What do you get after a D3?

One of my brother in laws has a BT50 that he brought to tow his off road camper in the bush.

At Christmas time we stayed on his 5 acre property out in Orange in our caravan, it rained very heavilly for days. When we decided to leave he was of the opinion that there was no way we could tow the 2.5 ton van out given the amount of water still running down through his property which is on the side of a pretty steep hill. He based this on getting stuck several times in his BT50 while driving around the property in similar weather conditions.

There was much fuss about how we wouldn't be able to do it without getting stuck that it ended up pi**ing me off so much that I bet him $100 the D2 would tow the van out without issue.

Needless to say I didn't get the $100 even though it drove straight out first pop. But I did get a begrudging acceptance in the end that the old Disco was more than likely a superior 4x4 vehicle to his near new BT50 that he was so proud of.

I wished him well going off road with his camper considering he struggled driving around his property when it was wet.

cheers,
Terry

LOVE IT.... :)

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Originally Posted by Redback

Mully just a word of warning on the Ranger/BT50, they have a weak gearbox/transfer, so if your going to be towing anything heavy, I'd stay clear.

Baz.

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Navara's are the same,thier gearbox's are **** weak. Pat

Hey thanx fellas... the Ford interest is over as the HSE is too top end for a viable trade. Trade prices (for those interested) ranged from $14k to $28k and Red Book placed it somewhere between $35-39k. All the extra fruit add ons increased trade valuation by nought unless you go private sale of course.

Might consider the other brand options like Colorado etc but it's looking like I will need to keep the beast a while longer unless the Puma I just found becomes a viable option... but I don't honestly know a lot about them...yet. :)

Plan at this stage may be to set up a decent shed (again:)) and start back on the DIY trail to keep the D3 running costs down as we go. When running well, the D3 is a sweet ride.

Has anyone done the wishbone swap out to get the upgraded front end ball joint solution? Price I've seen so far is about $700 for the new wish bones.

Cheers.

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Originally Posted by Mully

Has anyone done the wishbone swap out to get the upgraded front end ball joint solution? Price I've seen so far is about $700 for the new wish bones.Cheers.

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Yes, I did the change out about a month ago and am quite pleased with the results. Within the link below is my post re the good results. My post is a part of a larger thread on the mod.

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/d3-d4-rrs/...nt-issues.html

Had a quote of $1100 to do the full front end rebuild and realign. Assuming that includes the upgraded ball joint size (ie: replaced wishbones), sounds like a good deal.

Update: I'm keeping the D3 and also ordered the new Faultmate from one of our esteemed forum members. There really isn't an option out there that replaces the D3 unless you go to the D4 or a later model & the D3 is too high end to trade easily. Private sale would be fine but we all know how much that isn't. :)

Thanks all again for your very helpful input, it assisted the process greatly.