A couple of questions from a potential newbie

[FifiLámour]

Hi all,
Hope you don't mind me invading your sub-forum. I was pointed in this direction by Mrs Ho Har (thank you!) after a frustrated vent in the D3 forums.

My husband (MobyDisco) and I own a D3. We'd like to start taking it off road but want to do this in a group situation - for both the social interaction and the opportunity to learn from some more experienced LR drivers.

There's nothing happenning up here in Brisbane as far as I can determine (we are on the north side). So I have a handful of questions regarding your club.

1. Club Meetings on Thursday nights - As fun as they sound, they would be difficult for us to attend due to work, school pressures and distance. Is attendance at the meetings a prerequisite for continuing membership?

2. How often are the GCLRO Driver Awareness Programmes run and where?

3. The Blue 2-graded trips - how often are they run? Could you please give me a couple of examples of where a Blue Trip might be held as I really have no concept of what it might be like?

4. Oh, final question - we have 2 young kids - 5 and 8 years. Are there any issues with them coming along to events?

Ummm, I think that's about it for now. Thanks for reading.

[WhiteD3]

Fifi,

We have a few members from the north side. Myself and a fellow member Timj, both D3ers, live on the southside.

1) A lot of us (me included) only get to every other meeting, so no dramas there.
2) Next DARE is Aug 21 but they are run regularly, on demand.
3) Blue? You'd have no problems running on the black trips with a D3. Most trips we split into hard, and less hard groups anyway.
4) Lot's of kids in the club. Many come on the day trips (Mine do). Camping trips are especially fun, running around like crazed whatever (The kids that is), toasted marshmallows, etc.

Cheers.

[x-box]

What Mark (WhiteD3) said......

This is a family orientated club and there are no pressure to make you drive anything you don't want to.
We have trips from mild to wild and everything inbetween - you choose where you want to go and there will always be somebody in a similar vehicle to give advice and/or help out if necessary.
D3's are extremely capable vehicles offroad and you will have a blast, the one small matter for discussion might be tyres, depending on where you want to go (but there's Big Dog and WhiteD3 to chat to about that)
By all means pop in and join the club for a drive somewhere - as mentioned there is a DARE coming up soon. You'll appreciate and enjoy your vehicle even more once you realize what it's capable of and the fun you can have in it.....

[WhiteD3]

Fifi,

Don't be put off by X-Box's avatar. He was having a bad day:wasntme:

[FifiLámour]

http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-shocked016.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys.php)

I hadn't even noticed it till you said that WhiteD3!


Calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean...


We have the store fitted Wranglers on the car at the moment (and as you know WhiteD3 there is a degree of contention as to whether they need changing. My hubbie is coming round to the idea since I mentioned that others had changed theirs at 37K and 50K respectively - we are about to clock over 50K).

The question then will be what tyres should we get for a car that is mainly on-road with some weekend off roading. Not of the x-box type though, LOL. ... but that's a whole other thread;).

Anyway, I'm digressing. Off to print out a membership form as it all sounds fantastic to me and I am itching to get more involved.

[The ho har's]

fifi

we have quite few members from the north side....the far away as Caboolture/Bribie Is area..IIRC

Mrs hh:angel:

[harry]

good on you fifi' etc
we do have a dare day coming up 21th this month
driver awareness and recovery experience,
you are welcome to come along if you are members, so throw the money in our till and come along,
this is a basic education that we require all our members to have.
it helps us to all be aware of our situation and how to travel with others in a group when on a club trip.
and is a good reminder of good 4wd driving protocols.
this dare we are also running a ladies group, separate to the blokes, as sometimes the girls may want to have the info without their partner's input [ i think you girls call it 'interference', but we won't go into that]
we do have quite a few d3 owners as members and they can give you specialised information as to how you get what you want from your vehicle, and be safe.
we will have at least one d3'er on the day.

[Hendrik]

Fifi,

Camping trips are especially fun, running around like crazed whatever (The kids that is), toasted marshmallows, etc.



Sometimes its not just the kids :p

[FifiLámour]

Harry: Thanks, will check the diary and speak to by husband about that day. It sounds good. :)

Hendrik: https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/08/933.jpg

[Skiboy]

As above plus I would add that the family/social nature of the club is one of the main reasons for being a member. My youngest loves the other kids and we love the social aspect - even though we/I rarely get to meetings - trips and the club website are pretty useful aspects for meeting and keeping in touch.

Re Tyres - if you mainly do on road and occasionally do trips/off road I would consider a second set of wheels. This allows you the best of both worlds - a quiet and fuel efficient on road tyre as well as a more aggressive (read traction by noisier and less fuel efficient) off road tyre.

I run two sets of wheels for my D2 - second set of rims I got from ebay and put mud tyres on. It takes 20min with a trolley jack to change the wheels over (I use a rattle gun to undo once nut broken with a breaker bar). Only slightly slower with wheel brace - but I would buy a 3/4 drive breaker bar (from Trade Tools) and appropriate socket size as so much stronger and easier than factory tyre iron to undo nuts and ensure tight.

Skiboy

[djhampson]

This is what the kids got up to on Fraser last year....

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2010/08/908.jpg

[FifiLámour]

Skiboy - 2 sets of tyres? :o I'm impressed! I can tell you now, although it sounds like a good idea, it is highly unlikely we would run a second set of tyres. I just don't think we could put in that amount of effort!

DJ - I take it your kids are down the bottom of that??? Yikes! LOL.

Well, I went to check the diary and it seems the 21st is a Saturday. Boo Hoo. Saturdays this tiem of year are reserved for soccer in this household, so I will just have to keep an eye open for the next DARE day. By then soccer season should have finished, hopefully. Thanks for letting me know about it anyway...

[djhampson]

Haha not my kids.

All the kids who came along spent hours digging that hole. By the time we left I think we could have buried Pete's Def 90 in it!