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Not much to report at the moment I'm afraid. Installed a new rear door hinge today. Working on a spare tire swing-away... once that's done Im back on the road! It's been a little embarrassing driving around town with a souped up land rover, winch, hilift, the works... and no spare tire
To collie: End of the day, owning and maintaining a rover is a hobby and it should keep you happy. If spending a bunch of time transplanting rovers is your thing, do that. If you'd prefer to mountain bike, then: I think good condition D2's will be available for years to come... just keep monitoring craigslist with patience, and if the right one comes along... pull the trigger. Maybe at that time you'll be in a better position to store another vehicle. In the meantime you can continue building up your current rig and you can always swap those parts, like a bumper, to a new donor truck down the road.
I feel ya though, sometimes we come at a crossroads and feel we have to go down one way or the other... when I bought my rover, I basically rebuilt the whole thing for no particular good reason, and it took about a year. Hindsight, yes I'm very happy with how it turned out, enjoyed the process, and learned a lot. On the other hand, I could have just drove the darn thing. I suppose I'm in it for the long game, I'll have this rover (hopefully) for decades, and the thrill of adventuring in a custom rig that I put thousands of hours into it, feels good. Heck, driving to the grocery store even feels amazing. Just don't burnout before you finish it
It's a ton of fun to overland, offroad, camp, and adventure in a rig you are proud of and put a lot of time into preparing for. But on the other hand, the best times I've ever had doing those things I had nothing but a pair of jeans and a shirt, and good friends.
Good to see you're still with the rover, and she's not gone south on you. That was my concerns, when you took a pause from the site here, that she quit running or something. Anyhow, glad she's alive and well.
A lot of good info above. What l've noticed (and l'm not talking about Jeff here, just builds in general) is...folks build and build and build...and never experience the end result. I believe, building as you go is more productive and maybe more satisfying in the long run. Build a little, then do some exploring, see what shakes down and build/improvise from there. As mentioned, the Overland Expedition site is awesome for ideas and inspiration.
And, l get the cross-roads thing, too. Was originally going to take my 01 to a higher level of mudder rig; larger tires, more lift, lockers, hee haw type of thing, etc. And then buy another rover to build as a overland type explorer rig, maybe an 110/130 or a Dll, and have it somewhat build for an Alaska trip when I retire. But then I think...why spend money on another rig and build, (even thought l do every thing on the cheap)...when I could just use that money/time to travel in the 01...and modify it as l go.
Wish I had room to store a spare D2... barely enough room to work on the current one. And yeah, rusted frame (rwar section) is gonna be an issue sometime in the near future - was considering replacing the frame alltogether since the rest of the truck is in great shape and the engine, at 100K runs strong as hell...
Wish I had room to store a spare D2... barely enough room to work on the current one. And yeah, rusted frame (rwar section) is gonna be an issue sometime in the near future - was considering replacing the frame alltogether since the rest of the truck is in great shape and the engine, at 100K runs strong as hell...
time will tell.
Not to be a dink here but if I can manage a spare d2 (in light of my nomad lifestyle) than surly you can make it work! Like I said call your local storage facilitates and see if any of them offer vehicle storage.
Frame swap is a serious job. One shop quoted me over $4k and thats just in labor assuming everything goes smoothly. Your much better off finding a decent rust free spare then swap over all the goods from your rusted out truck.
still to early to tell. If I decided to swap the frame (unlikely though due to amount of work and $ involved) I can always do it at my buddy's shop. He's got a . lift and tools available. I will just drive for now and be on the lookout for a rust free, southern truck (bargain).
Seems a lot of us are committed, or should be committed.
I watch too much velocity, so I am always seeing what those shops do and get crazy ideas.
On Texas Metal he built a huge Ford Truck with air suspes
nsion and I thought that was really cool. I'd love to go down 4 inches for Highway and up 4 inches for off road purposes.
But with my Amigos off I need to put my son in his car seat and head out to some trails.
Got a car wash today and it looks like the hood is starting to oxidize. The body has really taken a beating. Long term I am going to have to find a good donor to swap the drivetrain into . It would need a total respray.
Moved this over here, so you could see our Overland Adventure weekend.
Arrived at our first camp site just before dark. Beautiful sunset, but tablet fails to capture it.
Time for dogs and beans, while coyotes sing in the distance.
Woke to some pretty cool temps, 28F. Waited until about 9am before exiting the rover. Coffee and breakfast warmed us up some. The sunshine helped, too.
Next morning broke camp and went exploring.
Found some nice trails, but everything was quite frozen.
Found a nice lake that l'd seen on satellite maps, but had never been too.
Grandson broke out the bb gun and threw copper at an old can for hours.
Grandson and his mom's old bb gun.
Enjoyed hanging out there for a while, knew we'd be back to spend the night.
Went out exploring some more before setting up camp.
We got hung up on a trail that had a tree across it, winched for a while...but had to back track...which took up a larger amount of time than planned. So, we headed towards camp.
Cooking up dinner, while grandson found a stick to be whittled into shape for its duty later.
Burgers barely fit in the pan.
Slept great, until our neighbors trumpeted the arrival of day break.
Had a great time and broke camp this morning just before rain moved in. Although we did wheel one exciting trail before hitting the hard pack for home.
