OK - so we don't have logging roads....

[Mystery Machine]

.....but this might be of interest to some of you??

We wanted to check out some lanes near where I live to see if they would be any good? The first half of the day was all tame gravel - hence why we had to entertaind ourselves with the log! The later lanes were much more my bag......but why does the camera always make the tougher stuff look so much more tame?? (some parts you literally had to use the side of the motor to bounce off the banks....and I am talking 4' up, so rocksliders no use!!)

Gained some nice dents, lost some panels and quite a bit of paint along the way.....but had a great time!

Here is a compilation of some of what we did (didn't get chance to video some of the best bits!) and I'll upload some of the photos tomorrow....

[Erebus]

Sweet, really enjoyed watching that. The Mud Monkey didn't seem to have anywhere near the problems getting through some of those spots as the Pajeros did.

That's my kind of offroading. Not that I'll do that with my Delica, still in way too nice shape to do that to it.

[coaxial]

awesome video.. mud monkey is doing quite well! you must have LSD! Reminds me of an off-roading area in Alberta called waiprous with terrain and trails almost exactly like you show there. I've had some good times in jeeps and land rovers there, not sure how the non-LSD delica would fare.

[Erebus]

awesome video.. mud monkey is doing quite well! you must have LSD! Reminds me of an off-roading area in Alberta called waiprous with terrain and trails almost exactly like you show there. I've had some good times in jeeps and land rovers there, not sure how the non-LSD delica would fare.

Yup, I've had fun there too. Watching a full size pickup with 33" tires fording a creek with water lapping over the hood gets exciting!

BTW, you almost spelled Waiparous right, not that most people can do it. Green1 and I will be in that area in a couple of weeks doing radio communications for a car rally -- the type of rally that runs on closed windy, twisty, dirt and gravel roads -- the slogan is "real cars, real roads, real fast".

[coaxial]

Yeah it is one of those things I don't bother trying to spell right I've camped out there and in the ghost lake area several times and done quite a bit of 4x4ing, especially before they reduced the number of trails.

I am jealous, I love rally racing! if I was a rich man I'd have a couple subarus and get involved in that. I've done photography for some amateur rally stuff and "auto cross" in the past it was good times.

[konadog]

Awesome video, thanks for posting it. I suppose you don't mind tearing up the side of your bus when you can get another one for $800.00! Oh, and in reference to your kind words about the toughness of Canadians in the "Roll over in Oregon" story (great adventure, btw), I must add that the toughest, most together in a pinch people I know (cavers anyway) are BRITS! Stiff upper lip and ignore the discomforts; One tea bag and a few packets of ichiban noodles for a week of hard caving and camping in the grim weather. You guys rock!
Scott

[Mystery Machine]

.....you must have LSD!

......not sure how the non-LSD delica would fare.

Aha - but the Mud Monkey is running an open diff - so traction is actually less than the two Pajero's who both have LSD's on the rear!

There were a LOT of surprised people at the weekend when they came across two Jap 4x4's and a "van" in places they expeced to find only trials bikes (moto's??) and hardcore Land Rovers!

I am planning some mods for even better off-road capability, but these will be going on the new L300 (low roof) and a lot of the current mods on the Mud Monkey will be swapped over too...(the new low roof one will become the 'new' Mud Monkey)

Watch this space.............................................

[coaxial]

All that with an open diff eh? Here I had gotten my delica into all sorts of ridiculous places without LSD and had chalked it up to my expert driving abilities

I guess in my case it was more van than driver then if non-LSD fares that well

[coaxial]

Hey that is a great photo in your sig MM.. the lines make it look like the van is slipping sideways downhill in the mud .. which I have had happen a couple times, it is a bit alarming

[Mystery Machine]

Hey that is a great photo in your sig MM.. the lines make it look like the van is slipping sideways downhill in the mud .. which I have had happen a couple times, it is a bit alarming

It wasn't far off! If I hadn't used the mud bank on the passenger side to 'slide' around, the motor probably would have slipped sideways? I am still amazed at how stable these vehicles are in slippery conditions though....

[Mystery Machine]

Some photos of the day:

Rendevous: 9am at Chew Valley lake


Pensford Viaduct en-route to some of the lanes


Doesn't look it, but this was STEEP!


Just past this bit was the really tricky (fun) part. Wish I had taken a video of it! According to Mike (in the white Pajero) my front wheels where a few feet off the ground as I launched up some of the rocks!


Some of the lanes ran along river beds...(eco terrorist anyone??)


Another STEEP lane. I've got to find a way of capturing how steep these things are?


Low trees....


.....the main reason I'm changing to a low roof L300!


Side swiping our way down one of the lanes


2ft of pipe to climb. Slippery when wet.... Taken with surprising ease!


Some of the damage from the day:
Front corner (bull bar bent back, trim missing and I'll be breaking out the zip ties to stitch it together...


Some scrapes from the banks


A hard kick and the bumper corner panel popped back into place. I'll beat out the dent in the side


How did I rub this in the mud??






I even got mud up here!! (blatant advertising!)

[Schwa]

Doesn't look it, but this was STEEP!

Another STEEP lane. I've got to find a way of capturing how steep these things are?

If you want to capture how steep it looks, try a 3D photo... there's cameras that take the 2 images, or you can rig up 2 cameras to take pictures at the same time and aimed the same.

But the easiest thing to do is snap a shot of the tiltometer-inclinometer (if you have one), that way we can compare it to our own experiences...

[mararmeisto]

How did I rub this in the mud??

I even got mud up here!! (blatant advertising!)

I suspect you got out of the van and flung mud at it. There! I said it... what of it?

Okay, I'm jealous: I still haven't found any good back roads to take the Moon Machine onto, to my great dismay. What's a fella to do?

[mararmeisto]

Although we did find this mud pit the other day while out and about. As we were by ourselves though, I didn't think it a good idea to tackle it. To give some perspective, it's more than 15 metres in length and looked like it was almost 0.5 metres in depth (that's how deep the ruts looked).

Mud pit we didn't go into.jpg (99.47 KiB) Viewed 5939 times

[josh]

Bruce,

You always entertain me! James and I have been getting up to a few mods ourselves... I know you would be proud. (Heck my new low roof is even sporting a pair of your shackles!)

We are putting on a Northern Delica meet... stay tuned for our pics.

Josh