***Picnic in the SNOW&WOODS REVIEW*** 12th Feb 2012

[gregster]

Please post you comments and piccies here...

A great day in some new conditions for us all, huge thanks for everyones support today...it was a blinda...

Will do a proper post in a bit, getting evils cos "someone" is unloading the disco on her own!!!

[Hound Dog]

Had a great day nice to catch up with the SE mob as the last picnic I was stuck in hospital with pemumonia.

[rospicer]

Had an excellent day, got to slide around a bit on AT's... Only 1 new dent as well Great to catch up and be able to put faces to forum usernames. Looking forward to the next one already. Only got one pic with my phone and its of me stuck

[Bigga]

twas a good day ! and if anyone says i was stuck for ages don't believe it lol ,and the pics are all doctored.............

seriously though,big thanks to everyone for getting me out ! will make it all day at the next one..........

was good to finally get up there,cracking place that deserves plenty of support to keep it going .................

cheers

[Wilberforce]

Well, I had a truly cracking day, which went sour sadly within a mile or so of home.... Coming up the hill from town, and all of a sudden smoke starts coming from behind my dash, accompanied by some squealing from the engine bay. Thankfully enough electrical oomph in the battery to keep the motor running and lights on, but by the time I'd got home the dash had gone dead and annoyingly so had the windows so one's stuck half down where I let the smoke out. Quick investigation of the fuse panel reveals one not only blown but melted and another blown. Central locking and alarm still works as do lights but the immobiliser's u/s. I've pulled the alarm fuse, taped some plastic over the windows and left it to sort out in daylight. Grrr...

Aside from that, a thoroughly enjoyable day all round, first time I've had a play in snow for a while and as ever great to catch up with the usual suspects and some new faces. Lara did superbly as ever, hope I managed to entertain a few passengers.
Roll on the next one

[rospicer]

Certainly entertained me there Jim. some nice tree knocks but that shorty of yours is basically unstoppable.

[fudge]

i have now just got back
it was a long day for me and only got stuck twice or 3times if you count when i nearly rolled it
was great fun in the snow, it adds a little something else to play.

my pics will come when i get home on friday

[Retro Pedro]

Good day - conditions brilliant - initially left over virgin snow now thoroughly disturbed and ice-bergs in the bottom of holes which must have been a good 2" thick when it was broken up. Thems on mud tyres had grip from snow on top of the terra firma but thems on A/T's had to fight a bit more.
Would have uploaded a couple of vids but the SD card seems to have corrupted unfortunately.
Thanks to Greg and Sal for effort involved in getting this event happening. Also good to see alot of old muckers, some of you peeps travelled a fair few miles to get there.
Good to be able to put names to faces from guys that we know in the forum cyber world (rospicer and bigga).

[Norse]

Was a good day out and snow was definately differant. gona get burt down there soon i hope

Though two lessons learnt i think 1) we shouldnt let chloe reverse any vehicle 2) Charlie needs an automatic....or at least remember where the brakes are

[2much]

a great afternoon for me - got chauffeured round by pete so i didnt damage the unmodded new truck or damage the bumper thats promised to Bobbins!

despite the cold, there were lots of smiles to be seen and lots of catching up on what seems to have been too long since we last met

good that you are back on the mend phil

finally got the nudge bar to paul but the boot didnt stay empty for long thanks to greg and the purchase of some more wheels

just a reminder to anyone that has ever been to the woods but not for a while or indeed would like to - get yourself down to the next meet for a fantastic day out - keep the woods alive!!!!

[gregster]

Back again....

Well this one was going to be an interesting one, on two counts...

The first being that this was the first meet since my plea to all the members to support us in this project...and boy did they deliver, with great numbers of members coming down with their friends and family to answer my plea...

The second being that mother nature had treated us to whole new load of challenges in dunking the woods in a whole load of snow...we cant organise snow, and its was a gift to be able to experience our playground in totally new conditions...

It all started yesterday for me, getting the trucks up the workshop ready for todays fun...It was -5 up the workshop and yet both the 2.8 shortys (jims and the wrecker) burst into life with hardly a protest...air up the tyres and started clearing some of the near foot of snow drifts that were burying them! The 2.4 needed some surgery, fuel lines were leaking all over the exhaust manifold, so they needed sorting...a challenge with numb hands!

Then back up to the workshop this morning to load up and extract the playthings...
Members started arriving soon after to assist. Jims shorty had an issue in as much as I had stacked a large tarp on top of it with a wheel on tyre on top to stop it blowing away...this had frozen to the hard top on his truck though, and didnt want to come off! I envisaged Jim having to drive round with it on there all day till it thawed out, but once extracted I managed to stand on the back tyre and break the ice holding it on so it finally came off.
The yard was a sheet of ice though...and much slipping and sliding occured while loading up.

Then off down to the woods in convoy to set up base camp in the clearing...a boy did everyone get a surprise by what greeted them...our clearing and the rest of the woods full of undisturbed snow...a good 6-8" everywhere I would say and drifts and holes up to a foot deep...
I had wandered down yesterday and had a look, but thought I would let it be a surprise for everyone to have a day playing in the snow.

Base camp set out, and the kettles on, and everyone started venturing off to explore in the snow.

I headed off in the 2.4 with Bigga following in his B...we headed down the bottom of the site...I had a go at the last hill and have to say I was shocked at how much traction I had...snow deffo has more grip than mud...i didnt expect bigga to follow up there though..on a/t's....that made for the first and probably longest stuck of the day...which his lad timed to the minute to use as ammo against his dad later LOL...Finally extracted using Retro Petes winch, when Jim shorty and the BGL tied together couldnt shift it...Pete saves the day yet again!

Gotta say the guys on A/t's did well...Ratcav and Rospicer getting around ok up the top of the woods, a few stucks to be expected, but some great driving though...I got the BGL stuck once, after stevey2stuck jinxed it by driving it while we pulled out Ratcav... I was kinda beached on top of a mound with none of the tyres touching the ground! Pete dragged the BGL to freedom again, cheers bud...

Todays snow loving loons were...(order from the list)...

Fudge and kelly (with 5 tyres the same size)
Matt turned up in his shorty with more tyres than an Armageddon styley Armadillo would need, and at least some of them where even a similar size!
They did well in the shorty today, getting around with on only a few stucks...Good to see you again fella

Robfog
Great to see Rob down the woods again after his laning injury last year...Big help as always, and his shorty is looking sweet...Cant wait till you have got your plaything and can give it large in the woods...

Hound Dog + Nina
Phil is looking well after his recent illness and better for it having quit smoking and lost loads of weight...Nina kept Sally company at the base camp while phil joined us tackling the woods...encouraged me to do silly stuff as always...such a bad influence!

Rospicer
Robs first picnic in the woods, and him and his 2.8 shorty did real well...getting most places on at's, squeaking away like the mouse version of the Eurovision song contest...Cool to see having a play mate after your grafting at the work day...Welcome to our kind of fun!

Wilberforce
Jim arrived in is 2.8 lwb loaded to the gunnel's with umpteen passengers, 5 wheels n tyres for me, an air compressor pump, 2x 2.8 front diffs, his own spare wheel and all the other stuff he carries...rammed wasnt the word! Jims and his shorty did there thing around the woods stopping for nothing...that beast in unstoppable with special tracks, 2 locked diffs and a good driver...Thanks for helping Sally with the cooking bud and bringing the bits down for me...Thankfully you didnt have to drive round all day with a yellow tarp and fiat uno wheel iced to your roof seeing as the ice seemed to have thawed slightly since the -5 0r 6 the night before!

Norse & Charlie
Came down with Jim...good to see you both again, has been a while....just need to get your shorty down and get it dirty!

Stevey2much
Stevey 2stuck came down in his new 2.8 shorty, which is cool, and went round with retro pete...cheers for jinxing my BGL mate...Stevy drove it when we extracted Ratcav and when I got back in it I immediately got stuck!! My only stuck of the day too!...Great to catch up again, and glad you like the new wheels that are gonna look supercool on your truck...

Mapracing
Pauls locked up shorty made its return to the woods after a "rest" and did its thing with Paul giving it large at the helm...
Paul was sporting the Pootle look for the day in the cold...


Dan
Mapracings nephew and now the new owner of Davetheraves old 2.0i sport certainly had a baptism of fire for his first ever time off road in a new truck...But it did really really well, got stuck a couple of times, buts thats all the fun of the game, and managed to reverse in a tree whilst trying not to break the mirror...seriously mate...trash the mirror next time and not the rear quarter and tail-light...its a much easier fix! This was soon sorted up the workshop later with a new taillight and his shorties introduction to Mr Slidehammer! Great to meet you mate, and well done, a fantastic first days offroading.

RatCav + Chloe
Came down in the Hi-cube isuzu trooper...and did a cracking job of navigating the beast around the woods on a/ts in such extreme conditions...well done fella...Chloe had a go in the BGL and modified the front corner for me...She done real well though and is a good pupil, well she will be when I find a way of immobilising her left leg to keep it off the clutch pedal! LOL...The BGL is now longer than it was to start with due it front bumper being remodelled in a reversing incident...who would ever think that a blonde in a 4x4 would have issues reversing eh??? Great to see you both again...

Retro Pedro
Pete with working indiculators came and done his thing in his unstoppable 2.8 shorty...and saved the day on the Bigga extraction by winching him out where 2 locked up trucks couldnt find enough grip to pull him. A cracking days driving from pete as always and big thanks for the extractions mate, we couldnt have done it without you fella. The repaired gearbox seemed to be doing well, a job well jobbed I reckon Pete...

Bigga
As I came down the hill into the woods I saw a B series...and it had me stumped for a minute...the black wheels were a giveaway though and it was our Bigga who had surprised us all and come down for the day...Great to see you mate, and glad you could finally make one of the meets. You deffo had the stuck of the day mate, how long was it for mate...your lad knows! The conditions were tough though and A/t's were gonna be a challenge...and I didnt mean for you to follow me up the big hill at end...I was just seeing how much grip there was...LOL A valient effort none the less that kept us all busy and amused for a while though. Hope you lad enjoyed the BGL experience. Hope to see you both again soon, maybe with some muds?

ShaunyInk
Joined us for a little while in his 2wd 2.8lwb...(his front diff has about as many teeth as the front row of a Max Bygraves concert!!!) Jim sorted him another one though so he should be 4x4 again...Great you could join us for a while and hope to see you at the next meet.

Gareth
Sadly Gareth couldnt make it as he has broken his ankle, slipped A-over-T in the ice, proper broke it too, with bones sticking out and stuff! He sends he regards to everyone and he hopes to join us all again soon.
I am sure you will all join me in wishing him a speedy recovery.

All the guests.
Great to see so many new faces in the passenger seats of the regulars come join us for an arctic day in the woods...Many of you seemed surprised at just what these underrated and cheap'ish 4x4's can actually accomplish...
Give it a couple of weeks till the threat of snow has gone and click the links below...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/Cars-/9801/i.html?_nkw=frontera&_catref=1&_dmpt=Automobiles_UK&_fln=1&_ssov=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m1539&_mPrRngCbx=1&_udlo=&_udhi=800
http://www.gumtree.com/cgi-bin/list_postings.pl?search_terms=frontera&search_location=United+Kingdom&ubercat=1

and you could be joining us for some fun in your own truck!!!

Would be great to see you all again for some more mud and madness in our woods...as passengers or as drivers in your own trucks...
Doesnt matter if you chose something else other than a fronty, its the people that make these meets what they are, not necessarily the brand of truck and I have to say some variety makes things interesting anyway, so you are all more than welcome.
A word of advice though...addidas tennis shoes might be great for the summer weekenders...but aint ideal for the snow!!!

Sally
My better half did more than her half of the organising (as normal...oops) whilst I went playing and recovering...Sally did most of the cooking too...
Huge thanks as always to Sally, these meets simply would never happen without her support and hard work.

Me...da Gregster...
Had a cracking day, one thing we cant plan is the weather and it was great that the few days of snow we get each year happened to be on one of our meets...This transformed the place, it looked so different and picking the tracks out was reminisant of the early days up the woods were you just had to guess your way around. Paving slab thick ice in the bombholes, and deceptive drifts in others made for some surprises though...
Have to say there was some great driving given the conditions, everyone taking this gift that mother nature had dealt us and upping their game to match and making the most of it.

The turnout was brilliant...
Thanks so much to everyone who braved the elements and supported our venture down here.
I was so chuffed to see so many people, and I gotta admit a huge sigh of relief as I was really concerned as to how this year would pan out.
But I should have known better really, and trusted that our fellow mudlovers and friends who have all worked so hard to get us this far, would all do their bit to ensure that the success of this carries on going forwards.

Big thanks again, and lets keep with the momentum going, with all your support and your guests coming, so we can have the best year ever up our woods and not only safeguard its future but move this project forwards to make it better still.

Thanks again, and I really cant wait till the next one now to see you all again.



Some pics Sally took, I left my camera up the workshop so will upload them later.


My cammo is broken...

[DanielCannard]

1st time up the woods and meeting everyone, had a great day, got used to my frontera and i was lucky enough to start in the snow !

[gregster]

Glad you enjoyed yourself mate...was a great laugh sliding around in the snow...look forwards to seeing you again.

did you get any more pics?

[RatCav]

Ok lads/lasses people must of taken some more pictures than this

Anyways here goes:

First off many thanks to Greg and his boss for yet again organising another cracking event. Only the third time down the woods and I have all the future events marked in the calender. They are great fun and the people there always make everyone welcome.

Secondly many thanks to Wilberforce for giving my littlest brother a lift to the woods for his very first off road experience. Feedback so far is he thoroughly enjoyed the day and will remember next time to wear something more appropriate than tennis shoes to a snow encrusted muddy wood (cheers Greg for the wellies)

Thirdly it was great to see Hound Dog out and about. Glad your better now and able to join us again. Also cheers for giving us a hand fixing my towbar electrics after my little mishap (Note to Greg: tow bar electric wires are not a good place to drag a 2 ton Trooper by sideways )

Lastly thanks to both Greg and Wilberforce for letting Chloe have a go at driving off road in some pretty extreme conditions in their trucks. All I can say is Greg your a great tutor, and both of you are very brave and patient. She was grinning like a Cheshire cat and considering her nervousness at the thought of driving in the snow after her big accident a couple of years ago it was a very big step for her. Also she has found in the past the idea of driving in terrain like that terrifying. She really appreciated the compliments on her driving and Greg you have full permission to Gaffa tape her foot to the floor so she doesn't use that clutch pedal I will be on the look out for new nearside bumper corners for both of you as she lived up to the reputation of "Blond female reversing!!!" syndrome by adding her very special form of weight reduction on both vehicles.

As for me I really enjoyed myself that day. The snow, ice and mud made driving very interesting and I soon discovered that A/T tyres are very good at polishing that sort of ground into a mirror. I have to admit that I got stuck 3 times that day and one of them was completely my fault for going slightly off line and beaching her on the front bash plate. Both the others were a combination of lack of commitment and really really difficult terrain. Cheers to everyone for bailing me when I was floundering.

As a point of note, I took a mate of mine from work to show him what we get up to and introduce him to the world of FOG ... let it be said he is now looking earnestly at Fronteras (mainly Series A sports) with the firm idea in mind of getting one and joining us on our endeavours.

Ok less waffle and more pictures:








Just before being dragged backwards by Fudge (cheers buddy)



See that Lotus suspension can articulate:




Banshee developing character:




All the best.

Mr and Mrs RatCav

[DanielCannard]

Got a couple more yeah, thanks to Paul (mapracing). I will be sure to bring my camera next time !

Also I forgot to mention in the last post thanks for the light! Saved the day!

[RatCav]

Few more pics and some vids of the day courtesy of my mate:

[gregster]

Cool vids Neal...

I like the ouch in the second one! I thought I would snap that off with mine on the way in, only it wasnt dead, and quite strong...hence the remodelled front wing on mine...
Chainsaw will sort that next time I am up there!

Gotta say the woods looked really cool in the snow...love it!!!

[RatCav]

Lol Greg ... yeah I saw you have a go and thought I would give it a try as well. That branch proved to be a little tougher than first thought hence the "oops". That was when I recieved the little character trait on my front wing top corner.

One thing I have noticed in my pics is the sheer height difference in my truck compared to the Frontera. I know she is tall, ice cream van style , but sat next to Jims 2.8 LWB you really can see it, especially when you know that Jims is lifted and has a mahoosive wheel on the roof rack ... even then Banshee towers over her and is higher still.

[mapracing]

Thanks Greg and Sal what a great day snow and ice who could ask for anything more
sorry no pics to busy looking after (laughing) my nephew Dan who also had both of my girls with him. needed them back in one piece or the wife would of killed me
Thanks greg for sorting Dan out with the rear light but if i was you i would start getting a stock of them in.

[hipo1024]

Well looks like I missed out . Not that I could of taking mine out with very worn ATs on anyways....

I like your custom body work neal!! looks kinda like mine now lol, only u had to show off and get 2 corners done didnt u . Whats the story with you getting your rear end tugged sideways?? it wasnt the same tree I got to know was it? lol