New 4wd For Sale / Wanted Forum added - anything else?

[Grant Johnson]

The 4wd forums are growing fast, so it's time to start expanding the forums, this is the first expansion that's obvious to me. Any other specifically 4wd forums needed, let me know!

We'll be adding more 4wd specific sections like blogs, trip reports and equipment reviews over the next couple of months.

Let me know what YOU want and we'll see what we can do!

[pictish]

Having everything thats gone wrong that could go wrong Im having to change plans and go with a 4 wheel vehicle. Loads info and help here but maybe you could do the same as what the bikes have got for easier sorting.
A smaller version of the bike section would be a real plus and possibly encourage more people to post info other than routes ect.

1/make specific area for tech stuff ie landrover/ toyota /campervan/lorry

2/equipment for trips- I know you have this and some 4x4 stuff is covered in it but alot stuff for 4x4s wont really be applicable to bikes and vice versa.

3/garages for repairs and stopping areas in other countries dont think many hotels let you drive your 4x4 into the reception area so safe parking would be a must.

4/shipping agents/methods ect for larger vehicles.

5/vehicle requirement for each country [the legal stuff such as reversing lights ect]

you may not want such a large amount of new areas dedicated to 4x4s on the forum, so you could compact it all such trip planning/paperwork covering points 3/4/5.

Im still planning and have been hunting info for over a year first for bikes and now for 4x4s. There is some good 4x4 sites out there but they dont have the same upto date travelling info alerts ect as here. And the moderation here is a bit more sensible than most places.
I also found alot of the make specific sites are just full of slagging matches ect or very extreme makeovers which look good but I doubt would be very practical such as monster truck conversions and having 5 tvs in your landy. Or just people having all the stuff but only ever using it for weekend drive up the motorway and driving on the grass at the campsite.
The info I have mentioned above is all here in the forum somewhere but its buried among the masses of bike posts alot of the time so is harder to locate.

[Grant Johnson]

excellent! thanks for your input.

some quick responses to respond and clarify at this point
YES - "1 specific area for tech stuff ie landrover/ toyota /campervan/lorry"

YES - "2 equipment for trips

YES - "3 garages etc" - some VERY cool stuff coming here, first for bikes of course, but much of it applicable to 4wd, and we can certainly have a "4wd specific" tag. It will include hotels, routes, garages, shipping companies and more. In beta 1 not, and looks way cool.

YES - 4/shipping - see above, and also addon for the current bike shipping database tied in for 4wd.

vehicle requirements - hadn't thought of that, bikes are generally ok everywhere without much trouble, but should be easy enough to add in. YOU GUYS will be the ones to fill in the info though! Nice thing is we have people from so many countries - over 130 at last count - that shouldn't be too hard if everyone does their own country. So that's a YES too.

Thanks for the comments re moderating too - we try for a "family pub/restaurant" atmosphere, rather than the "bar on the wrong side of the tracks".

Everyone please chime in and tell me what you want - agree or disagree with the above, what's needed etc is all helpful so we know what to concentrate on. Priorities too - what's first?

And I feel I must apologise to all of you - I've had in the back of my mind that I need to put in some time on the 4wd side, but just keep pushing it to the bottom of the pile... so give me some feedback and we'll do all we can.

We're probably looking at a two month time line to implement most of this. New HUBB forums are easy, the rest isn't - we're doing MAJOR upgrades to the back-end software over the next few weeks first, then we'll have a lot more tools to work with. (We're moving from Drupal 4.7 to Drupal 5.7, and with it vBDrupal same, and vBulletin mods)

Additional moderators would be much appreciated!

thanks, Grant

[silver G]

On the tech page, would it be worth putting in links to vehicle specific technical sites as well as building up a data base- for example I have a mercedes G wagen and the owners club web site GWOA has a huge amount of technical info that would take for ever to build up here and would only be relevant to a few people but someone new coming here could soon get detailed help. Maybe this page would work like a resourse page.

A 4x4/truck camping equipment page sounds good.

Trips and trails sounds good too.

4x4 friendly accomodation with secure parking would be realy useful

Looking forward to the expansion

Chris

[pictish]

If your doing a bit of an overhaul of the forums, info by area would make locating stuff a bit easier. Not just for 4x4 but for everything.

That way people could plan in sections.

Example- you are on the africa phase of your RTW trip or are just planning to travel there alone.
-At the moment for things like paperwork, routeplanning and health requirements alot is still being posted in those sections and some is being posted in the africa sections. trip reports are being posted in other areas as well as traveller seeking traveller. There is also the 2 other parts of the forums for accomodation and repair places. Thats a fair bit of bouncing about, scrolling and searching through posts that may not be useful[ but still fun to read].

The current top page of the forum is pretty large and shows all the sub sections [think of those poor throttle damaged wrists having to scroll up and down] adding more 4x4 sections although great makes this even larger.
Having most of the stuff in area related sections would reduce its size and although you would have an extra mouse click to show every section in that area it would make it easier to find whats related to that area and erm give you bigger and more sponsor pics. A bit like a LP guide that updates itself and is interactive.

Downside would be- not able to view every subsection of forum at once on one page. Although if your system has the function newest post could be listed under each area heading
-the work needed to sort through the posts that are already here and move them. Ouch!

I guess it just depends on how you like the forum and how good you are at using forums at the moment its a bit of wild creature shouting "look at all the info I have" and "the infos here find it yourself" and as the volume of info and the amount of people coming here grows the bigger it gets and the harder it will be to find what you actually need.

Could be Im spending more time here so im noticing new posts and users and the traffic level has stayed the same. -

[lorraine]

All sounds good, though I don't think the emphasis HAS to be on 4x4. Some of us are in plain old vans! ;-)

I have a whole list of places to camp, in countries/cities where it's difficult to find camping. Not applicable to bikes, since they tend to head for hotels. I've been wondering what to do with this info. Now, there'll be an outlet, thank you!

Lorraine

[CornishDaddy]

I don't think we have it already do we? If not as Lorraine says that woud be great.

Although is there a danger of publishing such things? Perhaps not on her.

But yes, if you know of beautiful spots it would be great to pass them on

[Robbert]

Yep, with Lorraine, there've been a few treads about vans and small cars under the 4WD fora.

It might be easier to attract more info on 2WD overland vehicles, and how to in a dedicated 2WD section. Maybe that can be the low-budget, low-tech alternative for those who don't need land cruisers or rovers to roam the world.

(lada's are great for Central Asia btw)

;-)

[Alexlebrit]

Do we have to have vehicle specific sections yet? There seem to be comments amongst some of the bikers to move away from that as a lot of info can be common to more than one make, I can see that'd be even more likely in a 4 wheeled vehicle area.

We could split the technical section into two: vehicle preparation, and then all the other gear, which might make life a bit easier without adding too many sections into the mix and without meaning you have to pop back and forth between sections for the more general stuff, like airfliters, snorkels tyres etc.

Of course the big thing that needs to be encouraged is people titling their posts well. If you get a decent title it makes searching so much quicker. Could it be a thing a mod could do?

And if we're on about moderators (and you do a thankless task I know, I am one but not on here), could they sometimes merge topics? We've got about five running on China at the moment, all concurrent, if they were merged into one, it'd be a lot easier. I think sometimes people post rather than search (which is understandable as searching often turns up too much information). Perhaps if there's a post which relates directly to another one running they could be merged?

[lorraine]

Cornish Diety: Although is there a danger of publishing such things? Perhaps not on her.

Huh??? Please explain.

Alexlebrit and Robbert:

I think this is a great idea, a section for things common to all ie, solar showers. And then a techie section for 4x4 and THEN, another section just for 2 wd. Like, how to make your vehicle believe it has 4x4. ;-)

Lorraine

[CornishDaddy]

Hi lorraine,

Sorry all i meant was, say you have a great spot for wild camping, where no one knows about it, and no one minds you spending the odd night there, and you post here, and suddenly it becauses an overlanders breeding ground because everyone heard about it on the HUBB. And therefore ruined ........

Just a thought really

[silver G]

Now, breeding, or at least trying in my favourite wild camping spot

Sorry, very off topic

Seriously I think it's down to the individual as to whether to publicise their favourite spots but if it's just a handy place to park up for the night that would be really useful.

Lorraine and Robert, my appologies for using the term '4x4'. It really should be 4 wheels, as the forum section is called.

[lorraine]

VERY off topic, tsk, tsk, tsk. ;-)

Actually, my list is all in places where there's NO where to camp, but instead of trying a zillion kilometers, you can go here. Literally, some of the places are places where people throw rubbish, but VERY handy for a night.

Lorraine

[Walkabout]

Originally Posted by silver G

using the term '4x4'. It really should be 4 wheels, as the forum section is called.

It's quite confusing IMO: the main heading is 4 wheels but all of the forums are entitled "4WD".

[Walkabout]

Originally Posted by CornishDeity

Hi lorraine,

Sorry all i meant was, say you have a great spot for wild camping, where no one knows about it, and no one minds you spending the odd night there, and you post here, and suddenly it becauses an overlanders breeding ground because everyone heard about it on the HUBB. And therefore ruined ........

Just a thought really

Quite agree: we will end up with the equivalent of even more "green lane" closures (a UK issue, but it is happening also in places such as the US).

Could do with a forum for official campsites however?