Klaas Bals' Blog

An inspiring movie about entrepreneurship.

I'm still evolving slowly to being an entrepreneur, in many aspects guided by my father in law, in my view a real entrepreneur. Not sure whether I'll ever be one... It ain't always easy, but let's try to make this place a better world, while having fun doing what we do.

Hat tip: Geert Noels, my hero ;-)

Here in Belgium there are hardly any hills. And if there are, they're slippery because of the rain. In South Africa however...

So, unfortunately, I did not record the following movie. But I did want to share it with you to illustrate what I mean when I say you can do pretty steep slopes with a Discovery 3. (If you're in a hurry, skip the first 3/4 of the movie).

When your car is on its side, on a hill, do remember to pull up the handbrake, or make sure someone is in the car while you push it on its wheels.

You wonder why? Look at the following video:

One of the basic rules when driving off-road is that you need to know the terrain. If you don't, make sure to check it on foot before driving it in a 4x4. Especially on those slopes where you don't see the other side. Many people ignore this advice when they're behind the wheel. Check out this video to see someone driving too confident...

In september 2006, several weeks after the birth of my son Anders, I really couldn't resist driving offroad any longer. My offroad buddy couldn't join me so I decided to go alone. Just me, myself and my Discovery 3...

All very well, a great day, great weather, nice slopes, some sand... and then I tried to take a ditch. I couldn't take it at a right angle, because my Disco 3 would touch the ground with its belly. So I decided to take the ditch dialogonally. Unfortunately the car pulled itself straight again, I think because I didn't have enough momentum, so it got stuck with its belly on the ground.

Initially I started to shovel the ground away, but it was too hot for that to be pleasant, and I decided to use my air jack (for the first time in an offroad situation). I had bought it several weeks before at www.air-jack.com. An air jack is a large strong bag that can be inflated by simply connecting it to the exhaust pipe of an engine running idle. Because the bag is quite big, it doesn't need a high pressure to be able to raise a serious weight. The one I bought is type ELH04, and it can actually lift 4000kg.

A Discovery 3 has two exhaust pipes that are interconnected, which means you connect the hose of the air jack to one, while you need to block the other exhaust as well. So I purchased a blocking cone as well. When using the airjack by yourself, this means you have to stretch your arms to reach out for the two exhausts... not very practical...

I'm going to try to solve that using a tool I got from a friend. It's called 'packer coupling', or just 'packer', and it is used in concrete injection processes to fix cracks and water leaks in concrete. This is a metal tube with a piece of rubber, that can be tightened with a bolt. By tightening the bolt, the rubber is pushed together, which results in it becoming wider, thus blocking one of the two exhausts. At least, that's the theory, I still need to try it out...

This is a picture of such a 'packer':

I came across a very nice movie of a properly equipped Discovery 3, driving some dry ruts, in the Harvey Forests in Australia.

A pity I wasn't able to drive a Disco 3 in Australia.

In January we went 4WDing, after it had been raining for 2 weeks... It was great fun!

This movie shows a recovery of a Defender by a Discovery 3. We try to use a kinetic rope to pull him out. A kinetic rope is elastic and allows to make some speed before actually starting to pull. This has the advantage that you don't just use the pulling power of the recovering vehicle, but also the kinetic energy.

I can be dangerous to use this technique (also called snatch recovery), because when you drive too fast, the kinetic energy will be too big, and something will break (either the cable, or the attachment points on either one of the vehicles, potentially causing serious damage or injury. So only do snatch recovery with caution, and use firm attachment points on the vehicles. Even using a tow ball isn't failsafe because it could break, as can be seen in this video from someone else.

This is a very nice movie about a Defender that rolls over, and also about the recovery afterwards. (For good understading: I don't know these guys.)

This def has Simex tires, which have a very aggressive pattern for maximal grip. This means that you have more risk of rolling, because the tires won't slip, even in extreme situations. The driver is also pushing the throttle, which increases the risk of uncontrolled movements. I have the impression he did not turn off his engine right after he rolled, because it releases a lot of steam. Whenever rolling over, do remember to turn off he engine immediately to prevent engine damage.

To put the vehicle back on it's four wheels, they use 2 winches, so that they can control the vehicle much better. While they are doing this, pay attention to the marchal which is giving excellent instructions. Thanks to this, the vehicle doesn't get damaged more than it already is...

Dit liedje (inclusief geweldige videoclip) geeft een berg nostagische gevoelens... Jaja, we worden oud...

Het liedje heet Kvraagetaan en wordt gezongen door de Fixkes uit Stabroek (of all places). Vanaf 12 februari zou de single in de winkels te krijgen zijn. Nu reeds kan je hem op iTunes kopen, maar daar doe ik niet aan mee, omdat ik de liedjes die ik aankocht niet opnieuw kan downloaden als mijn PC crasht... Dus wachten tot hij in fysieke vorm in de winkel ligt.

Aan alle mensen met mijn leeftijd, maak 10 minuten vrij, zet je PC speakers 'vollen bak', en speel de vide clip!

Dries, bedankt voor de tip!

The most important thing when offroading is that you need to know the strengths and limitations of your vehicle. When driving offroad, you always look for the limitations of you car. And perhaps a Land Rover Discovery 3 has more limitations than a Land Rover Defender (although I'm not convinced of that). That doesn't really matter when the driver of the Defender goes beyond its limitations... Luckily he had a roll cage! (I already posted some pictures about this a while ago.)

This was a great opportunity as a driver of a Discovery 3 to feel actually appreciated by a Defender driver, even if it was only a couple of minutes. So all of a sudden a Discovery 3 was a first-class member Land Rover family, right? Unforunately I don't have a movie that shows how the Defender ended up on his side, but I do have some footage about the recovery.

I'm actually exaggerating here. My offroad-buddy does know the actual strengths of my Discovery 3, and at the other side I was very happy to be able to help him. It's just that most people don't believe that a Discovery 3 does handle well offroad (potentially leading to an inferiority complex, watch out ;-) , so it makes me happy to be able to help a 'real' offroad car.