red90 driver

Ooohhhhh! You don't want to do it like that mate! Cough, chuckle, head shake, grin..... Nah, you want to do it like this... Let me get the video camera going before you try.... 'BARNEY, COME AND SEE THIS EJIT!!!' In all seriousness, I don't think we're really qualified to pass on what little we've learnt in the last 12 months, apart from - walk the section, talk the section, do EXACTLY what your bitch tells you to, no matter if you think you know better!

Totally agree with Boothy, you've got to cater for the grass roots people. After all, we all started somewhere, and it was usually at the bottom! But at the same time, a northern series should also allow for those with large pockets!

I bought a baby Thermal Arc set, 150A about a month ago. I had been looking at the el cheapo Clarke sets, which started about the £120 mark. Then I saw sense and went to the local tool place and they had the Thermal Arc on display, and I just had to have it... Cost me £295 + VAT, complete with case and stick electrodes. (Plus a nice shiny welding mask, self dimming!) It is just so much easier to glue bits of metal together with it, and stainless is just a dream! Best thing I've bought this year! (Have not told 'er indoors yet, she thinks I've 'borrowed' the welder from work. )

Alphabetical order, Daf! Although, that does'nt really work either as Belton is before Bird. Oh, well, it must be least number of breakdowns then! 2 tyres popped, 2 springs totally dislocated to none!!!!

Myself and the co-driver went, and after a phone call and a drive down some very dark streets and alleys, found the required drinking establishment with Mr HT outside fielding phone calls! A very good discussion took place and many aspects were raised and hopefully dealt with. Buxton & District have taken the task onboard of finding suitable venues, probably ones that do not have a high profile, mainly due to costs. The use of cyberkeys / other types of punch equipment will also be looked at. Ways of preventing alternative interpretation of the rules and consistant marshalling decisions were thrashed out as well. The Buxton team were extremely positive about running a series, we now just need to find out dates and venues, and try to get bums in seats! This series will hopefully not follow in the footsteps of other Challenge series and have the same format for every event, but try to do something different for each event, but that is still all up in the air, as there is a great deal of planning and organising to do. Hopefully Alan and / or BADLRC will report in a little more detail soon. Nick

Rob (and anyone else interested...):- I have now fitted and fettled the system that I bought from Rob. Once fitted, I found that with the wheels pointing to the right the ram was at 197mm of travel, and with the wheels pointing to the left there was 25mm of ram exposed. Upon investigation and a phone call to Rob I found that our front steering bar is 10mm longer than the Sumo ones, so at the moment, rather than cut 10mm off our steering bar, I have spaced the ram 10mm to one side to get the steering lock back as it was the quickest, least destructive way of doing it. Road driving you do not notice the ram assist, the most I can describe is a slight resistance to fast steering wheel inputs until the ATF warms up a little, and maybe a little less self centering action. I have now had a day of competition (at Wormhough, Buxton) and found that the assist is not obtrusive, but when needed, the extra effort provided is just what I want. If the steering wheel is still hard to turn, then there is a very good reason for it! This means that you will not be able to turn the wheel against huge resistance and break track rod ends or bend steering bars, unlike on full hydro setups! All in all, I am very pleased with Rob's kit, the fitting time was about 90mins, and I had to allow a further hours setup time. The system was easy to install and I just topped up the PAS reservoir, and voila! hydro assist. Nick.

Daf - Fancy doing another one sometime this year? How's Owen? That was a hell of a baptism of fire for him. First time being an all. At least we've pooped his cherry in style with 4th place!!

Oy! It's not the winning, it's the taking part that counts Chooch! Next time, I'm gonna hide your energy gel stuff so you collapse in a heap, require medical attention from Alan and Jonh & Carl, so then other mere mortals can have a chance of catching yers! Ha!

Fantastic day! Have to agree with Alan about the format, it worked very, very well. No queueing for punches, the only waiting time was at control to pick up another punch number. Really good format, makes a nice change from the free-for-all that you usually get on other events. The punch card could have been a little more substantial, but hey, got to have something to moan about! Plus we surprised ourselves with 4th place, very happy with that. The only damage was to Daf's front wing. His truck now looks as if it has actually been used for the purpose intended!

Going up on saturday to setup. we may setup 4 'trials' type sections with some punches, but otherwise: 10 punches that can be easily driven by standard trucks 10 punches that may require a bit of winching and/or another truck 20 punches that will definately require the use of a front winch. Should be a good day, even if the predicted thunderstorms appear.

Rob - do you have a price for your kit? If you can't give prices out on the forum, then a PM would be good. We need to come over to Gwyn's soon to pick some more bits up before Kirton, so it would be good to be able to get a kit installed ready........

Just had a text message from the competition secretary of the BADRLC saying that as far as he knows, the event is still on. But as he is on holiday at the moment, he can't confirm until next week. I will try and contact him again next week and post up any reply.

Greetings one and all! Wrexham Mudbashers have arranged for a 40 punch play day to take place on sunday July 27th starting at 10 am until 4 pm ish. It will take place at the same location as Howlin' Moon Round 2, i.e. Gwyddelwern, Corwen, North Wales No prizes, no published results, just turn up. Price will be £25. Be aware that there will be trials bikes around as we don't have the site booked exclusively. Everyone welcome, from totally standard to 54" bogger clad portal monsters...... A winch would be mildly useful!! If anyone is interested, please let Baggy know so we have some idea of numbers. http://www.wrexhammudbashers.com/werndduwinchingday.htm Regards, Nick Bird

We heard the twang of timing belts from across the valley at Walters Arena! Did'nt realize that was Saley again!! I think we will also be entering this one if we can find a standard team mate... Daf.....

We've almost finished prepping ours! Just having the snorkel made on friday morning as we heard there may be a few puddles...... Last night we: Fitted the correct fire extinguisher. Re-built the winches (oil change, motor clean) Oil and filter change on the 110 Top up with bio on both vehicles tonight the plan is: screw down all the loose boards on the trailer find where we put all the spares, winch blankets, straps etc from the last round find the tent, cooking equipment etc then generally panic about a major c**kup that I have not noticed be nice to 'er indoors for letting me out to play this weekend

Morning all. The brake parted company with the 8274 winch and we have lost the spacer and ball bearings that sit inside the brake assembly. Can anyone measure the spacer up and then let me know the dimensions so that I can get one made up? I've sourced the ball bearings, and have a good supply of them now, ready for the next time...

I have seen that instead of drilling and tapping the steering box it might be possible to 'T' into 2 of the 3 steel pipes that are external to be steering box. I don't know if this is supposition or fact. This is assuming a 4 bolt steering box... If it's fact then I also would like to know which of the 2 pipes.....

Chris - I should be able to sort out some telemechanic prox sensors that we use in work. Will have to check if they will work on 12v cos we use them on 24v. I can let you know properly tomorrow. They require about 1-2mm sense distance, but are plastic bodied so are fragile. Euchner do some metal bodied ones with a bigger sense distance (up to 5mm) but I can't "source" any of those at the moment. These sensors have 3 wires - +v, -v & switch and so are dead simple to wire. Will give you a ring tomorrow. Cheers - Nick

This was our first big event and we were pleasantly surprised at how well we did - joint 28th! Damage - brake exploded of the front 8274, totally shredded Britpart trailing arm bushes (new a month ago!) snapped the center winch rope twice and possibly bent a rear spring. Oh, and we have a death wobble fron the front that requires a drive home at no more than 30 mph! (Swivel shimming to be checked this week). Great event, and a great shock to the system to find all thoses one way in / out punches. Not used to being made to go a certain way to achieve a punch! Many thanks to the organisers and marshalls.

Hope so Daf! We've now moved the death wobble up to 50 mph by swapping wheels round. As we're going to be driving there on the pitbulls, I don't think I'm going to want to get anywhere near 50 mph! Hope everyone's got waterproof tents, the fields at the bottom will be waterlogged!!!

For everyones information: DON'T go drinking in Corwen on the saturday night. It's not a nice place unless you're local, can speak Welsh, and prove your lineage unto the 12th generation. Allegedly the locals take great offence to everyone and are not shy about informing you of this. There is however a pub in Gwyddelwern itself which should be safe(ish) Alternatively, if you all go to Corwen, it would wipe out some of the competition, so we stand a chance of not coming 40th.........

This is Wales, man. We don't have flat bits. Doesn't everyone know that we all live on the side of a mountain? Yes, Wern Ddu is a little bit 3 dimensional, but the view from the very top is teriffic. The bottom of the site is at 190m (637ft) and the top is at 350m (1137ft). The contour lines are very close together, so yes, bring your mountain goats!!!

Hotel? In Gwydelwern? Gotta be joking!! There's a nice hedge next to the shippon on the site that you can sleep under. Watch out for the sheep rustlers though, they're quite active at the moment. seriously though, there are a couple of allegedly decent establishments nearby in Corwen itself, especially of the B&B ilk. There is a pub type accomodation in Glyndwyfdwy (try pronouncing that one if your not welsh..) about 5 miles from Corwen towards Llangollen, or there are plenty of places to eat and sleep in Llangollen itself, about 10 miles away. Good luck to all coming to play, its going to be a good event and fairly spectator friendly as well.

Just put the fattest, widest tyres possible on for this site. Very few trees and a set on a gentle hillside in the rolling countryside of north wales. Completely impartial advice and not competing at all..........

no idea! But it would be worth a phone call to ask. I've not used them yet!!