4WD club membership offers many advantages, as NZ4WD magazine publisher Cathy Parker can attest.
We recently went on a 4WD Club trip, it was the first we had been on for some time as we mainly do Safari style trips. It was a great reminder of the benefits of belonging to a 4WD club and joining in on their trips.
We would not normally write about a club trip and this is not about the trip itself but rather the advantages of being in a club. The specific trip was a two-day Waiuku Forest (south-west of Auckland, Ed) trip run by Auckland 4WD Club
http://www.auckland4wd.org.nz
Benefits
The first benefit was that the trip organiser had arranged camping nearby with a local landowner at a reasonable cost, including provision of a proper portable toilet unit. As we planned to do both days this saved a long commute. It also allowed the usual post trip analysis and tall tale telling over a bevvy or two in the evening.
The second benefit was that part of the aim of the weekend was to give Claire, my oldest daughter a good opportunity to get some more four-wheeling under her belt. This was her third trip driving and having a very experienced trip leader guiding vehicles through the challenges over the PRS made it a more enjoyable experience for her (rather than having to listen to me all the time)!
The third benefit was that as this is a regular trip venue for the club, the trip leader and in fact several of the other members on the trip had an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of all the highways, byways and tracks in the forest, so were able to select the best routes based on the mix of vehicle and driver capabilities. The first day they split us into two groups, with the tough trucks going one way to the tougher tracks and the rest to somewhat easier (read less likely to damage the vehicle) tracks.
The fourth benefit was that when people got stuck you had a number of knowledgeable people on hand to perform safe recoveries, plus a significant amount of recovery equipment spread across all the vehicles including multiple winches.
The fifth benefit – many minds to sort out challenges. At one point we found a tree down across the track; with a range of experienced four-wheelers and a couple of engineers in the group we worked out the best way to winch it clear of the track (which was not straight forward and involved two pulls and use of a pulley block and a bit of tree climbing to get the right angle for the pull). Fun to work out and good experience for others on the trip to see how to problem solve.
The sixth benefit – when it all goes wrong you have support. One driver was unfortunate enough to stake the side wall of his tyre on a cut off small tree stump. There was a loud explosion of air that everyone heard and a gathering to see how to proceed. Fortunately, the vehicle was on the flat so jacking and replacing the wheel was possible. However, this ended up requiring resources from four different vehicles to achieve.
A good example
Problem one, the damaged vehicle had no board to place under the jack (and Waiuku is a sand based forest) but fortunately we always carry one in the NZ4WD Project 12K Jeep Cherokee. (As an aside a spade and a board for jacking would be the first two pieces of recovery equipment NZ4WD would recommend).
The jack belonging to the damaged vehicle was able to lift it sufficiently to remove the damaged tyre but then we struck problem two. The wheel nuts had been over tightened and could not be removed using the vehicles wheel brace or even a socket set.
Lo and behold though, one of the vehicles was carrying an electric rattle gun, which made quick work of removing the nuts.
Which was all very well, until problem # 3 reared its head. The jack could not lift the vehicle high enough to fit the non-flat spare. Back comes a third trip member with their high-lift jack which solved that problem. No one person had all the resources need on board but between the trip participants we had everything needed, something that is less likely if you head out with just a couple of mates.
Final benefit
The seventh (and for the purpose of this story, final) benefit is that clubs tend to have a regular trip programme with a variety of trip types from those aimed at the tough guys through to family friendly shiny trips, with a good range between those extremes and you get to meet a number of like-minded people.
In larger centres there will be multiple clubs, some will target more the tougher end and competition whilst others will have a more family flavour so you can find out which best suits your needs.
We have a list of clubs on our website https://nz4wd.co.nz/basic-page/4wd-clubs, why not give one of them a try?
