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Moved into snatch mode, don't like snatching especially in the confined area we were in but there was nothing else to do, we shortened the strap and I had to back up almost into the suspended GU to get a proper go. Denis, our third driver waved us both off together such that the snatched vehicle would just get its wheels turning as maximum pull was applied. It worked, and the big fat lump slowly appeared over the bank. We had arranged that because of the short rope the snatching vehicle would not use brakes and rely on the snatched car to stop both to avoid a rear ram. Cookie was a little slow on the brakes but pulled us up smoothly. Unfortunately I was a full car's length into the blackberries by then and couldn't even open the doors to get out. Much relieved at being up the bank, Cookie didn't even seem to care about his popped out rear tail lights and smashed trailer connection. We tied off the exposed wires and hooked the 4.2 GU up to our last car, a relatively light-weight Navara. The last car came up more easily. It was almost new and hadn't leaked at all except for its rear ute type tailgate. As the tailgate was folded down a huge amount of water rushed out. Amongst the debris Denis noticed something odd. He had forgotten to leave his rubbish at the Dargo tip the previous day. The mud slush and now maggot ridden garbage flowed out, down and around and into his already saturated boots. The heat, flies, blackberries, mud and shear effort was beginning to tell on everybody but it was over, the three vehicles below the bank had made it up and the two above and got down all with no more than minor damage. Well actually it wasn't quite over, the girls were still on the other side of the river. Denis suggested we "snatch them up", but we didn't figure that we wanted to spend the entire holidays in the doghouse so we went to help them. Much laughter was occurring below, as my wife was discussing the day's events with the strangers we had just made friends with. Unbelievably they had same surname as us and ours wifes names were exactly the same. I kept mine though because she was better with the winch, and off we headed. The rest of the track was no challenge after this and we took a shortcut back to Dargo hoping that the pub would still be open for lunch. Upon entering the town we were spotted and called up on the radio by some of those who had turned back earlier. There was some disbelief that we had got thru but many congratulations. We then walked into the Dargo Pub to be told that "the power was out and they could not serve drinks". Apparently they had no glasses left and could not legally use unwashed ones - they gave us the option of buying our own "plastic" glasses, stating that this was normally done on year years eve anyway to limit damage from broken glass in the streets. They were then legally allowed to fill "Our Glasses".

Beyond caring we shelled out the required extra $24, got our glasses filled and sank into the chairs just as cheering broke out, the power had been restored and the lights and air-conditioned came back on.

BlackBerries made this harder than it should have been

Not the Embankment but another nearby which better shows the rivers power

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Argadells - Flinders Ranges Words and Photos by Craig Goss

October 2005

Argadells in a station approx 30km's out the back of Quorn in the southern Flinders Ranges. It has been opened up to the public for a few years now but the word is still getting out. The driving is great and considering that we had never been there before, we thought it would be a great first trip for Greg and Mel who had bought their first 4wd (the white jeep). The petrol Jeep has no raised suspension and road tyres so it was going to be interesting to see how it went. With careful driving and not rushing our trip (why would you rush and miss out on the scenery!) the car survived with no damage. Our diesel patrol and the diesel 4.2 litre landcruiser also survived. The driving is not as tough as Warraweena but it is a great spot to go as it's close to Adelaide and gives you a great taste of what the Flinders has to of-fer. Camping facilities are basic (drop toilet) and minimal firewood. We had to collect most ourselves but I think the wood was supposed to be provided at the campsite. There had been recent rain which made the place very green. This is the greenest I have ever seen the Flinders as you can see by the campsite photos

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We have just returned from a 5,648 km round trip from Melbourne to Fraser Island. Our Nissan X Trail performed brilliantly the whole time (yes despite being motionally challenged and even deprived twice). Straight up the Hume and Pacific H’ways to Gym-pie (great conference centre there with a high standard of accommodation and very high standard of catering). A week to “veg out” on the sunshine coast (Marcoola Beach).

As this was our first major 4wd excursion we tested ourselves by driving up Teewah Beach from Tewantin to Rainbow Beach. Lowered the tyres to 25 psi when we left the bitumen (hot, from 35 psi). This was a brilliant experience, especially after our first stop to look at coloured sands when we realized we were driving through this fantastic environment with the windows up and the air conditioning on! Opened the windows and turned the air con off. For the first of many times decided there was proba-bly something better we could have been doing, but couldn’t begin to think what. Heaps of people were camped along the beach as it was the weekend. Catch sight of an osprey fishing so pull up and boil the billy (those little butane stoves are a great inven-tion). We camped two nights at Carlo Point

(to check we hadn’t forgotten anything while we were still in range of shops) and the trip up the beach had increased the desire and confidence to head on to Fraser Is. Rang the Queensland Parks etc Dept. and booked a vehicle permit and three nights at Dundaburra fenced campground @$4 pp per night (following advice from another forum mem-ber bim05 – thanks). Lowered the tyres to 22 psi hot (20 cold) as I felt we weren’t as in control on the soft crossings onto and off the beach as I would have liked, though we had no trouble maintaining momentum. These crossings were the worst part of the whole trip, mainly because they were so chewed up. No trouble crossing to the barge at Inskip Point ($70 return to Fraser Is.) or off it; the slightly lower pressure down to 22 from 25 made a big difference to the feel crossing the soft sand. Pure serendipity our dates meant low tide was conveniently in about the middle of the day.

Dundaburra has good camping facilities, free electric barbecues and hot showers ($1 for 3 mins). It was well located to let us roam up as far as Ocean Lake in the low tide beach driving pe-riod. It did not have mobile phone coverage, but the more isolated Orchid Beach did. Climbed up Indian Head, feeling we were in a quite remote place, and were quite surprised to discover a whole crowd of people up there – 10 people per Troopie means the small number of vehicles gives a false impression about how many people are around. Decided to try the soft track around Indian Head to see Champagne Pools and the northern beach and to go further than most of the hire vehicles were allowed. The exxy negotiated this no problems and we went as far as Ocean Lake.

Xcellent−XTrail−Xperience Long Distance 4WD Tour in a “softroader”

Words and Photos by David Mills

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The first bigger creek flowing over the beach there was no other vehicle crossing to watch. Three other vehicles stopped also – and waited while I walked through, then roared through where I had walked. She who has a wicked sense of humour suggested I should have dropped to my knees half way across as if I’d stepped in a hole. We slowed down for subsequent ones, but found they were reasonably flat to cross near the water mark. Strong on-shore winds the third day meant the beach driving period was a bit short (and sitting on the beach watching a sea eagle catch fish and fly back to feed its young up the cliff face from us took up a fair bit of time), so we rang up and booked another couple of days this time at Lake Boomanjin. Also a fenced campsite in the forest, small fenced area, amenities block (cold showers

only). Set up our dome tent in the middle and had the place all to ourselves after the lake visitors left. In the morning, drove over to Central station, Lake McKenzie etc. Well worth doing, but a fairly rough track and you need to negotiate some fairly high tree roots; not a prob-lem if you take it slow. Drove back to Boomanjin, and instead of our dome tent on its lonesome in the middle of a huge forest found three troopie loads of backpackers and another three or four couples had set up there as well and the fenced area was full of dome tents! Spoke to a number of inter-

esting people, including a couple who couldn’t credit that we had all we needed stacked below the level of the seat backs in the exxy and their landcruiser was loaded to the gills. Left via Dilli Village as soon as reasonable after high tide, and were able to drive around the beach at Hook Point back to the barge; loved it so much we then stayed two more nights at Freshwater Creek in the National Park on the mainland.

The Hema map is great; we traveled all the recommended tracks except the Northern Forests one which someone told us was very bumpy because of tree roots. We didn’t have time to make it across to the west. The exxy dragged its bottom where other vehicles had gouged out the wheel tracks, but in most places this was soft sand, and it seemed like we were grading a couple of inches off a lot of the time.

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The first time we got stuck we were driving down through a narrow deep cutting where there was no choice but to follow the wheel ruts, and the sand in the centre was harder packed (down toward the beach at Poyun-gan valley). Met a Bravo ute coming up and tried to back up to give way. The exxy dug in. By the time I’d dug around the wheels with the spade and a bit of the sand underneath, a tourist bus was behind the ute. A bit of a push from three blokes got us back up to where the ruts weren’t so deep and we could go by ourselves, then drive off the track at a wider point. The bus driver wanted us to “rev the guts out of her” but the auto would not spin the wheels in reverse nor allow the engine to rev over a certain level. We drove straight down through the same spot as soon as the others had gone without much difficulty.

The second time was driving up off the beach through the soft sand back to Freshwater Creek, a track we had driven three or four times previously, but perhaps more vehicles had chewed the ruts a bit deeper (or perhaps I’d got a bit complacent). Both of these were narrow spots where there was no choice but to follow the wheel ruts. Another vehicle owner offered to snatch us out, but he didn't have a shackle and the exxy has eyes, not hooks and my shackles were in the spare wheel compartment under everything; by then I had cleared a lot of sand with the spade, and suggested a bit of a push might do it – and it did. Main learnings: use the auto setting for 4wd system most of the time; the exxy ground clearance is a bit low, mainly because other vehicles dig out the wheel ruts to the depth of their clearance; keep up a bit of momentum over soft sand; lower the tyre pressures I think I would take another couple of pounds out (down to about 20psi hot); take a long handled spade; if you become

motionally deprived, have about three blokes standing around who are willing to push. You will see fantastic colours, a brilliant variety of bird life (we identified 45 of the ones listed on a page from the ranger), amazing scenery, and meet interesting people. “Rid” roll on sunscreen/repellant worked for us to keep off march/sand flies and mossies, but you need to be careful of putting this into the lakes when you swim. We only saw one dingo, but did see goannas, sharks, turtles, dolphins, a sting ray. Don’t leave Fraser Is to the overseas visitors. Don’t hesitate to tackle it in an exxy – but be prepared to put in a fair bit of time to get all the sand out of every nook and cranny (under car wash $10 at Rainbow Beach and Tewantin is only a start). Fuel economy: 5648kms; 570 litres; overall 10.09 l/100; best fill 9.06 l/100 on Hume H’way using RON 98; worst fill 17.3 l/100 for 289 kms of sand driving on Fraser – this was RON 95 because of unavailablitiy of 98). I wouldn't hesitate to go on sand again. I only used the lock button (after the first couple of crossings) when starting from a stand-still on soft sand. Another exxy driver pulled up to ask how we got on - he had left his in lock mode for all the sand driving, and now the lock light wouldn't go off.

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TRIP AROUND OZ by Shaun Barker & Kelly Bain

Week TwentyFour - Day 162 Monday 2nd January Karrinyup (Perth) Today we went to Fremantle and visited the jail first. The jail was only closed in 1991 so it seemed pretty amazing that prisoners lived there not all that long ago. We did a tour and was just brilliant. They showed us what happened as the pris-oner arrived, lined up on a bench where they took off their clothes and all sat naked next to each other with a little cubicle where the paedophiles and high risk prison-ers were kept and then in front of everyone they were searched even then bend over part was in front of everyone. They then had a shower before escorted to their cell. They showed us the cells and how they were divided into the time of sen-tences. It looked exactly the same as The Shoreshank Redemption movie. They told us how the men used a bucket for a toilet and would throw it over the guards, so the guards would only walk under the planks, so the cell area stank and took them over 3 years to get rid of the smell after it was closed. They showed us the grounds the blokes sat in and they were divided up into sections. They had people in for minor offences together and then the other section contained all the highly violent men mostly gang members and then a section for the high risk prisoners. They would send messages to each other via tennis balls which they would also

hide weapons in. In the area with the violent prisoners, guards stayed behind a barred fence and never entered the ground unless some-one was critically injured. They left any other fights to be sorted out between themselves. She told us the story behind the riot in 1988 and the fire which burned in the cell area. We were shown the solitary rooms in which they were given just a bible to read and then the hang-ing area. From the time they took the man to be hang out of his soli-tary cell to the time he was hang was only 60secs, they must have ran the guy to the hang area. They would wait 15mins before the doctor below pronounced the prisoner dead. The tour was excellent. They had more tours, one at night, one through the escape tunnels and one telling more about individual prisoner’s stories. They would have been interesting to do so next time we will do them. Afterwards we checked out Fremantle which is a very nice city and being a public holiday was packed. We had seafood by the water and had a nice time. Us girls wanted to go the markets but by the time we left it was 430pm and they shut at 5pm so that’s a next time too.

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Day 163 Tuesday 3rd January Karrinyup (Perth) Today we went to Yanchep National Park which one of the few spots left with abundant Koalas. Aimee and Drew went on a 2hr camel ride along the beach and Aimee got a massive bruise on her leg from the saddle. Shaun and I went down to the beach. The beach was beautiful but boy was the water freezing. While we were sitting down at the beach up in the car park three of the local council workers rocked up and there be-haviour was appalling they were sitting in the council truck with the music absolutely blaring. Next thing I know they pull out binoculars and started checking out all the girls sunbathing and walking along the beach. So here we are trying to enjoy a nice lunch and all this is going on, not to mention the swearing. To shock me even more before they took of they through all the rubbish from what they had had for lunch into bush now I am talking paper and plastic bags and all, and just as they pulled away they through a rag out the window which lay in the middle of the car park. The day was a bit overcast with a few specks of rain here and there but still muggy. The National Park was very nice and had a cave but we had missed the last tour. While we were standing there Drew felt something crawling on him and flicked it off, we asked the ranger there what it was and he informed us that it was a "Kangaroo Tick", he must have picked it up while on the camel ride. They had lots of other things to do as well like Aboriginal Cultural Shows. On the way home from the national park while in the car driving Aimee started screaming next thing she flicks a massive tick on to the dashboard of the car, Drew slammed his hand down on it that hard that I still don't know how the dash didn't break in the hire car, but to my amazement the tick wasn't even fazed. Drew the flicked it out of the car. In the mean time Aimee has jumped out of the car screaming and freaking out. She made Drew perform a full search on her to ensure that she didn't have any more on her, mind you this is all on the side of a very busy road. The whole way home Aimee kept thinking there was one climbing on her so it was heaps funny al-though she probably wouldn't agree. We went back home before going to Hippo Creek for dinner. We had heard a lot about Hippo Creek from a guy Andrew up in Broome. Shaun wanted Drew to get the 1kg steak which if you can eat the whole thing you get your photo on the wall but it cost $45. Drew and I ended up getting a meal called "Lions Kill" which consisted of half a rack of ribs and the steak of your choice, which was absolutely beautiful. The meals were all very nice, it was a bit pricey but worth it for sure. Day 164 Wednesday 4th January Karrinyup (Perth) This morning we went to a place called The Maze. It has 4 mazes and the first one was very good, it took us a bit to find our way out. On the next two we competed with each other to see who could get out the fast-est. We decided on the last maze that it was going to be us versus the girls, this was bound to be a controversial game. The girls went through the maze in just under a minute then they boys hit the maze and we knocked it off in around 25 - 30secs. Well as you could imagine the girls spat the dummy accusing us of cheating so we replayed the route we took and they reckon we cut through bushes so we went a totally differ-ent way and still kicked there buts. They weren't has hard but still good fun. The place also had some Kangaroos, Koalas and Emus. We played some Putt Putt also which had very unusual shapes and once again there was some fierce rivalry going on. Afterwards we went to Yanchep National Park again and did the cave tour which was very good, the tour went for quite a while also and the guide was extremely informative.

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Day 165 Thursday 5th January Karrinyup (Perth) Today we were going to go to Rottnest Island but Shaun's back played up again and we couldn't go. Instead we hang out in the caravan park and went to the shops for a little while. Day 166 Friday 6th January Karrinyup (Perth) This afternoon we went to Lancelin which was just beautiful. It is a HUGE area of crystal white sand dunes which are 100m high. The Desert Storm bus arrived and even Shaun who had been hanging out to come here was surprised at the size of the bus. We climbed up onto the bus and even the seats had suspension. The guy ( who is a motor X rider) took off with every-one bouncing in their seats and played midnight oil loudly. We got to the first sand dune and it’s a lot steeper than I thought, everyone on the bus screamed as we went down. After a few big dunes he came up to one then reversed up to it and went down backwards and to add to it the guy driving took his hand s off the wheel and started clapping as we drove down back-wards. We then jumped off the bus and took some pics followed by some sand boarding which was pretty fun. Aimee and I went backwards and Drew sat down while Shaun wasn't able to with his back so he just snapped away happily instead. We rode down more sand dunes and on the home run he put the bus sideways all the way till the end. It was an awesome ride. We hopped in our car and Drew drove straight through some thick sand and got bogged in front of everyone. We jumped out and hand dug the sand away from the tyres and with the help of some others pushing the car we made it out. We then drove up to Cervantes to see the Pinnacles at sunset again and the atmosphere was a lot better this time as it wasn't as cold or windy as last time. We were there for about 90mins when we headed back and we were all starving but at Cervantes there wasn't anything open at 830pm so we had to wait till 1130pm when we returned to Perth to have dinner and by now we were all so unbelievably hungry and had a great Hungry Jacks for dinner.

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Day 167 Saturday 7th January Karrinyup (Perth) Drew and I went to see the jet cars at Kwi-nana Motoplex. There were tones of nice cars there as usual and Drew and I had our car fix which we needed so badly. The Jet Cars came out later on in the afternoon and they truly are one of those things you need to experience to be able to understand the true speed and feel you get of a vehicle shooting down the quarter mile at around 500km/h. After lazing around in the morning the girls went to Karrinyup shops and had a pedicure done which was very relaxing. Day 168 Sunday 8th January Karrinyup (Perth) During the day we had a bit of a lazy day. Shaun and I went to the shops and browsed around. In the evening we went to Kings Park to see Perth at night. The place lived up to the hype we had heard about it. It was just beautiful, the photos just don't give it justification. From the city buildings being all lit up to the coloured trees it really was one of those things that you need to see when and if you ever visit Perth. We spent a few hours enjoying the scenery. We were all craving a McFlurry so afterwards we went to Maccas to get one.

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TRIP AROUND OZ by Shaun Barker & Kelly Bain

Week TwentyFive - Day 169 Monday 9th January Karrinyup (Perth) Relaxed Day 170 Tuesday 10th January Karrinyup (Perth) Today we said Goodbye to Aimee and Drew. We had a great time with them and Shaun gave them a farewell Shaun Barker brekkie. Day 171 Wednesday 11th January Karrinyup (Perth) Today we went job hunting Day 172 Thursday 12th January Karrinyup (Perth) Job Hunting Day 173 Friday 13th January Karrinyup (Perth) Today we decided to move on, visit the south coast of WA and then head home and do 4 weeks work at home. We had always planned on coming home for a week or so for my sisters 18 birthday but it looks like we are going to be home a few weeks earlier then expected. We are also going to be heading from Sydney to go down to Tasmania on the "Spirit Of Tasmania". Day 174 Saturday 14th January Karrinyup (Perth) Today Shaun went to a car show and I went into the city looking for London Mall which I didn’t find and the discount warehouse which I too didn’t find but walked heaps and heaps to find. I spent the rest of the day with the people in the caravan park. Day 175 Sunday 15th January Karrinyup (Perth) Relaxed and packed up ready to leave in the morning. We also went out for diner that night with the people we had been camping with for the past 4 weeks or so. We went to my favourite Perth restaurant, not that we went to many "Hippo Creek" and tonight I had the "Hunters Agasia" not sure if that is how you spell it but basically it was 500gms of beef on a skewer, hung up from a stand with sauce in foil at the top. So what happens is the sauce runs down the beef and then drips on to your bowl of chips at the bottom, damn delicious if you ask me.

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TRIP AROUND OZ by Shaun Barker & Kelly Bain

Week TwentySix - 182 Monday 16th – 22nd January Karrinyup (Perth) to Sydney This diary entry we have decided to do a little different in the sense that it is too hard to type it out into different day because the week basically ended up being 2 days for us and you are about to find out why. So Monday morning we get up bright and early our destination Albany. We say our good byes to the people we had met and were camping with and start on our way. We left Perth and it felt a little said, we had met soooo many people and had had such a great time that it was a little hard to move on. The weather in Perth as we left was around the low 30's with not a cloud in the sky. Slowly we made our way down to Albany going as easy as possible with the right foot so as not to use unneces-sary amounts of fuel. Oh and by the way this section may seem a little rushed but it is ok because we

are going to be coming back over across the bottom of Australia around April 07 to work in the mines for a few years probably in Kalgoorlie. So where was I... Ok so we get about 80km's out of Albany and it starts to become a little overcast, and the closer we get the more overcast it gets until we are about 20km's out of Albany and it starts pouring down. We were spewing because it was cold, raining and windy as buggery, not the kind of weather you won't to be out in to go sight seeing. We decided to give the guys back at Perth a call and see how badly it was raining there, there reply was, there isn't even a cloud in the sky and it is about 30degrees here. It was about now that we really wanted to turn around and go back. Kel and I accessed the weather and decided that because we were on a bit of a time frame we would continue on to Esperance and hopefully things may get a little better. We started making our way and by now it was about 8:30pm. We made it through to Jerramungup and headed a few km's out the other wise of town where we were confronted by a "Road Closed due to Flooding" sign. So we drove back into the Cara-

van Park in town and asked them if they knew when the bridge would be fixed and she said it shouldn't be too long maybe 2 - 3 weeks. "I would hate to see how long it takes them to fix something if it is going to be a while". So we asked her if there was an alternate route and she said yeah but you would have to go all the way around and back up to Lake Grace. We looked at the map and it was at this stage the we decided just to head straight for home as every where down the bottom of WA was just totally water logged and boggy. We started head-ing towards Lake Grace with the intention of cutting through to Lake King and on to Ravensthorpe. We arrived at Pingrup and by now it was getting close to midnight we just started heading out of Pingrup when we bumped into another road closed sign.

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So once again out comes the map we looked at it and thought ok so now we will take the route to Katanning on to Narrogin then on to Kondinin and then around to Lake King and then on to Ravensthorpe. So off we head Katanning - Narrogin - Wickepin - Jitarning - Kulin - Kondinin then we start to head on to Hyden oh but wait a second road closed. At this stage we are wondering if we are ever going to make it around this flooding, so out comes the trusty map again and once again work out a new route of travel. Ok so our new route is Corrigin - Bruce Rock - Merredin - Kalgoorlie - Norseman then across the Nullarbor. So off we head and finally now more "Road Closed: signs. We ended up arriving at Merredin at about 6am so here we are around 24 hours after leaving Perth and we are only 250km's from Perth and having gone through some 220litres of diesel. The drive from Merredin to Kalgoorlie was pretty uneventful. It was at this stage after driving since yesterday morning Kel took over for a couple of hours for the drive into Kalgoorlie. When we arrived at Kalgoorlie it was a bloody scorcher it was sooo hot, but much nicer then the cold and rain we had been putting up with all night. Kel and I cruised around Kalgoorlie checking it out and then went into a few mining agencies inquiring about work for when we head back over then in just over a year. We then hit the road for

Norseman arriving there around lunch time. Next was on to Ballado-nia, it was making this turn towards an easterly direction at Norseman that really started to hurt us. For so long everyone tells us when you go across the Nullarbor make sure you go west to east to ensure that you get the tail winds well well well as per the rest of our trip the fuel stations had there big turbine fans point straight at us. The wind was the strong that sometimes we couldn't achieve speeds any greater then about 70km/h. People say oh but you aren't in a rush but god damn there becomes and point when it is just plain ridiculous and this was one of those times, we were using fuel like it was FREE. After some hours of pushing on we pull into Balladonia and started to as-sess whether or not to drive on through the night or not. We decided that seen we had been driving for 36 hours it would be best to shower up and get a good nights sleep. Plus also we had been told how bad the roo's where out there and I just didn't feel like sitting there having to keep an eye out for those little buggers. At Balladonia Road House they have a Barina that has been split in 2 like a tin can, I said to the bloke in the store how old was the person who got killed in that and he informed me that she was only quite young and actually walked away from it some how with only minor injuries but she was in the minority he said. The cause of the accident was fatigue in which she had dozed off at the wheel and hit a tree, he said she was so unlucky in the sense that it was the only tree for countless kilometres. While at Balladonia we were treated to an amazing electrical storm which brought no rain with it which was good from a photo taking perspective and this gave me my first chance at photographing lightning although I stuffed up and had it focused all the way in instead of to infinity Kel and I also sat down and worked out how much of a detour we had taken try this for size 1200km's extra than what we should have.

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We got up early and were on the road by 5am. Some 50km's out of Balladonia we realised how much of a good decision it was to not drive on into the night because it looked like a war zone, there were dead roo's EVERYWHERE our record being 63 dead roo's in 200m's. You may ask how did/could you count them if there were so many, try sitting on 70km/h across the Nullarbor trust me you have plenty of time. The scenery was unbelievable and it really did feel stoopid passing by it all with out doing much stopping but then we will be back soon. We stopped quite frequently to stretch the legs and take as many photo's as possible. By the time we got to Wudinna it was starting to get dark. We cruising on through Port Augusta and then started making our way up towards Broken Hill. By the time we got to Broken Hill it was starting to become light again. From here we drove on to Wilcannia - Cobar - Nyngan - Trangie - Dubbo - Molong - Orange - Bathurst - Lithgow - Penrith - Home. It had been a long drive this leg, 46hours straight. We firstly rocked up at the door of Kels house, keeping in mind that firstly it is 3:00am and secondly they have no idea that we were coming home and to everyone's knowledge we are currently down at Margaret River working. We ring Kel's home phone and ask them to let us in, Kel's dad replies do you know what time it is, we said but we are standing out the front, they wouldn't believe us for a little while and then even-tually opened the door, they kept asking us if something had happened but we explained why we had come home. Next was on to my house, I parked the car a few houses down and then went around the back and unlooked the back doors because I had kept my keys to the house. I walked into my mum's room and asked her how she was going she sprung up out of bedding and for some reason she too thought that some was wrong next I went into my sisters room and tickled her eye lashes, she thought my dad was doing it, and then realised it was me, everyone thought that Kel and I had had a fight and split up or something. I then put my car up the backyard and the next day when day came around to visit. not knowing that I was going to be there he got a shock to see my car in the backyard. It was a bloody long drive and probably not something I would like to do again any time soon. The other thing I have learnt is as much as I love my troopy never again would I head off with out a Turbo charger bolted on to it, it just makes things a hell of a lot harder. Anyway peoples that is it for now but stayed tuned as early March, the 2nd to be exact we are off on our way to travel Tasmania - VIC - SA - back up to Alice for Finke Desert Race on the queens birthday weekend then on to Birdsville and home for about 6 months before heading on over to the mines so stay tuned.

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WHICH WINCH? Tech Article written by Andrew Hiscock

photos by Trevor Beck, David Lindholm, Andrew Hiscock & Russell Bambridge

The Inspection and Testing team: Andrew Hiscock, Haydn Meyers, Pat Raets

Trevor Beck, Mike Hayes & Andrew Schwenke With assistance from other members of the Whyalla & Dist. 4WD Club

Let the arguments begin! After lots of discussion amongst 4WDers about the merits and value of winches around and under $1000 we have decided to test a few out. We are testing them in situations that a “recreational” 4WDer would have a use for a winch. Most peo-ple looking at these winches are not High Country regulars who use their winch up to a dozen times on a day trip. They are likely to have rarely, if ever, had a need for a winch but are looking for extra security as they travel further or attempt new harder tracks. These people would most likely use a winch a couple of times per year once they have bought one. What we want to find out is how durable, reliable and capable these winches really are and if they are up to occasional use.

During research for this story we have been told that there are at least four chinese factories making winches that outwardly appear the same but are made to varying costs, component quality, fit & finish and most importantly how the are assembled. In addition to this companies that supplied us with winches – Terrain Tamer & Ironman 4x4 - have their own specific require-ments and modifications that are included at the factory. We are NOT trying to see if a $400 ebay winch is as good as a $2,100 Warn winch. Its not. Not even close. If that was your only interest in this story then you can save yourself some quality time and move on to the next story in the mag. For those that are interested in the relative performance of these winches then read on…….

We have obtained four 9500lb winches and plan to test them regularly over the next 12 months, with an updated report here each quarter. This is the only way we can test both performance and reliability. Although we are recording data like motor temp and current draw these are only for comparison purposes. See manufacturers data for more detailed information on capacity and cur-rent draw. Our overriding interest is to keep the testing equal for all of the winches so that real comparisons can be made. The winches we have are a Warn 9.5XP as our benchmark winch, a $400 winch bought new on ebay as our cheapie and two winches that we believe recreational 4WDers would be considering, available from reputable companies with good warranties for around $1,000. These have been provided by Terrain Tamer and Ironman 4x4. For comparison purposes we also have an ARB Magnum winch which we have stripped and photographed but isn't included in the physical testing. Due to the amount of people around this testing – recording vari-ous items and taking photos – for safety sake we have removed the steel cables supplied with the winches and fitted Amsteel Blue synthetic winch rope. As these are all low mount brake-in-drum type winches extra care is needed when using synthetic ropes, including minimal powering out of the rope which generates a lot of heat as the motor drives against the automatic brake. Our planned testing includes self recovery up a steep hill, retrieving a “dead” vehicle up a hill, use in sand with a ground anchor, winching after taking the vehicle swimming and other recreational 4WDing scenarios.

If any other winch suppliers/importers would like their 9500lb winch included in our trial we would be happy to add to our testing pool. Contact the magazine at: fourwheelingsa@optusnet.com.au

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Winch Testing Part 1 Going inside the winches Our first stop on the wonderful winch tour 2006 was to the workshop where each winch was taken apart, inspected, picked on, meggered, and generally poked and prodded. We then reassembled them and weighed them. We weighed all of the winches, without the cable, and found the following: TerrainTamer 9500lb winch was the heaviest and weighs 22kg. The ebay, Ironman4x4 and Warn XP all weighed 20kg. The ARB Magnum9K weighs 16kg. 94feet of steel cable (5/16”) weighs 8kg and the Amsteel Blue synthetic only weighs 2kg for 125 feet of 3/8”. Roller fairlead weighs 5kg and the Aluminium hawser weighs 0.5kg. That’s a 10.5kg weight saving at the front of your 4WD when you change from steel cable to synthetic! Terrain Tamer 9500lb Winch This one has been fitted to my GU Patrol into a Nissan steel winch bar. The winch and roller fairlead bolted up without any mods. The fairlead was replaced with an aluminium hawser, supplied by Mike Hayes, to suit the Amsteel Blue synthetic rope which was also supplied to us by Mike. A quirk of the Nissan bar is that the winch needs to be mounted upside down. This requires the gearbox to be rotated to bring the clutch lever back to the top. This was an

easy task and done after the stripdown. This was the second winch we pulled apart. All of the team were surprised by the obvious difference in quality of com-ponents and assembly when compared to the ebay winch. Externally they are nearly identical but internally its chalk and cheese. The gear quality was far better, fit and finish were better and gen-eral assembly was better. The only thing we didn't like was that the gearbox was completely filled with grease. Chocka block full. The ebay winch was under lubed but this was a bit over the top.