Didn't get durango got a jeep 3.7 v6 doing 16 miles to the gallon i will be back saturday 15th give you a ring then if you want to go down to beaulieu.
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not surprised. after what he told me it made me more than a little edgy about going on a proper expedition with him!


Haha yeah i just got a text from simon who is in with rich who said booger "decided to venture off on his own near the beggining, now his gearbox has blown up and he's stuck"

O god the the bitching ! :hysterically_laughi

So it's okay to go off on your own in the jungle around Belize, but not in Morocco which is like a motorway with French 4 x 4 Tourists coming past every couple hours :rolleyes: And seeing as we are being bitchy, at least I went somewhere :p


Fact is I sorted myself out everytime I got stuck, and instead of ruining my holiday by spending it listening to girly bitching (from the slitty driver), I had a massive adventure.

So there :D

BTW Rich also went out on his own, and if he hadn't run out of beer he would have been gone for days ;)
 
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Booger,
I'm jelious of your and Richs fun great experiences and adventure you all had but one day will do somthing similar so I can look at your write up either in a mag or on here it will make for good reading and keep me motivated to get myself, my vehicle and my missus in order to go and have some fun!

And why a jeep? All the jeep brand reminds me of was that queer as folk that was on telly when I was a Kid and all the kids took the **** outter it..
 
Well he's bought it already, so we should be nice.

Darren that is a sexy Jeep :D

Jai I'm going to post the trip report now, and what is your view of the ashcroft transmissions, Kris said you had some experience of them!
 
Bitching is when you say something behind someones back which you wouldnt say to their face - i would have said the exact same to your face :p

but booger, in fairness i didnt and wont bugger off in the jungle by myself. more than one vehicle. even in this country most people advocate going greenlaning with more than one vehicle, and i am sure at one point or another you have said the same thing.

i dont mind buggering around, doing stupid stuff, and all that. im sure most people on here have worked out i am a bit nutty sometimes, but i would still elect to have another similarly nutty person with me. someone that just goes ****it i want alone time in certain scenarios isnt the best thing in the world, certainly not if they need to be relied on!

so no, its not really bitching at all, i would have said it to you straight out :p if i drive to africa, or what not, i would want to go with someone that wont just ****off on their own little jolly for a couple of days and leave me sitting around wondering what happened :p
 
ashcroft well...................
I fitted a box from them 13 months approx 6K miles internal fault managed to select 2nd and 3rd gear phoned them to be told out of warranty sorry. Fitted a s/h military recon box. That was on its last legs and ****ed out oil. Second ashcroft gearbox leaked and i took it back they buggered about with it and stopped it leaking by fitting a non cracked top section. I think its a case of recon here they change what needs changing and and not everything. Ian and Dave are top blokes can only guess that the people doing the recon boxes don't give a crap about getting them A1. And who else is there to do the gearboxes? Nobody really. If I had time and some spare metal kicking about I would make the "special tools" and do my own at least then if you do it A1 its done right.
Conclusion well they are good but I have been very disHeartened diffs, shafts autos etc all good defender LT77 well my experience wasn't great TBH.
 
ashcroft well...................
I fitted a box from them 13 months approx 6K miles internal fault managed to select 2nd and 3rd gear phoned them to be told out of warranty sorry. Fitted a s/h military recon box. That was on its last legs and ****ed out oil. Second ashcroft gearbox leaked and i took it back they buggered about with it and stopped it leaking by fitting a non cracked top section. I think its a case of recon here they change what needs changing and and not everything. Ian and Dave are top blokes can only guess that the people doing the recon boxes don't give a crap about getting them A1. And who else is there to do the gearboxes? Nobody really. If I had time and some spare metal kicking about I would make the "special tools" and do my own at least then if you do it A1 its done right.
Conclusion well they are good but I have been very disHeartened diffs, shafts autos etc all good defender LT77 well my experience wasn't great TBH.

Mmmmmm, that's not the answer I was hoping for :( I guess I will have to fit it just before my next trip so that if it does fail, it will fail under warrantee. I'm looking at the short bellhousing R380, with oil cooler.
 
well I'm not gonna slag them off completly because I heared a rumour at a comp last year that they sacked somone for messing up a fair few gearboxes a few years back around the time mine went tits up. Although it doesn't help me out it may explain things. R380's are better than the LT77's but I'm no fan of either of them. Seen too many blown up, stripped splines or completly worn out after 80K they just seem a bit delicate. Good old RR 4 speeds and early 5 speeds are bullet proof but only fit V8 bellhousings unfortunatly so not an option for our TDi's.

So the best available you can get is a new R380 shortie with an oil cooler to fit a 200tdi its the best available unless you go auto but I wouldn't personally want an auto in an overlander especially a TDI Mooing Cow syndrome (anyone thats ever driven a tdi auto will know what I mean). Talk to ashcoft they are good guys and if you explain your intentions they will sort you out I'm sure. Ashcroft now sell a new Friction reducing bottle of magic stuff that you can use in an R380 box which may be the soloution. New R380 with an oil cooler, a new tranny box with Q gears and a cross drilled input gear you cant go too far wrong IMO.
 
well I'm not gonna slag them off completly because I heared a rumour at a comp last year that they sacked somone for messing up a fair few gearboxes a few years back around the time mine went tits up. Although it doesn't help me out it may explain things. R380's are better than the LT77's but I'm no fan of either of them. Seen too many blown up, stripped splines or completly worn out after 80K they just seem a bit delicate. Good old RR 4 speeds and early 5 speeds are bullet proof but only fit V8 bellhousings unfortunatly so not an option for our TDi's.

So the best available you can get is a new R380 shortie with an oil cooler to fit a 200tdi its the best available unless you go auto but I wouldn't personally want an auto in an overlander especially a TDI Mooing Cow syndrome (anyone thats ever driven a tdi auto will know what I mean). Talk to ashcoft they are good guys and if you explain your intentions they will sort you out I'm sure. Ashcroft now sell a new Friction reducing bottle of magic stuff that you can use in an R380 box which may be the soloution. New R380 with an oil cooler, a new tranny box with Q gears and a cross drilled input gear you cant go too far wrong IMO.

Thanks Jai, that's exactly what I will do, as soon as my piggy bank refills itself :D
 
Bitching is when you say something behind someones back which you wouldnt say to their face - i would have said the exact same to your face :p

but booger, in fairness i didnt and wont bugger off in the jungle by myself. more than one vehicle. even in this country most people advocate going greenlaning with more than one vehicle, and i am sure at one point or another you have said the same thing.

i dont mind buggering around, doing stupid stuff, and all that. im sure most people on here have worked out i am a bit nutty sometimes, but i would still elect to have another similarly nutty person with me. someone that just goes ****it i want alone time in certain scenarios isnt the best thing in the world, certainly not if they need to be relied on!

so no, its not really bitching at all, i would have said it to you straight out :p if i drive to africa, or what not, i would want to go with someone that wont just ****off on their own little jolly for a couple of days and leave me sitting around wondering what happened :p

Well I can tell you right now that if you were on a trip with me and you moaned as much as you do in this forum, I'd definately leave you in the jungle :D

btw - I left a group of 3 guys, that could look after themselves fine, not like I abandoned some poor helpless soul in the desert :rolleyes:
 
Used to travel alone frequently, well alone I mean one vehicle my toyota hylux, a ex British Gurkha, an interpreter and a trusty MP5.

Afghan roads are ****e. It was 5 hours from Gardez to Kabul if your lucky with no mishaps. Always over the mountain pass thats only passable in winter by heli 12 feet snow drifts, 200 meter drops with wrecked jingle trucks at the bottom, narrow roads passing an on comming truck means waiting for a wide bit (not always an option) or dangling your wheels over the edge.

Driving back alone was the least stressful even in winter when I parked the hylux in a snow filled ditch next to a mined river bed. Whish I confess was not my best descision looking back. Forcing the occupants of a mini bus to push us out via an Armed gurkha and some dollars. All that was far less stressful than going home with the yanks or a convoy nobody else to worry about, no people to keep happy, no deadlines to stick to. Just yourself, a reliable old hylux, my MP3 player playing a selection of tunes from guns n roses to shalamar and will smith, summer time, through some of the then notoriously dodgy villages. It was all quite a relaxing chill drive home compared to going in a convoy. Driving to Tescos just doesn't do it for me anymore!
 
Used to travel alone frequently, well alone I mean one vehicle my toyota hylux, a ex British Gurkha, an interpreter and a trusty MP5.

Afghan roads are ****e. It was 5 hours from Gardez to Kabul if your lucky with no mishaps. Always over the mountain pass thats only passable in winter by heli 12 feet snow drifts, 200 meter drops with wrecked jingle trucks at the bottom, narrow roads passing an on comming truck means waiting for a wide bit (not always an option) or dangling your wheels over the edge.

Driving back alone was the least stressful even in winter when I parked the hylux in a snow filled ditch next to a mined river bed. Whish I confess was not my best descision looking back. Forcing the occupants of a mini bus to push us out via an Armed gurkha and some dollars. All that was far less stressful than going home with the yanks or a convoy nobody else to worry about, no people to keep happy, no deadlines to stick to. Just yourself, a reliable old hylux, my MP3 player playing a selection of tunes from guns n roses to shalamar and will smith, summer time, through some of the then notoriously dodgy villages. It was all quite a relaxing chill drive home compared to going in a convoy. Driving to Tescos just doesn't do it for me anymore!

Sounds like you need to go on a big trip, only thing is if you have a missus along you probably have to be more cautious in what you do, unless of course she is the really adventurous type ? I'm lucky in that don't have any responsibilities, well I say lucky, but it is by careful design ;)
 
the mrs she gets upset if we get stuck for half an hour at a pay and play. All the fun is problem solving, whats the best soloution to the out of............................ The more technical and difficult the better my brain does like Thinking under pressure problem solving.
 
Well I can tell you right now that if you were on a trip with me and you moaned as much as you do in this forum, I'd definately leave you in the jungle :D

btw - I left a group of 3 guys, that could look after themselves fine, not like I abandoned some poor helpless soul in the desert :rolleyes:

i would rather have 2 vehicles, and 2 nutters, as opposed to 1 vehicle, and one nutter. one vehicle and 3 nutters works as well, but 2 motors is better imo

i would try and construct a decent arguement, but i am just in from spending a night with about a dozen foreign girls, i am ****ed and happy so i will leave the intelligent arguing for tomorrow night
 

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