Imagine your driving alone slowly up a small incline with a gully on your passenger side and sudddenly the whole car is pushed sideways and you slide full broadside on to ,and then over the edge.
It happened just like that and I'd be interested in any helpful analysis as I can guarantee its a heart stopping few seconds to experience.
The track ahead cuts through the side of a moderate
hill, a large tree is down and a long standing diversion goes up a slight incline to the right forming a drop-off to the main track.
The rain before a big storm is starting and the track surface is wet on top but dry underneath.
I'm crawling along at 5kmh. My almost unroadworthy Cooper ST tyres on down at 20psi.
Noting the tree, I head up the diversion track to the right.
2 car lengths up, the car starts an imperceptable drift to the edge of the drop-off on the left, next second I realize the front is beginning to slide towards the edge, I'm still moving forward as
the car takes a lean. The front goes over the angled track edge the side slope increases dramatically and the back starts to slide left as
well.
Another second later and the whole car is just sliding sideways and its over the edge.
You can't live in the high country without the odd out of control forward slide, but fully broadside is another dimension.
The angle of slip quickly increased but the slide was slow. Inside the car I fell sideways against the fridge between the cars front seats and grabbed the door trying to keep my weight on the highside.
Patrols have probably the best tipover characteristics of any 4wd at some 48 degrees.
I had used up just about all of them in the 5 meter slide.
But its the end of the slide thats the problem.
I noted the trees getting closer on the passenger side and braced.
Instead of the car stopping and perhaps going over, as it reached the bottom of the slide it just sort of ozz'ed into the mud and levelled slightly.
I felt it go light but then it settled back down.
Not-so my heart beat !
I had instinctively keep the foot on the clutch and the engine was still running.
I took a few seconds for stress relief as I had fully expected a soft roll.
The car was sitting dangerously on about a 35 degree sideslope, ever so gently I played with the clutch edging the car back and forward a few inches.
Strangely it settled a little to a bit over 30 degrees.
I have since come to believe that it may have had a small branch under the front wheel and the car settled off this as I played with clutch.
I was sort of safe inside the car and decided then to contact a nearby property owner and arrange for regular calls back to me incase things got worse.
Its hard to get out of a car tilted so, and worse in rain and mud espically as the door wouldn't stay open.
With a struggle I sort of half fell out of the car scrambling to stay clear in case loss of my weight on the high side could have initiated a roll.
Assessing the situation, the car looked sort of stable but I noted
that the back tyre was badly squashed and taking most of the load.
It was unsafe to get near it espically as I was on my own !
What to do ? I grabbed a twig, sat down in the mud and let air out of both the highside tyres.
Then with a matock I dug a little dirt out from under the wheels.
These actions dropped the sideslope angle a bit and I was brave enough to take some photo's.
Then I made a gentle track to assit with reversing out.
Gingerly I reversed and the side angle dropped and I was dripping relief, not yet realizing that I would be there for another nearly two hours in almost constant drizzle.
The rear tyre was down to about 6psi so I cross linked it to the other rear wheel with the transfer hose and soon stablized all wheels at about 13psi.
The unexpected slipperyness of the track meant I had to be careful about a second possible slide further down.
OK, where safe, can't go forward, track is narrow behind me but its only about 100m to get out of this gully and I may be able to back out the way I came in.
1/2 an hours rain since I entered the gully didn't help and as I half expected, I tried but failed to reverse up the
hill I had come down.
It had ruts, with little steps in them, its not a hard track, but needs momentum and good steering control to negotiate normaly. I new better but I had to try it, so tried to reverse
up the
hill with both lockers engaged but steering control was non-existant.
Ok, that was a setback so I had to turn around.
If I could, I might be late for a dinner date but I'd get out, even if I needed to use chains or winch.
I get out of the car and walk the 100m of track looking for a turning point.
One side is a 3 meter high
embankment and the other side is the gully.
It begins to slowly dawn on me that I can't turn around, and hence I can't get out.
An hours gone by and its time for scheduled radio call and re-assessment.
At one point the gully is a cars width wide, except its heavily bushed and with a 30 ft sappling blocking the edge.
I move in with an axe only to realise the bush on the gully edge is thorn bush and it takes a few pricks before I retreat.
Out comes the chain saw and gloves, back on goes the soaking wet parka and I begin cutting back the bush branch by twig.
Another 1/2 hour and I'm at the base of the gum tree, then down it comes and it gets cut up into small manageble bits as I'm now
dam cold, wet and the light is fading.
Chuck everything into the car and after several tries, get the car into position to turn.
With the nose into the dirt
embankment and tail hanging over the gully edge the car slowly comes round. I had to get in and out several times but the relief I felt when the car finally got over centre on the turn was just so sweet.
Its all over, I should make it now, with tyres right down and lockers in I exit the way I came in but only just as 2 hours of rain had changed the situation and I could feel wheels
front and rear loose it now and then as the car crawled out.
3km later and I'm given some really appreciated strong coffee, pick up my wife, clean up a bit and turn for the drive back to
Melbourne. No way ! the back tyre is now dead flat.
Close inspection shows that tyre wasn't stuffed but an old bung in the sidewall couldn't handle being driven at low pressure and was leaking badly.
Dark now and weather is building, but a new bung went in and off we headed - into the storm and the worse driving conditions I can remember in a long time.
------------------------------------
img 2509 First picture .
(black stripe is a camera cord dangling just above the wheel track)
You can see how the car went up and just drifted over the left track edge. Its settled now , but the drag chain and shovel on the back wheel still shows a 30+ degree angle.
Image Could Not Be Found
img 2520 2nd picture
This picture scares me, the cars out but the wheel marks shows that the slide occurred just before a small ledge
i.e. the result could have been even worse.
Image Could Not Be Found
Img 2517 3rd picture
Could the unexpected slip have been started by these small branches on the track ?
Image Could Not Be Found
img 2523
Its a bit tight turning around here, even with the bush gone.
Image Could Not Be Found