UpNcOmiNg! said:
Interesting! Welcome man!
Any reason you didn't go for a Land Rover instead? Far more capable off road.
Tell us tales man!
:=):
To be honnest, I like to be different..
I have had big Hilux's and Land Cruisers for most of my life. Before the X5, it was a Land Cruiser 4.2D pick up with big wheels and winch's ect, but I got tired of sacrifising comfort.
The X5 is not a real off-roader, and I do understand and except this fact. I often go to Mosambique and similar places when I am on my break.
When you have a proper 4x4, you spend 8 to 10 hours in the vechile driving to where you want to be, and let's face it, they are SLOW and uncomfortable.
Now I can drive there in comfort, and still go to the beach and sandy roads, and drive there. With the added benefit, it attracts serious attention. (even if I say so myself, the pictures does not show the stands and impresion the X has) In true life, it looks spectacular.
Please also understand, this was a cheap X5 I started with. It had, and still does, need attention to the car. I am a machanic by proffesion, and thus I fix it myself. Every time I am in SA, I fix something. Before I started the convertion, I repaired a boost problem, aircon problem, some electrical issues, had the injectors re-build, window mechs, ect.
There are still one major issue waiting for me to come attend to, and that is to replace a 4 front CV joints. With the added traction now, they dicided it was time to break, but luckely only under hard accl.
I also installed a unichip, to help with the loss in power due to the big tires it now needs to turn. I have friends with new Toyota, and they battle to keep up, even with my big fat tires. Next I will have the CAT removed and open the echaust up to a bit bigger size, so the engine can breath a bit better.
I will also say to anybody considering a similar convertion, if you drive your X5 daily, don't. I have gone from a average 10km per litre fuel consumption, to 6 to 7 km per litre average. Luckely, I drive only about 8000 to 9000km a year, so it doesn't bother me that much.
I will explaine the convertion itself, in a later post
