One of my grandsons who turns 5 today (Happy Birthday, pal) calls the 4WD Tacoma that I bought new 24 years ago, "Poppa's huntin' truck".
I see that Prince Philip had one as well. And while it was loaded with a list of features including custom "bronze green" paint and was referred to as a "gun bus" (mine is also customized but with scratches, dings, dents and chips - all honest earned) his turned out to be a most appropriate hearse for his final outing.
My 2 year old grandson, despite its 31" tires, has taught himself to climb up into the front seat and sit there waiting on me while repeating, "Ride. Ride. Ride." I may have to give some thought to mine also providing a final ride before it goes to my eldest son.
Prince Philip's funeral procession certainly was colorful. I suspect the colors at mine might lean more toward blaze orange and camo.
Do you have your own personal gun bus/huntin' truck that you might consider for similar duty?
My Granddaughter calls it the "Magic Van" anytime she wanted some candy I usually had a couple stashed somewhere.
Ford 3/4 ton with posi-traction and a set of V-bar chains gets me just about anywhere. It is set up with a solar panel, propane furnace, bunk, table, cabinets and locking gun rack. I can park anywhere, no need for electricity, I have probably saved the cost of the vehicle in camping and motel fees.
Inside
And if I can't get the truck there this does the trick.
'87 Jeep Wrangler 350 cid Chevy engine w/ Edelbrock intake and Edelbrock 4 barrel TH350 Chevy tranny and Dana transfer case 12.50 X 35 tires (tires shown in pics are 12.50 33s) 4.56 gears Ramsey 8000 lb. front winch 3M Camo wrap (has been removed because it didn't last) 10 mpg, like I care
Many car mags and "gurus" decry Tacoma and 4Runner for the failure of Toyota to upgrade electronics and drive trains compared with the mags Cars/Trucks of the Year selections. This "failure" is exactly why I'm a Toyota fan. If it ain't broke, don't "fix" it. Gil
This thread has certainly brought back good memories of a lot of good days in a variety of "huntin' trucks". Counting back I've had 3 Jeeps (CJ-5, CJ-7, & a Cherokee), 2 Land Rovers (a long wheel base station wagon & a SWB 2-door) and 5 Toyotas (4 Tacoma/Hilux and 1 4Runner). All 4WD.
The CJ-5 was my primary vehicle during my waterfowl years with Charlie (my black lab) sitting shotgun and the canvas covered back filled with decoys, waders and gun & gear.
The Land Rovers were both Series IIA models with the 2.25L 4 cyl petrol engines and the old style headlights positioned between the "wings." I was a passable double clutcher from my boyhood farm years but I became a double clutching fool after these two vehicles. They had 4 speed trans but non syncho 1st and 2nd gears and particularly on steep mountain tracks or long stretches of sand they required A LOT of shifting because of the underpowered engines (and you'd better be smooth and quick or you'd lose momentum and be in trouble.) They also both had manual engine cranks that got more use than you might imagine. Deep in the bush and far from any help, it was reassuring to be able to crank the "car" back to life when you crawled out of your bedroll to a dead battery. Also, (and I mean no offense to our British brothers here), you'd better be a pretty decent mechanic. It was always something. I carried two tool boxes and a small spares store with me including shackle bolts and half shafts. They did love to snap axles. This is the SWB 40 years ago literally on the back side of the desert (the Kalahari). 4WD Hilux in the background. Eldest son finding a quiet place to read.
The same “little fellow” somewhere above 12,000' with Dad.
And as for the Tacoma/Hilux/4Runner(Gen 1-4) family of vehicles. Nothing to say. They just go.
Stan, The beauty of being me, is no one cares who I am, nor what I do. I am entirely unmemorable. Partly natural talent, partly practice. Tested and perfected.
When society collapses, and the race wars break out, I will be safe. I will unnoticeably move my operations to my secret bivouac area, and wait for the rise of the new society. Leaving no trace. Noticed, but not worth remembering.
Making jokes about driving a modern off grid vehicle evidently got past you.
People joke all the time about whether or not they might spill their bags of mulch in their $100,000.00 off-road mall crawlers. Or if their Evian fits the cup holders. Or if the doors are power assisted so that you don’t have to set down your grocery bags. Who carries grocery bags anymore? Don’t people know Whole Foods delivers?
My first hunting rig, well that had 4 wheel drive, bought ~1980 with my first reenlistment bonus. 1977 FJ55 Iron Pig.
Current Taco although she is getting long in the tooth she still gots it and gets 'er done
First thing did was ripped out the bench seat and made a platform for the dog and store recovery gear and guns.
Rock sliders are set at zero degrees to help prevent damage from lateral slides on icy trails, not pivoting off rocks.
Up until I hit 60 the dog and I would often sleep in the back while hunting.
Not anymore, bones don't care for it and I don't either. I get a cabin for a month or more. And got tired of beating up the truck. And myself in it. Couple of years ago went with a Polaris Northstar Ranger and built a dog box for the back.
Best hunting rig have ever owned, should have done it sooner. Taco is now a tow vehicle. Will replace it in a couple of years with something along the lines of my first 4x4 thinking a Lexus GX or 4Runner. Will likely be my last vehicle ever.
Ah, the romance of a LR. The straight lines and flat surfaces of the first ones were the result of LR's use of surplus aluminum sheets left over from wartime aircraft construction. Originally designed and used as farming equipment. The cheetah on the roof was optional. Gil
Mike, if I’d known all this I would have taken a closer look at your ride when we were up on the Minnesota coast. Instead I was mesmerized by the steaks!
FallCreek - my Series IIA Landrover made a mechanic and a Landcruiser driver out of me. "If you want to drive a hundred miles into the bush, buy a Landrover. If you want to get home again, buy a Landcruiser." You start repairing a Landrover the day after driving it out of the showroom. My LR's only saving grace was that it usually waited until I reached Nairobi before self-destructing; the chassis once broke in half as I pulled into a friend's driveway. You always carried spare front axles (halfshafts) because even after thirty years of breaking, Landrover could not bring itself to make them slightly thicker.
The Series III LR with the Range Rover suspension was an instant hit when it arrived in East Africa in the early 1980's because they were so comfortable compared to the brutal ride of the Series II's. However nearly everyone who bought one rolled it within weeks because they unwittingly drove far too fast for the 'road' conditions. I have to admit, however, that I have twice tipped a Landcruiser driving at a perfectly reasonable speed going downhill on a gravel surface, and the same happened to my field assistant in another one - they suddenly go sideways and the high center of gravity just pulls them over. Another time I was carrying three drums of diesel in the back and tipped over on a muddy slope.
LC's are as close to indestructible as a vehicle can be; you can count on several years of heavy use on appalling roads before anything goes wrong. I am still driving a 2002 pickup with probably a couple hundred thousand of bush miles on it (odometer died once or twice), albeit after an engine rebuild and a new transmission. And the African tradition of gas stations adulterating diesel with much cheaper kerosene makes for occasional new fuel pumps.
1986 CJ-7 - India 3 years, Greece 3 years, Italy 2 years, Dalmatian Coast, Crete, Bulgaria, Turkey, USA...25 years of going everywhere, coast, sand, rock, mountain, forest, rocky passes, Marathon beach...Croatia just after the war...hunting the Gangetic plain.. In Europe I could hunt, cruise, crawl...and pull up to an opera and everyone would be looking at the Jeep, not the Rolls behind me.
In the LR vs. LC contest, LGF had it summarized succinctly based on his African experiences: "The Land Rover made a mechanic and a Land Cruiser driver out of me." Gil
It’s one of the reasons these things fascinate me.
I want to see how a group of engineers can rectify these seemingly conflicting design parameters.
You have the Australians pounding them to pieces in their dusty desert, you have the central Africans ferrying materials through waist deep mud, Northern Africans operating in 100 degree temps, Finns above the Arctic circle, Central American transporters working in endless rain and humidity, etc.
I just want to make sure my Evian fits in the cup holders.
If Ineos is going to make any inroads against Toyota, the units have to be field repairable by semiskilled people.
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"....repairable by semiskilled people" That term or concept is something that BMW engine designers do not have in their database and you can count on it not happening. Maybe it is better to say that "repairable by semiskilled people" is an oxymoron in modern vehicle production. 40 years ago, the repair of electronics as well as mechanical parts were repairable to the individual component, now the definition of individual components to BMW (and others) is an entire circuit board or worse the entire "computer" devise---their own technicians do not know how to read a logic diagram.
Where do modern auto engineers and designers learn such stupidity as building engines with internal water pumps that leak water into the engine oil crankcase and further the water pump is hidden behind the camshaft timing chain that no semi-skilled person can find much less replace/repair.
25 years ago when I lived, worked and hunted (best all around wingshooting in the world) in Southern Africa, I learned that the Toyota 70 series pickup truck (Bakkies as they are called there) was the toughest pickup truck in the world and Land Rover could not match them. I suspect they are still the toughest and most reliable--- though underpowered for American ideas.
1986 CJ-7 along a canal in Uttar Pradesh. Kept that truck for 27 years driving it all over India, Pakistan, Greece, Crete, Bulgaria, Turkey, Italy, the Dalmation Coast.... I spent $500 a year just to keep it running but that was cheaper than car payments.
I work in the automobile industry, the automation industry segment as it were.
In fact, we installed probably 25 robots, and unloaded another hundred or more today.
That’s just in the body shop, where every bit of sheet metal on a modern car, is handled by robots, jigged up by robots, spot welded by robots, and measured by Robots. To stds no human could ever meet.
I think Ineos has a long Way to go before they can start doing business in the United States.
Even for us early adopters, they have been very reluctant to have anything other than canned press days, for Internet personalities that will say favorable things about them.
For instance, they had a press day in Denver, and yet invited no one that wasn’t part of the automobile press. You would think, that you would see at least one, non-press related report, about driving the vehicle.
They have yet to publish anything related to their crash testing for the US market.
That is a very big hurdle to overcome.
I will be very surprised if they start delivering vehicles in the United States in 2023.
I am worn out on their continuous internet hype.
They will either perform as designed, or they won’t.
Automobile marketing is a moving target.
What might be hot today, could very easily be dated and boring 6 months from now, and the volumes collapse.
The longer they take to bring the product to market, the greater the risk that alternatives will evolve to fill the market.
I think many of the off-road SUV manufacturers are already eyeing the misstep of the new Land Rover defender.
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