Everything went fine!
I got her back on Sunday afternoon. The passenger door popped open a couple of times, as did the drivers door, and the drivers window fell against my head as I was driving but other than that she didn't miss a beat. I had some teething problems trying to start her, but got the hang of it and now she starts on the button every time.
What was most embarrassing was Monday morning I thought I'd take it to work to show my colleagues, this was the morning after the gales and loads of rain. I got it stuck on my front garden!!!!!!
Some 4x4 lessons are needed I think!
The surface is grass on clay, and there is a ledge to go over to get onto the road. I tried just driving off normally (before I knew it was stuck!), then I just pushed the yellow stick and tried to ease it up trying not to loose traction, but I did! So then I tried low ratio, and I just could not keep the grip.
I just happened to have a couple of scaffold planks laying in the front garden, so I tried putting one in front of the front wheels and one in front of the back wheels, hoping they would make the ridge less severe, and give a little more traction, but that didn't work. I ended up going as far forward as I could, put the planks behind the rear wheels in line, reversed as much as I could onto them, and then give it some welly in first, high ratio 4wd. It went forward then it started to slow where the ledge is, so I floored it and it managed to bump over the ledge. That certainly got the neighbours attention! It makes a hell of a noise with that dustbin size exhaust it's got!
Then, on the way home on a back road there were flood warning signs by the side of the road, so I went cautiously forward to see what they meant by "flood", and found that yes, it was certainly flooded!! It was about 40' long and I know the road dips there and guessed it to be about 2' deep. I wouldn't have attempted it in my Renault megane! But seeing as I had my new acquisition I decided to give it a bash!
I put it in first and floored it, trying to keep the engine revs up high enough to give the exhaust enough pressure to keep the water out! It turns out my estimation of how deep it was, was a little out!! I had water coming into the cab, I think it was up to the wheel arches, I certainly couldn't see the wheels! However it got through it, and thank god too, s there were a few people standing around in the rain with fluorescent jackets on trying to sort it, and it would have bee most embarrassing!! I got out the other end, took a turning, and it conked out about 100 yards down the road!
I left it for 5 or 10 minuets then it started again and off I went! It was a bit nerve racking, but fun at the same time!
