Project- Offroad Park for crawling and bashing
 

I decided to start building a decent place to run my RCs. It is a great time to start since it is somewhat warmer than deep winter, but the spring time growth has not started yet. The area needs to cater to both my crawler, HPI Blitz, and RC18MT. I want the area to have a bit of each type of terrain with a lot of cross over points as well. I want it to be seamless between the transitions, almost like a real 1:1 off-road park. At least that is the vision.

Next to my house is a great state forestry that was closed down in the 90's. No one ever goes out there as there is not any access to the park except through my house. The old parking lot is situated directly next to the house. It has been in disrepair for over 15 years. The state tore up some of the old asphalt and made large mounds out of the debris. This is a perfect place for a kick ass offroad RC park.

I plan to tackle this project over the next few weeks and will keep you guys updated.

Day 1- Before:

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As you can see it doesn't look much like a parking lot anymore! There is some potential under there though. At first glance it seems like a bit of raking is all that is needed... Well, actually under those leaves there is a vast network of vines and junk. I spent practically the entire day raking and pulling vines and I only got half of the area done. I did uncover the potential though. The surface is rich top soil mixed with small gravel and asphalt in some areas. The first mound is made entirely of nice clay/dirt, great basis for a crawling/trail course.

Day 1 progress:

After clearing a bit I could start to come up with some ideas. The mound will have a ramp in the middle of it for my Blitz and I drew in a bridge I am going to make for the crawler to go over the gap. I am going to add rocks and push sticks into the dirt on the steep sides of the mound for extra traction. I plan to also cut some paths out of the side of the mound for a trial all the way around it. I have a large pile of bricks that will be put to good use in the coming days.

Here are some pictures of the progress so far:

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So guys what features should I think about including in the park? I have a ton of room so anything goes.

Looks like a good start but I would take some time to checks with either the US Forestry service or your local parks and recreation district to make sure it's ok that you do that. Check with the land owners.

Many locals will allow you to do it as long as it's accessible to the public since it's still public land, even if they don't use it, or haven't for years.

I'd hate to see you spend lots of man hours fixing up a nice place to run your rigs and have some uptight liberal city or state official get their panties in a wad and spend 10k+ to drive a front end loader through your yard and flatten all your hard work because you "didn't get permission"

anywho that's my 2cp

well if what he said is true about the state park being closed, i would say go for it. If somebody from the county/state does come out and do something about it, they cant really point fingers unless they see you there 8)
Good luck!

I would make a TTC Tank Trap type line up one of those mounds. Carve it out a little by hand, use 5 gallon buckets of water to do the rest of the work. it'd be perfect. "thumbsup"

I think it would be interesting to make a series of about 1 foot high moguls that cover an area of like 5' x 10'. i think that would be pretty fun to crawl around on if you set up gates and stuff. :mrgreen:

Thanks for the input guys.

We've talked to the rangers before about riding ATVs and bicycles in the forestry. They said as long as we don't tear it up then they don't care. They have more things to worry about such as fishing licenses, hunting permits, etc. The land was donated by the previous owners about 45 years ago. I will call them just to double check.

I cleared out some more and ramped the mound with my Blitz, damn it was pretty sweet. I started setting up a trail section on one side with 1.9's in mind for the future. I made the bridge as well and supported it with bricks. I'll try to get some pics sometime soon. I plan on getting some nice sized rocks to make a good crawling section. The ground is thawing right now and it is very muddy, so it is hard to work out there. Good thing the temp is getting back up though.

I'll look into the TTC tank trap I don't quite know what that is, but the moguls are a great idea.

Also I now have some poison ivy :(

Very nice, on the progress that is, not the poison ivy lol. Hey, building something isn't all that fun unless something happens good or bad right? Looking forward to seeing the pictures of what you have done so far. I'm hoping to do something quite alike to what your doing right now at my friends place. Make it awesome man!!!!8)