4x4 off-roading

Joined
21 Apr 2007
Messages
820
Reaction score
162
Location
Edinburgh
Country
United Kingdom
For me, it's off-roading in my Mitsubishi L200 pickup and spending time and money (quite a lot!) on doing it up and strengthening it for off-roading.

It's also a daily driver and helps getting rubbish to the tip and slabs from B&Q to the house :D

I wouldn't have bought it and done so much to it if it wasn't for another fantastic forum (not sure whether I'm allowed to advertise here, but it's an L200 Forum so you can probably figure out the google!).
I've gone from having minimal mechanical aptitude to; changing fuel filter, fitting cruise control, fitting a snorkel, fitting underbody protection, changing the rear springs, adding an A-bar, etc.

The guys in the other forum are great and we normally meet up each month or so; great banter and people will literally travel miles to help each other out.

When we go off-road it amazes me what the trucks can do; go up 60 degree hills and travel through 5ft of water :lol:

Some videos over at http://www.youtube.com/user/L200FORUM

By the way, there are other makes of 4x4 :D I believe Land Rover make a similar, but lesser model!
 
My off road started around 1970 working for a mid Wales farmer. Both Massey Ferguson tractors and Land-rovers I started to learn how to read the ground.

Believe me a 180 degree turn when you wanted to go straight ahead in a 35 MF makes one start to read the ground below your wheels.

Be it the local County Council with a 6 x 6 Mack in the snow or Algeria with Ladas, Chevies and land rover I have done quite a bit of off road travel.

The Falklands must have been the most demanding job seeing the ground flexing ahead as the peat moved knowing if you stopped you were doomed was really nerve racking.

After this and at T5 they wanted to teach me off road with a L200 what an insult not even a proper off road machine.

It is however the ability to judge the machine which is so important be it a D6 LGP or a Muskeg or even a BV the trick is to adapt to the machine.

The Muskeg and BV were unbelievable I had never expected any machine to go through the stuff they did with ease. The BV would even swim.

But a D6 LGP with a 20 foot container in tow does need some careful driving there is little that can come to the rescue if you misjudge the peat you are about to cross and I saw the results when a D9 got stuck and the 9 weeks of drag line use to get it back. When I drove past in a landrover only the cab could be seen and this was a high drive.

OK not really a hobby more a way of life but still think the Austin Gypsy and the Lada Niva take some beating solid axles are no good for off road.
 
This was my last off road toy.

[GALLERY=media, 69452][/GALLERY] [GALLERY=media, 69453][/GALLERY] [GALLERY=media, 69454][/GALLERY] [GALLERY=media, 69455][/GALLERY] [GALLERY=media, 69456][/GALLERY] [GALLERY=media, 69467][/GALLERY]

I used it to tow my large american enclosed car trailer

[GALLERY=media, 69468][/GALLERY]

Then out grew the car trailer and sold on the Ram and the trailer
to get this set up !!

[GALLERY=media, 69469][/GALLERY]
 
Have a bit of a love of mud.

Owned a few different 4x4's

Lots of Suzuki SJ's
A couple of Vitara's
Jeep CJ7
Jeep Cherokee
Couple of navaras
G wagon

Currently I have "only" got,
Land cruiser 70series
1947 jeep CJ2a
Discovery 4
 
Back
Top