Amber Turner And Her Samurai

It’s great to see women active in the sport of off-roading. Especially when they have the skills to build and maintain their own rigs. Amber Turner is one of those women.

“Learning to wrench, wheel and weld are three skills most women don’t have, and women who have this knowledge are in demand, especially in the skilled trades” says Amber. Amber caught the off-road bug in 2011 after her father took the family to the Marlin Crawler Roundup in his mildly built Toyota Pickup. She bought her Samurai the next year, and started building it with her fiance’ (now husband). She took a welding class at a community college in order to fabricate her first set of rock sliders, which evolved into a welding career.

Amber’s Samurai isn’t the biggest, but it makes it places that vehicles with more modifications and bigger tires struggle on. And she’s by no means afraid to wheel it.

Amber has been a volunteer at every King of the Hammers since 2014, and volunteered or competed in several other events over the years such as W.E. Rock, Supercrawl, and Nor Cal Rock Races. Because she’s not happy sitting on the side lines, participation is the only option. In fact, she earned second place in her first-ever rock crawling competition, at the Team Series Rock Crawl & Mud Drags, in Oroville, California.

As her experience has grown, she has competed in the 4600 stock class in the Every Man Challenge, as well as the grueling King of The Hammers.

Amber also coordinates a small event called Zukicon on the Rubicon, a 3-day trail ride that encourages Suzuki owners from all over North America to experience the legendary Rubicon Trail for themselves.

Amber had the opportunity to meet Jessie Combs in 2014 and says that “I wouldn’t have ever even considered entering the Every Man Challenge if it hadn’t been for her. So, if there’s ever doubt in your mind that you can’t do something, I want you to know that you absolutely can.”