On Sunday, 24 October the club held a “getting to know your vehicle” day on 4×4 tracks at the base of Mt Louisa. We had a fantastic turnout with 15 vehicles showing up, including a new member that found us through our recent facebook campaign, always great to have new people joining us!
Meeting up at 8am, we ventured onto the tracks where Wayne went over the day’s events with a hand-drawn map showing the paths including the risk assessment and safety talk.
We were divided into 2 teams with Wayne leading team 17 and Ross leading team 18. As team 17 headed off first to offer some distance, team 18 waited in the morning heat. Apparently there were no reported incidents with team 17, but team 18’s leader decided that sticking to the designated route wasn’t an option, leading them out to the main road for a scenic journey.
After backtracking, team 18 quickly caught up with the other group who were working out the best options to navigate the hilly tracks. Both groups continued around the route for a couple of hours with spotters assisting those that needed help.
Returning to the main area, we set up the marque and gathered around to go through a checklist of how well you know your vehicle specs. This included your GVM, towing capacity, the range of your fuel tank and about 30 other points. This also created some great conversations with members sharing their knowledge of how vehicles have changed over the years and what to look for.
Then it was out to our vehicles to lift the bonnets and see if we knew how to check the fluid levels and other components of the engine. We were also instructed to inspect our vehicles for any possible damage that may have occurred on the tracks… Most of the participants did that!
Whilst we were out in the hot sun checking the vehicles, Darren and Barb were cooking up a storm with a sausage sizzle and fresh fruit.
A special thank you to our team leaders for the insight and experience, another mention to Ross for doing the pre-trip searching for a great location, and to Barb and Darren for the delicious sausage sizzle and mouth watering watermelon.
It was only a half day event with everyone departing around 1pm and everyone had a great time and learnt a lot of great knowledge. The only damage to a vehicle was a members Isuzu, when he decided to make his own path through the tracks and his driver’s door and undercarriage found a hidden stump.
