Big Boys 4X4 Park Trip

June 2001

Arriving from Gympie, Shan, friend Shawn and I (in the mighty L), set up camp with those already there. Shane & Libby (in Lib’s Brumby) and Dave Martin (Turbo Brumby) had convoyed up with us and followed suit. By early afternoon, we had a large camp and a good turnout of club members and friends. These were Auto John and Val (Brumby), leading the trip, Jody Reid and John Petersen and families in the two tricked up Foresters, Rob Peters (Hilux), Keith & Dana Peters (Outback), and others who’s names escape me at the moment.

Once we had all set up camp, we hit the bush. The first play area we came to consisted of four steep uphill climbs. ‘Easy’ to ‘You must be joking’ ratings. After a play by a few of the vehicles, I had to have a go at the 3^rd hardest. It was to be my downfall. I got a little way up with a lot of throttle, and snap! Our forward momentum turned against us. We had broken a rear diff spline. We backed down after a quick snatch to straighten the car and got to work on the repair. Not good for the first hill. Unable to get it fixed, we parked the beast and revised our roles as passengers in other cars. From there we followed a track to a windmill and had a short rest, before returning along the same track. The convoy returned to camp with some more off roading, as I limped the L back to camp.

Further inspection revealed that we weren’t going to repair that side, so we did the next best thing, and removed the left rear driveshaft and continued the weekend with the diff locker driving the right rear only. Party continued into the night.

Sunday :-  Waking up to the Subie Club Sausage Sizzle is a good thing and brought most out for an early feed. We did a morning and afternoon session at Big Boys, with not too many problems. We soon learnt that 3 wheel drive was not as good as 4 and paid the penalty of requiring a few snatches during the day. We weren’t alone though and others also needed assistance. The tracks chosen were mainly medium with some difficult parts. Big Boys has a huge range of ‘play areas’ as well as formed (well, sort of formed) tracks to follow. Some small creek crossings made a pleasant change from the dust and dirt of the tracks. At the end of the day, we ventured up to the events area and sat down to watch a few really crazy people in the muddy play area. One bloke in a Nissan needed 3 vehicles snatching him at the same time to get him out of the mud! We followed this up at camp with a bonfire and community damper.

Monday :-  Another outing during the morning session with ourselves and Libby and Shane electing to do some slightly easier tracks than the main convoy. It was during this outing that a fairly sturdy tree decided to run into my bullbar at about 15 km/h. I was offline from the main holes in the track on a medium uphill and when I swung the car back onto the track, it decided to continue straight ahead. It bent the bash plate, sheered the bullbar mounts on one side, and some minor cosmetic damage, but fine otherwise. Due to modern technology it was all captured on video, and I can still hear Libby in the background saying ‘that’s why I want a bullbar’. Yes, the bullbar survived with just a few scars, and I had to repair the indicator cover. Libby made it up the same section with a little scrabbling, but without incident. We met back at camp to find everyone in the main convoy survived the morning with only a few recoveries needed.

With all the serious stuff out of the way it was time for the real fun…The novelty events. Yes we had the spare tyre run and rolling race. The blindfold zig zag through the witches hats race (you drive up, your navigator drives back). And my favourite, the navigator hanging out the window with a bucket of water on a stick and string, while the driver negotiates the slalom course. The 20 metre dash caused some concern, with a clashing of males and tyres, caused Jody’s knee to be cut open. A quick trip to the medic’s and he was back on deck, just a little less mobile. After all the events, trophies were distributed and we all kicked back for a well deserved rest. From here, we all packed up and went our separate ways.

My thanks to John and Val and those who were there for not just a 4 wheel drive weekend, but the events and the social atmosphere that the club is well known for!

Doug Tilley  SC382