Winter hack suggestions
- Thread starter Dukesox
- Start date
I did nearly buy an 800gs this time but it sold the day before I could get to see it unfortunately .
Certainly do. It's become my all-year-round hack since cash cameras have been placed on all my favourite local roads.
Not a Transit Van?
For many years I had Fiat Cinquecento as my 2nd car & Dogmobile but I often used it for dogless trips as it was fun to drive and you could go pretty much flat out most of the time without worrying about speeding fines & points. It superceded a 2CV which was even slower but equally enjoyable.
I'd love a 4x4 van that was as competent off-road as the Landrover. But they don't really exist. There are 4x4 large box vans but they're only good for rolling across a flat field to get the electricity board to telegraph pole. Anything more ambitious than that is beyond them. My Freelander will leave any of them for dead when the going gets rough and shitty.
4x4 pick-ups are nearly all car-derived, as are small and medium vans. There's no reason why manufacturers couldn't take a pickup ladder-frame chassis and stick a van body on it rather than a pickup tub, but no one does it. A mwb van body that will fit a bike inside bolted to a 4x4 pickup chassis would be a brilliant tool.
Is this too small for what you have in mind ? I`ve occasionally looked at these as being for taking the dogs out or towing a trailer off road as we occasionally have to.
Guilty pleasure: Renault Kangoo Trekka 4x4
The Renault Kangoo Trekka 4x4 is a rare beast, with around 100 examples getting down and dirty on the highways and byways of Britain
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They're excellent and very useful little vans. Much loved by the forestry commision and deer stalkers, but quite hard to find second hand. You won't fit a bike in the back though and they have little ground clearance compared with a pickup or Landrover. Forest tracks that aren't heavily rutted you'll be fine. Far better than a 4x4 caravaners suv but not up there with a higher ground clearance industrial suv when it gets really rough and muddy. For the use you describe they'd be absolutely ideal if you can find one. I wouldn't get away with one where I work as it's too deeply rutted. My Freelander II is an ideal compromise between a highly capable off-roader that's still civilised, economical and fast enough to make a long distance road car as well.Is this too small for what you have in mind ? I`ve occasionally looked at these as being for taking the dogs out or towing a trailer off road as we occasionally have to.
Guilty pleasure: Renault Kangoo Trekka 4x4
The Renault Kangoo Trekka 4x4 is a rare beast, with around 100 examples getting down and dirty on the highways and byways of Britain
Ideally I'd have one of these:
Unbeatable off-road, but hard work on it with balloon tyres and an effective 50mph top speed. And they're custom Jimny conversions so you're looking at 20 grand plus the cost of the donor car for what would be a very focused vehicle.
The 4x4 Fiat Panda is a good little car as well and quite competent off-road as they're small and light witha wheel in each corner. But they're a hatchback car body, not a van. And like all Fiats they do tend to go orange and dissolve while you watch. The Renault Kangoo 4x4 is a better commercial quality vehicle.
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Yep I think the industry is missing a trick when it comes to 4x4 vans, they would be very popular in nz if a proper one was available.
My older bro has a late 80's mitsubishi l300 4x4 with a lift kit, winch and upgraded engine, it pretty capable off road , the wheel base is a bit narrow though so they fall over quite easy, that and it's fucken old..
Also the rear door opening isn't quite high enough to fit a sports bike in , you have to remove the front fairing/screen, so no chance you'd get a motox bike in it.
A mwb, semi-hi-top transit body on a single cab 4x4 pickup chassis would be perfectly doable. Proper level and boarded out rear load bay, a full bulkhead and a reinforced floor and gusseted roof like a commercial van.
Load-bay height would be higher with more intrusive wheel arches, and you'd need a longer ramp to get a bike inside because of the extra ground clearance, but still vastly better than an SUV car which has just had the rear seats removed and the windows paneled over.
If I won the lottery. In which case I wouldn't need it...
He said as competent not way more competent, proper stuff those Unimogs
The price of that would buy a perfectly good two bedroom semi where I live.He said as competent not way more competent, proper stuff those Unimogs
Went to Namibia a few years ago, this was pretty handy 4x4 in the desert.
It was "Tommys Tours"
How are they in snowasking for a friend
I dont think it snows out there, 30c - 40c when we went, they do get rain though.
I'm out