Thread: Twice my age, crosseyed and can't hold her fluids in but ain't she sweet

Tommo says she got out the shed ok how did the weekend go

Last weekend's Capertee trip with the LROC(S) was a fun time, without any real problems and with plenty of adventure.
After leaving the Chook Shed, good time was made back home to pick up the pups before heading West. Just after leaving home the first sharp hill was encountered, and sure enough, the clutch slipped in fourth, and again in third; but momentum and a calibrated right hoof carried us over. A bit of a tense moment though, especially as Bells Line of Road has some proper big hills early on.
Anyway headed out through Richmond and assaulted the big hills of the range, it must have been some oil on the clutch from years of being parked up and there wasn't any further slippage until my partner drove it with poor technique . One tank of fuel was enough for Blacktown to Capertee and trundling down to Glen Davis. I carried two jerry cans just in case!
Unfortunately I thought I had developed an issue with charging, but turns out a battery clamp had worked loose and fallen off and I had driven around for hours without a battery connected. Have to love a generator sometimes!
Brendan and Mike helped fix it, with some coke can packing material to allow the clamp to properly tighten.




Late Saturday afternoon as the sun was setting I thought it'd be good to take the Series up Mt Torbane (via Mt Airly property), Mike, Brendan and Sasha joined with their Stage 1, late 2a Station Wagon and GQ Pootrol respectively. The little shorty with gnarly tyres had minimal troubles, though one spot needed a second go due to me being used to coil spring articulation...




Mike needed a couple of soft snatches up the rutted section, which ol' Mary accomplished with aplomb.



Actually, whilst manouvering into position to aid Mike, I learnt a little about leaf springs, bouncing and throttle control. I had reversed down the soft slope a little, and the hand brake wouldn't hold so I set the hand throttle to give it some revs whilst engaging the clutch and holding the foot brake on. The masses of power from the 2.25 petrol caused the wee Landy to launch in second low and scrabble around, the leaf springs caused kangaroo hops causing even more lack of traction so I felt more revs were needed. Looking back and after a bit of experimentation on similarly steep sections on Sunday, I reckon first low and idle would have let it walk up without an issue, using torque not power. The shoes have great grip even at highway pressures.




Sunday's drive home was via the Great Western Highway, most of which has pretty low road works speed limits, nonetheless 80km/h was a good cruising speed, 90 was achievable when needed and over 95ish the tyres vibrated too much to be comfortable.

Approximately 350 miles of mixed low range mountain climbing and full speed blacktop, used roughly 100 litres of fuel, so around 18l/100km or 15.5MPG.

Good times!