Hello friends,
This blog I'm going to be covering a couple different things with the tow of a sled and a tour of the Poo Palace. I was going to do more but as i haven't stopped all weekend i haven't really had a chance to do much on the old blog. So lets start with the BIGGEST thing and i mean in size.
Thursday was a overcast day but the clouds weren't going to dull the fun that i was going to have. Below is a longish video which shows you how a approximately 35t tow is done down here. The sled was towed up to where this footage starts over a week ago and since it had only been sitting a short period i though it would start no problems. Well you'll see what needed to be done to get her going and the brake i needed to stop the sled from running into the back of me as i went down hill.
A little bit about our trusty old D7H traverse dozer.It has a 6 cylinder Cat 3306 Direct Injected producing 164kw or 223hp. You wouldn't think that a machine that has less horse power than your average Commodore or gaud help me Ford but i don't think you would find one of them towing 50t on the streets let alone on soft snow. The old girl hasn't got any of this nandy pandy power shift (automatic) down here we are real men and real men like to crunch gears while holding the gear stick in out hands!!!! LOL So she is a 5 speed manual and runs on both ATK (Aviation Turbine Kerosene which brought in to use on the planes) or normally SAB (Special Antarctic Blend which has been developed to have better waxing properties to cope with the low temperatures here). The funny looking thing on the front is a drum lifter, designed to be lowered onto the blade and used to lift 44 gal drums onto the ground from sleds while on traverse as well as a 60t winch on the back to get you or me out of sticky situations. Mind you i haven't had to use it on myself once YET many other but not me!!!!
Its a little different to driving a car.............How do you drive it? Well on the far right front you have a lever it controls your direction forward and reverse. The knob beside my leg...........no comment....that controls the blade movement up, down and angle. Then there is the knob in front of my leg now that's the gear selector and as i said earlier there is 5 to choose from. On the centre there is two levers and one knob sticking up LOL hope you are laughing as i am writing this, anyway the knob is the throttle and the two levers steer you. Left you have a lever that is your clutch in the front and one with a bit of red tape on it that is the park brake. As for the feet you have two track brakes in the centre on the right there is a decelerator. Yep you got that right you put you foot on it to slow down and far left you have a place to put your foot to brace yourself on bumpy rides!!
So here we go this tow isn't anywhere near the max of 50t probably more like 35t but there was a little trouble "breaking it out" as you'll see in the video that i soon got over with the right tools! LOL
The view from inside the dozer and if you look at the beginning of the video you'll see the speed and the coordinates of where i am............We started the tow at 10am and moving at those speeds its little wonder that we not home till 230pm.
As you might have noticed in the videos that there is 2 quad riders around me. This is so that they can keep an eye on my tow ropes and whats happening around me that i cant see. Johan had gone up the road a little bit to check the conditions of the road when i noticed him standing in the middle of the road. This was fun and quite cool to see mind you you almost didn't if i had have been 2 inches closer i think i would have taken out the cam!!!
Video Johan Mets
think I'm having a little too much fun here................
Another big accomplishment that was completed this week was the last lift on the Wilkins Garage project with the outer doors installed. Now as per normal we are now waiting on plumbers and Electricians to catch up............LOL
I know this is a moment that everyone has been waiting for and you ll have to forgive me as when i shot this i kinda ran out of batteries. I'm going to blame it on the cold as it takes the life out of them quick, well that sounded convincing anyway. So without further ado id like to introduce you to Scott our resident skin head/plumber who is going to give you, by request, a guided tour of what we call the Poo Palace!!!!
AGAIN I WHICH I COULD GET THE SMELLOVISION GOING!!!!!!!!
So here i am already 4 weeks on the ice and it feels like i didn't leave. New friends has made this trip different as i think i have mentioned i wouldn't say its good or bad just different. I do still catch myself looking around for some of my mate like Brett and Mick and i think it might be because they aren't here i haven't been to the tank house yet. The tank house is where the three of us use to spend a lot of our free time as this is where the spa and the sauna is located which will be covered in a future blog I'm sure.
So to my old friends be assured i miss you all and to my new friends good times to come!!
If anyone has any ideas for topics or particular interest that i might have brushed over please feel free to send me a message, only too happy to do what i can to try and answer any and all questions.
So that's it for me tonight, next blog I'm going to cover a SAR (Search and Rescue) exercises, picking up the boffins from the field and I'm going to try and get a tour through the MET (Berra of Meteorology) office with one of our talented forecaster's.
So bye for now.
Michael
one place, chances are you won't be happy anyplace."
Ernie Banks
Ernie Banks
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