Off Road Training

It has been such a long time since I have driven off road, that I would now rate my skills as novice.  With that in mind I decided to put myself through a 4x4 training day at Woodhill 4x4 Park.  Colin at Trackwise was my trainer for the day and he was excellent.  He took me through a wide range of tracks and scenarios through the forest, gradually building up my confidence in equal measure with illustrating to me the off road capabilities of the Defender.

Some of the tracks left me exhilarated and wanted more but my overwhelming impression was the capability of the vehicle.  It tackled inclines and terrain that at first glance seemed impossible, for a car that is also road legal, to negotiate. I know that the tracks and trails that we will be on in the South Island will not be as extreme as the ones at Woodhill 4x4 park and that does not matter.  We now know what the car is capable of and are now really looking forward, even more so to the trip.

Below is a short video of the highlights from the day.

Landrover at Woodhill from David Kinane on Vimeo.

Roverland Hamper

I was expecting a delivery today.  I have ordered 4.5t D shackle and bridle strap for the car.  But the courier who dropped off a package for me today, left a nice surprise from Roverland.  A hamper.  Thanks Roverland these condiments will make our Christmas table very bountiful and what's left over will be taken south with us!  Now how can I make use of that wooden crate?

Recovery Points

On Wednesday this week I took the car to Top of the Range to have the recovery points fitted.  The process was fast and efficient.  I will be back.  I especially like the front bumper unit that they have developed that is made of 6mm steel, allows for a rear mounted winch to be installed and has an integral under guard for to protect the steering rods and the front diff.  Apparently when it is complete the bumper unit looks like the standard Land Rover unit I currently have.

Nitro Filled Tyres

When the car went in for its 1000km service I was asked whether I wanted to have the tyres filled with Nitrogen.  I was told that Nitrogen filled tyres can provide fuel consumption efficiencies of up to 30%  A grand claim for a car like a Defender that has all the aerodynamics of a brick!  I am keeping an interested eye on the fuel consumption and I have found so far that for urban driving I am getting about 500km per tank.  I filled up two weeks ago, after our trip to the Coromandel  and driven exclusively in and around Auckland.  Today I took the following photo...

On this current tank I have done 542km and still have a quarter of a tank to go.  On the face of it it the fuel consumption savings look like the investment was worth it.

Prepping...

It's been hot today, a typical hot still Auckland summer day, wonderful. Strange then to be fitting snow chains on such a day! I have been waiting to find an opportune moment to fiddle about with the additional recovery attachments that I have purchased to go with the Hi-Lift jack and also have a go at fitting the snow chains before I actually need to.

I got out all of the Hi-Lift jack accessories and assembled them as if in preparation for a recovery, all good. I now feel confident about how it all fits together and now I just need to find a tree to winch off of to put the theory into practice.

The chains were a little trickier. The Snow Sweat Chains pictorial instructions were written by someone who already knows how to attach chains, heads up here guys, your written text needs to be a little clearer. I am glad that I spent the time fitting the chains as they had got seriously tangled in the bag and working out what needed to be untangled from what, has now given me an intimate understanding of the chains. In fairness to the guys at Snow Sweat, now that I have fitted the chains once, the instructions make sense, but prior to this they did require several read throughs!

I am not expecting to have to use the chains on our trip to the South Island next month, well not in snow anyway, but if it rains some of the tracks could get boggy, so better to be prepared. The highest elevation we get to is 2500m so we might encounter snow. What ever happens, I now feel better prepared than I did this morning.

On Wednesday this week I am taking the car to Top of the Range to have front and rear recovery points added and then next Sunday I am off up to Woodhill for a day of 4x4 off road training in the car, will take the Go Pros for that trip. This will be the first serious off road trip the car has had... I am really looking forward to it.

MInce Pies

Little by little our trip to the south island in January is taking on epic proportions!  The car will be so full of stuff that it will be a surprise if we make it up even the slightest incline!  Well if we get stuck we will have plenty of supplies to keep us fed.  Chief amongst these supplies will be a large Christmas cake and plenty of mince pies!  I have had the mixture marinading in brandy and sherry for over a month with other little ingredients thrown in to make the mix special.  Here is a time lapse video of the first batch of many more to come being made.  Enjoy!

Mince Pies - 2013 from David Kinane on Vimeo.