Rainforest Challenge 2008

[cicak]

please no more jungle singing from MMM

All we heard was elephants and tigers crying from the wailing coming from our tent as a very happy MMM belted out words we had never heard.

I reckon his singing caused RED to crack its newly built head hahahaha. Now we know why RED broke down.

Here is a PIC of MMM driving - haha he got stuck on a log in Camp on Day 6. THats me trying to push RED over the log but the winch worked better. Sorry MMM could not resist.

[cicak]

Day 3 morning this is a media car trying to make the 2nd hill the 80 meter climb. It took most vehicles 1 hour to ascend the difficult part. Little did they know there was another 7k of this crap and it got harder. Some vehicles camped just past the far comp car as they could get no further up the next even tougher climb.



Day 3 morning another media car trying to make the 2nd hill. Several minutes later the COMP truck also got stuck again as the rain made even walking an arduous task and it had driven to the top of this little climb before coming back to assist the media.<br>


Day 6 Drove out of Sg Kertiah the last downhill slippery as went 3 ways left was the bulldozer runoff straight ahead was a cliff 1 more meter and YELLOW was over and right was the track which we could not stay on so we winched sideways and YELLOW in reverse and being pulled sideways. The vehicle behind me pulled its winch cable through when the PTO disengage bolt dropped out (ouch) and just kept running! I am now going to install a winch in the rear of YELLOW.



Day 7 we had little else to do but wait for the comp cars and it poured so we played with filling jelly babies with vodka and eating them – then it all degenerated and someone started singing.



Day 9 K1W1 fat arsed chicken birds on SS15 almost losing it as the left rear wheel drops into a hidden hole. These guys drove well, quiet, flightless, no fuss had fun, I hope they come back.



Day 9 Red at the Hotel after YELLOW towed it the last 100K. The hotel staff did not want our wonderful vehicles in the front of a 5 star hotel so we were shunted out the back very quickly.

[XTREME MMM]

I have DVD sets of the 97 - 06 RFC (10 DVD's in total).

If you are interested please contact me on 0418 745 830 or info@xtreme4x4sport.com.au

Cost $100 plus postage.


Cheers
David (MMM)

[Big-Fella4x4]

Hey Peter, if MMM had any hair to let down, boy what a way to go about it.

Unfortunately for a few of us on previous Charity runs all over Aus we have seen and HEARD a few of these sorts of renditions, but hey what the hell, I don't think there are many of us that can lay claim to being able to belt out a good tune................Good on ya mate for havin' a go

Merry Christmas to one and all, and keep it safe wherever you go.

Catch ya
The Big Fella
Duncan

[PSi]

Day 3 morning this is a media car trying to make the 2nd hill the 80 meter climb. It took most vehicles 1 hour to ascend the difficult part. Little did they know there was another 7k of this crap and it got harder. Some vehicles camped just past the far comp car as they could get no further up the next even tougher climb.

Two media vehicles camped up there - my Discovery and Yamin's Isuzu D-Max - but it was about 250m beyond the comp car in pic. We did make it up the second slope and reached firm, level ground with more easy going in sight but since it was past 10pm and still raining, decided to camp while we had a good spot that still allowed other vehicles to pass.
Cars continued to pass us at the rate of slightly over an hour per vehicle into the early hours. We went to sleep at about 3.30am to the sound of screaming engines and winches.
The rain never stopped, and the most respite we got was maybe 5-minute spells of drizzle in between torrential downpours.
By morning, the slope was so slippery that even motocross bikes with knobbies could not ascend, I had to winch 3 of them up and off the track before I could make the descent.

Campsite the morning after ...


Coming back down ...


Going up without suitable winching point the night before ... photo from Joern Schekahn of marathonrally.com


View from up there ... Thai Kia Sportage struggling up.


A refreshing change of scenery on the way up ...

[cicak]

PSi

Ah so it was you that me and peter taylor took over the rescue off when we officials all turned up and spent was was 2 hours rescuing you.

More pics.

The rescue of the stricken MEdia Disco. At this point I was contemplating taking YELLOW up at nite (open diffs and all) but once the track deterioated we were directed to stay below.



Aun(driving) and Rod from Thailand drove the track straight after the Discso was recovered took a few goes and many revs but it made it.



Another MEdia truck on day 3 morning the petrol engine was dying but he did not lay of the pedal and the PTO strained music to my ears and $$$$ in the mekanix pocket.




Sg Kertiah Camp it was a sea of mud and standing room only. We decided to cross the river and make camp up there.



More camp shots.



Sg Kertiah Camp ground bit like Birdsville on raceday weekend.



THen we whacked the polish truck and so did MMM in front of us!




rushhour on down town SG ketiah camp site.



The landrover way down the slope which rolled on way to Sg Kertiah Camp late at nite.

[PSi]

Cicak, thanks for the assist. And I owe Dave Hobbs a dozen cold ones, which I offered to repay at Sg Loh but he said "busy, later ..." but didn't see him again.
Stricken? The Disco was working fine except for centre diff lock popping out a couple of times.
Unless you mean needing to be winched up?
The D-Max was first vehicle to try the climb but failed so it was pulled over to let a couple of comp vehicles drive up, then used one of them as anchor point.
A couple more comp vehicles were sent up and then, when Sidik told me to go up, none of them were in position as anchors.
That was when Peter showed up and decided to use that log offset way to the right, which pulled the car into the deep rut on the right.
He then called for the D-max to come back down and we winched up.

[cicak]

PSi Haha I can take the DAve Hobbs cold beers. As I was the monkey in the rain running the straps up and down the hill.

What we could see you had no traction with the smaller wheels and once the comp boyz had gone through then there was traction for no one.

[PSi]

OK, beers on me next time we meet.
Where would the fun be if there was traction for everyone to drive up? It's the RFC!

[cicak]

Day 9 just before setting out to run SS14/15/16 this eagle came and watched us from a tree top. Got this shot with a 800mm lens resting on the bonnet of car 113. So not only was there 2 giant pussy cats on the ground in the camp site we were under surveilance from the sky.





Dinner for 11 day 8 whose hungry.




MMM actually doing some work setting up SS15. Check out his new jungle parang.

[BabyGodzillaGTi-R]

Hey Cicak as u've been involved in the RFC for years and familiar with the terrain i'm curious how id the foreign trucks fair with their TSL Boggers in our conditions?
If i recall there was a Russain GQ Patrol on like 40 over inch (artic spec tyres), the Thai Hilux on 38 x 11.0 tyres, and a Russain Land Cruiser on 38x13.5

Can't really remember the sizes.
Anyway how did they performed in our conditions as opposed to the Simex XT 35 x 10.5 and 36 x 12.5?

Coz i notice time and time again it seems that those that runs 35 x10.5s still emerge as winners.

So what's your take on wide vs smaller foot print tyres?

Btw great shots.

[cicak]

My first impression of the big TSL tires and russian rigs was awesome. However as the event wore on I realised our Simex XTs are superior. The 10.5 is narower and appears to dig deeper into the ground for grip whereas the TLS apears to sit on top of the surface and just slide. THat may change with HORSEPOWER but i could see the TSL's struggling for grip. Maybe they were not soft enough and running high pressures.
The russian support NISSAN truck with its monster 40" tires and I mean monster was too wide for the car carrier and very tall it was my first pick as the vehicle to roll but it did not surprisingly. The BJ73 1JZ powered wagon also had big feet - way over sized. It also was AUTO and that does not work always well in the jungle.

Personally I think my RED truck driven by MMM would have been better than the BJ73 with the TSLs and RED was certainly a lot easier to drive in the jungle than the NIssan with it 40"+ tires. I will see if I can find a pick of the NIssan but it was really too big to fit into the camera lens.

[cicak]

Car 113 (1JZ single turbo) with a blown turbo still competing. The US military could use this as a smoke screen maker hahaha.



Somewhere on a track the K1W1 chicken birds pickedup this trophy it speared the bonnet between the bonnet ribs and the panel and ended up piecing the firewall. They just hacked it off and were going to deal with it at the end of the event. Lucky boyz.



On the way to pickup RED on Day 1 this accident caused us a long delay. However, when we went past the stricken lorry (filled with 10+ tonnes of sand) was being SNATCHED out with the steel cable which the arrow is pointing to. YEs the crowd is close enough to be whacked by a breaking cable! THe snatch failed surprise surprise.

[BabyGodzillaGTi-R]

My first impression of the big TSL tires and russian rigs was awesome. However as the event wore on I realised our Simex XTs are superior. The 10.5 is narower and appears to dig deeper into the ground for grip whereas the TLS apears to sit on top of the surface and just slide. THat may change with HORSEPOWER but i could see the TSL's struggling for grip. Maybe they were not soft enough and running high pressures.
The russian support NISSAN truck with its monster 40" tires and I mean monster was too wide for the car carrier and very tall it was my first pick as the vehicle to roll but it did not surprisingly. The BJ73 1JZ powered wagon also had big feet - way over sized. It also was AUTO and that does not work always well in the jungle.

Personally I think my RED truck driven by MMM would have been better than the BJ73 with the TSLs and RED was certainly a lot easier to drive in the jungle than the NIssan with it 40"+ tires. I will see if I can find a pick of the NIssan but it was really too big to fit into the camera lens.

Ah good to hear we share the same sentiment. So narrower tyres are still the best. Which BJ73 u're pointing to? Is it a local truck? PTO or Electric winch class?

So it was running 36 x12.5 or the 35x 10.5?
Oh yeah how did the Thai Hilux fair (red), if i remember that's running on 38 x 11.0 (the thinnest of the TSL Boggers) trucks.
Were the tyres able to grip as well as the XTs?

So this Patrol look like it's going to flip? I thought because of the wide foot print it would be very stable. Just hopless in our mud.


Nice Volvo

so any truck flipped?

[gqpete]

is there 2 classes in this event? you mentioned above- pto or electric winch class.

[XTREME MMM]

RFC results (Top 5) at:-
http://www.xtreme4x4sport.com.au/Rain-F ... llenge.php

RFC photo's at:-
http://www.xtreme4x4sport.com.au/Rainfo ... laysia.php


An answer for GQ Pete, yes the event this year was split into PTO & Electric this year. There were also Classes for Petrol & Diesel as well as engine size.


Cheers
David

[XTREME MMM]

170 plus photo's can be found here:-

http://www.xtreme4x4sport.com.au/Rainfo ... laysia.php

Please enjoy.

Cheers
David (MMM)