This is purely for my own entertainment and a little bit of reminiscing.
Up until we came to Butler I hadn’t got into 4wding at all. I was more a sports car kinda guy… yeah… I’d be thinking that too.
But one day my father in law left his cruiser with us for a while and I decided it was time to give this 4wding thing a go. So I hopped in and took it down the tracks north of Jindalee and onto the beach, where it promptly got bogged. Not all that surprising seeing as I was figuring it out on the run. There was a fairly ugly internal panic going on as I realised I was on the beach alone and out of phone range… with someone else’s car. Ooops
I got out and started to dig it out and then remembered something about letting the tyres down. Once I dropped the pressures I was away, and headed straight home. I didn’t want my next move to be bogging it below the high tide line.
After that drive I decided it was time to ‘get one of them’. As you do… Nothing like a bit of adrenalin to get you inspired.
So I began to look around at the bottom end of the market and found an old 1981 Landcruiser on LPG and bought it for $4500.00. It was a 4 speed, with way too much rust, but it was unstoppable. It was the kinda car that didn’t matter if it copped a few dents, or if the kids played on the bonnet…
We took that car everywhere and it certainly was the goods when it came to the dunes or anything off road. Its great when you can smash a car and just not care!
On the road the 4 speed was just a bit annoying once you got to 100kph and the fumes that made their way into the cab from the exhaust were at times a bit overpowering. The only time it really gave us grief was on the way back from Busso in Dec 2004 and the crankshaft pulley and harmonic balancer fell off. The engine bay was covered in oil and we had to get towed home. You can read about that saga here and here and here and finally here…
We eventually decided to retire it after a couple of years and a local kid bought it. It became legend of the Butler neighbourhood until it was stolen from him and never seen again. So Big Blue is out there somewhere but we don’t know where.
After Big Blue – (which could have been called big red based on the amount of rust in her) – I decided to look for another cruiser but free of rust and picked up a stunning old 1985 Cruiser with no rust and just 185ks ks for just $5K. This was a beautiful car but with the old 3F motor on LPG but there were days you wondered if it could get up a decent hill. It wasn’t going to be our round Oz car, and while it was comfortable and spacious I just couldn’t see us towing a camper around Oz in it. Bummer because it was an awesome old car.
From here it was onto Big Red the 1996 Patrol and that was a beast. She lasted us 5 years and a round Oz adventure and wsa a brilliant car.
Of course I have already mused on the latest cars here.