cobaw trip

subaruby · Post by **subaruby** » Wed Jun 22, 2011 8:28 pm

Not sure who will be writing the trip report but in the mean time a thought I would put up a couple of pics.

We had a bit of a joke running throughout the day that if you didn't get a wheel in the air you wouldn't make the cut so .............

El_freddo

Scubyroo

Subaruby

subaruby · Post by **subaruby** » Wed Jun 22, 2011 8:35 pm

The H6 Foz, Djupan

And the winner .....

The mighty H6 liberty, Venom

bcoutback · Post by **bcoutback** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 4:52 pm

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 1:38 pm

Hey Richard, you don't happen to see my phone on the ground in any of your pics do you? I went back out monday night "en-route" to my uncles to check out camp track, I almost ended up stuck in that rut on that boulder where Owen had trouble getting up - and I was on 23's

Got Kez super nervous!

Anyway, if there's nothing in the pics I'm going to go and get a new phone and keep my old number... Hopefully I'll still have my phone book stored with the system optus uses.

As for the trip report, I really don't have many pics but have loads of videos - I'll have to get cracking on a film of the day's events

Cheers

Bennie

ScubyRoo · Post by **ScubyRoo** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 6:20 pm

Choice bro, sweet pics - especially Venom's... it's almost like the car is waving!

I seriously thought Richard was going to be squashed at least twice that day...

subaruby · Post by **subaruby** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 7:42 pm

Hey Richard, you don't happen to see my phone on the ground in any of your pics do you?

No luck sorry, check all my pics and vids but nothing.

Let me know if you need some help getting a new phone.

I will write up a full trip report in the next couple of days

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 8:07 pm

subaruby wrote:No luck sorry, check all my pics and vids but nothing.

Let me know if you need some help getting a new phone.

Thanks mate, I'll probably just pick up another one later this week - I never go for anything fancy...

Cheers

Bennie

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Mon Jun 27, 2011 5:29 am

Just knocked up the video on this quiet night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbKpLBNJPW4

Hope you enjoyed it.

I'm not sure about the sound track - let me know what you reckon... It just sort of fitted and in the current state of tiredness I was running out of time and steam to get it completed during the night...

Cheers

Bennie

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Mon Jun 27, 2011 5:48 am

Ok so just realised that the sound track is messed up at the beginning - I'll have to reload the video once I've solved the problem...

Cheers

Bennie

dobo · Post by **dobo** » Mon Jun 27, 2011 9:10 pm

Looks like an awesome trip,bummed i missed it.
Some of those tracks look pretty hairy! don't think a stock L could have done much

subaruby · Post by **subaruby** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 8:24 pm

I am a bit iffy on the track names so don’t take too much notice of what I call them.

Also not that many pics and they are a little soft because most of the day was in fog or rain, hence more vids than pics.

So, the day began with me leaving home a little early. My gps suggested the trip would take 3 hours, but reality said it would take 2 hours, never mind better to be early than late.

So while waiting at the meet point and having a snooze two guys in a white van rock up asking if I knew where Rochford was. I said no idea but will check it out on my gps. Turns out they were pretty close, so off they went. Next thing i hear and then see Bennie driving past on the highway, so I think to myself “El_freddo must have forgotten something”. That was not the case as a text message announced he had to take the “missus” to the train station.

Some time later Venom cruises up in the liberty and a short time later El_freddo comes back. He has a message from RubyScoo that he is not far away, so in the need of some coffee we head to the bakery at Lancfield.

Whilst waiting for our coffees Scubyroo rocks up with a passenger, his mate Chi (not sure on spelling )after having driving up from Melbourne going no faster than 80km/h.

So after a bit of a chat the day begins.

El_freddo leads us back towards the meet point but then turns into what i believe is Nudist Camp Track WTF. But we soon reach an impassable track and decide to turn around, and head to the original meet point.
As we enter Cobaw state forest we are welcomed by the fog on Ridge Road where we take an easy drive through the foggy forest, which in itself was a nice introduction to the day.

Our first stop was a quick check of the “noise” that appear on Venoms liberty. It turned out to be a false alarm but a good opportunity to check out the H6 and for Scubyroo to gaffa tape his camera to the roof rack of the car.

Moving along we came to our first section of “interesting track” which saw the snatch strap out to recover Scubyroo. It was a tricky little section that took us up and around an obstacle, which in itself wasn’t too bad, but there was the potential to slide into a deep washout. So a snatch strap was used to pull him back down the track to have another go.

As it turns out whilst lining up to help Scubyroo, Venon managed to find himself in a washout . But with skill and a mighty H6 Venom was able to get himself out unaided.

more to follow

subaruby · Post by **subaruby** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 8:33 pm

After everyone had successfully negotiated this section we headed further on until we came to our first puddle.
Being the first of the day and although not terribly big we were unsure of how sticky themud might be. A stick was used to check depth and was acceptable for our subies. Anyway not wanting to get muddy feet so early in the day I attached my snatch strap before heading through.

Subaruby powered on no dramas .........

And then Venom ................

And then ScubyRoo .........

subaruby · Post by **subaruby** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 8:37 pm

and El_fredo ....... through a neighbouring puddle

subaruby · Post by **subaruby** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 8:47 pm

After everyone got their feet a little bit wet we headed towards Soil Pit track, a difficult area that El_freddo had done in the dry but was unsure of the condition in the wet.

So we parked the cars and walked it.

In this story I have decided to rename it Notakeum Track. The picture shows the easy bit, just around the bend it became, rough, rugged, rutted and rocky. The decision was made to come back another day as in its present form damage to vehicles was inevitable.

So back to the cars where we had to reverse down the track and do a 3 point turn to continue on.

subaruby · Post by **subaruby** » Thu Jun 30, 2011 10:12 pm

Next up was the track where we spent most of our time, I am not sure of its name so lets call it Reillys Track. This track we also walked and the decision was made to rest the liberty and the outback, due to clearance issues and low range issues.

First up was El_freddo and he was going well until he got stuck .......

Stay tuned for more tomorrow.....

hydrowill · Post by **hydrowill** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 5:54 pm

Far out, looks like so much fun. Can't wait to get the lift for my lib n maybe tag along on the next trip.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 1:09 am

hydrowill wrote:Far out, looks like so much fun. Can't wait to get the lift for my lib n maybe tag along on the next trip.

Take your time with your build! Most of us have been building our cars for a number of years or have been working a number of years for the subi we have now. Do some research and be realistic/sensible about what you want, shop around and you'll end up with a great offroader!

Cheers

Bennie

hydrowill · Post by **hydrowill** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 6:31 pm

Thanks for the advise El Freddo. At this stage it will be a while before I get the lift as I need to replace the timing belt. Saving saving though. Hard to be patient when there is so much fun to be had!

subaruby · Post by **subaruby** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 10:06 pm

Well tomorrow has finally arrived, sorry for the delay.

As was said previously this is where most of our day was spent.
The spot where El_freddo stopped in the last video clip, is where a lot of track building, thinking, trying, stopping, thinking and eventually some winching was done. We were using what we could find to fill in the rut that El-freddo was in, this included, rocks, logs, sticks ferns etc.
It was while track building that we greeted the light rainfall that had joined us, adding another dimension to being stuck, that is slippery mud.

The damp air did not dampen our enthusiasm though, as this was all part of the fun of driving, getting stuck and then getting unstuck.

As you will see El_freddo made it out........

Next it was Subarubys turn who would befall the same fate as El_freddo in the same spot. It appeared as though we had more experience with our track building as the boys set to work creating and escape path for Subaruby.

By this time the rain had eased, Venom had the suggestion to get out the shovel and scrap away the muddy top layer. This revealed a dryer gripper surface which proved to be successful.

Winching was not necessary with Subaruby although not entirely sure why, maybe it was the mighty EA81, maybe the grippy snow tyres, maybe the pilot ???????????? who knows?????

Anyway I think it was the track building team, but Subaruby also made it through.

It was whilst track building for Subaruby that we heard a call over the uhf, "Is anyone from Ausubaru on channel" and first we thought it might be a ranger who had come across Venoms car that we had left further down the track. It was no ranger though, it was the H6 Forester

It produced a beautiful growl as we heard it approach way before seeing it. With a couple of directions over the uhf from El_freddo we soon had a visual of Dulagarl the H6 Forester.

After some introductions and a mandatory inspection of the H6 forester in the flesh we decided to get Subaruby to the top of the track as the day was drawing to and end.

I have no pics or vids of Subaruby getting through, but this is a clip of Subaruby reaching the top of the track.

Once both El_freddo and Subaruby reached the top is was time to head back down to the H6 Liberty, H6 Forester and Outback ready to take on the next track. By the way we didn't go back down the way we came up, there was an easier way.

subaruby · Post by **subaruby** » Wed Jul 06, 2011 9:51 pm

Final installment.

Once we were all back together again we headed to our final track for the day, Pole Track.

This was a relatively easy track with only a couple of tricky sections.

Dulgarl on Pole Track

Scubyroo on Pole track

Dulagarl

ScubyRoo

Venom

Now whilst everyone was negotiating Pole Track, up further we noticed some big 4wds that seemed to be stuck. So we parked here...

and went and took a look.

First impressions, at least from me were that they had a vehicle stuck and were winching it out with a second vehicle, fair enough.

At this point it was a bit too dark for pics so I will have to try and describe the scene as best I can.

Imagine if you can a regular old track in the bush ,relatively flat, even and well used. Then one day along comes naughty mister wind and blows a tree across the track. As the tree falls its root system is exposed and leaves behind a large hole. So the big 4wds thinks that the best way to overcome this obstacle is to drive around it, this sound fair enough. As a word of warning, the way around the obstacle is via a slightly sloping hill with a small risk of sliding the back wheel into the hole left by the root system of the tree.
From memory there were 6 vehicles in the group of big 4wd's and at the time we arrived the fourth was just getting through. Their technique was to winch from the front of the vichcle to get through and at the same time winch from the rear at an angle to prevent said vehicle from falling in the hole. This was done, we presume for all vehicles in the group.
Had they not heard of track building ie filling in the hole.

Whilst watching the circus show I went a had a look at the vehicle winching the rear, preventing the slide. WTF, sitting in the back of the 100 series cruiser was a stihl chainsaw. Had they not thought to cut the fallen tree up and clear the track for all other users!

Anyway we waiting for what seemed like hours for the big 4wds to get through, then it was our turn. While they headed off the boys jumped in and started track building to fill in the hole. First up was El_freddo who powered through even before the sounds of the big 4wds had faded away.
Next was Subyruby who also powered through although were some concerns about how close I came to a precariously postioned tree, but all was good no contact. Next up was Dulagarl the H6 Forester. Bare in mind the track was now rather chopped up, Dulagarl was unable to make it with the first attempt, with the rear tyre falling into the hole. A light snatch backwards from ScubyRoo allowed for another attempt. A few words of encouragment and some directions saw Dulagarl make it through. It was at the price of some panel damage thanks to the "precariously postioned tree".
Next up was ScubyRoo with the track getting worse, the night getting darker, the first and second attempt resulted in getting stuck. So out came the shovel with Venom removing the mudy dtop layer and creating a groove for the tyre to run along. This groove provided grip and prevented the vehicle from sliding into the hole.
This worked a treat and soon both ScubyRoo and Venom were through.