Thinking about starting a mud pit place...Need advice.

[treveiger]

My father just bought some farm land and theres a spot thats not farmable or buildable(its low and gets flooded every year) and we were thinking about starting a mud pit where people could go and play around in the day and towards the night do races and im trying to get ideas and what to do and i thought why not ask people that do mudding to see what they like. I never been to a mud place before(theres non around) and so im wondering how they work and what do you guys recomend. Any information, experiences and anything else would be great.
Thanks

[bikes&bowties]

1. Get 4x4
2. Put big gripping tires under 4x4
3. Find wet, muddy, doesnt matter if it gets destroyed place (already accomplished so skip to step 4)
4. Drive 4x4 in wet muddy place in 2wd tearing it up and digging holes trying to get stuck.
5. Once stuck put in 4wd and drive around untill holes are dug deeper and you are now officially stuck
6. get dirty, wet, cold, possibly pissed while trying to hook a tow strap to your 4x4. Get pulled out
7.Fix broken parts (if nothing is broken then you did something wrong, skip to step 8)
8.Repeat steps 4-7 as your heart and peer pressure desires.


I had fun writing this at 3am at this point i will get 3 hours of sleep so if this sounds wrong or smart ass like ignore that thought

[bikes&bowties]

here is just finding a low flooded spot and driving through it till you get stuck.. the slower you go the faster you will sink. Sadly you never get pictures of the worse moments ever



fixing stuff from that mishap

[Davidmichael]

now if this is more for the public, then there's a lot more involved. If it's for friends and family then just go out wheeling. If for the public, you need to get insurance on your property to cover you for any issues that might arise. people sue people for the silliest stuff now a days. Are you going to charge the people? Then either it needs to be donations, or you need to check your zoning laws to make it a commercial section of the property. ect ect.

To get it all done very easily, a backhoe with a bucket on it really makes things a lot easier. And also you would need a water truck to fill it if it's not already naturally filled.

Now for a rig, a mud only rig, you need huge lift and tires. If you just cut the crap out of the fenders or remove them that lets you get big tires with minimal lift. You need a Dana 60 front axle and a 14FF for the rear both with some kind of locker. And a high horsepower motor. Also safety equipment to be on the safe side. I would recommend a roll cage as well as the standard helmet and 5 point harness.

If you are serious about this, This should be able to help you get into the spirit

http://www.mudracersassociation.com/..._bog_rules.htm

[dammitmitchell]

insurance.. that will be the killer.
being on private property anytime a event like that is hosted if anything happens they can personally sue the owner of said land for any damages.

id speak to a lawyer first.

and for a mud pit u need a good bottom. (out here we have clay) a descent water supply (like a well or a good old spray truck) at least one retrieval winch and preferably a tractor. you would also want to remove stumps and large roots from the path.
till the dirt and yer ready to go =-)

those steps will prevent loss of tires and your buddys from getting displeased with a crappy mud pit.

good luck!

[6600DURAMAX]

Here are some good examples

[treveiger]

It would be more for the public and we would charge. A friend of ours from texas told us theres a waver you can have people sign that makes us free from pretty much everything that can happen but we need to talk to a lawyer to make it all legit and also get unsurance no matter what. Im going out one of these next couple days to look at the spot and i guess theres around 25 to 30 acres of mud with standing water in it(my father was afraid to drive his dmax through it lol)so im sure its plenty deep. Davidmichael thanks for the link, this is all new to me but weve been wanting to do this sense the land was for sale 5 years ago . Love the pictures guys keep them comming.

[Davidmichael]

your welcome. A lawyer is the first place you should go if you need to get this started. Also you need to look into your state and local laws. States differ from state to state. Some places hold numbers on how many people are aloud on a property from residential vrs commercial. good luck with it all though. I hope to see a lot of pics and videos from your first time if you open up!

[johnnywagon]

Beware of the EPA.

[Davidmichael]

lol and that's another agency that you always need to take into account. they don't like vehicle liquids getting into any ground.

[treveiger]

Of course, next spring we're going out there to get a real look at the land and have some friends mess around to knida get a feel of it and what its really like in the lowest part and im sure after that day my father will be getting a mud truck lol. Whats the EPA? How do i avoid them . Do you know anyplaces that have websites with there prices on them, im trying to kinda get a feel on all the money mattersto see if this will really work(i do a lot of research before ever starting something).
Thanks

[OrrieG]

Regarding EPA. Check with the government jurisdiction (county or city) and see if the have an Environmental Protection Agency Clean Water Act Permit. They probably do. Under that permit they are held responsible for any pollutants, and the associated big fines, that get into the ground water, streams, rivers, etc. All operations within the jurisdiction have to get permits for any activities that may potentially pollute or alter ground water or other water ways. I deal with this on just about every project I do, either complying or getting a waiver for some of the documentation required. You do not get a waiver for meeting the requirements. It is not something to be taken lightly, fines usually start at 5 digits and can hit 6 without to much of a problem because they are based on each day of violation (like $25K per day, and it take you 180 days, for instance to make them happy and fix the problem).

Look here, specifically under the dredging and filling of wetlands and the enforcement sections. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Water_Act. There have been some pretty significant cases in Idaho where people with property next to streams or wetlands decided to modify the landscape and got in some really deep doo-doo. And as with most laws, pleading ignorance will not work.

You also need to check with the jurisdiction to see what other permits or approvals are required.

[special-K]

The main thing to consider is to contain the area.Like build a berm at the low end.One,to keep it wet longer and two,to keep sediment from washing into streams and causing silt problems.You could put an elevated drain at a level you'd want water to get at the lower end which would only take excess water and not clog with mud.Look up info on building sediment ponds for construction sites in your county.It's pretty much what you'd want,both to better your enjoyment and to keep anyone from having a beef with what you do with your land.

[Mxracer202]

WOW I Was reading this and hoping you lived close. haha your kinda close LOL come over to the other side of the state we got mud races all the time in the summer and we travel around in our 87 K20 454 on 38's 4" of lift! strictly mud truck!

sounds like an AWESOME place for another mudrace!!

KEEP US POSTED!!!

[Mandown]

hey man, it would be awsome project to do, but i would seriously think the liabilities and environmental concerns would make it impossible to run, ide keep it to your friends and family and just have fun, otherwise youll be pushing paper all the time and never out playing in yer own mud pit! if you can make it work GIT R DUN will be super cool

[treveiger]

Here are some pics of the land. It hasnt raind for a while too.

[treveiger]

heres some more.

[Davidmichael]

That would be a great place for a pit

[Mxracer202]

Originally Posted by Davidmichael

That would be a great place for a pit

X2!!

any progress?

[treveiger]

Wellll my parents are debating on what to do with the land. There looking for a new house(the house we grew up in is just to big)and they considered building a house on the land and keep it but then they just found a house that they really like closer to town and the guy that owns it want to trade the land for the house so it may be gone before next spring... Im kinda on the fence with it because i love that land but the house there looking at has a heated and AC shop and my father said i could use it to work on my truck and the best part is its only a few miles from my place. But the house there in now is worth more than the house they are looking at so they might keep the land depending on what all happens and how cheap it goes, which would be my first choice but whatever happens my father wants a heated shop at his house. Either January 8 or 10 the house is up for auction so by then ill know more and im planning on going to the auction with the rents.
The land looks better in person trust me. Just looking at it gave me goose bumps

[treveiger]

Just for a quick update they didnt trade the land for the house they were looking at. They went to the auction and won the highest bid and long story short the guy wanted wayyyyyyy to much more before he even considered selling the house, he wanted a 1/3 more than what the winning bid was and my parents looked at him like he was crazy and left. So it looks like they arent planning on selling the land or trading it anymore so when spring time comes were going out to see how well our quad does in it. We got some new tires for it, ill have to put a pick of them up on here, looks 1000 times better.

[treveiger]

Heres before and after pics of the quad with the new tires, thing climbs anything in its path, the last picture was us doing snow removal and we were about done and decided to screw around once those nobs catch anything it jsut crawls over it

[jakeblues652]

why dont you move closer to me and start a mud hole ???? id love to have one around here!!! sounds like it would be a pretty sick hole if it gets going.

[72freak]

Originally Posted by treveiger

It would be more for the public and we would charge. A friend of ours from texas told us theres a waver you can have people sign that makes us free from pretty much everything that can happen but we need to talk to a lawyer to make it all legit and also get unsurance no matter what. Im going out one of these next couple days to look at the spot and i guess theres around 25 to 30 acres of mud with standing water in it(my father was afraid to drive his dmax through it lol)so im sure its plenty deep. Davidmichael thanks for the link, this is all new to me but weve been wanting to do this sense the land was for sale 5 years ago . Love the pictures guys keep them comming.

A waver wont pay your legal fees to defend yourself when you get sued...and trust me..it WILL happen! You will need to treat it like a business and be prepared to handle it as such. Also if there is a natural running water way through it there will be enviromental and EPA things to deal with.

[treveiger]

Originally Posted by jakeblues652

why dont you move closer to me and start a mud hole ???? id love to have one around here!!! sounds like it would be a pretty sick hole if it gets going.

Lol i know what you mean, all the places around hear that you can go mudding are wellll lets just say were not suppose to be there

Originally Posted by 72freak

A waver wont pay your legal fees to defend yourself when you get sued...and trust me..it WILL happen! You will need to treat it like a business and be prepared to handle it as such. Also if there is a natural running water way through it there will be enviromental and EPA things to deal with.

What do you mean? Can you explain more?
Thanks