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our KOV effort.


moose

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We are packed and on route to KOV. If any ones there this week end drop along to the pits and say hi.

Or wave if your on the m4 this afternoon....

We are only in the lcq so going to have to push hard to try and make the big race :)

Will try and post up some pics as we go.

post-1650-0-68459200-1343307001_thumb.jpg

Paul

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Thanks guys.

Just setup in the pits next to an impressive looking French car.

Sorry bad phone pic. Will get the cam out later.

post-1650-0-88769700-1343330776_thumb.jpg

For those coming bring large nails for tent pegs the ground is like concrete.

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morning all.

just passed pre race inspection at the first look, mud guards and all.

Now its chill out in the welsh sun until this evening :)

here are a few shots...

post-1650-0-11347700-1343388862_thumb.jpg

the pits

post-1650-0-80881600-1343388811_thumb.jpg

looking back at the pits

post-1650-0-98280500-1343388903_thumb.jpg

lining up for inspection

post-1650-0-14967200-1343388943_thumb.jpg

more later... off to walk the course

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The prologue was a stunner flat out in low box, then a rock climb which i lost a lot of time on getting caught up on thevrear diff, then into high box for a flat out run through the forest,

But then temp gauge hit 110 degrees so eased of a bit only to be overtaken by a flying Welshman named Steve Gittins.

And all that excitement on a 3 mile short section, damage 1 rear mudflap ripped of a rock when shunting, and a very dry throat, proper dusty. Seen a lot of lads with tyres off or shredded on the rocks.

Tomorrow 2x 17 mile runs, oh my gawd, its very tiring and hotttttttttttttt.

Love it

Boothy

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Wow what and event, sorry for the lack of up dates the charger for my phone (and so my net connection) stop working...

A quick report on the weekend.

The LCQ and the prologue were the same course and due to people dropping out of the main event there were now 9 places (11 runners) up for grabs in the main event. We had enough time to walk the course there was only one rock section which every one should be able to drive the rest was flat out with some open wide gravel tracks.

We were 5th of the line, and managed a good pace to the rock section then in to low box and kept a steady crawl up the rocks. At the exit of the rocks made a major mistake by powering out of the rock section, I was not able to turn quick enough with the front locker in and almost put the truck back into the rocks on its roof.

We managed to recover from this quite quickly only losing a few minutes, the rest of the LCQ was a flat out high range blast, I quickly found my self running out of talent on some corners and only just getting it back before a tree, ditch or rock :)

We did ok on the LCQ ending up about a 1/4 up from the bottom of the score board, and because of my moment at the top of the rock section we had to straighten out all the steering bars but part from that every thing else was good to go.

Race day we started at 10:44 the race leader started at 10 and the plan was simple complete the fist lap. The first 10km of the track was fast high range speed and i tried to keep the speed with in my talent range, soon we were blasting down the river bed in what we call the Hidden valley. We hit a large rock and I thought that's lucky we still have a tyre. 100 yard further on we see two trucks one with 2 punctures and the other with 1. Managed to get passed these trucks as the guys were great in moving out the way. 200 yards further on the first queue of the day. Here the course split in two and there was a option one route was a slippery side slope and the other was a large deep mud pit in the middle to the river. There as some one winching through the pit and it looked deep so we decided on the side slope. But there was a stricken truck on the entrance so after a bit of winching we were through.

Our first stupid mistake of the day coming down a rock slope was not watching and got hung up on a ledge. Lucky the French (thanks guys) car pulled up behind us and we used them to winch back a touch and got some rocks under the front wheels and so off the ledge.

Next it was a fast section to a rock climb section, with a truck about half way up winching. The car in front of us decided to go for it and over take on the climb. The guys from Malta were at the bottom of this climb sorting their car out from having rolled trying the same manoeuvre. The truck that was in front of us (i cant remember the number) made it passed only just with a great bit of driving. We played it safe and waited for the winching car to clear the climb, before driving up.

The next chock point was sharp right near vertical climb out of a wet rocky river bed, we managed the climb with out winching after a quick shunt to line the truck up. then its was on to the main and by far the longest and hardest rock section to the day. We made it through this section ok not the quickest but we got through.

Then it was a straight blast to the finish, The truck was now very down on power and lots of black smoke... the air filter was clogged up. We pressed on but now we could only manage to go any where in low box. On the home stretch i felt the truck would make the last climb up to the finish line. so we pulled over rip the pre filter off and bashed the filter against the cage. This dislodged enough dust that the engine could get us to the finish. That was lap 1 done in 2:28:11 which was not to shabby.

After cleaning the filter out on the pits and a break with started the next lap. This time round we could go much faster on the open sections as we knew what was behind the next conner or jump. On the first lap we had managed to bend some thing in the steering as I could not get full lock to the right. Luckily we had the option of the fiddles to get us round the tight bends and we made very good time to the hidden valley.

Now this is where our day started to go south.... yep we hit that same rock again... But this time it ripped the side out of the tyre. 10 min tyre change (next year battery rattle gun will be carried) in the river and were up and running again.

Clean run through to the hard rock section. First bit crawled through and at a better pace, then on the next long rock step section within 100 yard our day was over. First The front right drive flange sheared all the hub bolts, down to 3 wheel drive, next a rear half shaft let go. Now down to 2 wheel drive on opposite ends of the car, then the rear diff wave the white flag. So now only drive on one front and this tyre is the wrong way round as was the spare. So we called it a day and winched of the course and waited for a tow back to the pits.

we had spare drive shaft but not enough parts to fix the rear diff. So that was our race done, no point in doing day 2 in only front wheel drive.

The carnage list is as follows:-

2 track rods

2 drag links

(plus ends)

1 panhard rod

1 sump

1 steering box

1 hub

1 half shaft

1 diff

1 tyre

1 air filter

Apart from this the old bus stood up well to what was a very punishing event and i am please with where we got on 35" being pushed by a 200tdi :)

This event is epic loved it all, as its not all about who can winch to a tree the quickest, you have to drive it the winch was the last thing you reached for..

I am going to be there next year, hopefully with a few more pony's under the right foot, 37" tyres, and a plan get round a lot more than 1 lap...

Thanks to the organisers and marshals top job, just next year can we get some showers on site, don't mine even paying a bit extra for it :)

I will post some images once i get them off the camera.

Sorry for the long read

Paul

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Wow what and event, sorry for the lack of up dates the charger for my phone (and so my net connection) stop working...

A quick report on the weekend.

The LCQ and the prologue were the same course and due to people dropping out of the main event there were now 9 places (11 runners) up for grabs in the main event. We had enough time to walk the course there was only one rock section which every one should be able to drive the rest was flat out with some open wide gravel tracks.

We were 5th of the line, and managed a good pace to the rock section then in to low box and kept a steady crawl up the rocks. At the exit of the rocks made a major mistake by powering out of the rock section, I was not able to turn quick enough with the front locker in and almost put the truck back into the rocks on its roof.

We managed to recover from this quite quickly only losing a few minutes, the rest of the LCQ was a flat out high range blast, I quickly found my self running out of talent on some corners and only just getting it back before a tree, ditch or rock :)

We did ok on the LCQ ending up about a 1/4 up from the bottom of the score board, and because of my moment at the top of the rock section we had to straighten out all the steering bars but part from that every thing else was good to go.

Race day we started at 10:44 the race leader started at 10 and the plan was simple complete the fist lap. The first 10km of the track was fast high range speed and i tried to keep the speed with in my talent range, soon we were blasting down the river bed in what we call the Hidden valley. We hit a large rock and I thought that's lucky we still have a tyre. 100 yard further on we see two trucks one with 2 punctures and the other with 1. Managed to get passed these trucks as the guys were great in moving out the way. 200 yards further on the first queue of the day. Here the course split in two and there was a option one route was a slippery side slope and the other was a large deep mud pit in the middle to the river. There as some one winching through the pit and it looked deep so we decided on the side slope. But there was a stricken truck on the entrance so after a bit of winching we were through.

Our first stupid mistake of the day coming down a rock slope was not watching and got hung up on a ledge. Lucky the French (thanks guys) car pulled up behind us and we used them to winch back a touch and got some rocks under the front wheels and so off the ledge.

Next it was a fast section to a rock climb section, with a truck about half way up winching. The car in front of us decided to go for it and over take on the climb. The guys from Malta were at the bottom of this climb sorting their car out from having rolled trying the same manoeuvre. The truck that was in front of us (i cant remember the number) made it passed only just with a great bit of driving. We played it safe and waited for the winching car to clear the climb, before driving up.

The next chock point was sharp right near vertical climb out of a wet rocky river bed, we managed the climb with out winching after a quick shunt to line the truck up. then its was on to the main and by far the longest and hardest rock section to the day. We made it through this section ok not the quickest but we got through.

Then it was a straight blast to the finish, The truck was now very down on power and lots of black smoke... the air filter was clogged up. We pressed on but now we could only manage to go any where in low box. On the home stretch i felt the truck would make the last climb up to the finish line. so we pulled over rip the pre filter off and bashed the filter against the cage. This dislodged enough dust that the engine could get us to the finish. That was lap 1 done in 2:28:11 which was not to shabby.

After cleaning the filter out on the pits and a break with started the next lap. This time round we could go much faster on the open sections as we knew what was behind the next conner or jump. On the first lap we had managed to bend some thing in the steering as I could not get full lock to the right. Luckily we had the option of the fiddles to get us round the tight bends and we made very good time to the hidden valley.

Now this is where our day started to go south.... yep we hit that same rock again... But this time it ripped the side out of the tyre. 10 min tyre change (next year battery rattle gun will be carried) in the river and were up and running again.

Clean run through to the hard rock section. First bit crawled through and at a better pace, then on the next long rock step section within 100 yard our day was over. First The front right drive flange sheared all the hub bolts, down to 3 wheel drive, next a rear half shaft let go. Now down to 2 wheel drive on opposite ends of the car, then the rear diff wave the white flag. So now only drive on one front and this tyre is the wrong way round as was the spare. So we called it a day and winched of the course and waited for a tow back to the pits.

we had spare drive shaft but not enough parts to fix the rear diff. So that was our race done, no point in doing day 2 in only front wheel drive.

The carnage list is as follows:-

2 track rods

2 drag links

(plus ends)

1 panhard rod

1 sump

1 steering box

1 hub

1 half shaft

1 diff

1 tyre

1 air filter

Apart from this the old bus stood up well to what was a very punishing event and i am please with where we got on 35" being pushed by a 200tdi :)

This event is epic loved it all, as its not all about who can winch to a tree the quickest, you have to drive it the winch was the last thing you reached for..

I am going to be there next year, hopefully with a few more pony's under the right foot, 37" tyres, and a plan get round a lot more than 1 lap...

Thanks to the organisers and marshals top job, just next year can we get some showers on site, don't mine even paying a bit extra for it :)

I will post some images once i get them off the camera.

Sorry for the long read

Paul

Great write up Paul, sounds like a lot of fun....and pain......and my turbo didnt fail!!! Well done . :i-m_so_happy:

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Demotivated and without a racer :(

But it does look fun, if I ever have the time and money I'm definitely up for building an U4 racer. I've been drooling over all the US builds, and the races they get to do. It would be nice if U4 could grow a bit in Europe too, especially the different classes (I'd love to build a stock-class racer).

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Yeah, while watching David's video I was definitely thinking we should've done this instead of Ladoga.

Oh well, who knows, perhaps by next year I'll be so fed up with my Rangie I'll hack it up and create a racer :glare:

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We had an eventful weekend but tried as you say "within limits" which is ridicolousy hard.

My V8 was cooking with the the rear radiator and not getting any airflow apart from the fans, so to counteract i tried increasing the fueling via the megasquirt, this proved very expensive at 50 litres plus a lap (17 miles) but did keep it cooler a degree or two.

On day 1 in the afternoon we were up to 6th half way round but the my enthusiastic co-driver was a bit to rough on the high low gearstick and got it stuck in high, so no chance when we got to the rocks, steadyvdrive back to the pits.

Sunday after a flying start IN REVERSE, totally my fault, a lot of laughing and shouting and we were off, but boy was it slippy and no front brakes which resulted in effect of handbraking every corner, which was very scary on a slippery surface, we managed to overtake Saley, Philon, helped another back on the wheels in the mud run, got stuck at the end ofvthe hidden valley with a small (20ft) pine tree through the axles and belly pan, then flew overtook 2 more on the rocks then started with major problems at the end of the rocks with fuel starvation when it was standing up. I instanly knew the was fast approaching empty.

It lasted until about 2 miles from the finish where it ran dry, totally gutted.

Damage all weekend

1 adjustable linkage of a L230 transfer box

1 huge dent in the Mastercard for fuel, but have now got a new lawnmover, some towels, and a set of pyrex dishes for her.

And a lot of aches and pains, but enjoyed it immensely.

Thanks to Ashcroft for their superb shafts,C/V's and lockers, and Megasquirt Nige's pegged diffs, they're effin strong.

Cheers

Boothy

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Boothy, i heard you had forgotten to put fuel in before the lap?

Very glad that you have come above some of the horrendously expensive trucks, ie saley and phillion. It proves that being able to drive and reliability go a long way!

Also, your exhaust note was the best Alarm clock EVER.

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