Recently we bumbled along the
Madigan line for days on end and collected a lot of Spinnfex along the way.
This line (its not really a track) has much more grass on it than Canning etc.
Traditionally petrol cars like my 4800 Patrol have been considered more of a issue of catching fire from such grass getting caught in the hot exhaust particularly around the Catalytic converter.
When I started out on this trip I was quite concerned and cleaned under the car at every stop, i.e. over 25 times usually 4 times per day.
We made sure we were prepared for fire.
By the end of the trip I was much less concerned, I collected less Spinnfex
and had developed a bit of a theory which helped reduce it.
We rotated leaders through 5 cars on the drive and as soon as it was my turn in front I noticed a difference in grass collection despite the fact that the cars were always in the grass.
I made 2 observations from this experience.
1/ The cars speed were very slow typically 10-15kmh.
2/ The car picked up less grass while leading.
It seemed to me that the slow speed meant that when a car went over the grass it tended to bend it not smash it and this meant less loose grass.
By the time several cars had run over it there was significantly more loose grass that could potentially be picked up.
I then got to repeat the experiment with the same results , very roughly I guessed that twice as much grass got picked up by the last car.
Am wondering if others may confirm this observation.
Many times I had Spinnfex grass caught in around the Cat converter but the low speed with the engine mostly just above idle really meant less heat and less potential danger.
It actually seemed that the 4 other cars (diesels) all got at least as hot.
No, this is not some twisted logic so I can be leader all the time !
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