MOOCH - IT IS WORK, HONEST

Regular readers may recognise Peter’s L405 Range Rover as it was on the cover of our March issue when we enjoyed a day out laning in North Yorkshire that ended up costing Peter quite a large repair bill.

This little foray was organised because we wanted to chat about a potential work. You see, Peter owns a few businesses; wellies.com and a wholesale company that specialises in importing and distributing knives, knife sharpening equipment and other bladed articles. He’s also creating prepping.co.uk which isn’t up and running yet.

We ran through some ideas and figured it would be great to spend a few hours exploring some local, non damaging lanes, as you do. With that in mind we headed towards Delph, not far from Oldham, in Mooch It is work, honest!particularly, the collection of short lanes around Harrop Edge.

Lane 1 - SD9807-03 (AKA Lark Hill)

With a mild rocky climb Lark Hill is a good warm up for what’s to come. Around half way up there’s a diagonal channel that spans across the lane, nothing too challenging. Having said that, last time I was up here I was in Deux Smurf, and as I was crawled up slowly I got her cross-axled and lost traction, due to a lack of momentum, and a rear locker.

Upon reaching this section in the Range Rover I eagerly jumped out for a photo, but there was nothing to see, the L405 made it look as easy as driving up a curb!

As we climbed further, Lark Hill does become quite steep, and there was a bit of a scramble from the tyres, but the L405 has a habit of making everything feel effortless.

Upon reaching the top we turned left and followed SD9907-06 which is a long, straight wide dirt lane, and suitable for a 2wd car, with care.

Lane 2 - SE0008-04

A few minutes later we reached SE0008-04, and despite only being short in distance, it’s quite a gnarly lane with a few deep ruts and a couple of bumper grinding steps to contend with down at the bottom near the A62. Not only that, it’s fairly narrow in places with overhanging bushes. To be fair, the L405 would have managed without much drama, however, because Peter had spent a small fortune detailing the L405’s body work recently, it was decided not to start at the bottom, and instead drive down to the deep ruts, turn around and take some posing shots!

Despite my warnings, Peter was curious, and once he’d driven to the rutted section, we had a wander down the narrow and rocky bit, surveyed the potentially paint scratching gorse bushes then walked back to his Rangie in agreement - though I could tell he really wanted to drive it!

Driving upwards and diagonally through the deep rut with the off-side wheel first would normally cause a 4x4 to lurch quite steeply, and in turn make the rear nearside wheel to raise into the air. However the L405 wasn’t having none of it, the air suspension, long wheel base and large wheels kept everything fairy level.

As Peter continued to climb up the other side of the rut it left the near-side front wheel hanging there in the air. It was quite amusing, because the whole experience hadn’t felt dramatic, Peter was quite surprised at the end result.

Suitably impressed with the ease in which the big Range Rover climbed the bank, we decided to join the A62 again and cross over onto Waterworks Road that would take us in-between both Castleshaw upper and lower reservoirs towards our final lanes.

Lane 3 - SD9810-03

The first part of the next lane climbs quite steeply, but isn’t much of a problem as the ground is solid and well drained, that said, I wouldn’t be overly keen on driving it when it's icy as I suspect it could be a quite treacherous, especially heading downwards.

Upon reaching the top we had two choices, straight on turn left. We turned left onto SD9810-03.

Of the few lanes I’d taken Peter along today, I think this was the one I was most nervous of. It isn’t that it’s gnarly in anyway, but being between stone walls it can be a bit narrow in places, especially where the walls have collapsed and leaning inwards. The last time I drove this lane was last year, I was in Deux Smurf followed by Andy in a brand new press Defender, and he made it through okay, so Peter should, I hoped!

I needn’t have worried, Peter and his L405 made it through with plenty of space on either side. There are a few deep ruts in place, too, but the L405’s air suspension raised the body high enough not to concern him.

With a sigh of relief we made it to the end without any damage, which is a pleasant change!

Overall it’s a cracking lane that offers some spectacular views over both Castleshaw reservoirs and beyond, and as for it being work, well, it is in the magazine.