2009 - Rainforest Challenge

[XTREME MMM]

Well arrived safely in KL.

Picked up by Gecko & spent day organising bits & pieces both for his official vehicle (3) and trying to get mine out of Port Klang.

That part has turned into a big balls up, it appears that even with vehicle being left down in JB which in turn not arriving at Port Klang until the 25th (should have been here 20th).

I would have imagened that Damco would have made sure that they had all the paper work in hand, only to tell me yesterday (Thursday 26th) that they did not have the AP yet (Permit to drive in Malaysia). It appears that having the paperwork from Australia nearly 4 weeks ago was not enough time, more like it was forgotten completly. I had been told that vehicle could be available for pick up when I arrived on Thursday if not as Friday a holiday Saturday morning would be official pick up.

So after phone calls on Thursday afternoon I am told that vehicle could could be available on Monday!!!! NOT HAPPY JAN!!!!!!!!

After yet another "Not Happy MMM" phone call to Damco late yesterday afternoon, anything is still possible, maybe all could change and will be available on Saturday.

Will keep all informed.

Cheers
MMM

[LSG948]

Well just have to drink more beers waiting!

Lol. That would suck.

Good luck and have a good weekend!

Davo

[crazy eyes]

[quote="LSG948"]Well just have to drink more beers waiting!

Lol. That would suck.

Good luck and have a good weekend!

Davo[/quote]

more beer what so we can see a repeat of him on you tube singing ooooww nnnoooo dont do it hahaha lol
good luck MMM do your best make that navi run.
cheers crazy eyes

[cicak]

this is the blog for GECKO from Malaysia of my trip to RFC 2009 and whatever happens around me including my 3 trucks RED, YELLOW and GREEN (ah the secret one that only the rawang doctor knows about) and yes the adventures of mr MMM while he is around me.

Started thursday morning the internal alarm clock wakes me at 4:57 shower and dress and of to the airport to pickup an ozzie competitor Mr MMM.

Navpro arrives from Puchong to meet us for Breakfast in Section 20 after I collect MMM.

Forget to take the furutre wife to work as we are still having breakfast - 3 matsallehs in Section 20 hahaha

Then we try and sort out MMM's local fone despite having a 12 month setup on his MAXXis fone it will not work and has been cancelled. We sort that out with a visit to MAXXIS TTDI.

Then the big one sorting out DEMCO with the status of MMM's truck. THen the clanger DEMCO have not done the AP to get his truck out of the container. This is a disaster as we were told we could get it today whicih is why I tookk the day of work.

In the container is MMM's comp truck and ROLLER DRAWERS, CARGO Barrier and 3 FRIDGES for YELLOW, 600amp cable and crimping tools for GREENS winch and a 12,000lb WARN winch for YELLOW and my old Simpson Desert mountain bike which had a new frame fitted as I cracked it in the last 5 day race in 2003. Oh yeah there is also a tonne of recovery kit including tyre pliers and straps etc. I have been waiting for this kit for 2 years.

Dissappointed the argument with DEMCO rages all day we head home and work on YELLOW the rear is stripped of seats and the final coat of pain on the floor applied and the fridge cable run out from the battery.

Visitors turn up all in 4x4s and my grumpy neighbour not happy we out there enjoying ourselves and drinking beer he just stares. There will be trouble before next thursday nite I can feel it - the POLICE will be round and I will have cold 100+'s ready for them hahahaha. They are sitting on YELLOWS old rear bench seat now on the ground and the perfect place to chill and drinnk a cold beer and advise on what JB is doing wrong with his truck.

Now we are TOLD MONDAY for collecting MMM's comp truck MMM not imporessed and streeses the importance of having his truck out SATURDAY. They have had 5+ weeks to sort this out and MMM is not impressed. WE suspect they have also made the same slipup with all the other foreign trucks.

More on todays stuff but not much to report as we still do not have the comp truck out. WE hopefully get GREEN out of the rawang hospital monday - FYI it s the old BLUE LC II with a new 1KZ and auto installed and a nice MYVI Green metalic paint job a warn XD9000 winch and a 4" suspension lift done ready for thhe 35" sneakers.

We have all the shopping done we just need YELLOW finished to pack the goodies into the drawers.

Only 7 more sleeps to the trip to JB.

[cicak]

Fridays's Update

Took MMM for breakffast dimsum in Section 20 and we were joined by the owner of DAFFY (Hilux Surf).

The future wife took them to Midvalley to buy a camera and sort out MMM's fone for some reason this takes them over 6 hours I have no idea what they did but all 3 come back laughing theire heads of so they had a good time.

I went back khome and worked on YELLOW not much to do apart from charge the batteries as we are waiting for the roller drawers.

The pic of YELLOW waiting for its drawers.

.

Meanwhile im knocking back beers with peter (NAVPRO) when we see a monkey on the wire aboive us . Curious for a picture I follow the Monkey across the road and he hiusses at me bares his teeth and chattters and tosses a couple of sticks at me. Ah well I have watched Animal Planet enough to know that this was a threat from this large young male. We back of quietly.

The pic of the monkey just after he tosses the sticks at me.


.

Report on REDs new shocks came back its the rear trailing arm bushes they have alll gone as we suspected and will be repaaired by end of saturday.

Dinner was with the future family's aunties and uncles. MMM enjoyed himself with the 3 kids and gets to experience Malaysian famiiloy life for a few hours.

More tomorrow when we try and get the truck out of customs via DAMCO and we go collect GREEN from the rawang hospital its transformation from rusty handbag to eco GREEN diesel jungle warrior is complete.

[cicak]

Well today total frustration. MMM cannot get his car out of Customs the company DAMCO have put all the RFC vehicles under one Approved Permit (AP) and have really screwed up. MMM's car is travelling under a CARNET and does not need a AP. However the company despite who we rung on a Saturday will not help us. More on the level of SERVICE from an incompetent company later after we have go tithe truck out of customs. However it is suffice to say when the questions get too hard for them they say sorry sir we are having interference on the line can you call back!

Once we had the disappointment of knowing MMM's comp truck was not coming out and hence the 3 fridges and the roller drawers and the cargo barrier for YELLOW we decided to make use of the day.

1. Drop YELLOW over to a workshop to have the remaining 3 holes in the floor plugged.



Ah Ho's LJ77 (7M powered with GOD winch) and LOCKERS all round.



2. breakfast


Then its out to Rawang to collect BLUE/GREEN
its gone from looking like this with a stock 3L


To a repainted and re-powered 1KZ powered toy with AUTO and 4" lift (35" sneakers to be added Tuesday) with a WARN XD9000 I had spare and Albright controller. It now having the bumpers removed for the RFC.




A LJ77 powered by a 1GE-GTE 2000cc Turbo engine


Ah yes my favourite a FORD pickup with a busted head and scored pistons.


Then back to the other workshop to check on YELLOW and the rust cutting progress and the holes are still being fixed in the dark and the thunderstorm



Karel with his RFC 2009 Media wagon still being worked on.


Catfight!


Red READY to Go the rear trailing arms all repaired and it now handles well. Its the first vehicle ready and ready for the TV morning show on Monday morning.




Only 6 more sleeps till the preparation stops and the event starts.

[cicak]

Sunday 29th November.

Breakfast sorry no pics but the dim sum was nice

We have Green to work on. Radios are remounted inside the now 1996 Dash. The front and rear bumpers are removed and the winch is serviced by MMM and the mechanic who turns up for a southern and coke and brings two electric window controllewrs with him as they caught fire saturday nite and I had to drive home with windows down in the thunderstorm

We decide a STeel bumper will be fitted Monday.

Damn the neighbour arrives home sees us drinking beer and working on the vehicles ooops the health department will be round in the morning im running a workshop again.


The home visit from the mechanic.

MMM working on the GREEN taxi.




The monkey returns - looks like its his new patch and we are in it - however he does not toss anything at us today.

MMM can't stop telling people about how he has trouble getting through my lounge so here is a picture of the front door through the lounge to the upstairs lopung hahaha see anything wrong? Nah its perfect if you are a outdoor nut 5 kayaks at the front door?

What a sight - 4 yes 4 Toyota LCIIs outside my house, Peters, the mechanics and GREEN and RED and my stock ISUZU pickup.



The day is shot its time for dinner and blogging.

Its early to bed we have a TV show to go to in the morning RED is on show and so would me MMM's toy if we could get it out of the container.

Then I have another press release to attend on MOnday nite dam its tough being with a celbrity hahaha.

Anyway gecko out for the day.

[v840]

Very cool.

Thanks for the updates!

[cicak]

Monday 30th November

I'm awake again the internal clock wakes me at 5:06am.

I wake MMM up and check the future wife man she is sick.

Shower and ready to go we stuff around and head off at 6.30am to the TV studio which is only 5k away. We are allotrted a parking spot for the TV show. Dam we wait until after 8:00am for the interview. There are no RFC stickers available so RED is lined up and videod with the LUMINOX watch logo's all over it.



MMM checks and more bullshit from DAMCO. COnflicting stories emerge from teh two people. A phone call to the 2nd top dog seems to get action.

Meantime we head to see how YELLOW is progressing and organise a BULLBAR for GREEN. MMM decides something needs to be done and yup comes back with western tea. Unfortuntately he returns with 2 large bottles so we have to cut the bottom of platic bottles to drink it. I wander off to find electrical cable no luck and return and have lunch at the curry stall. Meantime he is getting no where with the progree of his car. We watch a gearbox being repoved froma LC II and then 4th and 5th gear being changed. We sort out the stereo in green and the comms radio is all reconnected. I organisse new plates for the trucks and get one made for MMM "MMM001". I organise new sneakers for GREEN 35" monsters and the rims are to be painted.



Lunch for me is this stall.


Yellow needs the drawers from the container and thats it. Finally MMM decides enough is enough and heads to port Klang with Peter and MAx volunteers to take my place as I have to go to dinner with LUMINOX watches to thank us for helping them out at a LUMINOX watch birthday bash. I race home to get RED and shower and head to the ISTANA Hotel (RFC HQ) haha 1/2 way there RED drops the airconditioner compressor i Hear it grinding away it is gone completely. Dam dam dam more things to fix at the last minute :( . Meantime the boys drive to port Klang some 90+ minutes away. I am at the DINNER. There is a 4x4 journo there to talk to us and dinner is very nice then the big surprise the distributor of LUMINOX watches presents us with a LUMINOX watch each to wear to the RFC 2009 and Shirts well well well we are all like school kids all 7 of us. The 4x4 journo is going to mneet us in the RFC for a story on the "rugged" Luminox watches in the RFC.

During dinner I get the call we have the car MMM's has been released from customers at 8.00pm finally. They are heading to my place to drop the roller drawers off then to hotel ISTANA. Thats not without its dramas thhe rain is so heavy the loose the MITSIBISHI storm (with the kit) in the storm and no one has his fone number argghhh. Eventually they get to my place and yeah the short 5k drive to the HOTEL they get lost again :( . Eventually MMM arrives at ISTANA and is the firfst competitor car there it looks odd and out of place beside the latest Discovery and BMS's which frequent the ISTANA.

The LUMINOX 4x4 guys are all over MMM's truck in a flash and camera's etc record everything. MMM knows anything secret is no longer and will be copied tomorrow. .





I have a beer with MMM and DAFFY after the dinner and head home exhausted at 11.00pm

more updates soon - junglebunny out.

[luxenberg]

Monday 30th November

I'm awake again the internal clock wakes me at 5:06am.

I wake MMM up and check the future wife man she is sick.

Shower and ready to go we stuff around and head off at 6.30am to the TV studio which is only 5k away. We are allotrted a parking spot for the TV show. Dam we wait until after 8:00am for the interview. There are no RFC stickers available so RED is lined up and videod with the LUMINOX watch logo's all over it.



MMM checks and more bullshit from DAMCO. COnflicting stories emerge from teh two people. A phone call to the 2nd top dog seems to get action.

Meantime we head to see how YELLOW is progressing and organise a BULLBAR for GREEN. MMM decides something needs to be done and yup comes back with western tea. Unfortuntately he returns with 2 large bottles so we have to cut the bottom of platic bottles to drink it. I wander off to find electrical cable no luck and return and have lunch at the curry stall. Meantime he is getting no where with the progree of his car. We watch a gearbox being repoved froma LC II and then 4th and 5th gear being changed. We sort out the stereo in green and the comms radio is all reconnected. I organisse new plates for the trucks and get one made for MMM "MMM001". I organise new sneakers for GREEN 35" monsters and the rims are to be painted.



Lunch for me is this stall.


Yellow needs the drawers from the container and thats it. Finally MMM decides enough is enough and heads to port Klang with Peter and MAx volunteers to take my place as I have to go to dinner with LUMINOX watches to thank us for helping them out at a LUMINOX watch birthday bash. I race home to get RED and shower and head to the ISTANA Hotel (RFC HQ) haha 1/2 way there RED drops the airconditioner compressor i Hear it grinding away it is gone completely. Dam dam dam more things to fix at the last minute :( . Meantime the boys drive to port Klang some 90+ minutes away. I am at the DINNER. There is a 4x4 journo there to talk to us and dinner is very nice then the big surprise the distributor of LUMINOX watches presents us with a LUMINOX watch each to wear to the RFC 2009 and Shirts well well well we are all like school kids all 7 of us. The 4x4 journo is going to mneet us in the RFC for a story on the "rugged" Luminox watches in the RFC.

During dinner I get the call we have the car MMM's has been released from customers at 8.00pm finally. They are heading to my place to drop the roller drawers off then to hotel ISTANA. Thats not without its dramas thhe rain is so heavy the loose the MITSIBISHI storm (with the kit) in the storm and no one has his fone number argghhh. Eventually they get to my place and yeah the short 5k drive to the HOTEL they get lost again :( . Eventually MMM arrives at ISTANA and is the firfst competitor car there it looks odd and out of place beside the latest Discovery and BMS's which frequent the ISTANA.

The LUMINOX 4x4 guys are all over MMM's truck in a flash and camera's etc record everything. MMM knows anything secret is no longer and will be copied tomorrow. .





I have a beer with MMM and DAFFY after the dinner and head home exhausted at 11.00pm

more updates soon - junglebunny out.

Thanks for the updates Dave orsome,was talking to John last night, it be nice to get over there again.Getting much rain yet,we all remember RFC07.Looking forward to more updates.
Steve Hudy

[cicak]

Wednesday 2nd December 2009 - only 3 sleeps before the RFC starts

Ok this pic is the drawers for the TROOPY after they were dropped in my house. YEs I picked up the whole lot and dropped it into the back of the ISUZU by myself. Dam it was heavy - somewhere over 90k.




Then I popped up to the workshop at lunchtime to drop them off to be installed by Peter (Navpro) and found this sign stuck on my TROOPY hahahaha if you are a JEEP owner sorry hahaha.




and then round the front read the window from left to right.

Today I lend the ISUZU to someone to collect a set of 35" XT sneakers. I still do not get the JEEP back at 11pm tonite. Guess they liked the ISUZU.



This is what the boyz have done to my future wifes truck - yeah they call it the mardi-gra float and have started decorating it accordingly - bastards I hope it runs rings around them in the jungle in the hands of Peter Arthur the ozzie driver.


Ah there is a JEEP waiting to be towed - KARELS RFC 2009 MEdia TRUCK



Then Today the drawers have been wonderfully installed by Peter and the Cargo barrier with a little help from Ah Heng and YELLOW is officially a 2 seater along with its new seats fresh from a 2 door ISUZU.



Meanwhile from the S.E.A Automotive 4x4 Club we have MIld BIlls RFC 2009 MEdia wagon with a busted DIFF his 4th in a few months.


Yeah a arse view of the DIFF.


A few hours later the fridge is installed in YELLOW.



Guess what this is off and for - answer tomorrow nite.


Its 8pm and the guys are all still working frantically on some sorry looking vehicles.
YELLOW is COMPLETE
RED is COMPLETE
The REST are not.

Ah HEng working in his workshop - yup the floor outside the workshop He is cutting out the side steps for GREEN.


Cool GREENS sneakers arrive and Ah Ho's basahed up white LC II sneakers.


Ah Ho's truck is missing a radiator a new custom one is being fitted.


Mild Bill's with new in engine compartment mekanik. Dam we need this truck it has a MONSTER dukebox in it including BOOM box etc cost don't ask its enormous you probably have never seen anything like this truck in any jungle.


Ah Wah and Adam fitting the new radiator in Ah Ho's wagon. We need this truck too as if there is anything to hit it will hit it. If nothing to hit it will find something to hit hahaha.



Ah Heng working on GREENS sidesteps.



I have not been to the ISTANA the home of the RFC in KL today I am too busy in the workshop. I also bought 100 liters of water and fill one of the enormous drawes in YELLOW with water. 20 cases of BEER are to be loaded into YELLOW tomorrow morning then the food.

junglebunny over and out for the nite I am going to see MMM at the hotel later after I have packed my clothes.

[cicak]

more updates soon - junglebunny out.

Thanks for the updates Dave orsome,was talking to John last night, it be nice to get over there again.Getting much rain yet,we all remember RFC07.Looking forward to more updates.
Steve Hudy

Steve/John good to hear from you two strangers. I trhink you would like driving RED haha it might make your comp truck look slow hahaha. It is now truly evil and almost undriveable in the the rain so much torque.

I will be trying to blog as much as possible during RFC 2009.

I think it may be the first time someone has blogged the chaos of getting trucks ready here up to the event. If I was only taking RED and YELLOW we would be ready to go and I would be drinking beer right now. but GREEN is still being built :( .

I will be packing YELLOW tomorrow at trhe workshop as it is having LUMINOX signs stuck to it at some point during the day.

Lucky RED and GREEN drivers they are carrying nothing YELLOW is taking food for 14+ people for 10 days, Water for 5 days at least, beer to fuel a small bar, fridge and a 40' * 20' jungle hilton TARP and to cap it off 80 liters of fuel for MMM. The beer alone weighs 190kg. Looks like YELLOW will top about 700kg of kit. Im going to enjoy scooting it through the jungle.

['mav' rover]

Any Updates???

[gqpete]

Any Updates???

x2

[tuf355]

x3

[luxenberg]

x4

[gqpete]

x5 again. last update was last thursday. i'm sure there not all sitting in the pub for the week. some driving must be going on in the jungle.
PICS atleast

[BIg StEvE]

oh hell yeah bring we need pics

[XTREME MMM]

sorry we had a technical issue and a last minute breakdown with YELLOW which caused chaos.

the technical issue being MMM left my 3G modem in KL :(

I have all the pics now and some video and will be updating the story etc over the next 24 hours. I also just took 24 hours of everything to recover and rest apart from drinking with MMM as I guess the long hours of driving in the noisy cockpit of YELLOW took its toll on me.

Unfortunately I have some 25GB of pics (5,000+) and some 20+GB of video to wade through.

MMM will be back in OZ in the next 4-5 hours.

some tempting pics.

Car 122 after the rollver at SS16 - video clip coming - being recovered by YELLOW.


Car 139 rolling over at SS16 - sorry about the pic quality but I shot it without focusing or aiming. I have the whole sequence after I realised it was going to roll .


Car 140 IN WATER ss16.

[cicak]

Even more sorry I just realised MMM logged onto my computer at home so I just posted under MMM and not me :(

sorry we had a technical issue and a last minute breakdown with YELLOW which caused chaos. The story to follow.

the technical issue being MMM left my 3G modem in KL :(

I have all the pics now and some video and will be updating the story etc over the next 24 hours. I also just took 24 hours of everything to recover and rest apart from drinking with MMM as I guess the long hours of driving in the noisy cockpit of YELLOW took its toll on me.

Unfortunately I have some 25GB of pics (5,000+) and some 20+GB of video to wade through.

MMM will be back in OZ in the next 4-5 hours.

some tempting pics.

Car 122 after the rollver at SS16 - video clip coming - being recovered by YELLOW.


Car 139 rolling over at SS16 - sorry about the pic quality but I shot it without focusing or aiming. I have the whole sequence after I realised it was going to roll .Then I had to put the camera down and get YELLOW to put it back on its feet again.


Car 140 IN WATER ss16. Yup the next car after 139 was this one it took us 45+ minutes to get it out. Two vehicles and 2 double line pulls to extract it. the little 8274 in YELLOW worked over time as did the PTO in Wild Bills 7M monster LC II before teh stuck hilux finally moved. Worst thing was it was the support car for 139

[cicak]

Thursday a quick visit to the ISTANA hotel to see the monsters before going to the workshop.

The Russian Tundera is going to be the biggest toy there this year.



MMM's Ozzie NIssan



Philippines LR



Philppines LR



Sri Lankan LR



And their Gigglepin Winch.



A Thai ISUZU



Inside a buggy from where I do not know - check the prop shaft beside the clutch pedal.


The mighty Hilux from EAST Russia.


The buggy from the outside.


The Russian support Nissan with smaller sneakers on this year.


everything is packed into YELLOW.
. Yellow also gets a LUMINOX sticker set.

I bring everything from home and pack it into the YELLOW monster in the workshop as we are waiting for the new SIMEX XT to turn up as the rip in one is getting worse. 4 military boxes of canned food into a drawer. 100+ liters of water into the other drawer. 10 cases of beer behind the fridge with room for 10 more. Estimate of the weight in YELLOW is 800kg and it shows with the rear sagging.






During the day the "BAD" LR sitting quietly in the street starts to cry so the mekanix feel sorry for it and start it and rebuild all the brake pistons so it can stop.
.

Some smart person (Wild Bill) decides GREEN is too prissy and is a mardi gra float and attached 3 blue ribbons to GREEN. Little does he know they will stay there the whole trip. tHE mekanix truck looks like a few bits are still missing
.

Green is slowly coming alonG but its obvious the front bumper will not be ready as the guy doing the sidesteps is not letting us help him (loss of face for him if customers help).


Time rolls on by and soon its 8pm and suddenly the rest of the workshop decides to help Ah Heng finish the sidesteps and 10:04pm it rolls out of the workshop 35" sneakers fitted and sidesteps completed. Dinner and Beer time.

[cicak]

Friday morning convoy to Johor Day and we are not ready. I go to KL and pickup GREENS driver Peter Arthur from AUZTRALIA and we collect the final kitchen kit from home to pack into YELLOW and head to the workshop. Green is now having window problems and the radio is finally working. Red is sitting quietly waiting to go. 2pm we are ready to roll I have to add more water to YELLOWs radiator - strange I only added fluid 10k ago somethings wrong. However YELLOW's radiator suddently plays up and fluid is coming out of the top of the water pump radiator cap. Ah Wah does a quick fix and they flush the radiator out. I HAVE LOST MY reading GLASSES (2 pairs just dissappear) AND CANNOT READ ANYTHING and worse cannot type or BLOG disaster :(. 2 hours go by and then its 4pm time to leave again. Convoying off 7 hours late with RED, GREEN and YELLOW as Tail End Charlie we hit the road again. The K1W1 boyz ring me they are on the road also having just cleared the BLACK beast out of customs and are also heading to Johor. We get 1k out of the workshop and YELLOW'S radiator goes almost to the RED zone so I turn around over traffic islands etc not caring about anyone else on the road. 6pm the diagnosis the radiator is blocked internally. By the time its diagnosed its too late to repair today so I am told tomorrow 9.00am radiator stripped - 12.30pm ready to go. After much puasuassion I send a reluctant Peter and Peter off in RED and GREEN to Johor without me and will catch them up tomorrow nite as I want them to see the opening ceremony and the flag off. THey eventually arrive in Johor at 3.00am. 8pm I have had no food all day and the pet tape worm is telling me so. Firstly I go order 2 pairs of glasses and am promised them before 10.30am saturday morning and have food and go home via a quiet ride in Wild Bill's 7m LC II and fall asleep exhausted presumably from worry.

I am going to miss the briefing and the marshalls briefing - bad real bad.

Peter (OZ) looking under the bonnet of YELLOW to find out what is wrong with the radiator.


(Left to right) 3 of the trucks Ah Ho's, Wild Bill's and RED. Which one is not ready to go?


Peter Arthur checking out his mardi gra 4x4 ("GREEN").




Saturday 5 December.

RFC DAY 1 the opening ceremony is on (dam its 375k away still) and the official flag off and i'm not there for the 3rd year in a ROW. Least Peter and Peter made it at 3.00am last nite and are raring to go as Marshals'.

I arrive workshop 11.30am collect my new glasses and I can read again . Wow YELLOW is getting a paintjob and is slowly turning MATT Black. The "DEATHSTAR" is what is it being called. The radiator arrives and the delivery man ses VERY DIRTY BLOCKED as soon as he puts it down its picked up and 3 mekanikx commence to fit it as quick as they can.

The boyz also decide I need an escort down and they will come down with me and not late tonite in case I strike trouble with YELLOW - little do they know whats in store for them.



Meanwhile the other 2 cars decide to escort me down the 375k to Johor and I wait while they are prepared - more like a complete rebuild from what I can see. 3pm they are ready and it down to the fuel station for them I just wait patiently had get YELLOW pic taken by bystanders haha Bill is pissed as he painted YELLOW and it looks evil. You guess the next bit and yup we get 5k to the freeway toll and the mekanix car fails radiator issue! Problem fixed and we cruise off 80k later near KLIA (KL international Airport) the mekanix stops again once again radiator issues this time the clamps have blown off. We wait for it to cool and its rectified. This is going to be a long trip. Soon its every 50-100k we have to stop and fill it up the final stop is 30k From Johor and by this time its 9.30pm yeah 6+ hours to go 350k. The diagniosis now is the mekanix 7M powered LC II has blown the head gasket and we put YELLOWS radiator cap on it as it has higher pressure.

Meantime this is breakdown of the vehicles contents.

GREEN - TARP (40'*20') and Fridge and thats all.
RED - CHAIRS and TABLES and 2 spare batteries for jump starting and LED camp lights
YELLOW - Everything else for 10 people for 9 days in the jungle. Including a spare clutch and plate for MMM 80 liters of fuel for MMM also. 11 Military boxes of food and spare winch cables etc, 2 military boxes of kitchen kit.

We decide Bobo the smallest mekanik should hide in the back of YELLOW for the trip. He's not ammused hahaha.


Ah Ho's (mekanix car) car in a total state of chaos still at 1.00pm.


and still being kitted out :( we should be moving.


Yellow having its cleaned out radiator fitted.


Wild Bill on the shop scooter going to get spare parts.


The mekanixs frantically getting YELLOW backup running.


Finally a miracle occurs and Ah Ho's truck is ready to go - almost the jerry can holder is still not bolted to the rear door.


Wow an outdoor paintshop with 2 monkeys armed with highly sophisticated spray cans turning YELLOW into the "DEATHSTAR".


The remote security camera catches the two fly by nite painters still in action. The total cost $85rm to paint the DEATHSTAR and they toss in 2 cans of touchup matt black.


DEATHSTAR at the service station where pictures of it we taken by the eager public.



Soon we are mobile but not for long at the Damansara Toll the hood is up and its not the DEATHSTAR its the mekanix truck they need to add fluid.

Mobile again we get about 80k and OOps the second stop for the mekanik the new radiator has its hoses flying off. This is somewhere near KLIA (KL international airport). I sense its going to be a long trip so I buy 2 snickers bars and a RED BULL and water at the shop while they fix the now silent 7M powered LC II.


Soon the howl of the 7M deafens my ears signalling its time to roll again. They roll out like a pair of HORNETS, DEATHSTAR cruises along purring silently behind its diesel barely making a sound.
Oh no it does it again and the mekanix are all smiling. The new DEATHSTAR meantime is purring along the diesel in no rush at 90kph.


Oh Shit and again this time on the side of the ever dangerous North South Highway and yes you can tell its dark 5+ hours to go 250k so far.



And the final time 30k from Johor (the hotel and beer and food and a bed). We refuel and guess what the DEATHSTAR with the monster 13B-T diesel takes 25 liters less than the two 7M monsters to travel the 375K to the Zon Regency Hotel in Johor. Finally the hotel and the sight of battered and bruised 4x4s and the not so clean support and official trucks. A beer and all the usual cronies are in the bar I check in and then have a drink or two. 4.00am sees me crawling into bed having tried to drink the bar dry, pretty tough in a duty free zone.

[ratbagpatrol]

love ya work MMM you drink the bar dry well thats unusaul well problems are the name of your game at moment i hope things for you and the crew get better from here on in well good luck and keep us up dated

[cicak]

Sunday 6th December RFC Day 2.

Shit I awake suddenly 8:15am dam with a huge hangover I should know better at my age and 15minutes to get to the car to convoy out with the marshal's convoy to the final day of the stadium prologue before the long drive to the jungle. No breakfast or shower :( .

We are sent to SS1 nothing to do but watch and take pics. SS1 is 3 V gullies and ground anchor will have to be used. The ground is soaked from a 2 hour downpour yesterday arvo and everywhere is a sea of mud with vehicles stuck everywhere except the DEATHSTAR its just too heavy to get stuck on the slick mud. Here are pics from SS1 its dedicated to the WInch Wenches as most of the locals are tiny usually 50-80kg and carrying the ground anchor for some of the little guys is just tough going.

Prognisis on the mekanix's 7M LC II is the head gasket has gone but he will drive it on.

A Pictorial Story follows - Hope no one drives a X5 here.

Some mothers do have em this bloke had fun in his X5 little did he know we all wanted him to get stuck.



Hurl the ground anchor


Try and climb out of the 1.8m hole


Then get the driver to drive and winch (god winches rule) while they hang onto the ground anchor.




Sri Lanka does it backwards


Carry


Hurl


Climb


Wait the winch cable pulling me back






Cling to mother earth and climb






THai's hurl that cable damper


Then the winch extension


Set it all up only to have the winch cable break and be rescued by the ever present JCB.


This guy is good - HURL







Chase and pull that plasma roope






Scream WINCH


and the SR20 powered BUGGY obliges and the GOD winch just pulls it in









Ah the crowd favourite Mr Entertainment from Singapore by the end of the RFC he had a huge following I do not know the number of times he rolled but 3 was the count I heard. Winch cable got stuck in GOD winch 1.


Hang on I will slide down the bonnet and help you




Heave , HEave Heave


Run Run RUn . THe woman in BLUE was obviously the matriarch of the family and she was screaming orders at them in cantonese very funny to watch and since I was not on duty I let it go.


I don't want to get dirty yet




Meantime this fool gets stuck and is eventually winched out.




Its no good the anchor will not come out so the driver has to get dirty




The winchy sits exhausted as they DNF with 2 broken GOD winches.


What time is it - LUMINOX time and one Casio.


129 in the Rocky - this guy was good and eventually comes 2nd in the whole event. The howl from the 1JZ engine like a an angry wasp.








Soon the SS's are complete and we have 2.5 hours to go get our fresh chicken for the fridge and frersh food and a meal to convoy out at 3.00pm. I spot this immaculate LJ77/78.


I accidently park in a clear spot - WOW right next to the only other BJ75 (it was concourse condition) in Johor. He was shocked when he realised this was a jungle truck and had the scars of previous jungle outings on it.


Green ready to go.


I get a call from MMM come get the last 10 cases of BEER. Its liek the final straw for the camel and the 10 cases are loaded and also 2 bottle of Chivas. The rear doors scrap the bumper as they close :( oops. Now its really sitting on its arse.


The convoy waiting at the FReeway with our police escort. The convoy eventually reaches 5k long and he police do a magnificient job for the 120k haul to the jungle everything is stopped for us - no oncoming traffic nothing is allowed.




We find out later at a meeting place with the police men there are 8 dedicated bikes for the entire RFC and a squad of cars and all the local police to assist - I cannot praise these guys enough for the convoy work certainly beats us driving into an intersection and blocking traffic.


4.15pm we are at the gates of the jungle to head to the rivers of babylon (crikey its actually Hulu Sedili Besar aka The Stony River) 100+ angry and eager 4x4's impatient for action and winching


Crikey some mothers do have em in front of everyone. This one of from Ostralia and is identified later as the WIld Bill species of Ostralian.


WTF????? Its DUST in the RFC shouldn't there be MUD and people sliding off the road?


Traffic JAM for a short hill climb - some increadibly bad driving was shown here but I did not catch it on film :(


Soon we are spread out again.


THen another JAM


Here is the reason - Signapore LR stuck and playing.


Soon I am the JAM DEATHSTAR slides, tips over (almost hahaha I didn't but it was close and I can touch the ground with my hand) and with no LOCKERS im stuck fast. The 2 pajero's in front take off and will not assist. Soon KAREL in the JEEP squeezes past and I winch muself out all the time pulling the JEEP ever closer to giving the DEATHSTAR a KISS.






Ah CAMPsite almost the log bridge covered in mud awaits and its right on sunset. Karel (JEEP) is running away he sees the DEATHSTAR approaching.


I take ARTY shots of RED




and my little buddy LIM


And soon camp time and CHOPPER CHONG LEAPS from the mekanix LC II to show his onion chopping and cooking skills. Dinner is chicken curry and potatoes etc with fresh vegtables cook in soy sauce. He is knicknamed CHOPPER CHONG for the rest of the trip.




Day 1 ended late into the nite with the previous days SS's repeated by Wild Bill with all the engine noises fueled by JD and Cokes and BEER after all we have 20 cases. 10 mine and 10 MMM's and we have 2 fridges one for BEER (3 cases at a time) and one for the food.

JUngle we are here please rain.

[cicak]

MMM posting its GECKO from Malaysia.

Where is MMM during the last part of all this story - far away from teh chaos.

However at this camp is is our NEIGHBOUR. Over teh side of the white gumboots down the bank and across the RIVER and up the bank is the MMM camp. However we do expect them at food times and to collect COLD BEER and a bottle of WINE which they have also gievn us 8 bottles to store for them.

Did I forget to mention DEATHSTAR is a YOTA and can carry more than a COMPETITION NISSAN truck hahaha

[cicak]

where is MMM is he still sleeping after the eventful RFC?

Only 8 more days off the story to go.

I am stuck on the video bits but I hope to resolve the AVCHD to AVI format issues tonite so I can post clips on YOUTUBE to match the pictorial story.

['mav' rover]

love the story so far,
Keeping us in suspence cicak

[cicak]

love the story so far,
Keeping us in suspence cicak

Nah i am converting video clips from AVCHD to AVI to put on YOUTUBE so I can add then to the DAY 3/4/5 story. I am almost at day 4 with the clips (the nite drive from CAMP 1 (where we are in the story now) to CAMP 2. Lets just say it was a fun drive 20K took us over 4 hours hahaha.

Tey will be posted later tonite after I pack my KAYAKs and kit for me and the future wife for our XMAS trip.

THey will start to be loaded tonite.

[cicak]

7th December 2009 - RFC Day 3

It's 06:50 dawn wow so soon in CAMP 1 that dam internal body clock keeps waking me up. time to cook boy get up get up get up you lazy dog keeps running through my mind. Rise and shine get breakfast ready, boil the billy, get the billy box out for those to helpless to help themselves. CHOPPER CHIONG whips the eggs to a frenzy. Breakfast is omollettes, cajun spice, onions and suasages I forget the baked beans. We have to be cooked, washed and ready to run by 8.30 to get to the briefing as there are 6 SS's to run today SS6-12. Don't look now but the neighbours are coming over for breakfast. Soon its all over and everything is cleaned away for DINNER. Briefing is held and wow all the SS's are layout and printed up for all to see. A ring road exists round the camp so no need to drive past HQ to get to every SS. The JCB driver (yes a JCB in the jungle) cleans up the mudholes at HQ. The draw is done 6 groups for 6 SS's and the starting order draw done also. We go to SS7 but no help needed so we watch SS7 and 8. SS7 looks simple how wrong could we be.

The kettle is boiled and onions prepared for OMELETTES with ONion or Pepper and cajun spice and Sausages and HOT TEA/COFFEE/Wahatever your poison is. WE have to be all cooked/eaten/packed ready by 8.30am so we can go to the 9.00am briefing.

Don't look know but the hillbillys from over the TASMAN are walking across the river and coming for breakfast. How can I tell its OZZIES? Easy - wearing flip flops, shorts and t-shirts with QLD on them hahaha. YEah yeah we feed them poor hungry competitors in truck 150 that they are.

They munch and leave.

Soon its briefing time (for SS's 7-12) 29 Vehicles are LEFT in the RFC competition from the 40+ starters (wow they are going to do 30SS's in the RFC this year - unbelievable number) and a JCB appears to flatten out the area around the HQ tent before we all descend for the briefing. THe teams are split into 6 groups and the order drawn done.

Everything is very professional the courses are layed out all course MAPS printed and laminated up in HQ.

SS7 looks easy however the first vehicle soon proves it to be wrong. According to the locals the BRIDGE is new and the SS is running over their normal way into CAMP and is never EASY requiring winching. Haha this will be fun. Soon SS7 lives up to what the locals stated CABLE SNAPPING, the JCB is very BUSY, Competitors STRAPS break when the JCB lifts them out like a baby with a TOY car. Between SS7 and SS8 (right next door) the JCB driver is flat out SS7/SS8/SS7.

MMM is claimed by SS7 with SNAPPED winch cable - followed by the Russians in the BIG Hilux it does not have a hope of winching out the winch is just not powerful enough. <Meantime 161 the mighty local BJ40 powered by a obviously tweaked 15B-T and 36" sneakers and VOLVO axles makes it all look easy. These giuys are good and with the demise of WONG's 15B-T powered BJ40 with twin GOD winches they are my pick to walk away with the top prize. The K1W1's follow the same fate in SS7 but they get further in the MUD than their trans tasman rival MMM.

The pictures story follows:


Watch out the neighbours are dropping in for breakfast.


Ah our SIngapore neighbours in the luxurious LR - note the hamock on each side of the LR, They had hot water and everything you could imagine in it awesome rig.


The SS Maps we well done.


Ah SS8 this is how its done with a GOD winch get wheel on side of BANK dial in 6000+ REVS and drop/slip the clutch and waahoo we are launched










This is the first team through SS7 its 161 the mighty TOYOTA BJ40 (am I biased nah I have 4 TOYOTA's and one ISUZU at home haha).




Then it winches the mud stopped it dead in its tracks. THe smoke well lets just say its overfueling a LOT.






Don't screw up especially in SS7 as that pesky JCB just cannot wait to extract you no matter how you try and hide.

[cicak]

Then the K1w1's have a go and it looks like they should have kept their wings.












Its all over as the Hydrualic WInch belts die and the JCB driver is smiling again.


Then its the Philippino's a winch and a splash and a winch and a dash and they are through








Then I hear my favourite 143 and a crowd favourite is in SS8 gotta see gotta see I dash over and here they are attaching the winch cable as they are stuck on a ROOT.

They winch up and up and over






No!





Oh rats we shall try and maybe will it move this time?