Friday, 14 July – Sunday, 16 July, 2023
Author: Mal D
We had a small group for our 2023 Dorado Downs training weekend. This made for a more personalised training event and a little less formal than otherwise.
Friday 14th
Four vehicles arrived Friday afternoon (Peter & Lynne, Mal, Kate and James). We set up our campsites in the afternoon and got the campfire going for the evening. The property owner had left us plenty of firewood for the weekend. This is the first bush camp I have stayed at with the luxury of running hot water and a flushing toilet ! – and a not so luxurious short drop.
James and I had the benefit of having the best-ever soil for driving in tent and awning pegs, being in the slightly clayish area of the camp ground. This may have been the spot where last year’s members found themselves in a lake after it rained.
Kate arrived to find the last section of track to the campsite rather bumpy for her large motorhome and radioed for assistance, only to be met by silence. She managed to get to the final spot okay, after encountering Peter and Mishka, the dog, on walk-about.
Saturday 15th
After a cold night, I enjoyed a hot face wash at the site facilities. The day’s activities began with a sand hill challenge – right adjacent to the campsite. Peter conquered the top after a couple of goes in his Landcruiser.
When my turn came around, I came to a standstill partway up the sandhill. To sum up my attempt, Peter said words to the effect of, “I’ve never seen so much smoke come out of a pipe”. Well, he obviously never met my late uncle Harry. But it was obviously bad. A call to RAA technical advised that it could be a turbo seal and, regardless, there is a small possibility of engine runaway. That made up my mind to put my Landcruiser ‘out of action’ for the rest of the weekend.
For our next event, all mobile 4WD’s ventured off on a drive along the bush tracks while Lynne and Mishka kept our campsite in order.
After experiencing what was close to a roller coaster ride in one part, we arrived at a larger-than-large sand hill. As from 2022, this infamous hill is known as Kevin’s Hill to our club members since our secretary, Kevin, was the only one to drive over it last year. Our quest was to make it over the top so we could steal Kevin’s title.
All vehicles had multiple goes at conquering the hill but it was proving difficult, especially with the roller coaster nature of the run-up area. On his second attempt, James did a somewhat spectacular take-off in his Patrol when he decided to sink his boot early on in the run-up, resulting in plenty of daylight under his front wheels, followed by the same for the rear wheels.
After trying our best to reach the top, we decided that Kevin’s Hill will remain Kevin’s Hill for now.
Soon afterwards, James discovered a small oil leak near the front axle.
After a lot of analysis, we couldn’t positively identify the cause of the leak. We drove back to camp and put James’s 4WD over a make-shift pit. After further inspection and contemplation, we put the most likely cause as a power steering fluid leak.
This was turning out to be a weekend of mechanical issues.
Like last year’s event, our next event was to practice
some wheel positioning. This was performed by placing can(s) on a track and seeing how close the vehicle driver could align their wheel with the can. There were some good (and not so good) attempts, with James taking the blue ribbon for lining up the can in line with the centre of the rear left hand tyre upon reversing!
We then proceeded to practice crossing a trench without bottoming out. After a few attempts by Peter in his Landcruiser, we eventually got the trench deep enough to become a challenge. After a few attempts, Kate mastered the crossing technique well.
Just as we finished our four-wheel-driving for the day, Hamish and his family arrived – just in time for a relaxing campfire chat with port and huge marshmallows that Kate brought. That gave our trip a total of 5 four-wheel-drives, 8 people, 3 dogs, 1 caravan, 1 motorhome and 3 tent/swag setups. That’s over 50% tents/swags; reversing last year’s trend and demonstrating that tents and swags aren’t dead yet!.
Sunday 16th
We awoke to just above freezing temperatures on what was to be a nice sunny day.
Peter went over how to perform pre-vehicle checks on Hamish’s Great Wall Cannon dual cab. This was followed by a snatch recovery exercise with Hamish recovering Peter’s Landcruiser ‘bogged’ in our trench we made the previous day.
We also practiced recovering a vehicle stuck on a steep sand hill (yes, Peter’s LC200 bogged again!).
All in all, those in attendance learnt a lot about four-wheel driving and recovery techniques, with Peter’s guidance and knowledge being valuable. We also practiced plenty of vehicle diagnosing.
After lunch, Kate headed off to Victoria. I drove with much care towards Geranium, with Peter and Lynne following, to monitor for blue smoke. A few kilometres along the road I decided to play it safe and call the RAA for a tow while Peter returned to camp to pack up. Hamish and his family stayed on for another day – apparently.
The result? …. stay tuned for the next episode.