This
month's truck of the month belongs to Wendy and Fred Griffiths. Fred
sent in a write up that is best told by Fred so here's his story.
Wendy
& I first met Land Rovers while living and working in Papua New Guinea
in the late 1960's. They would have been very new Series 2a or 3 long
and short wheelbase stations wagons and pickups used by the government
for everything from transporting prisoners to chauffeuring dignitaries.
I usually had a government driver to negotiate the winding coastal roads
or the steep mountainous tracks. At times there would be three of us
crammed in the front seat of a SWB station wagon while the back was
full of patrol gear.
Fast
forward to 2003. We thought it would be interesting to have our own
Land Rover and finally found a 1965 Series 2a in Vancouver. The excuse
for buying it was Wendy's "XX" birthday and the vintage of the LR coincided
almost exactly with the year of our wedding. The below photo shows her
opening the gift card taped to the windshield. You may notice there
are only 3 wheels on my wagon. The story behind that is that the steering
box had failed and the present owner was trying to get it out with limited
tools or success. In the end we did buy the vehicle on the condition
that he could drive it to the rail yard. He made it but when I picked
it up here in Calgary, I discovered that the steering box was still
knackered. It took 3/4 of a turn of the steering wheel before it had
any affect on actually steering the vehicle. Negotiating the old one
lane Fish Creek bridge on the way home was a scary moment.
