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A few of us went for a little run today to check out possible tracks for future Pradopoint runs. It was a small posse - Leachy, RussWA, Myself and Gary (the 'Cruiser owner you all now know as "Depth Guage")
After doing a tour of the Maccas stores on Wanneroo Rd we headed out to Bullsbrook, through the Gnangara pine plantation, before heading out to Chiitering and on through the Avon Valley National Park. There turned out to be very little in the way of fun fourby tracks - but there was no shortage of puddles and several different shades of mud.
We did get a group photo - perched on top of a rock
It got a bit muddy down the bottom.
This is Leachy's rig.
Russ was in the NON-WHITE Prado.
This is Depth Guage (Gary)
... and this is my bus.
On the way down - Leachy's got his fun tyres on.
Russ - Mr Smooth - creates barely a ripple.
... and Gary trying to cover me in mud.
I wasn't allowed to post a pic of my trip down. I left Bek's window wound down and filled her seat with mud.
ops: ops:
Russ takes on a hill climb.
Still climbing.
... and he's gone.
Gary - on the way back down.
You don't have to be on the freeway to get tailgaters.
Russ takes on a little creek.
Those of you who have met Andre know he can talk the leg off a chair. Here we are at lunch and Jen's getting the benefit of his conversation.
The lunch gathering.
Gary checks to see how deep the water is.
Leachy and Jen stop to peruse some antique furniture.
There was some real fire ravaged areas out here - what a landscape.
We then headed back down to the Gnangara pine plantation to check out some of the sand driving skills.
Russ takes on a little hill ...
... and gives it some on the corner.
Leachy at play - fun tyres on and hat turned backwards :lol:
Russ takes on another hill.
Yes - I did make it up. There's nothing about standard suspension, slick tyres and no locker that a heavy right boot can't fix.
Leachy tears it up. Those tyres bite well and the locker means twin rooster tails.
After all the recent banter about white Prados v's non-white Prados I decided to be fair and try a temporary colour change. I went the Champagne colour but it just looked like mud (sorry Fishnut - I couldn't find any Maroon coloured mud).
Russ got himself stuck up on top of this hill.
"Hey Dad, what was that noise?"
DISASTER !
Yep - blown diff. Gently rocking backwards and forwards the car has started to move backwards off the lip of the hill, the spinning right rear has touched down and - BANG! .... followed by that nasty clunking, rattly, metal mashing on metal sound.
There was nothing particularly gnarly about the hill. There was no big grabby rock ledge to bounce on or any real reason for the diff to let go.
Gnangara pine plantation is a notorious dumping ground for stolen cars, dead bodies, household rubbish etc so we weren't going to hang around all night. Unfortunately the bits of metal in the diff had locked everything up so it was a case of call in the big guns.
Leachy and I had already decided what parts we were going to strip off Russ' car but then the tow truck showed up. Bugger !
Apart from the unfortunate finish it turned out to be a great day - and the company was just fantastic.
There's another little story goes with this ... just the other day Russ and Jen picked up the Prado after having the suspension done. Russ suggested they pull straight into ARB and have a rear locker fitted - before the unthinkable happened and they blew the diff. Jen wasn't convinced...
The cynic in me wondered why Russ spent most of his lunchbreak under the car - bashing the diff with a steel pipe - but now I understand.
Russ was able to walk back down the hill with, "Well Jen - If we had fitted the locker when I suggested it this would not have happened !"
Well done mate - I hope Bek was listening.
Hope the fix all goes ahead swiftly and painlessly.
There was another theory emerged - and it would have to be confirmed by card carrying members of the blown diff club - but Leachy and I noticed that the white vehicles were still going fine - but those that were carrying all of the extra weight of paint (the coloured vehicle/s) had diff problems. It raised the question - what is the ratio of white v's coloured vehicles that have joined the BDC ?
Cheers
Chippy
ps. Any facts that may have diminished the author's telling of the story have been omitted.
After doing a tour of the Maccas stores on Wanneroo Rd we headed out to Bullsbrook, through the Gnangara pine plantation, before heading out to Chiitering and on through the Avon Valley National Park. There turned out to be very little in the way of fun fourby tracks - but there was no shortage of puddles and several different shades of mud.
We did get a group photo - perched on top of a rock
It got a bit muddy down the bottom.
This is Leachy's rig.
Russ was in the NON-WHITE Prado.
This is Depth Guage (Gary)
... and this is my bus.
On the way down - Leachy's got his fun tyres on.
Russ - Mr Smooth - creates barely a ripple.
... and Gary trying to cover me in mud.
I wasn't allowed to post a pic of my trip down. I left Bek's window wound down and filled her seat with mud.
ops: ops: Russ takes on a hill climb.
Still climbing.
... and he's gone.
Gary - on the way back down.
You don't have to be on the freeway to get tailgaters.
Russ takes on a little creek.
Those of you who have met Andre know he can talk the leg off a chair. Here we are at lunch and Jen's getting the benefit of his conversation.
The lunch gathering.
Gary checks to see how deep the water is.
Leachy and Jen stop to peruse some antique furniture.
There was some real fire ravaged areas out here - what a landscape.
We then headed back down to the Gnangara pine plantation to check out some of the sand driving skills.
Russ takes on a little hill ...
... and gives it some on the corner.
Leachy at play - fun tyres on and hat turned backwards :lol:
Russ takes on another hill.
Yes - I did make it up. There's nothing about standard suspension, slick tyres and no locker that a heavy right boot can't fix.
Leachy tears it up. Those tyres bite well and the locker means twin rooster tails.
After all the recent banter about white Prados v's non-white Prados I decided to be fair and try a temporary colour change. I went the Champagne colour but it just looked like mud (sorry Fishnut - I couldn't find any Maroon coloured mud).
Russ got himself stuck up on top of this hill.
"Hey Dad, what was that noise?"
DISASTER !
Yep - blown diff. Gently rocking backwards and forwards the car has started to move backwards off the lip of the hill, the spinning right rear has touched down and - BANG! .... followed by that nasty clunking, rattly, metal mashing on metal sound.
There was nothing particularly gnarly about the hill. There was no big grabby rock ledge to bounce on or any real reason for the diff to let go.
Gnangara pine plantation is a notorious dumping ground for stolen cars, dead bodies, household rubbish etc so we weren't going to hang around all night. Unfortunately the bits of metal in the diff had locked everything up so it was a case of call in the big guns.
Leachy and I had already decided what parts we were going to strip off Russ' car but then the tow truck showed up. Bugger !
Apart from the unfortunate finish it turned out to be a great day - and the company was just fantastic.
There's another little story goes with this ... just the other day Russ and Jen picked up the Prado after having the suspension done. Russ suggested they pull straight into ARB and have a rear locker fitted - before the unthinkable happened and they blew the diff. Jen wasn't convinced...
The cynic in me wondered why Russ spent most of his lunchbreak under the car - bashing the diff with a steel pipe - but now I understand.
Russ was able to walk back down the hill with, "Well Jen - If we had fitted the locker when I suggested it this would not have happened !"
Well done mate - I hope Bek was listening.
Hope the fix all goes ahead swiftly and painlessly.
There was another theory emerged - and it would have to be confirmed by card carrying members of the blown diff club - but Leachy and I noticed that the white vehicles were still going fine - but those that were carrying all of the extra weight of paint (the coloured vehicle/s) had diff problems. It raised the question - what is the ratio of white v's coloured vehicles that have joined the BDC ?
Cheers
Chippy
ps. Any facts that may have diminished the author's telling of the story have been omitted.
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