Ann Lockley – contributor
Within days of writing the first piece on my Range Rover for the August ’10 issue, ‘Kels’ and I finished our 15,000-mile/fourmonth trip, arriving back in Victoria, British Columbia in one piece.
A couple of days later, Alice Gugelev and Jay Shapiro with kids Maya and Kurt from the Muskoka Foundation came for a visit in their Eco-Roamer. Because of the size of the Roamer and the tight Victoria streets, we all climbed into the Range Rover to sightsee around the city. Near the end of the day, we came across a sweet little 1982 Pinzgauer 712w for sale. We stopped, crawled all over it, commented on it being a great blank canvas with which to build an overlanding vehicle and even discussed how to finance the purchase and build. The day ended fine with Kels parked back in the driveway at home.
The next time I jumped in to drive her, however, we barely made three miles when the transmission started to slip and refused to find the reverse gear. What the heck? Range Rovers not only have ears, but they have feelings too?
After two months and a ton of headaches, Dixon Strachan from Rock Island Rovers has finally found a replacement transmission from a 1998 Discovery I that was written off in an accident. The swap is to take place soon by my good friend Jason Coakley, the guy that got me hooked on Rovers in the first place – it seems only fitting.
Along with the new transmission, it looks like the new suspension and undercarriage rebuild will be coming from TerraFirma/All Makes, with new shocks, springs, dislocation cones, cranked rear trailing (radius) arms, caster corrected front radius arms and steering damper for a start. I hope this corrects the sloppy ride, the clunk under the driver’s seat and the death wobble at freeway speeds!
SPECS
Model: 1991 Range Rover Great Divide Edition
Spec: 3.9L V8
Mileage: 267,845
MPG: 13mpg with roof rack/roof tent
Recent costs: None!
Arrived: Feb ’07
