Did they muck up?

[land864]

The weekend just gone saw us doing a day trip up to Craig's Hut out of Mansfield. There was no charge to access Mt Stirling as there was not much snow around. Having said that there was some. After having a great lunch in the sun at the hut we drove back out to find this.

Now they were travelling with another vehicle ( also with unbraked camper), had a camper trailer on the back(unbraked )and were on fully inflated Highaway Terrain Coopers and slid on ice that was on the track. We had just gone in with our friend in a Pathfinder with highway terrains on and they got down just fine. (We did position them between two vehicles with Mud Terrains on but didn't strap them up)

This little mishap found 20 vehicles blocked up at the bottom of the track and 40 blocked up at the top. Apparently they were from NSW and said they had limited 4wd experience.

A couple of young guys( and a girl) had a tirfor and by the time we got there , they had unhitched the camper and had the tirfor(hand winch) all set up. They were great to watch in action and got the Toyota back on the track.
With the camper trailer and car off the track and with some co-operation between all we all managed to get out okay.

I am not sure about the physical condition of the lady driver or her male companion but they just sat in the car the whole time while everyone worked around them:eek:

Should they have been in there when ; they admitted to having limited 4WD experience , were on Highway terrains , had unbraked campers in tow and they had to drive through snow to get to this hill?

[cwebb]

I just had to google what a Tifor was. To anyone wondering, its a hand winch. I haven't heard of Tifor, I guess I don't research hand winches!

[Chops]

I've seen this type scenario a few times up that way,, and have towed an un-braked trailer myself through all conditions up there,, But having said that, had the tyres to match,,;)
This is a good incident to help remind people about training, or at least having someone with them who knows what they are doing,, that said,, we were all new to driving/4x4ing at some point,,:eek:
But it does leave those caught up in the traffic jam mighty frustrated in the meantime,,, Hopefully they will learn from it,, although its hard when your inside the vehicle,, We had a mate that when we had digging etc to do, (for him) would head into the bush with a dunny roll and shovel,,:mad:

[waynep]

Hard to say, but probably down to excess speed for the conditions and inexperience.
Hard to hold on if you hit an icy patch with a dead weight on back.
Chunkier tyres would have helped, but so may have AIRING DOWN.

[mns488]

like wayne said, hard to say off the photo alone.

Icy patches can catch out the best of us, if it was in fact ice?

We camped in the snow up past bluff hut and certainly after a -2 or 3 overnight the snow/water (on tracks) had frozen. So much so could not walk up the track. Ran with chains until the sun sorted the ice out.

[VladTepes]

How old are you cwebb ? I thought everyone knew what a Tirfor was !


Can't believe they didn't get out and help. I woulda told 'em to, or sat down and made a coffee... and waited....

[land864]

mns , where those guys are standing it was difficult to get a grip on foot:eek:

Vlad , I suppose we all could have but then no-one was going anywheres:angel:

[lardy]

Hard to say, but probably down to excess speed for the conditions and inexperience.
Hard to hold on if you hit an icy patch with a dead weight on back.
Chunkier tyres would have helped, but so may have AIRING DOWN.

in my experience chunky tyres are a hinderence in ice more contact with the road the better airing down can assist with that

[crash]

Lardy - you are correct, an allterrrain tyre with many sipes are better in the snow / ice than mud terrains in hard packed snow. Snow grips with snow, so you need a tread that actually "hangs onto" a bit of the snow to allow it to grip with the snow which provides traction. The sipes also act as little suction cups to grip on the ice. BUT in the snow conditions in Australia a mud terrain may actually be better as the snow is not all that deep or compacted and the muddies allow you to "dig down" to the surface below and get traction.
Now to the original post, Yes in hind sight they may say it was the wrong thing to do, but we all had to start somewhere and we have all made incorrect decisions when out 4wdriving its all apart of life.
I think it was wrong that they did not assist with their own recovery and would almost appear they had an atttitude that their would be some one around to help them out if things did not go well.

[THE BOOGER]

Perhaps the people winching knew what they were doing and told the others to sit in their veh and steer would like to know the full story any more pics:)

[land864]

Agreed , we all make mistakes as a part of our learning. That's why I haven't been too hard on them:)

Mmm , interesting theories on best snow tyres. Geez , now I need 3 sets of tyres ; General Grubbers for weekday use , Muddies for the wet weather work and now At's for the snow :confused: ;)

Was thinking about putting BFG AT's on when the GG's wear out.

Had them on the Disco and the Rangie and got about 100000kms out of the old pattern, compound. Not sure about the newies

[Disco44]

How old are you cwebb ? I thought everyone knew what a Tirfor was !


Can't believe they didn't get out and help. I woulda told 'em to, or sat down and made a coffee... and waited....

Same here Vlad.Some people think the rest of the world is there to wait on them apparently.