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hazza
18-08-2009, 11:08 AM
A trip to Landcruiser park was orgainsied by a friend. It was decided that this was to be a "boys" weekend away. There was Mathew, Darren and his son Tim, Peter and his 2 sons, me and my son Alex. The girls and our daughters went away to some resort up at Caloundra.

We all gathered at Darrens house at 6am and set off, we stopped at the Jimna firetower first. (BTW you can click on each photo to see a larger size)

http://u1.ipernity.com/12/66/70/5696670.e993e51a.240.jpg (http://www.ipernity.com/doc/tuxcomputers/5696670)

The cars in order are, Mathew, Darren, mine and Peter. I had 2 hand held UHF CB radios, we were on channel 40 I could hear the other guys but our transmissions were garbled.

We got to LCMP and set up our tents. I had done some 4wd training on my Army drivers course at LCMP about 18 years ago and Mathew has done 4wding for years. The other 2 guys have not done any real 4wding at all. We changed to channel 38 and we could all hear each other.

First stop was the Pig pen to check it out. There was a little water in some of the holes but not much, there was enough to get my Pajero dirty :)

http://u1.ipernity.com/12/78/27/5667827.09960752.240.jpg (http://www.ipernity.com/doc/tuxcomputers/5696670)

Mathew tore through this mud hole and his Prado got air borne coming out the other side, this caused problems later on. Mathew was also doing some of the bigger holes and stuff in the pig pen that were dry.

http://u1.ipernity.com/12/78/20/5667820.9bded1d4.240.jpg (http://www.ipernity.com/doc/tuxcomputers/5667820)

When we left the pig pen there was a shortcut track going down, we started on that hill because Darren and Peter were still learning. We got out and walked down it to check it out, it had ruts but it was not that special.

http://u1.ipernity.com/12/43/73/5684373.843a2faf.240.jpg (http://www.ipernity.com/doc/tuxcomputers/5684373)

Over one of the creeks was a hill we decided to not attempt so we had to turn around. There was a deep rut on the creek entry, Mathew was leading and he ended up in the rut, initially I thought he had done it deliberately but he said he didn't. I connected up my snatch strap to his tow ball and pull him out. (That's my car backed up to him in the back ground of the second photo.)

http://u1.ipernity.com/12/78/23/5667823.7de5ab64.240.jpg (http://www.ipernity.com/doc/tuxcomputers/5667823)http://u1.ipernity.com/12/76/91/5667691.aca18b9a.240.jpg (http://www.ipernity.com/doc/tuxcomputers/5667691)

The rest of the day was spent going around the other tracks growing in confidence and learning more about the capabilities of our vehicles. The highlight for me was where the head of the Brisbane river is.

There is an easy track that loops around or there is a very rough shortcut track down into the river bed and a steep but smooth track back up the other side. I went down the rough side, I was in 1st low, it was sliding but I made it.

After going up the smooth side and then coming back down to the creek bed I decided to give going up the rough side a go. I started out in 2nd Low but when I slowed down I jammed it into 1st and we made it up the hill.... what an adrenaline rush.... man it felt good making it up there. I have not got photo of that from the other guys yet, sorry.

That afternoon Peter and one of his sons left, his other son Nick stayed and camped with us. We were pretty hungry because we didn't really lunch, we were having too much fun driving around.

Mathew had an air filter light on his dash board and later that afternoon his battery indicator came on. We had a look but nothing seemed to be amiss, we were wrong.

That night camping we heard some people changing tyres with a ratchet gun and then they drove out of the camp area. I woke around 3am and could hear some people talking as they walked back into the camp, I thought it was strange.

Next morning we woke and the people doing the wheel changing were not there. I just assumed they had left really early, I assumed wrong, the night driving, the 3am voices and the missing vehicle were all connected.

We left before breakfast to do some driving and coming down a hill not far from camp we came across this situation (number plates have been blurred to protect the .... mmmm... innocent... yeah innocent)

http://u1.ipernity.com/12/77/27/5707727.ff88b5e4.240.jpg (http://www.ipernity.com/doc/tuxcomputers/5707727)

They had no buddy vehicle, no radio and no map. They ended up camping there until the next morning when they got the property owners to recover them.

We cooked and ate some bacon for breakfast/brunch/lunch around 10.30am. Just after we left Mathew's Prado conked out, we got it going again using some jumper leads but after another kilometer it conked out again. He returned to camp while Darren, I and the boys went out for some more fun.

Before we left we figured out that Mathew was having problems with his alternator. We could not find how to fix it though, so what we did was hook up the jumper cables and put a bit of charge in his battery then he would drive 10-15 km before we had to do it again.

We made it to Kilcoy just before 6pm and he called RACQ to be towed. It turns out that all that was wrong is that there was a heap of mud in the alternator stopping it working properly. He hosed it out and it now works fine. The air filter issue turned out to be just a bit of dried mud on some sensor grid, he gently blew that out and it works fine too.

All in all we all loved it and we are planning to do it again as well as join the Brisbane 4wd club. We did end up with sore cheeks because we were grinning so much.

To see all the photos (and some videos) I have upload so far:
ipernity: 4WD driving by tuxcomputers (http://www.ipernity.com/doc/tuxcomputers/album/143052)

D4Dlux
18-08-2009, 05:01 PM
[ I connected up my snatch strap to his tow ball and pull him out. ]

Mate- surely you didn't!

Temporary Australian if you keep doing that mate!

Sounds like an interesting trip though- haven't been there for a while now,

Dan

hazza
18-08-2009, 07:43 PM
[ I connected up my snatch strap to his tow ball and pull him out. ]

Mate- surely you didn't!

Temporary Australian if you keep doing that mate!
Ummmm... I won't next time..... he was supposed to be the experienced one and that's what he told me to do.

Snapcatcher
18-08-2009, 08:54 PM
Sounds like you had a fun trip hazza, and glad to hear the Paj went well.

Yeh hooking up a snatch strap to a towball is not recommended at all, but have seen it done plenty of times. Its just not the safest option, and saftey is the most important factor in vehicle recovery. Best to use rated recovery points, or a recovery hitch is a very good idea. It's like a tounge that slides into the towbar mount, but allows you to secure the strap to the hitch with a bow shackle.

Anyways mate sounds like you had a great time, and the 4WDing bug has hit ya!

peteinoz
19-08-2009, 01:31 PM
Heya Hazza,

great write up mate, sounds like you guys had a ball out there :)

good one

Pete

Herby
19-08-2009, 03:50 PM
One of my favourite destinations too. Next time try Club Rally circuit. That will get your dot going :p

hazza
19-08-2009, 07:23 PM
I just bought a GPS tracker and it was delivered today, in the future I will be able to geotag my photos with pinpoint accuracy as well as publish the path we took. Don't tell the wife but the reason of creating a travel blog while we are in Europe for the next few weeks was just an excuse to get a gadget for my 4WDing.

I bought a "Tips and techniques" magazine (published by the forum owners) today and it tells you not to use the tow ball for snatch strap recoverys. I didn't really do the snapping thing it was more of a towing thing, I just took up the slack and drove slowly forward. Still I won't be doing it that way in the future, you make mistakes, you live through them (hopefully) and you learn.

Herby
19-08-2009, 07:41 PM
Sounds like you are a switched on bloke. I have been offroading for years now and everyday you learn new stuff. And this forum is the best place to get that info by far!

scarecrow2
19-08-2009, 08:16 PM
nice write-up hazza. :thumb: glad to hear that you've taken the advice about not using the towball as a recovery point, as you said, make mistakes and learn from them - then it's all good.

some good pics there and the vids are cool too. good to see another Paj being put through its paces too. :waycool:

Cheers.

Dirtydog16
19-08-2009, 08:32 PM
G'Day mate,

That is one of the most common problems with driving through mud. I must admit I smiled as soon as I read about your mate going hard into the mud and before I even got to the line about the battery light I was thinking to myself, I bet he got crap in his alternator!

Sometimes it is a real pain in the arse cleaning all the crap out of it.

That and getting mud in hard to clean places, brakes, radiator, etc.

Anyway it could always be worse and at least you had a fun weekend.

My advice is buy a snatch strap, handwinch, tree trunk protector, some D shackles, a shovel and some basic hand tools and you should eventually be able to get yourself out of nearly any situation unlike those other poor blokes.

By memory it is about $110 per hour for your car to be recovered and I think more again if you are on one of the red tracks.

Cheers,

lumberjack6769
19-08-2009, 08:32 PM
HAZZA
Hava little read then send it too your mate so he knows aswell

http://www.haigh.com.au/docs/Snatch%20Straps%20Industry%20Guidelines%20Final%20 March%2008.pdf

Indy Hepburn
22-08-2009, 10:47 AM
Good write up mate:thumb:, love the old Paj too!:) can not belive you can rememebr everything:eek:, what you ate omg!!, wish I was like that:(