Backyard Course Southern Style

[NTA_Shawn]

Recently got a Vaterra Ascender as I cant afford to wheel my 1:1 much as I want to anymore. I wanted to have a place to play at in my backyard as there are a few places locally to crawl at, but sometimes I just don't feel like getting away from the house. I have a fairly large oak tree in my backyard that gives off nice shade, but kills the surrounding grass. I am taking that negative and turning it into a positive and that will be the area of my course. I wanted an all around place to wheel my truck at; rocks, mud, climbs etc...
Rocks are hard to come by in south MS. There are a few places that do have them, but they are reel proud of them and their prices show it. So in them meantime I used some concrete rubble and landscape blocks that were laying around the yard to make a mini rock garden. I found some few pieces of dried up driftwood and added some sticks in random positions to make a "log trap" type of area.
This weekend while trying out an area with a buddy, I found some real rocks at a good price. I appropriated a few of them, but since I wasn't in my 1:1, I was limited on the amount of what I could get. I added them to the current concrete menagerie, but it wasn't enough. I'll make another trip back in my 1:1 and load up.
Until then, I started working on the aerial bridge/climbs portion of my course. I work at Lowe's so I get a decent discount and used it to my advantage with the purchase of 14 2x4x8s and 5/8x6x8 fence boards.

The first hill is 3ft tall with about a 6ft run at a 30* angle. The boards are spaced 6" apart.



I added a 2ft section of platform that ends in a 4" drop to a wide turn. After that, a 8ft run that will have various obstacles. After that a 1ft drop to a 4ft run. Not sure if I will do a hill or stair step transition.



A 3ft run of chain was added. I wanted rope, but didn't have any around the size I wanted. At least I don't have to worry about the chain rotting away. The chains end on a 4ft run with a 90* turn onto a 45* hill.

 

[NTA_Shawn]

Started placing the cut fence boards on the first hill. I cut a few notches in the 2x4s to be able to add dips and smaller climbs.



Added an interesting dip to incline on the platform that just catches the rear links of my Ascender. Then went in the wide turn. The boards (2x4s) in the background are 6ft tall on purpose. I will be adding some lattice on them to place the climbing roses on that are growing on the ground. This will help them grow and hide the majority of the aerial course from people passing by on the road. I don't think it'd be an issue, but there are some nosey people who like to complain about the littlest thing these days.


Close up of the turn and small obstacle on the 8ft run. If you don't square up with it, you will slide right off the platform.


Overall view so far. I ran out of daylight today, but did get to give it a few trial runs. Its not impossible, but its got some tricky spots here and there.


Another overall view (without the boards) for a general idea of the total size.

 

[Natedog]

Off to a great start, keep us updated!

 

[dr frankenstyle]

That's lookin' great so far! I just have a pile of rocks (and woods and a pond bank, etc.) Heck, I can't get away from rocks in my yard. If they were $1 each, folks around here would be millionaires.

 

[skinnyj]

Try living in the "Granite State". Once you clear the web of shallow running maple roots, you get about 6-7 inches and your shovel starts clanking on granite boulders. It makes yard work a real treat... :x

 

[teanpiney]

Looking good. I also have the issue of living away from any rocks for my rock crawler. Plenty of muddin'. I plan on adding sort of the same thing around what I got going on now. (Seen below)........... May have a double lane across the back with a easy and difficult way. Always looking for ideas.

PS..... I also own a dumptruck and the reason the rocks are expensive where there is no quarries is due to the trucking costs.

 

[NTA_Shawn]

A little bit of progress today. I ran out of 2x4s to finish it off last weekend and I really didn't want to fire up my 1:1 to take it to work (Lowes). So I was off today, had to go run some errands so me and my daughter, Satori, went out in ole Big Red. We stopped by Lowes and got a few more 2x4s, lattice and weednfeed for the yard. I went with a plastic lattice of a brown color. It doesn't have to be painted and will never rot away leaving me to untangle the mess of roses. Word of advise, use gloves when dealing with rose vines. The green climbing roses will look good offset by the brown lattice that they climb on. The lattice/rose combo will "hide" the course from passerbys at the street. Once the treated wood settles down and dries some, I will color match some exterior paint to the lattice color. I think I will just paint the supports of the aerial part and leave the boards natural.
I also came across two good sized pieces of bamboo in the mix of roses. I had a t-post left over from a previous project and used it to support the bamboo and keep it off the track.




The lattice does limit how far you can overhang your body off the track when setting up for the turn. It does give some and it also creates a bit of complexity to the turn.


Hopefully I can get some more work done tomorrow on it. But I have to take the little one to a birthday party slap in the middle of the day an hour away. If not, I wil get up early Sunday with a cup pf coffee and wake the neighbors with my circular saw and air compressor. I have a buddy coming by that afternoon to try out the course. We are going to set up a few lines and do some time trials/competitions.

 

[skinnyj]

That looks like fun.

There is no way I could get away with that in my yard.

1) I live in a city, so I have a little tiny city lot. I could probably do it with 1/18 scale.

2) The wife would kick my ass. I don't think a scale course fits into her vision of a backyard oasis.

 

[NTA_Shawn]

That looks like fun.

There is no way I could get away with that in my yard.

1) I live in a city, so I have a little tiny city lot. I could probably do it with 1/18 scale.

2) The wife would kick my ass. I don't think a scale course fits into her vision of a backyard oasis.

I hear ya! Luckily I have a quarter acre lot in the city. The misses doesn't mind as I have a "master plan" of putting up a flower bed border around the whole course. It will sort of conceal some of the stuff in there and act a dam to divert rain runoff away from the area. The area is a bit low, mainly due to the oak tree doesn't allow grass to grow and that lets the dirt wash away easily (hence the dam).
I have a slew of landscape timbers ready to go to form up the raised flower garden and separate vegetable garden. All I have to do is lay down a line as how far out I want the course to go out into the yard. That's the hard part as I have tons of ideas I want to do to it.

 

[skinnyj]

Wow. That looks like more than a quarter acre. That is what I have, as well. Maybe I have less. I do know that, under current zoning, my house could not exist on a lot this size.

The back yard is big enough for 1/18 stuff. I have a Traxxas SST on order and may pick up a 1/18 ECX Torment for the kids and I to bash around with.



We've only been here a little under two years, so the yard still needs a ton of work...

 

[NTA_Shawn]

Wow. That looks like more than a quarter acre. That is what I have, as well. Maybe I have less. I do know that, under current zoning, my house could not exist on a lot this size.

The back yard is big enough for 1/18 stuff. I have a Traxxas SST on order and may pick up a 1/18 ECX Torment for the kids and I to bash around with....

We've only been here a little under two years, so the yard still needs a ton of work...

Well, ya got me! Its actually .27acres ;-).
This area is about 20' wide and about 12' deep. I am pretty sure it will go out to a 20x20' or more.

 

[NTA_Shawn]

Got up somewhat bright and early with a cup of coffee and my morning cigar I got some more progress done today. I added the boards to the landing, hill and turn of the last aerial portion. The hill is 45* and the turn is not very wide. There is some parts of the turn where you have to hang a tire off, slide on the rocker sliders and then climb that tire back up.


I then worked on the part before the chain bridge. I was going to have a steps section, but I wanted a part for a turn to a hill. That way there will be different entrance/exit lines onto the aerial. The hill is a bit over 45* and once the tires get a bit dirted up you need a bit of momentum and wheel speed to get up it. Back to the chain bridge, I am thinking of adding some boards on it. I can get about half way across it before the chains separate and my truck falls.


I had some scrap triangle 2x4 pieces that where leftover from the miter cuts. After some trial and error, I figured out a nice section to flex in. These can be bypassed, but the axle will ramp on them.

 

[NTA_Shawn]

After lunch I got to try out the progress. The flex section is pretty interesting to see how much this truck flexes. The pieces are just enough it doesn't lift a tire or get caught on the frame or sliders. I am thinking of putting a few taller pieces on the outside of the current pieces to see how far it will flex without rolling it - just a thought, nothing finalized just yet.

 

[NewScaler]

You could put a small piece of chain between the to runs to limit how much they separate.

 

[NTA_Shawn]

You could put a small piece of chain between the to runs to limit how much they separate.

I had thought about that or using zip ties. Not sure what I am going to do just yet. I got to do something because its separating the two sections.

 

[NTA_Shawn]

This thread is making me want to create a course in my back yard! The course looks great.

Thanks!

I was hoping to be able to do a full week end of running and working on my course on Saturday and trying out a few other spots on Sunday. But after the down poor we had today, the course is under 2 or 3" of run-off water. I guess I need to put the raised flower garden border into plan. Hopefully it will divert a lot of the water away (into my neighbor's yard HAHAaa) from the course that sits in a low spot. Then over time raise the whole area up with dirt.

 

[teanpiney]

Stopped by local landscape place the other day to see what they get for the pallets of stone. Big bucks of course. However while walking around I noticed a pallet of mixed stuff. Asked about it and turned out to be the stuff that wasnt nice enough to pallet. Long story short I got it for fifty bucks. I'm gonna consider a score for our intended usage.

 

[Mike Flea]

I got a buddy that runs a landscaping business. When he does tearouts for custom brickwork, be it landscaping debris or concrete, I have him drop it in my yard. Cheap for me, I don't pay for anything, cheap for him, he doesn't have to spend cash to take it to the dump.

 

[NTA_Shawn]

18 landscape timbers and 20 bags of dirt is a good start to the flower bed garden around it. I got the dirt down, the last few bags in the dark so I couldn't get a pic of it "completed." Hopefully this will deter the water away from it and out to the street and the neighbor's yard. Water has a hard time getting around the big oak tree so I figured this would act as a damn and route it out of the low spot.




We got a healthy downpour yesterday and it came before I could finish the flowerbed. It held a good bit of water since one part didn't have any dirt in it and the water just flowed right through onto the course. But I did see more water in the annoying neighbor's yard that usual. (Ha) If this doesn't work too well, I will dig a hole, drop a bucket and pump in it. Them pump the water out of the area. More dirt and flowers to come, my daughter and I planted some beans in part of the flower bed. She enjoyed it and the misses is happy.

 

[kennypreston65]

It's looking good, are you going to run wiring for lights?

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