The 25th anniversary of The Haflinger and Pinzgauer club uk

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heinkeljb
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The 25th anniversary of The Haflinger and Pinzgauer club uk

Post by heinkeljb »

The last weekend saw the 25th anniversary of The Haflinger and Pinzgauer club uk. For some it was a camping weekend, for others a stay in either a B&B or a hotel.

Me? I am quite sure if you are not a new member of the Site, you will know that Lurch (a 1973 LWB Haflinger) and I went camping. As I had enough notice this year and enough holiday available, I took the Friday and Monday off to turn it into a long weekend.

So setting off from Home on Friday mid-morning, Lurch and I trundled our way across East Sussex and into Kent. The platform packed with various items related to a camping weekend, you know, tent, camp bed, sleeping bag, food, a selection of spare parts and tools to make repairs if needed. Well, you need these things if you drive a Haflinger to a treffen. Now, I’ll share a little secret with you dear reader;

If you use your Haflinger on a regular basis, you fix the things that go wrong, by and large, so driving a longer distance isn’t really a lottery that some believe. Lurch has driven to Holland and back, lots of local rallies and now a journey approaching 200 miles on the round trip including all the running around undertaken during the weekend. No breakdowns! Planned maintenance needs to be done for sure, Lurch has noisy transmission and a couple of minor oil leaks which will need attending to soon.

Which is more than can be said for a couple of the Haf’s which came to the weekend. I am not saying the owners did anything wrong, just that use tends to make older vehicles more reliable rather than less…

One of the vehicles had done 10 miles following a rebuild / restoration and suffered from teething problems, oil leaks and general bad running. Another which had just had some major work carried out on the running gear ended up having it’s clutch changed at the camp site. As luck would have it for the owner, another engine with clutch attached was at the camp site on it’s way back home after a rebuild. For those who know what they are doing, the engine out, clutch out, replaced and engine back in takes a couple of hours and the Haflinger was back up and driving around ready for action!
Yet another Haf needed a bit of attention but only in as much as the horn didn’t work! When sorted, the owner couldn’t keep it quite! It wanted to go off at every available opportunity. Turned out that to start with, a fuse had blown due to a duff horn. Fuse replaced, the horn button didn’t quite fit the steering wheel, so every time the steering was turned, the horn sounded!

So a treffen is a good place to get all your gremlins sorted. Those people who came enjoyed a good road run round the local area on the Saturday. That was also the day the clutch was changed after it was discovered that the Haf didn’t really like towing a trailer. It ended up being towed around by another Haflinger!

The weather was kind to us and we only had enough rain to keep the dust down and not turn the off road experience in to a quagmire! Actually, for me that was the highlight of the weekend as I got to drive Lurch over all sorts of terrain, up and down steep slopes which to be honest I didn’t think a Haf and particularly one with, for all intents and purposes, road tyres would manage. Nobody broke anything during the off-roading. I accept that actually driving off road at what might be considered the extremes of the abilities of a Haf is not everyone’s cup of tea. So there were those who stood around and watched. Hopefully not entirely bored out of their minds!
There was a barbeque on Saturday night which our chairman had kindly organised. Makes for a nice atmosphere at such a gathering.

Sunday also had the club’s AGM which ensures the club runs for another year at least, during which the chairman handed out the chairman’s trophy – guess who was the recipient? I’ll give you a clue:- Lurch got to carry a diorama of a “Haflinger in the bush” home for having been my transport to all the Treffens / meetings (some quite far away), relating to Haflingers since I purchased him.

The trip home on Monday was not as uneventful as one would have imagined, Lurch and I happened upon a young damsel in great distress having just smashed the front of her car into a hedgerow growing in front of a 2 foot high bank. The young lady was clearly hysterical and in shock, trying to make a phone call to someone. I don’t think she even knew who she was trying to call. I calmed her down sufficiently to ascertain she was not badly injured and set about phoning the Police and Ambulance services. Now the thing that I bet has never occurred to any of you that rely on Sat-Nav to provide you with directions on your journey, is having to tell the emergency services operator on the other end of the phone exactly where you are…

It took a long time to manage to get my Sat-Nav to not only tell me which road I was on, but also what the nearest place was called. It also took a long while for the emergency services to turn up, mainly because we were in the middle of nowhere! Once the police had taken statements and the ambulance staff had strapped her down on a stretcher – she had complained of a sore back. There was a car to be dealt with as it was still sideways on in the road. As luck would have it, a skip lorry turned up just as I was about to use Lurch to try to tow the car out of the road, so we ended up using that. I am sure Lurch would have managed to move the car even though the front rather flatter than it should be and both front tyres were flat.

So all in all, an interesting long weekend!

Drive safe everyone…

John
(and Lurch of course)
Haflinger 703AP LWB 1973 - (Once owned by Lady Sutherland & Sons.) Now called "Lurch" !

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kerry460
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Re: The 25th anniversary of The Haflinger and Pinzgauer club

Post by kerry460 »

nice write up .
interesting .
and well done for helping out the damsel in distress .
all to often people just drive by as they do not want to get involved .

kerry
ex Tasmanian Haflinger agent .
1984 G Wagen 300GD auto
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AustHaflinger
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Re: The 25th anniversary of The Haflinger and Pinzgauer club

Post by AustHaflinger »

John - you live in England - there is no where that is in the middle of nowhere :lol:

I am glad that everything went well and that you helped the damsel in distress.

Your point about having your car sorted well in advance is well made. In my experience with a few makes, is that new parts should be fitted well in advance of any trip and given a good shakedown before hand because if they are going to fail they will do it earlier than later. Same with modifications - do them early and get a bit of use in before big trips. Also, unless you have doubts about the serviceability of something, if it works leave it (other than standard maintenance) as most of the issues I have had have been with items recently played with or renewed. Of course things do happen but they can be minimised with a bit of planning.

Thanks for the report.

Garry
Haflinger 700AP (73)
Range Rover Sport TDV6 (07)
Landrover FC 101 (77)
Landrover Series 1 SWB Station Wagon (57)
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jhon
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Re: The 25th anniversary of The Haflinger and Pinzgauer club

Post by jhon »

I'm impressed with the miles that you and Lurch do together John!

Any photos of the attending Haflingers?

John
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heinkeljb
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Re: The 25th anniversary of The Haflinger and Pinzgauer club

Post by heinkeljb »

Only took a couple of photos, as there were other non drivers standing around taking photos. I'll get then to send me some in the near future.
In the mean time:-

Hafi's in a row & the damsel's cars after we had moved it.
Hafi's in a line.jpg
Damsel in distress.jpg
John
Haflinger 703AP LWB 1973 - (Once owned by Lady Sutherland & Sons.) Now called "Lurch" !

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AustHaflinger
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Re: The 25th anniversary of The Haflinger and Pinzgauer club

Post by AustHaflinger »

I am looking for Lurch but cannot see him - I guess without his green house on the back he went incognito :o
Haflinger 700AP (73)
Range Rover Sport TDV6 (07)
Landrover FC 101 (77)
Landrover Series 1 SWB Station Wagon (57)
Landrover Series 1 SWB (57)
Jaguar E-type Roadster V12 (71)
Jaguar XJ12C (76)
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heinkeljb
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Re: The 25th anniversary of The Haflinger and Pinzgauer club

Post by heinkeljb »

Middle of the 3 white steel fronts. Yes took the green house off as I had to move a sofa and it didn't fit through the entrance hole.

John
Haflinger 703AP LWB 1973 - (Once owned by Lady Sutherland & Sons.) Now called "Lurch" !

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AustHaflinger
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Re: The 25th anniversary of The Haflinger and Pinzgauer club

Post by AustHaflinger »

You should have taken the sofa and the green house and did some Glamping rather than camping. :lol:
Haflinger 700AP (73)
Range Rover Sport TDV6 (07)
Landrover FC 101 (77)
Landrover Series 1 SWB Station Wagon (57)
Landrover Series 1 SWB (57)
Jaguar E-type Roadster V12 (71)
Jaguar XJ12C (76)
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