Didn't mean anything bad by that Gra, Just imagine, you've spent all this time, money and effort on getting a Visa to move to aussie land, and then fail on what could possibly be the worst result you would get in your life, 2 bombs at the same time so to say, No australia for you, and on top of that you have been diagnosed with HIV, that would sink even a fucking submarine that's under water....
(On a side note, when that test is negative it's positive for Ben, but if it would be positive, it would be negative for Ben.. that's what i meant with that last bit..)
Ben, bit late to the party but thought this might interest you (and anyone else with a swing our carrier)
The rear door on the 150 has a damper which offers no assistance in opening or closing. But, at the limit, it piles on the damping to stop it hitting the end stops.
Yesterday Tony and I looked like a couple of angry fools in the carpark "throwing" the door open. The damping catches it right at the end and very progressive. The weight of the door and the force he was swinging it were causing the car to rock so it's not like we were not trying.
If you're still struggling with the damper, maybe try find a crashed 150 and harvest the damper or, if you're brave, speak to Simon and see what a new one costs?
Edit:
It also offers resistance on closing once at the end but includes a lock to lock the damper in place so it will not close on you.
Didn't mean anything bad by that Gra, Just imagine, you've spent all this time, money and effort on getting a Visa to move to aussie land, and then fail on what could possibly be the worst result you would get in your life, 2 bombs at the same time so to say, No australia for you, and on top of that you have been diagnosed with HIV, that would sink even a fucking submarine that's under water....
(On a side note, when that test is negative it's positive for Ben, but if it would be positive, it would be negative for Ben.. that's what i meant with that last bit..)
Ben, bit late to the party but thought this might interest you (and anyone else with a swing our carrier)
The rear door on the 150 has a damper which offers no assistance in opening or closing. But, at the limit, it piles on the damping to stop it hitting the end stops.
Yesterday Tony and I looked like a couple of angry fools in the carpark "throwing" the door open. The damping catches it right at the end and very progressive. The weight of the door and the force he was swinging it were causing the car to rock so it's not like we were not trying.
If you're still struggling with the damper, maybe try find a crashed 150 and harvest the damper or, if you're brave, speak to Simon and see what a new one costs?
Edit:
It also offers resistance on closing once at the end but includes a lock to lock the damper in place so it will not close on you.
So Friday night we all headed to the wild camp spot just North of Machynlleth.
Saturday morning.
By 9AM we had packed everything away and were ready to start laning!
So with me leading we descended this lovely challenging lane.
Need more lift I think!
Stevens first bit of damage.
Challenging bit done, we turned around ready for the even more challenging drive up.
Disco needed to winch this tricky section.
An awesome bit of driving by both Trev and Steven saw the 2 collies fly up.
With the challenging bits done we headed off the mountain down the gentle windy track.
Beautiful weather and an amazing view.
When youve been driving very challenging technical sections, its very easy to become complacent when then driving gentle graded stone tracks.
What happened next happened very quickly.
I rounded a slight bend doing 15-20mph, and due to lack of concentration one wheel ended up on the grass on the edge of the track. This pulled me towards the edge of the track and suddenly im coming off the edge of the mountain.
Suddenly im rolling over mid air and then theres an almighty BANG! As the truck smashes into the ground. At this point I was thrown clean out of the drivers seat and was now upside down some where in the middle of the truck. Firstly I thought shit my truck, what have I done. Then I suddenly realised the seriousness of the situation and thought oh my god how many more times am I going to go over?
Then the truck stopped, and for a few seconds I waited for it to go over again but luckily it didnt.
I crawled out of one of the now smashed windows, felt slightly disorientated and fell over. I got back on my feet and made my way back onto the track, by which point the other guys were out of their trucks and were very concerned as to whether I was ok.
A picture from the piece of headland opposite shows how bloody lucky I was not to roll all the way down this steep mountain side.
It was never going to be an easy recovery but all the guys quickly sprang into action.
One big problem we had were the trees kept pulling out of the ground, in the end we ratchet strapped 5 together and this gave us a strong enough anchor point.
My poor baby what have I done.
All the guys worked incredibly hard for 2.5 hours to get my truck recovered, and for that im very grateful.
Just shows important it is to have my mates that you can rely on and trust when something goes wrong.
The guys all thought that would be the end of this trip and weekend for me, after what had just happened.
My response....................................
HELL NO!!
I told them, Ive come away for a weekends laning and thats exactly what were going to do. Im not quitting!
So I sent one of the guys on ahead with instructions to find me a big strong oak tree.
While I set about getting the truck mobile again.
As the truck had been upside down for a while, there was a possibility that the cylinders might be full of engine oil, and not wanting to risk killing the engine. I took all the glow plugs out and turned the engine over a few times.
Some oil came out but not a huge amount.
Glow plugs back in and she fired up within half a turn of the key.
She was a bit smokey for the first few minutes, but that was to be expected.
So after repacking all the gear inside the truck and cleaning broken glass and eggs off everything, I put a tarp over the roof to keep rain out we were off.
My mate didnt let me down with finding a decent tree, and I soon had a snatch block rigged up and we were ready to pull the roof out.
With Giles slowly pulling with his hydraulic winch, and Steven hammering the dents in my roof like a maniac the twisted section of roof slowly straightened out.
While I repositioned the truck, Giles couldnt resist swinging up and down on his winch powered swing.
With rain clouds blowing over the mountain we quickly tapped plastic bags over the broken sunroof, window and windscreen.
With a full day and a half of laning ahead of me a better solution needed to be found for the windscreen.
We found a DIY store and a sheet of perspex and a length of tongue and groove wood was hastily purchased.
Me getting stuck in.
Using Stevens cordless drill and Giles's screws the perspex was fixed in position.
*note the pieces of wood on the bonnet, this is because the perspex wasnt quite long enough. The perspex was a nice fit inside the groove of the timber.
Beautiful!
I felt very guilty that all these guys had come to Wales to do some laning, and because of me a good few hours had been spent not laning.
But they all reassured me they didnt mind, and im sure they all loved the drama and excitement of it all, and we got to play with all the off roading toys/tools.
So we headed South to drive Strata Florida.
We found a broken down landrover.
Just a flat tyre though, and the lads were soon on their way.
The landrovers in front made every effort not to stick to the right of way, and ignored all the way markers that have been put up.
What really pissed me off though was the driver of one of the discos, finishing his can of stella and throwing the empty can out of the window.
After stopping and picking up the can we carried on towards the bomb hole.
Trev who had never driven Strata before wanted to have a go at the bomb hole hed seen and heard so much about.
He then turned around and had a go going up it.
The disco came down next with a loud bang!
1 dented bumper.
Shogun next.
The bumper on the disco was catching on the tyre, so a quick bit of winching was needed to pull it out.
After Strata we drove for an hour to the wild camp spot wed chosen. We set the big tarp up between the vehicles and lit the pig, and had some beers and cooked dinner.
We were soon joined by Karl, Dave and Helen.
We were glad we set the tarp up as from time to time there were heavy 5 minute blasts of hail.
Giles nipped off in his landy to get some fire wood and dragged back a tree and cut it up with the chainsaw and axe.
The wood felt damp and I was sceptical about whether it would burn very well.
But within 2 hours the fire was roaring and chucking out a huge amount of heat.
We sat around the fire till the early hours drinking and having plenty of friendly banter.
Sunday morning i was awake at 6.30AM.
5* luxury accommodation.
When Giles said hed dragged back a big tree he wasnt joking!
By 9AM we had eaten breakfast and packed everything up ready to hit the lanes.
After splitting into 2 groups we were off!
This is the corner where I almost rolled last time. Trev picking a perfect line and barely lifting a wheel.
We stopped in Llandovery for fuel and Daves 80 decided it wanted a new CV.
Karl and Dave fixing trucks on a laning trip, never seen that before.
We were soon back on the lanes.
Old Roman Road next past Roman hill forts.
Snow on the Black Mountains in the Brecon Beacons national park.
Another favourite next.
Next lane.
The big ford at Garth next.
I was concerned that it may be a bit too deep and fast flowing today due to the amount of rain, but it was ok.
We stopped at the end of the lane and said our goodbyes to Steven and the other chaps who were calling it a day.
Steven did a quick exhaust repair with a crowbar.
So me, the other 3 remaining cruisers and the shogun carried on.
Id also refitted a windscreen wiper by this point as visibility was starting to be an issue.
Last ford of the day was the mighty ford at New Bridge On Wye.
It looked deeper and faster flowing today but I decided to give it a go.
I got half way across and started to worry that maybe I shouldnt have attempted it.
I could really feel the water pushing the vehicle.
But I kept my foot down in first low and the big 37's pulled me across.
The others decided not to give it a go, so I shouted across to say id drive round and meet them
We aired up, said our good byes and hit the road home.
Was a smashing weekend!
But being serious for a minute things could have turned out very different.
Had there not been a big tree stump and a mound of earth where I went off the track then im pretty certain id be dead.
You were so lucky there Ben glad to see you OK with just a bump on the head maybe What you and a few mates did there is nothing short of a miracle, would it be fair to say your next project could be a roll cage?
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glad to see you OK with just a bump on the head maybe 
