Land Rover Global 1998 - Part 5

18th Jun 1998

A Mattrack equipped Defender stuck in soft snow

We quickly discovered many design flaws in the Mattracks during early exercises outside of Wales, with the torsion bars being put under tremendous load and the 'jockey' wheels breaking off on a regular basis. One of the main problems was that as the Land Rovers lacked locking axle differentials, they would frequently get stuck in the soft snow.

The extra height due to the tracks, along with their heavy loads, meant that they would lean over more readily, causing the two high-sided wheels to break traction. With the extreme cold we encountered and therefore the problem associated with batteries, it was decided to fit mechanical winches equipped with 'shear bolts' to prevent overloading. Unfortunately these bolts broke on a regular basis causing us problems with self-recovery.

However, the team successfully travelled from Wales to Teller and back, which was the first time motorised vehicles had done so in the winter. This required negotiating a relatively high, snow-choked pass in the York Mountains. This was largely accomplished by repeated digging with the winches pulling on a buried deadman in the frozen crust.

The frequent failures of the Mattracks (which were repaired with welding gear in our Base Camp) and the persistent need to dig out the Land Rovers caused us to scratch our plans to travel to Barrow. Between the six of us, we then hatched a new plan that would get us to the road system near Fairbanks.

Digging out a stuck Land Rover

The Bering Strait would now be crossed during mid-June (or earlier if all the ice had gone). For this purpose, the LRPC would be flown by transport aircraft from Anchorage to Lavrentija, Russia and brought by a Russian military vehicle to Naukan, an abandoned Eskimo village south of Uelen.

Arrangement were made to be met in Naukan by experienced natives from Inalik, Little Diomede. They ply the waters on a regular basis in pursuit of their fishing interests and agreed to guide the team across to Wales, Alaska. From there, we would travel by water to Teller and then by road to Nome while the LRPCs were carried by truck.

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