Bala offroad today

[MikeTheCamera]

Well folks, me and mudskipper, along with a couple of disco's went along to the Lada Niva Owners Club meet today at Bala.

Anyone booked in for May, you're in for a treat. Absolutley fantastic site, Mud, hill and H2O in abundance

Arrived on site at around 10.30, after quick sign of the disclaimer, you're off. First splash is a little 'un, no snorkel required, just to warm you up

Couple of good hillclimbs, Mudskipper flying up on the insa's, me SEVENTH attempt! on the all terrains!! (bloody adrenaline rush when we got to the top ) My son (6) after the 5th attempt said 'Dad', 'yes son' I replied, 'are we going to die' 'no son' 'oh Ok' lololol.

We then went round the site and found the 'dont attempt without raised air intake' sign, Red Rag, bull

Mudskipper went first, and failed , big lump two thirds of the way through, hey ho, turn round and come in from the other side, through, no problems, I went through in the rangie, then in typical 'mudskipper' fashion, several ' photo shoot' runs through, full throttle, how big can we get the bow wave

Time to stop for a quick coffee, and mudskipper decided he try the original direction in anger, half way through and all going well when the clutch gave up, lost drive, going nowhere

After we pulled him out and had a look, no pressure on the pedal at all, I would have then called it a day and gone home pee'd off. Not mudskipper, he grabbed a lift and we carried on, leaving recovering the fronty 'til later

We carried on to the wooded section, very tricky but fun.. More hillclimbs.. and the water splash in the middle of the site, which is VERY muddy, needing lots of gas to get thru (dont exceed the 10mph limit, you get shouted at ahem ).

Then we found the big water splash on the far side, my rangie on a 2" lift had water to the bottom of the screen , but she got through.

So as time was pressing on, I thought I'd have one more run through there before we head off, oh dear bad idea.

Alloy wheels go a funny shape and tend not to hold much air when you hit a rock in the wrong way . Spare on and home for tea.

I'll leave john to post more, probably not tonight as he went back with one of the disco owners to recover the fronty with a car trailer (John Mills, Milss 4x4, you are sir, a top bloke).

Mike

Pics to follow

[Krusher]

Looking forward to the pics

[andysd1]

pics, waiting with baited breath


glad you had fun, ahem, not to much damage then,

[MikeTheCamera]

Sorry for the delay photobucket bit slow tonight, John's got more sure he'll be along tommorow

Mike

[Drift]

Vids not working

Looks like you had a ball, might pack the sandles for the Bala weekend, save getting shoes wet

Great pics and good write up

[MikeTheCamera]

Try again

[Drift]

Fantastic

I bet in that first one he had to many people in the car and the weight held him up

[andysd1]

fantastic

[farmer]

ever thought about moving the operating controls and seating to the roof

[Krusher]

Abit concerned after reading and watching vids in this thread. My fronty has no mods as yet for the deep wet stuff and still has road tyres fitted. Will it survive the weekend or shall I ring the RAC and book myself an appointment now

[Trugga]

That water run is probably one of the toughest obstacles on the site.

The majority is easy enough for a standard Frontera on road tyres.

Lawrence

[MikeTheCamera]

You'll be ok, we did the extreme bits but theres plenty there to do thats 'tamer'. There were Nivas there with road tyres and no lifts, snorkels etc.
Just choose what you want to do, and if you take it too far, dont worry, there will be plenty of us there to pull you out

Mike

[Trugga]

Have a look at the site visit photos taken earlier in the year:

viewtopic.php?f=104&t=23101

Lots to drive

Lawrence

[Mudskipper]

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/mudskippe ... ex5NTJiwE#



sorry for the link but it contains 305 photos for you to enjoy,
let me know what you think of them



what a place, lets hope the weather is a repeat of this Sundays for the May meet

[furio]

Don't worry Krusher, you'll be amazed at what a standard fronty can do, and like Mike says, just choose the tamer bits to start with and build up your confidence. Be warned though the first time you take it offroad there will be no going back, before long you will be busy with mod after mod It really does get addictive.

[Krusher]

Cheers Furio

I'm really lookin forward to it now, especially as I know I've got so much support from all the guys.

Cant wait now

[furio]

No probs mate hope to see you there! Love that dash conversion by the way, looks very smart!

[Mudskipper]

for anyone that checked my photos, the reason for my breakdown was my clutch presure plate got contaminated with debris in the water splash.
mikethecamera is a top man helping me with the replacement of my clutch. four poster ramp and that box is still a pig to get out

all set for Bala again now, bring it on, just got to change the muddy oil in my engine ( hope the head gasket hasent gone) and maybe give it a clean

[Drift]

How did you get mud in the oil ?

[Livewire Frontera]

Don't worry Krusher, you'll be amazed at what a standard fronty can do, and like Mike says, just choose the tamer bits to start with and build up your confidence. Be warned though the first time you take it offroad there will be no going back, before long you will be busy with mod after mod It really does get addictive.

Tell me about it one outing with andysd1 and i was hooked and spending well into triple figures ££ my missus is not chuffed