Oh Man Buddy, Don't Do That

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Image: Jason Torchnisky

Here, we have a classic conundrum. You’ve got your car (in this case, a little primer-colored van) on one side of a thing (in this case, some kind of drainage ditch) and you want it to be on the other side of the thing. So you get to puzzling it out. Maybe a jump?

Humans have been solving problems just like this one for as long as we’ve been around. Sometimes they’re good solutions, sometimes they’re bad. Sometimes you’re driving backwards over two logs no bigger around than my arms. And just, you know, eyeballing it? As a non-engineer, I’d say our friend could have spent maybe a few more minutes in the planning stages of this little endeavor.

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It’s not at all because it’s impossible — or really even that bad of an idea to make a bridge out of logs. Sometimes logs are what’s available. What’s a more evocative overlanding tableau than a bunch of Camel Trophy competitors swatting away yellow fever, trying to guide an overloaded Land Rover over a pile of busted up logs?

But this, man, I gotta think there’s a better way. Maybe add a couple more logs at least. Anyway, here we go:

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Gif: Raphael Orlove
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See, no problem! Norman thinks the guy chooses to go in reverse because that way he could keep an eye on the spotter. OK, maybe, but why isn’t the guy holding the camera doing the spotting so our man can just creep across in first gear? The mind boggles. My guess is this guy is showing off.

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As he frequently does, Jason summed it perfectly, saying exactly what we were all thinking the first time we laid on this twitter video we’re not allowed to embed: “Holy crap. Imagine backing across that with ONE reverse lamp like that.”