This series is a nice guide - despite being another brand ...

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Land Rover Experience - Essential Guide to Off Road Driving

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Error_401 I am flattered and glad that you think my advice was good. After I posted it I wondered if I might have overstepped my advice-giving. Happy to have read of your approval.

More seriously, I'm printing out Error_401's advice for my own records.

Something I learned from my single-handed sailing of my 16' mini-cruiser in the San Juan Islands and Gulf Islands of Washington and British Columbia is to go about adventuring with the mind-set of being prepared to self-rescue and avoiding situations from which you could not self-rescue.

For instance, for lack of one small spare part or a little bit of practice in an otherwise easy technique, what could be life-threatening is otherwise just an annoyance.

Examples from my sailing would be having the hardware/system in place and having practiced knowing how to heave-to and reduce sail area by putting in a reef in my main sail so that I don't get over-powered by the wind.

For going into the woods, a parallel situation could be as simple as having the tools to swap out a flat tire with a spare and knowing how to replace a spare. What was a 20 minute drive in with comfort could be come a very long uncomfortable walk out.

Finally, be flexible in your plans. I had a boat rescue person confirm for me that what kills lots of people is "get-there-itis."

Have fun exploring!



Me at Ganges, Saltspring Is. B.C.



Sailing of the SE corner of Lopez, Is. WA

 

Thanks.

And BTW ladies tend to break less stuff while off-roading but get there nevertheless.

One has to be cautious about where you do stuff. It's one thing getting stuck in a snow ledge in your local parking lot at night without having broken anything than in Alaska at -35°C 40 mph wind and snow blowing.

I love the notion of the "get-there-itis". Part of my training

 

Finally checked the build list on the glove box door, no G80, so "true" 2wd it is.

Regarding skid plates; since I have a '02 the nice stout aluminum plate that was on m '95 has been replaced with a plastic one. I knew I should have swapped that before selling the '95.

I am going to take a look at local salvage yards and such to see if I can get an aluminum one.

And I am also going to look to see if I can find a G80 rear diff. Anyone know if the G80 rear diff had disc brakes or drum brakes?

 

The carbon fiber skid plates available on newer (2000+ I believe) are also a good option. Similar strength to the aluminum ones, and much lighter. A good option above the plastic wind deflector on your truck.


The G80 was an option in most years, and you can find them with both disk and drum brakes. For mild off-roading the G80 is a great low cost option. Not as good as an aftermarket locker, but it can definitely help you in slippery or off-axis situations.

 

My 1999 came with disk brakes on the rear axle with the G80 differential.

 

The skids plates on my 1999 have a surface texture that looks like carbon fiber fabric layup. Could they be the carbon fiber ones you mentioned? Any hints on how to identify the type I have?

 

98 and newer rear diffs have disc brakes. If your skid plates look like carbon fiber then they probably are. Mine are obviously plastic, I call them splash shields.

You don't need to replace the entire differential to upgrade to posi. A G 80 carrier can be installed in your housing. An aftermarket carrier, yukon, auburn, detroit true trac, can be used as an improvement over the G 80. A cheaper, easier to set up way would be to put a "luchbox" locker in the place of the spider gears in your open carrier.

 

Only issues I found with the blazer factor ifs set up when my old ZR2 was stock was the CV in the drive shaft and the inner tie rods .
But I destroyed them rock crawling and I ise the skinny pedal a lot.
For easy trail riding a stock blazer works great. I've had several over the years. All were great off road. My 02 Jimmy all stock did extremely well on all trails .
Just keep up on maintenance and don't cheap out on parts .

 

Wow, this is cool.

I guess I haven't really appreciated these skid plates as I should have. I don't plan to test them jumping rocks and stuff but it helps with adding to my piece of mind when I'm off pavement.