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Hey Doc , have you heard about the guy who drowned in a river which had an average depth of only two inches
In any event , also according to ( insurance ) stats , most accidents occur at around 25 miles per hour

Okie just joking on this side.

The defender is the only landy that can call itself a landy. It is really sad that it is getting replaced with a mini lookalike that will never see a dirt road.

No problem , us Landy okes don't mind sharing a joke or two
Now let me tell you what happened today , since my last post on this thread this morning .
Driving between Cape Town and Worcester in my son's Landy , I stop next to the road , look around at scenery etc , leaving the engine running .
Then , when I want to get back in to continue my journey , somehow , all the doors are locked
It has central locking , but don't ask me how it happened , it's all locked . Everything inside , cell-phone , spectacles , keys in ignition , engine still running ........
Stopped a passing car , explained , borrowed the guy's cell-phone to call my son , he has lost the spare key
Well , I had to break a window to get into the vehicle - nothing else to do , otherwise I would still be standing there
Get yourself a Landy , and share the adventure

Okie,

Why didn't you just reach in through the panel gaps and unlock the car. Assuming it is a defender?

DrPhil- remember I said it's my son's vehicle . Now , you know us Landy fans become very attached to our vehicles . Shucks , those bakkies have personalities of their own , and they can become quite fond of their owners too , as you may imagine .
Well , there I was standing in the heat , getting hooter under the collar , and suspecting that this Landy did this on purpose - (which maybe he did because he was missing his owner you know ) .
I did give it a thought to stick something between those gaps , maybe even my hand , but he was standing idling , sort of shaking his head like a dog , panting , .......
So I decided rather NOT to shove my hand in there , just in case he bites me
And what do I do then

I'll tell you another thing - I was darn glad he didn't drive off without me

Okie -- that must have been quite a shock

My Prado has done it to me as well -- not with the engine running though, just with the keys in the ignition. Fortunately at home so could haul out the spare. Now if I ever have the keys in the ignition & need to get out for any reason, I always open the drivers window wide enough to get my hand in
Hubbie , of course, thinks it's a figment of my imagination

I see we get now automatic 4x4, is it just as good as manuel, and when it breaks isn't it hard to fix and get spairs

Jesica,

If the gearbox were to break it would be more expensive. But it is not something that should break often.

An automatic gearbox is great for sand driving with a petrol engine. But petrol engines are better for sand anyway.

The one place where you really don't want an automatic is when you are on a steep decline and you need your engine to help you keep control and drive down the decline on engine compression. In an automatic you will have to do it on the brakes, which is O.K. as long as you don't have traction control. The traction control will accelerate to keep the wheels from slipping and then you find yourself racing down a very steep rock. Luckily the traction control can be switched off in most of the 4x4's.

On the spares part I don't think it will be a problem as long as you stick to the cars manufactured locally or have a large footprint in the country. The problem will be if you are out in the bush and you break a gearbox or even get a flat tire on a 18 inch tyre. You just don't find that in Africa. I heard a story once about a guy who had to fly back to SA from Tanzania because he had a flat tyre on his Merc GL500. He had to import a tyre just so that he could get his car back.

So if you are going into Africa, make sure you have enough spares and don't use bigger rims than 17 inch.

I havent been on the site for a few days now, and all your posts have really givn me a good laugh to brighten up my lunch hour!

So it seems that I must at least take a look at a landy??
That will please my son in law who gets so mad when we insist on calling his landy a bakkie ...
I quite like the green colour and the ladder to the roof

Interesting info has been coming through the fun posts e.g.
Petrol better than diesel in the sand?
I thought a diesel motor would have more power to pull through the sand.

What about a Pajero. I heard that they can be a bit difficult if you get stuck because each wheel is on its own suspension? And do old, affordable Pajero's give lots of trouble? They look quite comfortable.

The story about the keys and doors locking ...
A friend of mine got a new car - not sure but I think it is a Terios - got home, jumped out to open the gate - door swung closed - locked - baby still in the car
The spare was at work (company car). The boss had to go open up and drive around with the spare.

Tracylee,

It all depends on what you want to use it for. For 4x4 tracks and proper off-roading you don't want something with to much Tupperware. As it will break and will need to be repaced.

There is a large number of great vehicles out there with great overlanding capabilities. The best being the landcruiser 76 station wagon. But it is a donkey with a 4.2L diesel engine.

A Pajero is a good car and very capable but all parts are imported and they are rather complicated so if something does go wrong you are stuck. No fixing it with some wire Same goes for all the newer cars with computers in the engine control system. Land Rover Discoveries are known to go into limp mode. Especially the discovery II. Don't get one of those as you will have a lifetime of problems.

If you get a landy, get one of the defenders and before they do the planned upgrade to the model because it is all but an upgrade.

In sand you need more kW than torque. Higher revs so to speak. When you drive very slow and on difficult terrain such as rocks or through axial twisters a diesel will be better. That is purely because you have enough torque at very low revs. The slower you can go through any obstacle the less chance you have of damaging the car or yourself. You don't need tons of torque to drive most places, just enough to have control.

Any 4x4 that does not have low range and at least a rear diff lock, not just a centre diff lock, is not a 4x4.

Whew that is a mouthful

Most new 4x4s have a lot of Tupperware with the landy probably being the exception to the rule and while I agree with the cruiser as being one of the best they have an insatiable thirst and spares are probably the most expensive of all.

As for the Pajero being complicated, no more than similar vehicles in the same class and costs are about the same to repair. As comparison I had blown a cylinder head gasget in Kosi Bay two weeks ago, the local spares in Emangusi would have gladly ordered the bits I needed and would have had it in a day or two, luckily I have Three magic sons and before I could hurt myself they were there with full field workshop facilities and had replaced the offending parts so that I could carry on with my birding trip. I drive a Pajero and it is one of the most comfortable overlanding vehicles out there:twisted:

The Disco 3 & 4 are of the most capable suvs around and only time will tell what happens to the electronics when it gets long in the tooth, the disco 2 was just a learning curve for the later ones and I would avoid them.

With a bit of driver skill and choosing the right drive line you don't need fancy diff locks just enough clearance and decent tyres, and breaking Tupperware is a sign that you need to do some more training

A landy defender is the only true landy A disco is another luxury vehicle . Fantastic , but.... Hmmm
And don't listen to the nonsense about a Landy using oil etc . Mine has done 138 000 kilometers , and I have not found it necessary to even top up oil in between services - every 20 000 kilometers -( I do not think that ANY other brand can boast with such a record ) Average fuel usage 9,25 km/ liter fuel .

For sand .... also , too much kw can cause spinning of wheels which digs you in deeper . So use a higher gear , not necessarily the low ones . And make sure you deflate the wheels on sand because makes your track bigger and weight distribution is over a bigger area . Especially the Landy , which is a very heavy vehicle , weighing almost 2000 kilograms , and rated to pull a trailer of up to 1500 kilograms .
To explain this - you may not pull a trailer with a total vehicle mass ( including load ) , which is more than the gross weight of the vehicle itself .
Most bakkies have masses of around 1200 to 1300 kg , so there not allowed to pull anything heavier , and the manufacturer actually stipulates this too .
With the Landy at such a nice sturdy , sold weight , and taking into account the maximum size vehicle you may drive with a code 8 driving license , which is 3500 kg , allows you to pull a fairly heavily loaded trailer/caravan .

Well - we are test driving a 1998 landy TD5? short wheel base on Monday - see how my kidneys feel after that.

But also we have seen a Pajero also 1995 or something with 250 on the clock. What do you say about those? Certainly a comfy ride

I will let you know after we have tried them both out

the TD5 landy is a donkey, plain straight forward and would get you anywhere......eventually As you said the ride can be a bit bumpy and the cab slightly squashed for space but for ability these shorties are pretty high on the list

The difference between long and short wheel base in ride comfort is that the shorties often tend to rock more from front to back and tend to be a bit more prone to cross axle hang ups. If you don't have a front or rear diff lock this can be a problem

The Pajero? Well this is a vehicle I know inside out. Arguably the most comfortable ride in its class and on performance up there with the big boys. Fuel consumption is better than most in the class and the super select transmission is excellent enabling you to shift between 2wheel high range to 4 wheel high range and 4 wheel centre diff locked while moving up to 100km/h.
On the negative side is the articulation of the front wheels or rather the lack of it and you need to choose your line more carefully than for instance a cruiser would have to but with a bit of extra driver input this can be overcome. The Tupperware on the gen 2 is not a major problem but the runner boards can get hung up and damaged on the long wheel base on hectic trails. The vehicle would make a solid base for an overlander providing a safe and comfortable ride for the 1000 km high speed run to the trail and still provide great off road ability for the 100 km spent off road crawling. Spare parts are readily available and not overly expensive while the vehicle is basic enough to be repaired by most service centers. In a crunch you can, with the aid of bush mechanics course, get yourself back to civilisation, the vehicle is not that complicated.

If you are looking at a Pajero see if you can get a gen 2.5, this is the blister fender model and without a doubt the best gen 2 built. It comes standard with a rear diff lock and performs excellent off road.

With any 4x4 I would suggest you go for driver training so as to learn where your limits as well as the vehicle's limits are and how to drive off road without ruining the environment.