Complete Newbie with a great first time story
Hi All,
Total newbie in the world of 4wd'ing and picked up a 1999 2.8 GU Patrol a few months ago. She's no 4.2, but she's enough for a beginner like myself (and is ready for some potential conversions down the road).
My first time properly offroad last weekend was certainly an experience. We headed out near Jerrawangala National Park along Deans Gap Road just for a real cruisy day in the bush, hoping to try out Mint Bush (first time offroad, it was scary enough for me) and get a taste for what this beast is made for. Part way along Mint Bush we ran into a real friendly group of blokes who suggested we follow along so that if we have any issues we can yell out - I thought hell why not. We cruised for a few kms and I was loving it!
Eventually it reached about 4pm and the blokes decided to head back and camp for the night, so they suggested we keep heading along Blackwood Road as it's the quickest way out, and to avoid Monkey Gum as it's quite a bit more difficult. As we truck along, we eventually realise we missed the turn off for Blackwood Rd and went a few hundred metres up Monkey Gum, so we turned around and started heading down Blackwood Rd. By now it's about 5pm and we're exhausted after a long day, and we just wanted to get home, so foolishly as the track got harder and harder we just pressed on because the maps showed that the exit was only 2-3km away and turning around was more like 6-7km. Eventually we reached some terrain that we should never have attempted such as a serious rock garden, some serious creek crossing with large boulders, and eventually a creek crossing with an obstacle we later learned was called the "gatekeeper". In our desperation to get home at 5:30, we just said fuck it and tried to charge over it. The truck got stuck. Completely.
A complete beginner, no winch or other self recovery gear (as I wasn't expecting ANYTHING this crazy on my first day) and the truck is stuck. Let's say it was excruciatingly stressful. Eventually my better half said we needed to abandon the truck, and walk up the hill to find help at the main road. As we hiked up this steep hill, we realised that this was far from the easier way out and eventually run into the Yalwal 4WD group. To our complete surprise, we are told that we were given complete bum advice and had been directed to 6 Stages which they claimed is the hardest 4x4 trail in NSW. First day offroad, hardest track in NSW - that was shocking.
Thankfully the blokes extremely kindly offered to take us up this insane track with them, and then use their significantly more tricked out trucks to retrieve ours. About 3 hours later, and some mini heart attacks as trucks almost roll, CVs are blown etc... we make it to the top at 9pm. We then travelled 1.5 hours back into the National Park before beginning a 1 hour recovery mission to winch the Patrol out, before spending another 1.5 hours easing it out with a potentially almost blown clutch (reverse had stopped working during the recovery).
By 1am we were out, and apart from the aluminium side steps being shredded and some minor panel damage the Patrol was good to go and hungry for more.
I feel like I got a real crash course in how NOT to 4x4 (i.e. going alone, going without a radio, going solo without solo recovery gear such as a winch, having aluminium sidesteps when steel rocksliders would be far sturdier etc...) and because of that, I've got a much better appreciation for how risky and important safety is when going offroad. It's safe to say that some money will be invested on a radio, steel rock sliders and some beer to entice travelling companions when I take the beast back offroad.
Rather than be freaked out, I'm taking this as a lesson to make sure that I'm prepared for anything when going offroad, and the golden rule - when the going gets too tough, turn around and go back the way you came.
Look forward to learning from the forum and getting involved!! Here's a picture of the car shortly before it's ordeal:
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