Thanks for the write up again its great
Your welcome, but good advice is easy to offer, and easy to forget or ignore....
I dont want to preach doom and gloom, or high and mighty ideals, I want you to go out there and have fun...... but safely, and with a healthy apreciation of the 'privilidge' we enjoy being able to still drive Green-Lanes........
Thanks a lot Teflon, you undoubtedly went above the call of duty in your response.
It gives me and Chapman a lot to think about. We had already considered that we might not be best going out into the unknown all on our own which is why i started another thread requesting a spare seat in another convoy, that way we could see how its done before trying it out.
Yeah, I'd spotted that, and its a good eye-opener, but I think its a LONG way short of a 'good' preparation for taking to the trails on your own.
Every trail is different, thats what makes Laning so much fun. Its not about how challenging it is, or how bumpy, or anything like that; you can get that at a P&P if that's your bag.
What makes 'Laning' what it is is that you are driving a different bit of ground every moment. Theres a different view to see round every corner, and theres hidden curioucities in every hedgerow.
The trail itself has an amourphouse surface, in an organic, changing enviroment.
Drive the M6 once, you could have driven it a thousand times; the signposts dont change the land marks dont change, even the idiots hogging the middle lane or blasting down the outside into the road works could be the same!
Drive the same lane, on different days, and the surface will have changed depending on the weather, or passage of other vehicles; obsticles come and go. Trees grow into the track, or get cut back, rocks get exposed, ruts get deeper, or get graded.
You can drive the same trail a hundred times and its a different drive every time.
THAT is where the adventure is.
So, ride shotgun with some-one else a few times, and you'll get to see first hand some of what its about, and you'll pick up quite a lot of the basics.
BUT, what you wont do is be driving.
You wont get the hands on experience of what it feels like through the controls.
OK, so if you go out with some kind soul they may let you take the wheel for a few sections, but that wont even be a sniff of the sausage! Let alone the full banquet!
You wont start garnering the hands on experience over the huge range of conditions and situations you might encounter, until you start driving them yourself, and even then, well it can take years, building up the veriety of different situations and conditions!
So for a Newbie, I really reckon that the BEST starting place you can get, is by joining larger groups, particularly those organised and lead by experienced Laners, and preferably active club members.
THE NUMBER ONE most important thing you need when Laning, is the knowledge you are on a LEGITIMATE Public Right of Way, and that its is 'Status confirmed' on the day you drive it.
Going it alone, with an OS map or a few routes people have given you, great, but how confident are you that those routes are definitely checked out and status confirmed?
Join a reputable group run, and the leader SHOULD (take note its not always certain!) be a member of GLASS or the TRF or affiliate organisation.
Their routes SHOULD be fully researched and status confirmed.
AND, if they are a half decent leader, they should have been recently reconicenced to check the ground conditions are suitable for the convoy they are leading down them.
THAT is the difference you can get from going on a club run, rather than an informal meet off one of the boards.
The Leader should be some-one with a lot of experience for you to draw on, and know ahat they are about..
I mean, knowing hes leading at least ONE newbie, if not a whole group of them, they SHOULD have planned a route that is appropriate to thier level of competance, so you SHOULDN'T unless you are pretty stupid or very unlucky, get into any seriouse difficulty, but even if you DO, they should have enough of thier own recovery kit on board to haul you out of it, if needs be.
I should probably have stressed this point more in my earlier offering; but choosing your 'Mentor' for your first forreys into the persuit is probably THE most important thing to get 'right'.
I've offered a lot of suggestion about how 'lean' you can be with the kit every-one says you ought to have, and I'll stand by that, becouse you can have all the kit in the world, and it'll be no bloody use to man nor beats if theres no-one who knows how to use it properly, worse, pottentially lethal is used wrong!
But get a good Mentor to teach you, and 99% of any worries are IMMEDIETLY halved. Becouse THEY will know how to handle almost ANY situation that arises, and sort it out, with whatever you have or dont have between you.
Get a poor Mentor, and well.... can be worse than none at all, to be honest!
I came into the persuit ten years ago; I wasn't a complete newbie, being a farm-boy, I'd been driving and driving off-road since I was tall enough to reach the pedals on the lawn tractor! and my 'thing' had been Motorcycle Trials, so I knew more than a thing or two about driving for traction, picking lines, and tackling obsticles and such...... just not in a two ton Land-Rover!
I had actually bought that Landy without any real intension of using it 'off-road', it was basically a sturdy tow vehicle, which was a bit more useful for getting the trials bike to event venues than a little Meastro Hatch-back! But having got it, kids all wanted to go 'off-ru-udin' in it.
Member of two M/C trials clubs at the time, competing about twenty times a year, I had absolutely NO desire to join a Land-Rover club or sit on the perifery of yet another club 'clique' watching the play-ground politics and not being invited on Laning-runs becouse I wasn't attending all the RTV's and club evenings and such......... all I wanted was a good mentor to go do 'some' laning with, and give the kids a few days out, so they could go back to school and say that they went 'off-ru-udin' in their Landy!
(at least at THAT time...... BOY look where its lead!)
And I was 'lucky' in finding a decent Mentor; or MAYBE not. Theres a lot to be saif for the old expression you can do a lot to make your own 'luck'; but Keith, over the 'net gave me a LOT of confidence he was a bloke to trust.
I asked a lot of questions, and got a lot of sensible answers to them; and the key ones were to whether he was a member of a club, whether his maps were checked out, and what recovery kit I should carry, etc, and he checked all the key boxes I've offered to you.
He was a Rights of Way secretary in his 4x4 Club, and to prick a few pretensions, that WASN'T a Landrover one, he Drove a Pejaru!
His maps were ALL status confirmed
His Routes were all reconicenced before the run, and checked to be appropriate for the people he was leading down them.
He recommended little 'recovery' equipment; he said, that if it came to it, he had 'everything' that might be needed, and gave assurance that there was very little likleyhood that it would.
And to give him credit, when we first met up, he did. His PJ was winch equipped, and the boot contained just about everything you could find in the magazines, well used, and well looked after.
And, like he said..... we NEVER needed to use it!
The actual advice he gave over the stuff he recomended we 'pack' was a lot more mundane, and basic common sense.
Sensible cloths; water-proofs; sturdy shoes or boots; food; sweets for the kids, the 'usual' sort of stuff you's pack for a day in the car, and the ONLY thing he stressed the real importance of was WATER, lots and lots of water!
Water to drink, water to wash headlamps and number plates, or top up radiators, and MORE water to drink!
And THAT bit of advice, is one I REALLY apreciate! Three or four 2l pop bottles of the stuff, as a minimum, or a two and a half gallon gerry can, you CANT have enough water!
And basic car maintenence and preparation.
On the lanes, you know I think more delays have been through silly mechanical break-downs like flat tyres, over heated engines, blown fuses or loose wires than have ever been major bog-stuck recovery ops!
I am worried about fitting CB radio as i have to drill arials etc in are they that easy to install?
If you read the linked articles, theres detail instructions on all the variouse permutations of installing a CB
From the simplest; buying a Hand Held with an integral areal and its own battery (Easy, but perfromance limited for the same reasons as PMR, though still a LOT beefier!) to really tidy permenant installations.
With a bit of cocum, its not that difficult, and you needn't harm any vital bits or trim or bodywork in the doing.
Set in the Rangie needed no drilling at all; I removed an air-vent grill, and attached the CB bracket via screws that hold the dash together. Lead was strung through the back of the dash-board, and the roof-lining and exits the car through the rear top tail gate seal.
That's about the most onerouse bit of the job, takling trim apart to rout the cabling neatly. Areal itself is attached with a gutter mount, clamped to the roof rim, again needing no drilling, and the power supply is piggy-backed into a permenant live (actually the feed to the clock) found conveniently in the dash.
They have thier own internal speaker, so practically they are easier to rig up then a Hi-Fi.
You dont say what Landy you are going to get yet, though I recall the pair of you are looking for Series leafers.
The wiring on these is nominal, and the trim, non existant! Fitting a CB in one is pretty easy, biggest problem is finding a convenient spot to bolt it, where you can actually hear the speaker over the clattering engine and squeeking body!
If you get a hard top, theres a convenient bracket, or a bracket can easily be fitted, to the back panel just under the roof, where work-lamps are fitted, and the areal lead strung through the door seal, or better, through one of the existing bung filled holes in the penel beneath the roof gutter.... or you can use a gutter mount.
Areal lead can be routed to the front in the inside flange between roof and side panels, and down the windscreen pillar to a dash mounting, or as I did it, run around the to the CB mounted above the rear view mirror.... helpful in the speaker is usually underneath the set, so its pointing roughly at your ear and is reasonably close, so you can hear it well.
But, as the article, I also went and made up an overhead 'Dash' console to take an ordinary Hi-Fi and some other bits and pieces, so you can get as creative as you like really.
Biggest advantage of a properly mounted CB, though, is that it doesn't bounce about, and is easier to use from the driving seat, especially if you have the mic on a decent and conveniently sited hook.
They are worth the money and the effort. If you try playing with PMR or borrow a 'loose' CB, you'll find that a propper, permenantly installed CB rig, just works, without any of the 'niggles' the alternatives have.
Most frustrating thing is group laning and not having any-one else with a set to talk to! Flip side though, is group laning and being the only one NOT 'in the know' if you dont have one!
Chap in the Disco this week-end, was completely radio-less, two of us had spare PMR's, but unfortunetaly were both told that some-one else had already leant him one, and it wasn't until the quite late on, we realised why messages weren't getting through! (We just assumned it was **** PMR!)
In the post laning banter, back at the camp-site, when we were supposed to be packing up, but instead talking Landies, he felt really left out becouse he'd missed out on all the 'jokes'.... bad though they were....
Like when we passed a chap walking a three legged grey hound......
"Hey do you think he calls that dog Woddbine?"
"Why?"
"Well, he takes him out for a Drag every evening!"
"NAh! He's a Racer that one! Mind, they can only enter him into Handicap events....."
To recall just one!
More revealingly, though, when he got his sill tank hung up, there was a hidden ditch running accross the ruts, first car through was a Defender, and actually chucked up a 'Warning' to the rest of the convoy to be wary of it......
He didn't get that message, not having a Radio, and with a little distraction, wanting desperately to get to the next stop and find a bog, drove straight into it.......
THAT is the sort of thing that maked radio's such a useful tool.
Again, during the week-end, driving in convoy, especially a larger one like ours (Six vehiles is about the most you should have in a group if you follow the 'Tread Lightly' code), filing through town or even just junctions between laning sections, almost impossible to keep the convoy together; cars get strung out, and the lead vehicle cant always see all of the group behind. In fact with a group of six, very rarely can.
If you only have a couple of radios, best placed at the front and back of the group. Tail end Charlie then does the most work, telling the lead vehicle when the convoy has got strung out or cut up, and he needs to pull in and let it re-form.
And in that role, PMRs are particularly dire as by the time you need to tell the lead vehicle to pull over, they are usually out of range!
If there's radio's in the middle cars, its better, then messages can be relayed between them, so directions can be given, and the lead car can carry on, without having to stop so often, relaying directions over the radio, so the rest of the group dont have to be in plain sight looking for signals.
On the trails, the radio then gets used by the lead vehicle to warn of hazards on the ground, like hidden ditches, rocks or tree-stumps and stuff, as well as to tell Tail End Charlie if gates need to be closed behind the group or not, and stuff like that.
And that's why I really reckon that they are a piece of kit for a newbie to stick on thier equipment list early on.
when you are starting out, you have SO MUCH to take in and learn, and sat in the car, in a group, you'll spend an awful lot of time wondering what the heck is going on.
If you have radio, you'll be able to hear the 'banter' and OK, jokes and comments aren't important, but they make you feel a part of the 'gang', rather than just a passenger, which is a great start in building confidence.
But then, you'll be able to hear the comments like "Gate Coming up - Leave OPEN, repeat LEAVE OPEN" (Important instructions will be made quite clear, and often be repeated)....
Totally inconsequential to you, sat in the middle of the convoy, but when the group halts, having heard that, means your not jumping out the car, thinking its a tea stop, or wondering whats going on, you'll KNOW its a momentary pause as the leader gets out to open the gate, and let the group through.
Then the convoy will get moving again, and you'll see the gate, and grin, becouse you'd be warned of that on the radio.....
Likewise, you'll get something like, "BRAMBLES! Repeat BRAMBLES; Close Windows!"
And you'll shuttle the glass shut, wondering WHY brambles means close windows.... then a few moments later ther'll be thorns scrapping accross the glass..... and you'll think "Hmmmmm..... I had my elbow out there a few moments ago! THAT'S Why I was told to shut the windows"
Its all small inconsequential stuff, and it does depend on how contientiouse or experienced your fellow laners are, BUT, if you have raidio and the leaders are using it half well, it REALLY does make a big difference.
A well lead group will always get more lanes into an excursion, and have less trouble or hassle on them, becouse the leader knows what they are doing and is thinking not just for thier own drive, but the rest of the group as well, whether or not they have radio or not.
But a group equipped with radio, will find it easier, and not having to stop so often to rally the group or give driver briefing, where lanes are closed or theres a call over whether they are driveable, or to find out who needs a pit stop, or discuss some other point of business, the group will tend to get a lot more out of the day.
And as a newbie in the convoy, being able to hear whats going on, getting those warnings, you'll just get to know whats what that much quicker, while the confidence it will give you, will mean that the whole experience just has another dimension, and it is a lot more fun, and you will learn that bit quicker.
