Took advantage of the Christmas / New Year visitors (for back up drivers) and the recent lack of rain to test out a local road with 10 or 12 creek crossings which I'm thinking of using as a detour on one of our runs for the hardier Moker attendees
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Been over it numerous times in a 4wd but wanted to Moke test it before taking others through it.
Biggest problem is that it doesn't take much rain to flood the crossings, but as it's been relatively dry here over the past few weeks, only about half the crossings have water in them and the normally deep ones aren't too bad. Unfortunately the photos I thought we had of the "deep crossing" which had the exhaust pipe blowing bubbles in places, didn't come out, but there is also one other crossing which worried me that is not particularly deep, but made up of rocks with some pretty deep holes here and there. Photo here really doesn't do it justice.
Actually easier in the Moke than the Ford Focus which was our escort vehicle. The Focus bottomed out several times, getting over it whereas the Moke had no problems, but had to go through very slowly as there were some good sized holes in the rock bottom.
After doing half a dozen water crossings and turning around to head back through them again, it was only on the last (and deepest) one that we got a bit of water on the electrics and dropped back to three cylinders. A rest by the side of the road with the motor running for a couple of minutes soon dried it out and we were away again
After considerable preliminary discussions regarding the runs that we could do at the Round Up, we've decided to keep Saturday (the main day) as an all bitumen day, but the earlier runs are all likely to have a bit of dirt road content in them - not Moke busting 4wd track type dirt, but definitely some regular country dirt road driving on roads that are suitable for regular cars. The simple fact is that out here, all the interesting runs involve a bit of dirt here and there - some more than others.
So for those who are thinking of attending and wondering how long to come for, the weekend will be safe for all comers, but the earlier days will be more suited to those who want to get out and see the "real" countryside.
Tracks like the one I tried yesterday will be reserved as side runs for those special few off road Mokers who aren't afraid to get a bit wet and stone chipped and maybe spend a little time on the side of the road with a can of WD-40
Newie
Topic: Announcing the next Moke Round Up in Tamworth - October 31st to November 4th (Read 6382 times)