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Baby Troupe Online - www.baby-troupe.i8.com
Trip Report - Lithgow Multi Club and 4WD Monthly Forum Trip August 2005
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Current Vehicle Specifications
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Convoy, Trip Report – Lithgow Multi Club Tip August 2005 Attendees;
Trip The trip began with problems from the word go for the baby troupe, with the sat nav gear having a video failure. The cause was a problem with the VGA to RCA converter, which while packing the vehicle, I had ripped out a cable & did damage internally. This was going to be an interesting trip with only audio available from the system & the rest relying on memory for each track. As it turned out, there was only one mistake made with navigation for the weekend, but that was picked up quickly & we were able to make amends straight away. Once we were underway, we headed to Emu Plains to get one of the sets of keys for the Spanish Steps track, where we met Tony Ellery, who helps with the organising & controlling access for this track. I had an interesting discussion with him regarding the association & how they were closely monitoring this trip, which firstly was registered as a CC4WDC club reckie & was then made available for members of 4WD Monthly forum in an effort to show some of them the benefits of joining a club. I still struggle to understand the resistance of the association in regards to making it difficult to promote clubs & activities by the use of trips to these restricted areas, even though we had a number of reputable club members along who would ensue that there would be instruction given when needed & that the rules of tread lightly would be adhered to. After picking up the first key, we headed to Lithgow, where I picked up the second key & from there to the local electronics store in an effort to source the parts I needed to fix my sat nav. They had one cable, but not the converter, so I knew then that I was to be without video. After picking up all the keys etc, we headed to McDonalds for a quick feed & met some of the guys before heading to the campgrounds, where a few of the guys were already. We all set up camp, had a brief chat & headed off to Bungleboori for lunch. Unfortunately my instructions were misunderstood by Frank & he took a detour thru the Spanish Steps in while looking for us. After we waited about ½ hour for him to catch up, I went looking for him & found him on the Ranger Bobs track, so advised him via UHF to meet us at the top of Son of Bobs, & I headed back to get the rest of the convoy & took them around to there. When we arrived there, I had to perform a little track maintenance with the trusty shovel before I tackled it first, using the bypass at the top section as I still thought the cross angle was too great for my vehicle. The others followed me up & the more capable vehicles came up the more difficult side, including some youthful exuberance from Adam in the Hilux, which had a few of us thinking that he will roll for sure.
Once Son of Bobs Was conquered, we moved on to Ranger Bobs, where again I took the bypass track after some careful thinking. I still managed to get about 4 foot of air under the passenger wheel though & from what the guys outside said, it looked pretty spectacular. I hardly noticed, apart from knowing I had lifted a wheel, but with both lockers engaged, the vehicle didn’t even pause as it slowly climbed through the obstacle. Most of the others also took the bypass, including Steve who had a little trouble in the GU getting through that section with no drive wheels on the ground. Then up came the big boys; first was the GQ high top on 37s, but open diffs. He managed to get ¾ through the 1.8m step, but the rear wheel fell in a hole & we had to winch him out. That won him the winch dampener for being the only person for the weekend needing winching. Next up was Frank with the mega lifted, double locked Maverick. He made it look so easy as he just crawled up through the washout. With that he won the snatch strap award for the weekend.
From there I took them to a part of the Powerlines track for a teaser of what we would be doing on the Sunday & then headed to Sunnyside Lookout, where Brendan was able to get some more shots for the magazine. After Sunnyside, we headed for the Spanish Steps, which Frank had warned me was washed out a tad & could be difficult for some of the vehicles. I still took my usual line on the hard side going down. A few followed, but the lower slung vehicles took the easier side. At the bottom of the steps is a sinkhole, which is starting to get difficult to get around. Going through is not an option, as we have seen many a vehicle go in & not come out unassisted in recent times. Some rock will need to dropped in there sometime soon, or people will start clearing more bush. Once all were down the steps, I took Steve, Brendan & Sean across the creek, where they could film the others crossing it, as it is quite a good little crossing & with recent rain, made the obstacles in the creek impossible to see. We managed to get everyone thru there unscathed & from there it was off to the rock face, which looked messy due to the recent & current rain. I was first up, picking my line, engaging both lockers & tried to get up. Unfortunately it was a tad slippery, so slid back down a couple of times, with one of them slides making the car bounce off the bulbar on one of the steps hard enough to dislodge a driving light cover. I decided on a change of line & then it was straight up. The next few vehicles made it up with plenty of slipping & sliding on the wet clay covered rock. To watch it was pretty spectacular. Then the taller vehicles came up the drier side, but with higher steps. They had a bit of a slip & slide as well & a change of line was needed a couple of times. After we all made it through that section, we were off to collect firewood & then back to camp. A couple of the boys retrieving some large logs & dragging them back with a drag chain. Back at camp, we had our meals & sat around the fire having a few drinks. Young Brendan having a few balance problems by the end of the night, but we all still had a good night before hitting the sleeping bags around 10:30
Next morning we arose to another cool day, with temps not getting into double figures for most of the day & a little sleet falling still, even though the tents were still quite dry. Breakfast was made & eaten & we departed around 9:00 for the Spanish steps track, which this time was done in the reverse direction. This in itself presented a couple of challenges, with the first being driving down the slippery rock face, which was still covered in wet clay from the previous day, so the last 15 metres or so was a case of slowly slowly, slide, gas it & turn at the bottom. Lots of fun. Then we drove around to the base of the steps, where, while choosing which line I wanted to take, I backed into a tree & dented the corner of my rear bar. For a change, I decided I would come part way up the middle, giving me a nice challenge with 2 0.5m steps, before hooking right & going up the easier side to the top. In the process of hooking it, I managed a nice wheel lift, but with the lockers engaged, all was pretty easy. The next few cars came all the way up the easy side, all but the last couple, who came all the way up the harder side, with the top step stopping both the big Nissan based vehicles (GQ & Maverick). They both made it over after a little road building.
Next obstacle was the 0.75m step before going up to the steps car park, which I did after a little road building & a few of the others followed. Most took the easier line around this step. From there, we headed to Bungleboori, where we had morning tea before heading to the powerlines track. This is where my navigational error came about as I turned into the track part of the way along, with would have missed a couple of good photo opportunities. I made a quick decision to back out of there & head for the moguls, which made for some good flex shots with some of the vehicles with more suspension travel were able to show off their talents. After that we headed up the track a little to just short of a mud puddle, where we were called over the radio with Simon having a flat tyre on the Surf. While he was changing that, we watched a couple of others play in the mud. We all made our way down before Simon & Frank caught up & then we had a little play. Frank was first to conquer the puddles, a few of the others had a bit of a go before I was encouraged to have a go. I thought to myself as I lined it up that a nice big bow wave would look good for a mag shot, so with Brendan all lined up for the shot, I hit both lockers, planted the right foot & went through on full boost. Frank said all he could hear was the whistle of the turbo as the 47kw baby troupe powered though the mud bog.
From there, we had more obstacles to conquer, with a choice of sill damage, or a cross slope that gets me nervous just looking at it. We decided to send the bigger trucks up first, as they could winch the rest of us if needed, but as it turned out, was not required. From there, we sent a few of the guys up a large rock, with Simon playing & sliding all over the edge of it, before he climbed over it, then Rohan showing the superiority of the Landcruiser, then the GQ high top & Frank in the Mav.
That track then led us to an interesting little section, where Frank hit a tree with his rear quarter panel, while slipping into a hole. We all then had an interesting climb, with a sticky bog at the bottom, a side slope & then a steep incline, where most vehicles not on mud tyres needed assistance. At the top of that hill was where I thought I would roll for sure, but unfortunately as I was the leader of the group & there were no photographers around, it was missed. It was without a doubt the highest I have lifted a wheel & with both diffs locked, it was happy to keep on driving. Very scary & at the same time a hell of a adrenalin rush. From there it was off to tackle a few ruts, which were pretty uneventful before heading back to camp, packing up, saying our goodbyes & heading off, with Jono needing assistance with his battery no holding enough charge to keep him going, so had a few of the guys help him out. I charged him up at camp while pumping up his tyres. His batteries were down to 9 volts, so he had no chance of making it back without a charge up. A final note; Anyone who thinks this sport is pretty inexpensive, is kidding themselves, with the damage for the weekend being as follows ; Frank – Rear Quarter Panel Mick – Corkscrewed rear drive shaft Jono – Alternator & batteries Nigel – Bent Sidestep & sidestep mount plus dented sump BT – VGA to RCA adapter, Passenger side corner of rear bar Simon - Punctured rear tyre Rohan - Indicator lense
Many thanks to the guys for coming along, and a
special mention to Sean & Nigel for some of the pictures.
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