Green-lane Envy and getting started!

[KingRichard]

A mate of a mate has just started doing this with a 200Tdi Disco. I'm mainly envious of his snorkel and big offroad tyres, plus the fact that he only paid £800 for a car that will seemingly do the impossible.

Does he have it right that any vehicle with diff-locks can use public footpaths and bridleways? It was fking hilarious bowling along an A road and then just bombing through a ditch into the woods

If so, what vehicles can I do this in - obviously there are the land rovers, but what about the Japanese stuff that all seems so cheap at the moment? Thinking Shoguns, Troopers etc.

His car is a bit bare, but he does ford rivers and stuff with it - To my mind it would be better to just have good door seals

I mean, is it Land Rover or nothing if you want to get the big wheels, fancy suspension and snorkels?

[Andy_GSA]

KingRichard said:

A mate of a mate has just started doing this with a 200Tdi Disco. I'm mainly envious of his snorkel and big offroad tyres, plus the fact that he only paid £800 for a car that will seemingly do the impossible.

Does he have it right that any vehicle with diff-locks can use public footpaths and bridleways? It was fking hilarious bowling along an A road and then just bombing through a ditch into the woods

Don't know about the rest as my offroading is done on a motorbike but he's definitely wrong about use on bridleways and footpaths, that's a good way to collect s.59 notices. Have a look at www.trailwise.org.uk to find legal lanes. No doubt someone will be along shortly to tell you what you need to know about the mechanical bits.

[KingRichard]

He's a bit of a hooligan to be fair

Ok, thanks

[sjj84]

You can't go down footpaths or bridlepaths in vehicles. You can go along byways though, I seem to recall you are from the Canterbury area, there's plenty of legal paths you can go down.
All the eco warriors and ramblers are trying to get it vehicle rights of way stopped so bombing down footpaths probably isn't the best of ideas in the great scheme of things.

[KingRichard]

sjj84 said:

You can't go down footpaths or bridlepaths in vehicles. You can go along byways though, I seem to recall you are from the Canterbury area, there's plenty of legal paths you can go down.
All the eco warriors and ramblers are trying to get it vehicle rights of way stopped so bombing down footpaths probably isn't the best of ideas in the great scheme of things.

Yeah I am, are you local then?

He might have said byways to be fair

I've just got into walking too, so it'll be a bit like playing poacher and gamekeeper!

Can anyone tell me about Grand Cherokees? Look like a nice balance between looking nice, comfy interior etc, and with a few mods could be quite beefy off road? Looks like you can get a corker for about £3000

Bumped into another greenlaner just now - happens to be a neighbour. He has a Disco, and said that bits were difficult to get for the jeeps. Don't mind getting stuff from the states

[100SRV]

Hi,
refer to:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

note that unsurfaced rights of way are NOT off road and they are NOT PATHS but multi-user trails - they are very much ON ROAD so any vehicle used MUST be road legal and used with care and consideration. Might be worth joining either the Trail Riders Federation if motorcycle or GLASS / CRAG / AWDC if four-wheeled.

GLASS - Green Lane Association
CRAG - Countryside Recreational Access Group
AWDC - All Wheel Drive Club

if you want to know more, PM me, I quite often get into Shropshire to go laning and might be able to find a vehicle for you to ride in for the day.

100SRV

[sjj84]

Yeah I'm from the Canterbury area too. Used to do a little green laning when I had a L200 a few years ago. Get yourself an ordance survey map (or whatever they're called) the ones with pink covers. They have the byways marked on them. There's a few around the Chilham, Waltham, Crundale area. Some are a bit narrow though, so you either want something small or that you don't care about scratching.
Grand Cherokee's look good value, you'd definately want a decent set of offroad tyres on it. Bloke at work has a normal cherokee and never had any problem getting parts from breakers yards or online for upgraded parts.

[normalbloke]

sjj84 said:

Yeah I'm from the Canterbury area too. Used to do a little green laning when I had a L200 a few years ago. Get yourself an ordance survey map (or whatever they're called) the ones with pink covers. They have the byways marked on them. There's a few around the Chilham, Waltham, Crundale area. Some are a bit narrow though, so you either want something small or that you don't care about scratching.
Grand Cherokee's look good value, you'd definately want a decent set of offroad tyres on it. Bloke at work has a normal cherokee and never had any problem getting parts from breakers yards or online for upgraded parts.

You CANNOT rely on an O/S map for the status of any byway.You need to check with your local council on the definitive map as to whether any BOAT is driveable or under a TRO.

[SystemParanoia]

i only realised yesterday that WHsmiths stocks loads of OS maps!!

[KingRichard]

SystemParanoia said:

i only realised yesterday that WHsmiths stocks loads of OS maps!!

Millets have millions