Jen

Don't leave it as a vapour - start working out the details and saving now, when you get close to being happy with your plans set a date (and tell everyone - that makes you go! ) and nah-nah! Vapour trip is now a reality. Simple really If you *really* want to do it you will, no matter how many 'problems' your brain throws up nothing is impossible to solve.

Oi! Stop it! Nasty evil influencing man!

Eye, no problem driving the Camel when it's all fixed and shiney again Naomi's may give the wrong impression if you're thinking of a 110 as the bulkhead prevents the seats moving back nicely, the Camel's much more comfy Sure Pope-on-a-rope will let to sit in his 90 too.

Oi! That's a perfectly legitimate way of getting a truck! P.S. Love the new sig

I agree - no cure! But it is a *good* thing B) Any remote chance of saving up for a 'cheap' one? Even if it's a project vehicle and keeping the Disco as a daily driver? Although you do get stuck with 2x insurance, tax etc. (My series was brought for this very reason, but prehaps not the best example! ) I think you might miss the Disco if you get rid, I still miss mine. You've done an awful lot too it and it's a nice truck, nothing like that motorway cruising

Completely echo the 'don't take the keys to bed'. A few years ago the SIDC (Subaru Impreza's Drivers Club) were given specific Police advice due to the frequency of scrotes nicking to order/wanting a nice getaway car If they couldn't find the keys they'd come up and wake you up to find them, it all eventually came to a head when they woke up one of our 6ft 7" ex-military members, luckily he didn't get charged for giving them a good kicking! But then I would have done the same if my 5 year old daughter was in the next room. Better to have them take the keys than end up with them in your bedroom, ours are out of sight from front/back doors, but easily findable and thats the way I like it. We were also given advice as to how to drive out of a car jacking situation, it was an interesting year Interestingly enough re: Trackers, the companies I rang to get quotes for installation asked if it was an insurance requirement (which it usually is for Scoobs) as living in Southampton it's completly pointless having one as your car is generally loaded into a container within 15minutes...

I got a £11.28 Angle Grinder from B&Q, so far 1 day and 2 evenings work of cutting, wire wheel and flapper on the Volvo axles (hard constant work) has failed to kill it so at the moment I'm quite impressed. My bosch one has finally died I figured for £11 (and the same power output) it was worth the risk and when questioned on purchasing they promised I could just come back in and swap it if it was in the year period B)

I am gutted about this Always my favourite events of the year and bloody typical the year I'm building my truck! Where else can you ring someone to ask where they are and get '...er... I'm near a Land Rover by the corner of the field' ?! Keeping an eye on this thread for other options.

Seriously? Are you all still completely Vapour? Well at least the forum fund will be looking better at the end of 2008 Forgot to say, I had my first attempt at welding too, learning lots but coming up with more ideas so still a fair bit of vapour hanging around in Southampton

B) Congratulations Ali B)

So are we going for monthly updates? C'mon you lot, lets see how many cold hours you've been spending in the garage this January. 1/12th of the time gone! After having a large pile of rusty bits, I brought some oily bits: Which have gone from that, to this: With a little bit of this: Still alot more work to do, the Welding Stig reckoned 8 hours on each, so I planned a good week! B) After a few hours of procrastination I was finally brave enough to take an angle grinder to my new axles, but even after a bit of practise (and some bravery) I'm getting alot better. Plan is to have some nice clean axles by the end of next weekend. Bulkhead has been rubbed down and looks pretty good, some new footwells required and a few small holes to fill, but nothing to serious. That will be sorted after the axles are finished. Chassis hopefully on order in the next couple of weeks (payday on the 15th) which will enable me to line a few things up and get the spring mounts in the correct place for serious heavy duty welding B) A little bit of research required to decide if there is a better option for the rear of my 88". Some interesting things maybe occuring on the engine front, but maths and research required first. At the moment evil 'give me torque/horsepower' head is ruling 'be sensible' head Big yellow money sponge is living up to his name though... I have yet to see how much of a dent this will have on 'George Fund' ... he's due to be used on a Wales weekend at Easter and due in the Italian Alps in August...

...or a wheel on the bonnet. But if you need to see into the surrounding undergrowth or want an graeter overall view they're useful. I admit we didn't use them alot, but when we did they were fantastic. A mixture of fogs and spots on the top. Ideally, you don't want to be travelling at night, but there are times when the days events can mean you're travelling later than ideal. You're lucky if you have an entire trip without unexpected events even with all the planning in the world. Again, this seems to be a personal preference thing, but then if we all drove exactly the same vehicles life would be boring

Mm... well we did quite a few graded gravel, quite a few ungraded gravel and quite a few mud! (i.e. no gravel/tarmac!) But our whole idea was 'how do we get to Alaska using as few tarmaced roads as possible' B) Was worth it for the immense amount of Wildlife. Having been a Subaru owner for many years I can confidently say ours (or a Forester) wouldn't have coped with a few of the roads we travelled, even some of the large trucks out there were struggling. I think everyone can agree, you pick a truck for what you want to do, one persons trip to Russia/Alaska/Australia will be very different to anothers. Yeah - Ali, aren't you meant to be coming over soon? You need to get to another Shires event and being on the other side of the world is no excuse!

Yeah, don't forget Ali, we may live in Europe but it doesn't mean we *stay* in Europe Good point about the Shires trips Andy, aren't we a bunch of jet-setters.... B) We found when kitting the truck out it was easier to plan for worst case, that way you won't have to go 'upgrading' everything when you decide the Alps was fun but now you want to drive to Alaska (5 days, gravel roads), Russia (what roads?) or Norway (big heater!). And the roof mounted lights were very useful, not only for avoiding black bears giving a good overview of the road/surrounding undergrowth at night, but great when you're trying to set up camp in the evening

B) I was looking for a new desktop for work B)

No pressure to help, but as you know, everyone's always welcome Excellent vids Chip and Ryan - that was me in FF's driving seat!

Mm. Not strictly true. That depends what you *do* on your expedition. Without the roll cage, 2 spares, a fuel range of 700+ miles, extra lights we would have been royally fooked (to the extent that even the locals travel with most of the aforementioned). Window grills are a must, there's more to give you away than those and they add the extra security, you should be ok in Europe but in other areas a padlock on the bonnet won't go amiss too! The most important thing Andy is that you're happy with your vehicle, everything will be a compromise in one way or another so get out drive them (most important), do your research and try to figure out what you'd be happy living out of for an extended period of time

Yup! It was cool B) I like extensive portal research, love the control with the lower gearing, love the ability to play in water with the V8, love the climbing, love the clearance, love the weird feeling of security and stability, love Eddie. Awesome! Update on Charlie on the George thread, but after a good day of playing in the mud with no problems he obviously didn't want to leave Bunny lane and the M27 was clearly too much Thanks to (is it Damian? Sorry if I got it wrong), you are truely insane sir! I knew Charlie wouldn't get through, but you've got to have a try. Rich (Dlander) pulled us out first time from the rear with no worries and he could of done it again, but we were playing a game of 'you have to follow us' with Dave (pope on a rope) so it would have been good to be pulled out forwards so he had to follow us! We were going to pull Charlie out backwards, attach the rope, *then* pull him forwards, but Damian jumped in! Apparently he'd already been in once for his 90 when it was stuck in there so he was already wet Still, hopefully the bag of cookies warmed him up Still, the plan worked and Pope-on-a-ropes truck was used properly for the first time in years

...and I'll bring the cookies B)

Did you continue up the lane? I know it's only little but more fun than driving onthe road! All cut back up there now so not damaging at all. Our last trip to Pigeon House Lane it sounds pretty similar to yours Steve - although it did go pretty quiet as the water reached about an inch up the windscreen in Dan's 110 CSW ... he had to change down a gear to get through (it's deceptive that one) which was an interesting moment, but it was worth it to see the looks on the faces of the muppets sat on the other side with one broken pug and a clio! ...unsuprisingly we decided not to try it again

Glad you're still enjoying it James B)

It's quite interesting seeing peoples car history B) 4x4's: My first car: MY98 Subaru Impreza Turbo (well it is 4wd!) sold for... 'Bob' : 300TDi Land Rover Discovery sold for... MY00 Subaru Impreza Turbo (they're adictive ) George: ...er... piles of SIIA Sold my last Scooby for a Rover Mini Cooper to save up for the Canada/America Trip, missing it like mad even though I love the mini. Also kinda half a share in 'Charlie'; a Camel Defender 110, otherwise known as 'Big Yellow Moneysponge' B) Who we've taken overlanding and to stupid places like Moab, Alaska and the Colorado Mountains. Most memorable off roading: 'Hells Revenge' ...in the dark led by Rob from Portal Tek. Poor Charlie!

...and I can cook. If you have any objection to sausages, potatoe or onion let me know otherwise it'll be Sausage bake B)

Bish, you are assuming there'll be enough left for a funeral.... Mike, sounds like your doing an interesting job, is there are pics etc anywhere on the internet (something like a mini version of our members vehicles?) .. one of my other vapour builds will be a 1978 Mini when I've finished my series and yours sounds like it's going to be pretty solid and to me that makes it interesting B) I'll second Mini Sport, always been good when I've used them.

Yeah, I already have extension plates on the drivers seat so it's as back as far as it can possibly go now I rarely use the back seats so don't see that as an issue and getting in and out with door bars shouldn't be a problem - that's what Yoga's for I'll probably rely on my air bags and side impact bars (posh mini dont'ca know ) but will still be interested to see what Mike settles on.