Offroad-Express

Hi folks, I'm new to the forum, new to 4x4s and in fact new to the country having arrived here in Wellington from the UK in February.

I have bought a ratty looking 1991 MU 2.8 diesel manual which I think is standard with the optional Isuzu side steps, rear bumper and front bash plate, all of which I suspect is more to make it look "tough" than for any useful purpose. It's running on 31x10.5x15 Firestone M/T tyres which also I suspect are more about looking the part than actually being much good.

The purpose of the truck was to keep me mobile while my car gets here and to give me something to try offroading in. I went on a charity tag along yesterday and really enjoyed my first experience (helped greatly by the rain I suspect) so I guess I want to take it further, hence joining the forum.

That's it really - I'll do some reading before I ask any questions, but I'm sure they're coming as I'm far more used to lowering suspension and fitting slicker tyres!

gidday, a small number of us were at the gate in rallywoods waiting for you to pass, if you are interested theres a working bee up there this weekend,

theres a training day early may as well.......

Gidday Fen, welcome to NZ and the forum, theres quite a group of us around Wgtn that does regular trips of mixed grading around the place so tag along on one of the next ones and meet the guys and see what you think, you can always jump into somebody elses truck first to have a day out and see what you think

..... And we could do with your Moo tagging along to keep the wellington Cruiser numbers down a bit

*Edit*
Oh yeah and theres quite a few of your ex-pats from the old country around here so you'll be able to talk about mushy peas and warm beer as much as you like

Cheers guys. I take it you were one of the guys around a particularly muddy looking truck pointing into the bush, Jerry? I did comment to my wife that that looked like fun!

What's the deal on Sunday? I'm not sure how I'm fixed yet but I may well be up for it and most of my best mates from home were met through internet car forums (albeit based around driving circuits of Tarmac as quickly as possible) so it sounds like a good chance to meet people. We're renting a place at Riverstone while we get established so it's not even that far.

A training day sounds like just what I need as does a possible passenger trip before joining another trip with you guys as I'd be more than a little worried that a combination of my lack of experience and the "moo-moo", as my mate's wife calls it, not maybe being the best prepared might hold everyone else up.

My beer is stored at 0 degrees and my peas are most definitely garden rather than mushy - I think you're confusing me with an Englishman whereas I'm from a bit further north To be fair though my wife is proper English and I lived there for the last 12 years.

Greetings, Fen

people to look out for.
Saddam is a shortish verging on portly guy drives a red "70. mad coot. mostly harmless. First name Marty

Stinky from Wellington Towbars is a tallish skinny guy. mostly harmless. drives a modded nissin. First name Marty

Jerry is a shortish BATTER THIEF!! watch out for him. Sells Tow hooks on commission. Mostly crazy. First name Jerry

Mark is the Secretary of ORE. Shortish, wicked sense of humour. mostly harmless. First name mark.

Turoa is young, clever beyond his years. mostly harmless. I do believe he HAS a first name. nobody knows what it is. not even his parents.

Fortunately, I dont get to WTN too often. I am mostly the Editor of the newsletter.

fat, bald, tall and incredibly handsome.

Welcome to godzone. the home of the best ever Rugby Sevens team.

Jerry is a shortish BATTER THIEF!!

Yeah I like stealing your batter I'll steal your batteries TOO

Fortunately, I dont get to WTN too often

Is that a good thing or a bad thing for us


viewtopic.php?f=9&t=9580&p=117001#p117001

Thanks Bob for not mentioning Taz01 or myself, we are the ones that you don't want to follow anywhere... we don't even know where we are going ourselves half the time and the other half of the time we end up in mud up to our eye-balls!

Welcome to NZ and we hope that you hang around for a while, we are always running trips and you are more than welcome to come along. We always have spare seats if you are not keen on taking the Mu ( sorry) out, we do understand though.

Actually, my comments were more of a hnt then even JERRY realised.
if not already fitted, get recovery hooks.
Cheap enuff,
Marty at WTBS is your guy there.
He's cheap and easy.

Not as cheap or as easy as jerry.

its a good thing, that I dont get to WTN to play, last time I bent my truck. but great guys, great play areas.

Thanks chaps, I'll hold you to the promises of a trip very soon, but this weekend will have to be out as after I cleared Sunday so I could make it I discovered this morning that more than even recovery hooks the MU needs some better system of keeping its oil inside the engine than it currently seems to have So much for "it was really cheap and the 2.8 diesel is bomb-proof"...

Anyway once it's finished christening the (brand new) garage floor and entire drive in Valvoline I'll be up for some fun (or work) and you can all continue trying to convince me that I should have bought a Toyota, Nissan or Suzuki.

Fen wrote:Thanks chaps, I'll hold you to the promises of a trip very soon, but this weekend will have to be out as after I cleared Sunday so I could make it I discovered this morning that more than even recovery hooks the MU needs some better system of keeping its oil inside the engine than it currently seems to have So much for "it was really cheap and the 2.8 diesel is bomb-proof"...

Anyway once it's finished christening the (brand new) garage floor and entire drive in Valvoline I'll be up for some fun (or work) and you can all continue trying to convince me that I should have bought a Toyota, Nissan or Suzuki.

Nah, you should have just gone for a Jeep

Hey, nothing wrong with a bit of oil on the driveway, it saves you from worrying about future spills.

I always suspected Jerry was Moriarty's 'Batty-boy'

A few other characters that merit mention around wellington;

Curly, he's the big lad that looks like a cross between the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and the Cookie Bear, but bad tempered and a fixation with Jerry's rear end

The Beer brothers; Never seen far from their 12 or 15 green friends, never place yourself between them and their beer, never, and never t follow them, anywhere!They have names but answer to anything with the name beer in it (beer guy, beer fcka etc) to which they reply "don't mind if I do bro"

Turoa's first name is ummmm TUROA DUHHH

Oh, don't forget Jumper, you will normally see him parked on the side of the track, bonnet up with various broken parts of his fj40 spread behind him. He's a big Arsenal fan and you can tell coz every time he goes out his truck explodes

There are heaps of others, some of them are nice, then there's others like me

Bubba wrote:I always suspected Jerry was Moriarty's 'Batty-boy'
There are heaps of others, some of them are nice, then there's others like me

jerry WAS, but he's far too cheap and EASY........

There's nothing wrong with you, bubba, so long as I am in WGI and you are in WTN....

note to self, get hold of Bubba next time in WTN, buy him a beer, see if he's as easy as Jerry.........

Moriarty wrote:Fortunately, I dont get to WTN too often. I am mostly the Editor of the newsletter.

incredibly handsome.

Welcome to godzone. the home of the best ever Rugby Sevens team.

hahahahahahahahahahahaha, Bobs been on the turps again and now hes dreaming again


they all forgot to mention me.

nobody knows me, I showed up once and have remained hidden ever since

could maybe turn up to training day maybe


first time I heard from somebody from the british isles that never mentioned the word "landrover"

thats a good thing, if you get to hang around with the aforementioned bunch of rednecks, then you will be in a mighty toyota in no time at all.

welcome to welly, nz

p.s. someone gave me a first name too, but 4wding has changed that slightly

SKID

No chance of me extolling Land Rovers - anything automotive made in the UK is highly suspect IMO.

I've been doing some research, and even regardless of the MU being a MU or anything else, simply by being a standard truck it isn't nearly as cost effective to make it tougher as it would be to buy one already done, so provided I stick with this 4wd thing after I've met some of you guys I guess the logical thing to do would be to change my ride, possibly not for a little while yet, but maybe in a couple of months.

I realise this might not be the right place, but I'd appreciate it if you give me your (plainly biased of course) reasons for choosing your truck over the other options available. The only guidelines would be I'm not interested in expensive modern models as I want to spend as little as possible and not have my fun hampered by worrying about damage. I do want something capable and also I like the idea of something open, possibly an FJ40 for example. Lastly I'd want it to be road legal as it would be used for occasional towing / load lugging etc. Over to you guys...

Fen wrote:I realise this might not be the right place, but I'd appreciate it if you give me your (plainly biased of course) reasons for choosing your truck over the other options available. The only guidelines would be I'm not interested in expensive modern models as I want to spend as little as possible and not have my fun hampered by worrying about damage. I do want something capable and also I like the idea of something open, possibly an FJ40 for example. Lastly I'd want it to be road legal as it would be used for occasional towing / load lugging etc. Over to you guys...

Might be worth starting a new thread for this one Fen, as it is going to be an interesting thread to read and no doubt turn into monster
Go the Nissan

Your probably right, so...
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=10880

Mods feel free to move it if this isn't the place for it.

Fen wrote:No chance of me extolling Land Rovers - anything automotive made in the UK is highly suspect IMO.

Wouldn't they now be made in India? Land Rovers now come in curry flavour thanks to Tata Motors

Fen wrote:The purpose of the truck was to keep me mobile while my car gets here and to give me something to try offroading in. I went on a charity tag along yesterday and really enjoyed my first experience (helped greatly by the rain I suspect) so I guess I want to take it further, hence joining the forum.

Hi Fen, I was on that tag along too, the rain certainly did help make it interesting, especially later in the day on the climb up through the pines. Great that you found this forum, has been a lot of help and has provided a source of trips.

You certainly have opened a can of worms asking about the best sort of vehicle. I would say Jeep, but at the end of the day get some tow hooks, and some good mud tyres and have some fun. It is only over time that you will truly find out what vehicle you think is best. At the end of the day, no matter what you get, the "grass will be greener on the other side of the fence".

Cheers
Ian

Ahh yes, you were behind me in your Jeep during the first interesting bit!

I'll get recovery hooks and do some stuff in the MU, but I know how it was when I got into trackdays in the UK where a half decent Golf GTI would have been fine to have fun in, but I ended up running a stripped out Porsche on race suspension and track tyres, so before long I'll be wanting something extreme. The MU has been a useful vehicle to get me around but with my road car sitting in Seaview waiting for MAF to clear it for import the Isuzu will soon be very much spare and just a toy, so again I could have something like a 40 series. We'll see - I like planning these things before I actually commit to buy something.

Fen wrote:Ahh yes, you were behind me in your Jeep during the first interesting bit!

So would this be you?? http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2311483730102829904FRkgVl

Indeed it is, cool!

Fen wrote:Indeed it is, cool!

I hope you had a look through the rest of the album, it looks like I got quite a few shots of you in front of me.

Feel free to download any for keep sakes.

Did you also find http://kiwilandscapes.co.nz/childcancer/viewer.php?albid=2&stage=1 where the photos taken by the roadside photographers ended up.

Cheers
Ian

I should have replied months ago to thank you for the link, Ian.

Anyway I ended up taking your advice and I picked up a '96 XJ Sport yesterday. I still fancy a 40 one day if I get into this thing, but since I haven't been further off road than my mate's back paddock since the tag along I'll take it slow and use the Cherokee for a bit.

Fen wrote:I still fancy a 40 one day if I get into this thing, but since I haven't been further off road than my mate's back paddock since the tag along I'll take it slow and use the Cherokee for a bit.

Hi Fen.
Good to see you on board. It's a good place to be even if you're only into off roading mildly. People will tell you I'm big in the off topic area. I guess i get bored with the 4X4 thing from timed to time but there are a good bunch here, some freaky like PR, skid, coxsy and jerry to name but just a few. But kick back and enjoy the place. It can be a real laugh at times.
Good to see you fancy a 40. Sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders. Not like those nissan boys. They're farked.

petefj40 wrote:

Fen wrote:I still fancy a 40 one day if I get into this thing, but since I haven't been further off road than my mate's back paddock since the tag along I'll take it slow and use the Cherokee for a bit.

Hi Fen.
Good to see you on board. It's a good place to be even if you're only into off-roading mildly. People will tell you I'm big in the off topic area. I guess i get bored with the 4X4 thing from timed to time but there are a good bunch here, some freaky like petefj40, petefj40, petefj40 and petefj40 to name but just a few. But kick back and enjoy the place. It can be a real laugh at times.
Good to see you fancy a 40. Sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders. Not like those nissan boys. They're farked.

Couldn't help meself., Sorry pete.
Well, NO I am not actually sorry at all.

I guess you're hurt your name was included. Sorry Moriarty.

petefj40 wrote:I guess you're hurt your name was included. Sorry Moriarty.

WRONG!!!

Poor boy, so much time and nothing to do.....
cant even read his OWN posts correctly.

DUMBASS!! you didnt include my name!! nyah nyah nyah wrong again.


HEY!! FEN, dont get the wrong idea, this is all in good fun, just cos some of us poke a fair bit of shit at eachother doesnt mean it's a hate session.

Mostly, Petes jealous cos he's got to ride in an elderly fj4o, instead of a nice modern veehikkle!!!

Moriarty wrote:

petefj40 wrote:I guess you're hurt your name was included. Sorry Moriarty.

WRONG!!!

Poor boy, so much time and nothing to do.....
cant even read his OWN posts correctly.

DUMBASS!! you didnt include my name!! nyah nyah nyah wrong again.


HEY!! FEN, dont get the wrong idea, this is all in good fun, just cos some of us poke a fair bit of shit at eachother doesnt mean it's a hate session.

Mostly, Petes jealous cos he's got to ride in an elderly fj4o, instead of a nice modern veehikkle!!!

I don't mind old. i drive a vw that's older than me. And my 40? Nothing beats driving it on a hot summers day with the roof n doors off.

Yeah it's all good fun Fen. Pays not to be tooo sensitive around here.

TJ wrote:

Fen wrote:No chance of me extolling Land Rovers - anything automotive made in the UK is highly suspect IMO.

Wouldn't they now be made in India? Land Rovers now come in curry flavour thanks to Tata Motors

If you want real good Indian hardware, forget the Jeep clones and go for the Indian G-Wagen! Oh yea, I so want one!

yorick wrote:

TJ wrote:

Fen wrote:No chance of me extolling Land Rovers - anything automotive made in the UK is highly suspect IMO.

Wouldn't they now be made in India? Land Rovers now come in curry flavour thanks to Tata Motors

If you want real good Indian hardware, forget the Jeep clones and go for the

http://www.force4x4.com/gallery.html

Oh yea, I so want one!

NOW it will work........