Drive to sweden with trailer, cross bog, recover old **** drive home!

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streetwagens said:
Anyone know anywhere I can practice in South Wales? Wetter bog the better. Planning on dump truck tyres for the muddy bits, 60mm(ish) lift for arch clearance on spring spacers, combination of capstan/normal winch, a few tubes and hefty bumpers with anchor points all round, sleds instead of wheels on the trailer. Any ideas guys?
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I get to do vehicle recovery for real on the peat bogs of the somerset levels. If the ground is boggy as you say, you can forget towing the trailer over it. I don't even take my landy on the peat bogs. I use a tellyporter and use the arm and forks to lift or drag myself over the peat depending on what it's like as every meter you travel is different to the last.

An electric winch will stand no chance on peat. You'll just cook the motor. You would be better with a hydraulic or shaft driven winch as it won't overheat. You would be better towing the vehicle over the bog to where you can safely load the trailer rather than loading the vehicle on the trailer and then trying to tow the trailer over the bog.
 
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The vehicle for recovery has no hubs or axles, and doesnt have enough structural integrity to get out of there unless strapped and braced to a trailer of some description.

Sounds like hard work on the Peat bogs! I dont think this terrain is as bad as that, and if I stick to the tree line then I should have winch points. I might have access to a second hand capstan winch, but I'm not sure how we would hook that up to the range rover, would need to get it back to the farm to check it out first. 100m of nylon rope would be handy then too.

Dont think ground anchors would be any use at all in your peat bogs! :eek:
 
Just to be clear, you are going to all this trouble to recover a rotten swamp infested splitty with a dented roof ???
 
Not far, my mate works as a restraint nurse there, he wants to come too. :eek:

Its worth 'enough' for me to bother to do it, I'm not able to discuss prices etc in public, nor show any photos of what it is etc, suffice to say it is worth the effort ;)
 
B3aker said:
I'm Thinking a defender sw would be better suited to what your trying to do...
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I did think about swapping out, but is there much difference in the suspension? The RR I have I know to be reliable for long euro trips, so am confident that it will eat the miles and that it has been serviced regularly, theres probably a couple of grand difference in value between my RR and a Defender SW, What do they run to? Wheelbase is similar, both coil sprung, what are the off road advantages of a defender? :cool:
 
streetwagens said:
I did think about swapping out, but is there much difference in the suspension? The RR I have I know to be reliable for long euro trips, so am confident that it will eat the miles and that it has been serviced regularly, theres probably a couple of grand difference in value between my RR and a Defender SW, What do they run to? Wheelbase is similar, both coil sprung, what are the off road advantages of a defender? :cool:
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better ground clearance at standard.Also widerwheels fit dependers easier.
 
I think your going to need many winch rope extensions and tow ropes.

Could you get the trailer down to the vehicle, via winches and pulley blocks, man handle the vehicle onto the trailer, with aid of a winch then pull it out? Im thinking with the vehicle on firm ground here to. so maybe go as far as you can safely with the RR (do not bog it) then winch from there. a 1000m pull should be interesting.

taking vehicles into bogs is not recommended. maybe worth speaking to local farmers etc, see what they have? An ARGOcat may be able to get your trailer out there depending on weight.

You need to be thinking outside the box. your RR aint going to tow it out of the bog.

G
 
Good point, The bodywork of the RR is sacrificial, I'm happy to clearance it, although the rear doors and the front footwells are awkward. If I use the spring lifters to raise it a bit (40-60mm) then I shouldnt have any difficulty with the propshaft clearance from what I can see, anybody used these spacers? I was chatting to a guy at the 4x4 centre in Swansea who had made his own spacers for his 90 defender, he was going higher so needed the double slip prop for the front so was in pricing those up. If going higher on the RR, then the prop would foul the tubular crossmember below it, so I dont particularly want to be getting into slicing and dicing chassis members. ;)
 
streetwagens said:
Good point, The bodywork of the RR is sacrificial, I'm happy to clearance it, although the rear doors and the front footwells are awkward. If I use the spring lifters to raise it a bit (40-60mm) then I shouldnt have any difficulty with the propshaft clearance from what I can see, anybody used these spacers? I was chatting to a guy at the 4x4 centre in Swansea who had made his own spacers for his 90 defender, he was going higher so needed the double slip prop for the front so was in pricing those up. If going higher on the RR, then the prop would foul the tubular crossmember below it, so I dont particularly want to be getting into slicing and dicing chassis members. ;)
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dont worry bout the prop there are 2 diffs to think about first
 
I did think about a small 4 wheeled dolly to pop under the ball hitch of the trailer, therefore converting it into a 5th wheel articulation, that would have to be a leccy winch/tirfor job though, got some plant batteries that would power a winch for a while, not sure about 1000m though!!

Another thought was to buy a cheap 109 S3, strip it down to a rolling chassis just to use as a tractor unit in the bog, tow back to the road then weight it in after its job is done? Ive got a spare 109 chassis, so a rotten one would do to lash something together. Couple of hundred for a donor car would sort it perhaps?
 
****in hell.Drive to where ever in what ever.Get onto local plant yard rent one digger with bogmaster tracks dig out shed.Lift shed happy days, £500 a day
 
To tow a vehicle on slippery ground you need the tyres to dig in to get enough traction. That requires thin tyres. In a bog you need the tyres to float over the the top of the surface. That means fat balloon tyres. As soon as your tyres start spinning you will dig yourself in.


On soft surfaces such as peat you need to half float half ski the vehicle out. If I were doing the job I would be putting the casualty vehicle on some sort of sledge but rather than it having runners it wouln need a flat bottom along the lines of a narrow boat. As I've already said you really need to avoid putting your vehicle at risk by crossing the bog. I'd rig up an alternator to a petrol generator to create 12v power. I'd fit a good quality electric winch or even better a hydraulic winch running on an electrohydraulic pack (as used on tail lifts and recovery trucks) to a base plate and then weld some HD eyelets/towing eyes to it. I'd use the winch strapped to the trees and powered by the generator to move the vehicle to solid ground where the trailer can be loaded.
 
Just hire one of these.

Hydratek.jpg
 
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