T
T i m
Guest
Ours kept banging on the ground .. or more specifically the towing
bracket on my brother in law's 90k miles only-even-been-ON-the-road
2.5l Disco did as we went round the off-road course at Abingdon
yesterday ;-)
It was a birthday surprise for my Landy loving 14yr old daughter and
it turned out the BIL was keen to take his (ex company) Disco off road
so it sorted all of us.
As we approached the first 'hill' I thought 'there's no way this is
going up here' .. but it did ... amazing, big heavy machine with
smallish 2.5L deisel engine, 5 occupants and sporting 'stock fit' road
tryes .. !
As we went round the seemingly never ending array of hills, dips, mud
holes and sideways slippery sections didn't seem to phase this machine
much but delighted it's occupants .... the whole way round ....
twice! ;-)
Anyway, they took it home sporting a propper mud covered bonnet and
sides and left me pondering some thoughts ..
I'd 'like' a 4x4 (always have) but couldn't (can't) really justify 12
mpg or a hefty price or insurance tag for what could be essentially a
'toy' .. so ..
What else is out there that would not be laughed out of a 'fun' 4x4
meet whist being half practical for say the missus to drive to work,
not attractive to the local kids having fun (with keys and footballs
and the like) not, too nickable and would take a 6'2" tall driver?
I'm told the older 'Series' Landy's are fine for short people (and
short journeys) but are very 'fixable' and pretty good off-road.
A 90 / 110 would be 'better' (more refined) but probably out of our
price range, along with a swb TD5 (probably my (and my daughters)
ultimate choice)).
An older Disco could be ok but I can't be arsed with extensive body
welding these days (and why we built a fibreglass bodied, jeep styled
kit car 17 years ago) and I'm not sure what the support is like for
the Disco running gear (do they share any bits with 'older' Landy's,
are they very expensive / easy to get bits for etc)?
There are loads of offerings from the land of the rising sun and most
seem pretty capable off road (an older Suzi jeep maybe?).
Someone also suggested the Lada Niva was also pretty good and still
looks like a car rather than a 'Jeep' (not sure about parts or economy
etc)?
At the same time I don't want to be the bloke holding everyone up on
the end of someones winch in a boggy bit ..? <sigh> .
So, anyone 'been there' recently and got any thought please .. am I
asking for the impossible .. ?
All the best ..
T i m
p.s. I can't remember seeing anything having any real problem on the
'easy' path through the cct (my bil did loads of the hard stuff on his
second pass .. egged on by his son, my daughter and (much to my
surprise) my Wife!) with only the fast water (mud) splash killing some
of the petrol engined machines.
There were quite a few pretty well spec'd machines being towed out of
one VERY boggy (sand / mud mix) area with only the more persistant
drivers getting out of it on their own (sugggesting (reminding me)
that everything has 'limits' ..)?
bracket on my brother in law's 90k miles only-even-been-ON-the-road
2.5l Disco did as we went round the off-road course at Abingdon
yesterday ;-)
It was a birthday surprise for my Landy loving 14yr old daughter and
it turned out the BIL was keen to take his (ex company) Disco off road
so it sorted all of us.
As we approached the first 'hill' I thought 'there's no way this is
going up here' .. but it did ... amazing, big heavy machine with
smallish 2.5L deisel engine, 5 occupants and sporting 'stock fit' road
tryes .. !
As we went round the seemingly never ending array of hills, dips, mud
holes and sideways slippery sections didn't seem to phase this machine
much but delighted it's occupants .... the whole way round ....
twice! ;-)
Anyway, they took it home sporting a propper mud covered bonnet and
sides and left me pondering some thoughts ..
I'd 'like' a 4x4 (always have) but couldn't (can't) really justify 12
mpg or a hefty price or insurance tag for what could be essentially a
'toy' .. so ..
What else is out there that would not be laughed out of a 'fun' 4x4
meet whist being half practical for say the missus to drive to work,
not attractive to the local kids having fun (with keys and footballs
and the like) not, too nickable and would take a 6'2" tall driver?
I'm told the older 'Series' Landy's are fine for short people (and
short journeys) but are very 'fixable' and pretty good off-road.
A 90 / 110 would be 'better' (more refined) but probably out of our
price range, along with a swb TD5 (probably my (and my daughters)
ultimate choice)).
An older Disco could be ok but I can't be arsed with extensive body
welding these days (and why we built a fibreglass bodied, jeep styled
kit car 17 years ago) and I'm not sure what the support is like for
the Disco running gear (do they share any bits with 'older' Landy's,
are they very expensive / easy to get bits for etc)?
There are loads of offerings from the land of the rising sun and most
seem pretty capable off road (an older Suzi jeep maybe?).
Someone also suggested the Lada Niva was also pretty good and still
looks like a car rather than a 'Jeep' (not sure about parts or economy
etc)?
At the same time I don't want to be the bloke holding everyone up on
the end of someones winch in a boggy bit ..? <sigh> .
So, anyone 'been there' recently and got any thought please .. am I
asking for the impossible .. ?
All the best ..
T i m
p.s. I can't remember seeing anything having any real problem on the
'easy' path through the cct (my bil did loads of the hard stuff on his
second pass .. egged on by his son, my daughter and (much to my
surprise) my Wife!) with only the fast water (mud) splash killing some
of the petrol engined machines.
There were quite a few pretty well spec'd machines being towed out of
one VERY boggy (sand / mud mix) area with only the more persistant
drivers getting out of it on their own (sugggesting (reminding me)
that everything has 'limits' ..)?
