So first off, my son is 18 and has an'88 toyota pick-up. He got it running in December, took it out to go "4 wheeling" and returned with bent tie rods on a tow truck. I figured I had to find him some way of learning, and I've never done much myself. I started looking for classes at Prairie City SVRA in Folsom since its closest to us. They wanted $350 and up for a one day class per person. More than I hoped to spend.
After searching, I found this class. Both of us went camped two nights and had dinner Saturday night for $158.
Great, friendly people in the club. Knowledgeable and willing to share that knowledge. First thing in the morning we were inspected to insure we met their minimum requirements (identical to those of Cal Assoc of 4WD Clubs requirements for trail rides). Mine was one of maybe 5 or 6 4Runners. Most had Jeeps. A few Chevy's and a Dodge in the mix. After everyone arrived, was inspected, lined up with your group and aired down the tires, members shuttled us to the classroom.
A couple of hours (I think it was like 930 - 1145) of classroom. The powerpoint was likely stuff you could find online, but it was new to me and my son and they filled in some gaps and answered questions by sharing their own mistakes and how to learn/avoid those issues. Anyone with an 18 yo knows its better received hearing the information from someone else.
We broke for lunch in the groups they assigned. Everyone introduced themselves and shared what, if any experience they had. Then we headed out. Each group rotated around two sets of two each skills areas (stuff like tire placement exercises and a stair stepper), intermixed with two trail rides. On the trail rides they had practice some of the stuff they talked about in the classroom and/or at the skills stations/exercises.
The only thing that intimidated me at all was the stair stepper (short steep hill of polished/worn concrete with 8" steps and artificial concrete rocks irregularly placed at each step. They had spotters to guide you to insure you placed tires on the rocks, or at least to minimize/eliminate any under-body strikes. I was worried I didn't have clearance. I was wrong.
It was a lot of fun!
All in all, my son and I loved it. Since we were two drivers sharing one vehicle we split the trail rides, but we were each able to do all the skills exercises. A long drive for us, but fun camping out and a huge SVRA that we didn't know existed and will now go back to.
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