Backyard Crawler Course

[majin]

what a lame.. i thought i replied to this 2 times now.. i snagged the majority of my rocks free from marketplace, lots of people have old rock gardens they want removed, typically only ever had to pay with sweat.
laying out a line of rocks is wierdly difficult lol. it seems liek its not but then you start chucking rocks and you're always gonna feel like thats not enough until a month later lol.

roadsiderc has a course built into his fence, its kinda similar to what your designing. the bottom course is gonna be the easiest obviooously, we're just dropping rocks and making small mountains. the fence work is gonna be a little more effort.
call up some construction sites if you drive past them. i stopped at many and just asked to talk to the foreman about helping them clear out some debris for free, BRING A TRUCK!! each site i took the truck to explain why i wanted the rocks they ALWAYS got excited and wanted to see it in action which led to EVEN MORE ROCKS!! cause now their getting rid of a truckload of debris that they otherwise would have had to pay to remove.

with mine i just started dropping a few rocks in a simple path and then widened it, it went from a trail of 1 rock to a trail of about 4 rocks wide, we dont want em settling securely i want em wild looking but stable, sometimes you gotta arrange em a bit, stacking to make climbs

plese for the love of RC dont underestimate the fun of a giant dirt pile!!! seriously just a few yards of dirt// rocks going up to and over it but leavce some dirt. the rain packs it down and the trucks rip it up, the loose composition of it makes it fun and difficult to climb a dirt hill. then the weather can change that as well seriously have lots of fun on dirt hills lol.


wood tends to be slick, hard to get traction on, just use it sparingly.

exocaged used cement to lock his obstacles in place making ermanant features. i liked that idea but never got around to doing it, i also liked that i could just change it whenever and now its a different course.

DONT GNORE FREE PALLETS, amazing level changes, 1 pallet cut in quarters makes a tall mountain to stack rocks on making for cool difficult climbs.

something i didnt consider. course maintenance.. i dont have a weedeater, so my grass near the edges always grows too tall. wish i had laid down a gravel path on either side to keep the grass down.

really stoked to watch your course come together broski

 

[dustyroller]

I have a similar area (5’x80’) and played with imaging to make some sort of plan.

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

something i didnt consider. course maintenance.. dont have a weedeater, so my grass near the edges always grows too tall. wish i had laid down a gravel path on either side to keep the grass down.

really stoked to watch your course come together broski

Your setup is stellar!!!

I will definitely go with minimal wood features, just enough to fill it out. Refining the design reminded me of all the times I struggled with wood features at the crawl center. I am also not against putting small bits of grip tape if needed for bite.

I have already had the "gulp" moment that it is going to require more material and work than I envisioned. I have also been looking at the lifting and moving equipment I have here. I realized it's all for hard surfaces. I'll need something with different tires to move rocks around the house.

There are so many details you do not think about and you brought up one of them; aggregate.
I'll have to get some to pour in-between the stones and fill in the spaces.

When it comes to the fence I think I am going to build framing inside the fence posts. Then block the area along the lower areas with pressure treated plywood so I can toss material right against the fence but it won't damage the fence boards or risk "pouring" into my neighbors yard.

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

I have a similar area (5’x80’) and played with imaging to make some sort of plan.

@dustyroller, that looks super cool! Is that part of your property?

Welcome to the community by the way

 

[dustyroller]

@dustyroller, that looks super cool! Is that part of your property?

Welcome to the community by the way

Thanks, yes it’s my house just the city’s easement portion of it which we are allowed to landscape. I just finished the concrete and fencing job, my house projects are never ending. The wife gave the green light for the project along as there are gnome houses and such along the way.

Thanks for the welcome, I’m sure I’ve had other user names on here but can’t remember over the years. Still been reading and scrolling on here for quite some time, I’m more active on other forums. Anything RC related has been a part of my life for the last 40ish years.