Garage junk = Crawler course obstacles? Discuss

[Goro Majima]

I've been itching to make obstacles and just throwing my thoughts out there. Here are the few material pieces so far.

- 4 glass shelf slabs (I'm thinking throw non clumping kitty litter on it with resin?)
- 1 full wood pallet to break down along with random 1x/2x
- Plastic support sliders from refrigerator shipping material
- Old brake rotors

I'm sure I have other junk I haven't come across yet to utilize. Please be sure to share what you've built from scratch as I'm always collecting ideas. I plan to get a few more wood pallets.

[high plains drifter]

Might be kinda cool ( depending on their size) to use a couple of the glass shelves as a crazy donut/ burn out area.. maybe even at a slight incline to add some difficulty/ challenge. Would always be changing too with some mud, dry mud, water ( like after it rains), and dry dirt/ sand. Just a thought.

Regardless, post pics of your progress if you can.

btw- I've only ever used rocks, rip-rap, and natural wood scraps/ logs for my back-yard crawling areas.

[Screwfly]

I picked up a slide in a job site to use as an obstacle. Also some straps that I've made a bridge with.
I haul junk for a living so I see inspiration daily. The wife curtails my enthusiasm at times. Lol.

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[ferp420]

glass and plastic make great obsticles in any crawler course
i would turn the slide in to some kinda a creek obsticle dosent realy need water but the slick zlide would.be alot of fun trying to get from one obsticle to another
old tires also can be fun basicly anythg can be used for a crawler course i

[Goro Majima]

Here's the first obstacle build using 1 pallet, a few extra 1x's, and also some 1/16" textured ABS scrap sheets I forgot I could use as they really helped filling gaps. They add a nice touch to it, making it a slick surface to avoid (especially that big curved slab in the middle). It felt nice to build something out of wood and not have to be perfect. I tried to make it out of just the pallet wood only but I focused too much on one side. I made it 16" wide to cater to my 3 rigs (9.5", 10" & 13").

As far as crawling it, it's a pretty simple tackle. A Class 0 would probably be perfect. But to make things difficult I then laid 4 slabs of wood underneath the high side (you can see the wood pieces stacked in the 2nd pic) and that made it fun to climb/descent. That curved plastic slab really needs to be avoided. I tried to show as much of the detailed crevices as I could as well as side view, and head on/downhill views. Lastly I added my 1.9" Proline Toyota Hilux scrap build rig for size reference.

[AK KRAWLER]

Awesome, out of the box thinking on that one.
To make it more difficult, remove the abs and give the tires someplace to drop into, or drive around.

Just a thought, but you got a helluva good start.

[Goro Majima]

The smaller pieces actually make things difficult to grip onto and I think those holes would help instead. But that big slab and the long triangle piece next to it could be something to try without. The wood piece between those 2 is actually the spot to put your passenger tires when I have the high side elevated haha.

Literally had too much fun just toying with this one obstacle. Can't wait to get more pallets.

[AK KRAWLER]

Nothing wrong with your that my friend. That’s what it’s all about.

Agreed on the slippery ness of sheet abs. Try it with snow on it, it can be worse than ice.

Your side hill looks like it’s got a fairly steep angle too. Good job man.

[Goro Majima]

Figured I'd update this thread with the little progression on the little strip of soil beside my home. Unfortunately it's too narrow to utilize my glass shelving someplace. Few screenshots from running videos that need editing.




This area would be nothing without the unshaped concrete.



Staying more on topic, here's a pair of those refrigerator shipping skids I think I mentioned before. I was thinking chopping them into sections to add angles and twists.




Eventually I would like to have this little strip semi complete of obstacles. And a wooden pallet's worth seems to be pretty solid on mobility. I'd like to build a few more of this similar size and width (~16") so I can string them together in different combinations etc.

[AK KRAWLER]

Sounds like a solid plan and looks great so far.

I made this out of some leftover pallet pieces, from building a dog kennel.
I think I got a little overzealous on what my rigs can climb. Nothing I have could make it up the steeper sections :lmao It’s a work in progress.

[Goro Majima]

Whoa that steep angle haha...

I can also snag some cinder blocks. Maybe I can use those to add solid elevation changes in my obstacles.

[Screwfly]

Looks good.
Best part is using what you have.
Mine is pallets, left over project wood and misc bulk trash day gems.
Still a work in progress.


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[ferp420]

nice
a small pudle of water at the bottom of that slide would make it almost imposable to climb or even just misting it with a spray bottle would do it too lol

[Goro Majima]

Originally Posted by Screwfly

Looks good.
Best part is using what you have.
Mine is pallets, left over project wood and misc bulk trash day gems.
Still a work in progress.


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Progression is good.

[AK KRAWLER]

Keep it coming guys, all of this gives me more and more ideas for building my crawler course once the snow melts up here.

[DrIsotope]

My new and possibly forever favorite now is Type S Mortar-- it's cheap, and you can use literally anything as a form/base (there's a guy on YouTube that makes super-realistic rock by putting Type S over crumpled up cardboard boxes.) Added bonus, it grips like nobody's business. Makes Amazon knock-offs feel like they're exotic compound.

[Goro Majima]

I'll have to look into that stuff, thanks for sharing!

Seeing that picture just reminds me of some backyards I've been through. I can imagine some gardeners out there built nice rock gardens, maybe nice enough for some random home technician of whatever field is done with their job and has their crawler in their service truck LOL.

[Timmahh]

Got an Axle hub from my 03 GMC1500 in my course. and a pair of Jugs from my 73 Ironhead.
And a front and rear fender from my Ironhead in the mix. I'll get some pics of them soon.

[AK KRAWLER]

The snow finally cleared out of most of our back yard, so I started placing some of the krawler stuff in place. Definitely way more work to go, but it’s a start…

[Goro Majima]

It's a start indeed! I'm slowly gathering bits n pieces but I've been trying to get my last 4 of my builds done.