Green Bob Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 The SLRC events at Seven Sisters were always something I'd planned to pull my finger out and manage to attend. Its a shame the site will no longer cater for similar events as it looked to have a great mix of obstacles! I'll keep a keen eye out for where any future ones will be for when I (eventually) have the 90 sorted, hopefully in the next decade... Also in the northern minority so something a bit closer than Cornwall would be good but I know SLRC are based in the south so wouldn't expect anything too close. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon W Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 Absolutely gutted, this was I feel the best site in the UK, so much to explore and changes every time you go there. Perfect for the Normal land rover with mud tyres and a winch, lots of routes and like a more extreme green laning, also if you couldn't get through somewhere you could always drive around another route to avoid it. I feel that it has been ruined by the likes of the Ultra 4 competitions etc, when you go there so see the ruts, bogs, and huge big stones spat out by the vehicles, trees flattened and pushed over or winched out the ground. The speed element certainly didn't help as people just push their way through things or winch of unsuitable anchor points. Granted this did open up more tracks for other to use after events, but would soon washout and leave permanent scars. Its a shame they aren't going to allow groups such as shire and j33p who run very well organised and marshalled events. Tyre limits would would help. Keep up the hard work you put in shires, you seem to be one of the most active clubs, its just a shame you guys are the other end of the country to me 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nonimouse Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 30 minutes ago, steve200TDi said: NoniMouse: Lamb lair: Is this another name for the site at West Harptree which JST used to use for the Scott Williams Memorial Winch challenge? That's a great side! Very hilly and undulating, but great! Seven Sisters could be used every other year or just less per year to reduce the damage! Going back to the old style Howling Wolf (which is making a comeback this year) which 10 or more years ago only had 35's and truck cabs, no space frames and 40 inch tyres! Steve Lamb Leer is the site at W.Harptree. It's been used for motor sport since before WW2. It's named after a gert big cave system that runs underneath 13 hours ago, simonr said: That's sad news. The first time I went there (must have been mid to late 90's), we were guided around the site by a guy, I think his name was Selwin? I remember it being quite challenging (and terrifying) in a bog-standard 110. I've been to lots of events there - but my favourite was one organised by Mr Lovejoy. I would guess at 2003. It was a mixture of navigation and Trialing. I always hoped for more like it but for me anyway, it was the first & last. While it was a competition, it was a very light one, just for fun. The infamous MaxiTrial - that sadly never took on. Even driven by a Volvo BV202. The chap you are thinking of was Selwyn Kendrick, who sadly passed away a few years back. I ran events there (mainly for J33P) from 2002 to 2010. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 13 hours ago, Stellaghost said: Not too unhappy, would be easy enough to fab up a couple of spare axles for portal banning sites Surely a pair of non-portal hubs would work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 I assume comp safari etc will still be running there? or is it all 4x4 events? Big, big change if not, as they use it 3-4 times a year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 22 minutes ago, Nonimouse said: Lamb Leer is the site at W.Harptree. This combined with Binegar for a weekend would give a properly different set of challenges for people, mud and rocks and massive hills, vs a stone quarry with plenty 'oooh' moments. There's some 'relaxed' camp sites up near Priddy (a few miles from each) that would happily cater for a large group of people descending on them for a weekend. Probably no further for the likes of Stephen than 7S. I would be interested in starting a conversation with 7S though, if there was scope for playdays but with smaller tyres, it may have been tried, but may not be any harm in trying again. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elbekko Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 15 minutes ago, Bowie69 said: This combined with Binegar for a weekend would give a properly different set of challenges for people, mud and rocks and massive hills, vs a stone quarry with plenty 'oooh' moments. There's some 'relaxed' camp sites up near Priddy (a few miles from each) that would happily cater for a large group of people descending on them for a weekend. Probably no further for the likes of Stephen than 7S. That does sound fun. And for us no harder to get to the Seven Sisters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 1 minute ago, elbekko said: That does sound fun. And for us no harder to get to the Seven Sisters To be fair, probably saves you about 1.5 hours Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elbekko Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 Just now, Bowie69 said: To be fair, probably saves you about 1.5 hours Yeah, about that. And a bit of traffic chaos into Wales... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 Just now, elbekko said: Yeah, about that. And a bit of traffic chaos into Wales... Yeah... love Wales, hate Cardiff/Newport roads, even more so with all the stupid 20mph speed limits introduced for no valid reasons whatsoever. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted January 5 Author Share Posted January 5 7 minutes ago, Bowie69 said: I assume comp safari etc will still be running there? or is it all 4x4 events? We don't have any info on that - depends how "blanket" this ban is and how much they distinguish between events. I suspect stuff that sticks to the main fats tracks they'd continue to allow, although they did restrict them to AT's after a nasty accident some years ago which spawned a lot of rumours at the time. 5 minutes ago, Bowie69 said: I would be interested in starting a conversation with 7S though, if there was scope for playdays but with smaller tyres, it may have been tried, but may not be any harm in trying again. Rest assured we'll keep in touch with them, the problem for us as a club is that if we have to start putting very strict rules in it limits the turnout and/or makes the marshalling job almost impossible - for a non-comp club to start seriously scrutineering vehicles or having to police every truck/group on the site would be prohibitive. Like it or not, a lot of folks these days are running bigger tyres and you won't get them to swap for one "play" event, and as others have said there's not a great correlation between tyre size and damage, it's more about the drivers - some eejit in an old disco on knobblies with open diffs can tear stuff up that other trucks on big tyres or lockers would just cruise through. Most damage I see on any site is folks being what I would generously call "over-ambitious", no matter what they're driving - some of the biggest messes we've had have been caused by near standard trucks ending up where they really shouldn't be. You won't change that - even sites that mark out routes in difficulty levels fare no better from what I've seen. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landroversforever Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 Fridge beat me to it.... I don't think tyre restrictions are the answer sadly and I think it has to come down to something like Nonimouse's suggestion of the 3 goes type rule. Something that a larger sized Simex/Trep can crawl up could be totally shafted by a vehicle on smaller AT/Mt tyres bouncing off the limiter the whole way through. It's a similar thing to how my 90 is going to look after it's done. 37" tyres and it won't look great to the outside world if I took it laning when in reality it could easily be doing far less damage than a less capable vehicle. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landroversforever Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 45 minutes ago, FridgeFreezer said: We don't have any info on that - depends how "blanket" this ban is and how much they distinguish between events. I suspect stuff that sticks to the main fats tracks they'd continue to allow, although they did restrict them to AT's after a nasty accident some years ago which spawned a lot of rumours at the time. I can see how something like the comp safari would be allowed to continue even on stuff that's not just the main gravel tracks. They'd probably just have to set out the stages and have it all approved before going ahead. So much easier to police than a play day/weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daan Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 15 hours ago, Nonimouse said: The 'God Given Right' mob are particularly stubborn in the UK. I would ban any tyre over 35" in diameter and 10.5" in width. Personally I feel that loud exhausts save lives, but I loathe the noise of popcorn limiters and find rolling coal to be absurd; however an Alpha Romeo 3.0V6 with four cams and many valves, hitting 10k rpm is as the song of the nightingale to my ears I have always thought 35" diameter should be the bar for comps and possibly pay and play; beyond this land rover axles are not reliable, and you will need something stronger, which gets expensive very quickly. But people said it stops development so it fell on deaf ears. Now we are in a situation were comps cannot make up the numbers because the cars are running 40" tyres on spidertrax axles which very few people can afford. With regards to tyre size having an impact: on 35" tyres, you will have ruts that are 12.5" deep, on 40" tyres it is 15" deep, add portals, and the ruts are 21" deep. So I think there is an impact, but of course the driver is the main factor, no doubt about this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stellaghost Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 2 hours ago, Daan said: With regards to tyre size having an impact: on 35" tyres, you will have ruts that are 12.5" deep, on 40" tyres it is 15" deep, add portals, and the ruts are 21" deep. Damn, all that work building my axles and now I'm a bad guy....... Nobody will want to buy them now.............................lol Regards Stephen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stellaghost Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 3 hours ago, landroversforever said: It's a similar thing to how my 90 is going to look after it's done. You will need to get a shake on, present rate of progress "no not you" the anti's will have all our toys as garden ornaments regards Stephen 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nonimouse Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 6 hours ago, steve200TDi said: NoniMouse: Lamb lair: Is this another name for the site at West Harptree which JST used to use for the Scott Williams Memorial Winch challenge? That's a great side! Very hilly and undulating, but great! Seven Sisters could be used every other year or just less per year to reduce the damage! Going back to the old style Howling Wolf (which is making a comeback this year) which 10 or more years ago only had 35's and truck cabs, no space frames and 40 inch tyres! Steve Lamb Leer is the site at W.Harptree. It's been used for motor sport since before WW2. It's named after a gert big cave system that runs underneath 19 hours ago, simonr said: That's sad news. The first time I went there (must have been mid to late 90's), we were guided around the site by a guy, I think his name was Selwin? I remember it being quite challenging (and terrifying) in a bog-standard 110. I've been to lots of events there - but my favourite was one organised by Mr Lovejoy. I would guess at 2003. It was a mixture of navigation and Trialing. I always hoped for more like it but for me anyway, it was the first & last. While it was a competition, it was a very light one, just for fun. The infamous MaxiTrial - that sadly never took on. Even driven by a Volvo BV202. The chap you are thinking of was Selwyn Kendrick, who sadly passed away a few years back. I ran events there (mainly for J33P) from 2002 to 2010. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 5 hours ago, FridgeFreezer said: marshalling Be interested in lending at hand on occasion if it were to help. Not sure LGT would be much good at recovery, mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nonimouse Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 I have no issues with Portals. They provide a better gear set and in the hands of experience a damn site less spin out. I mentioned 35's as a control tyre because they create holes that are just about manageable by smaller tyred vehicles. Fridge is right about scrutineering members though. All you do is upset people, because essentially you are questioning their build, which equates to the size of their manhood. One of the reasons I really enjoy marshalling at Binegar is that rules are very limited. Don't drive like a tw*t. If you do, you will most likely be needing a new vehicle. I enjoy recovery more than most people, apart from Ralph, which also helps. I'll spend the next few weeks talking to some people and see what I can sort out. I don't have any contacts north of the M4 line, so I'll leave that area to others. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nonimouse Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 12 minutes ago, Bowie69 said: Be interested in lending at hand on occasion if it were to help. Not sure LGT would be much good at recovery, mind. Most recovery is about standing by the drivers window explaining which way to turn the wheel 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daan Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 11 minutes ago, Nonimouse said: Fridge is right about scrutineering members though. All you do is upset people, because essentially you are questioning their build, which equates to the size of their manhood. Scrutineering is only needed for people that cannot read. So you don't question their build but their ability to read the rules. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landroversforever Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 1 hour ago, Nonimouse said: Most recovery is about standing by the drivers window explaining which way to turn the wheel Or in the case of Mannington last year, trying to get their attention to stop just sitting on the limiter whilst going absolutely nowhere…. And windows completely covered in mud . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLM Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 As a participant, the joy for me of Walters was the freedom to go almost anywhere, test my vehicle (stock Series and Defender) and have to rely on my driving skills rather than brute force or giant tyres. I'd turn back from anything impossible (I'm driving it home so I am going to be careful of my truck) and you learn to be respectful of the site. I'm going round with a group of Club Members and we self-police. When I started to see it through the eyes of an organiser it's very different: Apart from the responsibility for over 100 people doing things that could easily lead to serious injury (or worse) you're acutely aware that the site is way too big to actively police their behaviour. You're entirely relying on the punters a) reading & listening to the briefings and b) actually following said instructions when the adrenaline is up. Once we knew that the owners had concerns about the impact of free-range driving it was only a matter of time before it was all over. I can't see it reopening like it was before. We'll have to go down the route of guided groups and/or marked routes. For maybe 50-60% of the punters that'll be fine but it's going to be a whole load more work to organise for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonr Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 On 1/5/2024 at 9:50 AM, Nonimouse said: The infamous MaxiTrial That's the one! Shame it never took off here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Poore Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 On 1/3/2024 at 9:07 PM, FridgeFreezer said: Walters are stopping 4x4 play days indefinitely due to site damage Phew I'm okay then! Question is how long does it take @Stellaghost to add another axle to Sid... 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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