cbalthazor
New member
Hi All-
After looking at many trucks and doing some definite soul searching on the purchase, I ended up with Calico, the 1998 Discovery D1 you'll see below. I was coming from a 2004 TDI Wagon that was set up well for travel, and got awesome fuel mileage, however getting off of the beaten path was the objective for the next vehicle. My lovely fiance and I are to be married in Ashland, OR this fall, and afterwards, we plan to head further east to explore the many hot springs in SE Oregon for a week long 'mini-moon'. The TDI would have been great for fuel, but they are really no fun to drive extended distances on gravel with, and although I like Subaru's I was not ready to compromise with a wagon again quite yet.
Thus, I was searching for Land Cruisers, and GX470's, with some peeking into the Rover spectrum. After driving a few GX's and LC's that were still priced at $14K and sat at 200,000 miles, I decided that financially it was probably wise not to start my new marriage in debt on a 200,000 mile Toyota. I started looking more and more at Rovers. I had seen a few on craigslist, and my co-worker owned a D1 as well that was his daily driver. He finally needed to get a truck to pull his boat, so he offered me the D1 one day, meaning that I was off the hook for sifting through craigslist ads. 114K Miles, Fluids are all baselined, recent nearly full replacement of the brake system, and already set up for travel with a lift, bumpers and newish tires. Perfect!
After a jaunt to Hebo Forest for a night of camping, it was apparent that the D1 was the perfect choice. While I loved test driving UZJ100's, my opinion as a former technician was that a lot of them at 200,000 were going to need a lot of catch up work to keep them reliable. That, and driving through the woods scratching an easily paid for cash Discovery versus a financed Land Cruiser made me more comfortable to 'just go for it' rather than care about pinstriping or dirtying up a $15K truck.
That said, here is Calico:
1998 Land Rover Discovery 1- 114,000 Miles
Current Upgrades:
- Safari Guard Front and Rear Bumpers
- Terra Firma Medium Lift (though heavy springs will go in as weight gets added)
- Maxxis Bighorn Tires
- SS Extended Brake Lines
Upgrades to Come By September:
-Drawer system (already built, need to mount it and bedliner paint it)
-BajaRack Roof Rack
-Winch (m8000)
-Snorkel (Maybe, mostly to allow for dual Battery)
-Dual Battery Set up
-Offroad light for visibility at night camping
-A stop to Green Oval Motors here in PDX for a professional check over and any needed service work to be reliable for weeklong trip.
More pictures to come as progress moves on!
After looking at many trucks and doing some definite soul searching on the purchase, I ended up with Calico, the 1998 Discovery D1 you'll see below. I was coming from a 2004 TDI Wagon that was set up well for travel, and got awesome fuel mileage, however getting off of the beaten path was the objective for the next vehicle. My lovely fiance and I are to be married in Ashland, OR this fall, and afterwards, we plan to head further east to explore the many hot springs in SE Oregon for a week long 'mini-moon'. The TDI would have been great for fuel, but they are really no fun to drive extended distances on gravel with, and although I like Subaru's I was not ready to compromise with a wagon again quite yet.
Thus, I was searching for Land Cruisers, and GX470's, with some peeking into the Rover spectrum. After driving a few GX's and LC's that were still priced at $14K and sat at 200,000 miles, I decided that financially it was probably wise not to start my new marriage in debt on a 200,000 mile Toyota. I started looking more and more at Rovers. I had seen a few on craigslist, and my co-worker owned a D1 as well that was his daily driver. He finally needed to get a truck to pull his boat, so he offered me the D1 one day, meaning that I was off the hook for sifting through craigslist ads. 114K Miles, Fluids are all baselined, recent nearly full replacement of the brake system, and already set up for travel with a lift, bumpers and newish tires. Perfect!
After a jaunt to Hebo Forest for a night of camping, it was apparent that the D1 was the perfect choice. While I loved test driving UZJ100's, my opinion as a former technician was that a lot of them at 200,000 were going to need a lot of catch up work to keep them reliable. That, and driving through the woods scratching an easily paid for cash Discovery versus a financed Land Cruiser made me more comfortable to 'just go for it' rather than care about pinstriping or dirtying up a $15K truck.
That said, here is Calico:
1998 Land Rover Discovery 1- 114,000 Miles
Current Upgrades:
- Safari Guard Front and Rear Bumpers
- Terra Firma Medium Lift (though heavy springs will go in as weight gets added)
- Maxxis Bighorn Tires
- SS Extended Brake Lines
Upgrades to Come By September:
-Drawer system (already built, need to mount it and bedliner paint it)
-BajaRack Roof Rack
-Winch (m8000)
-Snorkel (Maybe, mostly to allow for dual Battery)
-Dual Battery Set up
-Offroad light for visibility at night camping
-A stop to Green Oval Motors here in PDX for a professional check over and any needed service work to be reliable for weeklong trip.
More pictures to come as progress moves on!