I posted this one on the old site. But since the season is not far away. Might as well get you guys motivated after a long winter.
7 Likes
I love watching this on YouTube with the volume up a little, nice song and it works well with your footage 
1 Like
Your absolutely right - People DO need to harden up. I used to dredge through winter in a WET suit!!
Photo taken driving over to claim about 1984
Photo taken showing underwater dredge on back of Landrover - also 1984
4 Likes
Wow www 1984 you been in the game for a while.and the land rover put a Nissan safari motor in a land rover you can do anything and go on any off road track.
If I had the chance to dredge in winter I would but donāt know bout sleeping in a tent in winter
I was going to ask you the effects on your health, ive spent to much time in the river in winter , and man I feel it know, but prich and I where dredging back in june this year must b goldfever
1 Like
Still have that Landrover - it is a bit damaged now and discarded with three corners stove in after finding three mining exploration holes in the tussocks and driving into them! I remember diving with ice on the water and snow drifts all along the bankā¦looking back on it I am not so sure how I did it BUT it accounts for my health now!
I never modified a Landrover and yes it DID go any where! BUT sometimes it didnt get back up! A warm sunny afternoon when I took my Landrover down to the river where I should not have done so - about 1990. It canbe seen how styeep the hillside it - I took the Landrover down because I didnt want to walk back up!
3 Likes
Harden up. Come work a winter with me. When it hits -50 Celsius, winter diesel is the consistency of Jello, and nothing will fly. Iāll knock my frozen boots off the frozen ground, and jump on my snowmobile to head off to work. Iāll make sure I tap you on the shoulder, while you shiver for warmth, and whisper in your ear. Harden the fuxk up mate. Ahaha
If you can drive a 4x4, there isnāt enough snow. Come to Canada for a winter. Then we can talk about working in the cold. I worked the oil rigs for 2 winters and 2 winters doing mineral exploration. At -35C they shut down. Not for the people. But machines just donāt work well in those temps and you do more damage then good. End up on a job where the drill is in a shack. And someone has to go out and check on the drill. Donāt worry itās only 20km away. Wonder what the wind chill is at 100km/h at -50. I do know I could piss yellow snow flakes.
1 Like
I bought one on a farm and placed a Nissan safari engine and box in it man it took me places.sold it to boat company till this day they have it and using it
1 Like
I think I can remember up the claim in the winter having to chip the frozen smoke out of the chimney before you can light a fire. (im getting old) but I can remember putting on the wet suit that had gone hard with the frost because I left it out over night. having to light the primus under the pump to defrost the water in it. same under the table.
3 Likes
Now that has just reminded me of one of the stories I was going to tell if I ever continued with my yarns āThe Road to El Doradoā from the old Paydirt forum - We went out one morning and there was deep snow outside the hut and it was showing signs that we might be trapped there for a week or two and I wanted to get back to civilisation, probably because the alcohol was running out.
The Landrover would not start - it was partly due to the battery being a bit weak and partly because - the fucking thing just wouldnt start! So I got a beer mug full of white spirits. poured it over the engine and intake manifoldā¦and threw in a lit match to āheat the motor up a bitā - and yes the engine DID start after that.
White Spirits was great stuff - it cost $20 for a four gallon kerosene tin of it. It was snowing hard one night and it sure was cold so I put a shovel of coal into the old coal range to keep the fire going as long as possible and climbed up into my bunk - well the fire seemed to be smothered so I told my cousin to put a ācup of keroseneā onto it. He asked where it was and I said āUnder the bunkā and so he reached under the bed. I watched fascinated because there appeared to be something wrong with the kerosene container - my brain registered the fact that there was something wrong but I still didnt catch on - I just watched in fascination!
He took the round lid off top of the top of the fire and poured a cup full of ākeroseneā on the fire and turned his back on it - A huge column of white vapour issued fourth (or was it fifth?) out of the fire and spread like a fog across the roof - and then I knew - my wee pea brain finally cottoned on - It wasnt kerosene - it was white spirits!
2 Likes
stories of snow drifts. caz and I decided one weekend we would tow the dredge down to Otago and up the umbrella range, it was the middle of winter and by the time we got there from Christchurch it was late on a Friday night. should have known there would be snow all over the road, but up we went good going till we got up towards the top after digging for hours to free the landie and trying to u turn in big snow drifts we unhooked the trailer and had to winch the trailer through the drifts. I was told to go back down the hill to camp at the bottom so round 3 in the morning we finally got to bed. never did go back there in the winter. sorry just another old timers story.
4 Likes
ā¦thatās nothing, I used to live in a shoe box in the middle of the road and have a handful of gravel for breakfast!
1 Like
And the point of saying that?
Itās a quote from a famous Monty Python sketch.
3 Likes
soundz good to me, where do i sign up
1 Like
that one is classic python
Sorry Lammerlaw as I do not share your fondness for the Landieā¦as a teenager some friends and I took an old series one out the coast to a remote surf breakā¦packed to the gunnells just on dark we had to negotiate the last steep downhill section.when the ole girl jumped out of gear and refused to go back inā¦pumping brakes n handbrake on full we couldnāt hold her backā¦driver shoutsā¦GET OUT!!!..me n me mate where packed in the back real snug but we managed to bust out the back just as it started to go into a death rollā¦landed on my kneeās n fore head pretty hardā¦recovered just in time to see the landie go into a end on end roll and over a 100 foot cliff and into the oceanā¦four of us standing there in the dark with only the clothes on our backsā¦found a lighter so we lit a joint and a camp fireā¦ in that order n waited till morningā¦one of a few near death experiences I had as a teenageā¦luck to be here at all reallyā¦lol!!
3 Likes
I have had many accidents but all caused by lack of care and maintenance, bad decisions, bad judgementas and so on. The only accidents or mishaps that were not caused by me was having to attempt the rescue of somepeople in flood waters and my Landrover got washed away due to the clutch silting up and malfunctioning and onanother occasion rolling on a hill in the snow - it was a formed road with snow on it and it just slid side on, hit a bank and rolledā¦oh yes and there was that time I got a little worse for wear and with three of us in the cab I lay against the door and it openedā¦I only had the steering wheel to hang onto when I fell out - and it slewed side on and rolled as well - the two guys with me went out through the roof! The brakes also failed - yes I forgot that until nowā¦thats enough of Landrover stories methinks - it might get embarrassing - the first full day I owned one I went through a farmers fence AND later in the day hit a bank!
My Landrover was like me and had an errant personality - it wrote of three cars it hit in the first twelve months I owned it and the Insurance Office of Australia refused to renew my insurance.
I drowned Landrovers four times that I remember.
1 Like
You do the old timers proud Dan. Yes, your right, we do need to harden up