This is what and how we 4x4 here in South Africa

[Hilux King]

Yes we live on the most southern tip of Africa in a small town called Queenstown, when I chat about us, or we or ours, I am talking about Ronny who is my "Godfather"
my real Father passed on a few years back from too much smoking, anyway that is history, the future is tomorrow but all that I think about is the present time which is now

Thus I will start off to say that I am 40 years young (well when I wake up in the morning) I normally feel like 90 years old, been up half the night working on our various 4x4 vehicles, very cool here during the winter, my wife Miche'le at least keeps our tummies warm with that hot chocolate drink, not forgetting the hot rich stew.
Ronny is close to 60 years young as well, well at least that is the age that he told me that he is, however it does not matter, he is still a batchelor never been stupid enough to marry like most of us here I am sure, but that is also another story
(getting married freedom gone)  I am no 

With the way that I live, my wife tells me that I eat, sleep, dream and think of my 4x4 all the time and not enough of her, (well do you blame me) I recon that my Toyota gives me more pleasure than she does "it last longer"  Yes I know it may be but we have been married for 15 years and still have no children....

Must be because I spend more time in the workshop at home than whatever. But my work comes first then my 4x4's and then my dogs, got two small Jack Russels Jena is 7 months old little female and then Scott who is 11 month.
Oh yes my wife then comes in about now, but I must say she does stand by me fully, everytime that I want to buy some new mod for my 4x4's she keeps on reminding me what about painting the house, fixing the leaking roof, repairing her car etc etc etc anyway getting back to my wife, she is very loyal, does not stuff around, even helps out to bleed the clutch or brakes. Love please pass me the number 17 spanner, oh nearly forgot a few years back I was busy up on the roof, I asked her to throw up the 4 pound hammer to me well she did not throw it hard enough and it came down and hit the lapco valve that valve that controls the water pressure to the electric geyser, well we suddenly had water all over the place, that hammer cost me R350. later.

Another little story about my wife (she is blonde) came home on a Saturday from work (I am a diesel Technition)  walked into the house, back door wide open, could not find the dogs, called her name, got worried guess what

Where are you, well heard this knocking noise, my wife had locked herself in the one spare bedroom room, the door had slammed with the wind, the door would not open from the inside, something was wrong with the lock, thus she had been locked in that room for 7 hours, no cell phone, dogs and all, she had been 

Well want to hear more............... about our 4x4's enough about my wife and I for now, but remember I still  her  very much.



Photo of one of my 4x4 vehicles, this little Hilux has a few mods, will tell you about them soon.

[Hilux King]

 

[Lady Di]

   That is a great introduction Hilux King!! I love that truck!    Can't wait to see more.

[kneedownnate]

That's pretty cool!  I like the 2nd roll bar turned around backward, don't think I've ever seen that before. 

[Hilux King]

Busy loading more photo's into photbox then will post them here, I have got hundreds to share and one little question, how do i go about posting the various articles that I have written here, please explain the easiest way to do this, thankyou

[unclejpl4x4]

i realy like the bed bars how about a close up

[Willy Mammoth]

Enough about your truck already, we want to here more about your wife. 

BTW 

[Hilux King]

 

Okay here goes, this is my story, two years back, I used to won a 1983 Datsun Tracker 4x4 bakkie, it had the L1800 petrol engine, with that independent fron suspension that is useless off-road for where I wanted to drive, anyway after many breakages, stacks of money been wasted each time when I go out wheeling, I decedied that if I wanted to continue with this cool hobby, I would have to look for a better vehicle to do so, thus I managed to sell that old Tracker which I had also built up from bits and pieces that I had scrounjed from all over the place, scrapyards and friends, I sold it to another guy for R18 000. but was married to that guy for over a year, he kept coming back to me with all his problems that he was having with the bakkie, helped him out of kindness and feelings towards my old bakkie, anyway the problems that he had were, the fan blades went through the radiator, the diff was making a noise had been doing that since I originally bought it, had a slight wine, gave him a spare pumpkin, then he had a problem with the gearbox, gave him a spare gearbox and then finally when he phoned me the one day to complain that the bakkie would not go aster than 50km per hour on a tar road, this was the final straw, I ended up going to his place once again which was 80km away to see why the 4x4 was only getting 50km per hour, well after doing a few checks, took the bakkie for a drive and found that the #@#%&^**  guy had selected low range two wheel drive, thus I told him that it was a year later and that now he must take his bakkie and get lost but in another way, use your own thoughts, here he was driving around in low range at 50km per hour on a tar road

Well have not heard anymore from him, good riddense, well I also had a Nissan 1400 bakkie which was the sport model, nice little second hand vehicle, low milage but this bakkie did not last long, on my way back from East London which is down at the sea, I hit two cows in the road, came over this rise in the road and suddenly there were cattle all over the place, well the bakkie was a write off, but I managed to get it to the next town, had a slash in my neck/chest area but survived that oldeal, do not want to remember that accident too much, here on The South African roads, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats,donkeys, horses and Taxi's roam freely, the owners do not care if they are on the main tar and gravel roads, there is a place called The Transkei or wild coast, this is along The Indian Ocean this place is terrible for animals on the roads, no ences or people looking after their animals, oh the roads are kak as well.

Anyway had the money from my Datsun and now the insurance money from my Nissan 1400, thus I then started to look for another 4x4 bakkie, looked at the various options and then saw in a magazine www.autotrader.co.za  this 1992 Toyota Hilux bakkie for sale, it had the following mods as well.

4Y engine with branches, free flow exhaust system
33" x 1250 x 15" BFG Goodrich muds fitted to 8" J steel rims
Snorkel
Duel roll bar system
Revolver Shackles made by Black Diamond, but they were not lockable.
mounted axe and spade on each side.
Front look a like ARB bumper, but the metal was very thin.
Anti theft device grade 3 pepper spray system in the cab
Alarm and gearlock system
Tool/cool box mounted in the rear
Jerry can holders mounted in the rear
Rhino seat covers as well as a cover for the load bin area.
Detroit Locker in the front diff
Black Diamond 3" chassis lift
75mm body lift
Side rock sliders
Rear tow bar and heavy duty bow shackles for when I have to recover myself.
There may be a few other items that I may have forgotten to mention, well I contacted the owner via telephone, he sent me some more photo's, I told him that I wanted this vehicle, well he lived 900km from where I live and I told him that I would transfer R55 000.00 into his bank account then I would hitch a lift with one of the work trucks up to Johannesburg to come and fetch it, now remember I have not even seen this vehicle in the flesh.  next page

[Hilux King]

   My wife Miche'le

[Hilux King]

   This is Ronny





That awsome bakkie that everybody wants, they keep on asking me how would I see it for






Okay so I went all the way up to Johannesburg to fetch my new bakkie, I actually helped the driver to drive the big rig (truck) half the way up there, finally arrived early in the morning at 5am, waited for the owner of the Hilux to meet me at a pre-arranged place and by now I was wondering if this bakkie did exist, here I had given another person R55 000. and not even seen the vehicle.

Anyway, he did finally arrive, but only two hours later, I was wondering what he was up to, anyway went in his vehicle to his farm which was 50km away, there on our irrival was this big truck in his driveway.

next page

[Lady Di]

 

[Hilux King]

Sorry how much would I sell it for,  

Well once we had sorted out all the paper work, we then had coffee and Carel then showed me the bakkie, showed me how to activate the anti-pepper spray system, (that stuff scares me) we then said our goodbyes and then I went straight to a petrol station to fill her up, once that was completed, Carel put me on the correct road back towards Bloemfontein which was about 400km away, well driving this awsome bakkie on those roads with so many other cars and bakkies zooming all over the place, driving like hell and with me in this Truck chugging along at 80km per hour trying to get the feel of it, it was sort of scary, not knowing the road system or where the off-ramps to take.

After 13 hours on the road, yes I did stop for a short rest, I was back in Queenstown, tired but safe, all my buddies came around to check out this truck, some asked me what mods will I be doing to it, oh yes there was a name on the rear roll bar that I removed, it said  VREES FOKOL that is afrikaanse and means
"scared of nothing" anyway I renamed the bakkie BIG BALLS and even have a set of knackers hanging from the rear, still get those odd looks or when stopped at some robots, daughters ask their moms or dads, what are those things hanging from that bakkie I wonder what they tell them

Well went out to the following 4x4 trails, will post a few photo's in the next few replys and explain where they were, then continue with my story.

All your comments are welcome

[Lady Di]

 Man! This is great stuff. I am guessing bakkie means truck? And what exactly is an "anti-pepper spray system"?

[Hilux King]

But first thought I would post a photo of myself, this was taken at a farm called Glenthorn, owned by Brent Fietze, Ronny and I went to check out some old CJ 5 Willy's spares that were lying in a barn on Brents farm, we managed to see a front axle, bonnet and propshaft, but I can tell you, the fleas in that barn really attacked us, we did not stay there for long, must have been because the barn was dark and closed up all the time. Busy loading photo's

[Hilux King]

I think the term Bakkie is actually afrikaanse for a small truck, thus if I use the term bakkie then I may be refering to a real small truck, thus I think that I must refer to my vehicle as a truck as it is big, the anti pepper spray system that is fitted is similar to teer gas, this pepper spray when sprayed out at great forse from a concealed gas bottle that is mounted behind the seat, will damage a persons breathing and eyes temporary, however do not want to be around if it goes off by mistake, it is in case thieves try and steak the vehicle, each time I park it at say a shopping centre I activate the system, that is why at each door it has the warning DO NOT ENTER this is to warn against this system.

What do you call your vehicles where you live?   4x4's

[Hilux King]

  Hi Mrs W, is that your Jeep in your posting page or is it Mr W's 4x4

[BLACKDOG]

  And what exactly is an "anti-pepper spray system"?

Its a hardcore security system for a vehicle.  Instead of an alarm going off, when someone tries to steal a vehicle with this system, the cab fills with pepper spray.  Sucks for the dude trying to steal the truck


Hilux King, nice rig!! I too like the bed bars

[Hilux King]

 



And then another photo of Ronny



Tired now, must get some shut eye, chat again friends.


Goodnight from South Africa

[Lady Di]

Cool barn! Oh, I have heard there is a lot of problems with vehicles stolen or car jacked over there.
King, the "Jeep" in my avatar is our 4x4, the Willy Mammoth. We've both worked on it, but mostly it's MrW's baby. We too have no children, cept for two small dogs also, and like it that way. Lots of freedom of movement.
If you look at my signiture there are links to both the Making of the Willy Mammoth (now 49-50 pages long, I think, it's the never ending project) and Sightings of the Willy Mammoth which includes our cross country trip to Cali last year (I think that starts about page 3-4) which we'll be repeating for this years vacation.
Love the barn pics! Nice legs, HK! Ronny looks like a very fun guy!

[prang11]

The axe on the side of the bed is probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  I love seeing the 4x4ing in other countries.  Keep posting more pics.

[sof'indetermined]

reverse light/roll bar in the back of the bed? genius!!!

[toynizzy]

wow thats a whole history thing going on,sweet truck u have there,bed bars have grown on me lol

[Hilux King]

Been out wheeling the whole day, busy loading photo's, have written a short article about todays trail, will try and work out how to load it here for you all to check out, tired bedtime soon.

cheers

[Lady Di]

  can't wait!

[unclejpl4x4]

can't wait!

[Willy Mammoth]

Copy and paste already and 

[Hilux King]

Photo of my hand holding a piece of ice that I broke off from a stream bed that had frozen, it was 10h30 am in the morning.



This area in the background of this photo is where we went wheeling, once the other pic's are loaded then I will post them here.

[Hilux King]

If you are interested visit these web sites here in South Africa

www.now.org.za

www.nissan4x4.co.za

www.4xforum.co.za

www.sa4x4.co.za

have fun

cheers
simon

[79coyotefrg]

Photo of my hand holding a piece of ice that I broke off from a stream bed that had frozen, it was 10h30 am in the morning.



This area in the background of this photo is where we went wheeling, once the other pic's are loaded then I will post them here.

wow, its really true  that things look sideways on the bottom of the world 

[Hilux King]

A wee photo of Ronny's little Jeep