Menai  Combined Club Trip

SJC, ACTJT & Cherokee Club

Having been invited for a day out with the Sydney JP Club, seven vehicles from the Cherokee Club met up at the Ourimbah rest area at 6.15 am on Sunday morning. After waiting for Phil to turn up (he lived the closest) we got underway at 6.30 am. We arrived at Menai McDonalds at 8.00 am to greet an entire car park full of Jeeps of all shapes & sizes. After having some breakfast & a pre-drive chat we all headed 15 mins up the Heathcote Rd until the trail turn off. There were so many vehicles it took a lot of negotiating to get all of us across the oncoming traffic. Once on the trail everybody aired down & did the necessary things ready for the drive. Having so many vehicles it was necessary to split the group into two, we teamed up with the ACT Jeep traction Club & left first.

Two k's into the bush we came upon a huge mud hole where a couple of the Jeeps just had to have a go. The first one was a CJ from the ACT, he forgot to put the bungs in the floor & filled the thing with muddy water, the second was a Cherokee Club member who gave us a show & came out unscathed. Ted was the first to get stuck, way down deep in a mud hole and had to get pulled out (still had it in 2WD).

After a few harder climbs & descents we all pulled up for lunch at a track called "Prado hill", so named because a Prado wouldn't have a hope in hell of getting up or down it, so we were told! ! This was where we watched the higher of the Jeeps battle the terrain, although even some of these had to be winched. Then the CJ from the ACT got stuck half way & at the same time lost all power supply to the motor, it was nearly an hour be- fore the wire from the starter motor to the ignition was seen to have burnt through on the exhaust manifold, a quick fix & we were all back on the road again. It was another 40 mins to the road from there where we prepared for the trip home.

We said our goodbyes to everybody & headed for home, Arriving home about 6 PM it was a long & enjoyable day full of Jeeps, Jeeps & more Jeeps. Thanks to our members for attending at such short notice & thanks to the Sydney JP club for the invitation.

Ted

PS: Jason had to have the TPS replaced after the day out, the motor wouldn't rev out, idled poorly & wouldn't go into 4th gear, must have been the run up the freeway that buggered it. Bad luck Jason its just another Jeep thing. (Clarifying what the symptom was, the car would rev out, it would just not kick back and the transmission had to be changed by hand if the car needed to downshift to get up some of the hills. Yet Greg had a TPS failure earlier on in the year and his symptom was you had to basically red line the accelerator for it to up shift gears. Something to keep in mind when yours goes :) -ed.