well Saturday started with a quick trip up Murriwai to show the new missus the west coast. And a bit of 4x4ing.
After getting stuck up in the dunes past rimmers. And getting to use my winch properly for the first time (had to bury spare wheel as an anchor) carried on up the beach to find this guy..
Bellied out. water half up the doors.
missus and new born in the back seat.
Engine Hydrolocked, and his mate's 4x4 van on her chassis too after trying to get him out.
Winching, twice in one day. why not.
Lucky I had wielded all the braces on that morning a! cheers to John at pit stop Wairau road!
after a fair bit of digging.
we hooked up the winch. and began to pull.
she moved a bit. inch by inch. Until I started moving forward on the sand towards the soggy stuff! STTTTOOOOPPP.
Put her in 2x4 and buried the rears for more grip.
Pulled again until I was at the limit of what I wanted to pull, with an older cable.
so began digging again.
About this point two standard bighorns rolled up. heading off for a fish. And while we co-ordinated them to get the van out, (took both of them) the lads in the stuck patrol got to work with my tools trying to get the engine to start.
No luck there.
We tried the winch again to find it dead.
luckily a couple of minutes later we saw two trucks heading around the Seaward side of the lagoon and managed to wave them around to us.
One was a late model Navara. Simple. but well set up. With a local behind the wheel. And the other. His son. In his new 4L Jeep Cherokee with bridgestones, the good old ones.
The Navara had a winch also, and it was brand new. He had been wanting to test it.
So with two winches we got him out. (they were both at full strain. and mine had died earlier due to dodgie wiring, to be fixed.)
The next mission.
= tow his heavy dead a## all the way along the beach to the lower gap. before the tide gets us all.
once up and moving my 91 terrano v6 pulled well in low range 4th at 60kmph, temp gauge never moved. Until we started to hit soft stuff. We had to snatch out with the Jeep a couple times (the Navara and Jeep tailed us back, bloody legends) and managed to break a strap during one snatch.
we were still 10k from the river according to trucks coming the other way, and soft spots were becoming more and more frequent. as the tide rolled in.
and pulling up high to get away from the sweepers was hard with a few ton of dead weight behind you.
Then we could see the river. Ther was a sweeper coming and we had to make it on this run or we would all be stuck. brrrruuusususuuruururu...
Soft patch.. thru 3rd. into 2nd CUMON YOU MOTHER! WE ANT STOPPING NOW. foot to the floor and adding another ton of sand to the truck behind me we managed to keep moving fast enough that we only just got nicked by the wave as we made it through the river.
Final mission over the gap.
Navara said his clutch wouldn't do it. And my terrano is not good in low revs. so the jeep got the call off the bench with his sand loving bridgestones
the van ploughed a rut, I flattened it out with mine. and then the Jeep hit the gap at full pace. Almost made it over the top too. But the sand out there now days is just too soft.
His dad got up there and instructed the young fellah what he had to do to snatch and get moving. We all pushed. And got most of the way down untill there was just no more moving.
Then, SOME DRUNK DUDE. In a white 2wd late model hylux decided to come flying past our spotter. And over the gap, squeeze round us. And Get stuck up in front. so we pushed him out. and backed my truck down to try two trucks. moved first snatch. moved 2nd. moved 3rd. But we were both running a bit hot. my clutch was not liking me and I could hear the front diff wining, and the cvs complaining.
Rest.
another crack.
this went on about 4 times. before we made our final push for the hard stuff.
with my fronts throwing stones through the sand I hit something with the rears and felt the traction before I was spinning all four on gravel. Finally. we were out. hit the beach at 2pm.
found him at 4ish. And made it to hard road at 8 830.
WHAT A DAY!
its fair to say, the 4x4 bug has bitten,
both me, and the missus.
Muz next weekend it is then I guess?
(don't give me stick about spelling. I don't care
)
Cheers
Brady
will have to investigate what is wrong.
now I can get my WOF