G'day guys Dan here from Epic Drives
Western Australia. If you're new here first of
all welcome. I hoping to give you some
useful advice and inspire you to get off
road. It was in the making of our
four-wheel-drive adventures that it
occurred to me that perhaps, if I took a
step back and talked about the basics of
four-wheel driving then it may help you
if you're a beginner yourself and taking
your first steps off the blacktop. So I'm
hoping to inspire you but more
importantly hopefully make it less
intimidating for your very very first
time off-road. Here we go, now when I very
first started going off-road
I pretty much learned the hard way. I
just went straight off road without any
real idea about gear selection, how the
mechanics of a car work what gear to
take and I learned by getting into
trouble and there's nothing wrong with
doing it that way if that's how you like
to learn things then that's
perfectly fine and I just want to make
it clear as well I mean I'm not claiming
to be any sort of expert I've only been
driving seriously off-road for the
last five years but what I'm hoping to
do is share with you the basics of
four-wheel driving and built from there.
So I'm only going to share with you in
this video just just one tip and this is
for people who have never been offroad
before. Now the tip is simply this. The
first time that you go off-road it's
going to be a little bit daunting it's
gonna feel a little bit unnatural, we're
all used to driving on the road and if
you've got a new vehicle the most
important thing to do first of all is to
drive it on road to get used to just
changing gears and how the car feels. If
you've upgraded to a four-wheel drive
from a smaller car get used to its size
and parking it that sort of thing so you
get used to the the width of your car
and the length of your car. No matter how
long you prepare for your first trip it
is going to be a little bit scary and
that's perfectly fine and hopefully when
you get back from your very very first
four-wheel-drive trip you'll
have a sense of achievement and
hopefully not an expensive repair bill
on your car. The idea of your very first
trip is to put yourself a little bit out
of your comfort zone but not too much at
all just simply driving on a dirt
track. Just quietly I still do get a
little bit worried when traveling
off-road because things have gone south
for me before but hopefully when you get
back from your first Four Wheel Drive trip you
won't have any incidences and you'll be
hooked. The first thing to really get
into your head is that your four-wheel
drive was specifically built to drive
off-road in fact the highway is not even
its natural habitat. so I'm going to
assume you've got your four-wheel drive,
your keen get it dirty and you've
driven it on the road and you're
familiar with it. The next step is to
choose where you're going and let me
tell you this from experience. Guys who
are right into their four-wheel driving
will be more than happy to point you in
the direction of a really challenging
section of track and they'll be keen to
watch you try and tackle a section that
even an experienced four wheel driver with endless
mods on there fourby be would struggle with.
So find a good mate, someone who can take
you somewhere where it's relatively easy.
Some suggestions might be a farm, a
firebreak track, inside a national park.
The idea here is to just simply not be
on the bitumen. Don't even worry about
engaging four-wheel drive if you're not
ready for it and hopefully the track that
you drive won't even require it. Always
go with at least one other vehicle when
you're learning to drive off-road even
if that means joining a four-wheel drive
club which has the added benefit of
introducing you to new people and hey
you might even make some new friends. And
always be honest with yourself if you
don't feel comfortable driving a section
of track well don't do it because at the
end of the day it's your vehicle it's
your safety. So if you live in Western
Australia and you want some ideas on
locations check out
epicdriveswesternaustralia.com
and if you've enjoyed watching this,
smash the like button, share it with
somebody if you think it might help them
and subscribe if you haven't already.
While you're there click the Bell next
to it so you get an alert when my next
videos are out. So that's it for the first
episode of the new series. If your new to four wheel driving or
your mission is to just get
out there don't worry about having to
engage four-wheel drive, don't worry about
putting yourself out on the hardest tracks. Just
find somewhere easy, find somewhere where
it's you know nice to go for lunch, nice view
grab your family grab your
kids grab your mates or 10 and get out
there and I'll see you again so on Epic
Drives Western Australia.