-ring, like yeah, like a shackle for it, not a d-ring a uh like, yeah, like a shackle, a hard shackle, just hanging from it. That's a recovery point. Very, very inexpensive way to have two recovery points, I think it's extremely important that you have two one in the front and one in the rear. You don't need two in the front, two in the rear. Now most bumpers are going to have two in the front, two in the rear, but that's, that's not what you need. But I think it's extremely important that even if you don't have a winch or you don't have a rope or you don't have you know a rope, a kinetic rope, a lot of things it's worth your time to have at least one hard shackle and one soft shackle and a recovery point in the front and a recovery point in the rear. So I'd, I'd encourage everybody that if you're going wheeling and you're starting to get into wheeling and I'm going to try and not sound, it's not, it doesn't look cool. Okay, Like a lot of people spend a lot of money on things that look cool, you know, but this costs an eighth of what window tint costs to have a soft shackle, a recovery point in the front and the rear and a hard shackle.

Speaker 1:

And the reason I bring up a hard shackle is just like a screw-in one. You can get them at harbor freight a decent one I. You can buy a nicer one from Factor 55 or you know a reputable brand, but you can also just get one somewhere. I think having a hard shackle, the reason I bring it up is because you can leave it on. So there's a little redundancy. A soft shackle's way safer, but but you know, you could forget, forget it, you could drop it, you could lose it, whatever. So I usually keep a soft shackle, like on my handle up here in the front. I just hang one from it, like right here in the front, that I might use. I keep a couple others you can also. Yeah, I won't get into that, that's not for today. Sorry, I was gonna talk about splicing winch line to make a soft shackle out of it, like, make your own soft shackle. But that's probably, that's two. That's more than needs to be discussed today.

Speaker 1:

So, having a recovery point in the front, having a recovery point in the rear and making sure you have a hard shackle and a soft shackle Minimal, that's it. You know, if you're starting, that's something to have, because if you're starting to go on trails, it's not that you're going to need those things, but if you do get stuck, you're putting yourself in a tough situation if you can't even be recovered. You know like, and again, like, tow trucks get people out without these things, but they're latching a huge hook on, like your rear axle. That's and again, that's on the streets too. That's not in a hole or on a hill or so. I just think it's super intelligent, I think it's very intelligent to have a recovery point in the front of the rear. I think that's just period. I mean I could get into a lot of things that are really beneficial for off-roading but, like at the end of the day, if you dent your door or do this or do that or throw a bead or tire again, a recovery point can help you at least get out of what you're stuck in. Point's super important Having two, and having a hard shackle and a soft shackle I'd have both. Remember that hard shackles do seize, so at least you know before you go on your trip, get it unscrewed. And if you can't spray some WD-40 or some PB Blaster in there overnight and unscrew it before you go on your trip, Scratch it up with a wire brush, screw it back in so that way you know it's effective, just, and then familiarize yourself with how to use the gear. Quick YouTube search, google search search. You know we'll tell you how that, how that stuff works and how you could use it.

Speaker 1:

And why this is getting into guided trails, because people are people like guided trails. I mean it's a huge pull to event to go, events to go on hard, to go on hard to go on guided trails, and I think people want to get into off-roading. But it's a little, it makes you a little anxious to go by yourself and I think they want to go with somebody that knows where they're going. Now, the reason I bring this up is usually it's like oh, this is a moderate trail, this is an XYZ, and the person typically guiding the trail has a considerable amount of experience, and moderate to somebody that has a lot of experience is a lot different than what you as a new person would consider moderate. And I'm not saying that you think easy is moderate, but just my experience with guided trails, easy is like so easy, and moderate is like five levels harder than easy. Moderate is like much harder, like, in comparison, is moderate a lot of times.

Speaker 1:

Moderate, yes, is hard, something you need a very modified vehicle for, yes, you need a very modified vehicle for, yes, but there's like not a. You know there's green and there's yellow, and green is easy and yellow is moderate. There's not often a name for like a blue, you know where. It's like not a gravel road, like I don't know that easy is always a gravel road, but like it's just there's nothing for that. So just be aware that that's all subjective to the person that's put that on there.

Speaker 1:

There I have friends that go wheeling and I would put myself in this and have been wheeling a lot and there's a lot to learn about how to just feel when your vehicle's about to do something, or even feeling the gas pedal like that's gonna slip, you know, before it does it. I'm gonna say they can read minds, but just with experience you're gonna learn that feeling. So when you're going on these trails, I find it I don't know how to explain it it's almost a competitive thing. People are like I want to do hard trails and it's like, yes, cool, totally cool. Like don't don't get me wrong, but if your vehicle is not equipped potentially, or you don't have the experience, I don't know that you should just jump right into it without at least understanding the risks of doing that. You know, again, I don't come here as somebody talking to you guys that didn't just have his whole entire truck, like whole passenger side of his truck, replaced last year, like I mean new door skins in new bedside, it's new frame, slider even, um. So I just I don't say that to say that's gonna happen. But if you want to do harder trails, I'm not saying that's gonna happen. You may go years, I went many years but you've got to at least know if you're not fully equipped, that's a potential.

Speaker 1:

Breaking a CV is a potential, breaking a tie rod ends a potential. You need to at least be thinking ahead before you go on these trails that these things could happen. I've not broken a tie rod end, but I've bent one and the reason I bent it is because I was on, I pinned up against the rock and my wheel wasn't turning and I forced it and it didn't. The wheel still didn't turn, the tie rod did. The tie rod broke. So and again, I'm not saying you need, but I learned from that like, oh, I'm pinned. Like, if it feels like the steering wheel is locked, you're pinned, you know. And that's not something I did five minutes ago, that's something I did earlier on. But I don't have a sway bar on my truck now but I have broken, uh, sway bar connections. You know, just hitting stuff too hard, just all stuff to think about.

Speaker 1:

On a stock Cause and this is going to be convoluted. To like if your vehicle's just lifted with tires, it's stock, Okay. Like we're not going to call that a modified vehicle, okay. Like if you just put tires on your vehicle with stock suspension and a puck in a block. That's a stock vehicle, so you have to take into account that. Wasn't made to be like you're going to end up with shock. Fade Brakes may be an issue. You may lose your brakes If you ride your brakes a lot.

Speaker 1:

Remember you need to be downshifting gears manually, staying in lower gears, staying out of four-wheel high as much as possible. Four-wheel high is a really good way to overheat your transmission and your torque converter. Four-wheel high, in my opinion, is not something to be used off-road at all. Four-wheel high is for on-road conditions like snow, ice on the road. If you're going too fast to use four-wheel low, four-wheel high is not the solution. Slowing down or just staying in two-wheel is the solution. You will overheat your transmission in four high. You will, and I mean I can't tell you enough if it's hard enough. You want to be in four low, first gear. I mean if you've got a 10 speed transmission, maybe second gear okay, but you don't want to leave it to just four low and drive. So just make sure you're learning these things before you end up with mistakes. Now, I was lucky enough to have people teach me these things before I made these mistakes, but I have friends that have overheated transmissions. I have friends that have got their vehicles locked in four high or four low because they were going too fast and it wouldn't come out. The actuator wouldn't work because they had gotten it too hot. These are things you can avoid by just knowing Really, four high, in my opinion, is for on road, like inclement weather on road.

Speaker 1:

It's not a solution for going up hills faster. A solution for going up hills faster off-road, like if you're going 40 and you need four high, you just need to slow down. Like you're going to tear your car up. And then that leads me again back into brake fade. If you keep it in a lower gear, you're going to be able to let off the throttle and decelerate. Now if you think you have hill descent control, that is, an ABS actuated system, your brakes can still overheat.

Speaker 1:

Brakes are something that I think a lot of people don't consider when off-roading. That are an extremely important piece of equipment on your vehicle and most vehicles aren't meant for the extreme use of brakes off-road. I have had brakes fade, there's no doubt about it, and I, two-foot, drive a lot on the brake and on the gas Now because my truck has been open-open and it's a way to kind of make the rear a locker you know what I mean To keep it from spinning too much, so you can kind of keep both wheels going because it does have an LSD. But if your brakes are faded, that's not going to work. If your transmission's real hot, that's also not going to work. So, paying attention to some of that stuff as a newer person, those are just things about your vehicle to know.

Speaker 1:

If you've got a stick shift, well then you already kind of understand a few things. But it's very hard to break gas, like you're going to have to learn how to. I mean, you're going to have to learn how to kind of operate your brake and your gas with your right foot and your clutch with your left, which is totally, is totally doable. It's gonna take some practice, though it just is. It's something that it just takes practice and I can do it on one car and you got to almost relearn it on another. They're all a little positioned a little differently, but you also gotta, I think, when you've got a stick shift, using your parking brake is the way to go. My myself, um, so you don't rock back and stuff, I always just keep the button pushed down on the Six shift. Using your parking brake is the way to go Myself, so you don't rock back and stuff. I always just keep the button pushed down on the parking brake and kind of use it. I've had a lot of six shift vehicles. That works. But just learning those tips on how to make your unmodified like very unmodified vehicle still capable are really intelligent things to have. And again, like when you're going on a guided trail, understanding the potential, just understanding the potential.

Speaker 1:

I'm not saying prepare like. I'm not saying you need to be like I'm going to wreck my truck today. I'm going to wreck my car today like my rig, whatever you call your thing. I'm going to wreck it today. I'm going to pinstripe it today Like I don't know that you want to assume it's inevitable, but be prepared for the idea that it happens. Be prepared. Also, be prepared with your insurance that if it happens you're covered. You know like it might not slow you down whatsoever. To like I tore up my whole side of my truck. It didn't drive different because of it. Luckily I didn't mechanically hurt my truck. I aesthetically really hurt my truck, but it still drove the same. So that's just an insurance claim. You know what I'm saying but my insurance covered me, you know, on those places and I have insurance that covers me on those places because I asked those questions.

Speaker 1:

I have insurance that covers my modifications to my truck. If I flip my truck, they're going to replace my rack, my rooftop tent, like all of those things. Because they're aware of those things existing on my vehicle, I pay a premium and I don't mean a premium like I pay a lot of money. I pay an additional premium with my insurance normal insurance premium for those modifications to ensure that if something happens to the vehicle, whether it's off-road or on-road, you know, if I get sideswiped, my rack's still trash, like my tent's probably theft, like it's not just for off-road, for the modification piece.

Speaker 1:

Now, if you're off-road and I've covered this on a previous podcast, like I have a podcast just about this topic but it's important to know that you're often not covered at off-road parks because they are private and they are considered competition and that's why you sign a waiver. But you could be covered on forest Service or National Park Roads. But also be aware and I'm not trying to teach anybody how to cheat the system at all If your insurance requires you to have an app that tracks your speed, like drive safe type things, or it plugs into your car they know where you are. No-transcript from my insurance. Does it come with a discount? Potentially it knows where you are. I'll just leave it at that, like read between the lines people, so be aware of that. And also, they're not so dumb to wear like, oh, every Saturday you unplug it, or every Saturday you turn your location off, like yes, this is what they do, they've seen it before. You're not reinventing the wheel. I would just do as you do, but with that information. But no, that information is there. Also, be prepared for the fact that maybe rear end, maybe you wreck into somebody on the trail. What's that look like? Are you covered to cover them Because you wreck, you ran into them? That's been a scenario I've seen before. I've never been a part of that scenario, but I've seen it has happened unfortunately. So it's worth knowing Just all things to think about when you're new.

Speaker 1:

They don't cost anything to think about. They don't cost anything to necessarily learn. A soft shackle is 40, 50 bucks. Don't get one on freaking Amazon. Get one from Yankum Ropes, warn Factor 55, switchback or, yeah, switchback. Outdoor Safety sells a really good soft shackle, like get a good soft shackle. Don't get the freaking all top from amazon and expect, like if it's the only one you got, make sure you get a good one. As far as the hard shackles go, just get a. Get a good one, like I don't think you're getting a bad one at Harbor Freight. Don't get the cheapest freaking one, like get one that's rated for 10,000, 12,000 pounds but you can get them at Home Depot, Lowe's, harbor Freight, a good one, that'll get it done for you, you know. Just be aware that's what you got.

Speaker 1:

Factor 55 makes hitch links. Agency 6 makes hitch links, makes hitch links. Uh, agency six makes hitch links. Arb often makes recovery point like bolt-on recovery points for different types of vehicles for the front and well, sometimes in the rear that just bolt into like bumper mount, like frame bumper mounts. That work well too and you can latch into.

Speaker 1:

Those are things to think about when you're to. Those are things to think about when you're new and you want to get into off-roading. That, I think, are useful pieces of information to where you don't have an unsuccessful time that people just don't want to ask or know to ask until something's already happened. But it's a good way to keep you from kind of ending up good way to keep you from kind of ending up in a scenario where you're like I got to stop my transmission templates on, I can't get my truck out of four-wheel drive Like just knowing, like that's what's going to happen if that happens. Knowing that you know, just knowing your vehicle Okay, ford Bronco perfect example.

Speaker 1:

Ford Broncos have low mounted alternators. If you go through big water crossings with Ford Bronco perfect example. Ford Broncos have low mounted alternators. If you go through big water crossings with a Ford Bronco, highly possible your alternator goes out. No, that's a limitation of the vehicle. Like I don't know what the limitation of every vehicle is. I drive a freaking 2020 Tacoma SR5. It's like 1995 technology in that truck. Tacoma SR5, it's like 1995 technology in that truck. I mean, it was very if it's not broke, don't fix it, type thing. I know fifth gen 4Runners are even older tech than that. I mean the 4.0 has been in vehicles since, like I don't know, 99. But still, knowing the limitations of your vehicle, considering the mileage, making sure you're up to the maintenance, just to make sure you don't end up stuck for something other than an obstacle, like your vehicle fails because you misused it Out.

Speaker 1:

You know just not knowing how to use it off-road, like, just driving off-road itself is something to learn like, and and not even that you got to go off road to learn how to. How do I put my truck in first gear? You know how do I go straight from two, like in my Tacoma. I can't go from two wheel drive to four low. I gotta go two wheel, four high, four low. So you'll get errors if you try to go straight to four low. Just knowing stuff like that, you can't. You often can't go go. I mean I don't know if it will do it or not At all. I'm never even can get it to do it period. But knowing if it'll go from four low to two, you usually gotta go four low to four high to two. I always change into four wheel drive Period on road high whatever, in neutral. Sometimes I gotta roll the truck back a little bit to get it to engage.

Speaker 1:

Knowing those things, just knowing this stuff, will save you a lot. You might not think your brakes are bad on your truck until you go on a downhill road to the trail your brakes are already real hot. You go through a water crossing. Now they cooled off a whole bunch, they're making a whole bunch of noise. They're not effective as effective as they were Like. This happens regularly for me, anyways, and I've upgraded brakes on my truck. Um, it still happens.

Speaker 1:

It's stuff to consider, just stuff to consider, that maybe you're not thinking about. Maybe I'm talking to people that know all these things, and if you do, again, what I'm here for is to hopefully try and get people to learn. If you're the person that knows these things and you're out on the trail and somebody is new or appears to be new, pass this stuff along Like it's. That's, that's easy. You're not acting. It's not acting pretentious to be like hey, just want to make sure you're familiar with your vehicle before we go Like do you know how to keep it in a gear?

Speaker 1:

Do you know how to get it from you? Know two wheel drive to four wheel drive effectively? Do you know how to do that on a Hill? Some vehicles don't like doing that on a Hill up or down. Do you know, like I don't know? My vehicle has gear lock? That's a feature I have in it that I made it have. Does your vehicle have gear lock? If it has gear lock, what's that about. Does your vehicle have terrain settings? Some of those terrain settings actually can be limiting because they do change how things work. Knowing what your terrain settings are doing to the vehicle, so that you make sure you might not want to be using a terrain setting in your multi-terrain select, for instance, that might actually be potentially limiting you from what you want the vehicle to do for you, because it's a preset for what the factory thinks it wants the vehicle to do for you, because it's a preset for what the factory thinks it wants the vehicle to do for you.

Speaker 1:

So, thinking about this stuff, learning this stuff, knowing this stuff is super important. I'm not saying anybody doesn't know anything. I'm not saying that just because you're new you don't know these things. You could totally know all these things. Just because you're new to off-roading doesn't mean you maybe don't go hunting or you don't have a farm or you don't like you know. You might know all these things from a number of other experiences because they're still relevant there too. But just thinking about these things as somebody that's newer to off-roading, think about it Now. I don't know how to categorize somebody that's new and off-roading. You could be doing overlanding for years and years and years and years and years and years and years, and not be familiar with off-roading. I mean, they're not synonymous at all. So, kind of just taking a step and understanding like I don't know how to explain what like moderate wheeling is, I would like to say, if you've done x, but I don't think that, I don't think there's a way to explain that, particularly so I couldn't even tell you. But if you've, I just, if you don't know any of the stuff I just said, learn it about your vehicle period, Like that's, that's, that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1:

If your vehicle has an electronic e-brake oh my God, I got to tell you this If your vehicle has an electronic e-brake, your vehicle has an electronic e-brake. Just don't use it off-road. Electronic e-brakes tend to fail in cold conditions, overheated conditions. Like, just don't use the freaking electronic e-brake. Okay, like that is a great thing to use when you park your vehicle. Freaking, don't use an electronic e-brake off-road. It could be a nightmare. And electronic e-brakes do stick you. I don't care what you say, they can stick. And especially if you're going through water. Just don't use a freaking electronic e-brake ever off-road again.

Speaker 1:

My truck's like old as hell tech. It's got like a pole cable e-brake ever off-road Again. My truck's like old as hell tech. It's got like a pole cable e brake. So like freaking, you know, like 240 SX from the nineties, like not, don't use it, like just period, just don't do that. Take my advice there, don't do it.

Speaker 1:

So hopefully this is helpful to some of you guys. Um, if you're the person that doesn't need any of this information, be aware that I'm giving this information because I've recently had a lot of people that needed it. So pass it along. You're not being you're not being rude or anything to just say, hey, you know, hey guys. Or even on the radio, hey guys, does everybody know? Like, before you go, hey, let's do a little, let's do a pre-chip check. Do you know how to do this? Do you know how to do that? Is this up to like? Are you up to date on stuff? Like, have you looked under your truck to see if you've got any issues? Do you have any dents, scratches, problems, like, is anything potentially like real loose? I mean, I think it's worth checking your drain plug on your oil pan Because if you rattle in a bunch, check in your lug nuts, those things will rattle loose.

Speaker 1:

You might think they won't, but they freaking will. You'll lose stuff, you'll lose a lug nut and be like oh I didn't realize that. Guys, I've been there so I check it. I just look at it before. You know, pre-trail checks, it takes me three minutes. I mean I bet my friends don't even know I do it. It takes no time at all. Just looking at stuff, you know, being aware like I think Johnny's watching right now Like Johnny lost some wheel weights on a trail one time. Like you didn't break your vehicle. If it's rattling when you get done, wheels may be too packed full of mud, you may have lost a wheel weight. Just stuff happens.

Speaker 1:

Like you're not going to get into off-roading, just like you're not going to get into racing or anything without some type of cost associated. Like whether that's a financial cost or whether that's an emotional cost, like it's not, it's not, it's not going to just come easy and be free and be easy, and like you can just do it and it's not a problem. Like the more you advance at it and the more you do it it's gonna there's going to be some costs associated with it. Hell, I'd say a big, big thing that you should do if you go off-roading is have dollar bills in quarters because even if you don't clean your vehicle off completely, just at least getting all the mud off the wheels and tires so that you can drive, you know, more effectively home, getting it out of the brakes and the wheels and the tires, just so you're not carrying that extra weight around, is extremely worth it for somebody off-roading. Like just the dumbest thing, like dollars and quarters, that's what you're going to need. It. I mean, do some car washes, take cards, yeah, but if your vehicle is completely swamped, not all of them do they all take dollars and quarters. So just have some with you so that you could clean out the wheels and the tires so you can drive home without monster wobble and then you know craziness inspect your tires.

Speaker 1:

So anyways, just kind of a ramble about basic stuff, I feel like. But you know there's brilliance in the basics, that's what they say all the time. So make sure you just. You know this might be a refresher to some now. Now the weather's turning, they forgot half this stuff. They haven't wheeled since September. Just think about it. Keep it going and I'll catch you guys later. Have a good Tuesday.