Hillwalking with an RC Truck

[Mad Ax 8323]

First up - bear with me on this one, I've written a draft of over 300 lines and over 100 photos - it could take me a while to get all this written up.  And now - the write-up

It had been a sunny day, but rain was forecast for the afternoon and I was keen to get out for a walk before it started.  Having recently joined a Facebook group dedicated to hillwalking with RC trucks, I decided to take a rig along with me.  I've never done this before - sometimes I'll have 10 minutes of RC time before packing the cars away and starting my walk, but having to drive a truck for 8 miles felt like too much of a trial.

The next question was: what truck?  My first choice was the 6x6, but it only takes the smaller 2200mAh packs and it puts a large draw on them.  Plus the brushes were sticking at the end of the SST, and I haven't had time to investigate yet.

Next choice was the new FJ, which looks awesome, but that only takes an even smaller size 2200mAh pack, and I only have one of them.  That would be no good for a full 8 mile circuit.

I considered the CFX-W, as it didn't get a run at the SST, but I thought it would be dull - there's nothing on my walk that will challenge a class 2 rig.  Then I remembered how much I'd loved running the Hilux at the SST, and that I had a full 3 2200mAh battery packs for it.

So, at 4pm I found myself on the hills, with my Hilux, 2 spare batteries in the rucksack, along with a litre of drinking water, some tools, spare Tx batteries, spare camera battery, and a trail snack.

This is the start point of my usual circuit.  On the hills above Erlestoke, right on the boundary of the Imber Range, which is a military training area and out-of-bounds to the general public.  For this reason, the area is generally very quiet (unless they're shelling, in which case it's so loud the ground shakes).

The logging road takes me down into the woods.  No challenge for man or rig.

Once in the woods, the path gets very steep.  I think it's recently been filled with gravel, as it was easier than last time, but it can get very slippy on foot.  The truck had no trouble.

[Mad Ax 8323]

The descent eventually slackens and becomes more wild

And then opens out into fields

Grass was long, but I was able to keep the truck in a wheel rut and out of the long grass, which otherwise would have been a problem for the axles.  Perhaps a big-wheel rig would have been better after all.

We're about 1 mile in here, and a few spots of rain have fallen, but nothing serious.  Still in a T-shirt and pleasantly warm from the light exercise.

A little while later we turn off into another little woodland.  Out of the long grass at last, I decided it would be good idea to check the chassis for grass ingress.  Seems fine.

[Mad Ax 8323]

This is the Walled Garden, now occupied by a local cricket club.

Then into another woodland.  This one is clear and airy, the trees are tall, and the paths are good.

Except this bit, which has got boggy.  I'd let the truck run ahead of me here and hadn't noticed that this particular part of the track wasn't track at all, but a very effective 1:10 scale mud obstacle.

Part of the challenge of this adventure is to get the truck around without any assistance.  I'd forgotten to bring the ground anchor, but I figured putting the hook around my bootlace would be fair enough if I didn't move.  But then I managed to get free without the winch anyway.  Result!

[Mad Ax 8323]

A nice dry gravel track leads down to Wellhead Pond

Here I found a nice little raised obstacle to play on for a moment, and got some photos without crawling on the ground

Wellhead Pond.  This is one of those "don't knock the stick" moments - it's a 3 foot drop into water, probably only 2 feet deep but boggy enough that if I went in I probably wouldn't get out again (at least not with my boots on, and my boots are worth more than the truck)

[Mad Ax 8323]

Across the bridge and into older, more dense woodland

A few fun obstacles in the woods, but nothing that challenged the truck

[Mad Ax 8323]

One hour exactly, and we're out of the woods at last, and onto, er, more long grass...

A few minutes later and the rain started.  Being out of the woods, I could see it sweeping across the fields and had time to get my waterproof jacket on.  I didn't have waterproof trousers or a mitter-mitt, tho.

I was pretty gosh-darned soaked by this point...

[Mad Ax 8323]

Fortunately there's a long tarmac section that I follow as part of my normal route, so at least the truck wasn't getting too much water up inside

Still raining when we reached the next climb, but it made for a more interesting ascent from the tarmac, across the loam and up onto the chalk that this part of Wiltshire is famous for.

[Mad Ax 8323]

Here we cross a road.  The hill to the right is punishing to walk up, so I take a longer but less steep route through the woods.

At the top of the climb we turn sharp right and continue along the flat, just inside the treeline.  This is one of my favourite parts of the circuit, and it's pretty good for the rig, too.  We're now walking almost directly back to where I parked, and we've climbed onto the same hill.  If I'm not enjoying my walk, this is a good point to cut back, but I'm having loads of fun here, so I opt to stay out.

[Mad Ax 8323]

Finally we break out where the lane stops, the one we didn't climb earlier.  These yellow bollards mark the end of public vehicle access, usually the gate is closed but there must be a military exercise on tonight.

Since we still had the protection of the trees and something tall to put my things on, I figured this was a good place to stop for a trail snack.

We walk through the yellow bollards then turn left again, and climb a muddy bank onto what I call The Ridge.

The Ridge runs parallel to the woods we just walked through (off to the left in these pics), so we're now walking directly away from the van.  The rain has eased off to a light drizzle, and the sun is setting behind us, giving us a nice mini-rainbow.

[Mad Ax 8323]

Right here is where the battery dumped.  3.75 miles and 1:40 hours on one pack - that's pretty good going!

A little further along The Ridge, and there's a nice view to the north across West Wilts towards Devizes and Marlborough.  At least the sun is shining somewhere!

I head south, following my usual path along the southern cliff of The Ridge, but the grass here was very long.  I had to run the throttle wide open to make progerss here, and the truck slipped and slid and got stuck a lot.  For a while we're a little downhill.

[Mad Ax 8323]

The terrain here is something special.  It's like a mountain range in miniature.  If you look in the far distance, centre shot, there's a line of trees, and just beneath it an arc of hedgerow.  In a little over and hour we'll be walking up that arc.  If I'm doing a picnic walk, this is where I usually stop to eat my sandwich.

At last, the green badword is over!  We made it to the road that runs across The Ridge.  Almost got stuck at the bitter end, where tractors have rutted the ground and grass has grown over it, but I didn't have to assist at all.

At this point I usually cross the road and carry on along The Ridge, but the grass is just as long over there, so I opted to follow the road north for a few minutes, then turn right onto a gravel footpath, taking us parallel to The Ridge.

[Mad Ax 8323]

This photo was taken from the road.  There's a barn on the right, used by the military for training, where I stopped to evict the water from my socks and put on a blister plaster (wet socks are bad!), and I came out to see what the noise was.  It's hard to see, as my camera doesn't have a long lens, but there are two silver dots, behind the trees and just beneath the far ridge - these are military helicopters on exercise.  We see all sorts up here - last year I was walking along The Ridge when a Chinook landed right in front of me and about 20 soldiers in full battle gear ran out the back; the year before that I was buzzed by a Bell-Boeing V22 Osprey (which must have been an American bird on training).

Back along the lane...

And onto the gravel path

[Mad Ax 8323]

It was a lot more overgrown here than last time I came along, but the sun was fully back out by now, so it was nice

Another nice view across West Wilts

Here I turned right to get back onto my usual bath, but as I suspected, I had to cross a seriously tough field of grass to regain the path.

[Mad Ax 8323]

We actually got really bogged down in grass at this point, so I had no choice but to extend the winch and assist the truck along while still trying to drive.  The winch was shorter than I remembered, so I couldn't clip to my belt - I had to sort of walk in a half-crouch, while trying to drive with one hand.  Although I did have time to stop for a sunset pic.

Things seemed to get easier, so I started to wind the winch in, then it jammed and wouldn't go in or out.  I didn't fancy a trail repair so I tied it back to the cargo net and drove on.  Sadly I wouldn't get far before the worst happened.

At this point I realised it would be a losing battle, and I was also losing time and daylight, so I picked up the rig and took big strides to the path.  I realised here I'd actualy taken a wrong turn, and got off the footpath too early, so things might have been easier had I taken the right path.  Well, whatever, I was on a good track now, so I continued east, still heading away from the van, with the sun behind me.

[Mad Ax 8323]

This is the path I should have taken from the gravel track, although it would have been uphill when I should have joined it.  The grass was short enough here that it was no bother to drive on.

At the bottom of the hill we reach a slippery chalky track, which is nicely wet after all the rain.  Arguably this is the most fun section for driving trucks on.

[Mad Ax 8323]

And at the bottom, it's pretty boggy.

I was tempted to drive through this, but as I'm at probably my lowest and furthest point from the van, I didn't fancy having to carry the rig all the way if it failed.

Out of the cover of the trees, and more rain was on the horizon - although I was hoping this little squall would miss me completely.  Despite being only late September, the air had a particularly cold feel to it and another soaking to the legs (which were largely dry by now) would make the last few miles rather unpleasant.

[Mad Ax 8323]

A steep climb on a compacted gravel track.  We're now heading directly back towards the van, although there's a lot of hill to cover and some steep valleys to avoid.

[Mad Ax 8323]

At the highest point along the track, I can head left and cut off a corner of a field.  You can just about make out the track heading diagonally up the hill.  (The hedge arcing to the right is the one I pointed out from the top of the hill a few posts back).  The path isn't established, and the grass is long and wet - having already driven through one hellish field and carried the truck across another, I wasn't going to attempt this.  The alternative was to descend on the gravel track, losing the altitude I'd gained, and attack the hill from the very bottom, via a muddy track.

At the bottom of the hill is a derelict barn.  In the depths of winter, when the skies are grey and the trees are bare and the colour is sucked out of everything, this looks just like a scene from the film Stalker.  This place feels so remote it's sometimes like being in the Zone.  I had to crawl around on the wet floor to get these shots.

The sun is officially gone now.  We're on twilight and truck light only.  (I have a headtorch in my rucksack in case it gets too dark).

[Mad Ax 8323]

The gravel track ends where this farm lane begins.  I can either cut across deep grass and puddles (it looked impassable by man or truck), or I can follow the farm track.  I chose farm track.  Then I came across this.  And then my battery went flat.  It lasted less distance than the previous battery, partly because I had all the lights on now but mostly because of having to run at full throttle over those grassy fields.

OK, the truck can probably make this...

However at this point the pumpkin got hung up on something...

I figured it was safer to reverse back than risk rolling it over.  If it went in, I'd have to wade out to get it, and that's deeper than my boots!  Almost rolled it on the reverse, but managed to get it free without any hand interference.

[Mad Ax 8323]

We made it over the deep grass and puddly section that I'd earlier avoided, and were finally on the long, long, long arcing path that ascends from the deepest part of the valley, right up onto Imber Path, which is the permissive byway that runs along the border of the firing range, and on which I'd parked the van around 3 hours ago.

Somewhere approaching the top, but a long way from the van

From this point, looking back across the valley towards The Ridge.  The place where I took the photo looking at that arcing hedge line, over an hour ago, is just to the right in this photo.

And finally, we're back on the Imber Path.  It's pretty rough gravel here.  Just behind that mound is the firing range, out of bounds to civilians.  The village of Imber lies down there - it was bought by the government during WW2 to use for training, and nobody has lived there since.  It's usually open for 1 day in the summer for people to walk in and visit the old church, although it has been seen several times on Top Clarkson.  The camera does a very good job of making it look a lot lighter than it is!

[Mad Ax 8323]

Even this is lighter than it was to my eyes, but it's a great shot.

And now we've got about a mile and a half of gravel to go.  Nothing to do but drive and walk, walk and drive.  Oh, and stand aside for the military Land Rover that patrols up and down here from time to time, plus the random tourist in a Mini that completely grounded out his sump a little further up where the central ridge is very pronounced.

Found some puddles further up the track.  I tried to get photos of the bow waves, but it was too dark to get any moving pics without loads of motion blur.

Finally, 8.35 miles into the walk, the last battery dumped.  We were so close.  That black square on the horizon is a water tower at the highest point of the hill.  That's where the van was parked, and where I took the picture right at the start, with the truck beside that puddle.  The tower was literally just out of shot.  So, that's how close we got.

[Mad Ax 8323]

Close enough that I didn't bother to break out the bungee cord to put the truck on the rucksack - I just picked it up and carried it for the final 3rd of a mile.  I kind of regretted that, it's not exactly light and there aren't many good carrying points, I got terrible cramp in my wrist and my fingers went numb.  But at that point it was a nice distraction from the pain in my legs and feet.

And, finally, here we are!  8.68 miles, almost dead on 4 hours, back at the van and about ready to strip out of my wet walking trousers and slip into the clean, dry jeans for the 25 minute drive home.

Well, what can I say?  I started off feeling a little daft, just driving a truck along open fields with no real challenges, but I soon realised that the challenge was going to be getting it all the way around with no outside assistance.  And I almost did that.  Only some long grass stopped me.  With 3.75 miles to the first pack, I should have got 9 miles out of all 3, if only I hadn't had to drive so hard over the grass.

In the end, I had an absolute blast.  I only met about half a dozen humans (or close approximations thereof) the whole time I was out, and the same number, give or take, of dogs.  Every human had at least one dog (or, perhaps, it was the other way around).  I can't say I had much in the way of positive comments but I didn't get any negative ones.  The truck was absolutely brilliant, and did way better than I thought over the deepest grass.

So, will I do this again?  Absolutely!  Maybe not every walk - I was significantly slower, I usually average 2.5 - 2.6mph over an 8 mile walk, and although the truck is capable of beating that most of the time, I just don't tend to walk so fast when I'm focussing on driving.

And what will I change?

Well, while the grass is still long (it'll disappear in winter) I'll have to use a bigger truck. Big 6 is out - I just don't have enough batteries.  The CFX-W would be good, with its big tyres and portals giving it plenty of clearance.  The BOM would probably be OK too - there's not many places it can fall over.  The SCX10 sits lower to the ground, so it might struggle over the longest grass, but it's also the most scale, so will look best out on the tracks.

Or - and I'm just throwin' this out there - perhaps I need a real big wheel truck.  Sure, the LMT would eat this terrain for breakfast, but having to drive it so slowly would be hard work.  Even on 2S it would be too fast, and I'm not sure how much mileage I'd get from them.  Also it has no lights, which is a problem now the nights are getting shorter.

So - do I need to build a specific truck for this?  A while back I started work on a leaf-sprung monster with a Clod body.  I had it on 2.2 monster tyres, but it would go just as well with a set of mega truck tyres, which would probably offer more traction on the grass.  That little extra clearance might be what it really needs.  I can only find RC4WD tyres at over £80 per set, or JConcepts tyres that will need short course staggered diameter rims, but that's a problem for another day - that truck doesn't even run yet.  But it's something to bear in mind.

[Nick G 40]

Great set of pictures , and an awesome looking walk.

[Mad Ax 8323]

Addendum: I wrote the bulk of this thread yesterday, a full 20 hours after the event, at a local softplay centre, while my daughter was off making friends and making dens with giant spongy brick things.  Today was Workshop Sunday, and I had to do a few things with my FlySky FS-i6 transmitter, which was my hand-held companion for the entire 8.7 mile walk.  Unfortunately, it was misbehaving as soon as I turned it on, and despite being opened up and left to air all day, it still isn't working properly.  None of the microswitches work any more - the throttle trim is now 100% backwards and won't budge, left trim is erratic, and I can't get into any of the menus.  It seems the rain storm was too much for it, and is a reminder that I really need to remember my mitter-mitt if the weather is going to be bad.  As the nights cool off, it will help my hands stay warm, too.

Side-note: I was walking The Ridge back in December '22, when we had a real cold spell.  I went to take a sip through the drinking tube from the water pouch in my rucksack, and it was frozen solid.

A couple of months later, I was walking The Ridge in the opposite direction.  I'd descended the valley to Stalker Farm via the lane, walking right into thick cloud, then climbed out of it again towards the barn where I'd put my blister plaster on in this post.  At the far end of The Ridge, I started smiling at an internal thought, and my face felt odd.  When I put my hand up to figure out why, I found the clouds had condensed on my beard and then frozen solid.

Back to the task at hand: a new FS-i6X has been ordered today, hopefully be with me in a couple of days, soon enough that I can set up all 20 models in the memory again ready for Tamiya Junkies and then the Scaler Nationals, both in October.

It's also worth adding that I've had to take several doses of weapons-grade codeine to get over the back pain I've had since Friday evening.  I can usually do an 8 mile walk without too much pain, but perhaps walking with the transmitter was more awkward than I thought.  Today has not been an entirely pleasant day.  Although, thanks to a combination of codeine and Budweiser, now is pretty gosh-darned good...

[Sogogi 2372]

Really cool stuff. I enjoy this aspect of RC since I live in a place where half of the year, it rains. Running an rc car while walking on trail, it is soothing. Also it lets me put truck in a mud / water / grass where I wouldn't normally do with other (well more like not so suitable) cars.
My current truck is cc-02 which I think is ok (I really enjoyed cc-01.. but why did I sell it..)... will try to enjoy more this year and see if I want to switch it up to other truck or not.