Ok, I’m hoping I don’t get lit up too bad for even asking this, I’m so green to off-roading that I don’t even know what I don’t know… like, I’m having second thoughts even asking this question, but here goes…

Anyone know any beginner off-road trails around Bend Oregon or Cannon Beach Oregon that are easy enough to safely take a rental Jeep from Alamo? I have zero experience with any 4WD vehicles.

Ok. Get your laughs out. But my logic is there’s gotta be some 2- or 3-mile little jaunt, where you drive through it and when you’re done you say “ya know… we probably could’ve done that in a 2WD vehicle”. I mean, I took my old RWD Ranger through the woods in Missouri and never got so bold that I got stuck… so there’s gotta be an extremely easy off-road trail where even a dingus tourist in a rented Wranger can make it out, right?

For context, my wife and I are spending 4 days in Portland, 3 days in Bend, and 3 days at Cannon Beach, and Alamo has confirmed a 4WD Wranger,, I can’t imagine it being anything other than a 4 door JL but those details aren’t confirmed yet.

Should I find other, safer things to do on my vacation or is a little adventure through the high desert or sand dunes actually feasible?

Thanks for your responses and jokes in advance. Hope ya don’t see me on the news.

Edit: You guys are awesome! Thank you for the responses, we’re gonna make sure the fine print even allows what we want to do, evaluate the risk:reward of breaking the rules based on potential fines, and if it’s worth it, use some of the apps and websites you guys recommended to find extremely easy and higher-traffic trails, where we’re very unlikely to get stuck, lost, or hurt, and do a little light exploring before we go back to our boring suburban road cars.

Or, if the rules are too strict and the fines for breaking them too high, we’ll just enjoy taking the top off and getting some wind and sun up in the desert.

Thank you all again, keep the suggestions coming! I’m glad I asked, and I like your community.

Can we do the macetown 4wd track in a stock gen 4 pajero?

Thank you for a response.

I’m wanting to convert my rig (2018 vw Tiguan) from OEM headlights to light pods and bar lights. Ideally I’m hoping to put pods or small bars in the headlight housing locations (I understand it will need some custom fab and or brackets) and have a bull bar that the larger light bars will be mounted to. Does anyone have an idea how I might be able to do this while retaining full use of factory hi/lo switch as well as good light seres within Baja or Rigid?

Thank you all in advance

After spending a decade working in the wheel and tire industry, one of the most common issues I've seen people struggle with is figuring out optimal tire pressure after altering their setup. When you switch from factory P-metric tires to larger LT tires, or when you start adding significant weight like steel bumpers, winches, or campers, the factory door placard inflation numbers become completely irrelevant.

To solve this, I built a mobile calculator utility called Placard. It uses official Tire and Rim Association load tables to spit out exact pressure recommendations calculated directly from your specific vehicle weights and tire load indexes. It's completely free and doesn't have any ads.

I recently updated the off-road module quite a bit. The challenge there is that dirt pressure calculations rely much more on theory than hard math, so it will be a while before that side of things is entirely reliable. Sharing your specific vehicle setups, along with your preferred off-road operating pressures, would be hugely beneficial to help me dial in that logic.

If you have actual scaled axle weights for your rig, I would love for you to run them through the tool and see how the calculated highway numbers line up compared to your real-world experience or chalk tests.

The tool also has a built-in reference section with lots of useful information. You can switch between metric and imperial units in the settings, along with light and dark themes.

I am actively looking for technical feedback to help refine the system overall, so let me know what you think. Any input, criticism, bug reports, or real world feedback is greatly appreciated.

And finally, a huge thank you to the mods for green-lighting this post. Other communities have been openly hostile to me trying to get feedback on this project, and it's incredibly helpful having somewhere that I can get some good input.

The link to the app is in the comments.

As the title says, should I buy/build a Nissan Patrol Y61, or would you recommend something else?

The plan is to use it for weekend trips with the family, including both campsite stays and off-grid/wild camping. Thanks in advance for your advice!

Hey guys, looking for something nice to drive as a daily that can go off road. I live on somewhat of a farm and work on a much bigger one so I find myself off road pretty often, I want something fun but still comfortable enough to daily. I was looking at bronco raptors, I essentially want a G wagon that doesn’t scream look at me, or at least in that way.
Any suggestions would be helpful!!! Thanks

Sounds like the trail is closed near the Telluride side. Any locals know an ETA?

Appreciate it in advance.

Edit: first of all, thank you all for the wealth of information and advice! I’m happy to report that I made a mistake and went down the wrong road with a similar name, ending in the dead end. I found the correct road, and made it to the BLM land! It’s gorgeous. Thank you again for all the replies!

🧅🧅🧅🧅🧅🧅🧅🧅🧅🧅🧅🧅🧅🧅🧅

Hello, I have tried multiple roads out of town to try to access BLM land near Gold Beach Or. I have used multiple map apps, as well as onX Offroad, and all the roads I’ve followed dead end at private land with gates, particularly hunter creek road circled in pink. I want to backpack and dispersed camp. Thank you.

I don’t know what pattern to get for ditch lights I really want to utilize them for seeing into ditched at night, I’m leaning towards the squadron pro 2’s but idk what pattern!!! Please help

I just took my 2025 Badlands out for the first real off-road excursion. It was a 50 mile run through Stanislaus Forest into Yosemite. I didn't realize the brushes would be so thick and ended up with a lot of scratches on the side of the rig. When I lick my finger and rub it they seem to vanish, however a few seem to stay a bit. They do feel flat and not indented through the paint. Do these generally come off with a compound rub? Amy suggestions?

Hi everyone,

I have been going regularly for off-road/camping with friends. And I would say I found “The Hobby” I love.

My family owns a Mitsubishi Montero Sport year 2000 ( it is 3.0L Engine).
It has been sitting there for years and years. I think it has a little over 100k miles on it. My question is - is it worth investing on it for a offroad vehicle?

What would be top upgrades needed for initial 5-6k investment?

Thanks!