Way back
in the depth’s of winter - well March/April time anyway - I had a call
from Nigel Wood, Essex LRC’s Event’s Coordinator. He asked if we would
be interested in running charity rides at the above as he wasn’t getting
any interest from their guys.
At the
time I was committed to Sibton Show so happily said I would speak to
Terry Gant and work something out. A provisional affirmative, so to
speak.
At the
beginning of June things started coming together and around that time, I
heard firstly, that Sibton Show had been cancelled and secondly, that
some of ELRC would in fact be attending. While I know a couple of the
‘Essex Massive’, I don’t think we had ever previously run an event
together, so this would be a great chance for some cross-border
cooperation. Allegedly, the most important factor about this event was
stealing as much ground as possible before anyone else got their hands
on it, and to that end Terry and Si took the seesaw and club trailer
across from Rougham to Melford a few days before and secured our area.
Joy and I
arrived on site early Friday afternoon and after setting the ‘van up
under the shade of some beautiful trees, Terry asked me to drive around
with him to set out a course. I think we did quite well as with the
enormous rabbit holes, sawpit, side slopes and tree on a steep bank to
drive around, it made for an interesting course, enhanced by the seesaw
and the Essex ramps, which would easily demonstrate what our vehicles
could achieve.
The rest
of the gang trickled in over the next phew! (yes, it was that hot!)
hours, along with the Essex guys. With introductions out of the way,
marquees were erected, ramps assembled and all the other bits and pieces
that go to make a show were brought together.
As always,
Beer o’clock came around quite nicely and it was gorgeous just sitting
outside under the stars, laughing and chatting until after one o’clock.
Apologies here to the ELRC guys who went to bed at a sensible time and I
think we possibly kept awake during our candle lit soiree. Best come and
join us next time, chaps! You know it makes sense.
One of our
newest members also turned up to help in his 90 pick-up, and quite what
teenager Ashley made of us that night, I’m not sure.
Suffice to
say he thoroughly enjoyed himself, showed what excellent driver skills
he possesses, balanced the seesaw both ways and fitted in perfectly with
whatever was going on. We’ve since found out he’s also a dab-hand with a
digger as well! Welcome to the club, Ash’.
Saturday
was another beautiful day, very warm and we had some ELRC day visitors
and our Tony. Terry asked me to do our usual driver/marshal briefing,
and check out who had seesaw experience; especially as we didn’t really
know how each club worked this bit. We talked about the course and I
advised a familiarisation lap taking in the seesaw for those who had
never attempted it.
A couple
of the Essex guys were not too happy with our route through the sawpit,
which included a reasonably steep descent with a tight left turn at the
bottom. Luckily there were two other options for that part; a straight
through, ‘left high’ side slope, or running around the top between a
couple of trees, so no problems there.
Rides were
slow taking off, as interest was a tad mediocre. However those who did
take a ride with us all thought it was a fantastic experience, and many
came back a second time. In fact the son of one of the stall holders
came back so many times, we wondered if his surname was Boomerang.
In the
evening Si suggested a trip out on the local greenlanes, which I think
was taken up by equal numbers of both clubs. I declined, simply because
it was nearly Beer o’clock and I hate to shirk my duties!
Wayne &
Christine came down for the evening in the Colorado (luckily it was
getting dark so no one noticed) and another great night was had by all
(who remember it).
Sunday was
definitely breezier, but the sun still shone and all was good in our
part of the world. We still couldn’t really pull in the punters though,
despite some real effort. The Essex 110 was suffering from noisy CV so
went static, but luckily Wayne had turned up in his to take up the
mantle. There were no ELRC day visitors though which was a shame, but we
seemed to manage okay, regardless.
While it
was quiet Terry thought it would be nice to give ‘Whitworth’, his Series
One, a run around the course. However a crafty rabbit dug this hole when
we weren’t looking, and ‘Whitworth’ dropped a wheel in and was suddenly
immobile. Not so big a deal except that he had managed to stop on top of
a wasp nest! Still, no drama as they must have been more interested in
building their nest than defending it, luckily for me, getting out on
that side.
So went
the day, a bit subdued but everyone coming on saying how good it was…
Which was nice.
At the end
of the weekend £510 raised, split 50/50 between the two clubs… Which was
also nice.
Lessons
learned should we get the opportunity to do this one again, and a great
example of two clubs with similar ethos - the adoration of the Green
Oval and promoting responsible 4x4 use - but quite different focus - us
being mainly social/driving day oriented, while ELRC are heavily into
competitive events - working together as though we had done all this a
thousand times. Dave, the new Events man at ELRC mooted some more
cross-border stuff so lets hope it happens.
Thanks all
it was a great weekend and here’s to next year
DEANO
^Top
Well it
was a Monday when I sat in my van on the way to work, thinking of how to
improve my Defender. Quite happy with myself after just fitting a new
cam belt I turned my attention to the inside of the vehicle.
Having
made most modifications on the inside, such as a CB, Radio, Winch remote
socket, extra sockets for this that and the other, switches here and
there and a Boost gauge, I have to admit that I was struggling to think
of what I would have room for, if anything at all.
Then it
occurred to me that what I wanted to do, was to have a good sort out and
tidy up. See, all of the things I had fitted had been over the course of
some years, and on the face of it all was ok. It did not look that bad
and it all still worked, but I wanted to do something, as it was just
not sorted out properly, well not in a way that I was happy with.
So......
I had seen
this thing at the shows, I had held it in my hands, I had looked at it
on their website and I had even seen one in a Defender. But at this
point I still had not fitted one or lived with one in my truck in front
of my face; but I knew under the facade of my retrofitted sockets and
switches, there was this mess of wires.
So I
phoned the bloke up that made the product that I wanted, and we had a
chat.
Phil
turned out to be a very nice fella. He told me what I wanted to know and
we chatted about what I was thinking of doing in my truck. It turned out
that what I was thinking, even though it could be done, would need more
adjustments than I wanted to do at the time. So I gave it some more
thought and decided that his standard product would do what I wanted. So
I placed my order and the next day it turned up; what I had ordered was
a new centre dash console from Raptor Engineering, with all the switches
I needed to fill most of the holes.
On opening
the box I found all that I had ordered plus two little brackets, an
Allen key, two spare Allen bolts plus every man’s nemesis and woman's
revenge - the instructions!
On the
bottom of the instructions there was a template: I new I was going to
at least need this bit, so I cut it out and stuck it to a bit of
aluminium plate I had kicking about, then cut the plate to size and
drilled the two holes as marked on the template.
At this
point just glancing at the instructions when I was sure that no one
could see me, to find out what the two holes I had drilled in the
template were for, it turned out that they were to be used when you have
secured and marked up all the wiring that you remove from the centre
dash board panel. Once done, you remove the centre dash panel and
secure the template with the two original screws making sure that you
have put it on the right way up.
Now the
cutting part; it’s the ‘now or never’, ‘do or die’ part of the job! Take
your time to get this part right; all the rest of it is stuff only you
will know is there and wiring - if you get this part wrong, all will see
it, so take your time.
Secure the
template with the screws, take a craft knife with a strong new blade,
take your time and cut down both sides of the template and along the
bottom of it. Now you can remove the screws holding the template in
place and the template itself.
Now all
you need to do is remove the soft vinyl and foam part to reveal a very
thin steel frame underneath. You will also need to cut this out but it's
so thin that even a small hacksaw will make short work of it.
With the
centre section of your old dashboard removed and all the wires tucked
safely out of the way, you can now offer up the new dash for the first
time and admire your handy work. At this stage you should now remove
the ashtray; if you do not have an ashtray you will find it hard to
access the bolt heads needed to secure the new dash, but you could use
self-tapping screws. You will see that there are two 6mm holes in the
cross-brace of the new dash, with these two holes you will secure the
new dash to the vehicle. If you have gone for a top section with a CB
cut out, you will need to use one of these holes to secure one of the
little brackets I mentioned earlier; the other bracket you will need to
line up with your CB and drill a smaller hole so you can use a
self-tapping screw to secure it to the vehicle. The other hole in the
cross-brace will make a good earth point once you have bolted the
cross-brace to the vehicle.
There are
many different styles of dash sections pre-made by Phil, but if you
wish, you could submit a drawing and they will make you a top and bottom
sections to your spec as long as it fits within one of there blanks; in
addition to this you can also get them anodized.
The wiring
is up to you; do as much or as little as you wish. I went for a top
section with 3x 52mm holes for gauges and a CB cut out and a bottom
section with 6x 12mm holes for switches 2x 28mm holes for power points
and a cut out for my radio.
So all the
tools and parts you will need are:
1. A small
hacksaw,
2. A drill
with a 6mm and 2mm drill bits,
3. Some
stiff card to transfer the template to, plus some M6 x 35mm bolts and
some nyloc nuts with washers, some self-tapping screws and a circuit
tester.
All the
rest is up to you, depending on what you want in your dash board, I
would say that if you have all of the above plus some wire strippers,
crimping tool, crimps and some suitable wire you will be all set.
To fit the
Raptor dash is quite straightforward and should not take long at all,
but depending on the switches and wiring you want, this part could take
some time.
I am very
impressed with the Raptor Dash Board and very happy with the service I
got from Phil at Raptor Eng, he was very helpful with all my questions.
REMEMBER
TO DISCONNECT THE BATTERY BEFORE DOING ANY WORK ON THE WIRING OF YOUR
VEHICLE!
Jed
