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Hi all,
Last weekend my wife and I completed a two day basic/advanced 4wd training course run by David Olsen of David and Justine Olsens 4wd Tag a Long Tours http://www.djolsen.com/.
We drove down from Cairns Friday afternoon and camped at the Rollingstone Beach caravan resort. http://www.rollingstonebeach.com.au/ This is a great location. Just don't camp to close to the fish lakes, plenty of mozzies :roll:
The weekend started of fairly easily with David going over some basic theory in the camp ground.
Just before lunch we headed just a couple of k's south of Rollingstone and went out to the beach for some sand driving. I haven't done any sand driving before so this was a real good experience.
After doing some exercises to see the effect of climbing the lip in different directions at different speeds, we got stuck on purpose to practice a recovery :wink:
Getting ready for the recovery exercise.
Rigged up for the recovery
After playing on the beach we headed inland to do some stall stop/starts on a fairly mean little hill located under the HV transmission lines. Didn't get any photos but did get my wife to drive up and down and do the stall stop exercises.
After trying to get back up a particularly nasty bit of track, the car lost traction and rolled back into a hole and my co-pilot thought that was enough as it was a fairly wild ride. We then backed down and drove around the hill, which was another adventure.
We then headed back north of Rollingstone to do some water crossings.
This is me
This is the wife
We then headed back to the camping ground and David got my wife, who is about half my size, to change a tire to the car. Dave was very good with making suggestions on how my wife could achieve this given her small size and the only task she could not do was put the spare back onto the rear of the vehicle, which I think suprised my wife.
There areas we drove are highlighted below.
The area around Rollingstone was riddled with tracks, following the creek to the north and powerline to the south.
The next morning we started the advanced course and the first task was to take the tire off one of Daves spares from his Patrol. That took care of my morning exercise :roll: using tire levers and rubber mallet once the bead was broken. We then proceeded to do a puncture repair.
We then headed north from the camping ground to the same creek where we did the water crossings to do some deep water crossings, but we weren't able to find a place that was safe enough so we headed south to Mount Louisa to do some steep climbs and descents.
We also did a couple of recovery exercises, using a multiple snatch straps and also a hand winch exercise.
We finished off the day driving on the sand at Black River. This was the first time that we lowered tire pressures as this sand was soft and dry and nasty stuff to drive on.
It was a very worth while couple of days and it really opened my wife's eyes to the capabilities of the Prado and she now understands why we need the OME suspension, ARB bullbar etc :wink:
Dave's experience as a Tour Guide and regular bush traveler was invaluable. If you are serious about getting of the beaten track, I would strongly suggest that you do some formal training. And make sure your significant other does it as well, so that they have the basic skills to be able to help out in an emergency.
Cheers,
Kevin
Last weekend my wife and I completed a two day basic/advanced 4wd training course run by David Olsen of David and Justine Olsens 4wd Tag a Long Tours http://www.djolsen.com/.
We drove down from Cairns Friday afternoon and camped at the Rollingstone Beach caravan resort. http://www.rollingstonebeach.com.au/ This is a great location. Just don't camp to close to the fish lakes, plenty of mozzies :roll:
The weekend started of fairly easily with David going over some basic theory in the camp ground.
Just before lunch we headed just a couple of k's south of Rollingstone and went out to the beach for some sand driving. I haven't done any sand driving before so this was a real good experience.
After doing some exercises to see the effect of climbing the lip in different directions at different speeds, we got stuck on purpose to practice a recovery :wink:
Getting ready for the recovery exercise.
Rigged up for the recovery
After playing on the beach we headed inland to do some stall stop/starts on a fairly mean little hill located under the HV transmission lines. Didn't get any photos but did get my wife to drive up and down and do the stall stop exercises.
After trying to get back up a particularly nasty bit of track, the car lost traction and rolled back into a hole and my co-pilot thought that was enough as it was a fairly wild ride. We then backed down and drove around the hill, which was another adventure.
We then headed back north of Rollingstone to do some water crossings.
This is me
This is the wife
We then headed back to the camping ground and David got my wife, who is about half my size, to change a tire to the car. Dave was very good with making suggestions on how my wife could achieve this given her small size and the only task she could not do was put the spare back onto the rear of the vehicle, which I think suprised my wife.
There areas we drove are highlighted below.
The area around Rollingstone was riddled with tracks, following the creek to the north and powerline to the south.
The next morning we started the advanced course and the first task was to take the tire off one of Daves spares from his Patrol. That took care of my morning exercise :roll: using tire levers and rubber mallet once the bead was broken. We then proceeded to do a puncture repair.
We then headed north from the camping ground to the same creek where we did the water crossings to do some deep water crossings, but we weren't able to find a place that was safe enough so we headed south to Mount Louisa to do some steep climbs and descents.
We also did a couple of recovery exercises, using a multiple snatch straps and also a hand winch exercise.
We finished off the day driving on the sand at Black River. This was the first time that we lowered tire pressures as this sand was soft and dry and nasty stuff to drive on.
It was a very worth while couple of days and it really opened my wife's eyes to the capabilities of the Prado and she now understands why we need the OME suspension, ARB bullbar etc :wink:
Dave's experience as a Tour Guide and regular bush traveler was invaluable. If you are serious about getting of the beaten track, I would strongly suggest that you do some formal training. And make sure your significant other does it as well, so that they have the basic skills to be able to help out in an emergency.
Cheers,
Kevin
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