While overlanding is new to me, outdoor adventures, and the vehicle maintenance/repairs that go with it, are not. Throughout most of my 20s I drove a diesel F250 that I bought with 100K on it and proceeded to rack up 430K before selling it to the manager of a downhill mountain bike team that I raced for. I never did any work to the engine, but I did replace 3 transmissions and had the transfer case rebuilt, replaced the full suspension, almost yearly starter replacement, dual batteries and wiring harness, had the frame welded after cracking it off roading, and did all fluid maintenance on schedule. I was starting to get some rust around the rear wheel wells and the rear drum brakes were tough in a world where everyone has rear disk brakes so... I bought a bought a project jeep.
I pulled both axles and rebuilt them. While I was doing that my wife was helping me pull the interior out. That's when she noticed all the rust under the carpet. Long story short a new tub was needed. I almost pulled the trigger and bought the tub when something inside of me snapped. I envisioned months of working on the jeep on the weekends instead going on outdoor adventures. So I gave away the project jeep to a kid that resold it for parts, sold the truck, and bought a new jeep.
I drove that jeep blissfully for 3 years 9 months. Then, while on the Colorado Trail, it developed what sounded like me to be a vacuum leak when the temps dropped below freezing. After I got done riding the trail I took the jeep into the dealership to get it looked at. While there I had a chat with a sales guy and he really wanted my jeep. So I sold it to him with 2 more payments left on it and bought a new JK. And that's when it started.
Basically every 2 years I would just trade in my jeep and get a new one. No particular reason, but my equity always increased while my payment more or less stayed the same. What's worse is that I pulled my wife into this constant churn of vehicles.
Her Pathfinder was totaled in an accident. So she got a Grand Cherokee. It was too small so we traded it in to on a Suburban 2500. The Suburban developed electrical problems that the dealership couldn't diagnose. Our needs changed (kids), and we traded in the suburban for a Forester. Life changed again and we went down to just the JK.
Then we got a 16' Livin' Lite trailer and tried pulling that with the JK with air bags. What a terrifying experience trying to tow with that! So I traded in the JK for a Ram 2500 diesel.
A couple years later it turns out we like tent camping more then trailer camping so I sold the trailer and the truck and pined for another vehicle that would magically fit all of our needs. I couldn't find it and tossed in the towel and bought another forester knowing that it wouldn't meet all of our needs but that it would allow us to save for our next vehicle.
So clearly, I have a car buying problem and need professional help. Any doc's out there
All this vehicle churn over the years was fun, but I think I'm ready to settle down with a nice ride like my old F250. I made my list needs/wants and made a list of every known (to me) vehicle that seemed to fit. I seem to be landing on a land cruiser 200.
Here's the dream that lead me to overlanding and this forum:
Our family would like to travel North America trying to catch all 41 North American Trout/Salmon/Char. Often times we'll be trailering a drift boat plus camping gear. We're a family of 3+dog. We live in a place where it's easy to jump on a local trail and go camping for the night. Our goal isn't off-roading as much as it is in my wife's words, "getting to pretty places". But we do plenty of traveling on dirt roads that we're not familiar with and I don't want to get in over our vehicles head. Like this past weekend. On Sunday we fished a new river. Halfway through the day a thunderstorm kicked up the lightning forced us back to the car. After 15 minutes or so we decided to go explore another little stream at the end of 10 mile long forest service road. 6 miles in I saw another trail and knew that on the way back I wanted to try it out. We explored the new stream but the storm didn't let up so we continued exploring the trails. The train turned to snow up high and parts of the trail washed out. Honestly the forester handled it just fine but I was wishing I was back in my JK or possibly a J200.
I'm still learning about land cruisers but so far it seems to meet all of our needs. We have been a 1 car family for the last 6 years and don't tend to drive on a daily basis anymore. That said, when we do drive it tends to be 6+ hours or more. Having a single vehicle that has excellent highway manners that is also a capable off roader with enough cargo space for all of gear is my dream. And the fact that with proper maintenance I can keep the J200 indefinitely means that as a family we can run this vehicle until we catch all the North American Trout and then some.
But now to figure out which J200? I would love to learn more about the minor updates through the J200 series.
Thanks for your help.
I pulled both axles and rebuilt them. While I was doing that my wife was helping me pull the interior out. That's when she noticed all the rust under the carpet. Long story short a new tub was needed. I almost pulled the trigger and bought the tub when something inside of me snapped. I envisioned months of working on the jeep on the weekends instead going on outdoor adventures. So I gave away the project jeep to a kid that resold it for parts, sold the truck, and bought a new jeep.
I drove that jeep blissfully for 3 years 9 months. Then, while on the Colorado Trail, it developed what sounded like me to be a vacuum leak when the temps dropped below freezing. After I got done riding the trail I took the jeep into the dealership to get it looked at. While there I had a chat with a sales guy and he really wanted my jeep. So I sold it to him with 2 more payments left on it and bought a new JK. And that's when it started.
Basically every 2 years I would just trade in my jeep and get a new one. No particular reason, but my equity always increased while my payment more or less stayed the same. What's worse is that I pulled my wife into this constant churn of vehicles.
Her Pathfinder was totaled in an accident. So she got a Grand Cherokee. It was too small so we traded it in to on a Suburban 2500. The Suburban developed electrical problems that the dealership couldn't diagnose. Our needs changed (kids), and we traded in the suburban for a Forester. Life changed again and we went down to just the JK.
Then we got a 16' Livin' Lite trailer and tried pulling that with the JK with air bags. What a terrifying experience trying to tow with that! So I traded in the JK for a Ram 2500 diesel.
A couple years later it turns out we like tent camping more then trailer camping so I sold the trailer and the truck and pined for another vehicle that would magically fit all of our needs. I couldn't find it and tossed in the towel and bought another forester knowing that it wouldn't meet all of our needs but that it would allow us to save for our next vehicle.
So clearly, I have a car buying problem and need professional help. Any doc's out there
All this vehicle churn over the years was fun, but I think I'm ready to settle down with a nice ride like my old F250. I made my list needs/wants and made a list of every known (to me) vehicle that seemed to fit. I seem to be landing on a land cruiser 200.
Here's the dream that lead me to overlanding and this forum:
Our family would like to travel North America trying to catch all 41 North American Trout/Salmon/Char. Often times we'll be trailering a drift boat plus camping gear. We're a family of 3+dog. We live in a place where it's easy to jump on a local trail and go camping for the night. Our goal isn't off-roading as much as it is in my wife's words, "getting to pretty places". But we do plenty of traveling on dirt roads that we're not familiar with and I don't want to get in over our vehicles head. Like this past weekend. On Sunday we fished a new river. Halfway through the day a thunderstorm kicked up the lightning forced us back to the car. After 15 minutes or so we decided to go explore another little stream at the end of 10 mile long forest service road. 6 miles in I saw another trail and knew that on the way back I wanted to try it out. We explored the new stream but the storm didn't let up so we continued exploring the trails. The train turned to snow up high and parts of the trail washed out. Honestly the forester handled it just fine but I was wishing I was back in my JK or possibly a J200.
I'm still learning about land cruisers but so far it seems to meet all of our needs. We have been a 1 car family for the last 6 years and don't tend to drive on a daily basis anymore. That said, when we do drive it tends to be 6+ hours or more. Having a single vehicle that has excellent highway manners that is also a capable off roader with enough cargo space for all of gear is my dream. And the fact that with proper maintenance I can keep the J200 indefinitely means that as a family we can run this vehicle until we catch all the North American Trout and then some.
But now to figure out which J200? I would love to learn more about the minor updates through the J200 series.
Thanks for your help.
