2008Spring

RoverXchange Spring 2008

Solihull Society PO Box 480864 Denver, CO 80248-

60 Years of Excellence

PresidentialROVINGS

RoverXchange

Greetings club members!

I would like to start off by saying Thank You to Larry Grubs for his last 3 years of service as president of the club. You did a great job Larry!! We miss you being around town, and hope everything is going well for you and Carrie out west.

As your new president, and this being my first Rovings letter, I thought you might want to know who I am. I’m a Colorado native, grew up in the mountains and have been 4-wheeling since I was a baby. I met my husband Keith in the interest of building my own rig. We soon discovered that the other 4wd we owned (it was a dirty “J” word) wasn’t suitable for the fam, so we bought a Discovery 5 years ago. Well, 5 years, 6 Land Rovers, and 1 Rover business later, here I am! I’ve met some great people and am very proud to be president of this club. I hope I live up to your expectations!

Summer is in full swing now, and a few people are getting out on the trails.

I’m sure gas prices are keeping the traveling down a bit, but look at the Solihull Society forums to see what trails are being run close to you and get out there! We also plan to have a late summer BBQ in August. Look to the website for further details.

This years rally is shaping up to be one of the best yet. We have some new volunteer help on the rally committee, which is bringing in renewed enthusiasm. Please look to the National Rally website for specifics. If you haven’t registered yet, do it ASAP. Last I looked; we were up to about 110 vehicles registered! We have some new fun things going on this year.

Check it out!

Hope to see you out on the trails!

Karen Kreutzer

RoverXchange

Spring 2008

A Newsletter for Land Rover Aficionados

The Rover Xchange is a quarterly publication of the Solihull Society 4-Wheel Drive Club, Inc. All material in Rover Xchange, unless otherwise noted, is the property of Solihull Society and may not be reproduced without permission.

Solihull Society Contacts President – Karen Kreutzer karen.kreutzer@solihullsociety.org VP – Andy Snow andy.snow@solihullsociety.org Treasurer Jenny Burris jenny.burris@solihullsociety.org Secretary/Membership Beth Dyson-Muskopf secretary@solihullsociety.org Trail Events Coordinator Jim Hall jim.hall@solihullsociety.org National Rally Coordinator Ralph Brandt ralph.bradt@solihullsociety.org Rally Sponsorship Coordinators Karen Kreutzer karen.kreutzer@solihullsociety.org Mike Pomponio mike.pomponio@solihullsociety.org Land Issues Coordinator Jim Hall jim.hall@solihullsociety.org Newsletter Dave Lane dave.lane@solihullsociety.org Website Admin David Garbs admin@solihullsociety.org Website – www.solihullsociety.org Newsletter Articles and Photos – Articles must be submitted in either Word (.doc) or text (.txt) format. Digital photos can be emailed or mailed on CD in either a JPEG, TIFF or EPS files. The articles can be submitted either via email (admin@ soliullsociety.org) or mailed on a CD to David Lane at the following address: 106 Estack Place, Highlands Ranch, CO 80126.

Materials will be returned upon request.

Advertising – $25/issue or $100/year for 1/4 page ads. Payment must accompany all camera-ready ads. Make check payable to Solihull Society. Free classified ads to members. $5/issue to non-members.

Club Membership – $50/year includes membership in the Colorado Association of 4-Wheel Drive Club, their newsletter, the Rover Xchange newsletter, and all the trail rides you can take! Make check payable to Solihull Society and mail it to the address on the back of this newsletter.

the essentials that we should have on a trail ride. Some of the items that we need to consider are obvious to all such as recovery gear and first aid kits. Some was not as obvious, especially those new to Moab. Some of these items included spill recovery kits and portable toilet bags. These are requirements on some trails to prevent damage to the fragile ecosystem in parts of the desert.

We finished the day by getting to use our winches and learning the proper techniques for winching as well as the hand signals. We were able to stretch out both a steel cable winch as well as one with synthetic and learn the advantages and disadvantages of both. Overall this was a great learning experience but with so much information packed into two days I can definitely see where it helps to take this class a couple of times. There just is not enough time in two days to learn everything that there is to know about leading trails. It was a great time for all and we definitely look forward to spending more time in Moab with those that we met on the trail.

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enced our first and thankfully only incident of the weekend when the D110 dropped off of an obstacle and rolled onto its driver’s side. Bill was quickly on the scene talking with the driver and relaying instructions. We righted the truck simply by tying a winch extension to the slider and then pulling it back over slowly with Bill’s D90. Once righted again the D110 was able to drive out of the obstacle. Amazingly the only damage was a scratch about 1” long on the rear portion of the driver’s side slider. The truck gently rested on top a rock.

From there we proceeded about half way around the trail where we stopped for another but of wisdom regarding line choice and spotting technique. The return trip back to the campsite was challenging as we had to do it without any traction aids other than the factory traction control in the DII’s and P38’s. There were several lines ran back up the hardest obstacle with most drivers forced to lift one tire to make the ledge. This was a good opportunity for us to practice another technique by using the brakes to modulate wheel spin and provide traction even in a vehicle without lockers. By applying the brake firmly and then also applying power you are able to modulate between the brake and the accelerator and cause the vehicle to crawl up the obstacle slowly and deliberately. The biggest challenge is to maintain a constant speed up the obstacle so as not to overpower the brakes holding the free wheel from spinning. This is also critical in the newer vehicles with factory traction control. If you keep the RPM’s between 1500 and 2000 RPM the traction control will effectively lock the free tire and carry you over the obstacle. If you vary the speed of the engine the traction control system is not nearly as effective or kicks out completely leaving you with no choice but to brake modulate.

We ended the night back at the campsite with about half of the group staying to camp and the remainder of us returning home to our beds.

Sunday brought more trial time than Saturday as we met at the beginning of the Slaughterhouse Gulch trail and ran it counter clockwise. This was our chance to show-off what we learned on Saturday as it starts with an uphill climb full of moguls. By picking the right line we were all able to make it up easily unlike Saturday morning. We wound our away along the trail with Bill giving out

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IN THIS ISSUE Presidential Rovings

2

Trip Report: Winding Stairs

5

Iron Clads and T33a Plane Crash

8

Helllo from our new President...

By Jim Hall

by Eric Meyers

Membership Information

11

Vendor Spotlight: RSW Solutions

13

Letter from the Editor

14

Bill Burked Training Class 2008

17

Application, information and benefits of joining the Solihull Society.

Welcome to a New Year!

By Matt & Kelley Bush

Spring 2008

5

8

17

interesting tid-bits about the history of the trail and area that we were in.

This made the more easy sections of the trail interesting and kept us looking forward to what was next. It is recommended that trail leaders learn what they can about the history to pass along to others on the trail.

We stopped in a large meadow for some rack trimming and to go over 18

Volume 12, Issue 1

A Newsletter for Land Rover Aficionados

2008 Land Rover National Rally Spoiler Alert!

This year for the Rally, we have a very special raffle prize, if you don’t want to know about it until the rally, don’t look at these photos!

This issues photos thanks to Jim Hall, Nick Taylor, and Mike Pomponio David Lane.

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Spring 2008

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Bill Burke Training Class

by Matt & Kelley Bush

“The publication for environmentally responsible, worldwide vehicle-dependent expedition and adventure travel.”

Subscribe overlandjournal.com

RoverXchange

A Newsletter for Land Rover Aficionados

We had the opportunity to attend the Bill Burke Trail leader training class this year and were rewarded with a lot of good information and tips for how to responsibly lead trails. This years training class was held at the Slaughterhouse Gulch trail just North East of Bailey. It started on Saturday morning with a driver’s meeting and introduction at the trailhead where we all aired down to the proper pressures.

The first obstacle came very quickly on the trail as Bill led us up a series of moguls that really flexed out the vehicles. Most of us had difficulty getting up the obstacle and this was his first point of teaching.

With proper line selection he has been able to bring stock vehicles up this same portion of trail. By keeping all four tires with similar contact on the bumps and steering away from the bump you are able to make it up quite easily. The natural tendency for the truck is to steer into the bump as the wheel lifts and this just causes the traction situation to worsen. This is referred to as bump steer and is easy to counteract once you are aware it is happening and you can correct for it by steering away from the bump in the direction opposite of the truck’s natural tendency.

Back on the trial we proceeded back to the group camp site where we would hold our first session of training on first aid, trail leader responsibilities and how to properly and effectively handle difficult situations on the trail. There were many in the group who were new to trail leading so this last part was extremely useful. After a couple of mock injuries where we had to think about how to not only perform a simple first aid task but get our patient off the trail in comfort we had some lunch and got to know the group better.

Individuals traveled from all over the state to attend the training with the long-haul award going to a D90 owner that attended from Durango and had to drive back home on Sunday night.

We had a mix of vehicles including several P38’s, one stock and the other two were slightly modified. The P38’s would wind up surprising most in the group by the time the weekend was over with their performance on the trail. There was a couple of D90’s and one D110 and the remainder of the group comprised Disco I’s and II’s.

After lunch we spent some time learning how to properly use a Hi-Lift jack and the various accessories that are available. We used the jack to recover a stuck vehicle both by lifting a tire and using the jack as a winch.

After the Hi-Lift session we headed up the trail to begin to experiment with different lines and different techniques for spotting our charges up the trails in Moab.

Along the way Bill would hold small meetings where he would go over various aspects of either the various vehicles we can expect to see or different techniques for picking the line.

Once we cleared the first cattle gate and started down into the trail we experiRoverXchange

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all to rest. I was looking forward to a time when I was not working on this problem. That was not the case however.

The Range Rover community was continually emailing and asking for advice and help with the hardware side of the problem. So I simply decided to start making EAS serial cables for people.

Then eventually people were expressing a desire to not have a laptop and cable to deal with. The laptop and cable assembly was clumsy and difficult to carry out to the car.

For most people, a laptop was certainly not in the car when an EAS fault occurred. There was an obvious need for a hand-held device that could reset the EAS fault and do so in a quick and efficient manner.

So I then began to work towards a hand-held solution for resetting the EAS fault. I had no prior training in electronics or embedded systems design but again simply said, “How hard could it be”. Less than one month later, I had a fully working prototype ready for manufacturing. The EAS Buddy Box was born. I have spent the time since continually trying to evolve the design and improve the functionality.

What do I do for a living? Well it has nothing to do with automobiles nor does it have anything to do with electrical engineering. I write image analysis algorithms and design academic research studies in the field of prostate cancer.

My daily job is performing prostate cancer research in a university setting.

And that’s pretty much it. The Range Rover community now has an easy and affordable solution to one of the most common and most painful Range Rover maladies.

It has always been my hope that these EAS solutions will keep people interested in these vehicles for several more decades. Hopefully that now the EAS fault problem has been solved, more people will be encouraged to maintain and operate these vehicles for years to come.

Thanks, R. Storey Wilson Jr.

http://www.RSWsolutions.com StoreyWilson@RSWsolutions.com

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RoverXchange

A Newsletter for Land Rover Aficionados

Trip Report: Winding Stairs

by Jim Hall Last year, like the year before, Ralph tried to put some different trails in the schedule so we wouldn’t be running the same things over and over again. One of them this year was Winding Stairs. Winding Stairs? I had never heard of that trail before and had no idea what it was like or where it was, so I did a little searching.

It turns out it’s in an area I’m not totally unfamiliar with, Rampart Range. Rampart Range is a special area in the forest set aside for motorcycles and atvs, but it also has some roads in it as well. I’d ridden my dirt bike down there countless times, but usually more towards the northern end.

Rampart Range is a big area, with trails from just west of Sedalia, all the way to Woodland Park on both the east and west sides of Rampart Range Road. Winding Stairs, FS 323, starts about 3 miles north of Mt Herman Rd, FS 320. It runs almost all the way to Palmer Lake. I guess it used to go all the way, but the road was gated after 9/11, or so I was told. On a map, it looks like there are several trails leading out from the bottom, but all have been closed.

The trail goes down by Upper and Lower Reservoirs, but it should not be driven that far as they are posted no motor vehicles.

Someone apparently forgot to post a sign on the Winding Stairs side, so you should stop as soon as you get down to the meadow. I decided to lead the trail, but since I hadn’t driven it, I tried, without luck, to find someone to pre-run it with me. So once Saturday came around, we were all on our own. I left my house with 1 1/2 hours to spare, figuring I could get down to the Mt Herman/Rampart Range meeting point. I was wrong. I didn’t feel badthough as Barry was the only one there. About 15 minutes later Ali, Chelo, Mario, Jeff and Kyle arrived. Off to the trailhead.

Winding Stairs Road started out as just a flat dirt road with some ruts and potholes, but fairly smooth over all. The aspens on either side were a beautifl shade of gold, the sun was out, and hardly a cloud in the sky. This was good as I had read the trail should not be attempted when it’s wet. I had pre-programmed the GPS coordinates into my GPS before I left as there is nothing worse than leading a group and not knowing where you are going. It’s a good thing I did as I almost missed the turn onto the real trail.

Things changed almost immediately. Gone was the smooth flat road. What lay before us now was a deep vee rut. It turns out that the trail is a rut almost it’s entire length. This would present some serious challenges later on, and minor challenges almost the rest of the way. Right off the bat, the rut got very close to a tree. I drove as close to the tree as I could to keep myself as upright as possible. I’m not sure if Ali tried driving in the rut or slipped in, but the net effect was bent gutters and roof rack. Not much further down, the rut curved around a big log. I barely squeaked by as the corner tries tipping you into the log. I think my short wheelbase helped me here. I drove down a ways, parked and came back up to help spot. I was too late. Barry had tried driving around, and his inside tires had slid into the rut. There was now part of the log sticking into a hole where his passenger window once was. We all pushed and pulled to tilt him away from the log as he drove out. We cleaned up the glass and I tried cutting the log, but only got a little cut off. The rest of the vehicles proceeded through, all either touching the log, or missing it by under an inch. I had now decided that this trail was going to be rather interesting.

We drove on, straddling the rut. In some places there were rocks or washed out sections on one side of the rut or the other, causing the vehicles to lean and also lift a lot of tires. Sometimes the rut had to be crossed over causing a lot of air under the

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tires. We finally reached a fairly flat spot and decided to stop for lunch, and check out the harder looking section of trail ahead. Walking down to it, it didn’t look as bad, but it had another tree we needed to get close to, had some rocks and a washed out section, and was obviously going to tilt us towards the drivers side. Everyone made it down without incident.

We drove along and the v disappeared. It was replaced by a fairly steep off camber section. My Lev-O-Gauge read 30 degrees, which is easily doable, but starts feeling fairly tipped over. We went around the corner, and there was our old friend the rut again. The trail started getting steeper here, and the rut deeper. The entire Rampart area is made up of decomposing granite. It easily breaks up into a gravel like consistency and makes driving on it feel more like driving on ball bearings. This made the steeper part of the trail quite a bit more challenging. There was one corner where I slid to the inside and pivoted my truck around a big rock on the slider. It would save me again later on down the trail. There was also a practically impassable section of the gully, which had a lot of dead wood in it. The trail went around, then rejoined the gully. Everyone made it through, but once again a lot of tires were in the air. Further down, there was a very washed out section, and every time I tried going straight, the rut would keep steering me towards the downhill side of the hill. We had to build it up with a lot of small downed trees before everyone was able to make it across. Along this section, there were few to none flat parts of the trail, so I would drive down a ways, park, walk up to make sure everyone was doing ok and take a few pictures, then walk back down and drive some more before everyone started catching back up too much. We all stopped at one obstacle however. It was a very deep and wide rut on a corner. It had solid rock at the very start of the turn but quickly transitioned to the dirt and decomposing granite mix that most of the trail was made of. It looked bad, but doable. There was also a bypass that went straight down the steep gravel covered trail, where it teed into the main trail. I was afraid of going down the bypass and not being able to stop, so I chose the corner. I don’t know if I would choose it again! Ali spotted me as I started down, driving slowly down the rock and around the corner. The front tires dropped quickly as one back tire climbed the side of the rock. The left rear was quickly pitching up into the air at an alarming rate and angle, so I hit the gas. I lost a little control, but the Rover returned quickly to a somewhat less uncomfortable angle as I tried to slow down on the gravel and get centered in the vee. Brian was next, so I tried to guide him a little more to the right than I was as I didn’t want him to repeat my performance. It didn’t work very well as the left side was very steep and his left tire slid down tipping him towards the drivers side. His left front bumper caught the hillside, keeping him from tipping too far though. We all lifted on the downhill side to keep him upright as he drove down.

By this time, the people who hadn’t gone down were getting very nervous. I was past nervous after my experience, as I’m sure was Barry. Ali was next, and followed a path fairly similar to my line. As his front dropped down, his back end shot into the air even more than mine or Barrys! He immediately got off the brake and possibly hit the gas as well, bringing The Camel down. That was scary!! Chelo did a repeat performance of Ali’s, and I was certain Mario was going to roll as he got even higher. Miraculously we all made it down ok though. Jeff in his P-38 and Kyle in his LR3 were absolutely positive they would rather risk the bypass than the almost certain death route the other 5 of us had taken. As vehicles were piling up, I once again drove on down and around the corner. There was an extremely steep and very wide vee in this part of the trail, but it wasn’t terribly straight. I got maybe 30 feet down it when suddenly I slid down the steep drivers side of the rut apparently resting against my body. My Lev-O-

RoverXchange

A Newsletter for Land Rover Aficionados

Bill Burke’s

4-Wheeling America 970-858-3468 … bb4wa@bb4wa.com

Premier Training for all users of 4-wheel drives and all skill levels. Driving Techniques. Recovery. Safety. Environmental Awareness. Getting Prepared. Trail Spotting. Navigation. Field Fixes.

●Private Instruction

DVDs by Bill Burke

One-on-one with Bill Burke.

●Getting UNStuck ●Getting PREpared

●Group Training

Comprehensive 2-day training programs that include all you need to know about going into the remote back country safety.

●Industrial & Government Training Programs

Custom safety programs for organizations that use 4WD vehicles in their operations.

Safe recovery techniques. Real life situations!

“For less cash than the cost of recovering a vehicle from a back country crisis, drivers can experience the pleasures and pains of primitive roads under the watchful eye of a well-equipped guide & instructor, learning the abilities as well as the limits of their vehicle.” C. Able, Rocky Mountain News

“A valuable lesson I learned from Bill was that the biggest part of back country driving lies between the driver’s ears.”

P. Donohue, Solihull Society

Watch this DVD before heading out!

W/30-page booklet.

Excellent Dealer Discounts. “...The learning started before the first turn of a key and continued right up until our goodbyes. Simply put, Bill is an outstanding instructor...he sets the standard by which all others must be judged! ...a much appreciated benefit of our time together was Bill’s encyclopedic knowledge of the environment...”

Nick Vanoff. VA - Private Training

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www.bb4wa.com Spring 2008 www.SolihullSociety.org We hold BLM & USFS permits to operate on public lands.

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CLASSIFIEDS & ANNOUNCEMENTS PRESIDENT - shall preside over all membership and Executive Committee meetings and be present at all events when possible. He shall be the executive officer and shall have the duty to carry out the policies and decisions of the Board of Directors.

VICE PRESIDENT - shall, in the absence of the President, serve in that capacity. He shall also serve as a Parliamentarian and perform such other duties as may be assigned by the Board of Directors.

SECRETARY - shall keep and preserve all records and minutes of the meeting of the regular membership and the Board of Directors, shall keep a file system of membership and shall receive and answer all general correspondence pertaining to the organization.

TREASURER - shall keep accurate and complete records of the funds and accounts of this organization and shall collect all dues and maintain a record thereof. He shall make only such disbursements from the funds of the organization as are directed by the Board of Directors and Article VII hereof.

Ballots shall be issued to each membership at check in.

Do you have stuff that you need to sell?

Did you know that classified ads are free to club members? Simply send an e-mail with a description of what you’re selling along with asking price and contact information and we’ll run it for free in the RoverXchange classifieds.

Send it to:

newsletter@solihullsociety.org

A Letter From the Editor

Happy Spring Everyone!

I all hope you are as excited for the year as I am. The new executive team has been hard at work trying to make this year, the 60th of our beloved marque, the best ever. We all know that the winter has been hard on the high country.

The snow is melting quickly and hopefully we all can go enjoy the fruits of a hard, wet winter. This special anniversary of Land Rover is the focus of this years National Rally. We have some extra special plans for this year. If I were you, you might want to start saving now for the special raffle prize this year. It is one item that is outside of the normal raffle. Trust me, you won’t want to skip out on this!

Dave Lane.

Gauge was now as far as it would go, 45 degrees. I tried turning up the steep drivers side of the rut and driving, hoping to climb, but the rover stayed firmly in the bottom, making the most terrible scraping sound as I went forward a few feet. I decided to walk back up, getting everyone down before I tried getting out as I would need a spotter on this section. I got back up just as Jeff was starting down the bypass. Everything seemed good until 2/3 of the way down where he was turning into the hillside on the left. We knew we had a problem when Jeff stated that his steering wheel was all the way right, but his tires were all the way left. Looking underneath we discovered that his drag link had bent. We think it might have been slightly bent before but the stress of such a steep hill was more than it could take. We decided the best thing to do was put a strap on him and drag him to the right onto the more level trail. We tried straightening it out by hand as Jeff didn’t have a spare, but we couldn’t get it to budge. We ended up having Kyle come down the hill, then run over it to somewhat straighten it out.

With everyone down that section, it was back to my problem. I ended up having to drive down the vee until it mellowed out a bit where it transitions into two deep ruts. Luckily for me, I had actually been against my slider and tires, and only had one minor scratch to the body.

I continued on down, but had to get into one of the ruts to get lined up for a slight corner. It was deep enough that when I tried climbing out, I hit my passenger wing on it and bent it. I then backed up and my tire caught it, bending it even more. We once again had to put some logs to build up the trail enough for me to get out and down to the bottom of the trail. We then very carefully and slowly sterted guiding the rest of the group down the trail. About this tme we heard some vehicles coming down. It ended up being some people from Trail Damage in a Jeep. they came down and offered us food and water in case we didn’t have enough as it was now close to 5:00 and we still had to go back up everything.

They went back up, and I heard someone say that their other vehicle has rolled on the bad corner above us, but that they were ok. We kept guiding people down and Jeff’s drag link decided to bend again. After a while we got it straightened out again and got everyone down. All in all it was a very long, hard day. Almost every vehicle got some damage, from scrapes to dents, broken windows to bent drag links. If you decide to do this trail, DO NOT go alone, DO NOT do it if it is the least bit wet, and make sure you and your rigs are capable.

You WILL need lockers, and possibly a winch. Make sure you have plenty of food and water and are equipped to spend the night if needed. It is a fun, exciting and dangerous trail. I may do it again some day, but for now, I think we have all had out fill of this trail for at least a little while.

You Know Your Rover.

I Know Your Real Estate.

Tom Cryer Broker Associate The Kentwood Co. 303-773-3399 303-638-3202 tcryer@kentwoodco.com www.MyTownCryer.com

dave.lane@solihullsociety.org

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RoverXchange

A Newsletter for Land Rover Aficionados

RoverXchange

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Trip Report: Iron Clads & T33a Plane Crash

by Eric Meyer

Despite some uncertainty on the trails forum, four Rovers turned up on Saturday morning at a Boulder parking lot: Nick and Kristy, driving their own D90s (his RHD, diesel, and full of electronics), Cathryn and I in mine, and Dee and Charlotte with their son Mark, who would be driving their Disco. (Mark just got his own classic Rangie, but doesn’t have it ready yet.) Nick agreed to lead, and we set off north toward Lyons, then up CO 7 to Bunce School, where we left pavement and stopped to air down in a broad parking area just past the historic schoolhouse. (You can visit it, though we didn’t take the time this morning.) Along both sides ran newly-erected long fences with steel bars that I recognized from the news, an attempt by local residents to keep ATVs off the surrounding private land and out of alpine meadows that have been damaged by them.

I had the Wells book along and gave Nick its GPS waypoints; approaching from the north, it made sense to begin with the Ironclads. We followed “Bunce School Road” (really just another forest trail) into the woods for nearly a mile. There were plenty of ATVs around, and some aggressive motorbikes weaved among us to get past without waiting for a place to pull over. I didn’t realize this was such a heavily used area, and wasn’t sure where everybody was going; we hardly saw anyone after turning off onto

Vendor Spotlight: RSW Solutions

by R. Storey Wilson Jr.

Necessity is the mother of invention; A statement which describes the development of this company perfectly. I never had any intentions of developing a marketable device or software that would be in such high demand. All I had ever wanted was a simple solution to my reoccurring EAS faults.

Every Range Rover owner will eventually face the inevitable occurrence of an EAS fault.

Over the course of a year, I had been left stranded no less than four times. Each time was over 100 miles from the nearest Land Rover diagnostic computer. Each time I had over two hours of painful, slow and dangerous highway travel forced upon me because of the locked out EAS system.

The frequent nuisance of the EAS fault encouraged me to invest myself in the discovery of the EAS communications protocol. Everything began with the simple yet deadly statement of “How hard could it possibly be”. I set out in December of 2006 with only a vague understanding of the EAS and absolutely zero experience in communications protocols. Over the course of the next year, I began to spend hundreds of hours researching every possible scrap of information I could find on the Range Rover EAS. All I had was a spare EAS ECU purchased off of EBay and a 20-year-old tektronix oscilloscope. I made a few educated guesses and got extremely lucky on a few others. One late evening I was able to receive communications back from the EAS on an old laptop. At that moment, I was extremely ecstatic because we finally had a starting point so that more people could join in and participate.

The most significant progress was made when I joined forces with about half a dozen other individuals spread all over the globe. The diversity found through this group of collaborators was absolutely amazing. Several different countries, races and professions were represented in this gathering. I still to this day have never personally met any of them nor do I even know some of the real names.

Through this group, we collaborated and brought together a complete understanding of the EAS communications protocol. I then went on to formally apply the EAS communications protocol into a comprehensive set of hardware and software tools. The software evolved into the EASunlock software suite that is now available to the public free of charge. I honestly thought that this was a stopping point where I could finally put this

RoverXchange

A Newsletter for Land Rover Aficionados

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Trip Report: T33a Plane Crash some distance below in an aspen grove. The tortured bits ofmetal are a stark contrast with the peacefulness of the site today.

The drive back down went smoothly, with Nick spotting Mark over a couple of the worst rocky sections, and we came out onto pavement again at the Peaceful Valley campground, stopping to air back up before taking CO 72 back toward Boulder. This pair of trails makes a good combination that also offers a chance to stretch your legs, enjoy some great views, and explore the wreckage of one of the airplanes Colorado’s mountains have claimed. It was a great start to another season with Land Rovers.

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cont.

FS 216. This has some rocky sections, climbing generally uphill before splitting into a loop, with a spur at the far end that we followed to a nice parking spot beneath a steep slope of granite. We hiked on from there and followed a closed trail with fallen trees laid across it, which took us up to a ridgetop with a splendid view of the Mummy Range, Long’s Peak, and others, with Meeker Park and Allenspark below. It was a warm sunny day with occasional clouds that didn’t look too threatening, which we appreciated, having noticed spots on this ridge where lightning had struck.

When we got back it was already past noon, and this suddenly seemed a perfect spot to stay and have lunch.

Afterward we finished the Ironclads loop, which gets steeper in the last (southern) stretch, with some rocks and ledges that required just enough attention to be fun. We then headed back down to Bunce School Road and continued south; it was only a few miles but fairly slow ones. Finally we came to a seasonal gate and FS 202, where we turned off for Plane Crash.

Shortly after that we needed to turn again onto 203, which had a marker post but unfortunately wasn’t one of our GPS waypoints; Nick cruised on past it, and because he’d removed his CB antenna to clear overhanging branches, we were unable to get his attention before he disappeared into the woods.

Kristy ventured that it might be some time until he checked his rear-view mirror, but we didn’t have to wait too long for him to return, and set off on 203 as intended. We met a small party on horseback also bound for the crash site, and a large group of vehicles returning from it.

(It’s probably a popular lunch spot.)

There are other trails in the area but the last few turns to be made were uneventful, just as described by Wells. After about a mile and a half of sometimes slow progress over steep and rocky stretches, we arrived at a convenient clearing that matched the last waypoint, parked, and walked on from there. We promptly came to a very tight passage between two trees whose bark was badly damaged; there’s no real need to drive through, as you must walk to the crash site anyway, and the trail begins just beyond.

After a short hike, oddly bright reflections begin to appear among the trees: debris is scattered all over the slope, with various pieces of fuselage above, including the tail with some of its original orange paint, and the engine RoverXchange

Spring 2008

www.SolihullSociety.org

DealershipDISCOUNTS

Membership Information

Our members receive exclusive discounts at Denver area Land Rover dealerships.

The Colorado Denver East Dealership offers Solihull Members:

15%

DISCOUNT ON PARTS

Service and Labor is only $97.50 per hour.

Regular rate is $115

The Colorado Flatirons Dealership offers Solihull Members:

15%

DISCOUNT ON PARTS

The Colorado Springs Dealership offers Solihull Members:

15%

DISCOUNT ON PARTS & LABOR

JC’s Rover offers Solihull Members:

10%

DISCOUNT ON LABOR Parts typically 10%-20% cheaper than list.

Green Diamond Tire’s offers Solihull Members:

10% OFF ON TIRE ORDERS

Application for Membership/Renewal

Please print all information clearly.

Name:__________________________________________________________________Email:_________________________________________________________________ Address: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ City:_____________________________________________________________State____________________________________________Zip:_________________________ HomePhone:_______________________________________________CellPhone:___________________________________________________________ Occupation:_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ PresentLandRovers:______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Past Land Rovers: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ May we share the above information with other club members?

Yes No Type of Application:

New member

Renewal

Type of Membership: Single (S) -- $40.00 Family (F) -- $50.00 Out of state (O) -- $30.00

Waiver: I/We, in consideration of my/our participation in the Solihull Society Land Rover Club, [hereafter referred to as club] do hereby release Solihull Society, its members, officers, sponsors, successors and assigns from any and all responsibility or liability for any and all claims, arising from or related to the activities and my/our participation in and all events sponsored and/or involving the club.

I/We understand and acknowledge off-highway driving is a hazardous activity with inherent dangers, which can result in severe property damage, serious bodily injury and/or death. With full knowledge of such risks, hazards and potential for damage, injury or death, I/We voluntarily and knowingly assume such risks and hazards and agree, that the club, its members, officers, sponsors, successors and assigns shall not be liable in any way, to me/us for any claims for damages, injuries or death resulting from my/our participation in the club’s events.

I/We acknowledge my/our vehicle is in good mechanical condition, and said vehicle is insured for bodily injury liability insurance and personal injury protection insurance and/or medical payment coverage, as required by its’ state of registration.

I/We are advised to consult with our insurance broker/agent about availability of and adequacy of present medical payment coverage should I/We and/or our passengers sustain bodily injury, while operating my/our motor vehicle.

I/We further acknowledge the driver/operator of the vehicle is licensed to operate a motor vehicle and the license is not under suspension.

This waiver/release of liability is binding on our heirs, insurers, personal representatives or assignees.

Signature____________________________________________________________________________________Date______________________________________________ Club Use Only: Cash Check # Quicken Deposit slip

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RoverXchange

A Newsletter for Land Rover Aficionados

RoverXchange

Spring 2008

Email to member Roster Member card # Welcome packet

www.SolihullSociety.org

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