Capable 4wd, Uncapable driver(Novie driver, mud, steep hill)

[nellyb1]

this is not really much of a quesiton that needs answering, but more of something that some of you may be interested in reading and remembering back to your days when you just started getting into 4wding.

Last night, did some work on my new 4wd, 88 mav. its going heaps better then when i got it, which is great. love it.

Headed out to West Wallsend for a bit of a drive with my best mate (owns a disco) to do a little offroading and see how capable the car is. Went up and over a few big mounds of dirt to learn the approch and depart angles.

we were heading along a muddy road, was really easy, like i'm talking dual carriage way easy, then it turned into a two wheel tracks, with was great and then a goat track. I've did a bit of 4wding with the army a few years ago before i became a building designer, and now shuffle paper and push pens. So i knew that it was an easy bit to get across.

There was a fence with concrete posts and a tree about 50m from the end of this track. OK just drive thru says i.

well i get half way thru and the rear right tyre gets into a wheel rutt and slides down the clay, Thud!. Now the car is resting ever so nicely up against the tree. Ok. so i dirve back a little bit and swing the front out to get roung the tree without damage. Nope. rear slides down the hill further.

I might add at this point that the hill is a good 25-30 degree slope, covered in ferns, and grass and leaves and slippy as.

So everytime i move the car either forward or back i hit the tree, or i slide down the hill. It got tot he point that the car was facing up the hill about 70dgree away from the road and i was going nowhere.

So teh only thing we coudl do was get out and walk down behind us and check it out. there was a heap of logs and littel trees but nothing that was going to cause too much of an issue. My issue was that it meant driving backwards down a slippery hill in the dark, between trees. Yeh no pressure.

every time i stopped the car, it slid for about a meter further. so i had to do everything in increments. after about an hour of scouting the track out then driving down it, we finnaly were able to turn around and face the right way.

so now we are about a km from the raod we started on, its dark as, and we are at the bottom of a valley in a place we didnt know.

This stroy ends with driving for about an hour, with no track at all, weaving between the big trees and hitting the little ones and making a track out, till we break out back on a dirt road.

Coming down that hill, was freaky as. My mouth was dry, my leg wouldnt stop shaking and all i could think about was getting back to the car and finding it wrong side up.

nothing got broken, or damaged so i know that i was lucky. sot eh lessn is.

1. watch out for wheel rutts in muddy areas, coz they WILL push your car sideways.
2. recovery gear of anytype like a winch, or even a comme-along would be handy to have.
3. my car is more capable then i am and if something goes wrong, its going to be my fault first.

well i just thought i'd share so that most of you that have done similar things, could laugh at the guy, shake your head and think, "tools".

Cant wait to do it all again next week!

[philhod]

Events like that are a good learning experience. I bet nearly everyone on here has been in a similar situation when they were starting out. I know I have

[Hoonz]

sounds like a good experience to me
next time some thing like that happens you'll have a little more confidence

we all had to start learning some where

[stokedapollo]

im very new to 4wding and my first expeirence getting stuck was
when my rear tyre rack swung open on the road i pulled over fast hit the soft side of the road teuned out to ba soft as mud
sunk the thing to the chassis had to get friend to pull me out lol
lesson learned dun matter whats goin on pull over gently and look where ya stoppin

[coxy321]

Just remember, if the shit DOES hit the fan, the trees will be there to help you stop. And yes, recovery gear of some description is always good - a hand winch would've had you past that tree no dramas at all.

Coxy

PS. Dont stress, its overrated. Stay calm, think it out, pick your line and stick to it.

[plasnart]

That's great Nelly! Not too dissimilar to my first (and very embarrassing) big mistake! Thanks for sharing.

[nellyb1]

hahaha. i look back now and laugh at myself with how much i was packing it. I'm glad i cut my teeth on something like that, coz i now know so much more about the car. What the limits are of approach and departure, how big a tree i can and can push over. Where the corners are.

The great thing about it now is that on the on the way in there are a few big erosion banks that i was very carful off and took my time over and went into 4wd, on the way out after this. I was like meh. i did worse. 2nd gear 2wd. easy.

The mate that was with me was telling me that hes envious that i got into trouble like this. The first time he got stuck was when he over estimated how high is disco was and bellied it out on a stump. Had to get a ZOOK to get him off it.

And like all good mates, we havent let him forget it yet either.

[GQ Bear]

When i first bought my troll some 12yrs ago i headed to a local industrial estate just minutes from the car dealership. There was a huge mound of dirt that i couldn't resist driving over. When i did i bottomed out on top and my 20 minute old wagon was teetering like a see-saw. Luckily a bloke in a hilux came past and snatched me out. I stopped and bought a snatch strap before heading home.

[rogantriton]

yeh, my first 4wd was a 88 triton ute, first time out took the wrong line and put the passenger door into a tree, that left a nice dent about the size of 2 basket balls, all part of the learning experience