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Re: The 'Off-Road' picture thread

Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 6:28 pm
by Julian B
Decided not to watch the last one - too much of a wimp - but have learnt a lesson through this thread. So thank you very much.

Re: The 'Off-Road' picture thread

Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 5:59 am
by kerry460
G,,day , i am pleased that people have taken my and others comments .
often a comment like mine is taken with contempt , and i have been told i do not know wat i am talking about .

i am happy it has been different this time .

as woodman commented , on a lot of vehicles wat appears to be recovery points are not . often only lashing points to be used for vehicle delivery , and useful for flat towing .

Gary,s videos have been a huge help in portraying the danger , yes the last is graphic . but it sure will get the point across !!

if you have any doubts if your recovery points are suitable or not , talk to people that have the knowledge ,

and it is just not the atatchment point , but wat it is bolted to . and wat bolts are used .

i think i have said enough .
i hope this info may have saved someone from injury or death .

cheers
kerry

Re: The 'Off-Road' picture thread

Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 8:04 am
by heinkeljb
If you have the Haflinger tow bar on your vehicle then other than not using the tow ball itself for recovery, you have an area of good recovery points as it is very well connected to what passes for bodywork / chassis.

The problem is the front - As standard you only have the welded on loop - not sure what rating it has. So someone needs to look at making a suitable recovery set up that can be added to front with out too much trouble.

John

Re: The 'Off-Road' picture thread

Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2016 11:33 am
by woodman
As John says the towbar on a Haflinger is suitable for recovery because it is fixed to numerous places on the vehicle. I think though that it should be a genuine Steyr Puch Towbar as I have seen various non standard ones which I would not, in my opinion, have used for recovery, and I do agree that the front towing loop, for want of a better description, may not be suitable for recovery because they are only welded on in 2 places. I also agree with John that some other form of a different front recovery point would be a good idea even if its only for your own vehicle. Pete

Re: The 'Off-Road' picture thread

Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2016 1:55 pm
by jhon
I've used the front loop for recovery on a couple of occasions with no issues; however at the time care was taken to ensure that there was no snatching and that a non-kinetic rope was being used.
Similarly, for rear recovery I've used a webbing strap through the two standard steel loops to spread the load with no problems (I don't have a tow bar fitted)

Fortunately the Haflinger rarely gets stuck and because it's so light it takes very little force to recover it - just one of the reasons why I love this vehicle!

For those that are interested here's a link to a Youtube video of our last trial - it was filmed by one of our members (with the flying red Shogun) and is of surprisingly good quality - there's a bit of Haflinger action starting about 11.13. Hope you enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26xhE2jdVFc

Re: The 'Off-Road' picture thread

Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2016 2:31 pm
by AustHaflinger
I wish my 4wd Club did stuff like that - all we do is go for coffee runs or 6 week 15,000km trips across the desert - not much in between.

Thanks for putting the Vid up.

Garry

Re: The 'Off-Road' picture thread

Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2016 2:58 pm
by woodman
Hi jhon, great youtube vid, and I agree wth you that Haflingers are light, thats why I love them too, bur the only thing about using the front towing loop and also now you mentioned them the 2 small loops on the rear, which were never really ment as towing loops but tie downs, is that they are all welded on which was ok when the vehicles were new, however as any one who has ever owned a Haflinger knows they are prone to rust,( Understatement ! ) so if using either of these I would suggest that a close inspection of them to see if the place where they are welded to the vehicles body is still sound, still Happy Haflering and Hey, Lets Be Carefull Out There. Pete

Re: The 'Off-Road' picture thread

Posted: Sun May 01, 2016 6:56 pm
by Callahan
kerry460 wrote: it scares the shit out of me when i see people doing a recovery using a tow ball as an attatchment point .
they are not designed for huge loads .

there have been a number of deaths and injuries from using a tow ball .
please use correct / rated recovery points .
https://www.facebook.com/aus4x4sales/vi ... 681986474/

Re: The 'Off-Road' picture thread

Posted: Mon May 02, 2016 12:54 am
by AustHaflinger
That is what we are talking about - strike left or right and either the driver or passenger would have been killed.

Happens more that you think.

Here is Aust we would normally have a damper (I use 2 one at each end) over the strap so if it does come apart the weight of the damper slows everything down.

Re: The 'Off-Road' picture thread

Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 7:17 pm
by heinkeljb
I took Lurch to trials event a couple of week ends ago and someone from the club has put up a piece video on Youtube of my attempt. Driver error on both occasions when should have been going forwards, revs too low so maybe in the wrong gear? Was in 2nd (5 speed box with high speed hubs) and stalled (twice)!
Will try harder next time.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxE2ErG6sDc

John

Re: The 'Off-Road' picture thread

Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2016 10:19 am
by jhon
Nice one John, that looked a tricky section; some stiff competition there, especially that yellow trialler with the fiddle brakes. Lurch sounded like it was running fine.

I usually stay in 1st when driving sections, like yourself I found that 2nd can be a touch high at times.

Hope you enjoyed it and are looking forward to some more!

Cheers,

John

Re: The 'Off-Road' picture thread

Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2016 5:21 pm
by woodman
Great Vid, John, I agree with the other John, you did have competition, but just goes to prove a ' Standard Haflinger ' is sometimes as good or even better than expensive tricked out landrovers, well done. Regards Pete. PS You and Lurch were missed at the Treffen

Re: The 'Off-Road' picture thread

Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2016 8:23 pm
by heinkeljb
There is another Trials coming up in a couple of weeks time and I am hoping that I can get another Haflinger owner to come along and give it a go. Would be nice to compete against similar opponents - most of those you see in the video are much bigger than the Haflinger and therefore have a wider track, which make ruts that are difficult deal with as you are either in one side or other!

I try to go first on the sections so I do not have that problem or the one caused by some one else getting stuck and having much bigger wider tyres and digging hole that I can't get out of!

Hope it will be a bit dryer as just getting stuck in the mud and having to be pulled out is time consuming and annoying to those waiting their turn!

John

Re: The 'Off-Road' picture thread

Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2016 7:02 am
by mechanical horse
Gidday all.
Have just got home after a couple of days in hospital annoying the nurses and naturally going through this forum again, well I mean what else do you do in hospital? and came upon this startling subject. For years I owned a Hilux that I fitted with robust towbars front and back. I then got a good electric winch and mounted it on a base of 1/2 thick steel plate and cut a keyhole in that which slipped over a towball. This meant that I could winch either frontwards or backwards. This was necessary as sometimes it was 100 metres back to hard ground or a KM forward to hard ground. The worst I was ever bogged was 4 days bogged to the back teeth with a V12 Allison engine in the back of the vehicle with no way to unload it to get rid of a lot of weight. An awfull lot of digging and laying down Marsden matting, but mainly the use of the winch finally got me out. Checking my gear when I got home I could find no damage to the winch, towbars etc including the towball. Seeing the videos posted prior to my comments, the towball became the cannon ball because of the use of a snatchem type strap breaking off the towball. My question is would a normal car winch have the strength to do that or would it need the added power of the stretchy strap. If my towballs had of failed that time the whole set up would just dropped into the mud and not been shot down line, because of the weight of the winch. When I ran the cable down to the anchor and through pulleys and back to the vehicle, to get that advantage, I would then hook the end onto the chassis and not the towbar. I had never considered the danger of miss using the towballs as I have never used snatchem straps as I like the idea of putting the strain onto components gently and not all of a sudden, but now I wonder if it is as dangerous using a winch in the same manner on a towball, as I did for years. An extremely interesting subject on the dangers of being injured or killed while having some fun.
Regards Rick.

Re: The 'Off-Road' picture thread

Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2016 7:48 am
by heinkeljb
A few paragraphs would not have gone amiss in all of that... Very difficult to read all as one lump.

Once you had put a load on the winch cable, it would not have mattered that you were winding in slowly, if either cable of mounting point had failed, either could fail "explosively" or had a gently give way! I've seen both.

Given that most people will have pulled some bit of their vehicle off like a big plastic bumper, which having little mass and big surface area, they don't fly very far and so don't present the same "potentially dangerous" flying bullet or slicing whip lash of a cable.

When you consider the number of times people around the world must do some sort of "towing" or recovery and teh number of reported injuries from such things, the risk to life and limb from the operation as shown in the various videos in this thread must be quite small - I am not saying "ignore" what has been pointed out in this thread, just that like anything connected to vehicles, some time it can be dangerous! Do things the correct way to avoid injury!

John

Re: The 'Off-Road' picture thread

Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2016 9:57 am
by mechanical horse
Hey John,
As soon as I read the first line of your post I started to laugh. My partner is always up me for this as she reakons a paragraph should only be as long as you can read in a breath. I won't show her this post as she will be on my case for a week.
Regards Rick.

Re: The 'Off-Road' picture thread

Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2016 6:55 pm
by heinkeljb
Paragraphs are not generally only as long as you can read in one breath - that's more like a sentence! Just that seeing a large amount of text like that on a screen is difficult to read. Splitting it up every two , three lines of text would make all the difference.

Grammar is not the be all and end all of things on here, content and requests for information are more important. As long as we can understand the post, that's all that matters!

Just be more careful when recovering a vehicle from now on - you have been educated! :D :geek:

John

Snow in Australia :o

Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2016 11:58 am
by AustHaflinger
So I woke up this morning and had a look outside. It had been snowing up in the mountains even though it was quite warm at 5 degrees.
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That hill is only 1700m, so about 1100m higher than where I live and only 10km away in a straight line. It is the start of a wilderness area that extends 100km to the west and about 50km north and south.

People usually don't associate Australia with snow but the SE normally has a good coverage in winter though Global Warming is having an impact here so we happy to still get a little snow. 25 years ago those mountains would be snow covered May to Sep but these days on odd days only.

As I know the road to that peak will be closed, I decided to head to a 1500m peak just to the north. So packed the woolies, the PLB (personal locator beacon) as there is no mobile phone coverage and if a life or death situation occurs I just push a button on the PLB and the Southcare Rescue Helicopter will come and get me about an hour later. Packed the tools, air compressor, tyre repair kit and Max Trax. I did forget my UHF radio and my blanket :(
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Headed off and on the way passed this dam that is part of the water system for Canberra.
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Was built about 5 years ago to increase the water storage - there was/is a smaller dam that was about 80 years old but it was heritage listed so could not be modified - so even though heritage listed they built the new dam 300m down stream and when the new dam filled the old one is underwater - the law says it cannot be modified but can be drowned :? - go figure.

This is where I was headed
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But when I got to the base of the mountain this is what I found - when it snows here everything is shut.
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So back onto the main road and up to Piccadilly Circus (just a road junction) and into the snow good and proper
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So headed off on a track that was still open - I am often glad the Haffie has a good load capacity :lol:
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Later on the snow got a bit deeper but a vehicle had been through earlier and chopped up the track and cleaned off the snow from the centre - glad of the Haffie ground clearance as the mound in the center is quite high.
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At the end of this section I came across this (taken after I was through)
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Left or right? Right was about 12" deep but much longer and the bottom was very soft. Left was shorter but 2' deep, hard a hard bottom but an ominous sign was logs in the water about 2/3 of the way through. I pulled them out and went left in 4wd and both diff locks in.
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Started off Ok but where the logs had been I bogged down and lost momentum but kept on crawling and slowly pulled out. When I bogged down I thought I really do need to get the winch on ;) . Forgot all about filming it - would have been good.

After getting through and back onto the main track I spotted a Isuzu ute coming towards me sideways - he had spotted me first and slammed on the brakes sending him sideways in the slush - it was then I spotted him coming sideways and was able to steer around him - partly my fault because I should have spotted him earlier.

After that it was an uneventful trip back home except with the brakes full of muddy water emergency stops got interesting. I will need to clean them out.

I covered about 130km all up and the Haffie went well :). Outside temps were about -2 but inside was about 10 until I had to open the window to defrost the inside of the windscreen. Not having a heater is not so much a worry for me but I need to get some sort of demister set up as it always fogs up when cold and damp.

The Mud and Snow tyres were constantly clogged up with snow and mud and created a bit of slip and slide - especially with the short wheelbase. Decent mud tyres are really needed for these conditions. The engine while it ran fine, did not seem to like the 900m higher altitude - always ran and started but I think it was running rich. When I got back down onto sealed roads performance was back and happy to cruise at 75-80kph so altitude does change the engine tune a bit.

When I hosed the car down I was surprised at the amount of muddy water that had been splashed around the engine bay and the amount of crap sucked in by the engine cooling fan (the gauze in the rear engine door was caked with mud) - I will need to remove the fan covers and see how much mud got around the actual engine and oil cooler.

Anyway - an enjoyable day, if a bit cold.

Garry

Re: The 'Off-Road' picture thread

Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2016 12:57 pm
by jhon
Nice write up and photos Garry! Seeing that snow brought back memories of our winter and made me shiver - it's the middle of summer here now in the UK and although it's not that dry it's a lot warmer than where you were.

Great to see you using it off-road; it's well worth pulling of the wheels and the brake drums, washing out with clean water and drying them - I do that after every trial. Even though the drums have drainage holes they still hold a lot of debris which can accelerate wear.

I try and stay away from deep muddy water but sometimes it's inevitable - the fan really throws it about in the engine bay, but it doesn't seem to get inside the cowls.

Cheers,

John

Re: The 'Off-Road' picture thread

Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2016 1:33 pm
by AustHaflinger
Hi John - yes I try to steer clear of deep muddy water but had no choice other than going back. I wasn't expecting that as I had been there before and it has always been clear - but is a bit warm and the snow normally lasts a day and was well on its way to being melted.