This is coming along nicely
Dan, how's your man going with the Narby inside knowledge?
There's a bunch of new faces on this year's tour which is awesome, but there's also some stuff about the tour from experience that needs to be mentioned. Please don't think I'm being rude or pointing the finger at anyone, everybody on the tour has been a trail plug at one time or another, but we have maybe twice the cars of a "normal" tour day. This is going to slow things RIGHT down if we let it. This isn't any individuals fault, it's just what happens with larger groups, modded cars, and hard terrain.
So here's grumpy Steve's list of stuff to consider when on tour
1) Reliability/little issues
We love people to turn up with untested, just built, overtyred, and otherwise "loose" cars, but please make sure they don't have some niggly little problem
you already know about that's going to hold the trip up, especially if it's something that can't be readily trailside fixed. Just so you understand the difference, an awesome day on the tour is where we change a rear axle (much harder than the front) or sleeve a bent drag link with a chunk of car to keep a car on the tour, a bad day on the tour is when we spend two hours trying to troubleshoot why a carby car won't run properly when it's never run properly on every trip fir the last two years for the same reason. That's frustrating. Make sure your battery/charging system is up to speed, make sure your cooling system is in decent nick, make sure your EFI wiring doesn't take a dump on side angles or when you go over a big bump, make sure all your coils don't fall out on every, single, track.
make sure your winch works if you offer to use it.
2) Tools/spares
If you think it's going to break, bring a spare, and have
some idea how to change it, along with the tools required. It's not that we won't have tools there, it's that more sets of tools make a job go quicker. If you think you might need to change a rear axle for example, you're going to need a flare nut wrench, vice grips for locking off a brake line, and beefy 1/2" drive hardware to get the diff centre apart. You'll never be "on your own" - there's always heaps of experienced people and tools to help, but you need to be able to take control too.
Some things to consider:
Obviously, we have some cars coming on stock CV's. You need spares.
Unis
valve cores - get lost/damaged
Transfer mounts
Brake pads (We've had three cars spit pads on tour)
Hub bolts
Wire, terminals, fuses
Engine oil
Brake fluid
A spare vitara *boom-tish*
3) Timeliness
Please turn up at the start with a tank of fuel, coolant, oil in your car, drinks etc - don't turn up at 9.00 and then need to stash the trailer, find fuel, find a bakery, bleed your brakes etc. If you're trailering, allow time to unload and park up. We have a nasty habit of getting underway way too late on Tour mornings, and it basically means we run less tracks as a result. I guess we're going to try and get underway at 9.00am each morning, barring having to do actual mechanical work to keep someone on the tour.
4) Food
Please carry enough food/drinks with you to allow us to run into the night. In previous years we've had tracks run REALLY late (like 1am late) but it's also just that we might get back to camp later than we can buy a feed. It's amazing how much that adds to the stress. It might be a can of baked beans, whatever, but knowing you have an extra meal on board will just let you relax if its 8.00pm and we're still on a track. We don't plan for it to happen, but... (hell, we don't plan at all
)
5) Convoy procedure
Remember to mark corners. You are responsible for the car behind you. Make sure they acknowledge the turn with an indicator before you move off. On technical/difficult sections of track, wait on the far side to ensure the next car get through OK. 12 cars can get strung out over a VERY long distance and it can take ages to gather them all up if the convoy gets split. It's worth remembering this. It's just a waste of time as much as anything.
6) Misc stuff
Please remember this is a club trip - make sure you have a fire extinguisher and first aid kit in your vehicle. If you're bringing a passenger who's new to the club, please remind them there's no alcohol consumption whilst we're driving, even for passengers. As we will have media coverage on this trip, just consider that everyone on the trip will be representing the club. Number plates will be blacked out for any published photos.
Just some things to remember. Like I said, nobody is pointing the finger or getting shitty, but it's nice to just be able to slide into the "flow" of the tour, and with the numbers, that's going to be more important this year.
Steve.
