When we were in Toowoomba for Christmas, Grant & Sam invited us along for a drive one afternoon. Since we'd just had the new, lifted suspension installed prior to the trip, I was keen to see how the car would perform.
As luck would have it, just as we arrived at Grant & Sam's place, it started bucketing down. Within minutes, Mum had called to let us know that there was a Severe Storm warning announced for the area, and that we really should consider just staying indoors. Not to let a pesky bit of weather get to us, we aired-down and raced off in front of the storm!
We wound though the outskirts of Withcott, and found ourselves on a fire trail behind an old quarry. It was an area that Grant knew well, with their 4WD club frequenting the rabbit's warren of tracks that criss-cross through the area. And it's easy to see why! Beautiful bush at every turn, and different levels of difficulty to keep everyone entertained, no matter your skill level.
After getting into the swing of things with some smooth gravel runs, and some steep descents, we soon came to our first challenge - a steep, washed-out hill climb.
After a quick walk to get a closer look...
...it was back into the trucks to drive it.
Piece of cake!
We followed the Pudge along as we wove around the bottom of the range.
We were managing to stay ahead of the rain, but there was still a considerably amount of water around from a previous storm the day before. Which just served to make things more fun!
The most challenging hill we came across on the day was a long uphill climb, containing both washed-out ruts, as well as bumps and holes which served up the perfect recipe for crossing-up the axles. A couple of different angles, some rock packing & track building, and a bit of right boot, and the mighty pathy climbed up with very little effort.
We have been stopped here by a combination of loss of traction (axles crossed-up, with the unloaded wheel simply spinning freely) and loss of momentum (big rock right in front of the passenger-side front wheel). For a more dramatic angle...
Thank goodness we have the bullbar fitted! The old bumper would have been crunched up hard against the ground and rocks by now, but the steel bullbar, with it's upswept side wings, allows the car to sit right against the ground, but not be damaged or get in the way. The rear end was flexing pretty well, considering the fact that the suspension was brand new, and hadn't had time to settle in and loosen up any.
Again, some rock packing was all that was required, along with a different angle of attack, and we were on our way. Unfortunately, what you can't see in those pics is the big rock that was in front of us on the driver's side. As we drove out of the hole, the back end of the car slide sideways down the track, and the rear bumper just kissed up onto the rock. Being plastic...
...it didn't take much to tear the paint off, scratch up the plastic, and pull the bumper away from the body. But that's 4WDing! You buy them to use them, not to sit them somewhere looking pretty! I'll pull it off myself, straighten up the mount points, flatten out and paint the bumper, and it'll be as good as new. Or I'll borrow Trev's welder again, and see about knocking myself up a replacement bumper out of steel to prevent the same thing happening in the future!
We carried on, until arriving at a lovely pile of rocks along the top of a ridge - the perfect thing to climb up onto!!!
And with that, we were basically at the end of the track! We popped out back onto the highway just past Highfields. A quick air-up at the Highfields servo, and then we ran back into Toowoomba, all in time for afternoon tea at Mum & Dad's place!
What a great afternoon!
