Hey Mudders,
Some of you may have seen me introduce myself already in the registry and other threads. This thread here is going to detail the work I have done over the past year and a half, as well as any future work that goes into my Cruiser.
First off, I'll tell you why I bought her in September of 2017. I had been driving all over the Eastern States of Australia in the course of my work constructing guyed radio masts. All those kilometres were getting pretty tiresome having been forced to drive my at-the-time boss' crappy new Jeep Wrangler. I can't really think of a modern 4wd I dislike more than the new Jeeps, due to the floaty suspension and plastic everything, it just never felt like a workhorse.
On the job in Central NSW, 05/17
I had already had the good fortune of co-piloting my good mate's Troopy from Brisbane to Perth back in November 2016. We went South from Brisbane as far as Ulladulla, then cut west to Canberra and onward to the Nullarbor and beyond. We did it all in 8 days and though it went by faster than I ever imagined, I have some great memories from that trip including spending my 30th under the Super Moon in outback South Australia, a few parties with people we met along the way, and surfing some truly frightening waves/spots. The other thing that happened was I realised that at some point I was going to have to get one for myself, and do the trip many more times in the future to feel like I had really seen and done it all.
First glimpses of Western Australia in the dawn.
Speedway stickers on an old bus.
My first taste of South Coast power.
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So back to Linda. I had been searching for quite some time when Linda appeared on a Gumtree advertisement about 16 hours drive South of where I was working. I knew we'd be moving down that way once our project was finished, as we had some work to do down there already lined up, so I called up the owner and talked with him briefly about it. It all sounded good, but the main thing I was happy to learn was the name of the mechanic who completed all his servicing. I hung up and called up the wrencher, who turned out to be a number of things; a first class mechanic well known in his area with a wait time of 3 weeks to get something booked in, a Rainman type for remembering details of vehicles and their service history, extremely helpful, and genuinely surprised at the low price I was picking it up for. He told me that he had actually been looking after the vehicle from new, maintaining it on behalf of it's first owners, the SA government, before it changed hands to the current owner. Who, by chance had brought it back to him for regular maintenance. "If you don't buy it, I will." He said to me at the end of the conversation. I was sold, so I immediately called the seller back and arranged a deposit to secure the Troopcarrier while I finished my project in NSW.
Six long weeks later I finally made the trip down to pick her up and finalise the sale. The owner was a careful and meticulous German immigrant, which gave me even greater confidence that I was making a good call, and so far that has borne out to be true. In the picture below you can see how she was when I took ownership. The interior was stock as a rock, and pretty much everything you see here was all that was modified. The Ridepro 2" lift was in there too.
First laying eyes on "Linda", Delivery Day 09/17
I had already pre-arranged with the mechanic that I would drop her off for the day and had him check the valve clearances, all fluids changed, and a general update on any maintenance I could expect coming down the line. All was good save for he mentioned the brakes could use a service within the next 5000km. He also gave me a copy of every invoice he ever issued relating to the vehicle. And in my first look through her as a new owner I found the factory logbook hidden under the passenger's seat.
So off we went, back to work. And holy hell I can tell you I was glad to be out of the Jeep and into something more capable for the otherworldly place we were about to go to... I'll continue the story in my next post as I've run out of photo uploads on this one. Cheers for tuning in!
Some of you may have seen me introduce myself already in the registry and other threads. This thread here is going to detail the work I have done over the past year and a half, as well as any future work that goes into my Cruiser.
First off, I'll tell you why I bought her in September of 2017. I had been driving all over the Eastern States of Australia in the course of my work constructing guyed radio masts. All those kilometres were getting pretty tiresome having been forced to drive my at-the-time boss' crappy new Jeep Wrangler. I can't really think of a modern 4wd I dislike more than the new Jeeps, due to the floaty suspension and plastic everything, it just never felt like a workhorse.
On the job in Central NSW, 05/17
I had already had the good fortune of co-piloting my good mate's Troopy from Brisbane to Perth back in November 2016. We went South from Brisbane as far as Ulladulla, then cut west to Canberra and onward to the Nullarbor and beyond. We did it all in 8 days and though it went by faster than I ever imagined, I have some great memories from that trip including spending my 30th under the Super Moon in outback South Australia, a few parties with people we met along the way, and surfing some truly frightening waves/spots. The other thing that happened was I realised that at some point I was going to have to get one for myself, and do the trip many more times in the future to feel like I had really seen and done it all.
First glimpses of Western Australia in the dawn.
Speedway stickers on an old bus.
My first taste of South Coast power.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So back to Linda. I had been searching for quite some time when Linda appeared on a Gumtree advertisement about 16 hours drive South of where I was working. I knew we'd be moving down that way once our project was finished, as we had some work to do down there already lined up, so I called up the owner and talked with him briefly about it. It all sounded good, but the main thing I was happy to learn was the name of the mechanic who completed all his servicing. I hung up and called up the wrencher, who turned out to be a number of things; a first class mechanic well known in his area with a wait time of 3 weeks to get something booked in, a Rainman type for remembering details of vehicles and their service history, extremely helpful, and genuinely surprised at the low price I was picking it up for. He told me that he had actually been looking after the vehicle from new, maintaining it on behalf of it's first owners, the SA government, before it changed hands to the current owner. Who, by chance had brought it back to him for regular maintenance. "If you don't buy it, I will." He said to me at the end of the conversation. I was sold, so I immediately called the seller back and arranged a deposit to secure the Troopcarrier while I finished my project in NSW.
Six long weeks later I finally made the trip down to pick her up and finalise the sale. The owner was a careful and meticulous German immigrant, which gave me even greater confidence that I was making a good call, and so far that has borne out to be true. In the picture below you can see how she was when I took ownership. The interior was stock as a rock, and pretty much everything you see here was all that was modified. The Ridepro 2" lift was in there too.
First laying eyes on "Linda", Delivery Day 09/17
I had already pre-arranged with the mechanic that I would drop her off for the day and had him check the valve clearances, all fluids changed, and a general update on any maintenance I could expect coming down the line. All was good save for he mentioned the brakes could use a service within the next 5000km. He also gave me a copy of every invoice he ever issued relating to the vehicle. And in my first look through her as a new owner I found the factory logbook hidden under the passenger's seat.
So off we went, back to work. And holy hell I can tell you I was glad to be out of the Jeep and into something more capable for the otherworldly place we were about to go to... I'll continue the story in my next post as I've run out of photo uploads on this one. Cheers for tuning in!
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