The Aalbers gang builds a trail.

[JimK]

It all started started with a little pile of dirt and a few pathways stomped into a snow drift and a handful of guys that work together that have tiny trucks. We would all meet outside on break and lunch to drive around in the snow and try to climb challenging sections and just screw around with our trucks for fun. Once the snow melted we wanted to keep using our trucks at break time so we decided to build a mini trail system out behind our shop. There was plenty of broken concrete, rocks , bricks and lumber laying around behind the building and we quickly started cobbling a trail together with what we had on hand. We also brought some materials from home and built a couple bridges and that sort of thing to add to the trail system. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures of the early parts of the trail build but I started taking lots of pics mid way through. The trail is still a work in progress and we add in features and make some existing areas more challenging as we acquire materials.

Mike's C10. Charles yellow Jeep. Tylers SCX24 Bronco. My Gladiator was absent on picture day....lol


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[JimK]

This is back in February with a light dusting of snow on the ground. These picks sort of show the general lay of the land at the time.



Charles built this wooden bridge at home. It's fun and adds a little elevation to the course.



Tyler masterminded this brick and stone overpass to and another elevated area.



I built the wooden bridge section out of some pallets I pulled from the scrap pile.



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[JimK]

Charles had an old bird feeder at home that we repurposed for the course.



There was a big pile of bricks on the site that we used in many areas to add in some fun and challenging sections.



I cut up some small branches at home and they made some pretty good scale log piles.



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[Maxxamillion]

Fun Jim.
I 'built' a trail behind my shop also. More of a side hill natural terrain with rocks. A lot of key rock placement on natural terrain making rock alleys, and then using a hoe to cut a path (1/10 sized).
Each year I have to start over (weeds) lol. It helps me practice side hill, but side hill is a pain too. My 1/10's are more set up for climbing & clearing breakovers (tallish).
My 1/18 TRX is being shipped as we speak. I'll have a fun natural terrain path for it too.
Think I'll go hoe some tanks traps today! (I'm building a SC track also along with a ISDE course)

Nice building of wood course though! A little bit of alternate cross firring to make those rigs claw. Keep after it... pics are good!

[JimK]

Originally Posted by Maxxamillion

Fun Jim.
I 'built' a trail behind my shop also. More of a side hill natural terrain with rocks. A lot of key rock placement on natural terrain making rock alleys, and then using a hoe to cut a path (1/10 sized).
Each year I have to start over (weeds) lol. It helps me practice side hill, but side hill is a pain too. My 1/10's are more set up for climbing & clearing breakovers (tallish).
My 1/18 TRX is being shipped as we speak. I'll have a fun natural terrain path for it too.
Think I'll go hoe some tanks traps today! (I'm building a SC track also along with a ISDE course)

Nice building of wood course though! A little bit of alternate cross firring to make those rigs claw. Keep after it... pics are good!

Thanks for the kind words. Unfortunately here in Southwestern Ontario there is nothing but flat land and farm soil so we make do with what we have. Hopefully we can add in a bit of rock and stone later on as we progress.

[JimK]

We added another loop to the trail last night. Sorry for the dak pics the sun had already set by the time we finished. A nice thick piece of lumber from the scrap bin made a nice rugged looking bridge. Some rock and stone added add either end made for a fun entrance/exit to the bridge. We added some beach stone to the intersection in the lower left to make it a bit more user friendly from every angle.



The bridge looks great but it's pretty simple. We're going to add some features to it to make it a bit more challenging.







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[JimK]

Here's a better pic of the new section in daylight.



It was a little too easy so I added some nubs and knobs to it. Pretty challenging now especially for the stock trucks.





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[JimK]

Holdin' on for dear life!!





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[JimK]

Added some nubs and knobs to the wood overpass while I was at it.





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[JimK]

Here's a pic of Charles' SCX24 Jeep and my TRX4M Defender posing in the rocks.



Charles getting ready to cross the bridge.



My Defender making it's way through the rocks.



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[JimK]

Last break was after dark so I did a little solo night wheelin'.





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[JimK]

Made some changes to the log bridge last night, it was just too difficult for our little trucks. I don't mind a challenge but we spending our entire break just trying to get across the bridge!



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[JimK]

We also made some changes to the little dirt hill that was the start of this little trail system.

A mix of brick, beach stone and broken patio stones get you up the back of the hill.



Patio stones broken into small jagged pieces takes you up and down the front of the hill. Nicely challenging!!



I'm thinking of calling it The Bone Yard!?



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[JimK]

Cleared a path for another section of trail. Some plans for expansion are in the works.



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[JimK]

We made a couple changes to the course again tonight.

We took the wood blocks off of the overpass and replaced them with some big stones that are fixed in place with construction adhesive. Looks a little more natural and the chunks of wood were a little too big for our tiny trucks to negotiate.



We also added in a beach stone rock garden at the top of the Bone Yard that wraps around to the back of the hill. It's a small change but it adds another line when you get to the top of the hill.



A peek from the back side of the hill.



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[JimK]

We also added on a couple new features to our mini trail system.

I built a small teeter totter at home from some scraps of wood I had on hand.



Here it is put in place on the trail.



We also took out a couple of short sections of patio stones and put these little wood bridges in place, also made from some of my bits of scrap wood.



Nothing too fancy but they add a little variety to the trail.



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[JimK]

Here's a few pictures of our trucks wreaking havoc out on the trails.

All four trucks posing at the bottom of the Bone Yard.



Shortly thereafter mayhem ensued!



Tyler's Bronco heading across the teeter totter. He actually got it to balance in that position.



Mike's C10 heading across one of the bridges.



Jim's Bronco ready to drop into the Bone Yard.



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[JimK]

I built a couple new features at home recently and brought them to work to add another section to the trail.



I made two sections like this.



Here's the finished product with some flat stones added to it.



These two pics are a view from both ends.





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[JimK]

We also added a little path to the area behind the Bone Yard tonight.



Here's the Bronco making it's way through.



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[JimK]

Today I made up a frame and treads to add a suspension bridge to the ATM trail. Will try and set it up tonight if it's not raining.

This section is 5 feet long, 21 inches high and the span for the bridge is 3 feet.



Here's the treads strung together on a couple old skate laces. I used some wood scraps and sticks for this. It's 39.5 inches long so it should sag nicely in the middle and sway around when we're crossing it. Can't wait to try it out once it's together.



I also made this 26 inch long wavy bridge to put somewhere on the trail. I used my jigsaw to cut a scrap 2x4 in half and fastened them together with a couple short scraps of wood. It's about 5 1/2" wide. If this works out well I may make a longer one for the course too?



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