Hey Lanlubber!
Let me hit you back one at a time ;). The
concept of getting stuck is always on my mind, but I'm cautious. You really have to make a solid effort to get stuck. I won't take the car near anything that resembles a beach or dunes when I'm alone, it's not work hours of digging to free myself. On the trails i'll turn around before attacking a big mud hole. I do carry straps, tree straps and a handful of shackles, along with my high lift jack and a shovel. If i got myself into a stucky situation i could get myself out, it would be a lot of work but I could manage.
I've only owned the car for two years and my priorities went:
- General maintenance
- Suspension
- Wheels and tires
- Sliders
- Roof rack
- Tent
- House battery setup
- 12v compressor fridge
- Scene lighting
Future plans:
- Heavier springs
- Drawer system
- Bumpers & winch
- Forward lighting
Its a work in progress but I'm not going to sit at home until the truck is perfect, and I want to get out and use it and see where I need to improve. A good example is that the medium springs I have in the car are not stiff enough even without bumpers so the next step is to get HD springs. And honestly if I smash up those factory bumpers, which isn't likely as we don't wheel the car that hard it'll just be a good excuse to replace them :P
The Snorkel is from a company called Southdown in th UK.
LINK I liked it because it has an old school look that I think fits the truck nicely. As well as being much more affordable than the "Safari" brand unit.
I appreciate your comments I'm hoping to write up a full trip report, and share it with everyone :).
Thank you for this post. It seems we are pretty much on the same build path. I purchased my 2000 disco in Feb 2019. It was a one owner with 101,000 miles. The owner was the kind of guy who maintained it properly but let little things go that didn't effect the cars drive ability. Example, if a window quit working properly he just wouldn't use it.
When I got it three of the four windows didn't operate. They all had good motors but the window rollers were shot. I replaced the front window rollers with new units. The brake light switch was not working but he didn't even know it was out until I told him after I found out quite accidentally. The plastic bumper in the rear was so broken it wouldn't hold the tail lights. The seller told me it got cracked when he dropped the spare tire on it and that started the crack and over time it just got worse. Anyway I bought a lucky8 rear steel bumper for it and that fixed the problem and gave me s good off road bumper.
The front bumper wasn't in too bad a shape but it limited my tire size so I replaced it with the lucky8 steel winch bumper and added a light bar to the new bumper. I felt it still needed a bit of a lift so I added 2" lift spacers from lucky8 and then bought new 265/75/16
Goodyear Ultraterrane A/T tires and four 1" wheel spacers for a better and wider stance.
I purchased the lucky8 rock sliders but have yet to install them.
I have most of the things you mentioned, a few more and a few less but like you I am working on it still. I'm in the recovery stage of a recent colon cancer operation and have been slowed down since May on my build.
I dont have the winch yet (no hurry) or a snorkel but I dont plan on going swimming just yet. I do want one and like yours for the same reason as you.
My roof rack was made in Africa for a diplomats disco. He sold his disco when he returned to the states and I was lucky to buy it from his wife who said it was taking up too much garage space, I paid her $400 for it and feel like I stole it. This is a pic of my Disco as it sits presently without the rack on it.