a few little ideas for winter

[MassiveAttack]

I had a few ideas for the club, tell me what you think.

1. Club \"yard sale\" day. Could we have a yard sale for off road stuff at some members house, or at a central location? I know we have the bulletin board on the site, but I\'ve always believed there was something to be said for the \"touch and see\" factor. Everyone has some corner in their basement or garage with all that random stuff that they just haven\'t had time to photograph and post. The amateur radio club I\'m in does this twice a year with an auction themed meeting. The club gets something like 10% of the sale.

2. Could we have a \"Trail Safety Team\"? A few people designated to be safe advisors for new members and rides. Also some training in first aid and basic rescue skills. We put ourselves in a dangerous place being in places where air and ground emergency responders might have a difficult time reaching an emergency. It\'s not out of the question to have some safety equipment beyond just the basic first aid kits. A ride I recently went on really drove this home. (although alcohol also flowed freely on the trails) I think we could also work towards improving our knowlage of location and communication skills on the trails. Cell phones don\'t always work in the middle of nowhere.

Just some ideas to help continue to make TMN a great place to be!

[Guest]

1.  Could be a good idea... but the where is an issue.

2. First Aid training can only be done by approved state agencies. One year had the red cross come in on a Saturday and teach classes.  However, everyone should have a first aid kit.  

3. Communication.  It is a mudnuts trail safety REQUIREMENT that ALL CLUB MEMBERS have CBs for communication.  You are correct you cannot depend on cell phones.  Also on the trails we have to monitor riders to not be constantly \"chatting\" on airwaves.  This clogs up the net for when information needs to be put out.

4. I know this alcohol was not during a Mudnuts ride.... if so those members need to excused from the club.

5. I dont understand your location comment.  If it is about where to we are relative to an injured individual my comment/suggestion is this (continuation of #1).  If a person injured my course of action would be to render aid to the casualty and field stabilize them if needed.  CASEVAC the casualty to the nearest hardball road for a MEDEVAC, if its an air MEDEVAC we may have to find or prep an area for an expidient(sp?) LZ, depending on how far off the beat\'n path we are.  Reason why I carry a VS-17 panel with me on the trails.  Also... your still going to have to call nine eleven, so someone is going to have to get into signal range somewhere.   Also 9 times out of 10, I have my CLS bag with me.  In addition to the splints, bandages, asprin, tape, etc etc.... I have IV set ups, chest decompression sets, and nasal phylanges.  I am pretty much setup for anything myself.

6.  Where are your membership fee\'s

7. Its too far!

[MassiveAttack]

I haven\'t renewed yet because it\'ll probably be a while before I can wheel again, and not working, medical bills,and having baby have put some strain on the budget...But I don\'t recall this topic having anything to do with that....

By location I mean it might not be a bad idea to have a job briefing before we set out on the trails. For example, roswell, I know when we went there most people didn\'t know the name of the road we were on or even the township we were in. Doesn\'t do emergency responders any good if we can reach them only to tell them \"I\'m on that road, near that house...\"

Being an amateur radio operator I could bring equipment that can reach several more miles than conventional cell phones as well as transmit our location. I\'m not saying it should be required, just mabye something more members might be interested in.

While I\'m on the same subject, I also though it might not be a bad idea to make some signs for the trails we more frequently visit. Even though we don\'t own them, offering to contribute some small marking signs would help. Something like \"A\" trail and \"B\" trail then 1, 2, and so on. This way when you call the other group to see where they\'re at, instead of, \"we\'re on that one trail, near the tree  with the rock by it..\" it\'s be more like \"were between 5 and 6 on the A trail\".

As far as safety equipment, just ask Keith,  the more the better. A back board or some way other than the back seat of a jeep might help to get someone with non-life-threating injuries like a broken ankle out to a road where an ambulance can meet up to avoid clearing an \"LZ\" and such.

Thank you Scottie for realizing and addressing those issues that will help make TMN a better, more enjoyable and safer group to wheel with. The ride I was talking about with the beer wasn\'t TMN, you might remember I told you about it in MA. :)

[Guest]

1.  The dues comment was just a sarcastic jab.

2.  I dont think a broken ankle warrants a backboard or any other non-life threatening injury.  If someone is in need of such a piece of equipment, they shouldnt be taken out by vehicle over rocky terrain anyway, that would make their injury worse.

3.  Labeling trails is a great idea.  We dont have any local land except for WP.  I can contact them to see if they want us to help.  If you are talking about the MA land, I dont know if we would be stepping on any other clubs territory/toes.

4.  There is a fine line between being prepared and overloaded.

[MassiveAttack]

yes I agree. I guess I\'m really not the one to ask about safety equipment. I do think we could bump it up a little, perhaps have a drill day at the pines or something..as well, I do plan on installing some better radio gear on the jeep for just that cause.

Labeling the trails would be a great way to help the hobby, help the club, and mabye get some little discounts or something to boot. Are RC or Paragon labeled? Would it be possible to \"sell\" the idea of having some of us come down for a weekend and do it for them, make the signs and install them for some type of future club discount? It would also make mapping easier, and like I said it would end that frustrating problem of calling on the radio with something like \"I\'m stuck, can you bring your rig with a winch, I\'m on that trail, you know the one we passed a while back, yea, with the thing, but I\'m not sure how far along we are, mabye it would be closer to go to the one muddy trail....\" Also has some great safety aspects.

[Guest]

Paragon is no more.  RC trails are label by name and skill level.  They do have volunteer days where people can come down and help with trail maintainance(sp?).  This will get them a free day at the park.

[MrMindless]

RC is still poorly signed in many areas - but better than it was by leaps and bounds.

[Guest]

You know, call me a weirdo, but sometimes I like to just wander around and see where things go. But then again I am typically prepared for whatever said unmarked trails might put me and my rig through.

[Guest]

Nice topic......

 CBz have never worked on the trail for me.......Seems like only a few buddies use them and nobody really chats to the whole convoy.......Mostly just chat to the people they know......

  I almost died during a winter rally in the fingerlakes....The driver up front didnt feel like telling me anything......When I told him after the race...\"\"I didnt think I was gonna make it\"\"...He replied....\"\"Nobody thought you were gonna make it\"\".....This Mudnut has since sold his Jeep...

 I like the idea of street names etc.......Even though the trails and areas are sorta kept SuperSecret.......When wheeling in a new area with members I was always worried if I broke etc....Where the heck was I........

  Trail signs..........Nahhh......Follow the guy infront of you and keep going.......Use the CB more with the vehicles behind and front....Plus people get ticked if you put a nail in a tree or a stake in the ground that later punctures a tire....

  Beer while wheeling......Notta chance...Ive never done that before......


 I like the radio thing....If someone broke big and was in trouble it would kickazz.........I remember reading a story on the net about someone broke and/or got lost and ran into an atv rider that was almost dead....The peeps took him to safety and I believe was air lifted out of the area.....Thats the type of care Id liketo see if anything ever went down.....At Wallingtons Spring event a guy was belted in and nailed his head against the A pilliar and they had to bring out the paddles to revive him.....Slow speed and everything...Truck just went side ways and slammed into the bank.......He is OK now.....But ya never know when you need to make the call...


Nice Post

[MassiveAttack]

Thanks, the marking idea came from getting sick of the \"this trail\" and \"that trail\" confusion. I just think it would help to find yourself, and your friends, plan rides when they get big and split up, and even be good when your telling the story later! The signs would be small, maybe a color for the trail, a name, and a sequence number so you get a better idea of how far along you are. To avoid nails, theres cord or those really long ty-wraps. We could put them on a map, but beyond that, yes, secret is good.

A legal 4 watt CB thats setup right should cover no less the a 6 mile area. Every organized club ride I\'ve ever been on requires them. They\'re good when making fun of your buddy for dragging his parking brake cable. Theres lots of people around that can help if your rig or antenna is wiggin out!

I\'m going to setup a \"ham\" rig in my Jeep. Never know when you\'ll need to make the call and cell phones don\'t reach. Besides that it\'s fun :)

[FairportX]

MassiveAttack wrote:
A ride I recently went on really drove this home. (although alcohol also flowed freely on the trails)

I believe the ride you are referring to was not a Mudnuts ride or event. Had this been an TMN ride/event anyone using alcohol would have been told to leave and if they were members their membership would have been terminated.

Joel

[Guest]

Back to ideas.........

These topics come up every down season for us wheelin folks.....One of my favorite topic reads of the year............

An idea that comes up and seems pretty cool....Is an actual cruise then eat ride either biweekly or weekly. throughout the winter and early spring.....



Lets keep those ideas comin in....Cant wait to read more......

[Guest]

actually we pretty much already do that...

[MassiveAttack]

OK, so I had two more ideas while I do all this sitting around.
One is something easy and fun that might improve the website, the other is totally a dream, but something worth mentioning.

1. Why don\'t we start something on the site similar to \"Angie\'s list\"?
For those of you not familiar, this is a pay site where people get on and rate services at everything from restaurants to hospitals.
Maybe we could have an \"off road related\" and not off road related\" sections.

2. The whole buying land as a club thing comes up now and then. Instead of buying land, which is massively expensive and would just result in fighting over some overused trails three hours from Rochester. What if we bought a small portion of land in the local area and used it to build a test/obstacle course. This could include an RTI,  maybe some rollers built into the ground to spin your lockers on, a small off camber approach/breakover/departure hill climb. Other items I\'ve dreamed of would be a concrete \"trench\" kinda like a tank trap to craw in, some differing height walls to climb, and in the back of it all a mud pit. I also saw a thing on a tv   commercial where a vehicle drives along a ramp that as it lifts on one side, goes down on the other.  This whole thing would be similar to the thing that doesn\'t exist behind a certain car dealership in Rochester.  :roll:

The thing I think that makes this great is that we (club members) could use this to test stuff like new lifts without driving forever away just to find something wrong at the start of a ride then be working on it all day. It would be small enough to fence in and put some lights around so it\'s much more secure than land in the middle of nowhere. Having a much smaller eco impact than land, and being in the city could help keep greenies quiet. We could put some tables and a little shed, maybe a grill or two and have club functions there. It would take a lot of member volunteer time which in it\'s self can be rewarding. To raise money and club awareness we could have a parking lot in the front to host car shows and charge a few bucks to run the course.

I know this is a dream, it could happen but it would take a lot of money and time. I don\'t want to argue about legalities and such, remember, just ideas. However, if you have an idea for another obstacle that would be challenging and fun for various skill levels and types of wheeling, let me know. While I\'m laid up this winter, maybe I\'ll get on autocad and draft up a \"dream plan\" :)

[smichaelR22]

i like your dream, how about you find this place but with a little house in front with a bigger nice garage and a back road to the back yard and ill buy it and then the club can use the land if they would like....   i was eventually thinking about opening a go cart track or a hovercraft park at some point in my life.

My lease is up in March.

 :-D

closer to the 390/90 the better