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Man alive!
You know how it is when you start something and wish you never had?
That’s me,
that is!
Casper has
been in need of a pair of sills for a little while and I really should
have got around to doing it sooner. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and
preventative maintenance is the watchword, because ignore it and it
comes back to bite you in the ar… after-end.
One body
mount disintegrated, an absolute plethora of rust-created holes to
floor, footwell, boot, wheel arches, etc, etc.
Well it is
a Discovery...
So it’s
been off the road since almost the end of November, and probably due to
my somewhat relaxed attitude to getting up in the mornings, still isn’t
finished as I write this. Mind you I had to wait for the new welder to
arrive, then couldn’t get the gas, then something else happened, oh
yeah, that Jesus bloke-thing; but eventually I ran out of excuses and
started cutting half the body away, during the extended seasonal break.
There never really is a good time is there? Summer is nice to work on
the motor but there’s never the time with all the events we do. Winter
is cold, wet and frankly, who wants to lay outside fixing a blinking
Land Rover? Anyway by the time you read this I certainly hope it will be
finished as I really miss driving the motor and have been lucky that
there have been no SRR shouts to miss out on.
In this
issue Paul Smith tells of his Morocco experience, several trials are
imminent and there’s a word of warning regarding towing and your
licence. I recap the 2011 show season, there is some guidance on sending
event pictures to the website - as we want your pic’s up for all to see,
and most important of all, the AGM notice is in.
Which just
leaves room for me to say, well done Robert Cracknell for organising
the recent successful Lane Clearance with SCC.
Now read
on… DEANO
Top
Well at
least there is some good news from our favourite car manufacturer. Plans
to build a £350m Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) facility near Wolverhampton
have been given the go-ahead by South Staffordshire Council with the
creation of several hundred new jobs. So it’s nice to see the company
continuing to do well in these tough economic times.
Wednesday
the 7th March is AGM time again.
So if you
have any comments or views on the club why not come along to Newbourne
village hall to air them to the committee. If you feel you would like to
offer your skills to the committee why not put your name forward. I
look forward to seeing you there. As usual food and refreshments will be
laid on.
Just to
keep you posted I asked in a previous chat from the chair if you had any
suggestions for this year’s charities, to put them forward. Well thank
you we have had a couple of good suggestions so far. These have been
brought to the attention of the committee and are now under
consideration. However it’s still not too late so if you have any more
please let Carl know. As usual I will look forward to seeing you at one
of the many events coming up this year.
Happy Off-Roading,
Tony Williamson - Chairman
^Top
During a
recent trip to Morocco after a five day transit through the Atlas
Mountains, reaching heights of 9,575 feet and descending into the harsh
conditions of the Sahara desert. After hours of rock crawling, driving
dry river beds, harsh tracks and sand drifts. Our journey into the
Moroccan edges of the Sahara desert, was outstanding with views to die
for, off road conditions to cherish forever. Including a high speed
transit across the Paris-Dakar route. Paradise!
One famous
explorer said, “Expect the unexpected”, so I took plenty of food and a
few boxes of wine, jokingly. What he meant was expect the unforeseen
event. Well that’s what I experienced, followed by what can only be
described as a miracle! F.A.B. at its best; if I had been close to a
lottery machine I would have bought a few tickets, it was that surreal.
Our convoy
of five Land Rovers, one 110 TD5, one TDCI 110, two 90 TDCI and good old
Pat (Corps) in his trusty 90 TDI. On the edges of the sand dunes with
only one more dry river crossing to navigate, the unexpected happened.
My TDCI 90
hit a buried tree stump, I heard the impact, the underside of the car
screaming as if in pain, as this buried obstacle emerged out hidden in
sand, twisted by the impact of the front wheel. What I didn’t realise,
until a couple of seconds later, as the stump twisted and complained
under the car it had taken out the plastic top of the fuel filter,
stopping the car dead in the midday sun.
Not good,
quick risk assessment, five cars in the middle of nowhere. Nearest
garage over one hundred miles away, no replacement part, four other cars
stranded due to pure comradeship and determination to complete the trip
of a lifetime. The lead driver had gone forward to assess the best
crossing point of the dried river bed, when reluctantly I called him on
the CB to explain I had a non starter. The cause at that time was
unknown. I had a Puma that wouldn’t start on the edges of the Sahara
Desert, 3,000 miles from my friendly Land Rover expert and his PC.
The
thought of the moment... S**t!
Out of the
blue, along the same dry river bed came a group of four Spanish 4X4’s
with their families in-tow, stopped to give assistance.
As time
ticked on it quickly became evident the lead driver and his mates where
mechanical engineers with outstanding experience of repairs in the
field. They had experienced the fuel pipe breakage before and quickly
requesting a suitable donor tube to carryout an on the spot repair.
After a
hunt through the vehicles a suitable tube was discovered in the form of
a Pirelli ballpoint pen. Our team leader had the necessary equipment
aboard his one-ten to make the new discovery into a real contender for a
field repair.
After a
round 30mins the transplant had taken place, the glue had to set before
we could chance re-starting the engine. Starved of fuel and the system
full of air, starting needed a bit of encouragement in the form of a
fuel hand pump purchased for £250 from Land Rover some years earlier by
our resourceful team leader and never used until that day. It felt a bit
like the flight of the Phenix, the resourcefulness of the guys around me
was exhilarating. Out of the blue came international rescue, the
thunderbirds. The true Land Rover spirit.
Paul Smith
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While 2011
was tinged with sadness at the loss of the Rougham venue and it's
excellent facilities for fund-raising, despite their somewhat
lackadaisical approach to planning, overall it's been a heck of a year;
raising in excess of £10,000 for local causes!
We created
the Suffolk 4x4 Show, yes 'we', us...SLROC, and it would have been even
better next time, but now, with no more Rougham Airfield it looks like
this show may have slipped between our fingers.
Still,
never say 'never', eh?
We started
2011 with a press launch of the 4x4 show in April and a small number of
our guys did a sterling job of taking media representatives around the
two courses at Rougham. Good coverage in the papers for that.
A small
contingent turned out for the Large Model Air Show in order to promote
the 4x4 Show there and ensure the courses were all good to go, while
Tony tried to kill us all with his very own Stuka - launching it from
the pull-out awning on Wayne & Christine's 110.
2 weeks
after that the 4x4 show was upon us and you guys excelled in the way
only you do. There were some negative comments, but it seems only from
the rivet counters at Series 2 Towers - which is apparently par for the
course (no pun intended) - when any Autojumble doesn't include at least
three complete vehicle's-worth of parts per club member; but on the
whole both visitors and traders all said they had a wonderful time and
would be more than happy to do it again.
Just a
fortnight later in an 'eleventh hour' scenario, Tony pulled off an
incredible coup finally managing to nail down the Suffolk Show
organisers to letting us run at their premier event on Trinity Park. It
was certainly different for me and made a refreshing change to running
around like a blue-ar... like a blue-err..., well running around a lot
with two radios, trying to make sure Health & Safety issues were dealt
with, visitor vehicles were fit to drive on courses, everyone got fed
and watered, giving the marathon morning briefings (sorry all), etc.
Instead at this event, I spent two days in the sun, unloading happy
passengers, and loved every second.
2 weeks
went by very quickly and on arrival at Rougham for the West Suffolk
Country Fair we were greeted with very bad news: Owner John Agnew had
passed away just a couple of days earlier.
Still we
did what we do best and despite the afore-mentioned problems with the
siting of stands, still made some much needed dosh for our local causes.
Just a
week after the West Suffolk Country Fair was the Long Melford gig. Terry
was in charge and to make things a little easier we (Terry, Al & Sue and
Joy & I) hauled everything from Rougham to Melford on the Monday after
the WSCF and roped off the areas for ourselves and Little Rovers. Man
was it hot, or what! Job done though and for such a simple course, using
just the available terrain and the Essex LRC ramps, it was a great
example of what our vehicles can do.
The Sunday
after Long Melford, PB had asked me to sort out Suffolk Rover Rescue's
attendance at the ‘999 Day in the Park’ at Nicholas Everitt Park in
Oulton Broad, which I duly manned with Al, Carl and Dan. We kept it very
simple as we weren't too sure what was required, but another time we
have a much better idea of things we can do to show off Suffolk Rover
Rescue. Such a shame that our hosts that day, South Broads Inshore
Lifeboat station (the first inland, inshore station in the UK) has since
been closed by the RNLI.
With the
club's Open Day at the end of July it was the second week of August when
some of us trogged up to Stoneleigh to oversee the camping arrangements
for the LRMax! Show. Joy & I have been doing this event with LRM since
first being asked in 2007 by Cathie & Richard Smith-Howell, then owners
of LRM and we like to think we're getting the hang of it now. Uncle Al'
has been there from the start as well and it's nice how, while some
remain the stalwarts just like Marshalling at the site, others are
still willing to have a go and mostly enjoying the whole experience (as
Dan explained in his article earlier this year).
While this
was going on, Tony stepped in to run our contribution to the Air Display
at Rougham - a static display - which as it unfortunately turned out,
was to be our last event at Rougham Airfield.
And yet
another fortnight after that, along comes Eye Show, on the August Bank
Holiday. Despite the lowered attendance and lack of live music or
alcohol licences and another conspicuous absence from Little Rovers
matching that of the, then recent Open Day, we managed to pull yet
another rabbit out of the hat and have a really good social and
fundraising weekend.
We
finished off the show year with a somewhat windy weekend at Peterboro'
promoting Suffolk Rover Rescue alongside SLROC. I have a cunning plan
for next year on that front, so more to follow nearer the time.
I'd like
to finish (at last) by saying a MASSIVE thank you to all the club
members who made the 2011 shows such a wonderful and trouble-free
experience. It is testament to the training we do, combined with the
sheer level-headedness and professionalism of our members that ensures
that the event organisers, such as Andy, Tony, Terry and myself have
such an easy time (!) of it.
Briefly
looking forward to the 2012 show season we are well into talks with the
new owner of Stonham Barns about recreating our course there. We are
looking at five events at that venue starting mid-April and we have
already had a site visit to look at the area we will probably be using.
Dan as the Offroad Sec’ is obviously in charge of the building work and
we will be looking for volunteers to help at some point. I can assure
previous helpers at that venue, that the new course features will most
definitely be going 'up' not 'down'!
Suffolk
Show have seen what we can do and are keen to do the same again, and no
doubt Eye Show will see our presence again, although a little drier
weather for the preceding week would be nice to save us sitting outside
the gates for hours on end, while the ground dries out (?). It never
ceases to amaze me that the funfair vehicles with two wheel drive and
their two trailers on the back are okay to go on and off site, but a
Land Rover in low box and 4wd with a caravan on the back can’t!
We have
already had some nominations for charities and local causes for this
year so I do hope that you can help us out at one of the events and help
us raise another welcome wedge for the local area.
DEANO
Additional
Pictures from Sue Scott, Mike Nash and Chris Finbow
^Top
Do you tow
a trailer or caravan? Are you unsure of what a B+E type license is?
If you
passed your driving test before 1st January 1997 you are unlikely to be
affected.
If you
passed your driving test on or after 1st January 1997 then you would
have been granted a type B license (car) allowing you to drive a vehicle
of a gross weight of 3.5 tonnes.
Category B
vehicles may be coupled with a trailer up to 750Kg gross (allowing a
combined weight up to 4.25 tonnes or a trailer over 750Kg gross provided
the gross weight of the trailer does not exceed the unladen weight of
the towing vehicle (kerbweight) and the combination does not exceed 3.5
tonnes gross.
Example 1
- Vehicle with a unladen weight of 2 tonnes pulling a trailer gross
weight under 1.5 tonne could be driven with a type B license because
gross weight of trailer is less than the laden weight of drawing vehicle
as long as the gross outfit weighs less than 3.5 tonnes.
Example 2
– Vehicle with unladen weight of 1.25 tonnes pulling a trailer of 1.5
tonnes giving gross weight of 2.75 tonnes comes under B+E because the
gross weight of trailer is greater than the unladen weight of the towing
vehicle.
Same
applies to caravans however as a guide, the gross weight of the caravan
should not exceed 85% of the unladen weight, (kerbweight), of the
drawing vehicle. In the majority of cases caravans should fall within
category B. However if you tow a large caravan beware that you don’t
gross over 85% of the unladen weight of car, also if the gross outfit
exceeds 3.5 tonnes then B+E applies.
Category
B+E allows you to drive a vehicle up to 3.5 tonnes and tow a trailer of
any weight as long as vehicle manufactures conditioned are not breached.
To take
the B+E diving test you do not have to take another theory test. The
test is based on the LGV test and should take no more than 1½ hours.
Driving a
vehicle without the correct license is illegal. If stopped you could
expect 3 points for not having correct license plus 6 points for no
insurance. If you are unsure look on the DVLA website.
Roy
Edwards
Roy is a
driving instructor who also undertakes trailer training so is well-
versed in the various reg’s. Thanks for the wise words. DEANO
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The
website pictures have been a major source of new members at SLROC and
we’d like to keep things that way with you, the members keeping the
pictures coming in.
There have
been a number of recent enquiries regarding the posting of pictures on
the Club website.
As you
know, the website has been famous for getting the latest event pic’s on
the internet within a few hours.
But that
was when Ian our webmaster was in a different job and able to attend the
events himself to take the pic's but he doesn't get a massive amount of
spare time to upload your pic's these days. So if anyone else takes any
pic's of the events, there are one or two things we can do to streamline
the process making Ian’s job much easier.
You see
putting 250 pictures onto a disk, taken with a DSLR camera means
possibly 2½ gigs of images for Ian to trawl through, select some of the
best and resize before uploading.
So if you
decide to send in some pictures please remember the following:
For a
driving day between 40 and 60 images should suffice depending on the
number of participants. Trials will often mean less pictures as there
are fewer participants in most cases. Please try to select at least one
of each vehicle so people don’t feel left out (it’s not always easy).
Nobody
likes their head cut off or half their motor missing (except for the
occasional ‘arty shot’ perhaps), so good framing and crisp, clear
imaging is essential and makes the website look far more professional.
There is a
size limit on the website, which makes opening each image faster and
means less room is taken up too. For that reason we would ask that once
you have selected the pictures you wish to send, you resize them to 800
pixels on the longest side. Resizing software is available for download
on the internet following a quick search, including ‘bulk’ resizers, but
most photo-editing software such as ‘Paint Shop Pro’ and even Windows
very own ‘Paint’ can resize images quite easily, if a bit
time-consuming.
When
sending your selected, resized images to Ian you can use the contact
details on the website but please don’t send more than 5 megs of pic’s
per email or they will ‘bounce’. Instead send an email first to say you
have a selection of pic’s for the website, then send your files,
preferably in zipped (compressed) folders. That way Ian can get them up
on the site in the shortest time and everyone at the event will
hopefully see a picture of themselves.
But most
importantly, thanks to all who have and will contribute their pictures
to the website.
^Top
Day into Night Trial - 4th February 2012
If you
thought trialling was part of the ‘dark arts’ then on this occasion
you’d be right! Starting in the afternoon and running into the night,
the section which may have seemed a breeze in daylight, is a whole new
challenge under cover of darkness!
Scrutineering from Noon for a 13:00 hrs start, expected finish time
around 20:00 hrs
Please
note: One extra set of driving lights may be used, which must be fitted
below the top edge of the bulkhead. For safety reasons, no roof mounted
lights may be used.
Please
remember it's cheaper to pre-book than to arrive and drive on the day.
Pre-booked
entrants fee £15 - Arrive and drive £20 and as usual we need a minimum
of 5 entrants to run this event so please book early to ensure it goes
ahead.
Pre-booking via forum or PM or call the Competition Secretary.
First Tyro
trial of the year so another chance to try your hand at Trialling, for
the less-experienced members, youngsters of 13 and above and just the
plain curious. Come and have a go and see what all the fuss is about
with this trialling lark.
Scrutineering from 10:00 for a 11:00 hrs start, expected finish time
around 16:00 hrs
Access
routes around the Yellow course will be available between 9am and 9:45am
for driver familiarisation.
Remember
it's cheaper to pre-book than to arrive and drive on the day. Pre-booked
entrants fee £15 - Arrive and drive £20 and as usual we need a minimum
of 5 entrants to run this event so please book early to ensure it goes
ahead.
Pre-booking via forum or PM or call the Competition Secretary.
This is
the first night winch that SLROC has run and so will differ slightly to
our normal “daytime” winch trials. The trial details are as follows:
Sign
on/Scrutineering from 5pm to 6pm (NB: Sunset @ 5:45pm).
Drivers
briefing at 6pm with the event starting at 6:30pm. There will be a 30
min break between 9:30 and 10pm with the trial aiming to finish at
midnight. Entry fee for the event will be £35 per team (one vehicle with
two crew)
We will be
sticking with our new winch trialling format, Class 1 for Trucks with
additional traction aids and multiple winches and Class 2 for standard
drive train vehicles with a single winch. There will be between 10 and
15 sections each with two punches (Class 1 to attempt both, Class 2 only
required to attempt one)
Safety:
It would be easy to add a huge list of additional equipment and Do’s and
Don’ts, however I have the confidence that in past competitors and
Marshals have managed the safety of themselves and others admirably.
Therefore the only additional equipment I will be requesting will be:
All
competitors will be required to have head torches (and spare batteries)
All
people not in a vehicle to have some form of hi-viz (minimum waist
coat). This will also include any spectators.
Any other
Safety requirements or restrictions will be briefed on the day and will
not require competitors to supply any other additional kit.
Site
facilities: Marshals will be setting out the sections from early
Saturday morning however I would ask that competitors arrive no earlier
than lunchtime and all vehicle movement will be restricted to the car
park area until the start of the trial at 6:30pm. Those of you wishing
to camp are more than welcome, but please remember there are no
facilities on site, so you will need to come self-sufficient (ie: water,
food etc). I hope to be able to provide toilet facilities but will
advise nearer the time. Lighting by generator will be available around
the sign on area and toilet areas with competitors being expected to
arrange their own pit lighting requirements. Sunday will be clear-up day
with a view to fully vacate the site early afternoon. Finally could I
ask that all attending the event ensure the site is left in the same or
a better state than we found it.
Well
that’s enough rambling on for now, Pre-booking is now open, any
questions or queries please contact me via the usual channels. Finally I
will require my usual large number of marshals for this event so if you
can help please let me know if you are able to help out.
Chris
Finbow - Competition Secretary
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