I gave The 78 a service last week and finally fixed an annoying oil leak.
With Amayama charging almost as much for filters as my local Toyota dealer, and now I no longer trust the ebay sellers as there have been so many fake filters being sold over the last few years I bit the bullet and just bought one from my local dealer.
The 10 litres of oil cost less than half the price of the filter!
This was on display in the Toyota parts department shop.
I had ordered these genuine seals with my last Amayama order as I was pretty sure my engine was leaking oil from both the rocker cover and turbo pipe.
I took The 78 for a drive to get the oil nice and hot.
Dropped the oil.
And stripped the rocker cover and turbo pipe from the top of the engine.
I put it all back together and was delighted to find it no longer leaks oil!
The next day it was time for a 4WD Trip to one of our local state forests!
The tracks were a little wet and I really should have headed the warning on the map and avoided this next track!
The pics and videos dont really do it justice for how steep this clay hill is!
But in the video below I was the most scared I've ever been in The 78 as I was convinced I was about to roll it multiple times down the hill.
I know I should have put it in reverse and taken my foot off the brake but it was so slippy and I was scared the car might pick up speed if I did that.
Jiri and Aneta sprang into action and began rigging the winch up for me.
After rescuing Lexi from the back.
I winched forwards towards the tree Jiri rigged the rope up to in the pic above and then we had to winch to one of the trees on the left to get me over the mound in the track.
I didnt fancy coming back down the hill backwards so I walked on ahead to see how much further I would have to winch for.
A long way was the answer, the slippery hill just kept going.
So the only option was to turn The 78 around.
This was no easy feet as the clay surface was so slippery, it was like ice!
My tyres were completely clogged.
It took 3 more winch pulls to turn The 78 around and in the end I had to anchor the back of the vehicle to the tree Jiri and Aneta are removing the tree trunk protector from in the pic below, and then gently try and drive forwards which allowed me to turn the vehicle beautifully on the spot!
I was a bit nervous as Jiri and Aneta released the strap from the back of the car and I gently slid down the hill in 1st low, gently dabbing the brakes to try and slow myself.
Safely down.
You will have to take my word for the fact this hill is a lot steeper than it appears in the pics.
We left that track behind and ventured deeper into the forest.
A few tracks later we were at another slippery clay hill, but fortunately not as steep as the last one.
I pushed on, with both diff locks engaged and managed to get to the top!
The call soon came over the radio to say Jiri and Aneta were struggling in the Troopy.
So I walked down to help.
Aneta was driving but apparently it was my fault she got stuck!
What happened next blew me away!
The Max Trax actually worked! For once they actually worked!
And with some skillful driving by Jiri and me pushing the Troopy from behind we managed to get it up the hill!
We had to stop and re-position the MTrax a few times but we got safely to the top of the hill!
The next track proved to be just as slippery and shortly after telling Jiri the only way he will get through this next section is to go fast and keep the momentum, disaster struck!
I stopped at the side of the track and walked down to help Jiri and Aneta.
The Troopy had slid into the bank at the side of the track and blown the tyre off the rim, as we were running such low pressures.
We spent 10 minutes assessing the situation and discussing our options.
I couldnt get The 78 close to Jiri myself as there was so little traction and even if I did get close I wouldnt be able to drag the Troopy on such a slippery track and unfortunately there were no trees we could winch off.
So we would just have to change the wheel where the Troopy sat and to even get to the wheel would involve a lot of digging.
Dirt moved and wheel off.
And with a little help from the MTrax..............
We were moving again!
By this point we had all had enough of the clay, so we headed for my favorite track in the area to do some rock crawling!
Jackson Track!
The 78 got up easy enough despite me taking a much harder line this time.
Then it was the Troopys turn.
It almost got up on its first attempt but not quite.
Second attempt.
We stopped to put the MTrax down to see if that would help.
As can be seen in the video below the Troopy almost makes it and I'm convinced if that one under the passenger front wheel didnt shoot out from under the wheel, then I think the Troopy would have driven it!
At this point Jiri called it and said just drag him up this first rock step.
He managed to drive the rest of the track!
There were lots of small fallen trees to drive over and through this time.
We drove a couple more tracks and then stopped to air up.
It was a great trip!
Despite the terrifying start to the day.
