23/03/2010 by editor.

The 2010 LRS Challenge Series has begun with a wonderful event at Duck End near Kettering. Pip Evans, one of the competitors writes “Many of the competitors had spent the long, cold winter months tinkering with their vehicles in preparation for this event. 23 teams had registered to compete but 4 teams failed to make it due to unexpected last minute breakages. 19 very keen and enthusiastic competitors turned up bright and early on a wonderfully bright, warm, sunny late March morning at the quaintly named Duck End site near Kettering to pit their wits and vehicles against whatever the vagaries of the topography could hurl at them. “
Want to know more then visit the Challenge website at http://www.lrschallenge.co.uk/

Posted in Uncategorised | No Comments »

15/02/2009 by SimonG.

The off road site near the East Northamptonshire village of Yarwell was the venue the other weekend for the inaugural round of a series of Challenge Events jointly organised by the Viking Four Wheel Drive Club and the Midland Off Road Club and sponsored by LRS Off Road.

The two clubs have got together to host a series of 6 events throughout this year at various off road sites across the Midlands, each club taking turns to organise the events. The events are open to members from either club or other affiliated Midland of road clubs. Kevin Bradley, the secretary of the Challenge series explained that the idea behind the 6 venues was to give midlands based off road enthusiasts, competition at national levels without having to travel too far to experience it.

Snow was still thick on the ground at Yarwell as the competitors ventured forth to find the punches. The punch locations were graded according to difficulty with the hardest punches attracting most points. In addition there were two special timed sections where the object of the exercise was to get the vehicle through in the least amount of time. Vehicles were divided into three classes which roughly described as one winch, two winches and then unlimited modifications.

Posted in Uncategorised | No Comments »

28/01/2009 by Pip.

Champion 6.5 Horsepower motor conversion for Warn 8274 winch.
Having tried out my Warn 8274 winch with a standard motor I found that it wasn’t that powerful. I checked out a few forums to see what could be done to improve it, I found that the cheapest option would be to fit a Champion 6.5 Horsepower motor. I bought the Champion motor over the internet for £165 (£140 + VAT + Carriage) then set about swapping the motors.
I didn’t have to remove the whole winch, just the top housing which holds the motor. Removing the old motor was easy and the new motor fitted straight in. It proved to be a tight fit, so I had to dismantle the outer casing off the comm in order to tap the bearing into place properly. I then slid the outer casing back over the comm. There is a problem regarding the bolts which secure the motor in place. The new motor uses 6mm bolts but they are about 40mm longer than the original motor’s 1/4 UNC bolts. The simple remedy was to buy a 1/4 Whitworth threaded rod which cost £1 and 4 nuts at 8p each. (1/4 Whit and 1/4 UNC are very close to the same thread) I sawed the threaded rod to the required length and secured the new motor in place with a double nut on the end of each rod. The motor was now in place. Here’s where it got a bit harder. Champion do not sell a gear which fits the spline on the motor and the idler gear inside the Warn winch, but Devon 4×4 do. I bought said gear for £20 and it fits the spline and the idler gear, however when it is slid over the spline on the motor, it does not go on far enough to engage the idler gear. Also, when the free wheel plunger is pulled back to let the winch free spool, the new gear fouls against body of the plunger housing. This was easily fixed by filing some of the aluminium casing away. Getting the gear to go further onto the shaft of the motor was a bit harder. Fortunately, I had the use of a lathe, so I put the gear into the lathe, spun it up and used a small grinding stone in an electric grinder to grind away about 6mm off the splines inside the gear. This took quite a while, as I wanted to take the minimum amount of material off the splines and I had to keep taking it out of the lathe to try it on the motor. I got there in the end, reassembled it and bolted the top housing back onto the body of the winch. I wired it back up and away it went - no probs. Not too difficult a job but it would have been much simpler if the gear had fitted without having to machine it. Can’t wait to try it out to see how it pulls. Will test it at the next Challenge event at Yarwell on February 15th.

Posted in Uncategorised | No Comments »

28/01/2009 by Pip.

There was an appeal in February’s edition of Total Off Road magazine that reads as follows: The Green Lane Association (GLASS) Trail Riders Fellowship (TRF) and Llanerchindda Farm are compiling user evidence to back up claims that Sarn Helen should remain open for vehicles to use. If you drove Sarn Helen between November 2001 and Novemeber 2006 they want to hear from you. Please contact info@cambrianway.com asking for a copy of the form that you will need to fill in.
The Viking Club had driven this lane during the period in question and have stayed at Llanerchindda Farm on two occasions, therefore I would ask that members download the form and respond in order to try to keep the lane open. Doing nothing means fewer lanes to explore.
Cheers.
Pip.

Posted in Uncategorised | 1 Comment »

06/11/2008 by GurviR.

Mix seven teams of ex-pat Kenyan Bushboys, a bunch of gritty Yorkshire off-roaders, some local school children and their teacher and various other wacky teams and let them loose in the wonderful environment of Pippingford Park in East Sussex for the day and it is perhaps inevitable that a good time will be had by all. Add a plentiful supply of mud, some beautiful early autumn weather to chase away the recent rains and enthusiastic bands of spectators and it is hardly surprising that most teams had a smile on their faces most of the time, even when lost on the navigation routes!
Just over £12,000 was raised by the event which was won by Alan Wormald, who had to cope with a failing crankshaft sensor on his Mercedes G-Wagen aka The Green Sinking Machine, and swapped it for a Discovery half way through the day. Rashminder Bhabra was second in his impressive Toyota Landcruiser Special which also won the Tiger Lines from Mark Edwards in his Suzuki SJ410.

Two teams were particularly successful with their fund raising – Kit Kaberry (Land Rover 90), was second in both the overall fund raising stakes and the Victor Ludorum for the combination of performance in the UK Rhino Charge and money sponsored, only being beaten in both by Sachin Patel in his massive Nissan Patrol with an equally massive sponsorship fund.

Selone Chadha and her team of Bushgirls filled their Landcruiser with plenty of noise but lacked navigational sophistication, asking the clerk of the course, Brian Hartley, where they were every time they saw him to earn the Where the “F” are We prize. As Sachin Patel ended up comprehensively stuck up to his axles in the middle of the Tiger Line, having struggled to avoid all the trees at Pippingford in his Patrol on steroids, and lost half his points by failing to finish on time, he ended up with the Spirit of the Event award by way of consolation as he and his team were very much up for every challenge that was thrown at them. Perhaps a smaller 4×4 might be better suited to UK conditions next year?

The enthusiasm for the UK Charge itself and for raising funds for Rhino Ark made this year’s event one of the best for a long time with a tremendous atmosphere throughout the day which carried over into the prize-giving. We would like to thank all the teams, their supporters and the marshals for making the event so memorable.

Bushboys/girls raised a whopping £3,500 towards Rhino Ark.

Few of us will be off to Kenya at end of May to tackle the real Rhino Charge http://www.rhinoark.org/  for details. Anyone interested in going to spectate, contact Gurvir. Accomodatin etc can all be arrangd.

results here: http://www.rhinoark.org/RC-UK2008/rcuk2008.htm

Posted in Uncategorised | No Comments »

18/09/2008 by SimonG.

Yippee, we’ve hit the 4000 hits mark on the website

Posted in Uncategorised | No Comments »

02/02/2008 by SimonG.

A great trial at Sibbertoft for everyone. Very muddy it was too, only to be expected after all of the heavy rain we had had. It was a glorious day, the sun shone all day. The back of the site had be re-sculptured by the owner and there was a lot of fresh topsoil aroud which did not make for an easy passage through it. Mark B also managed to hydor lock his Defender in one of the ‘lakes’. We also had an ‘amusing’ incident when one of the spectators got stuck up to her knees inthe mud and had to be rescued!

Posted in Uncategorised | 1 Comment »