te: Tue, 25 Oct 1994 13:36:46 -0700 From: Granville Pool Subject: Poster Child Morgan, Good to see you active on the 'net: >Luke (S.F. lad, '72 ser III) and I went down to Hollister Hills off-road >park to Rover it up. Nice place, lots of trails; all the trails [ truncated by lro-digester (was 6 lines)] >cruising some trecherous terrain: steep hill climbs with axle >twisters up the #$*?!. I've never seen an 88" lift a tire before! Well, it sure sounds like fun! I like the idea of the ski-trail sign postings; do they have any double-diamonds? If so, I'll have to find my way down there, one of these days. For those of you who don't know about them, there a two public off-road vehicle parks in my area. Just outside of Ukiah, on BLM land, there is the Cow Mountain ORV use area (better known locally as "Red Mountain"), with many square miles of easy-to-nasty trails for 4x4s, four-wheelers, and motorcycles. And talk about not having ever before seen an 88 lift a wheel? I can show you a trail where I had my left front tire a good foot or so off the ground, while both differentials were digging a new rut! The hill I was climbing was so steep that I could hardly stand up on it, yet I got stuck enough trying to cross over a very deep rut that I was spinning and going nowhere while trying to BACK DOWN! I eventually did succeed in climbing that hill in my Land-Rover. On another outing, my son and I and two other youngsters on motorcycles were out that way. I took them to the trail and no one was up to trying it on dirt bikes! (Well, maybe my son, Bennett could have climbed it...) Another, in Lake County, is at Middle Creek, north of the town of Upper Lake, in Mendocino National Forest. I have camped there, at the begining of a Land-Rover excursion (7 Land-Rovers, three days) into the national forest, but have not gotten around to trying the trails. Both areas have camping facilities. Early in the spring, when the ground is still a little gooey, I'd like to organize a weekend at one of these places, if anyone would be interested. Could be some good camping, conveviality, jawing, cruising the outback, and--for those of us gonzo types--gnarly four-wheeling. Maybe I'll try out those SuperSwamperTSLs... >Anyway, my '69 rover has the Scotty conversion to a Chevy 250ci >I6. The major modification in this conversion is with the cooling >system. The radiator is a big cross flow jobber moved up to the >front panel, with a remote fan. Wish I had known that you had that conversion in when I saw your Rover at Hayward. I would have certainly wanted to have a look. The 250s I have seen installed in 88s were certainly tight fits. An appealing idea, though. Good, tough, cheap engine, very much in the Land-Rover spirit, as far as I am concerned. I once had a a 109 which had a Chevy 235 and it sure made the difference! Regards, Granville ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [ Granville Pool (Redwood Valley, CA) Appraiser, R/W Agent, LR aficionado ]