4x4 Adventures Ltd Taunton, Somerset
(6034521)
Wellington Drive Round Day, 8th June 08
Dave Harris is an intriguing chap. After completing a training day with OEC International and meeting up with us he developed a plan for his mate Andy Waterman. Andy is a busy guy with not a great deal of spare time, so Dave and a few of his other mates booked up a DRD with us as a surprise Birthday present for Andy. The surprise certainly worked as Andy knew nothing of it until 06:00 hours when he received the voucher from us. Dave was soon knocking on the door to help him change his tyres over on the 110 to a set of SATs and then they all made their way upto the Wellington site to meet the others for the 10:30 start.

Well Andy certainly has a good group of friends with the day being well supported. In total there were 5 vehicles ranging from Andy with his mate, father and father in law in his 110 to Roger with family Jill and Charlotte in his Tracedge shod 90 to Jim and Roger in a Pajero to Ash and Griff in Ashs’ modified Td5 110 with winch, large tyres and winch. Not forgetting of course Dave in his nicely modified white Td5 90.

As a little warm up we started off with the bumps and dips up in the top corner of the site to give everyone the chance to remember what off roading was about. This was also an opportune moment to show the ability of the Pajero which surprised a lot of the Land Rover converts with its ability despite being on AT tyres - it did need some assistance at times though. With everyone now into the fold we headed off to the first of the drops down to the main track which certainly gave most something to think about including a winch to get the Pajero to the top of the top after it became a little hung up on the access track - clearance was about the only element the vehicle struggled with. Having finished these we were back to a few more drops before heading up the main access track to the site, Andy’s 110 struggled a little here but nothing a short pull form Dave’s truck couldn’t sort out.

After a bite to eat back in the main car park field we headed down the road to Widecombe moor, heading straight on down to Ian’s bog where the guys could try out some deep rut driving through the boggy entrance track before trying one of the options down through the stream. Ash enjoyed it so much he went around again for another attempt, although I think it was just to make sure he got on camera! Roger took the river option in rather than the steeper descent – very sensible! After a loop up around keepers wood – where the Pajero excelled being somewhat lighter power to weight wise than the LWB Landrovers, we headed back to the top of Widecombe moor to drive the shorter of the two sections down to the duck ponds with the deep mud pit!

Having mastered the art of mud driving it was back up to the main field to try out a few more bumps and dips with a last descent of the day, the Pajero needed a few tows off some of the humps but coped admirably and with a lift and decent MTs would have excelled on the course. All the guys took in the last descent down through the leaf mulch with some trees looming with intent at the bottom, all made it through unscathed, a testament to the vehicles and drivers ability.

A great day with great company and great weather, it seems everyone took away something extra from the day learning about either their or the vehicles ability, with a last group vehicle picture it was time for Andy and crew to head down to the local to talk away the evening!


Some pictures from the day