How to Offroad Like a Girl (Or, anyone really)
When I first started off-roading, I got a lot of sideways looks while out in the bush.
In fact, I still do.
Driving in the bush in Southern Africa, people seemed to expect they should see a guy behind the wheel.
Spoiler alert: I’m not a guy.
Living in a part of the world (Northern Botswana) where most men are either running safaris or maintaining the gear for one, on surface value this seems kind of understandable.
But, I also know a lot of gutsy, adventurous women with an abundance of intuition for how to survive (no, thrive) in the bush. After all, by mere virtue of living there, they have to do it by default.
So, why is it weird to go off-road when you’re female?
Off-roading in Botswana’s Makgadikgadi with a furry co-driver
Dare I say it, a lot seems to hang on ‘traditional’ gender roles, which still largely persist (especially in Southern Africa) today. Women don’t do it. Men do.
And, there’s this weird misconception that off-roading means having to push a car to make it go.
But, that’s actually what the accelerator does.
Truth is, driving off-road is not as complicated as 4x4 magazines full of souped-up Hiluxes loaded with winches might make you think. And, it doesn’t usually require too much physical strength.
Sure, there’s a lot that can go wrong (like anything), and there’s a different set of rules for driving off the tar, but there are also plenty of ways to make it go right.
At the end of a very water-soaked 4x4 trip through Botswana’s Savute Marsh that saw us lose the numberplate in one of the water crossings
For every woman who leaves the man to drive, there’s plenty of men who also weren’t born with an immediate understanding of low range either.
This guide is for all of you who’d like to give it a shot, but want a few basics for the extra confidence first.
I’ve broken down a few main points below that should make giving it a go in the sand, mud, or whatever a little less intimidating. If I’ve missed anything you’d like to know more about, feel free to ask in the comments below.
Happy off-roading!
MYTH #1: YOU NEED A Y CHROMOSOME
Brute strength. That’s what you need, right?
Wrong.
While it helps to have a few people around who are able to push, this isn’t the logical place to avoid getting stuck, or to figure out how best to get yourself out if it comes down to it.
Sure, if you’re driving a sedan down a muddy lane, a quick push with some biceps will often get you going again, but with proper off-roading, the most helpful body part you can use is your brain.
When a heavily loaded 4x4 is stuck in thick mud or sand, pushing won’t help if you can’t figure out how to free the vehicle in the first place.
The most common prevention for ending up stuck is having your car in the right gear before you hit trouble, setting the right tyre pressure, and when in doubt: go slow.
With a little basic know-how, you can skip the gym session and go straight to the bush instead.
MYTH #2: YOU NEED LOTS OF FANCY GEAR
Sure, if you’ve got the budget, it’s nice to have recovery gear like a hi-lift jack and sand ladders, but these aren’t always critical.
Usually, the one thing you DO need when stuck, is traction.
Traction is the aim in most cases when it comes to recovering a vehicle from water, sand or mud. If the wheels keep turning, and the vehicle keeps sinking, you need forward motion to get the car going - and that can be easier than you’d think.
Of course, you DO need to have some basic gear to hand, and the following will help in most scenarios.
· A PROPER 4x4
· A compressor (ideally with a tyre gauge)
· A jack
· A wheel spanner
· A shovel
The ‘proper’ 4x4 : A lot of ‘all wheel drives’ are not really that great for more than the school run. Beyond having a car where all four wheels can turn at once when needed, you need a vehicle with clearance. This means something where the body of the car doesn’t sit so close to the ground that you risk bottoming out on un-even terrain.
The greater the space between your car and the ground, the better – and the less likely you are to get stuck in the first place. Once you’ve ensured you have a car capable of 4WD low & high, check you know exactly how to engage 4x4 mode if and when needed. Not all 4x4s follow the same system. Some are engaged with buttons, and others with gear sticks. Some might even require you to get out and lock the hubs. If you’re jumping in a new 4x4 for the first time, check what you need to know to get yours going.
Too embarrassed to ask? Look for a tutorial to match your 4x4 of choice on youtube before you set out. Watch it, practice it, and you’re ready to go.
Generally, as soon as you’re off the tar, you can go into 4x4 high. This will give you greater traction on uneven terrain, and also churn up less of the road for the next person who comes along. You can consistently drive in 4x4 high while travelling over 20km/h, but should disengage once you’re on tar, or going highway speeds.
4x4 low is what I like to call ‘tractor mode’ since that’s more or less what it does - goes slow, but gives good pulling power (torque). This is best used at low speeds (under 20km/h) required to navigate hazards, like deep mud, thick sand, or water crossings.
Having the right 4x4 with good clearance will help you avoid a lot of un-necessary digging and pushing before you even get going
A compressor: Back to that question of traction. Controlling the air in your tyres is one of the handiest ways to avoid getting stuck in the first place.
Reducing the amount of air in your tyres will give your tyre tread greater spread when off-roading, increasing the amount of contact your tyres have with the trail, and therefore the traction.
If you don’t have a tyre gauge but need to deflate, count to the same number while reducing pressure for each tyre. This will ensure the tyres have roughly an even amount of air expelled as you can get.
Driving on deflated tyres at high speeds is dangerous, so you’ll need the compressor to pump your tyres back up once you’re back at faster speeds, and especially once you’re back on the tar. This small trick goes far in helping to prevent you from ever getting stuck in the first place.
A jack: A lot of people will tell you that if you’re off-roading, you need a hi-lift jack. While this might be preferable for ease of convenience, you can still make do without one.
Hi-lift jacks are handy for propping a car up to greater heights than a bottle jack might allow for, and to get it done quickly. But, hi-lift jacks also require ‘jack points’ to be installed, and can be quite dangerous to operate if you’re standing too close and the jack fails.
If all you’ve got is a bottle jack, this will still get you out of a lot of trouble if needed. Ideally, you should have a flat piece of wood to put under the jack, to create a stable base for it in case you need to change a tyre on an uneven surface or in sand or mud. Having a few pieces of flat wood can also help to create a bit of extra height underneath the jack for when it’s fully extended, depending on what you need to do. If you don’t have something to use as a jack plate and you’re stuck in sand or mud, a cooler box lid might even do the trick – if you’re prepared to sacrifice it to the cause.
The biggest trick here is to practise extending and retracting the jack at LEAST once before you go, so that you’re confident you know how to operate it.
Do this while you have access to mobile phone data and youtube for a quick demonstration so that when you need it in the bush, you can rely on muscle memory instead of starting from scratch.
Beyond changing tyres, a jack is also useful for getting (you guessed it) TRACTION.
Jacking up the car creates space under the tyres for placing branches, firewood, or anything else you need for traction. This means the surface you’ll be starting from will be harder than the mud or sand underneath, hopefully giving you enough momentum to get unstuck.
If you’re only working with a bottle jack, you can try digging out some soil from around and beneath the tyres to get branches, or firewood (whatever you can find!) under the tread. If you can’t jack the car higher, then dig the soil a little lower (make sure the underneath of the car’s chassis is clear too) in order to get some branches under and help the car climb out.
Once you’re home free, make sure to remove any branches or firewood from the road, so they don’t pose a puncture hazard for the next car to come along.
A wheel spanner: Pretty self-explanatory. If you need to get a tyre off and change it, you’ll be pretty stuck without this. Make sure it’s packed somewhere easy to access, rather than underneath all the camping gear.
A shovel: Your best friend if you ever get stuck. Once you feel the car starting to dig in, and the wheels turning without actually moving, get off the accelerator, or you’ll end up using the shovel for much longer than you’d like, once you’ve beached the chassis.
Sometimes a shovel is the best tool to help dig you out of the mess you’ve gotten yourself into
Image Credit: Gareth Thomson
MYTH #3: IF YOU CAN’T GET UNSTUCK, YOU’LL DIE
Ever hear a story about ‘those people who went off-roading, got stuck, went walking for help but were never seen again’?
While horrible accidents like that CAN happen, there are lots of ways to ensure this isn’t likely to be you – even if you do get stuck.
The first rule? Stick to existing tracks. If you’re off-roading, chances are that someone else will come along sooner or later, but if you’ve left the track, it’ll be a lot harder for anyone to see that you’re stuck in the first place.
If you’re off-roading in a national park, or other area of interest, odds are you aren’t alone, even if traffic isn’t frequent. The key is to make sure you have surplus food and water, in case you need to sit it out. Staying with the vehicle will make you a lot easier to find than heading off on foot, where you won’t have access to all the goodies stored in the car. This is particularly important in a wildlife area where leaving the safety of a vehicle can further risk your life.
Making sure someone at your destination knows to expect your arrival is another good idea, as well as telling them in advance where you’ll be arriving from, so that if you don’t turn up, they’ll know to come looking for you, and in what direction, in case you need help.
We’ve all been there. If you stick to the tracks (these guys didn’t!) you’ll always have better odds of being found sooner rather than later.
MYTH #4: WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS, HIT THE ACCELERATOR
As tempting as hitting the accelerator seems when the tyres start spinning and the car stops moving, this will only help once you’ve figured out a way to get some traction under the tyres.
The same goes for approaching hazards while off-roading, such as water crossings, particularly soft patches of sand, or loose rubble you might need to climb. The faster you go, the less precise you can be, and the more you might churn up whatever you want to climb out of instead.
While maintaining speed can be handy for not getting bogged in the first place, this usually just means being able to keep above 20 km/h, rather than pushing it above 60, and not pushing the revs too hard. The faster you go, the more likely you are to lose control, and the less chance you’ll give yourself the time needed to spot a hazard and change into low range when needed, before you get there.
Like the tortoise and the hare – when in doubt, slow and steady wins the race.
Sometimes having a compliant co-driver walk the road first is the best way to avoid hidden hazards, particularly when it comes to water crossings
MYTH #5: YOU’LL DEFINITELY GET LOST
So there are no street signs where you’re going. How on earth will you figure out how to get there? What if you take a wrong turn?
The easiest way to address this is by downloading an app like Tracks4Africa, which will help you figure out your location, whether you have phone signal or not. If you aren’t travelling in Africa, try downloading offline maps that will still show your location while travelling off-road.
Failing all else, most iphones these days have a built-in compass. The trick to using one, is to know roughly what direction you’d need to go to reach the closest town or road, should you need it. If you know there is a main road running east to west and you’re south of it, then if you get lost, you can just follow any tracks north until you get there. This means checking the general layout of an area when leaving more frequented roads so you know what direction to follow your compass in, if you lose your bearings and there’s no one else around.
Another fail-safe is to tell someone where you’re going, what route you’re planning to take to get there, and when you expect to have phone signal again to let them know you’re out safe and sound. Set a time for roughly 6 – 12 hours after you expect to have signal, so that they know to check in if you haven’t reported back.
Ideally, if you’re heading out on your own, see if you can rent or borrow a satellite phone and make sure it’s loaded with credit, that you know how to use it, and that you have the phone number of someone (or even your car rental company) who can come and assist you in an emergency.
Of course, there’s a lot to be said for getting lost on purpose…
MYTH #6: OFF-ROADING MEANS SLUMMING IT
Off-roading doesn’t have to mean getting down and dirty. In fact, since you’ve got all that extra storage that a 4x4 has to offer, it can be a great chance to pack some extra creature comforts.
Some things I like to add include a hot water bottle for winter evenings, a sarong as a multi-use towel, scarf, blanket etc, a hammock and ratchet straps so I have a spot to hang out under almost any tree, and a piece of tarp to sleep on top of, shelter underneath, or put to use as a picnic blanket in a pinch.
Of course, the number one trick is to always carry a cooler box, with plenty of ice, and more beer than you think you’ll need for the thirsty work of watching the sun go down.
In a pinch, a hammock and two ratchet straps can get you nicely set up for siesta
Happy travels!