jebster's backyard rock course
 

so, i decided to take some unused space in the side of the yard to claim for a rock course. i used scrap lumber to build bases for the 4 main piles so i could use less rocks. i still have quick a bit of loose stones (last pic) to cover more area. i plan on getting a truckload of small crushed stone to fill in the space between the piles.
if anyone has recommendations i'm open to ideas. my 5yr son had the idea of throwing in some large limbs of old trees onto the course. i might do more of that.
i have my venom creeper in the pic for scale.

Looks pretty good. Just spray some poison around the piles so its easy to mow.

definitely going to round-up everything before i drop in the rest of the larger rocks and crushed stones. i was thinking of making another pile out of stacked limbs (4-6" in diameter) to create another type of surface to challenge my rigs.

if i get real ambitious i might mount some lights on the nearby trees that i can plug in as needed for night crawling!

sweet course, looks like alot of fun.

i run on a log pile and a rock wall and its deffently different"thumbsup"

i'm trying to decide if i could get some more height out of the piles but it is unlikely. i might stack the logs to form a pyramid, which might be pretty cool. i do have to be careful because my 5yr son likes to climb on everything while he's driving his crawler so whatever i put together needs to be pretty sturdy.

If you use some logs I suggest using something with some pretty rough bark. If the bare wood gets wet then all that slime will get on your tires. Also different types of wood in different areas would add unique challenges.

That looks pretty sweet. A log pile sounds good. Maybe a log bridge to connect the pile to a pile of rocks?? Might be challenging, and you can always lift it off when not needed. I like it tho, very cool. "thumbsup"

i hadn't thought of a bridge. i have plenty of limbs to work with. i may have to give that a try.

made some more progress. added in a section with just level small stones. i set that up so my son can run his maxstone 16 without getting frustrated that his rig can't climb the larger piles. i have about 5-6 more wheelbarrel loads of stones (mostly smaller rocks) to spread out yet. after that i am drawing up plans for a wooden bridge made up of limbs from around the yard.
in the mean time i decided to enjoy the course and ran my venom creeper and xr10 on it. it works well and has some challenges to use for tuning of the rigs. here are some pics:

got some more rocks added and whipped up a section of wooden bridging. it only took about 1 hour to make. not a real challenge for my xr10 or creeper but it makes it interesting for my son and his maxstone 16. i'm thinking of making more bridge sections with different spacing so i can give me 2.2 rigs something to work on.

next up is lighting. in the mean time if anyone taking a look has suggestions for changes i'm all ears.

Sweet.
Did you just buy the rocks or find them somewhere?

Looks good, you could use some cinder blocks to build UP. There alot cheaper and easyer to work with then the big rocks. Then cover with real rocks.

all the rocks are just ones that are around my yard or were dug up when we put an addition on the house. plenty of rocks to work with. i do have some monster sized rocks but i'll need some heavy equipment to move then around. so far everything you see was moved by hand.

under the 4 main piles are chunks of scrap lumber i stacked and then put the rocks on top. i might try getting some cinder blocks to go higher. we'll see if i can make it work.

Looks great man, I've been gathering up rocks to make my backyard course. I quickly realized that there is a serious shortage of large rocks here in the South LOL.

I wish I had rock like that in my yard!

Have you thought of using some quickcrete? You could get really creative with some of that to "glue" all your rocks together. Thats what I am planning on for my backyard crawling area/course.

Its probably going to be about 30 x 50ft with a stream leading to a small pond right in the middle of it! Ahhh...zen! Still collecting rock though. Might breakdown and just buy a truckload or two.

Is that a Traxxas transmitter I see there? How does that work? I'm guessing 3 channel? Are you controlling a dig with it?

lol Great looking course man those bridges look solid too. (maybe not solid enough for a 5yr but then what is? ;-)) I was thinking of building a "rock garden" too but id have to okay with the landlord since we rent. how many square feet would you say the course takes up?

right now i would say the course is about 20' x 15', so 300 sqft. the bridge was something different but i like it. i do think i'll make more sections like the one i have so i can mix up the course a little. all it took was some bailing wire and a bunch of small branches.

it is a traxxas 4ch 2.4Ghz link radio. i run almost all my vehicles (Summit, Slash 4x4, venom creeper, xr10, my son's maxstone 16) off of it. for the xr10 i use a true-3-position module from wantAsummit on the 4th/5th channel to run a punk dig. on the venom creeper i use the 3rd channel to operate it's dig. i know the traxxas radio is not nearly as user friendly to program and it has limited functionality compared to say a 4pk but for a basher like me it works great.

i hadn't considering using quickcrete mainly because i want to be able to move rocks around if i don't like the lines or just want to change it up. plus, it does add a challenge when some of the rocks you are climbing can move a little.

Each to his own, but I would not want any loose rock tilting on me. IMO that way your leaving things to chance instead of relying fully on your driving skills. Although you're right. Leaving them loose allows for different setups when ya get tired of one.

Cool course ya got there.