Toys

Rusty Firth was one of my favorites, left this earth a few years ago now, but his writings are well worth catching up on if you can run down either of his two books.
In 5th Dimension he mentions the importance of buying yourself a toy, at least once a year (Rusty had a trailer-sailer).
The great thing about farming is you can incorporate your toying into your business, and so it is with my latest machinery acquisition.

For the last almost 3 years I've been running a Chinese made ATV. Its been a real lemon, seldom able to make it to the next service interval without a serious repair, I'm on the 3rd rear diff, 3rd rear driveshaft, 2nd front diff, a couple of electrical fixes, and now the fan motor has seized, and the gearbox has dropped its oil. So, the search was on for a replacement, and from TradeMe, this is what I came up with, and settled on. Its a 1986 Suzuki J413 body on a 1992 Samurai chassis, 1600cc Escudo motor, auto gbox, crawler transfer case, fat wheels, in short all the 4wd rally gear.

And its a heap of fun!

The auto's almost intelligent, changes down by itself as you slow down. The 1600's engine braking downhill is superb, slip it down to 1st and it'll hang down a hillside something incredible. Going to be interesting when things get wet come winter, but I'd give it odds the big feet will hang in there.

The fuel tank fills with about 25 litres gas, and I dont see it any worse than the old under-powered Chinese ATV or the Eiger quad for fuel consumption.

The big ups is the capital cost of the thing, less than half a quad, and quarter of a sidebyside. There's a heap of parts available on TradeMe, and experienced mech's tell me they're a joy to work on. 

Bing, Khan, Woody & Scott try out the new ride

The dogs have been a bit of a laugh working out how to mount up, in and out the windows, leaping on the bonnet, but they're getting the hang of it now.