Page 1 of 1

De Wildt. AKA: What did you do with your winch today ?

Posted: 09 Mar 2016 09:07
by iandvl
I was rather amused earlier this week. An acquaintance, who has recently acquired a lifted, modded, lexus'ed SFA Hilux, invited me to take a drive at De Wildt with him (he had not yet taken the new truck offroad). His words to me were: "Don't worry, De Wildt has plenty of escape routes, so you can come in the Patrol"...

So I went along, and cleared everything with very little effort (as can be expected).

And later on in the day, Karma struck...

The Hilux ended up bending it's extended steering link climbing out of one of the pools in the mud section. I assume it was a combination of a sub-standard part (the extended link), large tyres and too much power. Whatever it was, the vehicle could still turn right, but just not left.

We spent quite a while attempting to bend it straight again so that he could at least get home. The steering link had bent upwards, and we spent quite a bit of time attempting to put enough pressure to bend it straight using a bottle jack between the chassis member and the link. Similarly, we tried using a shifting spanners to apply leverage to get it straight. But we simply did not have anything big enough to provide enough leverage, and the bottle jack was just too big to fit properly. I remembered reading something about a bush mechanic repair using a winch to straighten something, so as a last resort, we attached a snatch block to the diff, fed the winch cable through this and attached the winch clip to the steering bar. This provided enough pressure to the steering link to bend it back far enough so that the lux driver could get home.

The only photograph I have of the incident, is the bent steering link forwarded to me by the lux driver. The bit at the top-left should be straight. As you can see, the supporting brace just seems to be far too small...
LuxSteeringArm.jpg
LuxSteeringArm.jpg (167.8 KiB) Viewed 2851 times
However, I've got proof of the whole incident... I forgot to switch off my GoPro when I stopped to help, and I've got it all recorded there. I've just got to get around to downloading it and pulling out the relevant bits. I will do that some time.

One thing I found super annoying was some family in a metallic green Jeep Sahara. They stopped behind is where we were crawling through the mud trying to get things working. Did not greet. Did not ask if they could help in any way, but just stood there, had their lunch and watched us struggle. I'm just glad we provided entertainment for them... :think: :think:

In the meantime, to prove I was there, here's the Patrol (and the Lux) at De Wildt.
Trol-s.jpg
Trol-s.jpg (414.11 KiB) Viewed 2851 times
Trol-Lux-s.jpg
Trol-Lux-s.jpg (381.78 KiB) Viewed 2851 times

Re: De Wildt. AKA: What did you do with your winch today ?

Posted: 09 Mar 2016 09:34
by IanT
Jeep Drivers!! Well! Must say your Troll looks very cool with it's new bumper :thumbup:

Re: De Wildt. AKA: What did you do with your winch today ?

Posted: 09 Mar 2016 09:35
by IanT
P.S where is my roof rack :think:

Re: De Wildt. AKA: What did you do with your winch today ?

Posted: 09 Mar 2016 09:39
by iandvl
IanT wrote:P.S where is my roof rack :think:
Thanks - I think the 'trol looks awesome with bumper.

Sadly, whilst I'd love to drive the 'trol daily with the rack on, I cannot. It won't be possible for me to get into the underground parking at most clients I regularly work at... :doh: :doh:

As such, I save it for special occasions (when we camp etc) and it is doing doing well here at home at it's storage place. I'll put it on sometime an post a pic - would that make you happy ? :rolling: :rolling:

Personally, I wanted to put it on over the weekend (just for the De Wildt trip) in order to scare the heck out of the lux driver, but since I knew I had to be at Megawatt park yesterday (and I had no idea what the parking situation would be like), it just seemed to be too much effort for one day. :)

Re: De Wildt. AKA: What did you do with your winch today ?

Posted: 09 Mar 2016 09:51
by IanT
Know the feeling, I have extra hight garages and I just fit in, not that it matters anymore as my 18 year old son with his 2008 Ford Fiesta has kicked my Troll out the Garage, now it is sleeping over at my factory!! At least my 130 Landy now has some company :rolling:

Re: De Wildt. AKA: What did you do with your winch today ?

Posted: 09 Mar 2016 09:54
by iandvl
IanT wrote:Know the feeling, I have extra hight garages and I just fit in, not that it matters anymore as my 18 year old son with his 2008 Ford Fiesta has kicked my Troll out the Garage, now it is sleeping over at my factory!! At least my 130 Landy now has some company :rolling:
That's not right. Surely you can just park the 'trol over the Fiesta ??? :rolling: :rolling: :rolling: