My first 4X4 arrived when I was 25 years old. It was a Suzuki Sierra I bought in Sydney, NSW and I had no idea what I was doing. The love affair began when I first took it off road and had a go at a few hills — I couldn’t believe what it could do!
Looking back on that now, I know those hills were more like speed bumps, but the adrenalin was pumping and I was hooked!
From then I remember going out with a few work buddies (while we were supposed to be working) and bogged that thing as hard as we could. All part of the adventure! Recoveries were more often than not a few blokes lifting up the rear and shifted her sideways. Problem solved!
My love affair with that car lasted almost 3 years. But I’m a sucker for a V8, so I ended up selling the Zook and buying a 2 door Range Rover. .
Other than tyres, I never did much in terms of modification to the Zook. It was so bloody capable from the factory! Range Rovers are as well, but as my offroading ability increased (along with my desire to climb bigger hills), I wanted more from the car.
Something a few of us can relate to I’m sure :). I caught the modification bug pretty bad. I was earning great money at the time, so I did what any logical, young, successful 20-something-year-old does and gave it a 3 inch body lift, 2 inch suspension lift and diff locks front and rear. Add in 35 inch Mickey Thompson Baja Claws and fuel injection. We had a great time together over many years.
Here’s what she looked like:
By a great time, of course I mean lots of fun climbing big hills that I had no business climbing. But surprisingly, just as much fun working through a long list of breakdowns and repairs. I was learning how to work on the car, and learning how to do bush repairs because I went with a great group of guys (who were mechanics) and who willingly taught me how to get my car going again.
**Translation – they stood by and drank piss on the track while telling me what to do to fix it!**
But as you get older, so do your priorities….
A few financial setbacks, as well as a bit of normal maturation in life means that I’m not so interested in climbing the biggest hill in the bush anymore. I still love watching someone else do that! Now, I’ve taken a 1987 Land Rover County (with the Isuzu 4BD1 motor in it) and completely rebuilt that for the purpose of long distance touring and camping.
I don’t know what it is about them, but I still love Land Rovers. And boy do I have some stories to tell!
Just after finishing the rebuild of the Isuzu County I had a story worthy experience. I replaced almost everything on that car – every single wire is new, the motor was rebuilt and a Garrett turbo added, the gearbox was rebuilt with the transfer case… I could go on – I’ll save that for a later post.
I figured it was a good idea to do a decent test drive once the rebuild was finished, so with just under 600 kms on the clock since the rebuild, I loaded her up and drove from Perth to Kununurra and spent a month driving through the Kimberley across the Gibb River Road with a mate who had driven from Sydney in a 1978 International Scout.
The best test drive you could possible give a rebuilt car is a real world one, right?
Well the Land Rover was absolutely beautiful. The only problems that occurred were little things that I hadn’t touched. On the way up there, I blew out the rear of rear bushes on the trailing arms (please don’t ask why I didn’t do those before as I’ve asked myself that question 100 times). I also suffered a snapped front brake line – the bracket that secures it had been snapped for years, and I hadn’t repaired it, so I deserved that one too.
Apart from that, she was beautiful. Performance with the turbo was great, the roof top tent was awesome, electrics were brilliant! I was in love.
I dropped Mrs. Irvs off at the airport in Broome and started the trip home. A couple hundred k’s down the road and I knew something was wrong – the gearbox started to give way! There was noise in every gear other than fourth (fourth is straight through in this box)! The noise started just near 80 mile beach. Still a long way from home! This meant that I drove the rest of the way back to Perth in 4th gear – and it got me there! Again, all part of the adventure! I can’t imagine life any other way!
It also gave me an excuse to replace the gear box with an Isuzu truck box – more on that in a later post (it means I have the best Land Rover in Australia – there’s nothing Land Rover left about it!).
I’m hoping this will be my first or more posts on 4x4fever. For the most part to bring some balance to Shayne always talking up Landcruisers, but as to share some of my experience driving and fixing these ever infectious big off road toys.
See you round the camp fire!
Mike
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