Cowper's No8 wire mentality in Europe

The crew working on fixing Dan Cowper's truck during the Eurotrial 2017 in the United Kingdom at the weekend.

Turakina's Dan Cowper finished sixth in the Pro Mod class at EuroTrial 2017 after he and his dedicated team had to overcome a raft of mechanical issues at the United Kingdom event at the weekend.

Cowper and co-driver Andrew Bielby, both Wanganui 4WD Club members, shipped Cowper's 2015-16 national championship-winning truck over to the prestigious international competition while travelling to Europe to do business with distributor's Red Winches, who sponsored him to take part.

The 'Team New Zealand' truck was entered in the most powerful division at the course near Gainsborough, despite having smaller inch tyres and front steer compared to the local-standard rear wheel steer.

Cowper was sitting seventh among the 20 trucks in his class after a difficult opening Saturday, as they spent seven hours in the pits out of the nine hours legally available to make any necessary repairs.

"Truck had fuel issues right from the get go and, after causing us major grief in our second course, we replaced fuel pump and filter," Cowper reported on his Facebook page.

"Third course, hit a rock and bent front diff housing badly. So bent snapped chromoly, long axle shaft."

After straightening the housing and getting the broken axle out, which took a long time, Cowper got back out to complete two more courses, only to smash the Nissan safari CV, meaning the truck couldn't turn.

With 50 minutes left until the courses were closed, the team managed to get their parts sorted and started fitting the truck back up.

"Two course to do and had another flat tyre before the last. No time to repair but smoked the last one as it was."

Needing a jump start on the Sunday, Cowper made a good start to the 1st course but then smashed the CV on the third gate, again locking up the steering and wheel.

"We had no more Nissan CV's but Neil Jones from Red Winches found us a complete front axle assembly in Derby the night before and as we drive into pits, the axle arrived.

"We had awesome help from some very dedicated and great Kiwi people - Bradley Benning, Stu Linton and Jordy Whelan were on the tools most of the weekend."

After repairs, Cowper did four more courses with no issues, but when exiting a hole on the fifth course they broke another CV, while a flat rear tyre had them spinning on the beadlock, so it was not rotating.

After some time sorting out tubing and the CV, Cowper got going again with only three courses to go, and on the very last one they once again smashed the CV - their fourth - but still managed to drive through to finish.

"The truck took a beating, the courses were tough and our troubled time with axles stemmed from breaking our original chromoly set, due to bent diff housing at beginning of comp.

"It would be fair to say that the fuel issues at start of event put us on the back foot and contributed to us hitting the rock on the third course, bending truck and starting our issues."

Nonetheless, the unique Kiwi truck with its distinctive engine sound drew a bit of a fan following, so Cowper felt the trip achieved his goals of getting recognition for his brand.

"I have done a lot of 4x4 trials and would have to rate this event as the hardest.

"Every gate is a mission and just getting to the gates you almost need a map.

"With the added pressure of being so far away from home and hoping to get the mileage of comp time, and next to no spare parts, it made for a hard few days at the office.

"Great event, the people loved watching the truck. So all in all a weekend I will never forget."