Is there an idiot’s guide on how to customise a 4x4

Stick with the Rangie ... it'll go further.

................ ;-DFidei defensor

Rosco

Glyn.
Welcome to the groop. Most mods on vehicles are for show. very few actually improve the vehicles over all performance. The engineers that design vehicles spend millions optimizing every detial and complying with the design rules, so if you want to improve the efectiveness of the vehicle rather than the appearance you will be best advised to do a driver training coarse and look for proof of cliams in improved ability.
I have worked in R+ D for many years and have not found very many mods to do what the salesmen cliam. Eric.

Glyn, you may want to consider the Yarra Valley Four Wheel Drive Club - great family club, lots of patrols and good driver training from basic up - the members have spent quite a bit of time explaining to me that you dont have to spend millions - take your time and work out what you need as you go along. I agree that driver training is the first thing you need to undertake - contact Four Wheel Drive Victoria for instructors outside the club. Enjoy mate.

>> I’ve got a stock 97 Range Rover and pushed it as far as the wife will let me off road but the bug has hit me. I’m getting myself a Patrol 3.0TD but, as they come from the factory, they are okay but, reading all the mags on 4x4s I want to play/tour with the thing in the dirt.

Get the 4.2 GU to start with.

>>> All the articles I’ve read make an assumption that the reader has had some experience in setting up a 4x4 for playing in the real dirt and living out of an Engel 40lt fridge for a week.

All depends on what you want to do with the car, how serious you want to be.

>>> I’m not looking to setup a vehicle for a full on tour of the deep red but, one I would like to.
The GU would be the tourer, the Rangie the hack.

>>> So, is there somewhere that I can go to, to work out what kit I should add in what order to give me an ever increasing capability?

Rangie Auto in Melb is a good start, www.outerlimits4x4.com heaps of places, you need to figure out what you want to do with each, and setup a budget for both.. To setup the GU for outback touring will be $10k at least, to setup rangie for SERIOUS offroad work will be $5-10k....

>>> Has anyone see something where a person has written up a conversion story on a vehicle from scratch over a period of time? I not worried about what vehicle is used or the make of the equipment, more they approach they took and the order they did things in.

Theres a thread on outerlimits on this at the moment.

>>> I know half the fun is in the trying but, its expensive kit and I do not want to waste time/money if I can learn from those before me?

Work out which does what first.

>>> Can anyone recommend a good club, with a heavy Patrol influence, to the East of Melbourne? I’m based at the end of the Eastern Freeway.

Nissan club Vic, meeting tomorrow night.

Meetings are held first Wednesdays at ~ 7.30pm.
Aline Burgess Hall,
English Language Center
Cnr Thomas and Douglas St's
Noble Park
Melways 89 F3

First of all you are intent on buying a vehicle which is fast getting the reputation of being the Ford Edsel of the new millenium.....

To go bush you need

A reliable vehicle
Extra fuel capacity
Communications gear
Recovery gear
Enough water
Something to sleep in or on or with
Enough tucker and a tin opener
Tyre repairs
Some spares
A bucket
A Shovel
First aid kit
Some common sense

You don't need

A fridge
A GPS
A Laptop
A DVD player
An Instant in-car hot shower
and a host of other crappy toys

Have fun.

Willem

Googs Lake camp

Glyn,

These questions are asked of us often - Have you read through the Vehicle Setup Accessories section of the site. Click on Accessories in Topic search. Sure we have the full gamit of stuff that you can jam in your vehicle but we have all the stuff that is required and we have it all explained in the Accessories section - We used to call it the Vehicle Setup Feature but have now rolled it into the Accessories Topic Search. This was originally published in week by week setup of our new vehicle from stock 80 series to our current travelling machine. Also If you have not read our travel journals (Now this is not for the faint hearted - Over 500 pages of content) you will find info on what we did with our current and our past vehicles from our experiences on the road. Have a look in Trip Planning - Travel Journals if you have not already.Regards
ExplorOz Team - David
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Always working, not enough travelling ;-)