Saturday, April 23, 2011

My first Landrover still going strong



This was my first Landrover. It's a 1968 Series IIA 88 model. 88 refers to the wheelbase length. This truck was sold by Clark Simpson's motors to BC Hydro who used it for their line crews. You can tell BC Hydro trucks by the PTO winch on the front and the way the 2 piece tailgate had been fixed together and altered to a 1 piece door.
I bought it around 1977-78 from Wright marine supplies. I drove this truck hard, had lots adventures and some misadventures in it. I am still alive today because of the remarkable "Safe Working Angle" of these trucks, other trucks would have rolled on me. It was a good vehicle to learn on, cheap to fix and you can handcrank them, which was good as I was to broke to get a better battery.

in the summer I would take the top off and drive around with the windshield down. Driving on the highway like that I saw a dot ahead of me, seconds later the dot turned out to be a bumblebee that did a head on into my forehead, leaving a nice little bruise, the bumblebee did not fare as well.
Two features that I can spot on this truck is the shovel on the wing and two hooks for sandchannels on the side, both installed by myself. The fellow who owns it, installed a new frame and rebuilt the motor. However I notice that several temporary fixes I did are still in place, pretty funny to say the least. I sold this truck around 1988 to the current owners dad, who gave it to him. I replaced it with a 109 5 door, which I will chat about in another post.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Camping CF Style



Some things I don't miss about the army.