Geoffs Bit VVVVVVVVVV Thanks to Nigel for organising a wonderful day's off roading. Simon got stuck first and should be writing up the mornings jollification's (if he ever found his way off the site ;-) In the afternoon we did most of the same as we did in the morning. The trials people had finished with the tight sections in the trees so we had a good drive round there, we also found a new section with some short but very steep off camber hills, good but not as good as the adrenaline ally. The adrenaline ally was the section right at the back that cost Nigel a 1/2 shaft when he was setting up the site on Saturday, deep off camber sand that if you got wrong you would end up upside down in some very smelly water. We had a look in the morning but a 110 pick up was making slow progress of being winched out, when back and had a look in the afternoon and there no one stuck but a audience awaiting the next victim. I was the first to go and was all set to get stuck, however as I planned my route and used huge amounts of driving skill :-O I managed to get through ! Huge amounts of adrenaline and a real buzz top entertainment as I'm sure Paul, Lynne and Lyndon will vouch for as we all did it both ways ! Lots of photo's and video was taken so if any one has some pix please send them on. After a bit more tooling about, literally in Pauls case as Homers front diff let go, we found that the time trialers had finished with the back section of the site so we had a new area to play in, hills, soft sand and lakes :-)) Lyndon managed to get stuck in the middle of the lake, sadly by the time we got there with the camera's Nigel had pulled him out. A cracking day out, now all I have to do is clean all the sand out of the oily bits on the Suzuki's and replace the brakes all round. When's the next one Nige ???? Nigels Bit VVVVVVVVVVV An extra write up....as I got stuck 1st at Slab (on the Saturday), looking forward to the 1st from Sundays ! Hope you all enjoyed yourselves at Slab yesterday, I was amazed at the weather, and was expecting to be soaked through.... The DRD was set out by myself (complaints to me then I guess), and 2x others Stuart in a yellow 90, and John in a Series 111, who contained a nervous passenger with a set of high level waders, in effect a human depth gauge. We had only limited access to the site, partly due to the AWDC running a speed event, and the insurance requiring it to be segregated and off limits, and also the military had asked (??) / told us that other sections were off limits, so we did our best with what we had... The course route was set out, and covered about 3 miles, this was achieved by lunchtime, after which point we started formally staking and flagging the route, along with all the posters and warning etc.. then came the finding and setting of the Black routes.... John was 1st ..... The Cb Sqawked "I've found One"... and I'm stuck and nearly on my side" ....sounded positive... after dragging him out (passenger had abandoned stricken L/R) and his colur returning we agreed it was one, others were found, and route altered to accommodate... Thought I'd better drive them all, and duly did, at the one where John got in trouble so did I, ploughing through the water at section 5 (the long mud route with side slope), I stopped moving, more worrying was that so had my drivers front wheel....had the ARB front locker disengaged, no, cos the passenger was turning fine... BUGGER...... The mechanical winch and snatch block finally had me out, but I amended the route to cut out the water start, as it could mean that many just got stuck 10 yards into the section, and would not see the rest.... The other worry was I needed to be there as I was COC for the DRD and would need to recover stuck L/Rs and "3 wheels on my wagon" was not much use... Getting home on Saturday my wife reminded me that friends were coming round for dinner.... "er..how long have I got then dearest before I have to come in" 1 Hour ! Sitting by the very sandy axle end I prayed... "please Lord, let it be just a simple job, a stub axle" Nope, that was fine... "Ok, Lord, how about just a broken CV ?" Nope that was fine too "Ok Ok, now listen Lord, please can I have the shaft broken at the axle end, and not broken at the diff end with the bit jammed in the diff...PLEASE ?" Nope, pulling the remaining unit my heart sank, and a torch showed the jammed bit in the diff... BUGGER ..but I had a cunning plan... I had earlier made a special tool, a long steel rod with a huge magnet welded on the end... having finally got it onto the broken lump of halfsahft down in the axle tube I gave it a tug.... Nothing Stronger tug... Nothing... Bloody great heaving tug... Nothing Feet on radius arm and chassis and great big hard as I bloody well can tug... It gave in, and my head bashed back against the garage wall, but what did I care, it was free........... Actually what unfortunately was free was the lump of magnet which had broken off the "Special tool"..... Now I have a broken half shaft, with a lump of magnet stuck to it... deep joy... But, before dinner the other half shaft assembly from the passenger side was out, and the diff proved difficult a) cos ARBs are damned heavy bits of kit, and b) I being a prat had the lump of magnet jamming the diff unit in the casing, but eventually it came out, along with the remaining Gear Oil / EP90stickystuff, which dribbled all over me... ..at this point Sue looked under the L/R and said "hows it going them ? " %&((^^$£%*&(( *>** thanks love ! Good scrub later saw me sitting with friends, the wine flowed, the food disappeared, we laughed, and we all tried to ignore the stench of used EP90 wafting from my warm little body filling the room... 1 bottle of Frances Red finest later saw me, at the wee hours, finding the bits to fix it, but after dropping a CV on my toes (slippers) I decided that this was a bad idea..... A few hours kip later, again in the garage, with hang over (and a bloody sore set of toes) finally saw it all back together, leaving home at 7.00am to get back to Slab to finish and set up the event........ "4 wheels on my wagon, and I'm just rolling along".. The sun was out, and the day was set....entrants came, (got stuck), and moved along... I bumped into a group of Anoraks staring into a pond (section 4) each shuffling their feet and muttering "maybe later", "looks smelly", "deep", "not sure" and other odd comments. Lyndon was standing well back looking nervous ....the mystery cleared when I was told nobody was stuck yet, hence the wish of all to "be sensible".... Being sensible did not apply to what must have been the heaviest R/R on this earth, at his MOT the 4 post lift couldn't, and he was in there and stuck... A Unimog arrived, and offered to get him out, he reversed in as though it was a puddle on the road, the flat bed some 18 inches above the water...he attached the rope to the Range Rover, and ..then noticed his feet were getting wet...he was sinking.......he engaged drive and NOTHING I linked up 5 L/Rs as anchors and my L/R with the mechanical winch (16,000lbs Pull !) ..............It tripped out............. Ok, then lets use a snatch block and tie it to those trees... Something's moving ...the tree...... Ok, let put my cable fully extended to him, so as to have 16,000 lbs pull, and also a disco with numerous L/Rs as anchors with his mile marker (12,000 Lbs) and get him out 1.5 hours later he and R/R were out... and, as I drove off up a steep bank with "Joi De Vive" I heard a very loud bang... "3 wheels on my wagon". ...yep same shaft blown again, but at least it was towards the end of the day... and finally................................................. ;-) Whilst clearing up, and stake clearing a 'icckle suzuki driven by Hedi trundled by, into a "harder" section (note not black) with a wave and a smile she whizzed of, Lyndon then came past and stopped, sorry that should be 'stuck'... having extracted him, they whizzed off, towards the lake which was out of bounds, and the icckle Suzuki drove through and......yep Lyndon got stuck again, and, what he doesn't know, is that whilst my mate Daryl was passing him the rope in the middle of the lake for him to put (yet again) on his towbar I took some piccies from inside the Hybrid from Hell... they will follow ! So, extra write up as I guess I was the 1st the get stuck (Saturday), and look forward to the same from the 1st on Sunday, how about starting a new on of "last one to get stuck also dies one" ? Cheers all....