Freezetron

Two weeks ago my friend an I were on our way to our freaking awesome bash pit outside of town when to our shock, we found the gates were closed and locked! With guys cleaning up the garbage and burning what they could. I've been going to our local bash pit for years now and i've never seen it gated off before. I just couldn't believe it was suddenly off limits when its been open to basically anyone the past few years

Wanting answers, I spoke with my LHS guy who help me find the gentlemen who oversea's the property but doesn't actually own it. I spoke with his wife at their home the other day near the bash pit. They both own a road construction company next to the abandoned dirt site. Keep that in mind for future reference.....

According to her, she stated the the multibillionare of our state, Denny Washington, owns the land. It was used for highway road expansion years ago but hasn't been hardly used and its freaking awesome for us to go bashing at, especially with Baja's. No doubt you've seen my pics of both the place and my various trucks their over the years.

His wife stated that the owner was apparently upset with "someone" stealing his dirt out of his gravel pit and the legal implications if someone were to get hurt on his property for whatever reason. Even they weren't informed up until they saw some crews show up with direct orders from Washington himself to put up new steel gates and lock them and shovel big piles of dirt over any car access roads.

What makes this even more frustrating, is that my LHS guy has actually seen the land owner himself take loads of dirt and gravel out of bash pit in broad daylight. Illegally stealing it basically for his own construction company needs which is right across the street. In other words, him and his wife utterly lied to my face about the reasoning our bash pit was closed down, it was their damn fault in the first place!

Now all of us local RC bashers get the shaft because of some greedy ******* thought he could get away with stealing someone elses property and play the denial game.

What makes this really sucky is that it was basically THE PERFECT place you could ever imagine to run a Baja in. Lots and lots of room, lots of area to go high speed, get insane air, run around in circles, have races and just have a blast!
Now that its gone, all im left with is boring, flat grassy area's and small recluse dirt pile area's left to run my Baja in, which is nowhere near as fun as our bash pit was. I tried again today to go to another abandoned construction area, but it just wasn't the same. My Baja can't stretch out its legs and im left wondering if I want to even have it now, its that much of a downer to loose our bash pit. Maybe i'll sell it and get another Flux that I can run in more area's without noise complaints, catch bigger air without breaking stuff and just be able buzz around place my Baja shouldn't or couldn't. I dunno....

Goodbye bash pit of the gods, it was fun while it lasted.....

Mudgy

I can see from the hills in the background more places to run? any roads leading up there? Ask the motorcross guys where they ride...plenty of places to discover, I'll bet.
Don't give up yet, mate

dealwithit

My Feedback: (55)

hmmmm if the road is right there, how come you cant just park there and hike over with a gas can? i cant see you getting in much trouble for running around there with RC's, its not like your riding a dirtbike or quad.

Sherv

My Feedback: (1)

Get over it. I live in Washington DC and there is no place to run, all off road tracks hang up on me over the phone when I ask if i can take my 1/5th on there.
I'm making a return to 1/8th soon. Plus my Rear diff just blew on my Nutech MT. >.<
I have to admit that is one SICK bash spot. At least you got to enjoy it for a short while!

Freezetron

I scouted around the entire area today for any other ways in. Its either a walk with hauling equipment through another section of property or its cutting through barbed wire fence. Or just bashing right through the front gates with a big enough truck, not exactly subtle.

elven wizard

Talk to the man himself owner Denny Washington and tell him what's going on. Find him, write to him or his secretary whatever it takes. Dont give up. Tell him what this person who is overseeing the property is doing. Tell him how much fun you guys had out there and it was one bad apple that caused this. He will know your intentions were good all you guys were doing was just having fun.

ByronRC

My Feedback: (2)

It sucks to lose a bash spot. I've driven to the state of Washington a few times and in each instance I've driven through Montana to get there. Every time I did this I thought I was gonna drive clear to China before getting out the state of Montana. Now you wanna give up. I've seen how open your beautiful state is. The whole place is a bash spot! I can recall literally driving for hours without seeing a thing except open expanse. I've read some of your posts and noticed how happy you were to get your 5T, so think I you'll be quite miserable without it. All I'm trying to say is don't give up your happiness over a minor inconvenience.

dealwithit

My Feedback: (55)

hmmmm i never saw a fence in those pics, but i guess they were before they closed it up. so the front gate is a serous top to bottom unit then? i had a pit like that i used to go biking at from time to time, they had a gate but it was just some big bars across it to stop vehicles. im sure with enough hunting around you'll find a weak spot in their deffences lol.

Croozer

My Feedback: (1)

LOL, You are whining about a piece of property that you were illegally using in the first place?

Get over it and find another spot.

mooman007uk

welcome to the world of liabilty BS...if it weren't for the sorry arsed moochers of this world who trip over a rock in a rock pit and sue for silly money knowing they'll get a settlement, we'd still be able to use land for dirt bikes, rc's, dunebuggies and old beaters etc...and kid's would still be able to climb trees and build tree forts etc.

I've probably 100acres of prime bash spots...old gravel and sand pits...within a 20min distance..(one in pic is perfect with dunes and big hill climbs, all golf course bunker sand ) I've approached every owner of every pit with the same result...liabilty if someone fell, they wont accept waivers cos they mean jack diddley in court with the right lawyer arguing the point so i've also become a victim of the people i despise the most....the lazy, bone idle ..always looking for a free ride... moochers of this world. 'fraid we just have to deal with it. and if it isn't fenced off all the way around who's to stop you running there anyways...

here's my dream land that is owned by a golf course who likes to say no..about 8 acres...it's the only one i've yet to go in cos it's near the greenkeepers yard so i'd get busted pretty quick...though the day is nigh when my nutech MMT + 4 paddles will be paying a visit

dealwithit

My Feedback: (55)

time for silenced pipes anyone? its hard to bust what cant be heard

fourwheeler

I find it really hard to believe you cannot find another place to bash.....get out there and LOOK! I find myself looking for bashing spots everywhere I go and always find something interesting, it may not be the Holy Grail but it will still be fun. If you are not willing to do that then yes....sell the Baja and go on to something else.

Oh and Mooman that looks like a killer bash spot!

Freezetron

After owning both, a Flux last year and a 5T this year, im starting to think about going back to a Flux. I've compiled my personal experience comparison with pro's and con's last night and im trying to decide what to do.

HPI Baja 5T

Pluses:

Very long run times
Awesome noise/smell factor
Attracts a lot of attention
Big and bad
Can be drivin in wet/cold weather with no adverse effects
Nothing else like it
2WD is pretty fun

Minuses:

Expensive to maintain
Not able to jump very high
More prone to breakage and costly repairs
Constant need to be checked, cleaned
Heavy and bulky to move and carry around
Oil/gas spills can be a real mess
Hard to find area's decent enough to run in
Noise factor increases chance of annoying people
Noise factor also decrease's areas can be run in
Takes longer to clean
Tires wear out quicker
Tuning can be become problematic
Constant need for air filter to be checked/cleaned
No reverse
Large and complex to work on
Difficult to find decent area's to run in
FM radio needs to be upgraded
Bodies are expensive to buy and paint
Concrete wears out tires quickly
Dogboots wear out fast
Drive out of town for non ethanol gas
Requires large area to work on
Hard to land jumps correctly, not mid air controllable
Engine will require rebuild after awhile
Requires more upfront cost for durable parts
2WD harder to control



HPI Savage Flux HP

Pluses:

Very fast, agile
Very durable
Can take extreme punishment
Can do insane jumps and landings
Able to be controlled in mid air
No noise pollution to worry about
Can climb pratically anywhere/anything
Cheaper to maintain
Can be programmed via PC *nerd points!*
Parts are usually cheaper
Tires last longer
Smaller and easier to move around
Has reverse
Less complex to work on
No airfilter maintenance
Includes decent 2.4ghz radio and bulletproof diffs now
Easier to bash with Lee's Stampede
Cheap, paintable bodies
Can wheelie easily
Can easily be driven on concrete
Able to be run in variety of area's
No dogboots to maintain
Takes up less workbench space
4WD brushless powa!

Minuses

Lipo's can be expensive and require babying
Shorter run times
Not the same "cool" factor as Baja
Not as fun to work on/tweak
6S Lipo could result in more part breakages
Running in wet/cold weather not recommended
Requires expensive charger
Needs more batteries for longer run times

elven wizard

Where ever you go try to get permission first to run your Rc on the owner's land. I can see the reason why land owner's dont let people run anything on there property let alone walk on it. The reason "liability". I'm not saying everybody is like this but here is example of how people are and how SUE happy they can be. Of a 45 arce land owner myself. First lesson I learned was when there was a kid motorcycling on the property. He knew of the no trespassing signs but didn't care. He flipped me off everytime he could and peeled out doing it. One day watching this kid from a distance he was hauling butt when all of sudden he must of hit a uneven on the road and crashed hard ! The kid broke his leg and his motorcycle was damaged. The kid who was illegally trespassing in the first place, his parents threatened to sue me for damages to there boy's leg and motorcycle. First thing they said to me before the sue part was "look at what you have done to him" then "Were going to sue you for everything" ! Point is there are people out there like this. I'm just coming from how land owners see's things from there point of view. This is not the first time this has happened. What does this have to do with Rc's ? There was a one person who didn't ask me permission to run his nitro truck (MGT) on my property. While he was running it I came over to talk to him. This person who had a jerky attitude just when I was talking to him crashed his Nitro truck. We both walked over to look at it flipped over the whole underneath driveline was damaged hitting a rock. He then picked his truck up and said to me look at what your rock did to my truck. He was serious ! He then gave me a spiel of how hard he worked for his truck and asked me to pay for the damages of it. I told him, that is my rock and you were trespassing. I then pointed to the no trespassing signs that were only 50 feet away from him. He claimed he didn't see the signs that sticked out like a sore thumb. < People can be like this. It's just the way it is. They see land owners as rich and have attitudes of whatever they can take from them they will. Aside from this I do let people run Rc's on the property who ask permission first and when I'm running Rc's with them. If you contacted the owner of the bash pit and you still can't run your Baja 5t even asking for a key to open up the gates, then look for another place to run your 5t. I won't give up the 5t cause you can't go to one place anymore.

Freezetron

It's up for sale now

elven wizard

Of course what you do with the 5t is your business, but did you try to look for other bash spots to run in ? Hate to see you give up the 5t because of what happened. 1/5 scale is a great to be in. You have a premium Rc already. Selling it you might regret it later.

Freezetron

It's no longer the main reason, there are several others.

Sherv

My Feedback: (1)

I have to agree with you i sometimes feel the same way. but after i sat down this weekend going over the numbers because my truck broke down again. (found it was not the diff and fix the problem no cost ) I found that in the 5 gallons i've put my 1/5 through and the hell i put it through I spent less money on repairs than any of my nitro trucks.
I've spent more on my 3.3 slayer (burned out engine), more on my Revo (after market parts to replace broken ones), and my MMGT 3.0.
I'm also VERY happy with the way 1/5ths jump over small hills/jumps. But I enjoy the way 1/8-1/10ths jump over huge jumps.
I would keep it. It seems your the type of person to get discouraged easily and change moods often.

Croozer

My Feedback: (1)

LOL, this started out as a thread about losing a bash area and turned into a comparison to a Flux.

Somebody needs a hug.

Freezetron

Welcome to my world with OCD.

Sherv

My Feedback: (1)

I am the same way

Just sit on it for a few days maybe you feel different about it. I always end up regretting my fast decisions when I get upset/angry/disappointed. Oh well. Regardless that flux is always in stealth mode. Your not gonna bother anybody hahaha.

Dirty_Vinylpusher

Yeah it's bloody pathetic.
It seems that nobody can be responsible for their own actions anymore and always has to pass the blame for their own stupidity on to someone else.

Ban this, put a fence around that, remove something else.
Just because some idiot goes and falls in a ditch somewhere everyone has to suffer.


I have mates who work in the mining industry here in Australia, and the amount of crap they have to go through just to be allowed to enter the job site is crazy.
But that's not what this thread is about....


Carry on.

elven wizard

Yup it is pathetic and there is always around the corner a "slip & fall" lawyer ready to take on any joke of a case. To put in a way for piece of mind best places to bash is open areas like the desert that way you dont bother anyone and they dont bother you.

clubin

I am just as fortunate as moo, I have over 10 seperate bash spots all in gravel pits within 10 minutes of my place, I have permission to be in any of them. It must suck to have the rug yanked out from under you.

Red Sand

Can you get creative and think of some other places to bash?

Empty, undeveloped lots?

Put lights on it - run it at night on the golf course?