bullwinkle
Member
G'day all. Just a quick recap of our little adventure on Sunday. I've been meaning to take the wife and kids (daughter 15 and son 12) out in the Nav for a while and we finally got around to it on Sunday. Went into the Creswick State Forest, which in reality is just on the outskirts of Ballarat, about a 5 minute drive from home.
This area has some graded gravel roads which would be easily driven in a car, and heaps of smaller tracks branching off that look to be not maintained at all. We didn't really know where we were going but just kept heading in a general westerly direction, taking whatever track we thought looked good.
Went through some pretty rugged spots, with lots of ruts from the recent rain, and plenty of puddles, some of which were pretty deep. At one stage I came across a longish puddle, about 15 metres long so, not having any recovery gear, got out and sussed out how deep it was with a stick. Only seemed to be no more than 6 inches deep, so away we went. Only about a third of the way through, we slipped to the left and went down about 18 inches. Got out of there easily and pretty quickly. Gave me a bit of a shock, but the kids and missus loved it, water splashing everywhere and rocking all over the shop.
We came across some fairly steep climbs, which the Nav handled easily. I haven't done much 4x4 driving before, but come off a farm, so know the torque of diesels, and the power of momentum. Only at one stage did we come across anything that looked too rugged: a fairly narrow patch which had some pretty deep ruts from the rain and nowhere to get around. Imagining the ear bashing I'd get from the cook if we got stuck, I opted for the safe way and reversed out about 100 metres before we could turn around.
Saw a couple of wallabies and kangaroos, which was good. Plenty of bird life about too. Disappointing how much rubbish has been dumped in the bush: I reckon we saw at least 15 mattresses in 2 hours.
For those interested, we started out at Springs Road, which turns off the Ballarat-Daylesford Road, turned left into White Swan Road, and then left again into Glenisla Road. This is a gravel road into a 5 acre lot subdivision, and turns into a track past the subdivision. We eventually found our way out onto Alkera Road, Nerrina. Then back onto White Swan Road, heading east up a long climb. Just over the top of the hill, there is a biggish intersection we know as 5 Ways. Turned left (north) here and eventually worked our way north west and came out onto the Creswick-Ballarat Road at Sulky by going along Codes Forest Road.
My ute is bog standard except for an extra leaf in the rear, which makes it sit up a bit. Front torsion bar needs winding up, so the front is probably lower than it should be, meaning that I am always going down hill! Will get this corrected at the next service in the next few weeks. Amazing how capable these things are, and the torque will pretty much get you out of anywhere. Most of the time we were just pottering along at idle or just above and felt completely bullet proof.
Lots of fun. Get out there!
Edit - sorry no pics - didn't even think to bring the camera. Ute is pretty dirty and won't get a wash till next weekend. Side steps obviously got wet, so some of the puddles were pretty deep.
This area has some graded gravel roads which would be easily driven in a car, and heaps of smaller tracks branching off that look to be not maintained at all. We didn't really know where we were going but just kept heading in a general westerly direction, taking whatever track we thought looked good.
Went through some pretty rugged spots, with lots of ruts from the recent rain, and plenty of puddles, some of which were pretty deep. At one stage I came across a longish puddle, about 15 metres long so, not having any recovery gear, got out and sussed out how deep it was with a stick. Only seemed to be no more than 6 inches deep, so away we went. Only about a third of the way through, we slipped to the left and went down about 18 inches. Got out of there easily and pretty quickly. Gave me a bit of a shock, but the kids and missus loved it, water splashing everywhere and rocking all over the shop.
We came across some fairly steep climbs, which the Nav handled easily. I haven't done much 4x4 driving before, but come off a farm, so know the torque of diesels, and the power of momentum. Only at one stage did we come across anything that looked too rugged: a fairly narrow patch which had some pretty deep ruts from the rain and nowhere to get around. Imagining the ear bashing I'd get from the cook if we got stuck, I opted for the safe way and reversed out about 100 metres before we could turn around.
Saw a couple of wallabies and kangaroos, which was good. Plenty of bird life about too. Disappointing how much rubbish has been dumped in the bush: I reckon we saw at least 15 mattresses in 2 hours.
For those interested, we started out at Springs Road, which turns off the Ballarat-Daylesford Road, turned left into White Swan Road, and then left again into Glenisla Road. This is a gravel road into a 5 acre lot subdivision, and turns into a track past the subdivision. We eventually found our way out onto Alkera Road, Nerrina. Then back onto White Swan Road, heading east up a long climb. Just over the top of the hill, there is a biggish intersection we know as 5 Ways. Turned left (north) here and eventually worked our way north west and came out onto the Creswick-Ballarat Road at Sulky by going along Codes Forest Road.
My ute is bog standard except for an extra leaf in the rear, which makes it sit up a bit. Front torsion bar needs winding up, so the front is probably lower than it should be, meaning that I am always going down hill! Will get this corrected at the next service in the next few weeks. Amazing how capable these things are, and the torque will pretty much get you out of anywhere. Most of the time we were just pottering along at idle or just above and felt completely bullet proof.
Lots of fun. Get out there!
Edit - sorry no pics - didn't even think to bring the camera. Ute is pretty dirty and won't get a wash till next weekend. Side steps obviously got wet, so some of the puddles were pretty deep.
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