Bird of the Week and Off-roading - Printable Version +- Wanderlodge Gurus - The Member Funded Wanderlodge Forum (http://www.wanderlodgegurus.com) +-- Forum: Yahoo Groups Archive (/forumdisplay.php?fid=61) +--- Forum: WanderlodgeForum (/forumdisplay.php?fid=63) +--- Thread: Bird of the Week and Off-roading (/showthread.php?tid=7140) |
Bird of the Week and Off-roading - mbulriss - 09-19-2008 12:03 The recent discussion on off-roading and the fact that I have no current entries for Bird of the Week -- hint, hint!! -- made me go to my private archives of photos. Off-roading takes may forms. The Bird of the Week for this week is of an adventurous Canadian owner (based on the plates and the maple leaf flag on the front of the Bird) that regularly dry camps between Christmas and New Years far down on the dunes at South Padre about 50 feet from the water. Trust me when I say that there is some seriously loose sand there. Notice that he also placed plywood sheets under the rear wheels where he stopped in order to get going again. His real challenge is getting a running start to get across the very loose sand that covers between the road and the hard-pack along the beach. We have never gone by when anyone was there, so we have never gotten to meet these brave souls. Does any of our Canadian or northern border state members know who owns this old FC known as Papa's Dream? In addition to the Bird of the Week and Greg's recent post of his Bird on Pismo Beach with a trailer, I have dry camped on the beach at North Padre in our prior PT40. North Padre beaches are generally a little more hard packed than South Padre beach areas. It seems to me that the trick is to drive 'with an egg under your foot' and not spin the tires or make any sudden stops. Sudden stops or spinning tires generally mean you sink! Then you dig and find plywood or rugs or newspapers to put under the rear tires to regain traction to get back to the hard-pack sand. Generally, it is not a good idea to try to vigorously spin the tires on things this big, as the rear-end typically does not like that - and rocking to get un-stuck is pretty much out of the question - unless you like buying new rear ends. Nascar 'camping' areas are pretty much grassy fields off road. My old PT40 hated wet grass and it rained most years at the Nascar race in Texas, where upon it would not even think about going forward. As soon as you put it in drive the rear wheels would spin on the wet grass immediately as soon as you put it in gear! I have used the Sunday papers many times to get going in wet grass at the 'camping' areas at Texas Motor Speedway. Just stuff the papers under and in front of the rear tires and then let it gently start rolling up on the papers and then just keep going slowly and smoothly until you hit the roadway. Anyway, did I mention that I could use some new pictures submitted for Bird of the Week? Send them on in please using the link on the front page. Thanks, Mike Bulriss 1991 WB40 "Texas Minivan" - NOT going off roading with this one! San Antonio, TX - sunny, dry and cool |