Thirteen lanes on Friday the 13th, that was the plan. Here's a brief summary of the run along with some video stills, photos and video footage from The Defender Channel
La n e 1. I've never done this one before, it's a nice gentle lane that you could easily drive in a car. There's some nice views and a bit of a drop to one side on part of it, a nice easy start to the day.
La n e 2 . Lane 2 was Whitestones. After the rocky climb up on to the moors, it was on to the cross axle section. The vehicles had a mixture of axle lockers, traction control, massive suspension travel and totally stock, so it was interesting to watch how the different systems performed. I really like this lane, so much better done up hill.
Waynes Defender flexing on Whitestones
La n e 1. I've never done this one before, it's a nice gentle lane that you could easily drive in a car. There's some nice views and a bit of a drop to one side on part of it, a nice easy start to the day.
La n e 2 . Lane 2 was Whitestones. After the rocky climb up on to the moors, it was on to the cross axle section. The vehicles had a mixture of axle lockers, traction control, massive suspension travel and totally stock, so it was interesting to watch how the different systems performed. I really like this lane, so much better done up hill.
Waynes Defender flexing on Whitestones
Video - Whitestones & The Dog Leg
Lane 3 & 4- These were pleasant lanes, nothing special but preferable to traveling on tarmac. These took us nicely on to The Lawnt (Lane 5) where we had a 10 minute drink & chat before going up Pheasant Pen (lane 6).
Lane 6- Climbing the steps was interesting and again showed the difference between the different vehicles. I was pretty impressed with how the traction control pulled the Disco 2 up, wheels spinning here and there until the TC kicked in. With a totally stock vehicle, Aka had to pick his line a bit more carefully but got up with no major dramas
Bren on Pheasant Pen Steps
Traction Control helping out the Discovery 2
Danny enjoying the view, Brendan (with a dislike of heights),
not so much.
The rest of Pheasant pen didn't pose any problems and all vehicles had no trouble getting through the deep ruts of the upper lane.
Lane 7- It was straight over the road to Plas Tregeiriog and a lunch stop.
Lanes 8 to 12 were really just mileage makers on the way to the next lane. Even though it was dry & sunny, the spot where we pulled the stuck lamb out of the liquid mud last time (he says hi by the way), still had a fair bit of standing water that was 1/2 way up the wheels.
Lane 13. From there it was up to Dog Leg Lane. For some reason, the rocky climb up through the woods seems a lot narrower going up hill than it does coming down and the off camber more pronounced (sorry Brendan).
Lane 7- It was straight over the road to Plas Tregeiriog and a lunch stop.
Lanes 8 to 12 were really just mileage makers on the way to the next lane. Even though it was dry & sunny, the spot where we pulled the stuck lamb out of the liquid mud last time (he says hi by the way), still had a fair bit of standing water that was 1/2 way up the wheels.
Lane 13. From there it was up to Dog Leg Lane. For some reason, the rocky climb up through the woods seems a lot narrower going up hill than it does coming down and the off camber more pronounced (sorry Brendan).
The middle section is also considerably more overgrown than when we did this last month. A bit of wheelspin for the Disco2 on the stepped section but a different line see's it to the top.
Wheelspin for the Disco 2 on the stepped section. A lot steeper & rougher than it looks in the pic & video
Wheelspin for the Disco 2 on the stepped section. A lot steeper & rougher than it looks in the pic & video
Pheasant Pen & The Dog Leg
Lane 14. On to The V Gulley. This seemed a lot rougher than last time. I put this down to my imagination until Wayne (who had also done it a month or so back) said the same. Don't know what's different about it, it just is.
Lane 15. The short, muddy lane with the hard right turn at the top.
Lane 16. On to the last & most challenging lane of the day, The Baddie. This was the lane I was looking forward to the most but at the same time, the one I was apprehensive about. I'd already made up my mind that I was going to go up it but as no one else had done it before, we did it downhill 1st so everyone else could have a look at it and make up their own mind whether to have a go uphill or not. Someone had placed some rocks at the bottom of the 1st drop off (very kind of them) but even so, the Disco2 clonked it's exhaust here.
We worked our way down, each drop off a bit worse than the previous one until we reach the daddy of them all at the bottom. Although it was a dry day, the ground was very soft and spring water running over the rocky section to the side (don't remember that last time) made the rocks so slick you could hardly stand on them without slipping, it was a lot wetter than when we did it last month. Rocks were placed at the bottom of the drop where it's washed out and TEJ went down 1st with no dramas.
Pictures & video tend to flatten things out & really don't do this drop off justice.
Everyone must be as dumb as me as everyone decided to have a crack at it uphill. Driving down the rest of the lane we did a three point turn in a gateway and headed back up.
Getting back up to the 1st drop off is a bit of a challenging in itself, there's some small rocky steps that you don't really notice coming down but you do going up and as they were wet (not sure where the hell this water came from on such a sunny day), they were very slick in places. As we approached the 1st drop off, I should have dropped Ben off to video it but in my excitement, I completely forgot and just went for it . Here's the video of first going down, then the drive back up. like the rest of the vids, best watched in HD. A cracking lane and a good challenge to finish the day on.