Nearly Complete
Hk 450 gt
“About bloody time” some would say. Yes it was half my fault, I got lazy, but the instructions were a nightmare. Most of the later stages of this build were logical guess work. There is still a little bit more to do but that can wait til tomorrow now. Til then.
Cup Day Weekend 2011
Stuck
Just before I got her stuck
It was hard to keep the fire going
Got fire going first
Its the first long weekend in 5 months and the boys are keen to get out and play in the mud with their big toys. Unfortunately it rained and it rained. Just like last years cup day weekend. Still you can’t let a little water get in the way of a trip out into the bush. This trip took us down to the tanjil river ( about 30 mins past Noojee). The river was quite high when we crossed it on the first day and continued to rise over the weekend. This is where Bushy did some damage to his 100 series, a CV we think. Dan needed to head into Moe to get some more supplies for the kids, so followed him to the road and then turned back. I was meant to go straight back the way we come. That way if anything went wrong with my vehicle I would just wait til Dan got back and then we could figure it out from there. But “No” i saw that special track with a rainbow and promised pot of gold at the end. I can giggle now, I got 10 mins down the track and then I got stuck and needed a winch out. Which was cool because I had just put a winch on my truck. How ever I needed to be winched from the back. Luckily for me I was near mobile reception and could ring Dan and told him the problem. A couple of hours later, we were all sitting around the campfire and drinking our favourite poisons. Overall tho we all still had a great time and hanging for the next trip.
Winch On!
Wicked the winch is on and functional. What a dangerous mission that was, so many near misses from passing cars. I guess you get that when you have on street parking. A couple of cable ties from work and the job is complete and ready for our cup day weekend trip down to the Tanjil River. Two sleeps to go. Oh yeah thanks go out to the boys from work for all putting in and buying me a winch for my engagement present, and thanks Dan for helping me with some of the awkard stuff.
Soldering
Finally I managed to get the knack of soldering. I have done it before but not to often. I’ve got a little slag on a couple of the connectors but on a whole it’s not to bad. I’ll be a little better next I hope. Now on with the rest of the build. Hoping I can have this chopper together by the end of the weekend.
Fiddly Bits
Following instructions is one thing, but when instructions are not quite complete then obviously things can go wrong! Well it started last night when the allen key wouldn’t undo a bolt (that was on a prebuilt part). I was using metric and then i thought maybe its imperial, but no it was not the case, i had to undo the bolts with pliers because they have been rounded. This would have a lot easier if it didn’t have a sleeve washer on it. At the end of the day i ended up having to undo these bolts twice because the instructions are a little all over the place but have stopped tonight because after looking a little ahead on the instructions again I’ll have to undo them again, so with saying this progress is a little slower than expected. Here’s some pics of where I’m at.
Up, Up and Away
4×4 Show
Janine, the best girl in the world purchased tickets for herself and me. We have been having a ball checking out XXXX girls and the monster truck action. Heaps here to see, just not enough cash in pocket to buy everything. Now we’re just waiting to see the next monster truck gig.
The New Man Cave
Well 2 blogs in two weeks, some one must be rather happy with himself. Indeed I am. Since I moved into Janine’s I have been playing computer games on a couple of cardboard boxes and a small stool which is really a foot rest for another seat lol. This over the weeks started to do wonders for my back (lots of sarcasm), so yesterday I went out and spent $150 on a desk and a chair. Oh did I forget to mention I also spent a ludicrous amount of money on a new graphics card Nvidia GTX 580 SO. SO stands for super overclocked, which brings big smiles to any geek. It’s been along time since I’ve had a Nvidia card, but I’m glad I’m back on board. Bye bye ATI.
Mt Skene 4×4 trip
Blog on … Hmmm it has been a while, but as they say better late, than never. Straight after work yesterday we headed off on yet another 4×4 adventure. The aim was to get to Crowes Hut and set up camp, but unfortunately some other lucky devils had beaten us to it. With darkness less than an hour away we decided to make refuge on higher grounds next to the remains of a skiers hut.
Fortunately there wasn’t much wind last and was not as cold as we thought it was going to get. We got a kick ass fire going while we downed a few beers and bundys. The crew consists of myself, Dan & Bryce. I wonder where we’ll end up today.
Black Range State Forest
I have just recovered from one of my best 4×4 trips ever. Dan and myself took off straight from work Friday and headed out to Black Range State Forest. When we arrived (in just over an hour) we headed for the old train tunnel to check that out. It was pretty cool (literally) and had been built quite well. It wont be falling down anytime soon.
After that we had a quick look around, checked out the main camping area and started to have a look around for a place to camp. We drove around a few tracks and found one that looked like it hadn’t been used in a while and set up camp there.
A few beers & a few bundys later the music and food was kicking to the early hours of the morning. No one came past our site, so we had no one annoying us which was pretty cool. The next morning we were up and were enjoying the liquid amber by about 10 am (well we were on holiday). We cruised around all day checking out tracks in the top quarter of the map. Once again we setup camp and started pumping the music and drinking ourselves silly. Well the next morning was a bit shaky for both of us. It took a while for us to get our bearings, but once we found our feet again we were back out exploring. Dan took off to go get some more fuel in Yea so i started looking for another camp site.
The only thing different about this night was that we saw the dark storm clouds come in and we had about 30 mins of rain during the mid afternoon, which was nothing, 1/2 hour later everything was dry again. Around about dusk we got to see an amazing fog come in, and it came in pretty thick and fast. It was quite trippy.
Over all we both had an awesome time. We left the forest at 10 am and was home by 11:30 am. Now really hanging for the next trip!