Def_90

Thanks Q-Rover, that was what I planned to do, but wanted to be sure that everything would fit before spending some £££

Hi, What is needed to put 255x85x16 tires under a RRC? Appart from a 2" lift, the rrc is fairly standard. Will the tires fit or are still other modifications ( eg cutting wheelarches ) required?

Check out the Garmin : Nuvi 550 = Waterproof / Road coverage of Europe / Topo Maps available / Routes & Waypoints available / Limited Tracklog & trackback / Touchscreen / decent size screen Zumo 550 = Better tracklog and routes New (not out yet ) GPSMAP640 = Marine Type GPS with Autorouting / Touchscreen / Huge screen

I don't want to confuse you even more, but I would certainly consider the Garmin GPSMap 278 as well. This is basically the same unit as the GPSMap 276C BUT it has following advantages : Build in memory of approx. 2GB, preloaded with road maps for all of Europe. The 276 only uses Garmin memory cards, which are expensive. ( if you want, you can erase the maps you don't need and put other maps in its place ) Takes advantages of the POI ( = Points of Intrest ). This means you can have literally 10000s of points loaded to the GPS ( most common use is speed cameras, but this can equally be camping spots, fuel stations,....) These can be found free on the internet or you can make them yourself. Even faster processor. The first 2 advantages are really worth having for such an overland trip. BUT if budget is tight, a Basic - non mapping GPS will do fine ( especially in Africa ). I used to live (and work) in Tunesia and used a basic GPS ( these where the only ones that existed at the time ) together with military maps on the computer. I had a nice program running and made all my routes on the computer and transferred them to my GPS. This worked perfectly. In Europe this would not work as there are way to much roads, but in Africa : No problem.

In my Def90 I have a detroit Locker in the rear and a trutrac in the front. I have this setup for almost 10 years. NO breakages so far. The car was used as my daily transport for the first 5 years (when i was working and living in Tunesia). Now I have build it into a chanllenge vehicle. After putting them in, the first couple of kms, yu have to get used to the steering. But nothing major and once your used to it, you don't know anymore that you have them. About handling on the road : no problem at all. the car was used to be pushed rather hard. Tires were 33x9.5x15. Turns on the sandtracks were taking in sliding. Nomal road speed was on secondary roads about 120km/h On the highway about 160km/h. ( by the way the 90 is fitted with a 4.6Efi ). Off road it's fabulous. No lockers to engage. Just point and drive. The only "annoyance" I have once and a while is a "bang" in the rear axle when the locker levels out. I would do it again for an other vehicle.

I'm bringing the exhaust of my Xcab 90 to roof level. During my last challenge I went downhill into a pond ( not too deep ). The idle was rather slow and the engine stopped. At the same time the starter motor gave up as well. So when i was winched out we tried to bump start it, and what you guess. It was really my lucky day : Water entered the engine through the exhaust and ruined my 4.6 Result : I'm fitting a new engine for the moment and DO NOT want to happen this again.

I did following to store my waffles on the roof : I made a sliding tray UNDER the roofrack. On the front the tray has an end. At the back I secure them with a normal stratch. The advantages in doing it this way are : * You still have full access / full space on the roofrack. * You can take them out and put them back in and secure them in less than a minute. * If they are muddy, you don't get the interior all dirty. For me it works fine anyway.