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Mitsubishi 4WD Owners Club of Qld (Inc) |
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DAP - April '07 |
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Check out Greg Conlon's Slide Show here. Advisers: Alan
Rowe Jeff McLean Students: Bryan
Grice Steve Turner Alan told us it would take about two hours to get from southern Brisbane to Urbenville, and 2 hours 4 minutes after we left home Urbenville loomed large (well maybe not large). So we assumed Alan had probably done this DAP thing once or twice before….and after Macca had acquired his breakfast at the Urbenville store we headed off for “Brooklyn”. Upon arrival at the campsite, vehicles scattered like a nest of disturbed ants to the various corners of the grounds. Everyone set up their camp sites and reported for duty to Alan and the advisers. We went through the obligatory safety instructions and headed off into the bush not knowing what we didn’t know. As per the usual program for DAP we were first to learn about the hill stall recovery process. Having heard of Sue’s problems on the previous DAP with her Suzuki not going into 4WD I was concerned when my Challenger decided to do the same thing (and we don’t have a Pajero sitting at home to be able to do the DAP in again next time round), so Mikey was suitably concerned but eventually the gremlin decided it was time to move onto someone else and low range was engaged . On this short journey to the first of the testing grounds it appeared that we had one more diesel in the group than Alan had counted but we were all to soon find out it was simply the shot rings on Darryl’s sister’s Pajero just making it look like a diesel. You know that Pajero in Portuguese is a very rude word indeed. The advisers moved well up the hill out of the way of the hill stall recovery example vehicle so most of the students thought that leadership by example was also probably the way to go. Seeing Macca careening backwards down that hill proved the advisers yet again knew what they were doing! So we all practised the technique and when we were feeling confident about that they said we should drive all the way UP those hills! Surely that was not possible..they are steep…well that’s what we thought at the time. To our surprise all the vehicles (including the pseudo diesel) easily trundled up and around those practice hills and I think we all even had fun doing it! However Mike’s triton did get stuck on one of the inclines, so Alan showed us all our first real recovery using the snatch strap, which worked a treat (of course). After we were passed as competent on the hills and stall recovery it was back to the camp site for lunch. On this short journey, including the famous Clayton’s water crossing, the adviser’s quote of the weekend was first annunciated. “Don’t get near the front because I will have to get out and open the gate!” An instruction oft given by advisers all weekend. After lunch we were on our intrepid travels once again to practice placing our wheels where they needed to be and then to do it for real. Right foot pressure, limited slip diffs, traction control, tyre pressure, momentum, momentum and wheel placement were the words of the afternoon. The tree climb was on our agenda and everyone climbed the tree with aplomb. Here I learned my major lesson of the weekend. I foolishly asked Alan how to go about driving down over the tree rather than driving up over it! Apparently no one had ever asked that before and so I was volunteered to be first to try it (note to self..don’t ask questions!). Once we all mastered the “Paul’s Reverse” we eventually headed home and got ready for happy hour (hours!) and dinner. The famous (or infamous) Terry arrived for happy hour and so it seemed did the fireworks, although to be honest there was little of this activity compared to the last DAP, maybe it has something to do with Terry finding out that you now get jail time for supplying fireworks, but that is pure conjecture. After dinner entertainment was provided by Greg and as usual the world’s problems were all solved in a single night. Why is it they keep coming back the following day though? After a hearty breakfast (why was Macca wearing sunglasses at breakfast?) we found that Mikey’s Triton was nowhere to be found…eventually it appeared up to its axles in mud in Terry’s dam. The intrepid advisers decided it was time to teach us about winching. Ahh we thought a ruse. Mikey’s Triton hadn’t really gone missing this was just a way to teach us about how to use winches. Well there are a couple of types of winches…but it seems neither of them was working on this occasion. El Presidente felt that ‘percussive maintenance’ should be performed on the winches. Mikey tried in vain to drive the Triton out and so we practised again using the snatch strap to retrieve Mikey’s very dirty Triton. So at least in theory we all know what the winches are supposed to do. The Clayton’s creek walk came next and everyone was covered in claytons mud at the end of that session. Then it was off to the ledge. Once the crazy people had risked their perfectly serviceable cars on that little jaunt we had a very pleasant and interesting trip to the highest points in “Brooklyn” and back for lunch, pack up, debrief and departure. I am sure all the students (and their families) learned a great deal on the weekend and it was thoroughly enjoyable. I for one had no idea that any normal standard 4WD could do the things that my car did that weekend. So a great thanks to Alan and the advisers for their friendship, encouragement, advice and patience. As Alan puts it we now need to “use it or lose it” so it’s off on some more trips for us all. Paul Bates
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