Thread: 4x4ing tassie style

Went out on the 29th of Aug (yesterday) for a drive with the tamar valley 4x4 club. We were going around brushy lagoon and the bakers beach area.

We all met up at the riverside pub at 8:45 and picked up one vehicle on the way to brushy lagoon. When we got there we were greeted by deep water and mud. Casualty number 2 was the trip leader in his hilux. He took a wrong turn and couldn't get the vehicle to turn back onto the proper track, too much mud, not enough traction, so we pulled him sideways so that we could continue on our way. That was the last time i'd be doing the rescuing today ops: . On the right track was a boghole with water lapping on the floor, and even though there were a couple of big hidden rocks , we got through OK. But this was only the first 400M of the track :shock:

A bit further down the muddy track (I had been warned it was a VERY wet area) I hot the front diff stuck in the clay and combined with not ehough momentum, found me stuck in water that was mercifully about 1 inch below the bottom of the doors. I have no idea how good the door seals are, so I thought it was much better of not having to test them [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]

After I had been pulled out, it seemed that I had been buldosing the way for the others. I had to dislodge about 3kg of clay from the front diff. As a result the others got through fine .

Along the trail, up a couple of hils, along some more mud and overgrown trails we came to a rather deep washout. The trip leader got over it OK so I thought why not. 1 minute later cross axled and not going anywhere I needed an alternative exit. I could have backed out without any dramas, but it was going to be quicker to just pull me through the crossup. The hole at the shalow end had my face in lighn with the radiator center when I was standing in it. At least I could see that I hadn't done any damage underneath at this stage :roll:

Down a few more trails, some great bogholes and puddles we had to negotiate some mounded piles that had been dug across the track. Seemed easier on the left, but that's no challenge, let's try straight over. Sitting at the top of the mound hung up laughing my head off, I decided it was the wrong choice. After a well earnt lunch break we continued on along a few more trails, and headed off to the asbestos ranges area. Althoug we didn't find the trail we were looking for, we did a couple of awsome trails some of which climbed quite high up and because of the proximity of us to the coast, and the minerals in the siol, the landy finished the day looking very white, rather than the green colour it is. The pics don't really do it justice.

So I managed to finish this trip with no more damage than a couple of scratches, and a fried brake light, so compared to the last trip, no dramas 8)

Pics coming soon, and videos when I get sent them

I wasn't the guinea pig, but the hilux in front of us had better tyres (mine need replacing), a very experienced driver, better articulation and a rear locker, so they just got through most places, and I didn't [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]

it's all experience ops: