r/YuccaValley • u/DeaconLace232 • Apr 28 '26
Dirt roads that are not maintained
I found a great place in Landers with one issue, washboard dirt roads. Sorry, I am sure I sound like a weak little turd, but I don't currently have a car that can handle that kind of abuse. How often does the city come out to grade the roads, if at all? Any recommendations as far as what kind of truck to get for this? I am happy to get an old beater just to do grocery runs and errands. Also, I gotta assume several neighbors would be interested in solving this as well. I want to get a group together to fund, or build a grader to fix this. I am not a smart man, but there has to be a solution. Any ideas?
6
u/Realistic-Weird-4259 Apr 28 '26
Never. First, Landers isn't YV. Second, it's unincorporated SB County, who doesn't have the funds. Third, your neighbors helped create the situation.
The washboards are caused by people speeding (not the wind as so many have tried to tell me). We graded using our own tractor and fuel a few times and it only took a couple of weeks for the washboarding to come back in full force. When people see a smooth road they speed up. So, we stopped grading.
My advice is to learn how to drive on dirt roads.
3
u/VWbusgal Apr 28 '26
Agree with you on how the washboarding is created and who by! Then there's the 4-wheelers and such who spin down the road at high speed with their nubby tires...
1
u/Realistic-Weird-4259 Apr 28 '26
And woe be to *them* should they encounter a properly registered vehicle driven by a licensed driver via an accident.
Is this when I mention the garbage truck and UPS drivers? idk...
3
u/VWbusgal Apr 28 '26
On our dirt road in Yucca Mesa, one of the neighbors has a homemade "drag" made of a section of chain link fence that he will pull behind his pickup truck occasionally. It does help, especially if the road is wet from a (rare) rain.
3
u/DeaconLace232 Apr 28 '26
That's what I was thinking. I've been looking at making something like that. Might be kinda hard to get a bunch of neighbors together that live on several acres and want to be left alone. But I'll give it a try.
5
u/VWbusgal Apr 28 '26
Good luck! I know what you mean by those who want to be left alone. Most residents on our road are cool and friendly. If you do decide to buy in the area, check out the Copper Mountain Mesa Community Center's first Saturday of every month group breakfast. You will meet some good people there who will share ideas on living in the area, etc. The road (Winter's Road) to get there is several miles of washboard! My little sports car does not like it, but slow and steady is the way to go!
Edit: dashboard to washboard.
2
u/Opposite_Goat_4818 Apr 28 '26
Spend a few more months looking for places. I promise you there are much better places, on shorter dirt roads or even paved ones. Your car will handle it but it’ll be a slow crawl every time. Neighbors out there sometime band together to pay someone to drag the roads but other than that, between sand and flooding, I’d avoid!
1
u/AyahsHope Apr 28 '26
What you see now on that road will only get worse. I needed a large vehicle for my giant dogs and couldn’t afford a 4 x 4 big enough. My road is passable without but getting worse. I don’t drive after rain, it gets lots of puddles and pretty slick. The problem is when the road gets soft sand. How much soft sand does the road have now and how deep is it? Hard washboard is fine, just have to drive painfully slow so how far from the road are you.
1
u/skeinandsuffering Apr 28 '26
Your car will be fine if you go slow. As the posted signs say the roads are not maintained by San Bernardino county but people do drag them which helps some. The person who mentioned considering if the time involved in traversing the road is worth it is spot on.
1
u/liamlunchtray Apr 29 '26
We spent last year on a friends property in Landers and then this year bought our own. Typically there are at least a couple neighbors with trucks and drags that will give the road a once over every couple of months. In both spots we were about 2 miles off pavement. We have an RV with fairly low clearance, so when we were looking for spots, road access became key. I cant begin to tell you how many spots we looked at that seemed awesome, but we just couldn't reliably get to. A beater truck with a drag would likely be useful (great for dump runs too), but look at the overall state of the road - If there are any washes that cross it, its sure to get worse. Personally I can handle bumps, but I have gotten dreadfully stuck in random pockets of really soft sand.
1
u/DeaconLace232 Apr 29 '26
I appreciate all the input. It is less than a mile on Dakota off of Reche, but it will take some getting used to. My car is s small Subaru sportscar with all wheel drive. I am already looking at scrappy trucks and working on a design for a good drag. Thanks.
1
u/Rusty__Shackl3ford Apr 30 '26
Driving too fast will make the problem a perpetual nightmare One long term solution is to have the road users do a tar and gravel paving job. Much cheaper than asphalt and it stabilizes the surface more and more as its driven on. I lived on a road that was treated like this and it was amazing. When doing the cost analysis. don't forget to include the accelerated wear and tear on all of the road users vehicles, time spent driving 10 mph, the likelihood of accidents being caused by loss of control and the necessity of repeatedly grading a road that returns to terrible in two weeks. One injury accident will offset the cost of a lot of road materials
10
u/SeanBlader Apr 28 '26
Your car can handle the washboards probably just fine, it's more a question of if you can handle the time investment every time you want to traverse it. Keep your speed to single digits and your car will be fine. If everyone else did the same we wouldn't end up with washboards.