I will still be uploading photo's onto my new web site.
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Yes I call it a truck
because my wife drives a small Nissan 1400 bakkie actually used to... and both vehicle's used to park next to each other in the garage and her bakkie looks so small, anyway to give a brief history of this vehicle, I bought it from a guy in Delmas which is near Springs in The Transvaal a few years back. Before I bought this Hilux I used to own a Datsun Tracker which was a 1983 model, it had the small L1800 engine fitted, I re-built this vehicle collecting parts from all over the place, it was a very reliable little 4x4, but times change in a person's life, after hitting a few cattle in the road with my other Nissan 1400 bakkie which I wrote off, I decided that I required a vehicle that had more muscle to the front end of it, thus I sold the Tracker for R18 000. wanted more but the guy who was interested in buying it from me knocked my original price of R22 000. down to the R18 000. luckily he had not seen the vehicle yet, thus I just removed the new ATX Firestone tyres and fitted other more worn tyres to the vehicle, which I sold the bakkie to him with, I also gave him a few extra spare parts to go with the bakkie and then afterwards I sold the ATX tyres to a farmer who carts milk for R4 000. but there were in fact 6 tyres basically new, thus at the end of the day I still got my money in the end.
So I now had a written off Nissan 1400 bakkie, which my insurance paid me out R26 000. then also the R18 000. from the Datsun Tracker and thus I started to look around for another 4x4, looking at various web sites and newspapers as well as The Autotrader magazine.
So while looking in The Autotrader I came across this advert of a Toyota Hilux single cab 4x4 for sale, I then phoned the person Carel (will leave out his surname ) anyway there was one photo in the magazine but a person cannot see much in those pics, thus Carel emailed me some more, my brother said that this vehicle looked like a boat, he even asked where is the outboard motor at the rear?
Well I like what I saw and told Carel that I am interested in buying it, but first just some info on what it consisted of;
Black Diamond 3" suspension as well as shocks
50mm body lift
4Y engine with branches and free flow
single joint revolver shackles at the rear
A so called Detroit Locker in the front will come back to that later.
Snorkel
Dual roll bar system on the load body
Shortened load body but the chassis was not shortened
Mounted axe and spade
Funny looking copy type ARB front bumper, had this checkered plate on it for show.
Side rock sliders
Rear pipe with Bow shackle
BFG Muds in 33" x 1250 x 15" but not much left of the tread.
Rhino seat cover
Rhino tarp for the rear
And last but not least A grade 3 anti theft devise pepper spray system as well as the alarm system.
There might have been one or two other items that I have forgotten to mention, well Carel was rather rude to me, he said that if I wanted this vehicle I must pay him straight away, well I did want it, thus without actually seeing the vehicle in "the flesh" I transferred R55 000. into his bank account and then a few days later went up to JHB with a truck from work to go and fetch it, met Carel in Springs at a place that looked like a huge ship at some shopping mall, had to wait for him and I can tell you I was getting worried "thinking you know what".
Well Carel did eventually arrive and took me out to his plot at Delmas to look at the vehicle, I can say that to buy a vehicle under these conditions is not very nice, what I saw on his drive way was in fact a vehicle that had just had some paint put on it.
Thus we then sorted out the paper work, keys and a few other things Carel pointed me in the direction of the nearest petrol station where I had to fill the vehicle up, after this I was on my way home, but I can tell you driving a vehicle of this size down the hiways of JHB at 100km per hour was not fun, when most of the vehicles were passing me left and right at 120 to 140km per hour, but the looks that I got from people that passed me, I am still sure to this day that they were not looking at this cool dude driving this vehicle but at the Toyota Hilux instead.
First of all so that everybody can see who SYRON CONVERSIONS belongs to and who we are.
Eventually after many hours I managed to arrive safely back in Queenstown, this is when I noticed some oil leaks, the power steering box was leaking oil out through the pitman arm shaft, colour red ATF oil, and there was also a small oil leak under the engine.
Thus I will just post a few photo's and then carry on with the various modifications that we have done to this vehicle in the other section.
Ronny driving my truck and I was taking the photo's, the young guys who were with us, help us to clear back the cut thorntree branches, we normally give them meat and cooldrinks when we braai and some money as well.
Crossing over to the other side, yes this is the route that we have to take, this trail is known as The Rocky Mountain 4x4 Trail, just outside Queenstown, it is mean, rough and tough, but optional by-pass sections are available for the drivers who drive 4x4 vehicles that have side steps and no diff locks.
We call the above crossing Wayne's Crossing, one of our club members left his front bumper behind as well as the electric winch, he was driving a Mazda 2.5 DTI and was not happy, he sold that vehicle soon afterwards and is now riding a 4x4 Quad.
Another 4x4 article also about driving The Famous Rocky Mountian 4x4 Trail, these articles are very exciting and interesting to read, photo's will follow soon.
Another bash at The Rocky Mounatin 4x4 Trail
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The Rocky Mountain
4x4
Trail
On Sunday the 25th of August 2002, five 4x4 vehicles left Excelsior Motors at 9h30 am sharp and drove out in convoy towards Lessyton. The drivers and vehicles being,
Simon Morris and Ben Nel in the Datsun Tracker 4x4, also known as "The Mountain Tortoise", then we had Chris and Lynn Smith in their Nissan 3.2 single cab 4x4, this vehicle is also known as " Hogwash", Gilbert van Zyl, Chris Futter, his son and then my beautiful wife, Miche'le were in Gilbert's Toyota Hilux, double cab, 2.2 petrol double cab 4x4 , Gilbert says that Toyota's do not get stuck ? Ha Ha.
We then had Waen, Phylicity and their daughter Monique Moss in their Isuzu single cab 4x4 diesel, this 4x4 is known as a " Mean Machine", it handles the muddy sections of the trail without getting stuck! and then there was Hein Kumm and his co- driver Butch Kriel in the Nissan Patrol 4x4.
When we all arrived at the start point of the trail, the drivers concerned locked their vehicles front hubs on the wheels, Simon then gave a short talk about safety and warned that this 4x4 trail would be very slipperely and muddy and that we must please help each other. We all then aired down our tyres, my tyres on my Tracker I aired down to one bar pressure. Remember I only use Firestone A.T.X. 215 x 15" tyres, I find these tyres are best for all the different types of terrain that I drive, they have never let me down.
Have you ever asked yourself when you drive your 4x4, " what is the one thing that stands between you and overcoming that killer obstacle?"
Is it a combination of urges and needs, or instinct and intelligence? After you've been driving for a while you take for granted what you've learned and how to approach each challenge and trail each time. But you have to remember that instinctual driving habits will come as you get more experience. Also remember when we are all out on a trail drive we are there to help each other when required. One last thing that a driver of a 4x4 must remember, "Even the toughest guy or girl can handle a little bit of driving advice".
Simon and Ben then took the lead and we crossed the first stream with out any problems and the next stream crossing and then the trail took us slightly uphill through and over a little rocky twisty section. With a mix of vigor, strength, innocence, ego and impish high spirits, we all decided to take the difficult section past the old grave yard, down into the black rock axle twister river bed route, all went well until we came apon a large pool of water, the night before we had had fifteen milimetres of rain, Chris Futter walked through to see how deep it was, tripped and went for a swim, it must have been" The Rocky's" that he was wearing? Well the water was not too deep and thus we all went through with our vehicles without any problems. We expected that the Toyota might get stuck, but with Gilbert's expert driving tecniques and calm handeling of his 4x4, his vehicle once again surprised us all.
With The Tracker being up front, Ben and Simon were waiting for the rest of the vehicles to catch up, somewhere behind us you could hear Hein Kumm with his muscle, six cylinder diesel motor reving up with brute force, as if it was a wild horse bringing up the rear.
The trail then consisted of a few more stream crossings, steep inclines and very snotty black muddy terrain, this trail is the gateway to "I wonder what is around the next mountain?" After we had finished drinking some hot coffee and a few refreshments to build up some more strength, Hein and Butch took the lead and disappeared down the trail, the other vehicles proceeded carefully on, after a while we were surprised to see Hein walking back towards us on foot, he had entered a new section of this trail that we have just opened and managed to bury both his right wheels in a shallow sloot, which we are still sorting out to prevent further erosion, thus out came the kenetic strap and the high lift jack and base plate which is in fact a thick piece of oak wood. We managed to lift the rear of the Nissan high enough to place Hein's vehicles spare wheel under the rear right wheel and some rocks. Once the kenetic strap was hooked up to the special towing hooks using special rated bow shackles and to Simon's Tracker 4x4. Ben Nel was appointed as the man in charge and once everybody was safely away Ben gave the necessary signals and
out came the Nissan without any damage to the vehicle.
While we were sorting out Hein's vehicle, Waen Moss was busy getting a fire going for the braai, which we all thoroughly enjoyed, Gilbert van Zyl who ownes Bloms Butchery brought out some delicious cheese sausage's which were also braaied. Thankyou to him for his kind gester. Chris Futter shared his fantastic biltong with us all, which came from Nic's Butchery. During the braai a floating trophy was handed over to Hein Kumm, it is known as The Booby prize, consisting of two round huts with chimneys sticking out of the roofs, made from black wood. I am sure that Waen Moss is glad that he has now got rid of it as he was the person who won it on The Adventure 4X4 Trail. This prize is awarded to the driver who gets his vehicle stuck, thinking that his 4x4 can go anywhere. It started raining again and thus we all then proceeded back down the trail, with Chris and Lyn Smith leading the way, all went well until Chris crossed a shallow stream and just could not get his 4x4 up the other side due to the ground being soggy and wet, Hein Kumm then managed to get past Chris's 4x4 and then really made the terrain very mushy due to excessive wheel spin and brute force, after Hein managed to get his vehicle through onto firmer ground, Simon took another line and managed to get through with a little help from the guy's pushing from behind, we did the same for the Hilux and the Isuzu, out came Ronny Renger's snatch block which was on loan to Simon and Chris Smith's thirty metre rope, then the tree protector strap and once the snatch block was properly attached to the thorn tree trunk we used Waen's 4x4 vehicle to pull C hris's vehicle through safely, this snatch block is a wonderful piece of equipment, I believe that if you drive a 4x4 vehicle you shood have two in your vehicle, I sure will be making myself some.
We then came apon The Olde Swimming Hole, also known as Derrick Biggs Fun Hole, he got his old C J 2 Willy's Jeep stuck in the water, okay he was driving up and down showing off. This time we all proceeded through spraying a little mud and water here and there.
At the end of the trail everybody said that today was The Ultimate 4x4 Drive that they had being on and to our fellow club members and friends you all missed out on a very enjoyable day, okay there was no sunshine, it looked like it might rain, it did but all the 4x4 vehicles handled the trail surperbly, without any getting damaged or anybody injured. It was very very muddy, our vehicles would just go their own way no matter how much a person tried to steer in a straight line, sometimes you just had to call for help and direction, when this happened out came the green plastic trackes which were placed under the wheels that were sliding. A set of tyre chains would have being helpful but we prooved that, with a little team work and thoughtfulness there are always other means available to get a vehicle out of a difficult situation.
On behalf of The Queenstown 4X4 Offroad Club I thank all the drivers for joining us on this trail.
The Chairman
Simon Morris
tel 0837036430