Kirkynut's Jimny (aka Daddy's Tractor) - The Evolution continues...

helijohn wrote:

kirkynut wrote: Well John, with the garden rubbish I parked outside because I know that I wouldn't fit under the barrier but the young lad working on the gate came over and pointed out that the barrier was open! I'm glad he did because that matress was heavy! The rest weighed nought!

Kirkynut

What's the lottery numbers for this week please?

I wasn't so lucky smashing the rear number plate light off after, so you might want to pass on any numbers I have to offer!

Kirkynut

After quite a period of Off-Road inactivity, today we went Green Laning with our usual partners in crime, James and Claire in their heavily modded 90.

They have ARB lockers front and rear and full Ashcroft shafts and CV's, super duper suspension with dislocation cones etc, so a very capable truck. James fitted their BFG Muds for Green Laning. We only have one set of tyres these days as I got tyred (Ho ho ho!) of changing mine!

So for once I got the JimJam dirty

I didn't start to take photos until lunch though

We got started late as I got all the road miles done first to travel from our meeting point of the Toby Carvery on the A132 Runwell to North Essex. I kept it local as we've not been out for a while. It was a good job too as James experienced some weird goings on with his cooling system.

We do Geocaching too. So when combined with Green Laning, we call it Geo-Laning! If you don't know what Geocaching is, look here: www.geocaching.com/play or watch this:

So here's James and my Mrs looking for a Cache

I like a bit of Caching but I also take the opportunity to take some photos while they look for some

Nothing unusual to see here then

Lindz (My Mrs) found a Cache up a tree!

Then I took more photos of the JimJam

A tree was blocking the lane and we had no chain saw. What to do then? Well with trucks like ours - drive over it like it's a curb or similar!

The bark removal on the top was done by my Rockbucket. Obviously just a little paint rubbed off the Rockbucket - orders for your own Rocklobster and Rockbucket can be taken by RAM Auto Design ramautodesign.co.uk/

This Nuclear Bunker at Dunmow is good fun and is just into a field from the side of one end of a Byway located at OS Grid Ref TL64532445 - see www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/roc/db/988303748.015002.html & it sold for £20k www.ministryofdata.net/Nuclear_Bunker_For_Sale.html

It's still unlocked and accessible though, so we had to have a little look didn't we - here's my piccies:

Below is the inside end of a ventilation shaft

This is the hatch when closed

The top of the ventilation shaft

Where the electricity was once fed into it

My understanding is that there are various bunkers like this around the country. Some are under local government buildings. They were created during the Cold War so that local politicians had somewhere safer to go, should we have been hit by a Nuclear Bomb. I wonder if some government agency will read this as I have put the word Bomb on the interweb! Oh gosh I just did it again!

I'm not sure how effective this would have been or for how long, given it has ventilation to the contaminated world above.

Here's my messy navigational aid set up. I'm not happy with it and never have been and have been discussing some Mobile Phone based mapping, just for being able to see where we are on an OS Map.

This is rather than use it to navigate to lanes. I get the Lat and Long of the start of each lane from my Computer based Memory Maps and plumb them into the Tom Tom to find the start of each lane by road.

I know there are fancier ways of doing it but I like to keep it simple and have played with Memory Map and overlays on the PDA, which just irritates me.

Then we had time for a few more Lanes, of which one had 11 Geocaches on! That pleased the lasses! I like to please the lasses!

It got dark, so we had a spin through the Ford at Good Easter before going back to James and Claire's for Pizza!

Quite a good day had by all. I've just got to wash the JimJam down tomorrow!

Kirkynut

Tadpole wrote: What a great day out, looks you guys had a lot of fun & fresh air ..................

It was a good day. We didn't get all the lanes done I had planned but that's no big issue as we have done most if not all the Essex Lanes before.

Time was taken up bleeding James' coolant system a few times and Caching. Hopefully he's not blown his head gasket. I don't think he has as although there was air in his coolant it wasn't pressurised and didn't do it all the time. It did use 3/4 of a litre of water on each of the two occasions. Quite odd but I think he was doing a sniffer test today to find out.

Anyway, here's my rear diff filler with a nut welded to it to make it easier to do up tight enough not to leak and be able to undo again. I worked well. This is it just after I removed tooth 5 of 11 from the rear axle. They are left over from the pinion gear of the old diff and are slowly but surely coming out! Excuse the mud - this is pre-pressure wash after yesterday.

A general underneath shot from the rear looking forwards, pre-pressure wash too:

You can see how the ORA front castor correction arms don't half hang down low - below the front diff in fact. I understand the Jimnybits ones don't hang so low. It hasn't stopped forward motion but in the summer when the ground is harder it might. They have lost paint underneath so have been dragging when in ruts.

Not too dirty considering though!

It didn't make too much of a mess on my drive either! Part of the reason I prefer Laning to Off-Road sites - that and the lesser amount of maintenance required!

So now it's all clean again

These are the fixed hubs I run for anyone interested. They save the messing around with keeping vacuum ones working or remembering to lock/unlock manual ones. I got them from KAP Suzuki years ago when I bought the Jimny from them.

Kirkynut

gaz3359 wrote: Looks a good little trip out kirkynut

It really was a good day. I found it quite relaxing.

If I get stuck on my front arms once and the diff is clear they'll be going in favour of Jimnybits front arms. If the diff is proper stuck too so be it. These arms are shaped like ski's but if they are too low, they are too low. It's not been an issue yet though and remains a "what if?" scenario.

Tall and skinny eh Gary! They'll be good at cutting through mud to the hard ground underneath but tall to give clearance under ze diffs. I don't know I'd want to go that big as my 29.75" 215/80/15 Malatestas seem to make it hard work on motorways and dual carriageways. This is with a Rocklobster. I think I have the balance just right at the moment. You seem to be happy mind.

Kirkynut

Busta wrote: The bunker you found is an ROC (Royal Observer Corp) Monitoring Post and there's lots of them about!

More info here.

It's interesting stuff eh!

There's an Operating Base from the Auxiliary Units of the 2nd World War near to me that I roughly know where it is for it to be re discovered but I suspect it's collapsed as I think I've found an area of sunken ground where it's thought to have been.

See this website : www.coleshillhouse.com/bunkers.php

I got in contact with this group and their specialist explained to me that I would need a £600 metal detector and there may be legal implications for metal detecting on private ground. I've not done a Land Registry search because I don't intend to buy the metal detector.

I've searched for clues to suggest where it is without needing a metal detector but there's nothing.

Kirkynut

S Mark wrote: That bunker is about 20min away from me and I never new it was there. Next trip out I think I will go and explore my self. Thanks for the grid reference.

No probs mate, I can give you it converted to Lat & Long for a normal sat nav if you want. Pm me for it if so. It's located in the corner of a field just off a road where it meets the byway. We left the vehicles on the byway as it was unlikely anyone would come along it in the few minutes we took and you're right by them if they do.

It's all good fun!

Kirkynut

I popped out with the Jimny and my camera today as the Mrs was working and I elected to have the Bank Holidays off.

Nothing off-road, just had a play with some settings and some ND filters, hence some of them are a bit grainy as I had to whack up the ISO.

Anyway, here's some of the results:

Kirkynut