Thread: Wheel out your bad trip stories

Rode my DR650RS road trail from Perth to Nanga Bay non stop,(Fuel stops don't count,) got up next morning, rode out to steep point only to drop the bike due to tiredness in the sand and it fell on my Left foot, broke the Tarsus bone right through, even with my Alpine star reinforced boots on

Didn't want to inconvenience any of my fellow trippers, so sat with my rapidly swelling, black and blue foot in the beer esky ice for 3 days, until I could at least hobble to the beach for a fish every now and then.

Stayed 6 days, I couldn't ride out so drove my cousins 75 series with a tinny on a trailer out to the dirt road while he rode my bike( Did I mention 'cruiser gearboxes don't like clutchless gearshifts???),, hopped on the still running bike and rode 5 hours until it got dark. Slept in the swag until daybreak, tried to kickstart the bike and just managed it without passing out, then rode home to Perth.

Saw the doc, who called me all sorts of unpleasant things and wanted me to go to the hospital to have my foot rebroken and set properly, because it had already knitted in a funny position...I told him beer eskies had wonderful healing properties but he wasn't amused....Anyway, I couldn't play squash after that, the foot still tweaks today. And I'm much older now. ( And I hope wiser...)


JC

I think my last trip out in the Fender counts.

Lost drivers side rear brake caliper before we reached Aulbury.
Fixed the following morning and headed on out to Vic to get steve's Rangie. All went fine until the return trip. GPS decided to try a diferent way back so I followed it's directions down the dirt roads. 80km after picking up the car steve goes missing. After waiting a bit I ring him and chuck a u-turn. Yep he is on the side of the road missing a front wheel and part of the disk rotor.

After a few calls to various people and lots of running around we can't get a trailer and now no longer know where the car is. Had to ring to ask where we should be going to get back to it.

Defender then started to sound unhappy and was developing vibrations. Met up with my brother about 1am to load the Rangie onto a car trailer to finish getting it to his place. Remaining few hours Defender kept getting loader and the massage in the seat helped keep us awake. Following day we discover that half the bolts to the drive train are now missing and the those that are there may as well not be.

No wonder people think twice about having me along. I can break anything! Even at work things break for me only or if there is a fault for everyone it will work perfectly for me.

Th worst trip I have had was from helping others.
Out with a mate one Sunday. Caught up with another group who were having trouble on a hill, Abbott Creek ar Abbott link Track near Woods Point. After waiting about half an hour all were up but one. A guy driving a Bronco. He had many attempts at the hill but could not get up and his mates who were at the top of the hill were not willing to help. The Bronco was supposed to have limited slip diffs but they did not appear to be working. Anyway after about the 4th try the driver made a big mistake and put his foot on the clutch with no brakes on. The Bronco shot off backwards at a great rate. Unfortunately my Rangie was first in line at the bottom of the hill with my elderly father and dog in the car. Luckily (for me though with no engine running the Bronco could not steer and shot off the track and a slight bend. We all though he would be killed as there was a very long near vertical drop into a creek maybe a few hundred feet below. About one cars length off the track the Bronco ran backwards into about the only substantial tree on the hill.
The force smashed the back of the car in around 600 mm and broke the seat frame and most of the windows. The driver was in lots of pain and shock.
We winched the Bronco back onto the track then drove up our vehicles. The Bronco was only just driveable and I drove it up almost to the top from where it was towed the last bit as I dropped into a large rut from not having a seat back and not being able to see over the bonnet. That was around 5 pm and it was starting to get dark.
None of the injured drivers mates would drive the Bronco so the passenger in my mates car drove my Rangie and I drove the Bronco. There was still snow around so it was a really cold trip back to the closest town (Warburton) with no windows and the heater not working.
On the way the fuel pump gave up on my Rangie and the guys could not find the spare for quite a while and as I was in front of them with no radio they could not contact me. They finally found the pump and got the Rangie running.
We came across this group at 2 pm and we got home at 3 am. The worst thing was we left our names and addresses with them as they said they would drop off a slab or two for us but we never heard from them again, so much for helping out those in trouble.
You can do without those days, especially when no thanks were offered from the group we helped.

Ian

Vehicle - Hybrid - 1970 S2a SWB chassis, Holden 186, running gear from wrecked ex mil S3 FFR (sans diff) and FFR tailgate? Softop. Perentie bull bar.

It was 1993, I was 22 and my mate in his ex mil S3 GS (again 186 conversion) decided to go for an inpromptu run up to somwhere south west of Bellbird Hill? in the Blue Mountains - No worries, a quick run 'cos I've got to start work on nightshift at 7pm.... famous last words.

On the advise (disclaimer) of my mate we took a track that got real steep real quick and turned into a creekbed which led to a dry drop off. Spotting this we decided to turn around and head elsewhere. Not long into the climb up the hill my mates GS began starving itself of fuel - turned out it was a bit of crap blocking the main jet - we had limited mechanical experience, so decided to leave his rig behind and come back for it later with some gear and knowledge. So off we trundle in my buggy with about 400 metres of slippery sandstone track remaining when there's an almighty crack-bang, tick tick bang. Yep, the rear (rover) crown wheel passed away. It's about that time I knew that Salisbury in the garage should not have been a swap job I put off.

My mates GS was in too dodgey a spot to remove his front diff, so I trundled off to civilization - tool box in hand. About 4 hours later I reached a servo with utes for hire - "You beauty! 80 bucks, thanks very much, I'll see you later". I shot off home - Hornsby - and loaded up a pumpkin I had from another project - roared out the driveway and smashed the nearside mirror to buggery on the post box (damage clause in hire agreement - $160!) Got back to the wreck at dusk and took about an hour by fading torchlight to swap the mongrel. Crawled out with fingers and toes crossed, dropped off the bloody ute and scored a kick up the date from my supervisor once the story unfolded.... Salisbury fitted soon after Sadly sold the old girl in 2001 to fund a project....(house).

There lies the moral of failing to prepare is preparing to fail. But I got some exercise, spent some dough and learned a shirtload......and you can have your Holden sixes too!

Originally Posted by amtravic1

Th worst trip I have had was from helping others.
Out with a mate one Sunday. Caught up with another group who were having trouble on a hill, Abbott Creek ar Abbott link Track near Woods Point. After waiting about half an hour all were up but one. A guy driving a Bronco. He had many attempts at the hill but could not get up and his mates who were at the top of the hill were not willing to help. The Bronco was supposed to have limited slip diffs but they did not appear to be working. Anyway after about the 4th try the driver made a big mistake and put his foot on the clutch with no brakes on. The Bronco shot off backwards at a great rate. Unfortunately my Rangie was first in line at the bottom of the hill with my elderly father and dog in the car. Luckily (for me though with no engine running the Bronco could not steer and shot off the track and a slight bend. We all though he would be killed as there was a very long near vertical drop into a creek maybe a few hundred feet below. About one cars length off the track the Bronco ran backwards into about the only substantial tree on the hill.
The force smashed the back of the car in around 600 mm and broke the seat frame and most of the windows. The driver was in lots of pain and shock.
We winched the Bronco back onto the track then drove up our vehicles. The Bronco was only just driveable and I drove it up almost to the top from where it was towed the last bit as I dropped into a large rut from not having a seat back and not being able to see over the bonnet. That was around 5 pm and it was starting to get dark.
None of the injured drivers mates would drive the Bronco so the passenger in my mates car drove my Rangie and I drove the Bronco. There was still snow around so it was a really cold trip back to the closest town (Warburton) with no windows and the heater not working.
On the way the fuel pump gave up on my Rangie and the guys could not find the spare for quite a while and as I was in front of them with no radio they could not contact me. They finally found the pump and got the Rangie running.
We came across this group at 2 pm and we got home at 3 am. The worst thing was we left our names and addresses with them as they said they would drop off a slab or two for us but we never heard from them again, so much for helping out those in trouble.
You can do without those days, especially when no thanks were offered from the group we helped.

Ian

What kind of mates don't help out their own group get up a difficult section, then don't help recover the vehicle after everything goes pear shaped resulting in a near fatal crash, then don't want to drive it out for their mate who's injured?
Not surprised after all that, that the quality individuals could'nt even fork out some cash for a slab or two.
Don't worry mate, they'll learn what goes around comes around.........
Good on ya and your group for helping out, can only imagine what it feels like to wreck your pride and joy in the sticks when you're supposed to be there having a good time.

Originally Posted by PhillWilde

What kind of mates don't help out their own group get up a difficult section, then don't help recover the vehicle after everything goes pear shaped resulting in a near fatal crash, then don't want to drive it out for their mate who's injured?
Not surprised after all that, that the quality individuals could'nt even fork out some cash for a slab or two.
Don't worry mate, they'll learn what goes around comes around.........
Good on ya and your group for helping out, can only imagine what it feels like to wreck your pride and joy in the sticks when you're supposed to be there having a good time.

Unfortunately the group we came across had only 1 person with a few trips of experience. All the rest were on their first or second trip. They were following trip notes in 4x4 magazine and should not have been where they were with the lack of experience for the track conditions.
My mate rang the mag and said they should not have trip notes in the mag (they were written by Ron Moon) with out explaining the grade of the trip and how the tracks can vary with changing weather etc. The trip notes ceased a few issues later.

Ian

Wifey wants to do a quick trip to Brizvegas from Cairns (God s acre) to see rellies, alla VT Dunnydore. Marlborough, 1.00 hrs @ a sedate 140 kay she picks a fight with an innocent grazing wallaby. Poor b*gger never had a hope, I d know, she never looses! A day s delay, new rad, assorted zip ties & 12.6 km of 100mph tape later the southern journey recomences, albeit resembling a Bathurst (the race) special. Apart from that the trip was totally uneventful. 2 days in Bris, phone home " I m sick of driving, will you fly down & take me back?" Oh I wish I were braver! "Love to dear" Home via panel beater mate s in Roma where we spent hours straightening "chassis" good enough for a wheel alignment, replaced headlight ass & threw on a 2nd hand only a bit bent kitten (not bull) bar, no cosmetics but legal again, cost- 6 cans JD. I drove home incident free @ a grannying 110k. Couple of months later we have to go to a wedding in Brissy, "Sit back my love I ll drive." Teed Ol Roma Mate up, fix car properly on the way north. Onya Jonny scored me all second hand parts n panels + near new unbent bar for free. 2 days later Dunnydore emerges better than when it rolled out of Elizibeth, and brand new driving lights. Cost- 6 cans JD, getting a bit expensive this! Depart Roma 19.30 hrs, 200 k later after deciding to motel the night (10-15 k on) I hit a BL88DY kangaroo %@#! That s how I got to own a Rover so it was worth it eh?

I can't. Everyone would get depressed and slash their wrists