PDA

View Full Version : Son You look to have a slight problem



d-o-k
01-05-2006, 05:16 AM
Several years ago now .I was shooting out around Lake Gardener (a large salt lake in the far north of SA ) My camp was on the edge of the lake & I would travel /meander several hundred Kms in the course of the night ,to make a living ! I had had a particulary bad night one night & had been out for about 14hrs & was returning to camp on the other side of the lake ! It was a very narrow section & I looked over at my camp & sudenly realised that there was a narrow causeway between where I was & camp & then it was only about a 30min drive to the chiller .Where as if I drove all the way round the lake ,I would be out for at least another two hrs ! I was suprized I'd never seen this route before & decided to take the "short cut " I got a good run up & hit the lake at full speed ! Of course "Experiance" is somehing you get 5mins after you needed it! Yep straight down to the running boards with 40 Roos on board (about 1.2 tonnes) I tried everything I could think of to get out but to no avaible!:cry:
In the end I had to swallow what pride I had left & get on the radio & get help ! Of course the only person who would hear was another Roo shooter ! He eventually turned up (full of advice ) & sat in the shade of a tree whilst I unloaded my load of really now stinking Roos ! & yelled advice out to me ! I swore him to secrecy over this ! I really thought I was home & hose ! ................Even the Wife heard about it before I got home ! I reckon if they could of, they would have got it on the front page of the Papers ! :twisted: To this day it is still mentioned on the odd occasion ! As A Old shooteronce said to me there's a case of doing something & doing something & getting caught [smilie=w:

Dave

Toney
01-05-2006, 03:09 PM
Yep the mud i've been there drilling them old oil wells. They never gravel a road untill you hit oil They just cut a path through the woods and start dragging in trucks and it always rains

Bigbore44
01-05-2006, 08:34 PM
Dave, that mode of travel was the old school. You never said wether you had 4-wheel drive or not. Now if you had that lot on a G.I. duce and a half with 4X4 dual wheels...you'd be home free and no snickering from the peanut gallery.

What do you use today to get around in such roads.


Jim :-D

d-o-k
01-06-2006, 02:32 AM
Dave, that mode of travel was the old school. You never said wether you had 4-wheel drive or not. Now if you had that lot on a G.I. duce and a half with 4X4 dual wheels...you'd be home free and no snickering from the peanut gallery.

What do you use today to get around in such roads.


Jim :-D

I was using my Old Toyota Landcruiser & in the country I used to shoot there were no roads we made our own as we went . The problem was these salt lakes when dry are solid on the suface & once you break the crust ,are a grey/black mud ! It was through sheer laziness on my part ! The "causeway" I'd found was a natural build up through wind & weather ! It was always a case of 4x4 high range for normal travel /work mode& in some cases to avoid Puntures in really rocky country we would fit solid compacter tyres (great in summer but usless in winter )

Dave

Bigbore44
01-06-2006, 07:01 PM
The best PU tuck I ever had was an 80 Toyota. It had over 350,000 miles on it and never had the heads off for rework. Though it did get a camshaft at one point.

Wonderful truck except it suffered from rust of salty roads.

But it finally expired around mid 90s from a busted engine block around the main seals. It had to stay outside in -40 degree weather one winter and that did it in.

Some cranberry picker local guy, bought it and put another engine in it...a small V-8 I think and its still rolling someplace.

But being it was a rusted out shitbox of a body anymore I elected not to pour any more money into it. Had replaced the rusted out bed about 8 years before it died.

Still in all, a great truck in the 4X4 mode. It had 15 inch wheels with wide tires, and in low range 4X4 going through two to three foot drifts of snow never slowed it down.

Jim

d-o-k
01-07-2006, 04:16 AM
Their great trucks the Old Tojo's I had a 80's series ,82& 85! All of them did me service above & beyond the call of duty I started of with Landrovers & changed over when the Human consumption laws came into place as we had to have stainless steel trays made up ! The only thing i could ever fault the newer 4x4's on was the Fact there was not Crank start included ! Yeah I know what a pain in the backside to crank over a vehical ! But! when your in the middle of nowhere & your battery gives up the ghost ! It comes in handy !Ive seen a couple with small block Chevs in em over here but I always used desiels my self.