It has been springlike out here lately and the warmer temps and dry ground inspired me to take the 2nd gen 4Runner out and about with my son who is 20 months old.
Ben loves airplanes so I decided I would take him in the hills by our airport. I've seen a couple Grand Junction people post here before so you would know what that area looks like. For the rest, it is an orv area in the Bookcliffs that is all hills and dunes with a fairly high clay content; slippery as snot when wet, hard as rock when baked dry yet can also turn to a fine powder. You sort of never know what you are going to get into.
Since it is so close to town, it gets hammered and the roads show it. Lots of deep ruts, whoop-de-dos and pockets. The terrain varies from steep climbs to arroyos. The result is a whole lot of rocking and bucking and generally being bumped around.
While driving, I put the rear view mirror so I could watch Ben readily to see how he was responding. The were a couple bumps that caught me off guard, largely due to trying to watch him and the road at the same time. He seemed to enjoy it and only got a look of discomfort/fear on his face a couple times.
The following day, I decided to go to Bangs Canyon since it is just a few miles away from our house. Same deal. Some pretty rough road especially when a toddler is involved so I only went down to the second level of sandstone where we stopped and played with his toy Jeeps (ever try to find a 1:64 4Runner?!).
Having made a quick question into a book I'll ask this: for those of you that have/had toddlers and took them out on rough road how did you make it more comfortable and safer for them? The main thing I am concerned about is how his head bobs back and forth. He is very physically adept, walks, runs, climbs and all that but in the car seat with his torso restrained I feel like his head is moving around too much and it is difficult for him to keep control.
BTW, I should mention that I'm not a complete idiot, I'm not rockcrawling or dune jumping with him in the truck, just travelling in some classic type Colorado offroad areas looking for new places for Ben to play

 

Full Nomex suit with gloves, Bell racing helmet, Hans device, 7 point harness, helmet restraining strap, arm retaining straps, all inside an 8 point sub-roll-cage inside the full interior cage you no doubt already have?

 

BWUAHAHAHAHAAAHA!! LOL

This cracked me up man!

Good stuff though, taking your little boy out wheeling. My boy is 12 months, another year and he will be with me too

 

I went wheeling last fall with my firend's and they took their 4 month old in their jeep and just use the baby carrier and added more padding support around her head and she slept almost the whole time and was only awake for a feeding or two. I was a little surprised when they brought her but she was fine.

 

I've been taking my girls to Death Valley since they were 2yrs old for 4x4'ing and camping. My oldest has been on the trip 3x; she is 5 now. I'm just glad their music has changed from nursery rhymes to Hilary Duff.....ok not that much better, but 3 days of nursery rhymes is torture.

It's become our father-daughter bonding trip....Right now, they look forward to it each year. Even more so, since it snowed this year. I hope they'll continue to want to go until their teens.

p.s. There is only 1x that they had to get out of the vehicle because of the trail

 

I think it's a good idea to take your child offroading. One, it's quality time with your child and they can watch how you handle stucks and breakdowns in a calm manner so they know that it's not the end of the world when bad things happen. Secondly, you can teach them TREAD so that the future "wheelers" may also have the chance to enjoy our sport as well as fight to keep it going. Lastly, they will have more of a chance to enjoy nature and not just see it on TV. When my mom was pregnant with me, she, my dad, and their friends went trail riding in the mountains, so now I blame her for my love of the sport

 

Fear is a good thing. It is an indicator, for some, to stop and figure out what is going to happen. Unfortunately for some others, it is a sign of a pending cranialrectal insertion LOL! I try to be the former and not the latter
I just don't want to actually injure him (ala shaken baby syndrome and lesser equivalents) or freak him out to the point when he is older he won't want to go on rough terrain. A NASCAR type head restraint and neck brace is probably going a touch too far, but it would be nice to see if anybody came up with something functional to limit the amount his head moves in the event of a hole I don't moderate successfully.
I still have a fairly vivid memory of my dad driving us down into Rough Canyon and driving across a particular ledge that back in that day meant you were very off-camber with one set of wheels on sandstone and the other on deep silt. He stopped right in the middle of it, leaned over looking out the passenger side and said, "Boy, that sure is a long way down...". As a 4 or 5 year old sitting in an old Willy's Wagon, staring off the ledge it looked like a hundred miles to the bottom rather than a hundred feet. It's funny, but even now that that ledge is now eroded down to being a wide road I still get a flashback from it sometimes

 

You're on the right track regarding your concerns about rapid head/neck movement, that would be my only real concern too as the neck muscles may not be fully developed yet. I'd recommend talking to the pediatrician and as well. ALso, supporting the neck area as another poster mentioned is a good idea as well. Also, remember to keep the glare out of their eyes. I can't tell you how many unknowing fathers (and mothers) I see with their kids reclined in the strollers and facing into direct sunlight; its become a pet peeve of mine. You should see the ugly looks I get when I say "Excuse me, you childs eyes are getting fried by the sun, perhaps you may want to drape their blanket over the canopy."

 

"I just don't want to actually injure him (ala shaken baby syndrome and lesser equivalents) or freak him out to the point when he is older he won't want to go on rough terrain. A NASCAR type head restraint and neck brace is probably going a touch too far, but it would be nice to see if anybody came up with something functional to limit the amount his head moves in the event of a hole I don't moderate successfully. "

When my daughter was an infant, we used an "Inverted U" EXAMPLE shaped pad you could pick up at any baby's R us or like store for about 10 or 15 bucks. I still have it and now that she is 2 years I've been contemplating taking her out.

on a side note, I sold bicycles and accesories for 10 years. We would not sell baby seats or trailers if the child was less that a year old, simply because the neck muscles would not hold up the abuse and could injure the child, simply from the added weight of a helmet. All the manufactrures agreed after 1 year most children were out of the danger zone. I am assuming that at 2 my little girl will be OK, but I will snug her restraints and use the head support.

just my .02

 

I also have 2nd gen. I put my kid in the front so when they fall asleep, I hold their head while driving.....
You can also try pading the sides of the head so it doesn't move as much.

 

That is an ongoing battle with Ben that he ultimately loses. He has had 3 different french foreign legion type hats that have the flap covering the ears and neck with a big front brim. He doesn't like wearing it, but he does in the end. I can be very stubborn and if often requires that.
My wife and her father both have retinitis pigmentosa so I put an emphasis on protecting his eyes as it may well wind up being an issue for him too. Fingers crossed that he got my "eye genes"! What I need next is to find some way to keep sunglasses on him. So far that has been beyond my ability. We'll wrestle back and forth until he is practically in tears about it so for now I'm going with the hat and modeling eye protection to him by wearing my sunglasses anytime we are out. The sun shades that stick to car windows was one of the very first "mods" my 2nd gen got

 

Uhhhh... have you read the rules?!

 

Duh...proof I'm a "new" father and still in the sleep deprivation stage of child rearing! I'm certain I have one of those somewhere, I think it came with the first car seat or stroller we got and looks like just the thing I was thinking of. I wanted something that would limit the amount of side to side travel since it seems to be the most prevalent and lacking support. Time to dig around in the garage and see where I put it last.
Thanks for clearing the fog

 

glad to help, I was thinking along the same lines when I saw your post! you know its kind of cool, I only have a shoulder/lap belt and she has a 5 point harness in a racing bucket style seat!

and as far as sleep deprivation, my 2 year old girl will be joined by her little brother around april/may... I wonder if I stored up sleep now ZZZZZZzzzzz...

 

just duct tape him to the seat... use about 1/2 a roll of duct tape.... should do the trick.

 

We've been taking our duaghter 4 wheeling since she was 6 months old, just kept her head supported, and she would sleep most of the time. She is 3 years old now, and we can't go wheeling with out her, or she gets MAD!!!