Heresy - burn the witch

Have to say, I'm currently trawling eBay for the same reasons. Looking at a C5 estate after really liking my dad's C5 Hatch he had a while back

- it has pretty much the same HDI engine in that my Cit Relay van has, and that goes like a bomb (for a van!) makes the Disco seem like a tractor when going between the two!

Also looking for a cheap project/fun LR to use for lanes etc. so I'm not totally out of the LR fold.

Matt

My Audi auto diesel hunts gears and revs its nuts off, and that's without towing! Bloody auto boxes ;-)

As long as you don't start talking about Belgravia and "big ass-tires".

Perhaps its something in the water Rich. I'm down to one Range Rover myself now. The disco 1 has gone to help someone with spares, the series three that I bought for the winch and was tempted to keep has also gone. The Tdi Range Rover that I recently replaced with the P38 has also gone to a new and deserving owner, and last but not least, my beloved class 5 trialler has been sold to someone in the 4x4 club. All in the last two weeks. There is a large hole in my soul and also my garage so am on the lookout for a project. A mate of mine has offered me a 90 with a blown engine for 100quid so i'm tempted to add a V8 and auto and use it for trialling / play, but i am also tempted by a series one locally. With regards to the Fraud Mondeo, we've been using a 52 plate one for our driving course for work. If its one of those models i can verify that they have a maximum speed of 126mph! ;-) We've also had access to a brand new mondeo for a couple of days, one of the nicest cars i've ever driven, even though we did go through a set of front pads in a fortnight......... We need a blitz on your series 2 to get it finished!

Dave

There's a joke there, but I will resist.

Not been as fast as that (yet) but it wouldn't surprise me. Nice torquey motor.

I thought you'd never ask! :-)

The Ford Mondeo (think that's what you meant lol) is renowned for its excellent towing ability.

When I shift the TD4 its that or a Subaru.

Both have been tested for towing (up to about 1.5ton) and both are top choices.

Richard

Even greater heresy ... I'm trawling for a Transit!!! I'm a gigging musician and I'm getting fed-up trying to work out the best 'jigsaw puzzle' to fit all my gear in the Rangie. So, I'm finally going to be 'white-van-man' so I don't have to worry about space anymore.

And to emphasise the similarity, my mate just told me a Transit's basically a Mondeo inside a bigger 'container'!!

Regards,

Colin

On or around Mon, 13 Aug 2007 02:48:33 GMT, "CJ" enlightened us thusly:

not quite true...

I can sell you a minibus... it'll be on ebay soon, need the money.

We're looking at a 2.0 TDCi .... but keeping the Disco as my 'plaything', hence the axtras I have been and will continue to be putting on it. ;)

We've had Mondeo's before and really can't fault them much, if at all, and certainly way better than Renault Lagunas. All company cars, the Mondeos (1.8 L, 2.0 Di, 2.0 TDCi) were the only ones _never_ to break down. A 2.0 RTi Laguna blew an engine, then when the engine was replaced set itself on fire a few weeks later. A 1.9 dTi was a great towcar but kept breaking down. Not the engine, but the running gear, wheel bearings collapsed, gearbox stopped finding gears, rear axle snapped and loads of other little niggles and faults.

Just a random thought. I sort of remember seeing Transits with four wheel drive;-)

Best of both worlds?

Tciao for Now!

John.

Yup, this one is the 2.0 TDCi - it's a brilliant engine. Ignoring the

4.6 in the P38 [1], it's the best engine I have ever driven in a car. Reasonably refined, huge mid-range so you can keep in a high gear, tows like a dream and as much economy as you have any right to expect. It's the first Ford I have owned, so I am glad to hear of your reliability record. [1] Special case - not strictly comparable with any "normal" engine IMO.

-- Rich B

Careful, you'll start Austin slavering at the mouth again! ISTR him being after one for minibus tomfoolery.

Brings thoughts of Backyard Safaris to mind. An idea I had a few years ago to take people over some of the more scenic green lanes in 12 seaters. It never took off, but if I could find the funds this time....

Tciao for Now!

John.

Well, £10k would get you a pinz 6x6 which is already set up for the job (14 seats), although you'd have to install something to hold onto in the rear otherwise the customers would get thrown around! Not many vehicles that can carry that many people across rough ground while being slightly smaller than a modern range rover. Ride across the rough stuff is surprisingly smooth.

Of course, everyone on the trip would end up with piles, so you'd have to put some more padding on the seats!

If I could be arsed I'd take some people up into the hills tonight to watch the Perseid meteor showers, might go up myself, depends on how tired I am later. Have done a recce for a good watching point, but what was going to turn into a vigil last night ended up as a late night laning session! Bit cloudy today though..

Summat to think about, now I've got rid of the mortgage.

The problem I came across last time though, was finding the market. People who like the rough stuff would be those who'd be more likely to go out & buy their own off roader, while the ones who wouldn't buy their own would demand limo-like comfort. Summat like a County with better seats, & a picnic set up somewhere along the way.

Mined ewe, if someone can find people to ride round Liverpool docks in a DUKW.....

Ideally, I'd reckon to need 3 vehicles, one to carry people, one for stand by & recovery, & one to set up the lunchtime barbie. That means 4 crew, & 25 grand's worth of vehicles & catering kit, I reckon, to do it properly. Another downside is if you've more than 8 seats per vehicle, you need a PCV operator's licence, with bank guarantees & approved premises & maintenance arrangements.

At least I don't need an office with someone on a landline nowadays.....

"More" padding, or "some" padding?;-)

It is, a bit. I've not heard a forecast & I've to be working late tomorrow, so maybe Wednesday or Thursday up by Biddulph Moor somewhere.

Tciao for Now!

John.

We watched for half an hour between about 10:30 and 11:00 last night, before a bank of cloud rolled in. We saw a couple of stunners - long, bright orange, right overhead and then across the horizon, plus a lot of smaller ones. Well worth the cricked neck.

-- Rich B

Nah, you use it to justify buying the truck, if there's no business then such is life ;-)

Possible, I know that pinzes are used quite a bit for tour busses, also pheasant shoots and other such stuff. More for those who want to see the outside world but either don't want to, or can't, don the bobble hat and rucksack. Old folk, or disabled, or those who are just looking for something to do without the hassle of knowing where to go and the equipment needed to get there.

Yeah, might be a better bet, a bit more civilised and as long as you're not doing much more than a few bumps a fully-loaded county would be OK to do it on a very regular basis (as opposed to just a once-a-month off-roading trip). The pinzes are built to handle a lot, but their extra ability when fully loaded might not be needed for gentle tours. Never having run such a business it's hard to say what's more important.

Take four seats out and use the space for wheelchairs?

It has some padding, but the seats are so narrow that stretching your legs means you tend to get a numb arse so the padding becomes irrelevant ;-)

Last time we stargazed in Pembrokshire we went and laid flat out on the bardic throne in the middle of the gorsedd cicle at St David's airfield - excellent seeing & no cricked neck.

Lizzy

I was considering doing similar in our back garden, but the lounger chairs were in the shed and the grass was wet. So, a cricked neck it was.

I once spent a night on South Stack (Holyhead) flat on my back, watching the lighthouse beams whirling round over my head like a gigantic silver cartwheel. This was 1972, so the cries of "wow, man, the colours" and "hey, that's really far out" were historically authentic. Happy daze.

-- Rich B

That's one way of looking at it:-) At the time, I could have got away with a couple of bench seats in a long wheel base Landie.

It sounds as if a rethink might be in order. Possibly get in touch with someone who owns a place in the middle of nowhere so you could put people up overnight, as well as organisations like PHAB. Hmm.... A wheelchair lift on a Pinz.....

Wild camping for the disabled, sort of thing. A lot of the pheasant shoots & estate tours never go on the public road, though, so they only need to keep the insurance companies happy. If you're laning, then that's a public highway & the full weight of the PCV or private car hire legislation comes down on you. Not necessarily a killer, but added expense for things like CRB checks for the drivers. One gotcha I came across last time is that the emergency brake must not act through a UJ, so the transmission brake on a Landie won't cut the mustard. You'd either need an exemption or put a handbrake on at least one axle. Mounting one on the diff nose may be allowed, if it was engineered right.

I had in mind tracks like the one across the hills going west from Rhayader or some of the tracks on the North & South Downs. Those are short & you need summat civilised for the roads in between. As for never having run such a business, I don't think anyone ever has in this country.

Possible. Questions need to be asked.

Hmmm... So you get piles, but can't feel 'em;-)

Back of an envelope time. Okay. 7 seater Defender (5 passengers) is about 700 a week to hire insured, so about 500 to buy & maintain. Allow a tank of fuel a day, so another 350 a week. Then 400 a week for wages or living expenses. (All these are on the high side, because there'll be other stuff I've missed, like the weekly axle oil changes)

That's about 2 grand a week per vehicle as a full time business, that's about 70 to 75 quid a day per person including a lunch at a decent pub. Call it 425 a week each including accommodation. The baggage goes either in a Sankey trailer or by van. Sellable, maybe.....

Follow us for about 100 plus accommodation if you bring your own vehicle. We'll even throw in a pull with a kinetic recovery rope or winch for when you get stuck;-)

The figures can almost certainly be improved on by using older & larger vehicles, (101FC? Pinz? )but it's a ballpark figure. I might start asking questions.

Mebbe advertise it using borrowed vehicles to start with.

Tciao for Now!

John.