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All good things to consider......
mostly though we find having an experienced guy as tail end charlie, ensuring corners are marked and and common courtesy is adequate for most of the stuff we do .....
after all it's supposed to be a bit of fun, not a military exercise.;):D
I agree though those that drive too close behind are very annoying - sometimes words have to be said.
Oh dear ...head lights on head lights off, stop an props...rolling halts.....when do I get to drink my gunniss
Dave I think you need a brake from the green mechine
Tonys convoy procedure...
Pick a comms channel
designate a tail end charlie,(with UHF)
if you turn off the track your on wait untill the car behind you can see you turning
right lets go
which reminds me years ago we had a young RAF officer in the landie,at Brize pitch black Tac so no lights allowed, he kept wonting to go faster and faster so we did, missed a turn went through a gate into a big dam it was priceless watching him try to explane to our boss how he got lost on his own airfield....
T
In our club the golden rule is you are in charge of the vehicle behind you at every intersection or at any point which may cause confusion stop and wait for the vehicle behind you and so on. no need to rush to catch up as the person ahead of you will be waiting at the next intersection.No overtaking,if you break down tailend Charlie will assist you. Keep it simple that way no can screw up . By the way we havent lost a vehicle in the 25 years the club has been in existence. :D
in the sort of driving we did on the weekend i much prefer headlights always on.
so the guy in front can see the guy behind at a safe distance in the dust... burning tail lights helps the guy behind see the guy in front and dodge him in the dust, as well...
Quote:
Originally Posted by wayne
a combo of these twoQuote:
Originally Posted by incisor
yep lights on is a good idea
not sure about keeping the car behind in view all the time....i quite often dropped back well out of view of the car infront because of the dust (no air-con with windows down), i relied on the car in front stopping and waitng at an intersection where we needed to turn
keep it simple...there was only a few times the front was out of range form the TEC using the uhf's, there were a couple of relayed messages, all seemed to work out well.
I think when you get to that level of convoy procedure on the average 4wd trip then you are forgetting why you are there. If you have to remember all that then you are most likely too busy concentrating on where the vehicles around you are and not enough on the terrain and the scenery. On a 4wd trip the aim of it isn't to get from A to B.
I prefer headlights on at all times as it helps distinguish who is in the convoy and who isn't. Plus you can see the vehicles easier especially in winding bush tracks. In the dust we had on the weekend I noticed some people using fog lights (I did). Even with the red rear fog lights blazing it was difficult to see vehicles at times.
My pet hate when on a 4wd trip is people using handheld low wattage UHFs in vehicles. It doesn't take much of a gap in the convoy or a hill to render them useless. Worse still is to have no UHF at all. Sure handhelds can be cheaper but a full power set is a must have in my opinion.
I do agree with slowing to allow the vehicle behind you watch you drive an obstacle though. This speeds things up immensely as people don't need to walk sections over and over. Although if you always have the vehicle behind you in view then that isn't a problem.
In our club as far as following goes we tend to just wait at turns for the following car to come as opposed to keeping in view at all times. Less dust and means people aren't too bunched up and constantly slowing speeding up etc. If you aren't too far apart then when a vehicle slows to tackle an obstacle then the vehicle behind will probably catch up then anyway.
Can someone explain what you mean by a prop point?
Remember I am a whinging Pom :p
Regards
Brendan
As BLKnight mentioned above : predefinition of an obstacle or prop point is all thats needed (I use the errosion control humps as a prop point because its possable to have a vehicle stopped on one without the brakes on and in no danger of rolling away)
Its a point in the track usually in a more difficult section say very steep assent or decents where part of the way up the track a vehicle can safely stop generally where the track fattens out for a few meters or a big root or safe rock you can rest on where the vehicle is stable.
Then when he sees the car in front move on and the tracks clear he can call the following car to travel up to the safe point he is now leaving from.
If you can establish these points on very long steep hill climbs it makes it a lot safer to have a vehicle not to far away from you at the front and rear so if a recovery is needed it will make it a little easier.
As for lights I like them on at all times it just makes the convoy more distiguishable and the leader and others can also see if it is stretching out or cramming up to tight.
Our convoy proceedures
1) Wait at intersections
2) have fun and talk on the UHF about anything
3) one vehicle to carry a chainsaw
4) bring lunch
Baz.
I'm afraid we are a bit like amateur hour. We do the "wait at the turn off until the guy behind catches up" trick and that is important but we always tell people coming with us to rent a UHF. We provide running commentary on what is for lunch/dinner which type of beer we'll be having, Little Creatures, Coopers or James Squires. We jabber about rock formations, flora and fauna; we love a boab and a dingo. We jabber about the feed and the recency of a fire.
I remember one difficult(ish) stretch out the back of Mt Augustus, not too bad a road but a lot of dust. It was hilly and quite narrow with lots of blind bends. There were work crew on the road and the odd vehicle coming up the other way. So the lead car was giving advice on what was up front, camber of the road etc. Anyway we had some newbies with us in their Kia (don't laugh, it got them to where we wanted to go) and we thought that the occasional,"thanks mate" would have been polite when the warnings came through about oncoming trucks, potholes etc.
We pulled over for a cuppa and I pointedly asked if their radio wasn't working properly becasue we had not heard from them. "Oh we switched it off because the baby was sleeping"