Short while ago I posted about a Hummer H2 we had for a Test,
well the owner of the vehicle read about the second place I gave the Hummer, wasn't impressed, and soon a head to head no-holds barred re-match was organized.
This trip would be into no-way out tracks on neutral ground.
The huge Hummer was to be supported by 2 V8 rangies, one a competition grade rig who condescended to only use his small 35 inch
wheels this trip.
I was feeling a little intimidated as my 4800 Patrol was suddenly the lowest
power car on the trip but at the last minute a more or less normal 3lt Rodeo
turbo diesel came along. I felt much better then, sort of like always going
swimming with a partner to cut your chance of shark attack in half.
We set off to Wesburn in Victoria and the deadend tracks that surround the
Britannia
creek road.
We all had different ideas as to what the trip was about.
Some girls thought we were going on a picnic, the competition Rangie was their to test out a full rebuild, but I was convinced they were out to play "Sink the Patrol".
As we headed up the steep Ellis track though the comp rig overheated and I
now took the lead and we drove around till I found some flatter tracks
to play on before lunch.
As we entered a heavily overgrown swampy track I noted an ominous
sign nailed to a tree "Crash Recovery, Bulk Rates 0419xxxx"
We wound in and around a medium level track for a while with enough overgrown branches to make the Hummer wince and carefully select his line until we came to a slightly downhill and long multiple deep rutted section which required very careful driving to prevent sliding off. I and all the other cars except the Hummer slid into deep mud ooze at least once but the Hummers extra wide track allowed it to be carefully guided right thru without an embarrassing moment. Impressive !
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Proceeding on, all of a sudden the track in front of me disappeared, a 3m deep
mud hole was in the track and it was just ooze.
Smelling a rat I backed out, I wouldn't dream of driving this and so we began a complex series of maneuvers up embankments to turn around 5 cars on this very narrow track.
The comp rangie had other ideas and figured he could drive through despite a large boulder right in the middle and so down he plunged.
To those standing back about 10m he completely disappeared below road level
before emerging victorious out the other side a lot wetter and mod splattered with a big grin.
Ok, that was one way and cost a couple of dents, but coming back would be up the near vertical drop off.
He tried hard with multiple attempts using every combination of traction but in the end had to call it.
Some went for a snatch strap but I didn't like this idea as the force required would be great and convinced the group to use the "Tank" instead.
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Well the Hummer came into its own here and its huge bulk simply dragged the guttered lightweight Rangie out smoothly and cleanly with just a few rock scraps here and there.
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On the way back we had to re-negotiate the bad slippery rutted section.
Somehow I got a perfect line and cleanly drove the rut tops then I pulled the 2nd Rangie out of an awkward angle it got itself on.
The Rangie driver doesn't like being hauled backwards by a Patrol, and in a previous incident had even tried to suggest he was pulling me during a late night bull session, so my wife made sure we got pictures with the reversing lights on this time.
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Next was the Rodeo, good effort hear but with its leaf springs it cocked a wheel into the air just trying to enter the ruts but thinking this would happen we had fitted it with snatch straps in advance and I dragged it thru as
well. The Hummer and the Comp rangie also followed, to easily for my liking.
On we pressed after doing the picnic thing for an hour to keep the girls happy.
Soon we were into a section that would end our day !
The normal Rangie was in front and entered a section of multiple bog-holes with bypass sections that had long since become bog holes themselves, maybe 10 all together.
No way around so the Rangie entered the sloop, both lockers on and painstaking nudged forward clawing inch by inch and slowly tilting until it was waist deep in mud.
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Damm good effort actually but no good, it was stuck hard with its submerged exhaust bubbling and pushing up muddy clumps of ooze.
The driver got out via window but before we had a plan going forward, (love that management talk) up came the comp Rangie to help.
He dove into a parallel bog hole and was looking good until we heard
an awful noise and it stopped, not sure but a submerged log may have been rammed into the underbody.
Anyway he was almost out the other side with front
wheels out and onto the flat ground when another bang occurred and his rear tyre deflated.
The massive traction combined with power of the 5.6lt P76 based V8 had been to much for the huge tyres and the rear passenger tyre rotated on the rim and ripped the valve out of the tube.
Two Range Rovers were now stuck fast in mud. Fully blocking the track.
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We noted the time, it was now not far from 5 O'clock and the mosquitos were gathering to make the 12 intruders pay for straying into their swamp.
But both cars had
winches !
We set up the first Rangies winch only to find if failed to engage under all the mud.
Back to the crippled comp rig, it had a great winch but required a complex setup with pulleys as the relative position of the cars meant we had to get the other car out first.
It was a struggle as we discovered we were pulling the Rangie into vertical wall and had to back off then dig out the leading edge of the hole.
While this was going on we sent off two teams , one to scout the road ahead and another to begin
clearing a bypass track as this wasn't a good place to
camp overnight.
Eventually we had them both dragged out and began to repair the damage.
Surprize, after nearly an hour idling with door seals under
water the touring class Rangie seals had held and inside the car was clean.
Not so the comp rangie, it was wet muddy and dented.
A chainsaw was also needed to make a tall rough jacking plate, and off came the wheel.
I was actually carrying a spare tubeless tyre valve insert and they decided to fit
it as their spare wheel was a different size.
Someone slipped in the mud and the valve insert was dropped into the tyre and despite the delicate handwork of some lovely ladies it was unable to be found.
The spare wheel of wrong size and with a directional pattern running backwards
went on and at least made that car mobile, although it sounded like a scalded cat!
Team 1 reported that the track ahead was even worse and so again we had to turn around.
Team 2 had made a rough bypass and after some more difficult car shuffling we left the scene defeated again.
Now the Patrol and Hummer were the only cars not extracted so far and could have sorted out there differences right their and then but after 8 hours of almost non-stop track fighting neither of us had anything left and we just wanted out, so the whole group left the scene to procure some warm food and sort it out another day !
To be Continued.