sclarke
24th October 2005, 09:39 AM
Thought you all might like this story about a Friday night drive that went wrong.
This is the extract from the 4wd Monthly Site......
Well after a fantastic few hours out at toolangi on Friday the 21st i thought id put my new post up about the 24 hour Toolangi.
The next event will be in the next milenium or when hell freezes over.
OK the Story.
I was allowed to Ride with Tom on the original Toolangi Firday night run, So Tom with Dave came over to pick me up. When they got there the Middy had a wheel bearing problem that dave tightened up in my drive. Off we went, but Tom was reluctant. it was on the next stop that had tom worried.. after coming around a corner the middy shock and wobbled like a scared fat chick in front of the icecream shop....
combination of worn draglinks and worn bearings. Tom wanted to pull out but Dave and i said "She'll be right mate" so aff we went. We met up with Scott, Lisa, Steve (rangie), Daniel, PJ, Dave and mate in there patrol/mav. We all headed off at about 9pm and went up Airoplane and started down the Goat track when Tom had brake problems. Tom called it a night and as i was in with PJ at the time i stayed on with the gang. At this time i could have pulled the pin and missed out on "Lemans 24 hr Toolangi"
But in to zook i went. After PJ scared me a few times going down the hill i thought this would be good in the wet....
Next was the climb up "Campsite Track" The start of the End.
It was wet, but not too bad... compared to 5am...
Steve power up the hill and found the Rangie with JT's was hurting a bit and had alot of goes to get over a tree root. the root was big and the ground being wet and steep made it hard. He opted the thru the tree's and new track to be made option.... next was the RH turn around a tree. it was not easy in the dry let alone night and rain.... so off he went. Nope the ledge was too steep. opted the LH side option. after he backed to far back we had the mighty GQ pull him up and out. Then came the wombat holes or now called the roll over holes... these are about 1 meter deep and Steve opted the chicked route. Good call. Then came the slip into the Tree Trick. Under power the Rangie pulled Steve into the side of a tree. Lucky it was only a bent door and some pride. Note to all 4wd'ers. Keep your head and hands in the car.......they get crushed otherwise....
Then came the rescue mission. i think from memory scott came to winch him up, as its starting to get blurred with the sleep loss and grog mixed in...
Then the problems started.
We had Steve of the tree and all safe on a flat peice of moving mud... then the front under HorsePower slipped in a wombat hole and he had to be snatched. During the snatch the Rangie poped out of Low wange and shot back and fell into the 1 meter deep wombat hole. combination of mud, no drive and a deep hole put the rangie gently on its side. Lucky for Steve it was a gentle roll over. Steve was scared and confused and with some help we got him up and out the Passanger door that was facing the moon at the time....
We all confirmed he was ok and rethought our progress.
Scott then headed south to do the long way around to get to the top. This was to take a good 1/2 hour but after the 2nd tire rolled of the rim and a broken draglink ball on the "s" arm that ended Neds Night.
At that point we relised the Zook was dead due to a sleepy battery. So the tally was Ned 500m to 1km away on the top side of the track Dead, The Rangie having a Kip on its side, the zook sleeping on a tree root and the only survivor. Dave in the Mighty GQ Shorty. After a 30 sec discussion the GQ went out for help. The help at this stage was Daniels 4 Runner..... Ohh God we thought... we will be here until Xmas..... How wrong we were.... Daniel was the 1st saviour of the day.... well night i suppose..
about 2-3 hours later they returned.
Ned, Daniel, Dave and mate in the GQ with daniels 4 runner. Thank god for repco......
During this time i walked up to see if Lisa was ok in Neds car and thought i could fix neds car. so with a hacksaw i and lisa went bush to find a fence. about 2 hours of walking found us a fence. we cut mr farmers fence and borrowed about 2 meters of barb wire. The plan was to wire the draglink back onto the S Arm. Plan failed when i inspected further the damage that was done to the arm. At that time the crew had returned at about 3.30am. We headed back to Steve and Sleepy Pete to recover the Rangie. Daniel faced down the hill and had the GQ connected to him up top as ballast and the winch was connected to the Chassis of the Rangie and it was winched over. As soon as it was on its feet we secured the B Pillar to a nearby tree with a strap. as we backed the winch off it wanted to roll back, so more pulling was needed. With the combination of me tentioning the strap to the tree and the winch pulling we got him on a fairly level spot. nose in a hole to get the car level. This was a slight problem as the track was partially obscured with the back of the rangie so getting past was not easy. Daniel got past and we down to jump start the Zook. At this time the rain had set in really well and i was soaked as i became the camera man/ winch/ jumperlead/ girl friday Bitch. We jumped the zook and PJ reversed off a ledge to find the zook wanting to roll over. Some quick thinking by me saw me leap off a ledge fly thru the air and land on the zook to stop it rollling. in that breif time the words. "Ohh **** im going to roll" obmitted from PJ's mouth. We got him level and spun him arround. To head out the way we came in. At the time the rain was so bad the himm at the top was flowing to the bottom... we had a land slide underway..... it was like a scene from a movie where the soil just flows down the hill........... Threadbo came to mind...
We drove out and headed back to Melb for breaky and the recovery Crew.
The Rescue Story.
Saturday Morning at about 7am while having Macca's in Sillydale we were ringing around to get parts and work out who had the best rig for the job to tow the rangie out if need be.
Straws were drawn and the Fender came up Trumps....
I was planning on not taking it out until the High country but that soon changed.
We got back to my place and the lads and Lass crashed on the Couch while i grabbed the simex's and threw them in the back. We loaded up with some gear and headed into meet Dave at Hardcore 4x4. Dave opened up the Workshop early and was looking through his spare parts to find what we needed. Lucky for Ned Dave had the right parts available. We grabbed them and helped dave fix a few Customer cars before we headed out. I threw the Simex's on "Camila Ahhchoo" and we headed back out to Campsite track in the Defender and Daniels 4runner.
We got up to Neds car and started work, Rangie Dude walked out to the Rangie and had a tinker.
I and Daniel drove down to the Rangie and assessed the situation in the daylight. This was not going to be easy. Very wet chewed up track and it was steep. The Rangie had to be pulled up a hill out of a hole before he was back on the track then he had to be dragged to the top before we could do any real work.
Steve kicked it in the guts and told us the oil light would not go out. Yep pump ran dry when it was on its side so she had no oil pressure. Only fix is to pull the pump out and pack it with Vaseline and that would help it prime up.
I looked at the track and as i was already halfway down the only way out was down to the bottom and turn around.
Daniel jumped in for the ride and we squeezed past the rangie and slid our way to the bottom. we turned around and i patted Camilla Ahhchoo on the dash and told her she could do it... Daniel looked at me and laughed.... was it in gesture or Fear???
I hit the gas and ploughed up the hill, jumping over tree stumps and roots and giving it more stick than i wanted to. i had to make some new tracks and a group of tree's Ned said you could not get thru i did and full noise.... When i got to the top Daniel looked at me and had a grin from ear to ear and said "That was awsome" Rangie Dude was Punching the Air and screamed with his crackly lost voice "The mighty Defender".
We filled the Rangie up with Petrol and then worked out that no oil pressure meant a tow all the way out.
Daniel and i went back to grab his rig and Neds was almost ready when we got back. Daniel and Ned drove back to the Rangie and the short straw was drawn to find Daniel was the one who would winch 1st.
Bull bar against the tree with me connected incase something let loose and away he went. 2 full lengths of the winch cable and it was Neds Turn. The Repco on Daniels has proven to be a good thing. Cheap and it works.
Ned pulled up to the best available tree and kept winching until the Rangie was at a spot i could have a go at Snatching up.
I backed down and 3 straps were connected together via lumps of wood. I then started to snatch him out. Each time pulling him up a few feet at a time. After many attempts i got him to a point where we could get one snatch on it and get him up to level ground. By then the Track was Rooted.. i had ripped the crap out of it. it looked like a tractor and plough had been in.
I then snatched some more, it was not easy as the track was not straight and i had to pull him threw trees and each snatch pulled my backend 1 meter across and tried to pull me into the Trees. all of a sudden the Rangie popped out of the track and we were off. I darted threw the track at full noise in Low 1 and Steve did not care if he bounced off trees to get him up to the top. We all cheered as it had taken 3 hours to get him up.
We then tried to Prime the pump with a hose, oil and compressed air, but nope she was not going to work.
We were about 30km from Glenburn and it was time to get him out. it was about 4pm and getting dark so we chose to pull him out as far as we could. With trees down and some killer kills and desents this was going to be fun....
I pulled him out past the 1st problem tree that was down and then the 2nd one caused grief we continued on and got to the top of a killer hill. The decision was made to let Steve roll down on his own with the engine as brakes and the normal brakes. Dave disconnected the ignition to make sure it would not fire up on the downhill.
Steve got down and it was a bit hairy, he looked at once stage as though he might roll again. But he got down with no major problems.
Then came the tug up the hill on the other side. This proved to hard for Camila as I was looking traction just as I crested the top. So we reversed down and connected 3 straps again and I went for it like that fat chick that was at the icecream shop.
Cheers again as we got him up. At this time my mate Mark called me and told me he was at my house and 1 day early from his trip around Aust. Time was running out and we needed to get Steve out. We stepped up the pace and dragged him out further. The Next hill was found to be a challenge as Steve had to go down on his own again. It was too steep to lower him. De drove down on engine and brakes and I drove the chicken track as it was easier, but not simple like the one Steve was on. He was in deep ruts that would help guide him down. At the bottom we connected him up again and the snatch disconnected itself halfway across the river… Steve jumped out climbed on his bonnet and grabbed the strap while I reversed back to have him reconnect the Strap. Dave videoed it as it looked great and showed the determination of Steve to get out and not get wet…..
I popped him out and we headed off. The Track had been recently bulldozed at was like porridge. Ned was going off and sliding all over the place. I was having an interesting time as mud was flicking off the front tires and coming through the windows and hitting the inside of the back window. So now I know how my back window gets mud on it on the inside……
I pulled him back out and up some hills until we got back out to the Melba Hwy.
We towed him back at 30kmh to the Glenburn Road house to find they had no power and were Shut. Tragedy struck when we realised that the pub was out of power also.
It was now over 24 hours since we left Melbourne on Friday night and we were tired hungry and dying for a beer. If Roothy was here he would have been cursing like my Granny at the rabbits in her Veggie patch.
Dave and Daniel went to the pub just incase and the pub was open and working on candle light and bottles instead oaf the tap. Dave came back with a few cans and we had a drink or 10. RACV was called and we left Steve to wait for his tow.
We had dinner at KFC in Sillydale and the food had never tasted so good. By then it was about 11pm and we headed home. It was a long day or 2 and I cant even remember closing my eyes when I hit the pillow. Daniel crashed at my place, so with me and my missus, Mark, Helen and the kids and Daniel it was a full house.
I think my Dog jumped into bed with Daniel………
So who’s up for the Next “Lemans Toolangi 24 hour”??????
This is the extract from the 4wd Monthly Site......
Well after a fantastic few hours out at toolangi on Friday the 21st i thought id put my new post up about the 24 hour Toolangi.
The next event will be in the next milenium or when hell freezes over.
OK the Story.
I was allowed to Ride with Tom on the original Toolangi Firday night run, So Tom with Dave came over to pick me up. When they got there the Middy had a wheel bearing problem that dave tightened up in my drive. Off we went, but Tom was reluctant. it was on the next stop that had tom worried.. after coming around a corner the middy shock and wobbled like a scared fat chick in front of the icecream shop....
combination of worn draglinks and worn bearings. Tom wanted to pull out but Dave and i said "She'll be right mate" so aff we went. We met up with Scott, Lisa, Steve (rangie), Daniel, PJ, Dave and mate in there patrol/mav. We all headed off at about 9pm and went up Airoplane and started down the Goat track when Tom had brake problems. Tom called it a night and as i was in with PJ at the time i stayed on with the gang. At this time i could have pulled the pin and missed out on "Lemans 24 hr Toolangi"
But in to zook i went. After PJ scared me a few times going down the hill i thought this would be good in the wet....
Next was the climb up "Campsite Track" The start of the End.
It was wet, but not too bad... compared to 5am...
Steve power up the hill and found the Rangie with JT's was hurting a bit and had alot of goes to get over a tree root. the root was big and the ground being wet and steep made it hard. He opted the thru the tree's and new track to be made option.... next was the RH turn around a tree. it was not easy in the dry let alone night and rain.... so off he went. Nope the ledge was too steep. opted the LH side option. after he backed to far back we had the mighty GQ pull him up and out. Then came the wombat holes or now called the roll over holes... these are about 1 meter deep and Steve opted the chicked route. Good call. Then came the slip into the Tree Trick. Under power the Rangie pulled Steve into the side of a tree. Lucky it was only a bent door and some pride. Note to all 4wd'ers. Keep your head and hands in the car.......they get crushed otherwise....
Then came the rescue mission. i think from memory scott came to winch him up, as its starting to get blurred with the sleep loss and grog mixed in...
Then the problems started.
We had Steve of the tree and all safe on a flat peice of moving mud... then the front under HorsePower slipped in a wombat hole and he had to be snatched. During the snatch the Rangie poped out of Low wange and shot back and fell into the 1 meter deep wombat hole. combination of mud, no drive and a deep hole put the rangie gently on its side. Lucky for Steve it was a gentle roll over. Steve was scared and confused and with some help we got him up and out the Passanger door that was facing the moon at the time....
We all confirmed he was ok and rethought our progress.
Scott then headed south to do the long way around to get to the top. This was to take a good 1/2 hour but after the 2nd tire rolled of the rim and a broken draglink ball on the "s" arm that ended Neds Night.
At that point we relised the Zook was dead due to a sleepy battery. So the tally was Ned 500m to 1km away on the top side of the track Dead, The Rangie having a Kip on its side, the zook sleeping on a tree root and the only survivor. Dave in the Mighty GQ Shorty. After a 30 sec discussion the GQ went out for help. The help at this stage was Daniels 4 Runner..... Ohh God we thought... we will be here until Xmas..... How wrong we were.... Daniel was the 1st saviour of the day.... well night i suppose..
about 2-3 hours later they returned.
Ned, Daniel, Dave and mate in the GQ with daniels 4 runner. Thank god for repco......
During this time i walked up to see if Lisa was ok in Neds car and thought i could fix neds car. so with a hacksaw i and lisa went bush to find a fence. about 2 hours of walking found us a fence. we cut mr farmers fence and borrowed about 2 meters of barb wire. The plan was to wire the draglink back onto the S Arm. Plan failed when i inspected further the damage that was done to the arm. At that time the crew had returned at about 3.30am. We headed back to Steve and Sleepy Pete to recover the Rangie. Daniel faced down the hill and had the GQ connected to him up top as ballast and the winch was connected to the Chassis of the Rangie and it was winched over. As soon as it was on its feet we secured the B Pillar to a nearby tree with a strap. as we backed the winch off it wanted to roll back, so more pulling was needed. With the combination of me tentioning the strap to the tree and the winch pulling we got him on a fairly level spot. nose in a hole to get the car level. This was a slight problem as the track was partially obscured with the back of the rangie so getting past was not easy. Daniel got past and we down to jump start the Zook. At this time the rain had set in really well and i was soaked as i became the camera man/ winch/ jumperlead/ girl friday Bitch. We jumped the zook and PJ reversed off a ledge to find the zook wanting to roll over. Some quick thinking by me saw me leap off a ledge fly thru the air and land on the zook to stop it rollling. in that breif time the words. "Ohh **** im going to roll" obmitted from PJ's mouth. We got him level and spun him arround. To head out the way we came in. At the time the rain was so bad the himm at the top was flowing to the bottom... we had a land slide underway..... it was like a scene from a movie where the soil just flows down the hill........... Threadbo came to mind...
We drove out and headed back to Melb for breaky and the recovery Crew.
The Rescue Story.
Saturday Morning at about 7am while having Macca's in Sillydale we were ringing around to get parts and work out who had the best rig for the job to tow the rangie out if need be.
Straws were drawn and the Fender came up Trumps....
I was planning on not taking it out until the High country but that soon changed.
We got back to my place and the lads and Lass crashed on the Couch while i grabbed the simex's and threw them in the back. We loaded up with some gear and headed into meet Dave at Hardcore 4x4. Dave opened up the Workshop early and was looking through his spare parts to find what we needed. Lucky for Ned Dave had the right parts available. We grabbed them and helped dave fix a few Customer cars before we headed out. I threw the Simex's on "Camila Ahhchoo" and we headed back out to Campsite track in the Defender and Daniels 4runner.
We got up to Neds car and started work, Rangie Dude walked out to the Rangie and had a tinker.
I and Daniel drove down to the Rangie and assessed the situation in the daylight. This was not going to be easy. Very wet chewed up track and it was steep. The Rangie had to be pulled up a hill out of a hole before he was back on the track then he had to be dragged to the top before we could do any real work.
Steve kicked it in the guts and told us the oil light would not go out. Yep pump ran dry when it was on its side so she had no oil pressure. Only fix is to pull the pump out and pack it with Vaseline and that would help it prime up.
I looked at the track and as i was already halfway down the only way out was down to the bottom and turn around.
Daniel jumped in for the ride and we squeezed past the rangie and slid our way to the bottom. we turned around and i patted Camilla Ahhchoo on the dash and told her she could do it... Daniel looked at me and laughed.... was it in gesture or Fear???
I hit the gas and ploughed up the hill, jumping over tree stumps and roots and giving it more stick than i wanted to. i had to make some new tracks and a group of tree's Ned said you could not get thru i did and full noise.... When i got to the top Daniel looked at me and had a grin from ear to ear and said "That was awsome" Rangie Dude was Punching the Air and screamed with his crackly lost voice "The mighty Defender".
We filled the Rangie up with Petrol and then worked out that no oil pressure meant a tow all the way out.
Daniel and i went back to grab his rig and Neds was almost ready when we got back. Daniel and Ned drove back to the Rangie and the short straw was drawn to find Daniel was the one who would winch 1st.
Bull bar against the tree with me connected incase something let loose and away he went. 2 full lengths of the winch cable and it was Neds Turn. The Repco on Daniels has proven to be a good thing. Cheap and it works.
Ned pulled up to the best available tree and kept winching until the Rangie was at a spot i could have a go at Snatching up.
I backed down and 3 straps were connected together via lumps of wood. I then started to snatch him out. Each time pulling him up a few feet at a time. After many attempts i got him to a point where we could get one snatch on it and get him up to level ground. By then the Track was Rooted.. i had ripped the crap out of it. it looked like a tractor and plough had been in.
I then snatched some more, it was not easy as the track was not straight and i had to pull him threw trees and each snatch pulled my backend 1 meter across and tried to pull me into the Trees. all of a sudden the Rangie popped out of the track and we were off. I darted threw the track at full noise in Low 1 and Steve did not care if he bounced off trees to get him up to the top. We all cheered as it had taken 3 hours to get him up.
We then tried to Prime the pump with a hose, oil and compressed air, but nope she was not going to work.
We were about 30km from Glenburn and it was time to get him out. it was about 4pm and getting dark so we chose to pull him out as far as we could. With trees down and some killer kills and desents this was going to be fun....
I pulled him out past the 1st problem tree that was down and then the 2nd one caused grief we continued on and got to the top of a killer hill. The decision was made to let Steve roll down on his own with the engine as brakes and the normal brakes. Dave disconnected the ignition to make sure it would not fire up on the downhill.
Steve got down and it was a bit hairy, he looked at once stage as though he might roll again. But he got down with no major problems.
Then came the tug up the hill on the other side. This proved to hard for Camila as I was looking traction just as I crested the top. So we reversed down and connected 3 straps again and I went for it like that fat chick that was at the icecream shop.
Cheers again as we got him up. At this time my mate Mark called me and told me he was at my house and 1 day early from his trip around Aust. Time was running out and we needed to get Steve out. We stepped up the pace and dragged him out further. The Next hill was found to be a challenge as Steve had to go down on his own again. It was too steep to lower him. De drove down on engine and brakes and I drove the chicken track as it was easier, but not simple like the one Steve was on. He was in deep ruts that would help guide him down. At the bottom we connected him up again and the snatch disconnected itself halfway across the river… Steve jumped out climbed on his bonnet and grabbed the strap while I reversed back to have him reconnect the Strap. Dave videoed it as it looked great and showed the determination of Steve to get out and not get wet…..
I popped him out and we headed off. The Track had been recently bulldozed at was like porridge. Ned was going off and sliding all over the place. I was having an interesting time as mud was flicking off the front tires and coming through the windows and hitting the inside of the back window. So now I know how my back window gets mud on it on the inside……
I pulled him back out and up some hills until we got back out to the Melba Hwy.
We towed him back at 30kmh to the Glenburn Road house to find they had no power and were Shut. Tragedy struck when we realised that the pub was out of power also.
It was now over 24 hours since we left Melbourne on Friday night and we were tired hungry and dying for a beer. If Roothy was here he would have been cursing like my Granny at the rabbits in her Veggie patch.
Dave and Daniel went to the pub just incase and the pub was open and working on candle light and bottles instead oaf the tap. Dave came back with a few cans and we had a drink or 10. RACV was called and we left Steve to wait for his tow.
We had dinner at KFC in Sillydale and the food had never tasted so good. By then it was about 11pm and we headed home. It was a long day or 2 and I cant even remember closing my eyes when I hit the pillow. Daniel crashed at my place, so with me and my missus, Mark, Helen and the kids and Daniel it was a full house.
I think my Dog jumped into bed with Daniel………
So who’s up for the Next “Lemans Toolangi 24 hour”??????