Orange

Your not bluddy wrong!! Have you seen my list of stuff to do just to get an MoT, let alone a competitive truck!! Tell you what, that £100 would come in dead handy if you want to pay me in advance!! Great news Lucy. I'm looking at logistics as I have a fair few activities already in the calendar. Hoping that I can move a couple without too much fuss...

Will is thinking along the same lines I was, but I can't come up with a scheme that is any less complicated than the previous ones! Assume a 'standard' entry car that has one winch and tyres up to 35", gets 100% of the punch value, then... -5% for 2 or more winches -5% for lockers (any combination) -5% for portals and/or fiddle brakes -5% for tyres over 35" (measured) So, in effect, my car would end up with a handicap of 90% (3 winches and 2 lockers). Worst case scenario is that a car ends up with 80% handicap. Basically I ended up getting back to Lucy's original option 2... The same class structure as previous years, but with the handicaps closer together...!! Of course, Chris's idea would work too, but it isn't exactly the best method to encourage newcomers as there would be a large financial outlay to even begin to feel competitive. However Chris is right that you won't please everyone, so the best thing is to pick an option, stick to it and see what happens. Worst case scenario is that you change the format for 2012... To what, though??!!??

See: 2011 Challenge Technical Regs and: Challenger 4x4 Championship Supplementary Regulations I believe these to be current, but I'm sure Neil and/or Paul/Lucy will confirm...

I personally think Option 3 is the best of both systems but could do with developing a little. That way, the more experienced teams with only one winch (kevin & tom for example) stand a good chance of getting into the prizes. I don't know off the top of my head what the average punch counts were from last year, but I feel the effort that a team with only one winch puts in should get rewarded. A team with all the toys may clear the card, but the likes of Kevin who may only get 25 punches will have worked much harder and should be able to earn a place on the podium at the end of the day... Just my couple of pennies I appreciate that there is a difficult balance to hit and it will be the subject of much scrutiny, so I don't envy the task. I'll have a go at developing Option 3 a bit and see what I can come up with...

Why not use some large dry-wipe boards screwed to the frame to stiffen it all up on the inside? If you find some with metal frames, you'll be surprised how much difference they make - also good for scribbling to-do lists or designs on. If all else fails, just some boarding will help - you can always paint it with blcakboard paint and scribble with chalk...

That's fine... Just checking!!

A wager you say............. I'll bet that someone will win the series, how's that.......??

Good news guys and well done for stepping up to the stage again! Not entirely sure what we will be doing this year, but we will endeavour to be competing in this series again... Got to defend the trophy, but I hope there will be some new-comers to push us harder!! Can I pre-book Team 4 again Lucy?? Or do I get number 1......... Also, can you reserve number 2 for Mr Kelly, just so I can point to it to remind him all year?!!!

It might seem a bit pernickety, but can we see the rules and regs before parting with our hard-earned...?? Do I need....... Mot Tax Insurance MSA Cage Helmet Blah, blah, blah... Cheers Adrian

Yep!! Got a lovely lump on my head for that one!!

Yeah.....I was absent on the day that school lesson was taught...... It looks a lot worse than it felt, although I did think we would be picking up the pieces afterwards...

James, I've been looking into this for a while, too... Will PM you at some stage to discuss as I'd be interested in going halves on a full day of training etc... I'm sure we can find a trailer to have a practice with, too... And I have a set of extended mirrors to use! From what I've found out: 1. The procedure for connecting up is a really important part of the test. 2. The reversing is easy with some practice. The dimensions for the course are available, so all we need is a field and some marker spray. 3. The trailer has to be loaded. Believe me, the one I towed on an assessment was very well loaded!!! There is no point doing a test with an empty trailer because it will handle differently to a loaded one! 4. You will have to drive like you are taking your normal driving test, so 10-2 hands, regular mirror checks, etc. etc... Cheers Adrian.

NOR ones are good and strong! If you are actually going to put a winch in it, then I would recommend a stiffener across the tray, but other than that, fits straight on with only minor adjustment to take up the gaps (purposely left to allow for LR tolerance in the chassis rails)...

James, it may also have something to do with the fact that Nick's truck is an awful lot lighter than most!! My ropes are removed and washed after every event, too. The front snapped on our last event after a nasty swing sideways on a near vertical slope made the rope jump and skip across the rocks. The rear had been snapped before (over 90 degree pull out of the rear winch...) and snapped again just before the splice...

She'll have to come up with a time share agreement with mine.... Glad it's of some use!!

cough........... Click me ...........cough If your wife asks, my name is Eric and I live in Norfolk........!!!

Blimey it's cold out there!! Rear window is 920 wide - that's the overall frame...

We never quite got round to doing the inner wings.... They were significantly worse than the sills, but seeing as the bloke that bought it off me didn't even lift the bonnet........

The pads do wear due to the setting of the brake - it should be set so they rub slightly. The excessive/uneven wear does sound like it's caused by the sliders not operating as they should. I always put mine together with an extra smear of copper grease on the outside of the metal spacers and have never had any issues... Even though I dunk mine in horrible stuff every time we compete... Simon will sell you a set of pads to replace your worn ones and they are a simple item to replace.

As Mark says, the standard ARB is rubbish at anything other than lockers (sometimes I onder about that, too!!). I have a PCL connection for an air line for emergencies, but it takes an age to inflate a tyre. The T-Max one seems like a very good solution for the money and at Tel says, it can be stripped down to make it relatively small compared to the size it comes out of the box. Chris is also right with the P38 air compressor. Very quiet and is more than capable of airing tyres. To be honest, you're better off installing a small reservoir from the get-go as it means the compressor has an easier life.

No, Kev. It was the front 12mm one. It's been given some stick this year, but was in excellent condition before the event... Any number of contributing factors could have caused the break, but all that matters is that it wasn't a catastrophic failure!!! The rear rope didn't cause any problems.

Firstly, thanks to Paul and Lucy for putting on another superb event... and whole series for that matter. I hope there is enough enthusiasm and support to be able to run it again next year. Thanks also to the marshalls and everyone who makes the events run smoothly - including Ben and Sara for their pre-event work on the scorecards etc... It was a fairly slow start for us, but things picked up late morning/early afternoon with a couple of good secitons until I had a little moment with a snapped front winch rope. Very close to putting the truck on its roof, but saved by a very well placed tree... That kind of killed the afternoon with no confidence in the front rope after a field-splice which wasn't the best!! However; it turned out that 32 punches was enough for 3rd place in Class 1 and sufficient to take us to the top of the championship leaderboard by 1 point!! Hurrah!! Congrats to Chris Kelly and Carl for their clear 40 punch round getting 1st place on the day, and to Barry and Steve for their first 2nd place - very well deserved and earned! Well done to all those who have made the competition a great and successful series and hopefully we will see you all next year along with a load of new faces raring to get stuck in to these events. I know there were a load of cameras snapping away, so lets see 'em....

That was going to be my suggestion... I've got a coupll of knackered ones I can get to Nick if you want them, James... Cut them down to suit...

I have also seen hi-lifts mounted vertically on the drivers side of the rear. A plate with a lip bolts to the body mount and the top is restrained by a clamp mounted into the body capping. Personally, I would put the hi-lift in the bin and get a decent bottle jack and a couple of blocks of wood...

Am I the only one who sees the funny side of this...