Club 80-90 Forums

In the light of some of the experience at Devon it may be a good idea to compile a check list of minimum equipment and optional stuff for offraoding so people come prepared. As I know that even with some of the stuff I had with me I was sadly missing some useful items. I'm not saying bring all this stuff but might be worthwhile to have items shard between a group as can be demonstrated by sharons video.
As I posted this I'll start

towing points in good condition !
Good Handbrake !
difflocks in good condition
All terrains or mudterrains
Spare tyre!
Toolkit and some spares (drive shafts)
jumper leads
First aid kit
Fire extingiusher
Gloves
Highlift jack and Base ( winch attachments, optional?)
Tow strops rated at 5-6 tonnes
Shackles rated the same
Ratchet straps normal and truck ones rated to 3 tonnes
shovel
hatchet
saw
Waffle boards
Bottle jack
Winch optional
CB (spare aerial and mount)
Chainsaw optional (for Neil )

For those of us who have waffle boards, worth mentioning that its good to have a piece of rope tied to the end of each board. Makes getting them out of mud a whole lot easier!

To add to the list...

Torch & spare batteries
Head torch & spare batteries
Emergency food - including some that doesn't need heating
Water
Small tarp or similar - something to lay on under the van
Waterproofs

Mattock.

Flip flops...

jed

oh I forgot
a mobile phone
a camera (for recording how stuck you were and for jeds lunging )
Another van !!

Think you forgot summat...

Some gimp in a landrover so you can keep practicing recovery......

you would be amazed how oftern the chain saw gets used, ask jed about shipton last year when he decided not to walk a section first

this weekend when the ratcht strap could not be reliced, so tree was re located shall we say there was also a call from clive at the same time but at the time i was well hanging of a byway.

i also always carry a jerry can WITH fuel in it. i personaly have not needed it but this year at S/P someone ran out of petrol and gas and the 20l got them to the petrol station,

i also have at least a 1l of engine oil with me, twice now this has been used by outher vans how forgot to bring it with them and were running low of oil.

i think that after this weekend the groups should all have a 2 min chat and work out what equipment (tools/recovery) the combined group have, i carry most hand tools with me, at one point last weekend i looked like we were going to have to change a front outer cv joint on a lane, fortunatly between pete, andy and i we had every thing that we needed to do it, as luck would have it is was only a rather large stone cought between the wheel and disk that managed to lock the front wheel solid.

neil

oh and paul sallly is a bit concerned that you have broken your frothy coffee making thing she thinks she saw it in the bottle bank, she conciders this one of the high lights of camping, there for it should be included in the list

I'ld quite favour these in the equipment list
Would have come in well handy.
We call them sylvesters, you may call them something else.

axeman wrote:
neil

jed

"The more you take with you, the more you will need", taken from Mountain Leader Training manual, usually applied to the "comfy bivvy" principle:
If you take enough for a comfy night, you'll be moving so slowly with all the junk on your back that you will have to spend the night anyway...
Ok, there's a bottom line as to how little you can get away with and what you sensibly need - I would never have thought that a chainsaw would have been considered a group essential item up until now!

Corkscrew/bottle opener

axeman wrote:oh and paul sallly is a bit concerned that you have broken your frothy coffee making thing she thinks she saw it in the bottle bank, she conciders this one of the high lights of camping, there for it should be included in the list

Yeah it suffered a breakage in the washing up was quite surprised as was plastic but only a few quid in tesco's for a replacement. the ability to make a cup of tea is essential for any recovery and is advised by a lot of experienced 4x4 ers as gives one time to think and assess a situation and for everyone to calm down rather than running headlong into things unless of course one finds oneself in a similar situation to Neil which could have life threatening. Another thing which is essential is walking the route especially when one has reservations about particular sections the particular lane in Devon which most of my footage was from we had walked and so knew what I was getting into and had also highlighted certain areas where we would need the waffle boards.