Winston (Winston_FJ) Wow. Blown out of proportion.
Firstly, it is entirely up to the trip leader to decide to ask a member to withdraw from the trip or to remove them at their discretion.
Darren, you were being asked about your vehicle. Most of us haven't seen a Terracan attacking challenging terrain. That doesn't mean they can't be capable, it just means that upon enquiry it would've been a lot better if instead of becoming defensive and abusive you responded with a bit more information about your rig and the kind of tracks you've driven.
I've run several trips where I've felt skeptical about vehicles coming along and have had experiences when I've regretted not getting the participant to withdraw and also be pleasantly surprised with how well others have performed.
The biggest issues are safety and also the flow of a trip. Those of us who run trips generally spend a lot of time planning them, with the aim to do particular tracks and end up at certain points or campsites at the end of a day in a timely manner.
Part of experience as a trip leader is knowing what sort of vehicle and driver is going to be able to do a planned distance on planned difficulty of tracks.
Yes, things go wrong and break at times. That's unavoidable sometimes. Part of 4wding. And we pitch in and help.
But being held up because someone has joined and is out of their depth for experience or vehicle setup is a real piss-off factor. It means as a leader your plans are ruined and you have to start stressing about working out contingencies, which can be bloody hard when you're trying to find a suitable camp site for a convoy of vehicles.
It also means the group who joined the trip well equipped to DRIVE most or all of the planned tracks get pissed off with waiting for the guy who turned up with a less-capable vehicle who has to winch most of them.
Instead of throwing insults and storming off you should've told the group why the Terracan is up to the task.
28 Aug 2017