Riphay
Posted by admin on Aug 06 2006 | Comment now »
Riphay started with a Scuffle, “A what?” I hear you say. Yep I said that as well but for those of you that don’t know what a Scuffle is, think of banger racing with mud, lots of thick deep mud 
— oh yes and water.
I’m not sure if the organisers spend weeks beforehand topping up the mud holes or whether they are a natural existence. In fact it might be better if you think a little bigger than banger racing because there may have been more 4×4s in that Scuffle than there are bangers in the UK, I didn’t take the time to count them but they must have been in the hundreds — all churning around on a off-roading paradise.
I never entered, by the time I got there it was getting a bit mental, many of the vehicles were wrecks only just holding together to make the circuit and many of the drivers just assumed that everyone else was driving a wreck and were ramming the car in front to get it through a sticky bit 
Well as the light faded so did the scuffle and the partying took over. Later that night I converted the back of my shogun into a bed - the first time I had used it and it was far better than the ground.
The next morning dawned and we triallers got ourselves ready for the day’s competition on the ground that would be well mussed up from the scuffle the day before. Although we had had some rain in the week preceding the event it wasn’t enough to damp down the dry ground that predominated most of the site - not all of it was a quagmire. Just as well because before we had even started one guy was changing a broken diff, a pretty common problem on the Land-Rover.
The marshals take great pleasure in producing courses that can produce photographic results 
This wasn’t the first nor was it the last competitor to end up like this. It’s interesting to watch how different drivers tackle each section with styles ranging from putting your foot down 
and hoping for the best to the steady drive at tick-over - and me? I’ll let you have a guess at that one
And this 
is what I was trialling in and at the end of the day this 
is what I took home with me
Exhaust
Posted by admin on Jul 20 2006 | Comment now »
I picked up the new exhaust section this morning. I was pleased to see that the bell joint on this one has been reinforced, hopefully now it will last until it rusts out - no more shearing! At the same time as fitting the new section I straightened out the bumpers and made them look pretty again, I’m going to have to work on the brackets on the rear one though in order to give it more strength - it’s a Mk2 bumper and the brackets are not in the same place as the Mk1.
Had a closer look at the rear springs while I was under the car, they are definitely flattened out. They make no difference to road use, but it certainly does to off-road use. I’ve decided that the tyres are the most important for the next trial. New tyres will mean a lot more grip and a bit more height. One of the other measurements I took today was the minimum height which was only 8 inches - the book says 8.1 inches so I’m a bit short there - new tyres will take that to nearly 10 inches I hope!
Trialling
Posted by admin on Jul 19 2006 | Comment now »
On Sunday I did my first trial, it was at Key Pits in North Devon
So what is it all about?
Well basically a trial is a series of sections where you have to maneuver your vehicle through ten gates, each gate - two canes with a white flag on the right and a red flag on the left - was placed on an obstacle, a bank, river course, a hump, steps, that sort of thing.
You gained - or rather lost a point for each one you went through - even if it was only your front wheels - the competitor with the least points at the end of the day was the winner
So what did I learn?
I think you can guess I didn’t win anything, but I did learn a lot - about trialing, about my driving, and most importantly about my car.
My Shogun is a LWB, which really means it’s not suited for humpy ground as it bottoms out regularly. However much derision is aimed at the humble Shogun and more so directed at my LWB - “Of course a Shogun isn’t as good as a Land Rover and LWBs are useless anyway” - sort of thing, if not said then covertly implied. (I guess some of this is a part of the bit I learnt about me as well) What I want to do is rub the silly grins of the faces of the sceptics.
Trialing is not without damage, I’ve managed to scratch my roof - tree branches - but I’m fairly certain the scratches will wash and polish out. I’ve bent my back bumper - I guess I’m a bit annoyed about this, because I’ve only just got it as a replacement for the one that got wrecked in a rear end smash last year. I’ve also bent my front bumper - one of the humps was higher that what I thought it was.
However, a Rangie got a cracked windscreen on the near side, by tree branches where I scratched my roof and a Suzuki lost it’s roof lights on the same bit! On a later section another Rangie did a spectacular roll onto it’s side, and then on the same section but an earlier gate the Rangie with the cracked screen rolled into a stream bed. Both were righted with no problems, the first by manpower, the second by winch, both sustained damage the first to the gutter rail and the other - another crack on the screen this time on the off side and a few punctures in the skin on the off side as well. A bit later a Landie special rolled but no concern-able damage was noticed!!!
About a month ago I had my 31″ ATs slashed and so I’m running on the 215 ATs. The 215s are around 3″ smaller so I’m loosing height there; also noticed today while I was taking off the remains of the back exhaust section that the rear springs are no longer happy - not sad yet, just a bit stern looking. This goes to mean one thing, new springs on the back and new 31″ers is going to give me somewhere between a 2 and a 5″ lift on the back at least, and all round, if I tweak the front to level out and match.
I’ve been looking at tyres ever since I had mine slashed, after several enquiries I find I can send away and get 4 tyres, and wheels, for less that the local price of just tyres! I was the only one on ATs on Sunday, everyone else had a minimum of MTs on, so I’ve decided that is what I’m getting.
The springs I haven’t found out about yet, but the cost of the tyres is going to be £270. I reckon the springs will be around £120 - that’s nearly £400 to find before the next meeting on the first weekend in August.
I’m going to replace the bumpers for trialing - especially the rear one - or else run without one, that will increase the departure angle dramatically - well I won’t be doing more damage to the bumper anyway!
One other minor mod I’m thinking about is to bolt a couple of skid bars between the two centre cross members to act as sort of rock sliders for when I bottom out on humps - instead of thumping into two cross members the hump will slide on the bars,
Back to the exhaust, I bought a new system for the MOT, when I went up to Wales last the back section sheared off at the joint with the middle section; it was followed a couple of days later by the middle section doing the same thing. Both pieces went back and were exchanged - no quibble. I noticed that the exchanged middle section had a reinforced bell joint. Anyway less than a month later the back section has sheared off again, has been returned and I’m waiting for the new section, I just hope that the bell joint on this one is reinforced as well. Incidentally, neither of these back sections ever went off road - they both went en-route to a off-roading weekend!
Season’s End
Posted by admin on Jun 14 2003 | Comment now »
Well the carnival season ran on until the last one, a return Chistmas bash at Sidmouth in early December, in all I think we did over 20 carnivals in five months with out too many problems with the Shogun, all the time I was working on it, trying to get rid of the rust. During the whole of those five months, the only time I’d actually taken it off road was to park and retrieve the float from where we left in in Sidmouth, mind you I was using it in 4-wheel-low very nearly every week!
When the tax ran out at the end of December I borrowed half of my sister’s garage to keep it in ready to work on it for the next carnival season. With one thing and another it was May before I started even thinking about doing some work on it to get it ready for the MOT. I first decided to get some decent doors for it, although we had patched them the previous year, they didn’t look right.
So it was back to the yellow ads again and in early June I found a Shogun being broken or offered for sale for parts. The only thing was it was a LWB whereas mine was a SWB would the doors fit? I phoned the guy up, we discussed it and I said I would look at it. So I borrowed a trailer (yeah I know same as last time bought before seen) hooked it up to my work van and went to look at it; in Cornwall; Newquay Cornwall: two hours drive away.
The guy had bought it for towing but had stripped the input gear on the gearbox, couldn’t get a replacement box and then decided to sell the engine. He wanted £350 for what was left.
I spent around 2 hours looking at it and working out what I would need to do to get it in a decent condition. Eventually I worked it out that it was in better condition than mine, plus, it had the extra seats which meant we’d only need the one vehicle for the carnival circuits instead of two. In the end I offered and eventually got it for £200, I guess I wondered if I was mad at the time, but still I had both the engine and gearbox for it - and the bits to replace the rust on it!
Fortunately the car park it was in was on a slope which meant it wasn’t too bad getting it on the trailer. It was a pig of a journey home though, it took four hours, I’m sure at times when I cornered the trailer took it on two wheels, it seemed to sway all over the place, only once did the trailer brakes come on and that was so hard it nearly took the back of my van off! I’ve distrusted Ifor Williams ever since - I’m pretty certain there are better trailers made.
I made it home late that night and it was the next day when I pushed, with the help of a couple of others, the new Shogun into my sisters garage beside the SWB. After returning the trailer I got back to inspect what I had bought, the worst bit was a totally rusted out front door pillar on the passenger side, but I had one on the SWB, and so the list went on. I reckoned in two months I could get it cleaned up and on the road - mistake number one!
Fuel Problems
Posted by admin on Sep 24 2002 | Comment now »
Two weeks later, after fueling the Shogun spluttered to a halt, well the engine did, the Shogun quite happily coasted down hill for two miles to the nearest lay-by big enough to take it and the float. I’d done the unthinkable: put in diesel!
I managed to scrounge a container to drain the diesel into, then walk back to the garage to get petrol, I did however get a lift back to the Shogun. Putting in the petrol and finally managing to start it I went on my merry way, this time to Sidmouth. I was almost there when the engine starting missing and playing up, but eventually I made it, did the carnival, left the float at Sidmouth to save moving it up and down each week and came home.
The missing persisted, always when the engine was hot, but it wasn’t until I managed to wreck the big ends on a trip back from Wales on the M5 that I found out what the problem was, no not the ends - that was caused by a lack of maintenance - I should have checked the oil before I came back as the engine was burning it!
When I took the head off the engine in order to get the pistons out I noticed that the valves didn’t seat properly: the valves had been adjusted to seat on a layer of carbon, when I put the diesel in it had softened the carbon which had gradually disappeared causing the engine to miss - especially when it was hot! Within a week I had rebuilt the engine with a new (second-hand) crank, one new (second-hand) connecting rod, new bearings and seals, and it ran a lot better - still burnt oil though.
Bouncing Around On the A38
Posted by admin on Aug 04 2002 | Comment now »
About a month later, on the Saturday of the August bank holiday weekend, I was towing the carnival float up the A38 towards Exeter doing between 40 and 50 mph, when one of the rear wheels came off the float. Now because the wheels were boxed in, the only way out for this wheel was straight down which meant the trailer was lifted up in the air by about two feet and then crashed down on the remaining wheel on that side, the tyre of which burst.
The trailer was bouncing around behind the Shogun, my ears were ringing to the screaming of my eldest daughter - the only other person traveling with me - whilst the Shogun was taking it all in it’s stride! I still believe now only two things averted a major accident: one the fact that the trailer had steering and hydraulic brakes so that every time the back of the trailer tried to jack-knife the steering would straighten it, and the brakes were stopping it driving the Shogun. The other thing of course was the fact that I was using the Shogun to tow it, I think the whole thing might have flipped had I been using a car!
It took a road side repair - fortunately the wheel that had come out and caused the problem was ok when we recovered it. We took off the burst wheel and fitted the recovered one and gingerly move the trailer. Although the hydraulics had been ripped of one wheel, because we had fitted the trailer with a triple circuit braking system, we were able to proceed and still have braking on 4 of the trailer wheels.
We managed to tow the trailer back that day, though it never attended the carnival it set out for. A replacement suspension unit, straightening of the track-rods and bleeding the brakes got the float back on the road in time for the next carnival on the Monday - August bank holiday.
The Start
Posted by admin on Jul 04 2002 | Comment now »
In 2002 I was looking for a 4×4 to tow a carnival float, the float, a six wheeler with steering, weighed in around 2 tonnes, so it was necessary to get something that could handle that weight and also crawl at 0 mph in a carnival procession.
I had no idea what to get, I wanted something that looked the part, I wasn’t keen on Land-Rover - it was too farmer-ish! Other makes that lost out on looks were Mercedes which was too ugly and Suzuki though the Vitara or Grand Vitara might have been in the running at the right price.
That was the other thing of course price I had at the time limited means and I was looking for something in the hundreds rather than thousands so of course that put a very tight limit on my budget and put paid to the likes of Jeep, Isuzu and the Maverick (which did appeal to me on looks)
Well that didn’t leave much and I spent many weeks reading the yellow ad papers and logging in on fish 4 cars although I found that anything newly advertised on fish 4 cars was usually sold weeks before the advert appeared!
Eventually my persistence paid off I found a “Mitsubishi Shogun” for sale, at a attractive price, in Cornwall - in fact it was just the other side of the [Tamar] bridge. I rang the number 4 or five times, eventually someone rang back saying it was the wrong number, I was deflated.
The next day I came up with the idea of going down to the town in Cornwall where the Shogun lived and finding it, the town was Callington - not massive but a fair sized town, but I had a couple of clues that would help me find it, I hoped. It had recently been to a garage - all I had to do was find the garage and bingo. Yeah right, have you any idea how many garages there are in and around Callington?
I think I was on the point of giving up when I went into a shop to buy a drink, looking through the papers I noticed a Cornish advertiser, eagerly I flashed through the pages looking for the motors, finding them and running through the ads I found it, the Shogun this time with a telephone number one digit shorter. Impatiently I queued to buy the paper - and drink. Outside I went looking for a telephone box, found one, dialled the number and got the seller - and it hadn’t been sold.
He informed me the car was at the town of Gunnislake I expressed my interest and told him I wold ring him again when I got there just as my money ran out! I got back to the car and fervently told the guy who had brought me thus far of my news. We headed towards Gunnislake, which is on the mid route out of Cornwall into Devon.
We got to Gunnislake in around 15 to 20 minutes, I needed some change to use the phone so we went and had a coffee in the nearest cafe - probably the only one! After some liquid refreshment I rang the seller again, I think he could tell I was keen as he offered to come and show me the car right away, although he was working in Tavistock - about 15 minutes away! He told me where to find the car and said he would meet me there.
The Shogun was parked up at a garage just before you crossed the River Tamar into Devon. We drove past it turned around and parked by it, by this time I’m sure I must have been drooling. It was white and it looked the part, I just couldn’t believe it was the car I was going to buy (hah - see, I’d already made up my mind).
We got out of the car and looked at the Shogun, from the front it looked brilliant, ok so it needed a clean which was nothing. Closer examination revealed rust under the back windows, at the top of the door pillars and on the bottom of the doors - but it was white and beautiful and soon to be mine!
Well the seller turn up and as you can guess he didn’t have to do much selling, the Shogun started OK - it was the 2.6 petrol version. The guy was a builder and had been using it for his trade, so the back looked a little bit the worse for wear, but I knew it would clean up because it was white and etc.!
Needless to say I bought it there and then, the documents were signed, money changed hands and I was the owner of a Mitsubishi Shogun 4×4, which I’m sure I might have told you was white and beautiful and now was all mine - my first real 4×4. And the best bit (apart from the fact it was a 4×4, white and etc.)? It had 6 months tax on it and it cost me £175.
Our route back was via Tavistock where we fuelled our respective cars and then across the edge of Dartmoor (but no off-roading). I was well chuffed by the time I got home, which I suppose was just as well as I had to clean it ready for the Saturday - only two days away.
I spent all that evening cleaning every inch of the inside and all the next day cleaning the outside and making sure the trailer electrics were working. The rear carpet took a real beating on a roadside crash barrier to get the cement and brick dust out (yes it did come out) and finally it was clean and ready for it’s first carnival on the following day.
That carnival was in the afternoon at Newton Abbot, about 25 miles away, and it was an easy tow, in fact on of the best tows I’ve ever had. Doing the carnival itself was brilliant as well, putting it into 4-wheel-low 2nd gear at tick over was just the right speed, so much more relaxing than having to slip the clutch and constantly braking.
The best bit though was when people I knew saw it and wanted to know who it belonged to, then saying how good it looked when they were told it was mine.
There were two carnivals that day, the second scheduled for an evening start at Ivybridge some 20 mile from Newton Abbot, again both the tow there and the procession were brilliant. Carnivals are like most events, where the drivers get together and talk, and by the time we got to Ivybridge we were having discussions about my new acquisition - favourable of course!