When we are young dreams drive us on and as we get older the dreams fade and we seek the contentment we once had while chasing dreams . Go for it Ben the only guarantee in life is we never end up where we planned , but it doesn't really matter as long as we enjoyed getting there .
When we are young dreams drive us on and as we get older the dreams fade and we seek the contentment we once had while chasing dreams . Go for it Ben the only guarantee in life is we never end up where we planned , but it doesn't really matter as long as we enjoyed getting there .
"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour and catch the trade winds in your sails, explore, dream and discover"
If I had read that when I was Bens age who knows where I would be now.
When I was twenty three I was about to emigrate to Rhodesia (as it was then) in 1965 to work as a sparks in the copper mines when Ian Smith buggered things up for a while by declaring UDI.
Then shortly after that I got a job in the theatre business which led on, in 1969 to a great job in the Royal Opera House, well paid and working with beautiful music in my ears all day long. Then dreams of working abroad sort of faded away.
Ed I agree with you about the whole work life balance over here its awesome! For me whatever isnt done by 4pm waits until the next day.
I don't think I'm at risk of loosing sight of that, I think I've just perhaps got bigger dreams and ambitions in life than you.
It has been my dream to emigrate to Australia for many years, and it feels great to finally have done it.
But I'm not stopping there.
I want to go and work in the mines for a few years and save enough money to be able to buy a small property to live in and some land. I will then live in the small property while I build my own house from scratch. I will literally order a huge pile of timber and build it all myself.
Then I will move into the big new house and rent the smaller place out, which will provide a nice income into my retirement years.
Thats my dream and I'm determined to try and make it come true!
Another dream is to drive a LandCruiser back to the UK!
Fair plan there! I've got some friends who are planning their house up in the Hinterland near Coff's and have run into a stumbling block with building regs and the amount of timber in their design; Basically because they'd be building (where the existing dwelling is) near to bush (in this case rainforest) they can't have flammable materials within x metres of the bush... BUT because it's rainforest it has a high moisture content, so won't burn as easily...
We're always tempted by the idea of overlanding it back as well...
When we are young dreams drive us on and as we get older the dreams fade and we seek the contentment we once had while chasing dreams . Go for it Ben the only guarantee in life is we never end up where we planned , but it doesn't really matter as long as we enjoyed getting there .
I've certainly not ended up where I planned; Originally I was looking at being a Transport Economist! Then I went and got involved with outdoor ed working for a council, that contract expired so I went to Outdoor Ed centres where I was only going to work for 6 months, but then realised they were quite a good thing, so that lasted for 3 years. Then I went to work for the council, but that wasn't quite what I signed up for so I left to come to Australia for 6 months; 2 years later I had to leave, and I decided I'd go back to being an Economist!
I used to do little 6 month/12 month/3 year/5 year plans; every so often (normally when I'd move house) I'd find them and look back at what I'd achieved. Quite often I did the 12month plans, but the 3 year plans never quite came off!
More importantly, what have you done to LJ since last weekend?
We've had that weather for the last couple of days up here; I've spent the last 4 day writing assignments for uni; today has been spent doing matrix multiplication in Excel... luckily the weather has been crap today, and actually tried to rain today We've only had about 60mm of rain since we've been over here; luckily we aren't on tank water this time... a fair few people who are have had to buy it in. When we lived on the Central Coast we had to buy in 9,000 litres which cost us $140 or so.
How's it looking for Bush Fire season with you? Are you living somewhere rural enough to have it's own firies? I was joining up with them on the Coast when we were there... until my visa fell through... Where we lived had it's own Bush Fire Brigade (stage below the NSW RFS, but still part of the RFS) as we were surrounded by bush, and if it went up our way out was the river!
I'm living in a fairly built up residential area. I'd prefer to live in the countryside where my nearest neighbour is a few k's away but this place is really handy.
Its a 3 minute drive to work and if I want to head into the city its only an hours drive/train journey. Were also only 3-4 hours away from the High Country, and Telangi and some of the other awesome state forests are less than an hour away.
Will try and get the trip report up soon.
Next trip is in 3 weeks time, again back to the High Country.
OK guys apologies this has taken me so long to get written and posted.
There will probably be a few errors and spelling mistakes for me to correct and I will have a few more pics to add when I get some more time.
Haven't had much spare time lately as I'm now working till 5pm everyday as opposed to 4pm to try and make the hours back that I will now be missing now I'm going to college every Friday.
I've also got Michael screaming at me to get more building work done on the house, which I've been trying to squeeze in after work.
So I'm struggling for time at the moment.
Anyway enough of my rambling here you go..............................
So the Thursday before the trip Michael and I went to my work in the evening to fit the small tyres and do a few small jobs on our cruisers.
35" tyres ready to be fitted.
Got LJ in the workshop.
And got the 35"s fitted.
The next day after work I got 8 of our 37"s loaded into a trailer and as Michael was running late I towed them home with the Astra.
We got the trailer on Michaels 80 and put a couple of trolley jacks in the back.
By 5.10pm we finally hit the road on our way to Jamison.
We stopped on the way and went inside a pub and had an awesome steak and a beer. We then continued with our journey and eventually reached Jamison and found Michaels friends house where we would be staying for the night. We changed the tyres and then went and had a pleasant night with Michaels friend sat round drinking beer till the early hours.
We set our sleeping bags up in one of the spare rooms and got a good nights sleep.
The next morning was quite chilly but it looked like it was going to be a nice day.
We had breakfast and then hit the road. We needed to get to the camp site to meet up with the other club members.
Quite a foggy morning.
The road soon turned to dirt.
I stopped to lock the hubs.
We arrived at the camp site.
After having a chat with the others while they finished packing their tents up we hit the road.
As we were about to head onto the dirt road that would lead us up on to Mount Skeen I aired down.
As we climbed higher up the mountain we started to see a light dusting of snow.
The snow soon started getting deeper.
While messing around in the fairly deep snow I managed to end up in some much deeper snow and got myself stuck.
Fortunately Michael soon had me winched free.
We got a little bit further and caught up with the trip leader who had stopped to wait for everyone, and Michael got stuck!
Michael hooked his winch rope to the back of the trip leaders patrol and soon had himself out.
The others soon arrived and a snowball fight ensued.
Looking at the track ahead I could see a truck had slipped off the track and others were clearly struggling to recover it.
So I drove ahead to offer assistance.
They were very pleased to see me and my huge tyres. A snatch strap was soon connected.
It took a lot of pulls, but with both air lockers engaged and the 37"s digging down to find traction I got them out and back on the track.
I then pulled over and let them past.
So then I was the leader of our little convoy.
We reached the summit of the mountain and the other group had stopped in front of us.
We stopped and posed for a few pics.
One of the guys tried to take a different line around the convoy and got bogged in the deep snow. Non of the guys had seen/used waffle boards before, which I found surprising given how common they are in the UK. So it seemed like a good opportunity to give them a go.
They worked well, but in the end after moving 40-50 meters we hooked the winch rope to the back of LJ and he winched the last bit back onto the track.
We carried on and I was leading again closely followed by Michael.
I got to one particularly rough section of track and after repeatedly trying to go forward, getting stuck, being winched back and then trying again. We got 2 other trucks passed and I started to winch forwards with my winch rope secured to the back of the 105 cruiser.
Sadly my winch started making some nasty noises and stopped winching. :-(
So the 105 pulled me through on a snatch strap and we continued on our way.
We soon passed some more trucks coming the other way.
We soon passed a sign for Barkley River Jeep Track. Michael had been telling me about this track in the weeks before the trip and had said that comp guys running 38" tyres wernt getting up it!
The trip leader wasnt keen to drive it as he doesn't like challenging 4wding, so we kept going.
As we dropped down from the mountain summit the snow quickly faded.
There were a lot of trees down across the track. Most were small and could be driven over but others were much bigger and other people had either cut a section out or formed new tracks around.
We briefly drove through a sprinkling of snow again.
Beautiful High Country views again.
A nice challenging section over a fallen tree.
A brief stop to collect some fire wood.
We got to the proposed camp site and discovered there was no where near enough room for all the trucks and tents, so we needed to find some where else. There was a creek crossing that looked quite deep and fast flowing.
I wanted to have a go, even though no one else was game. So Michael positioned his 80 behind LJ and strapped the back of his truck to a tree and hooked his winch rope to the back of LJ. With his High Mount winch in the free spool position I slowly edged into the water. I got far enough in for water to be just lapping over the bonnet but the current was too strong and the front of LJ started to be pushed sideways.
I got on the radio and shouted for Mike to get me out of here! So he flicked his winch off free spool and started to real me in as I reversed out. Apologies for all the black smoke/water pollution in the video below, really need to wind the fuel pump back down a bit.
We all turned around and headed back the way we had come in search of another camp site.
We soon got to another fast flowing creek and without warning Rick who was now at the front of the convoy drove straight in at quite some speed. The strong current pushed him sideways a bit but he almost made it across, then he stopped!
The engine stopped and he couldnt get it to start again.
Fortunately there was a nicely placed fallen tree across the creek so Michael and I were able to get across to the other side, connect his winch rope to a tree and help him winch himself out.
We got all the other trucks across.
As Michael is still running the viscous fan on his 80 he wasnt able to flick a switch and stop the fan turning before entering the water and unfortunately a piece of the fan snapped off and went through his radiator.
He was still smilling though.
He was loosing an alarming amount of coolant.
The next few hours were spent trying to fix the 2 broken vehicles.
Michael put 3 bottles of rad weld in his radiator but it wouldnt fix the hole which must have been too big.
Meanwhile on Rik's patrol we had been through every possible thing we could think of to get the petrol going.
We had removed all the spark plugs and they were all sparking. The air filter was removed and was found to be bone dry. Easy start was sprayed down the snorkel, and then directly into the air intake on the engine but it refused to start. We removed the oil cap and turned the engine over with a socket on the alternator and then removed the dizzy cap which was also dry. We then checked that when number 6 piston was at top dead center that it was about to spark with the position of the rotor arm inside the dizzy, which it was so we knew the timming was ok.
Eventually Justin suggested that it could be the little component before the coil. Apparantly this resistor like component which I've forgotten the name of is so supposed to drop the incoming current from 12v to 8v and maybe this was faulty. So we could bridge the incoming wire straight across there by bypassing the component.
This worked and the patrol sprung into life!!!
While me and the more mechanicaly minded guys got the engine going the other guys set the camp up and got a fire going.
Once the engine was running I cooked Michael and I dinner while he removed his radiator.
We had steak and mashed potato and a few beers and then he got back to it and soon had the rad out.
Quite a big hole so no wonder the rad weld wouldnt fix it.
I was very sceptical about whether this would work or not, but we had little choice. So after gouging the bits of metal between the cores out with a screwdriver he began to twist the ends of the broken cores over.
We then put it in the creek.
We then got an air line and with Michael holding the air line in where the rad cap goes and sealing around it with his hands I held my hands over the 2 ports that the rad hoses normally connect to.
I was amazed to see it held air pressure and no bubbles came up from where hed repaired it.
He got the rad re-fitted.
And filled it with creek water.
The rest of the night was spent how all good nights are spent when away on trips. Sitting round a roaring camp fire, drinking beer and talking to all the other guys.
The 5 litres of used engine oil we bought with us really got the fire going!
A few pics of our make shift track side camp the next morning.
The camp was surrounded on 3 sides by the creek, as it was right where another creek joined it. Was quite soothing falling asleep and waking up to the sound of running water.
So so far LJ had survived quite well apart from the winch. More on that later.
I cooked breakfast. Sausage and egg sandwiches.
While some of the other guys got the fire re-going.
It was soon time to leave camp and continue with our adventure.
Back through the creek crossing first.
LJ made it safely across.
Followed by Justin in the Ford Maverick (Patrol).
Followed by the virtually brand new Prado.
It was the turn of son and dad Dave and Derick next in Daves Patrol.
Rick and son Brendon were next in the Patrol.
Big splash!
And the engine died AGAIN!
For some stupid reason no one thought to put a strap snatch on first/attach his winch rope to the back of the truck in front/tow his vehicle through with the engine switched off.
So now we had Rick stuck in the middle of the creek taking on water fast.
I gave my wallet, phone and camera to Michael and was just about to go wading into connect the snatch strap when Justin said hed do it and was already half undressed.
Dave backed up and hooked the snatch strap on.
And dragged the drowned truck out.
Fair amount of water came out as the doors were opened.
So bonnet up and time to fix the faulty resistor/regulator whatever its called before the coil.
I spent the next 20 minutes with the tools out trying to get it going, and eventually it sprang back into life.
We were then on our way again climbing back up and over the mountains.
More challenging trees to negotiate.
Back into the snow.
We got to the bottom of the infamous Barkley River Jeep Track and some of the guys started asking whether we were going to do it or not over the radio.
Michael was game as was Justin. The trip leader was dead against it as he doesnt like driving anything remotely challenging or fun. But he was happy for us to drive it and said hed meet us at the top.
Justin and Micahel turned off and shot up the track, now bearing in mind I now didnt have a working winch and knowing how hard this track would be I had a split second to decide..................
Of course I turned off and followed the other 2. I was pleasantly surprised to see Andre in the 105 behind me followed by Rick and son Brendan in the Patrol.
The first section of track was ridicolous! Super tough with tricky side slopes, huge rock steps, boulders and tight hair pin switch backs.
Awesome!
Sadly not may pics as if I'd have stoped LJ would probably have fallen over. Momentum was my key to getting up the first tricky section.
Further on ahead Justin had stopped on a particularly knarly hair pin.
Ben ran his winch rope out as Justin wasnt able to drive it.
Meanwhile Michael aired down his 37"s.
Michael powered his 80 round and up the steep rocky terrain.
I decided I too should probably drop my tyre pressures down even lower, so I went to 10psi.
With the aired down 37"s both air lockers engaged and a steady right foot I powered LJ up and around the bend.
I got on quite a tippy angle, enough for the vent to get full of mud.
I was soon followed by the twin locked 105 cruiser who also got up with out needing to winch! Maybe its a cruiser thing!
Michael said that I had spun my back wheels inside the tyres again and he was worried that I might pop a bead on one on the tyres and that was a risk we shouldnt take on the track we were on.
So he put some air back in them.
We were soon moving again, climbing further up the mountain.
There was soon a shout over the radio to say that the 105 had slid off the track.
We ran Andre's winch rope forwards and to the right.
And Rick rigged his winch rope through my snatch block and back to the 105 to pull the arse end back onto the track.
I directed Rick and with him winching and Andres winching and driving they soon had the 105 safely back on the track.
Then we get a call over the radio to say Justin had snapped his metal winch rope.
So what do you do when your half way up an extrememly challenging trck, in the snow, with no where to turn round and you snap your metal winch rope?
Justing knew what to do!
He removed the broken section of cable.
Tied the end of the winch rope to his bull bar.
And then continued to drive and winch himself up the track using a snatch block in the middle of his rope attached to various trees on his way up the mountain.
We walked on a little further and were concerned to see that the vehicle tracks stopped and the track ahead was covered in deep virgin snow, bar a set of foot prints leading on ahead.
Whoever had got this far must have had a seriously tricked up 4wd, but after walking a few k's ahead had decided to turn around and head back down.
Driving back down would have been extremely dangerous! I wouldnt have wanted to try it, trying to negotiate some of those hairpin bends would have ben suicidal in the snow!
Justin continued winching and driving his way up the mountain and doing extremely well on his worn tyres in the deep snow.
A view back down from the hairpin at the cruisers.
Hairpin bend ready to be negotiated.
Michael fought hard to get his cruiser up and around the hair pin.
In the end he too admitted defeat and winched himself up.
It was LJ's turn next.
My short wheel base was a clear advantage but I still couldnt get around the hairpin as traction was proving hard to find.
So the guys suggested using the waffle boards, and proceeded to position and reposition them as I fought my way up and around the bend.
I got LJ up and around the hairpin but then lost momentum and needed a snatch off Michael to get moving again.
Looking back down.
Andre's turn next.
After a brief battle he too resorted to winching.
Rick's turn next.
We used the waffles a lot with Rick on this turn and they worked well.
I spent the next few hours attached to the back of Michael on a snatch strap as we battled our way up the rest of the track. As we climbed the snow got deeper and deeper and the huge rock steps and steep terrain made progress very slow at times.
Michaels Warn 8274 High Mount proved why these winchs are regarded as the best winches in the world and why all the comp guys run them! He winched his fully laden 80 series cruiser and my cruiser up steep rock step after steep rock step! His winch continuously pulling for the next 2 hours, with only brief 5min pauses while we re-rigged the winch rope to the next suitable tree.
I thought this was pretty crazy. A bushfire burnt tree in the snow! Clearly this area is full of extreme weather!
As Michael winched his 80 and LJ around one particularly sharp bend he pulled me off the track and almost into a tree.
He then had to unhook me, continue on ahead until he could turn round and come back and winch me back onto the track and up the rock steps.
He set up a snatch block to a nearby tree so as to pull me sideways back onto the track.
As soon as I was back on the track he winched me straight up to him.
And finally we had reached the top!!!
Andre coming up behind in the mighty 105 cruiser.
As the mist and cloud cleared we got glimpses of what must be a truely amazing view on a clear day.
Do you know whats really really nice when its freezing cold and your out 4wding and feeling a bit peckish?
A steaming hot pie cooked to perfection in a 12volt oven!
And the final truck in our little hardcore convoy made it to the top!
The others had by this point been waiting for us on the summit for a good few hours so we raced on to meet them.
The snow definitely seemed deaper today, although the ruts were much easier to drive in.
Very foggy on the mountain top.
And finally we reached the summit and met up with the other 3 trucks.
We stopped briefly and then continued on our way over and down the mountain.
When we finally left the snow and were back on a dirt road Michael and I stopped to air up, clean windows, lights and number plates.
As we then carried on down the mountain I stopped to get a pic of one of the signs that I missed on our way up.
In Victoria the tracks on some of the snow capped mountains are closed in Winter, however they allow 4wd clubs to have permits to come and drive the tracks! So without being in a 4wd club you legally cant drive over Mount Skene in the depths of Winter, and big fines exist for those who drive up without permits, and yes the police do check some times.
Got to love the amazing views that we as 4wders are greeted to almost constantly in the High Country!!!
Michael had shot on ahead as he likes to drive faster than me on dirt roads. When I eventaully caught up with him he was by the road side in his engine bay.
Turns out his bottom pulley/harmonic ballancer had decided to jump off!
Is this a good time to mention he should have bought a 70?
We continued to wind our way back down off the mountain.
Before being greeted by lush green fields, or padocks as they call them over here.
We got back to Michaels friends house and put the little tyres back on for the journey home.
While changing the wheels I noticed my front wheel bearings had too much play in them, but more on that later.
On the way home I came close to running out of fuel as I'd been driving on empty for many hours.
Fortunately we made it to a fuel servo as they call them over here and I filled LJ's tank.
We made it back to Melbourne and both felt so pumped after what we both agreed was one of our best trips ever!
Michaels radiator repair worked faultlessly and held water and pressure for the whole trip and the return journey.
You're only 500m higher than we are up in Armidale, but we don't get snow... thankfully... after the last winter in Shropshire!
Interesting about the viscous coupling fan; I'll investigate a thermo fan for the 4Runner; suspect I'll do a SAAB T-piece and a thermo switch, with a manual over-ride as well.
Melbourne is finally starting to warm up now were into spring.
I'm able to wear shorts everyday and I'm hoping to be able to wear them all the way through till June.
The previous 2 companies I worked for in the UK went a bit health and safety mad and wouldn't let me wear shorts, so its awesome to finally be able to wear them to work.
Ben, awesome stuff as always. Just one point. Have you tried NOT airing down? I aired down at the Last Lincomb and went out again on the Sunday afternoon with them aired back up ready for leaving and there was a very noticeable difference. I realise you've done a s*** load of this stuff, but you are on virtually the same tyres as me. I have actually stopped airing them down. They seem to grip and clear much better when they are hard. Maybe on rock crawling it make a difference but as you know, these things will run with virtually no pressure in them at all as the sidewalls are so strong. I don't think that actually DO conform like a softer tyre would.
Admittedly all my local mates run Simex Knock-offs. But they have all found that in anything other than a rock crawl situation they work best at around 30-35psi. I understand the concept of airing down, mostly so when it comes to an AT type tread pattern with airing down increasing the surface area. However when it comes to an "extreme" pattern tread type surely the whole point is to reduce the surface area, thus penetrating the softer ground and pulling the vehicle forward???
Think i may pop an airing up vs airing down thread in the wheels tyres air section as a follow up
Epic trip mate and may i say somewhat selfishly that i hope you never decide to get a new cruiser . Seems to me your truck just keeps getting stronger every time an unfortunate bump occurs . I would like to think of it as a working blueprint for the for the ultimate cruiser you will build from scratch one day
That Barkley River Jeep Track was so challenging it was insane!
I will go and back and drive it in the summer and you/we will see just how extreme it is with all the rock steps and boulder not covered by a few feet of snow.
The windscreen got broken on the night drive I did around Telangi a few weeks ago.
I don't think I posted many pics, just a few of Michael chain sawing a fallen tree from across the track. It was a great drive though apart from the broken screen.
I will have a list of all the problems and things to fix, and some pics now I've fixed a few of them shortly.
I've got a week off towards the end of the month for my birthday and my mate is flying in from Western Australia. So I'm now thinking of rather than flying off some where why not go on an epic 3-4 day trip around the High Country!
So I want LJ all fixed and in tip top shape by then.
Regarding tyre pressures........................................
I have to air down to about 20psi from my road pressure of 30-35 as 30-35 is too hard and I end up feeling ever bump and it makes some huge bangs as I hit pot holes etc.
But airing down lower than that for the extreme bits, or rather not airing down lower is an interesting suggestion, thanks Chris.
I will give that a go next time and see how I get on. I'd never really thought of not airing down further, but like you say these tyres have ridiculously stiff side walls anyway so its not like they really mould themselves over the rocks like other tyres.
So following on from my Snow trip theres a few repairs needed on LJ.
Firstly the windscreen.
Now the last windscreen leaked, and so did the one that was in it when I bought LJ.
So this time I went for a new seal and so far so good.
I also replaced the rubbers on the windscreen wipers while I was at it.
The other night I tightened up the front wheel bearings. I'm not sure why they came loose as I'd followed the FSM to the dot! But anyhow they were loose so I tightened them. I used a combination of the method in the FSM and Julian V's method.
The next jobs that need doing before the next trip is I need to fit the ARB heavy duty air line kit that I bought to the rear air locker as I've found the compressor keeps firing and I know its that air pipe which must be split above the rear axle again.
Then I want to get the rear window replaced that I put one of the tines on the forklift through.
Then finally the winch................................
When I bought the winch the guy said hed fully rebuilt it with all new seals. He said that yes its leaking oil now but once its bolted up in the winch tray it wont leak.
Well it did leak and I kept topping it up but it must have got too low and then the winch made some terrible noises and stopped working on the snow trip.
Not the end of the world I will pull it out and totally rebuild it myself with all genuine parts! Atleast then I know its been done properly and will be reliable for many years to come.
I've been super busy at work.
I got the front axle off the Jimny and fully welded it all up and also added some fancy shock mounts I made which will allow the bottom shock mount to pivot both ways.
Shock mount.
We need to put really long shocks on it so it articulates as much as possible so I made some hoops for the front shocks to get the top mount as high as possible.
And used some 80 series +3" shocks to test it with.
Bottom double pivot mount.
The 80 series bump stops are limiting articulation slightly, but its still pretty good.
With the wheel/tyre all the way up and into the guard at full compression I drew around a 2" piece of wood onto the guard (wing) to give me the perfect line to cut to.
Another project I've been working on this week was refurbishing an old forklift. No before pics sadly. It was in a complete state when it came in which is why it was so cheap. We've had the radiator recored, new starter motor, new rad hoses, seat recovered and last night I was spray painting it till 9pm.
Heres the fence and gate I built at Michaels.
Will be working on Michaels house all weekend renovating the toilet, but hoping to get the winch off LJ asap.
Had my first day at TAFE (college) today. I told the guy in charge of metal fabrication & welding that I want to get qualified so I can go and work in the mines so hes signed me up for certificate 4 (basically NVQ4 in the UK system), I will also be getting all the tickets to be a coded welder.
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When we are young dreams drive us on and as we get older the dreams fade and we seek the contentment we once had while chasing dreams . Go for it Ben the only guarantee in life is we never end up where we planned , but it doesn't really matter as long as we enjoyed getting there .
