Nice day for a drive!

PeterTR7V8 · Postby **PeterTR7V8** » 26 Sep 2010 03:06

Lucky escape Rob. I've heard stories of inexperienced 4x4 drivers getting in too deep with no snorkel & wonder why their engine won't turn over anymore. They are even less happy to learn that because they hydraulicked the motor at max revs their engine will never turn over ever again. I'm happy to stick to the tarmac.

The map: http://tinyurl.com/wedgemap . The blog: http://www.forum.triumphtr7.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8548

Hasbeen · Postby **Hasbeen** » 26 Sep 2010 05:43

Nothing like yours Rob,but I got a bit lucky with the 7 a year or so ago.

We have things called dips. These are especially low areas in the road, some wide, some narrow, to allow minor flood water to run over the road where it is not worth putting in a causeway.

A year or so back the boy was home for a few days, & wanted to go to a party, where he expected to have a few drinks. I took him to avoid drink driving problems.

It had rained all day & it continued most of the night. About 3 inches in 24 hours. I went to pick him up about 1AM,

About 10Km from home there is one of these dips, & it was under water for about 50 yards. I watched a 4WD Hilux come out of it, & decided it was OK, no worse than usual, & in I went.

I'd forgotten they had remade the thing recently, & it was the other end that was now deepest. I realised my mistake when water started coming in under the door.

With a squirt of revs, [in 1st] she got through, but came out only running on 2 cylinders, Keeping the revs up started to dry her out, & she soon brought in a third. I had to backtrack a couple of times as I found roads under that don't usually go under.

She was still only on 3 & a half cylinders when I got him, so we had about a 100Km run out around another way to avoid the water, which was getting higher, or so the local cops said.

I had to wash everything out with contact cleaner & WD40 to get the electrics working properly. How were yours?

I used to keep the yacht in a Tidal creek like yours. It was lined with piles, & we all tied up nose & stern to them. Awfully muddy getting the dingy in at low tide.

Hasbeen

trv8 · Postby **trv8** » 26 Sep 2010 05:55

I wound down my window and was greeted with "alright mate, if i give you a fiver will ya take me back accross"

[/quote]

Classic [:D] [:D] [:D]

Beans · Postby **Beans** » 26 Sep 2010 08:21

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Hasbeen

How different your rivers are to mine Beans ...<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
The River Maas is a river mainly fed by rain.
In winter the water level can sometimes rise so much that the farms in the back ground (first picture) will be in the water ...

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Bobbieslandy

... Now follows a story ... <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Reminds me of what happened with â€˜t Kreng a few years ago in the north of England, at Stanhope ford to be precise.
My navigator thought it a good idea to take a shortcut through the ford. As I had never been there before I had no idea how deep the water was, but looking at the marker made me question his judgment. But he convinced me everything was fine, so in I went.
Luckily I donâ€™t scare easily and I have had a few wading instructions both in the army and from Land Rover instructors. But the moment I entered the water I knew it was not good, with water right up to the head lamp panel of the car. Nothing I could do but keep up the momentum and make sure I created a nice bow wave to keep the water level in the engine bay down.
Managed to reach the other side without problems, only to find out later that there are stepping stones across, but they were fully submerged â€¦

<center>

1980 TR7 DHC (my first car, now restored and back on the road)
1981 TR7 FHC Sprint (better known as 't Kreng)
[url="http://www.tr7beans.blogspot.com/"]My Weblog[/url]</center>

Bobbieslandy · Postby **Bobbieslandy** » 26 Sep 2010 12:06

The sad thing is i am experienced, i know all about the supposed maximum 500mm wading depth, bow waves, selecting the right gears before hand and walking across first to survey the river bed first.

My rover is prepared for deep wading with raised axle breathers and a raised air intake, the electrics are pretty well protected as standard, the only issue being the ECU which is under the drivers seat and the rust it's suffering from, obviously caused by driving in salt water even though it was hosed out. You were lucky Hasbeen, i think we've now found the one and only good reason to have the distributor where it is. Deep wading a TR7, who'd of thought it!

I now shy away from most off roading situations Peter, as i get older the usual feeling of "man that could be fun" has now been replaced with "that could be expensive" "that could hurt" "What will i tell the wife" etc etc. Plus it takes a while to get your confidence back when being away from it for so long. But, this only happens if i actually think about what i'm going to do. Occasionally i'll have a bout of "red mist" where all planning and common sense goes out the window for the sake of a challenge. The real reason i got into that mess (apart from stupidity) was the fact the river is very wide and has shallow banks so it can look the same from one day to the next but can infact be about 3 feet deeper. The land rover then took my wife and myself on a trip around France. very versatile.

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">But the moment I entered the water I knew it was not good<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

it's enough to give you that sinking feeling[:D] You were lucky not to hit any of those stepping stones!

Hasbeen · Postby **Hasbeen** » 26 Sep 2010 13:43

I'm not sure, but I think my missing was caused by tracking on the top of the coil.

The car did not start running fully smoothly until I took it out of the car & really thoroughly cleaned it, & it's wiring.

Hasbeen

HowardB · Postby **HowardB** » 26 Sep 2010 13:55

Very many years ago I accidentally discovered the other way of crossing a flooded section of road. The results could have been very nasty, but someone must have been looking down on me at the time

I had been working in East London, out beyond Dagenham & there had been a very heavy cloudburst earlier that morning. I was driving back into central London in a empty Ford Escort van, doing about 60mph on the dual carriageway when I came over the crest of one of the steel bridges. The traffic in the left hand lane was stationary, but the road ahead was clear apart from a lake about 100m long! It was too late to brake, so I pointed the van absolutely straight at the lake. I hit the water and aquaplaned the full length of the lake, came out the other side & carried as if it was nothing unusual.

The worst floods I have driven through have been in Qatar (Middle East). The annual rains come down in a few days and there are no road drains (since they quickly block up with sand, consequently any dips in the road quickly turn into deep lakes.

Bobbieslandy · Postby **Bobbieslandy** » 26 Sep 2010 21:02

I can't get that image out of my head Howard, almost like something out of only fools and horses[:D] an escort van driving on water, it's almost biblical!

Rob.

Beans · Postby **Beans** » 26 Sep 2010 22:10

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by HowardB

... I pointed the van absolutely straight at the lake ... aquaplaned the full length .... came out the other side & carried as if it was nothing unusual ... <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Will bear that in mind in case we encounter some floods in your TR7 next weekend [:D]

<center>

1980 TR7 DHC (my first car, now restored and back on the road)
1981 TR7 FHC Sprint (better known as 't Kreng)
[url="http://www.tr7beans.blogspot.com/"]My Weblog[/url]</center>

Hasbeen · Postby **Hasbeen** » 26 Sep 2010 23:38

I wouldn't if I were you Beans.

A mate of mine did it by accident, one night in a VW beetle, on a country road, in the middle of nowhere, back in the late 60s. A 3 Ft deep dip was full of running water, but he could not see it in the dark, until too late. He reckoned the water looked just like wet bitumen in his lights. [We reckoned it was probably the beer haze that caused that].

He hit it at about 55MPH, & skated across, but not out. The front stopped with the rear sort of floating, with no traction to drive out.

The rear swung off the road, in the current, over the 3Ft lower verge, & the thing sank, [filled through the rust holes], leaning against a fence post.

I can really think of better games to play.

Hasbeen

Jolyon39 · Postby **Jolyon39** » 27 Sep 2010 05:14

OMG.... this thread has brought back into vivid memory a little puddle I hit one night.

I had an early Mini, the one with the long gearstick that entered the car at the join between transmission tunnel and fire wall. I hit a 2' (say 50cm) deep puddle, at speed, at night, in torential rain, at a residential intersection because of a blocked stormwater drain.

Well I was hit in the face, whilst sitting in the drivers seat, by a jet of waterabout 3" wide because there was no boot around the gearstick to body connection (i had just put the engine back in). that bolt of water hit me at about 50Kmh or 30mph. Wow, that was a huge shock.... filled the car nicely and utterly soaked me.

Jolyon

Bobbieslandy · Postby **Bobbieslandy** » 30 Sep 2010 00:36

that must of been a scary few seconds after the soaking!

This was one of my more "safe" crossings.

Anonymous

Nice day for a drive!

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