What was your first vehicle you took exploring.

  • HTML tutorial
somerset-andy

somerset-andy

Rank V
Launch Member

Pathfinder I

1,798
Middlezoy, UK
Member #

4776

I had one of these, a Ford Escort van in the mid 80's. It was our daily use car, camping truck, wilderness exploration vehicle, tent, gear and dog in the back and away to the hills in the UK. Snowdonia, Lake District , Dartmoor, Exmoor and the Peak District National Parks were our play grounds. It was as far as could go back then, being just students. Great memories.
View attachment 23025
 
  • Like
Reactions: jeffs blackjeep, MBroenkow, 9Mike2 and 1 other person
Boort

Boort

Rank V
Launch Member

Member III

2,779
Colorado
Member #

9314

@fj80toyman
You're not the only one. I'm not sure If I have any pics of her but my first exploring vehicle was a 1972 VW Baja bug. Beat to all hell, Rattle can black, with a roof rack, bus Transaxle, Ghia Disk brakes up front, and 31" tires. (various engines as my brother and I could drop and swap an engine in under 45 mins) Near the end she had a cheep winch under the hood Where the cas tank had been that I once used to help a Jeep off of a rock. If we scratched her up we reached in to where the back seat used to be and grabbed the can of paint and painted over the damages area and dried it off on the ride home. Once got her stuck up to the pan in a mud hole while "off roading" in a nearby field. go lucky and found where someone had illeaglly dumped a roof's worth of used shingles and debris. started feeding shingles under the tires like Maxtrex, drover her out, over the rim of the hole and over to the gas station (with heads hanging out window cause there was a solid 1" of mud over the whole car and the wipers could not cut it. We were NOT welcome to use the carwash at the gas station! so we scraped the mud off the windows and left.) There was mud from that day packed into corners of that car a year later when we stripped her for parts.

Boort
 
  • Like
Reactions: chrispartida, 9Mike2 and d2 rover
MBroenkow

MBroenkow

Rank V
Launch Member

Advocate I

1,836
Sonoma County, CA
Member #

4455

Steve said:
Very nice! Mine was too low for gravel (which is why I also had an OBXT), but man, was that a fun car! I had mine for 14 years.
Click to expand...
I forgot to mention earlier I had Tein Type HG gravel coil overs, which I was able to get a few more inches of lift out of, and Primitive Racing front and rear skid plates in addition to RL-7 rally wheels. It was pretty beefy but not like some of the Forester builds I've seen here. I still did pretty well in SCCA Rallycross unlimited class up against 400hp STi's.
 
blackntan

blackntan

Rank V
Launch Member

Pathfinder I

2,271
Uk. 53.4084 N 2 .9916W.
First Name
Black
Last Name
Tan
Member #

2385

Service Branch
Boys brigade
somerset-andy said:
I had one of these, a Ford Escort van in the mid 80's. It was our daily use car, camping truck, wilderness exploration vehicle, tent, gear and dog in the back and away to the hills in the UK. Snowdonia, Lake District , Dartmoor, Exmoor and the Peak District National Parks were our play grounds. It was as far as could go back then, being just students. Great memories.
View attachment 23025
Click to expand...
No. There a blast from the past we used to all sit in the back no seats dogs all off to wales camping good old escorts
 
  • Like
Reactions: somerset-andy and 9Mike2
Boort

Boort

Rank V
Launch Member

Member III

2,779
Colorado
Member #

9314

@wrestlingnrj

Manxes were so cool. I was helping my brother build a Defender dune buggy (sleeker lines than the myers kind of a cross between a manx and Karmann Ghia) Nearly impossible to find parts for. Came to him as a rolling shortened chassis. We got the fiberglass all worked out and mounted, but never got it on the road since we could not locate a 1958 Opal windshield that it required.

Brother too sold it when he wanted to buy his Jeep.

Boort
 
  • Like
Reactions: 9Mike2
jhill15

jhill15

Rank 0

Contributor II

98
I love threads like these! My first 4x4 beater was a 1987 trooper...but it only took me a few places. The rig that got me started in taking me all over the East coast was my outback wagon!!! I beat that thing up and down the coast for years!!!! I loved it!!! This pic was the our last adventure together!!


Sent from my LG-H900 using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: 9Mike2
Veggie Man

Veggie Man

Rank VI
Launch Member

Traveler III

3,272
Fort Worth
First Name
John
Last Name
Armstrong
Member #

4800

I don't have any pics of her but I had a 1994 Chevy K2500 short bed 4WD diesel that I climbed some mountains in AZ in and had a blast doing it. Even further back than that was a 1977(??) Datsun 4WD that my dad owned. We would climb over mountains on weekend trips in Hawaii and always had a blast.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 9Mike2
crit_pw

crit_pw

Rank V
Launch Member

Advocate II

1,651
Silt, Colorado
Member #

6206

1973 K5 Blazer. I only owned it for 2 years but I don't think the top was on it for more than 3 weeks during that entire time and I went everywhere it could take me. Slept in the back seat many times in the middle of nowhere. (Sorry no pics of that one, I was still a teen). I then went many years without a vehicle that I could explore in until I got my 1997 Dodge Ram 2500. This rig actually got some love and money put into it and took my family and kids from the Rockies to the east coast and back and more trails than I can remember. I never could bear the thought of getting rid of this rig until earlier this year when my oldest boy finally convinced me to let him have it since it would stay in the family. My boys grew up in this truck so it only seemed right to pass it on to him.View attachment 29223
 
  • Like
Reactions: B_the_GXdude, 9Mike2 and hardtrailz
Quicksilver

Quicksilver

Rank VI
Launch Member

Advocate III

3,127
Molalla, OR
Member #

5353

Believe it or not, a '77 Ford Pinto. I beat the hell out of that thing. Sold it when I went to college, then bought a '74 Dodge Power Wagon.
 
Tebbiebear

Tebbiebear

Rank I
Launch Member

Contributor I

233
Story City, Iowa
Member #

6479

My first was a '65 VW Beetle. I pulled the jugs and lapped in a big bore kit and relapped the valves, cleaned it out and swapped in a starter at the age of 14. The Bug was a gift from my cousin, he was a VW nut and had some spare parts that he let me dig through to get what I needed. Once it was running my best friend and I explored my parents farm like it was darkest Africa. Many backroads and farmland was explored with that little beetle. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom