My new car

[-Henno-]

I am a bit proud of her so please be kind with any replies or I may cry.

Phil put me onto this car and I am very happy with it. Apparently The Deckie is familiar with it as well. I have been after a car for both work and play and this one seems to fit the bill nicely.

I needed loads of space in the back for my work gear but wanted the 4 door for passengers and more security for my expensive tools as well. No Heath it is not for carrying babies! Not yet anyway.

Loads of extras. The guy who owned it took it up to the cape, which scared me at first but he seems to have rebuilt everything that he destroyed although there is some surface damage around the bull bar where his recovery gear chaffed through the paint and some mandatory stone chips. It's a work car so these don't faze me. I still think it's pretty.

It has bullbar, winch, snorkel and ordinary spotties which will be replaced with IPF's soon. Under the hood the exhaust was swapped out to match the chip that they put in and it now develops 137KW, so for a TD it goes pretty hard. Had it up to the old ton on the way to Biloela last week.

The wheel base has been extended by 330mm so it is loooong! A bit of a slack turning circle as a result but we need the space. As a result of this length increase they could fit a 2.1M canopy and tray on the back which is standard for a 2 door ute I believe. It has basic racks on the roof but work will commence attaching my Rhino ladder racks onto these soon as well. New Koni shocks went under it on return from the cape and the guy that was using it for a while towed a 6M plate boat up to Agnes and buggered 5th gear doing it so the gearbox is completely rebuilt.

As it is the RA model it has all the leccy windows and mirrors, which frankly scares me as it's more to go wrong. The fancy seats and carpets are more to muck up so seat covers and floor mats went in yesterday. The 4WD shift on the fly buttons on the dash are pretty neato, no doubt somebody on here will say this system is shit.

The hiccups I need fixed are an orange engine warning light comes on the dash for a few seconds every now and then for no reason. Supposedly a Holden dealer in Brisbane looked at this and couldn't work out what was causing it. The cruise control turns itself off after a minute or two as well which is a shame as I am actually enjoying this function for the first time on a car as I do so much highway driving now. It has a massive clank on start up and shut down which sounds like the engine shaking something onto a fan or something. The guy tried to fix this and went as far as buying engine mounts but when they lifted the engine to put these in they were fine.

It will definately open up more fishing grounds up here for us. I think I will be avoiding a certain 4WD park in Brisbane though as I here it renders cars an expensive mess.

[Black_Rat]

Nice Truck Heeno

How's the clearance between the tailgate and your boat winch ?

I tried tow my old tinnie with a mates Hi-Lux (cough.. ) and he had an extended tray on it which didn't allow the trailer to fit all that well on the tow ball with bugger all clearance.

[-Henno-]

It doesn't seem to bad BlackRat. I took the rig down to the servo to pump up some tyres yesterday and it cleared fine. I have a pretty long bar on the trailer, well compared to my last boat at least. And it looks like the tow bar was set back a fair bit when they extended the car so the canopy only overhangs a tiny bit.

[thedeckie]

Yes Mark, Iam familiar with that car, it had two bent con rods but the bloke said he had some special oil he could put into it to make the noise go away until he sold it, I think he mentioned that the gearbox,transfer case and both diffs were on there way out as well but also had some special stuff to put in it to make those noises go away.....DOH...did I type that or was I just thinking out loud!!

Seriously, Im sure it will serve you well, I have told you my thoughts on the bloke you got it off, now get out and get it dirty!!!

She looks the goods for what you want,Im sure Teri will enjoy it...(the car)

Cheers

Paul

[Lucky_Phill]

I suppose it's all right for a Holden

Well Mark, I didn't get a spotters fee from the seller, so I'll have to hit up the buyer

137KW.............. that's a tad more than the Nissan ( 110 ).

The extended chassis will give a much better ride, but as you said, you lose a bit in the turning circle, can't have it all.

Yep, some 4 x 4 areas down this way can pull you up very suddenly indeed.

Speaking of which, the Nissan will be hitting the beaches of Fraser Island in less than a week from today. Yee Haa.

Phill

[bugman]

I think I've been in that car

Maybe even on Fraser - didn't we sink it at Eli Phil ?