Lincomb weekend June 7-8th

[Chris Green90]

Thanks to everyone for a great weekend. As always I had an excellent time and Lincomb really was the best place I could think of to stretch Dirty Gal's legs for the first time. As per usual I am totally useless with the camera so can only post up these 3 pics. Karl was taking plenty of me though so fingers crossed he pops them up when his hand is better.

Parked up next to Steve in his 95



And Chris in his 80



And finally the reason we all put so much time and effort in building these vehicles.

 

[TonyS]

Another test we thought of was an acceleration test, how would the mog fair? ;-)
think we might need different classes now then too, let's face it, a mog on tractor tyres, or a standard cruiser on ATs....! Slightly unfair.

Great to see you all here again, going to go through diary for an October social meeting.

Posting soon.

cheers

 

[Ian Rubie]

0 - 2 MPH it would do quite well

I'm only messing. I know it is impossible to have a level playing field. If a class system was implemented there would be problems deciding what each mod was worth and everybody would end up in their own class. The difference between the Mog and an 80 with twin winches and 37's is probably about the same as the difference between that same 80 and a standard cruiser on ATs.

 

[mike hatton]

Well done Mike, it would be too easy for you in a Landcruiser

Thanks Jon, does that mean I'm just a really good driver?

I'm convinced lockers just confuse things 90% of the time... Open diffs all the way

 

[clivehorridge]

By my rudimentary counting skills, the whole incident from start to finish was 6 seconds. Now that is blooming scary, in that time I had realised I had no control over the situation and had computed about 4 scenarios of how it was going to go.The Brain is awesome under stress conditions and I had accepted that severe injury was the most likely outcome, at the end of the vid, tilt your head so the trees are vertical and that should give you an idea of the gradient. I make no apologies for the girly panic in my voice, I was a panicky Jessie when it all unfolded.

For all you winch b*****s out there, Look how Tom was 2 seconds away after dropping the hook from being potentially dragged down the hill after me. Keep your guard up at all times peoples, it really can go to ratshit in a moment.

I've run this vid back many times and in conclusion it was my fault for not dealing with the intermittent warning light I had for low brake fluid, I didn't understand and appreciate the potential failure under certain conditions that the braking system can suffer for a few milliliitres of fluid - stupid stupid stupid and yet I've done this same style of driving hundreds of times before, I believe complacency bit me in the bum this time.

The crash (NOT family friendly - repetitive swearing) http://youtu.be/BN-eSTApioA

Feel for you Trev, that helpless out of control moment is quite terrifying... I have the shirt. In the circumstances, I thought you were quite restrained!

Pardon my ignorance, is Li'l blue auto or manual.

In my manual, I always take some comfort in knowing that should the brakes fail, the gears will hold to an extent to save a runaway.

Even Auto has "P" which should be even better.

But, in your conditions, I don't think brakes would have been much use, it was too slippery. The brake failure was only the trigger to the event.

Well done for your control, sorry about the damage but as we all know, thanks to the Gods for no injuries.

As Shayne said, a well placed tree that, without it you'd have rolled at some stage IMO.

 

[Trevor]

Lil' Blue is manual, I've done the retrospective what else should have I done instead routine. I could have stuck it in first and let it stall the engine, I could have put full left or right steering on and turned off the hill into a tree within the first couple of seconds, I could have just bailed out the door but you've lost choices as it take a couple of seconds to realise wtf is going on.

I've always sat just over the crest so I can take up the last bit of tension when I let go the brake before winching out in an effort to not shock load the winch rather than having to reverse off the flat while winching out at the same time, I did exactly the same routine on the previous punch not 5 mins before.

I need to rethink my whole approach on a number of levels:-

Position over crest, engine off and leave in gear with h/brake on
Set winch
Plan exit options in case it goes tits up (brakes or rope snapping) along full winch run
Engine on and commence winching

Might take a tad longer but this has taught me to up my game. Back on the saddle but better prepared next time.

 

[mike hatton]

Maybe take to opportunity to put a rear winch in the bumper? Nicer lowering down forwards if you really need to lower it down, you get options and control.

 

[Trevor]

Now then Mrs Trev, I've been thinking.....this second winch thing is NEEDED for safety reasons. Yes yes I know its expensive but just think of the damage I won't do anymore so in real terms it actually works out cheaper. Mike you are Genius dear chap.

 

[Chris]

Trevor, really you didn't have time to do anything. Brake failure is so rare that you wouldn't really have considered it parked where you were. Now if you'd have more time, the right thing would have been to shove it in reverse and take your feet off, but I did that very same incline the day before and if you don't know it then you can't really grasp how steep it is. And how it's covered in tree roots. You played your part as a total passenger with complete skill. Ha ha. I really can't see what you could have done except pray louder. Maybe you could have snatched first and floored it to get you up over the crest. But I'd say a good proportion of that 6 seconds would be taken up with WTF just happened?

I went down forwards on the rear winch which at least gave 6' of bonnet between me and the trees at the bottom. But if I'd gone all the way, I'd have shot over the track and down the hill to the bottom.

 

[stumog]

The classes on a challege are normally std so you can have a road going car with no 'traction aids' Std+1 which would be +1 winch or 1 locker then std+2 so 2 lockers or locker and winch. then super modified which would be putting most 80's and the mog together which still would not be fair as ian will just win. which is why he brought it in any case.

the only way to have it fair would be a very tight slalom course with lots of forward and reverse to really stop the mog in its track...

stu

0 - 2 MPH it would do quite well

I'm only messing. I know it is impossible to have a level playing field. If a class system was implemented there would be problems deciding what each mod was worth and everybody would end up in their own class. The difference between the Mog and an 80 with twin winches and 37's is probably about the same as the difference between that same 80 and a standard cruiser on ATs.

 

[Rob]

When tobogganing in the woods this weekend I did find that the easiest thing to do to slow the rate of decent once you lost all control and you were rolling too fast for low first and second was to stick it in reverse and floor it. Amazingly most of the time it would stop but as soon as you were on the brakes again to hold it still it would start to slide again. It was a lot of work driving a manual on AT slicks in the woods last weekend, especially when you seem to be always needing to press all 3 pedals at the same time, whilst trying to get to opposite lock, changing gear and popping the front diff lock out in order to miss hitting that tree your sliding uncontrollably towards and hoping that there is no solid tree stump in that undergrowth you have identified as the only feasible escape route. Should have had an on-board camera whilst doing the trail pointing at the controls and out the front so I could analyse what was really going on. All great fun though.

 

[mike hatton]

So was I really wreckless driving down that hill and stopping at the punch?

 

[Roy Duffy]

I’d Just like to say I had a fantastic weekend meeting some great people in the process!! Im so glad i managed the weekend and cant wait till the next one!! Really appreciated meeting you all!!

 

[Chris]

Good to meet you too Roy. Glad you could make it. Keep squirreling away those 10p's for some more mods. Missus isn't going to notice it if you do them bit by bit.

 

[Bodhi]

Lil' Blue is manual, I've done the retrospective what else should have I done instead routine. I could have stuck it in first and let it stall the engine, I could have put full left or right steering on and turned off the hill into a tree within the first couple of seconds, I could have just bailed out the door but you've lost choices as it take a couple of seconds to realise wtf is going on.

I've always sat just over the crest so I can take up the last bit of tension when I let go the brake before winching out in an effort to not shock load the winch rather than having to reverse off the flat while winching out at the same time, I did exactly the same routine on the previous punch not 5 mins before.

I need to rethink my whole approach on a number of levels:-

Position over crest, engine off and leave in gear with h/brake on
Set winch
Plan exit options in case it goes tits up (brakes or rope snapping) along full winch run
Engine on and commence winching

Might take a tad longer but this has taught me to up my game. Back on the saddle but better prepared next time.

Don't beat yourself up Trev were just glad that your ok.

I have to teach people about decision making in the job that I do. You said that it was all over in about 6 seconds so realistically by the time that you have made the observation that your in a no good situation, orientated yourself to that situation it was over before you could have made a decision about what to do and acted on it. I would say only if you had practised that particular scenario before you would have had the memory patterns to refer to and reduce your decision making time to be able to deal with it and then only maybe taking the conditions into account as well.

The fact that your ok and have been doing some self reflection is only positive. However, I would sow the seed with the SWMBO'd rather that tell her it's a done deal with the winch as she may give you an ultimatum, the truck or her!! lol

Richie

 

[Chas]

Talking to you on Sunday while looking at the damage Trevor you made it sound no big deal but now after watching the video it was anything but.
I reckon that tree could have saved you from something much worse, at least the only thing that probably suffered were your trousers.

 

[silvercruiser]

Glad your Ok Trev, its already been said, not enough time to correct anything in six seconds. i have done roughly the same apart from i went up a bloody great hill and couldnt quite get over the crest, whacked the brakes on but turned into a 2 tonne sledge i had a nice tree to stop me at the bottom. i was lucky enough to have an external roll cage on my defender so that took the wallop but unlike your rear lights mine stayed in the tree trunk

I hope it pulls out fairly easy and looks like you better invest in some more stickers.

 

[TonyP]

Eish, that was close Trev.

 

[Gary820]

Could've been much worse, as said brake failure sat there is unexpected so how could react quick enough. Driving up an incline there's always the thought of what you'll do if you don't Reach the top, still doesn't always go to plan in the heat of the moment!

 

[stan]

Fantastic weekend, great to see everyone and get old HJ muddy.
Thanks Tony +crew
Stan