I agree the CBs and or HAM radios or even a hand held are VERY useful and yes, FUN, but when a club tells people that they "have to have" this or that or you cant come play with us, is a little rude, maybe that person is new to wheeling, and cant afford or doesnt want, to go and buy this and that just to wheel with a club and find out they may or may not like wheeling.
Now, most people with the right group, will LOVE wheeling, some may like it, but to "require" people to have certain equipment to wheel with you is crazy, next you will say, only toyotas are allowed, only people with a lift from X company, only people with a locker can go etc etc lol..
again, I do very much agree that some form of communication is important, and sooooooooo much fun, but making people buy/borrow certain equipment and/or modifying thier vehicle, just to go wheel is crazy.
ok Ill get off my soapbox now :boxer:
Mind if I have a turn on the soapbox?
I can see your point if a having CB became a law requiring that everyone gets a CB installed before setting a tire on a trail. Thankfully it's not that way and we all have the freedom to decide from many groups to go wheeling with. Most don't require CBs and there's nothing wrong with that but to say that it's crazy to require it is going a bit extreme.
If wheeling means driving down a dirt road to enjoy the scenery then I agree it's really not that important. Some groups however include rock crawling, shelf roads, washouts, off camber, and steep grades on nearly all of their trail runs. Some of these trails truly mean death if you drive off an edge on accident. The core group that I go wheeling with is one of those groups that requires CBs and it's for our safety as well as the new person's. It's often not possible to stop someone from making a mistake in time if you don't have a CB.
Try yelling at a driver from 5 rigs back in a case of something simple like he's about to back into a tree. If you are the kind of person that wheels with the window down in the winter, you have a set of pipes loud enough to reach him, he also likes to ride with his windows down in the freezing temps, and he makes his passengers stay quiet in case he needs to hear someone then sure, just keep within earshot and the problem is solved. No need to spend $70 on a brand new handheld CB radio to prevent hundreds or thousands of dollars in damage.
I suppose you could just honk too. Maybe have the group learn some Morse code (which is free) so you can differentiate between "Hold up I have to pee", "Hang on, my rig is making a funny noise lemme check it out", "My bad, that first horn honk was me hitting the horn button on accident", "Wait up, now my girlfriend has to pee again" or of course the all important "Stop you bone head, you are going to smash into that rock you can't see."
At the risk of sounding like a jerk (I am sometimes, sorry about that!), when I go wheeling, I get tired of getting in and out of my rig over and over to tell people that are unfamiliar with the trail, snow pack, obstacle, what's going on, etc. Admittedly (but not proudly) sometimes I'll let people just roll on through a section in hopes that they won't damage their rig on an obstacle I'm familiar with. I could get out but I'm fat and lazy and of the opinion that if you are too broke to buy a CB then you are in the wrong hobby. Try origami, that's just the cost of some paper and you'll never need a CB. It's almost ironic that the people that often need the CB the most are the ones that are newest to wheeling.
I'm with ya that a first time wheeler should not be required to get a CB the first time out on a trail. Thankfully they're not unless they want to go wheeling with a group that requires a CB but how many groups have that requirement? There's RM4x4 and....? hmmm I don't know of anyone else.
I respect that you think it's crazy to require a CB but I sure don't agree with that statement. If you were to call me crazy, or ugly, or crazy ugly, that would make a lot more sense. I couldn't argue those.
