Ok,
As I mentioned earlier in this thread (but already 2 years ago...!), I visit friends in Scotland at least once a year, and I was longing to be able to test my Pinz against their Defenders. The previous years we were passengers in their Land Rover Defenders, (they have a panel van 110 Td5, lifted with air lockers, and a more recent 110 with "Utility wagon" body type, both with quite agressive Insa Turbo "special track" tires), but this year I had my Pinz with me!
As my visit was two weeks instead of one (like the previous years), I had the Pinz shipped ahead of me, so I could drive it there during the two weeks. Not exactly the most economical thing to do, but eventually shipping it both ways was similar to renting a premium car for the duration, and so much more fun!!
To explain the background, my Scottish friends are professional falconers, and they run a company called "Elite Falconry" near Kirkcaldy in Fife. I usually join them for their vacation, when they fly their eagles at white hare on a mountain estate in Glenshee (north of Perth, on the A93).
The usual "routine" is to drive as high as possible on the estate, while always staying on the track, in order to get to the hunting grounds, conditions permitting. The rest is on foot, or snowshoes. The track is steep at times, snow tends to accumulate in banks on it, and there are two fords across the river, so this was more action in these two weeks than -sadly- my Pinz had the last 5 years...
At the beginning of our stay the scenery was mostly green and we got stopped by a big bank of frozen snow. As visibility wasn't optimal higher up we decided not to spend too much time trying to push through. Later, we had some quite heavy snowfalls, so we chained up. I have 2 pairs of Konig Polar off-road chains for my Pinz, and on the fresh snow the difference with the Defenders (which only had one pair of chains each) was night and day. With the extra pair of chains, the Pinz' lockers and the added clearance, they had a hard time following my 40-year old truck.
Temperatures were never really cold (I think all this winter's really cold weather stayed in America...), so the next days on melted/frozen/re-melted snow getting traction was a little less easy, at some point it felt like steering a boat, even on flat ground.
Anyway, loads of fun driving my truck in (for once) challenging conditions, and the wee truck's performance matched its reputation!
Not much snow the first days...
The whole reason why we were there.
More snow later, and chained-up. I had installed a DIY temporary snorkel to cross the river, but the water was always low during our stay. In past years, when temperatures increase suddenly over the snow-covered hills, or even worse when it starts raining, the level can raise rapidly. Better safe than sorry...
You can find some more pics about our two weeks and some videos on my falconer friends' facebook page, too:
https://www.facebook.com/elitefalconry .
