Syncro Stuck!
Posted: 20 Feb 2012, 14:01
My Syncro tends to get used for travelling to fell races and getting changed in, as well as camping. I find it's 'go-anywhere' (well nearly) ability very useful at the race vwenues, which can tend to be a bit challenging when it comes to parking. As was the case at the recent Fairmile Fell Race in the Howgill fells, near Sedbergh in Cumbria.
My partner Gill and I arrived rather late for the race (on 12th Feb) to find almost every spare foot of the frozen grass verges full of parked cars (the organising club has commented that they may have to restrict numbers at some venues in future due to lack of parking space as the races increase in popularity). A 4WD Subaru Forester ahead of us ambitiously tried to mount a low grass banking at an angle but ended up with a rear wheel pawing the air and spinning ineffectually. I nipped past and found a narrow gap further along the road, between a car and a deep ditch. I squeezed through this but had a little trouble as the front offside wheel encountered a sharp hump (I thought it was a rock at first) and struggled to climb over it – with a little rear-wheel spin. Anyway, the van was now clear of the road and I left it there, reckoning it would be easier to get out when a few of the cars along the edge of the road had gone after the race.
The race forms a ‘mini-horseshoe’ around the head of Fairmile Beck, with Fell Head as the culminating summit and is less than 3 miles but with a lot of climbing. Conditions on the fell were a combination of slushy snow and bone-hard frozen ground with a thawing slick surface. I wore orienteering shoes, which have metal 'dobs' for extra grip and a few others had basic mini-crampons on their feet but everyone found that grip was a rarity. With no time for a warm up I struggled from the off. My climb was pained and I was passed by a number of people before the summit. The upper part of the climb was on sugary snow which collapsed under every footfall and no one was getting good footing here, no matter what they had on their feet. Turning right at the top we commenced the descent of Fell Head’s SW ridge. The shallow depression of the path was filled with slushy snow – better to ski down than to run – and the terrain each side was a feindishly knobbly combination of hard-frozen ground with a slick and thawing surface. It was….interestingly slippery. Somehow I took one place back on the descent but couldn’t make up much ground on those ahead. The difference was more to do with having working legs than what was on our feet I think!
Anyway, I now had to think about getting the van out. All the ground around the start/finish seemed to be pretty frozen so rather than reversing over the awkward hump I elected to do a little semi-circle and get back onto the road through a gap which had now appeared between parked cars. Using the G-gear and almost idling revs I began my little arc but was appalled when the offside wheels broke through a thin frozen crust and sank to the axles in deep boggy ground. The van quickly stopped and couldn’t be made to move despite careful coaxing, reverse then forwards etc. Nope. It was well stuck… At this point I should admit that neither of my diff locks are currently working....
A group of people came to assist but, despite plenty of manpower, manhandling failed (the offside wheels were well mired) so we tried a tow using a 4WD Honda CRV that happened to be lying about. It was difficult to approach closely without risking both vehicles becoming stuck (a longer tow-rope would have helped) but we coupled the two vehicles together nose to nose with the CRV at an angle and on relatively firm ground. With the CRV reversing, the Syncro trying to go forward and a bunch of folk pushing from behind we thrutched and heaved to no avail. By now the Syncro was virtually on it’s belly on the RH side and leaning at a crazy angle. We uncoupled the rope and only just managed to reverse the CRV to safety. It was a tractor job.
I walked up to the nearby farm of Whins (the farmer had already been down to the race on his quad bike earlier, selling eggs!) and asked if he had a tractor he could tow me with. He asked if it was “well stuck” and whether the quad bike might shift it but I said no it definitely needed a tractor. “Well it hasn’t been started for quite a while but we’ll give it a go” he said and jumping into the cab of a venerable old Case machine (4WD though, I noticed) he prodded a couple of buttons and it burst into life. Phew.
Back at the van, a mate of the farmer turned up in his VW T5 van and between them they weighed up the ‘leaning tower of Syncro’, lined up the tractor and connected a chain to the tow rope. “It’s well in, but if owt snaps it will be your rope” they said. The tractor took up the strain with me in the Syncro ready to assist as best I could. A thumbs up and the tractor began to pull. I let the clutch in and the van popped out like a cork from a bottle! Easy.
The farmer was all smiles, saying “That came out easier than expected!”. Despite my determined offers, he wouldn’t take any money, just allowing me to buy a dozen eggs from him (at the princely sum of £2)! Even my “keep the change” fell on deaf ears. The milk of human kindness does still exist!
The episode teaches me not to trust “frozen” bogs and also serves as a useful reminder that once the mud (or snow, or sand!) is up to the axles even 4WD is fairly useless. I do wonder how the van would have fared if the diff locks had been working though. Perhaps they would have been the difference between keeping moving and, er, not. The sobering thing was how much traction a 4WD tractor with huge wheels, tractor tyres and a huge Diesel engine has compared to a couple of puny 4x4s on 15″ wheels and not very agressive tyres.
At the next fell race I shall try to arrive earlier and park more circumspectly
See this link for a blog posting with picture: http://bowlandfellrunners.wordpress.com ... cronicity/
My partner Gill and I arrived rather late for the race (on 12th Feb) to find almost every spare foot of the frozen grass verges full of parked cars (the organising club has commented that they may have to restrict numbers at some venues in future due to lack of parking space as the races increase in popularity). A 4WD Subaru Forester ahead of us ambitiously tried to mount a low grass banking at an angle but ended up with a rear wheel pawing the air and spinning ineffectually. I nipped past and found a narrow gap further along the road, between a car and a deep ditch. I squeezed through this but had a little trouble as the front offside wheel encountered a sharp hump (I thought it was a rock at first) and struggled to climb over it – with a little rear-wheel spin. Anyway, the van was now clear of the road and I left it there, reckoning it would be easier to get out when a few of the cars along the edge of the road had gone after the race.
The race forms a ‘mini-horseshoe’ around the head of Fairmile Beck, with Fell Head as the culminating summit and is less than 3 miles but with a lot of climbing. Conditions on the fell were a combination of slushy snow and bone-hard frozen ground with a thawing slick surface. I wore orienteering shoes, which have metal 'dobs' for extra grip and a few others had basic mini-crampons on their feet but everyone found that grip was a rarity. With no time for a warm up I struggled from the off. My climb was pained and I was passed by a number of people before the summit. The upper part of the climb was on sugary snow which collapsed under every footfall and no one was getting good footing here, no matter what they had on their feet. Turning right at the top we commenced the descent of Fell Head’s SW ridge. The shallow depression of the path was filled with slushy snow – better to ski down than to run – and the terrain each side was a feindishly knobbly combination of hard-frozen ground with a slick and thawing surface. It was….interestingly slippery. Somehow I took one place back on the descent but couldn’t make up much ground on those ahead. The difference was more to do with having working legs than what was on our feet I think!
Anyway, I now had to think about getting the van out. All the ground around the start/finish seemed to be pretty frozen so rather than reversing over the awkward hump I elected to do a little semi-circle and get back onto the road through a gap which had now appeared between parked cars. Using the G-gear and almost idling revs I began my little arc but was appalled when the offside wheels broke through a thin frozen crust and sank to the axles in deep boggy ground. The van quickly stopped and couldn’t be made to move despite careful coaxing, reverse then forwards etc. Nope. It was well stuck… At this point I should admit that neither of my diff locks are currently working....
A group of people came to assist but, despite plenty of manpower, manhandling failed (the offside wheels were well mired) so we tried a tow using a 4WD Honda CRV that happened to be lying about. It was difficult to approach closely without risking both vehicles becoming stuck (a longer tow-rope would have helped) but we coupled the two vehicles together nose to nose with the CRV at an angle and on relatively firm ground. With the CRV reversing, the Syncro trying to go forward and a bunch of folk pushing from behind we thrutched and heaved to no avail. By now the Syncro was virtually on it’s belly on the RH side and leaning at a crazy angle. We uncoupled the rope and only just managed to reverse the CRV to safety. It was a tractor job.
I walked up to the nearby farm of Whins (the farmer had already been down to the race on his quad bike earlier, selling eggs!) and asked if he had a tractor he could tow me with. He asked if it was “well stuck” and whether the quad bike might shift it but I said no it definitely needed a tractor. “Well it hasn’t been started for quite a while but we’ll give it a go” he said and jumping into the cab of a venerable old Case machine (4WD though, I noticed) he prodded a couple of buttons and it burst into life. Phew.
Back at the van, a mate of the farmer turned up in his VW T5 van and between them they weighed up the ‘leaning tower of Syncro’, lined up the tractor and connected a chain to the tow rope. “It’s well in, but if owt snaps it will be your rope” they said. The tractor took up the strain with me in the Syncro ready to assist as best I could. A thumbs up and the tractor began to pull. I let the clutch in and the van popped out like a cork from a bottle! Easy.
The farmer was all smiles, saying “That came out easier than expected!”. Despite my determined offers, he wouldn’t take any money, just allowing me to buy a dozen eggs from him (at the princely sum of £2)! Even my “keep the change” fell on deaf ears. The milk of human kindness does still exist!
The episode teaches me not to trust “frozen” bogs and also serves as a useful reminder that once the mud (or snow, or sand!) is up to the axles even 4WD is fairly useless. I do wonder how the van would have fared if the diff locks had been working though. Perhaps they would have been the difference between keeping moving and, er, not. The sobering thing was how much traction a 4WD tractor with huge wheels, tractor tyres and a huge Diesel engine has compared to a couple of puny 4x4s on 15″ wheels and not very agressive tyres.
At the next fell race I shall try to arrive earlier and park more circumspectly
See this link for a blog posting with picture: http://bowlandfellrunners.wordpress.com ... cronicity/
It doesn't seem straightforward. I obviously need to read up on it...
