AT2012 - ONE WEEK TO GO!! - Trip Reports P.13

[Greg]

Saturday 10-Mar-2012 Meeting Point:

Given we have people coming from Melbourne, and people coming from Noojee, and people with cars on Trailers etc... we will run two meeting locations

From Melbourne:
8:00am in Yarra Junction behind the supermarket.
Leaving Yarra Junction at 9:00am.

From Noojee:
9:15am at Gravel Carpark - intersection of Tarrango Rd and Yarra Junction-Noojee Rd (i.e. turnoff to Ellis Track).


Yep - that's right - straight onto Ellis! No stuffing around this year.


Dan - after your last effort on a club trip where you could hardly get your car out of the carpark - i suggest you had better meet us in Noojee

[gwagensteve]

I might even make it yet

Piggles went for i's first drive up the street under G16 power tonight. :armsup:

I have one problem to fix - it think one of the engine/gearbox loom plugs isn't fully seated - ignition breaks down and the auto chucks a spazzy if I jiggle the loom heading towards the engine.

Other stuff to do - Flares/mudflaps, make some brackets for the air box, mount the bullbar. That's about it - plenty for three evenings to finish.

Other than that it drives sweet. Plenty of power, no nasty noises or anything, steers and handles well, even with no nuts on the front radius arm bolts The steering will take some getting used to -its feels like a vitara - none of that sierra squishiness off centre. Cooling setup seems fine - fans kick in with the temp gauge showing 1/2 on the gauge. Auto temp gauge works nice, and my "slam mod" shifter works nice too - detent button fully in, I can slam L to R instantly.

I'm feeling pretty pumped for the tour now - at last.

Oh - I don't think I will stay at Noojee on Friday night - seems a bit silly to drive to Noojee and then back to Yarra Junction. I'm happy to cover my share of the accommodation cost for friday if it's an issue.

Steve.

[dank]

I think I'll meet you guys at the Noojee Turnoff. But we probably won't stay in Noojee on Friday night either. I'll see how we go.

I am really looking forward to getting out for a drive in the zook. its been too long.

MVO paperwork is sorted for gembrook, we need to go on the 10th or 11th March.

[Brad.Jones]

My Gears still haven't left LowRangeOffroad very disappointed but not much more I can do about it accept wait.

So I have decided to go on the Otways Trip with the AusZooker boys, much closer to home if anything was to happen.
Really don't want to go through the tow truck ordeal like my parents had to last weekend.

And I know the area pretty well so I feel much more comfortable about splitting from the group if the going gets too tough at any point.
Plus I can sleep in my own bed...

I will look forward to the 2013 Adventure Tour.

[Matthew]

Are there going to be enough spare seats with Brad not coming?

Matt

[Brad.Jones]

I was taking my missus anyway so with me out of the equation it won't make any difference.

[gwagensteve]

I put 10km or so of flogging on Piggles tonight, and now I think I really will be on the tour

Two problems:

A)The computer is throwing a VSS error. Weird, because it has a functional VSS. I'll look into that after tour. It's a minor problem - the auto still knows how fast it's going because it has its own speed sensor on the output, so it's shifting cleanly.

B)My fans aren't responding quick enough to engine temperature - It gets way too hot before the fans kick in, and they aren't coming on at all at speed on a cold night. I think it's because the temp sender is glued to the top of the thermostat housing, and it's not as well glued as my 660. I'm going to source a 1/8" NPT plug, bore it out, remove the (redundant) A/C temp sender, and glue the fan temp sender into the plug, set into the manifold, next to the computer temp sender. If this doesn't work well enough, I'll jack the fans on constant with ignition on. No big deal. I'm still sure I have enough cooling capacity.

Other than those things, it's driving 100%. Handling is good, it pulls 100km/h fine - it's everything I could ask for.

I'm pretty happy.

Steve.

[dank]

nice work steve! looking forward to seeing the new and improved piggles!

[dank]

In other news, Fel and I will be offering a bit of catering / provisions this year in the following format:

Beer: we will bring a couple of boxes of beer for consumption on Sat and Sun evenings with a flat cost (i.e. $2.50 per beer) to be paid when you pull it from the fridge.

Greg instead of all of us bringing a calico bag of $2 and $0.50 pieces with us, are you happy to just have a tally board on the fridge or next to the fridge which we can pay at the end of the night or end of the trip? As I really CBF screwing around getting $50 in change

Any other ideas? What beer are you providing? Thinking I might hit up my Whiskey stocks....

[Greg]

In other news, Fel and I will be offering a bit of catering / provisions this year in the following format:

Beer: we will bring a couple of boxes of beer for consumption on Sat and Sun evenings with a flat cost (i.e. $2.50 per beer) to be paid when you pull it from the fridge.

Greg instead of all of us bringing a calico bag of $2 and $0.50 pieces with us, are you happy to just have a tally board on the fridge or next to the fridge which we can pay at the end of the night or end of the trip? As I really CBF screwing around getting $50 in change

Any other ideas? What beer are you providing? Thinking I might hit up my Whiskey stocks....

hey dan,

i had given up on the beer buyout scheme. there were no replies to my offers earlier on in the discussions.

If enough interest sparks up today, i'm sure we can get organised to bring some frosty goodness.

cheers