[ngcles]

Hi Allan,

I'm a 4wd fan and yes mine goes off-road from time to time.

I used to be moderately serious, particularly with my first one and did quite a lot with it. It was an ex-army (FFR) Series III 6-cyl Landrover and though a tad spartan, it was the envy of many of my friends who also went 4wd. Its main problems was the cost of parts (... and you thought telescope parts were dear) and the fact it would only do 95km/hr down-hill with a tail-wind flat out. In the context that it was pretty much a stock 4wd, it was almost unstoppable.

Did a few of the outback treks with it and spent a 2 weeks on Fraser Island pulling Toyota Hi-Luxes out of sand bogs. Went to a Nissan Patrol, then a couple of Dual-cab utes and now a 2005 Pajero.

Of all of them, the one I loved most (surprisingly) was my dual-cab Holden Rodeo. Went to Fraser (3rd trip) in that one with my wife and daughter and still spent plenty of time towing Toyota Prado's out of sand bogs. The Rodeo wasn't the most capable 4wd by any means but it had a lot of other things going for it that personally I found endearing. I could take my 18" 'scope and everything I needed for a week of camping in the back and still get 11 ltrs/100km. In 7 yrs of ownership, apart from normal maintenance, it cost nothing at all in repairs, two sets of tyres and a set of brake-pads for 160,000km. That is cheap motoring in anyone's language.

I do less 4wding now than I used to and little of it could be described as really serious. I need the space for the telescope though. As someone else said, Stockton Beach is a blast.

If you get one and join a club or team up with some other 4wd nuts, prepared to be absolutely astonished by where even a stock-standard 4wd can go in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing.

Great fun.


Best,

Les D