Originally Posted by
Bigrig
Thanks mate - plenty more to come and some of the tracks dhuck and I did were, let's say, rather "full on"!! No one has responded so I'll tell you what that earlier photo was of dhucks truck stuck out in the bush. After everyone left on Sunday, he and I went and tackled the "Club Rally Circuit" which is the only track to have a specific timber sign (apart from the map colourings) stating "hard 4wd only" - we were getting through it ok (I was taking a hammering on the underbody with 4" lift and 33" tyres) and on one of the climbs, dhuck dropped the front left tyre off the bead. With nowhere to go, we had to limp it back down the hill and coz he couldn't turn, we had to go down another side track which is easily the most extreme track I have ever done. Got to the bottom eventually and he had sheared BOTH tie rod ends!!!! So we are in the middle of nowhere, it's nearly fully dark, and his truck is in 4 inches of mud and going nowhere. Left it there overnight and went back in the morning to suss it out - had to drive a 280 klm round trip back to Morayfield to buy two new tie rod ends, and my car has bugger all petrol but heaps of LPG. Been running on LPG the whole time, and literally as we drive off from the camp ground, the LPG system starts cutting in and out and the engine dies!! Uh oh ... things are getting grim!! Made it to Kilcoy switching back to LPG and running it till it cut out again, then would quickly flick back to petrol - had worked out it was electrical due to it cutting out only over bumpy ground (no science or skill in that one, just all I could come up with!! LOL) ... followed the wires from the back of the switch circuit board and it ended up being the fuse had worked it's way loose and was only just sitting in the plug - pushed it in and all good!!! Phew!!!! LOL
Got back to the park about half two in the arvo, had a smoke and a beer to get relaxed, and off we went. Had to replace the tyre first as we needed to move the car in order to straighten the drivers side wheel to be able to put the tie rod back on. High jack lifted the car, but not high enough as it was slipping sideways in the mud and we didn't want to end up statistics - grabbed my jack out and with the car partially lifted and having dug out as much as we could, lifted the whole diff up as well. Got the tyre on, and then next attacked the tie rod. Wedged the front wheel up against a small mound and it lined up - allelujah!! Tyre replaced, new tie rod ends connected and tie rod replaced - all in the mud in the middle of the bush!!!! Go the Nissan Patrol Forum boys!!!! Drive it out nearly 24 hours after doing the damage and the whole family got home safe and sound!!!
I have only found out since getting back that I cracked the rear diff housing and have a small leak, stuffed oil seal on the front right, an absolutely melted spottie fuse (40 amp and it is just a blob!!), a stuffed front left shock, and that's on top of the smashed rear indicator/brake lights on the passenger side, and the bingled small barn door which smashed into a tree (kicked it out enough that I can actually open it now though!!!). Dhuck has a shot clutch as well ... I don't go out of the way to do damage, but have to say, I pushed Tank to the limit, and he came through for me like a champion!!
Did I mention it was a cracking good weekend??? LMFAO ...
