Thread: We had some rain this morning.........

So I left it to this afternoon to go get the mail (In the 2a). This involves crossing Spring Ck, which this crossing is usually about 10m of very loose dry sand (but when wet it is usually firm. When I got there, the water was only a few streams between the sandbanks, mostly only about 6" deep. You can see that the water had been about a metre deep earlier by the marks on the banks.

What I had forgotten was that the neighbour in whose place it is had bladed out a lot of sand because his harvest vehicles were getting stuck. And piled the sand just upstream of the crossing.

So I cheerfully approached it as usual at about 20kph, merely taking the precaution of engaging 4wd. About halfway across we abruptly sank and came to a stop. I went into low range, but all that did was spin a couple of wheels. I stepped out - the step was at water level, perhaps 3" above the sand, which was just below the hubs, front and rear - onto a sandbank above the water. And promptly sank to just above my knees. I managed to unbog my legs and surveyed the situation.

Then phoned the landholder (Greg). He unfortunately, said he could not help, he is in hospital, having just got a new knee. But he gave me his son's phone number. I phoned him, and he said he would vome and help. About half an hour later he turned up, and a few minutes later, I was out backwards, assisted by about 200 John Deere horses. After uncoupling the chain and handing it back up to him in the cab of the tractor, I then drove across the creek without issues five metres downstream from the crossing. Did the same on the way back.

It wasn't until I was home that I realised that the tyres were probably far too hard - I had put them up to 35psi for the trip into Dubbo for a pink slip last week. Usually I run them at 25psi.

Originally Posted by V8Ian

Can you still get RTMs? They were only available in 600 or 6.50x16, weren't they?

No. I owned them in 7.50x16.

And on the subject of obsolete tyres, the first Series 2 I owned in 1963 - 66 had Dunlop Roadtrak - which were directional treads, bit like a RTM but with the lugs pointing the same way on both sides of the tyre. They were 7.60x16 from memory.