Importance of a good spotter!

[OregTrailBlazin]

This one may have been seen. But I thought I would share!! If only this lady had a good spotter, someone that could give clear signals!!.. Sorry, but I'm a hater for bad spotters, my old man is a crane operator building bridges, hand signals are extremely important!

[Gordinho80]

WOW... the spotter looked like he was epileptic. I'm glad the operator is ok, based on the comments. That was scary.

[irishboy02]

Wow +1 for jeep roll cage

That was by far not only the worst spotter i have ever seen but what the hell are those signals?
That man was the only person to blame. She did exactly what her best translation of those flapping arms told her to do. What a shame, at least she was still alive.

[bartonmd]

Tons and TONS of problems with that one... At first, he was making bad, but translatable signals, but she seemed to be largely ignoring them... The real issue was that he told her to go to stage left, but then got out of the way and didn't tell her to straighten up or some back toward stage right... However, especially when your spotter isn't telling you anything, or is totally out of the picture like this d-bag, and something feels bad, you STOP and wait for direction...

Mike

[KE7WOX]

She should have asked for clear voice directions, we've found that to be extremely useful sometimes, esp when you have to add extra indications (like sharp left, or like left, when you clear the bump, sharp right)

[fishsticks]

something feels bad, you STOP and wait for direction...

She had several opportunities to save her self right before she went over. I'm not sure if it was a loss of confidence or frustration, but it seems like she just "went" at the end.

[Trail X]

"Left and Right" should not be used... it can be interpreted depending on the way you're facing. (that's why barton said "stage")

That's why clear hand signals are important. Otherwise, "Drivers side" and "Passenger side" should be used... they cannot be misinterpreted (unless you're driving a quad).

[geneelder]

WAIT a minute!!! Isn't that The Roadie undercover??? Just Kidding.

[Philberto]

When dealing with motor vehicles, as any good mechanic should know, "left" and "right" are ALWAYS meant to be interpreted as though one is looking from the rear of the vehicle. Left is therefore driver's side (except in UK) and right is passenger side. Industry-wide standard.

[Trail X]

Sure, that's when you have time to think things through. A spotter is almost always looking at the vehicle from the front,... it's surprisingly easy to mix up left and right when making on-the-fly decisions (I've done it). Easier to say "driver" and "passenger".

[teebes]

That video is floating around the local forums as well, heart attack hill is a major attraction in Anza Borrego. It is steep! I've been down in on two wheels a month or so back, that was a bit rough. You basically can't stop - brakes only slow down the decent

This hill is very hard to spot on. It is very steep with horrible footing for spotter to manage. This is a perfect opportunity to leverage radio's with the spotter using a handheld (who should be completely out of the way in case a flip happens).

However, the driver was a dunce. Never turn that far stage left/right on that steep of a decent. Must've been a women driving

[staticfusion]

Correct me if I'm wrong, please,

ut would the roll have been slightly prevented if the wheels were turned the other way?

[The Roadie]

The rollover was preventable at a dozen places. It was like the spotter was controlling her in reverse like an RC car coming at you and you think the controls are backwards. I don't get it.

The one time I was spotting a paid trail group down the 18" ledge in Sandstone Canyon (the Thanksgiving group saw it and now we can't go back because of the rockfall), I had a guy try to COMPETE with me giving directions. And he was backwards. Could have high-centered a client's Cherokee, but not rolled it at least. We had a lively discussion about WHO was to spot and WHO the driver was to trust. Oh, Teebes - and now you showed me the way, I was going straight up the ledge like you did until the trail closed. No angular cheating anymore.

[HARDTRAILZ]

Nothing remotely good there at all. He did a piss poor job, she did not listen or ask for one of the crowd to spot if she couldnt understand him, the crowd should have tackled him and someone else spotted her.

Really lucky she is ok after all the FAIL in that whole situation.

[djthumper]

Poor hand signals are the worst!!! I hate it when people can't even back me up to a trailer.

[lil_freak_66]

i saw alot of conflicting hand signals there..all from one person.

fail

if im not mistaken,i think her sway bars were still on.

has anybody looked into designing a trailvoy rollcage? every day somebody pushes our vehicles to new extremes.

[HARDTRAILZ]

i saw alot of conflicting hand signals there..all from one person.

fail

if im not mistaken,i think her sway bars were still on.

has anybody looked into designing a trailvoy rollcage? every day somebody pushes our vehicles to new extremes.

I priced an exo skeleton at about 1500 to 2000 for basics(if you offroad or 4wheeler I asked about the simple cage on the durango in ttc and the guy who quoted it was in the comp with the durango in his buggy), but want a 44 in front first.

[madmanvillain]

from my experience with hand signals (moving aircraft) just hand signals dont work. you need full arm signals so that there are no questions about what the signal is...

[HARDTRAILZ]

from my experience with hand signals (moving aircraft) just hand signals dont work. you need full arm signals so that there are no questions about what the signal is...

Good point. Hand signal is better than a finger(pointing) signal, but a full arm signal is better than a hand signal.

The other big thing is...knowing your spotter and your rig and the spotter knowing your rig. Is not always possible, but is quite nice when it works out that way. When i was spotting for my buddy in his wrangler as he learned the world of offroad (he never owned a 4x4 before) we worked out a system that helped keep us both safe and worked. Some of those words or guestures are not ones that others would understand, but they worked for us.
The big thing is the spotter needs to remember...BASICS. K.I.S.S. left arm left, right arm right, flat hand stop. Before you spot, communicate where you are going and how you signal.

[Mooseknuckle]

Holy crap! Very lucky she didnt keep on rolling down that! She is gonna feel that in the morning. I only saw one spotter and he just told her to keep coming. Very lucky to be alive. I was in the military and I drove almost everything for the entire time I was in there. Hand signals are extremely important and more than one spotter. Just my opinion.