A bit scary, but quite satisfying

**PaulP38a** · 20th March 2010, 11:04 PM

Early Saturday morning, seven 4WD's got together in the Brindabellas for a morning drive. The plan was to be home by lunchtime or so... 'twas not to be.

The track up the power line trail had been eaten away by all the rain we had lately.
Looking up

Looking down

First 3 cars went up. All stalled, stopped had to adjust their lines and drop tyre pressures some more. One poor bloke broke his rear window sliding back in to a tree, and then had to winch up to a flatter spot.

I dropped my tyre pressures to 20 and set EAS mode to "standard" height - a reasonable compromise between decent bar clearance and wheel travel.

My Rangie was number 4...

Up it went, and turned out to be the only car that made it up without stopping

Then the car behind me got stuck, so I had to reverse back down to snatch him up the hill!

that was a bit scary. Took 3 snatch straps, air-locker on, and about 5 attempts to get him to a spot where he could get traction.

Then the last bit of shale, dirt and rock hopping

...with a pretty gnarly sharp left turn at the top and a rut that tried to eat one of the Mitsi's.

What should have been a 30 minute run up the hill turned out to be almost 4 hours of mostly recovery and building up the tracks and steps for a few of the less-prepared vehicles, and a tyre change on the hill for a bloke who ripped his sidewall off on a sharp rock.

A good day though, nice bunch of people, and a very satisfying result for the Rangie

Out again tomorrow, but this time with the Land Rover Club on the "Beginner's Trip". I wonder if they'll tell me my Rangie is too ugly?

Cheers, Paul.

**parasnoop67** · 21st March 2010, 08:31 AM

p38 too ugly

NEVER

**PeterH** · 21st March 2010, 09:04 AM

Nice one Paul, great pics.
Rangie to the rescue!

**justinc** · 21st March 2010, 09:56 AM

No ugliness to be seen there Paul!

....Except on the other end of the snatch strap

Good stuff!

JC

**101RRS** · 21st March 2010, 10:04 AM

Which section of Powerlines was that - between Two Sticks and Webb Trail or at either end.

I can normally do power lines in my Freelander but that looks like it might have been tested just a little - but then if a P38 could do it a Hippo should have been able to manage it.

I was originally down for the Brindies for Beginners but my 101 gearbox is still on the ground on the driveway. Was tempted to use the Freelander but I cannot afford it to be damaged at the moment with the 101 off the road.

Garry

mike 90 RR · 21st March 2010, 11:37 AM

.... I'm impressed ...

Mike

**Hoges** · 21st March 2010, 02:13 PM

Second last photo of the P38 sequence ... would make a very respectable "hero " poster!!

**RickP38** · 21st March 2010, 07:09 PM

Awesome shots Paul!!

**PaulP38a** · 21st March 2010, 08:50 PM

Originally Posted by garrycol

Which section of Powerlines was that - between Two Sticks and Webb Trail or at either end.

I can normally do power lines in my Freelander but that looks like it might have been tested just a little - but then if a P38 could do it a Hippo should have been able to manage it.

I was originally down for the Brindies for Beginners but my 101 gearbox is still on the ground on the driveway. Was tempted to use the Freelander but I cannot afford it to be damaged at the moment with the 101 off the road.

Garry

Hi Garry - I haven't figured how to take the "breadcrumb" trail from the GPS and map it on Google Maps or similar yet, so I'm guessing a bit here. Past Uriarra Station, going down Brindabella Rd on the dirt... keep right on the fork, past the Namdgi National Park sign (on left) and a couple of Km's, then under powerlines. Turn left... climb down (not too bad), then go up. Brings you up another road (turn left) that you can follow down in to Brindabella Valley.

Drive with the LRC today was a lot of fun too. Some parts werre not what I'd call beginners runs, but everyone got through ok nonetheless. I doubt if your 101 would fit down some parts of Genges Trail, and I'm not sure if your (or my) Freelander would have made it up (and then back down) the hill climb bit without a fair bit of underbody damage

. Was a good day.

Cheers, Paul.

**Disco_owner** · 21st March 2010, 08:59 PM

Hi Paul ;

If there is any opportunity in future to do this trip again , I would be very interested to drive from Sydney to join you lot for a drive , Never Driven Brindabella ,looks like awesome country ,are there any good camping site nearby?

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A bit scary, but quite satisfying

ugly p38

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