Thread: 110 submarine [emoji24]

Well this is really hard to say but……

I put my 110 into the Myall River at Buladelah last Monday arvo.
A true kookslam……

I’m absolutely gutted; she was the best sorted, fun to drive Defender I’ve owned.

I’d been at Seal Rocks for a few days celebrating my brothers 50th with our 2 families; stayed in a nice holiday place and had a beaut time.
It wasn’t a boys camping weekend so I didn’t swap the at’s for the big wheels though ended up driving on Lighthouse Beach every day as the conditions were lousy at Number 1 Beach.

Monday morning we all packed up and I decided to head to Dungog mtb park for a ride on my way home but wanted to give the 110 a good hose down first, especially to get rid of sand in the running gear.
Unfortunately the power for the whole area outed and the property is only on pump/tank water, so I was unable to use the hose; easy fixed, i’ll just go to Buladelah boat ramp and give her a wash there………

I nosed her into the river, leaving rear wheels on the dry part of the ramp, sat there a few minutes then went to shift into reverse but, being a Defender, she didn’t want to go into gear.
I let her roll forward 4 inches, dropped her in reverse, eased the clutch out and, she never stopped moving forward; locked centre diff, wheels turning traction control working, abs working and, as the water started coming in the window; engine off, in gear, handbrake (in good working order) on, I still went off the end of the ramp

I waited for the cab to fill up as she was diving, flicked off the fridge switch and escaped out the window in about 15’ of water.
Swam passed the gull wing and pulled out a strap, lynched it round the 50mm hitch and swam ashore; as I tried to stand up on the concrete sleepers of the boat ramp, I realised they were covered in slime and so slippery, you could not walk on them without constantly slipping.
I called out to the few onlookers with 4x4’s (mostly grey nomads) for help but nobody wanted to help, so I ran to the contractors working on the car park and asked if they would bring their 20t excavator down - they wouldn’t as it was steel tracked and would rip up the road.
They did help by driving their bogie down and tried to pull me out with a chain attached to my snatch strap (so sketchy ) but unfortunately, my car snagged on the 4’ step at the end of the ramp (she was lifting 2 of the 5m concrete sleepers up by 2’ each snatch!) and we just couldn’t get her out.

By now, my 110 is totally underwater except for 4” of white roof above the door and the ends of 2 kayaks sticking up on a 40° nose down angle.

The local copper was passing by on the bridge, so he came down and called a tow mob and they spent some considerable time trying to do the same snatch up the ramp with a tilt tray and winch, then hooked on another 4x4 with winch to drag my car to the right side of the ramp then, after almost 2hrs, they got second 4x4 and dragged it to the left of the ramp (which id asked for as soon as they got there….) and finally skull dragged her up the rocky bank.

At least they didn’t turn her on her side (it was a near thing ) and they did work hard, which I’m thankful for.

I had to dive down at least twice my height and swim in the window a few times: to turn the parking lights off (must have flicked the switch upon exiting) then to try to find my phone, release the handbrake and slip tc out of gear so she could be towed out; a very sketchy feeling indeed!

To add much insult to my destroyed pride, I’ve spent the last 6 months working on fixing some battery/electrical issues - worn cables, minor shorts/voltage leaks, fitting extra fuse boards and grommets under the cubby box, a nice big amp and speakers, new reverse camera and lots of other stuff but id left the covers off the seat boxes as I wasn’t quite finished - I can still taste the leaking battery acid from my 2 virtually brand new batteries now 🥴



I’m insured but they want to write her off.

Anyone brought one back from 3 hours of fresh water submersion or do I just cut my losses?

If that happed to my Disco 2 I would take the money and walk away.

Got more important things to do with my life than spending hours and hours and hours on a car that do be honest is not pristine or unique.

There are good used alternatives now available that prices have come down a bit post Covid silliness.

Maybe buy the wreck only if there are parts you really want and would actually save money.

Take the emotion out of it, love people and use things, not the other way around.