Monday, Jul 26, 2004 at 12:45
First rule. Dont travel up there alone.
2) yes Alpine Diesel
3) FULL recovery gear, inc winch of some form. Turfor or elect.
4) Chains - Depends how many cars with you and where you are going... 6 odd trips, been stuck, but always used other cars to get out.. even Diamonds crappy 3.0 GQ (waiting for reply) :P Chains cheap insurance.(except for 34in tires :( )
5) Take spare warm gear, and food... If you DO get stuck, and are dumb enough to go on your own and cant get out, you are there for the night, specially if alone.
6) Tracks. Stick to the main road. heading up, theres a few tracks around there, get some maps. First trip out, just go up and play on the road, it can be a challenge in itself, anything up to Bonnet Deep Snow, which you dont get past. You can also lose sight of the road.
7) Tire Pressures, trial and error, theres different types of snow,Wet and dry. Dry is good to drive on, wet is like crap, turns to ice instantly. We went everywhere in the Dry powder, then week or 2 later couldnt even get over the
hill in wet snow at all.
8) Take a shovel or 2.
9) Camera for those evidence shots.. ;)
Melb to Mt skene, from...
Licola? For your first trip up there, why not try
Mansfield, Jamieson, up the
hill, have a play, then back down the same way. easy, you get to know your cars limits, yours, and have more chance of getting out in 1 piece. Going over the
hill from one end to other, recently twin locked cars running 36/38in tires have been having issues with deep snow.
Theres a trip up there in few weeks time the Sunday the 8th.. Wont be hard, more of a play for the kids, and some newbys. 9am
mansfield probably.
YMMV
AnswerID:
69705
Follow Up By: fozzy - Monday, Jul 26, 2004 at 12:56
Monday, Jul 26, 2004 at 12:56
truckster-thanks for info
will be apprx 6 cars with me-my turn to lead
only been up mt terrible when snow was not very deep
had heard mt skene could be dificult at times
have done fair bit of other types of conditions just lack of snow experience
FollowupID:
329940
Follow Up By: Truckster (Vic) - Monday, Jul 26, 2004 at 14:53
Monday, Jul 26, 2004 at 14:53
What specs on the trucks? EG tires?
FollowupID:
329953
Follow Up By: fozzy - Monday, Jul 26, 2004 at 15:16
Monday, Jul 26, 2004 at 15:16
285/75/16 BFG A/T TD LC100 slightly raised (ifs)
LC100 285/75/16 MT BFG 3 inch lift
LC100 315/75 /16 COOPERS? 5 inch lift
HILUX M/T 3-4 inch lift
GQ -M/T 285/75 3-4 inch lift
GQ A/T little above standard
80 SERIES 285/75/16 MT 2-3 inch lift
FollowupID:
329955
Follow Up By: GO_OFFROAD - Tuesday, Jul 27, 2004 at 13:28
Tuesday, Jul 27, 2004 at 13:28
In deep soft snow, the best technique is ultra low pressures [needs tubes or secondairs or beadlocks] I run down to about 3 psi for real deep snow, and you need low 1st get up onto the snow with very gentle throttle application, by building a ramp, drive, back up, shovel more of a rmap etc, and once up on the snow put very gently to stay there.
For normal snow driving where you can make good tracks and run higher gears 8-10 psi just like sand works
well.
Chains are for ice, hence fitting them on mountain roads, to give traction, chains arent for snow, they just stop the ramp up effect you try and make with low pressures.
I generally wait until I hear no one has been over mt Skene before heading up to try, I stay in a hut below the snow line normally, then get up nice and early while the snow is still firm, to attempt getting over Mt Skene. And it is closer to
Licola than Jamieson and generally less traffic if going up from the
Licola side.
FollowupID:
330086
Follow Up By: fozzy - Tuesday, Jul 27, 2004 at 13:39
Tuesday, Jul 27, 2004 at 13:39
thanks go offroad-harder to find
places where less traffic-virtually usless every long weekend-need to venture out on off weekends tjhesedays
FollowupID:
330089