Event Reports

The club trip to Minstead in February of this year started cold and dry. I had wandered down early expecting to only meet Dave and Jeff. When I reached the car park I was surprised to see it already half full of vehicles. After the obligatory cup of coffee and a quick chat to sort out the marshalling I headed out on a quick roam around the site. JT had come along in his Rangie with his wife Sarah and their two sons so he followed me out. Embarrassingly the first hill of the day stopped me dead in my tracks and I had to be pulled out backwards by JT. I could not believe it, I knew Minstead’s reputation as a giant killer but this was ridiculous! Changing tack we wandered down to a couple of vehicles that were attempting a recovery but again I could not set a straight course and was slipping and sliding around like a politician trying to answer a question honestly.

After checking the controls I realised that I had not locked the centre diff! Obviously one cup of coffee was not enough! I locked the diff and the difference was amazing, I could now drive where I pointed! I connected a rope to the back of a Rangie that was attempting to recover a very stuck 90. Together we hauled the 90 back onto terra firma. While I was doing this JT tried out a route off the main track. I followed him down and found him stuck while trying to traverse a stream. We had a good look at what was stopping him and buy digging out the mud from under his tow bar he managed to climb through. I then followed him though (advantage of an 88" wheelbase rather than 100"!) and we had a bit of roam across a couple routes before heading back for a burger.

After satisfying our appetites Jeff jumped in and we wandered down to the bottom part of the site, drove through the sticky hole that had caused a number of vehicles to grind to a halt in the morning and then headed across to the bomb hole where there was a lot of interest in Lenny in his V8 lightweight recovering a stuck 90.

Following this we had to wait for a couple of vehicles to be dragged through the main route back to the car park and then headed back that way.

On the way back JT found a large puddle to play in!

And Dave took a bit of a sight seeing tour!

By now it was getting a bit busy so we headed back to the car park for a coffee.

After another coffee Jeff and I headed out to have a look at what else was going on. We came across Lenny in his lightweight very stuck in the biggest hole I saw all day.

After much tugging there was no way he was coming out without using the winch. In manoeuvring to get in a position to be able to get a pull onto the I managed to drive over a stump which not only held me up but also bent my front axle guard. After jacking the front of the landie up and slewing it off the stump Jeff spotted me around so I could get a straight pull onto the front of Len’s vehicle. After spooling out enough rope I christened my winch by hauling him out. Unfortunately while manoeuvring I managed to flick a bit of dirt off one of wheels into JT’s eye which was swelled up as though he had been hit by Joe Calzagie. This was so painful he decided to call it a day and headed home.

Jeff and I then turned our attention to a very stuck 90 which had not been able to recover themselves. Unfortunately on turning around to get a straight pull I managed to drive into the mother of all holes! That will teach me for not walking the ground or waiting for my spotter! I tried to pull myself out using the winch but only succeeded in pulling myself onto a hidden stump which bent my steering bar and managed to over-heat the winch motor giving a dead short and stopping the winch from operating. When I pulled it apart at home it showed that the insulation on one of the field coils had melted and caused this.

I was now stuck, as was the guy in the 90 and no-one else was around. Jeff took a stroll through the woods, found Dave (White) and asked him to come and give us a hand. Dave drove through and connected his winch to the front of my hybrid but he could not pull me forwards. On giving up that as a bad idea he decided to try and pull me out backwards. Unfortunately his 90 decided that it had had enough and cut out with no power in the battery. So we now had three vehicles stuck and it was getting dark.

Luckily a couple of members had not left the site and even though they were having difficulties with their vehicles (no starter on the Range Rover and a fan belt jumping loose on the 90) they managed to pull me out backwards and bump start Dave. As for the poor chap in the 90 we asked Chris the site owner to pull him out using the digger he had on site. Myself and Jeff had to leave so we left Dave and Chris to extract the stricken 90 and headed back to the car park. On getting there our rescuers had loaded their vehicles onto trailers to go home but the tow vehicles could not push them back up onto the track as they were parked on slippery ground. To save them having to unload I tied the hybrid to the back of each trailer in turn and helped them onto the track.

After leaving the site I got as far as the Texaco garage on the A31 before I had to stop due to the engine temperature. I used all the buckets of water on the forecourt to flush the radiator which was caked solid with mud. From there I managed to get all the way home before I had to stop! I heard later that Dave did not get home until 10 o’clock that night. After seeing the lads in the 90 onto a recovery truck he had problems with his truck which meant that his brother-in-law had to bring him out another battery so he could get home. At the committee meeting following the event Jeff and I presented Dave with a medal for services above and beyond the call of duty!