What is your definition of "tread lightly"?

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KraftyPg said:
Like most I agree that leaving the bush as close to the way you found it as possible is always the best option but that shouldn't mean you can't play in the mud as well. There is a difference between playing in the mud and creating your own mud puddle.

We collect a lot of fire wood around here and in most cases its on established tracks or even old APM tracks that have been abandoned, at times they get muddy and at times we get stuck, it comes with the territory but that doesn't mean we are leaving the place worse off just because we needed to be pulled out. The track still remains for others to follow and still have fun.

The wrong way to do it was the day we were getting firewood and found a great dead straight tree of about 100 foot that would eventually make veranda posts. It was in the scrub and because of the trees and bushes around it even scarfing the tree didn't help it fall and it fell right next to it's stump still standing upright. Now the tree was too go to leave for someone else but that didn't mean that one particular person (whom we don't trust in the bush any more) needed to go and get a tractor, doze a path through the scrub and trees to the one we wanted and drag it out with chains.

To me that is the difference between leaving a trail and not leaving a trail, sure people might still be able to see where you were but if only traveled in places you are supposed to and don't destroy other parts of the bush then there is little problem.
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Im thinking like you krafty, but unfortunately some people believe that driving through mud destroys the tracks and they will not change their minds.
 
The thing I don't understand is why people think driving through a mud puddle that's already been defined as a track is ruining the bush. Sure the deeper people dig the hole the less chance other less adapted cars might be able to use the track but in general the tracks that are full of mud puddles are the ones that normal vehicles don't head down anyway.

The biggest problem with most of our tracks is the idiots leaving rubbish on them not the 4wd mud slingers.
 
KraftyPg said:
The thing I don't understand is why people think driving through a mud puddle that's already been defined as a track is ruining the bush. Sure the deeper people dig the hole the less chance other less adapted cars might be able to use the track but in general the tracks that are full of mud puddles are the ones that normal vehicles don't head down anyway.

The biggest problem with most of our tracks is the idiots leaving rubbish on them not the 4wd mud slingers.
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But most tracks are for access not for playing around in the mud. My employer doesn't fit 33's and lockers to my work vehicles hence why I get the s**t's when someone tears up an access track. Like others have said, if you want to play and test yourself/vehicle then go to a 4wd park. If you wish to access a place then by all means drive the access tracks.

Cheers
 
Peter ST_R said:
But most tracks are for access not for playing around in the mud. My employer doesn't fit 33's and lockers to my work vehicles hence why I get the s**t's when someone tears up an access track. Like others have said, if you want to play and test yourself/vehicle then go to a 4wd park. If you wish to access a place then by all means drive the access tracks.
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I can't say I disagree with this at all.

The tracks leading in should be sacrosanct, so should the camping grounds.

Too many times we've gone into the forest only to find some idiot has decided to plough the camping areas and kick rocks all over the roads leading in, some as large as soccer balls.

Even if I had the best 4WD setup possible, I still don't want to hit those on a just-barely-single-lane track and I don't want to camp on a mud swamp.
 
There is a difference between tearing up the entry (and only) track into a National Park just because there is a puddle at the gate and using a previously used track in the bush where only 4wd's travel and common sense should tell any driver that.

Apart from anything else if you've got 33's and lockers and love splashing mud up the side of your truck you aren't going to look at a 4 inch deep puddle on a public access road and consider it a challenge, you're looking for the track where the ruts are 2 foot deep, full of water and only other like minded 4wd nuts have gone.

Public access tracks that have been dug up are more than likely dug up by the idiot who gets his 4wd on Monday and decides he can climb mountains on Saturday with a factory stock outifit or the idiots on dirt bikes who some how think the bush is only there for them not the serious 4wd who does agree that tracks are there for everyone.
 
Thats true krafty, when i go bush with mates its always sensible driving along tracks until we spot a track that leads through the bush which looks like it really is only 4wd territory, then we have fun there.
 
I think this one again comes down to the old saying that there are a minority out there who wreck it for the majority. Most people who use the bush for recreation understand and respect it, it's the few that don't that are the problem
 
KraftyPg said:
I think this one again comes down to the old saying that there are a minority out there who wreck it for the majority. Most people who use the bush for recreation understand and respect it, it's the few that don't that are the problem
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Yeah so true, it is always the few idiots that ruin it for everyone. In Queensland the cops were out busting people having a few drinks in public on Australia day because of the idiots that get smashed and make trouble, how un-Australian!!! Why can't they just catch the idiots and punish them for their actions? I am sick of being punished for the irrisponsible actions of the minority!!!

Sorry about the rant but had to get it out.

Cheers
 
I'm a bit of a hypocrite here, I don't mind very occasionally putting down a fishtail or two on a hard sand beach (as much as diesel auto allows), whereas I am generally very gentle on tracks having grown up in northern england and having to learn early about wheelspin (Ice, snow & mud) buggering things up. However, when I ride my MX bike on the self same tracks I have absolutely no problem powersliding round corners, doing big power mono's or any other daft stuff, we sometimes even do a donut at a junction so we can find the way back! Maybe its more because I don't want to scratch a new car, although I didn't cause much mess in my 40 series cruiser troopy
 
I think when it comes to treading lightly it's more about how much dust and dirt you throw around. My old house use to have a dirt road to the driveway with a nice sweeping bend in it, it was nothing for us to power slide the bend on bikes or in cars (when we knew no one else was coming) but we also knew that the area that grew potholes after the bend was the point to slow down and not make them worse. Even driving the log truck down there despite having to nearly run the front right wheel in the culvert drain we used to try and avoid the rough spots so as to limit the damage. The main difference between our road and a bush track was that we had to maintain it because it was a private road and any fixing meant getting the grader in, even at mates rates graders aren't cheap so all users of the road learn to treat it nicely.

Spreading a bit of dirt isn't a huge issue, even for a private road, making ruts and pot holes or digging existing ruts and pot holes deeper in roads and tracks that are used by other people is silly. Unless your doughnuts end with the rear wheel six inches under the road surface, I really can't see what your doing as a major problem either, there is definitely worse people out there.

Then again maybe you are the bugger who tore up our wood track last year and made it a bitch to drag the tandem trailers through, if thats the case I want to punch you!
 
I think its one of those thing where its all in moderation and common sense is used
 
KraftyPg said:
I think when it comes to treading lightly it's more about how much dust and dirt you throw around. My old house use to have a dirt road to the driveway with a nice sweeping bend in it, it was nothing for us to power slide the bend on bikes or in cars (when we knew no one else was coming) but we also knew that the area that grew potholes after the bend was the point to slow down and not make them worse. Even driving the log truck down there despite having to nearly run the front right wheel in the culvert drain we used to try and avoid the rough spots so as to limit the damage. The main difference between our road and a bush track was that we had to maintain it because it was a private road and any fixing meant getting the grader in, even at mates rates graders aren't cheap so all users of the road learn to treat it nicely.

Spreading a bit of dirt isn't a huge issue, even for a private road, making ruts and pot holes or digging existing ruts and pot holes deeper in roads and tracks that are used by other people is silly. Unless your doughnuts end with the rear wheel six inches under the road surface, I really can't see what your doing as a major problem either, there is definitely worse people out there.

Then again maybe you are the bugger who tore up our wood track last year and made it a bitch to drag the tandem trailers through, if thats the case I want to punch you!
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ha ha, not guilty, nah the doughnuts are just a spin around so we know its us thats been there.
I used to compete in motorbike trials in the UK and used to get chased from everywhere by national park rangers, the rangers used to say it was causing erosion blah blah, although you can't even see where a wheel has been. Hence I instantly loved australia as you can pretty much do what you want here! (I'm probably going to cop a lot of flack for that comment)
 
Do you use the bike to sign you name in the dirt?

As teenagers we used to get chased through the APM forests on bikes too, there is nothing wrong with a little bit of fun, even if you are caught. Providing we weren't making an arse of ourselves the coppers would just tell us too move on and keep out of the area, never any fines or anything.

We got caught in the APM forests one day by a mates father who was carting a trailer load of freshly cut wood out, the stupid bastard still had the nerve to ring the cops and tell them there was teenages on bikes tearing up the APM forest. He forgot to mention what he was doing up there so 4 of us blocked him on the track so he couldn't get out and eventually when the coppers arrived he ended up with the fine for cutting fire wood in an APM forest and we ended up pushing our unregistered bikes home. Was the most satisfying 3 k walk I've ever had.
 
I think the comments alone prove there is brainless 4b drivers out there they didn't need a video to accompany it.
 

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