Congratulations on being selected for Auszookers Zook Owner of the Month!How does it feel being honoured with the nomination for Z.O.O.M. 2017?Surprised….
So tell us about yourself. Who are you, What's the meaning to your username, Where do you live, and what do you do for a living?My user name is obviously nothing special, its only my name and a number (as was the thing to do at the time).
When I signed up to Auszookers it was only the second forum that I had ever joined. The first one was a weather forum and the username ‘WetDreams’ just didn’t seem to fit in with modifying cars.
I live on my own little piece of paradise here on the Sunshine Coast.
We bought a few acres of bush nearly 10 years ago and I have done pretty much everything here myself.
When I got it there was a semi cleared area with a few big stumps still in the ground. I dropped a heap more trees, but so far I’ve only cleared about an acre, the rest is still untouched bush.
It’s a special bit of land here with a mix of habitats, so we had a botanist come and do a report when we first bought the block. He listed about 4 pages of different species of plants, he found a couple of rare ones and showed us a few trees he estimated to be between 300 and 400 years old.
I designed our house myself and put heaps of thought into every part of it. We used a builder for the main construction part, but the wife and I finished it all off.
The earthworks, shed and landscaping has been all us, with the help of just one mate and all of his machines.
I think so far we’ve brought in about 68 tons of rock for landscaping…
And I’m pretty proud of the shed and outdoor entertaining area that the wife and I built by ourselves…
It’s a bit hard to describe what I do for a living these days, the short answer I usually give just that I’m an ‘Industrial Designer’.
The long answer is that I work for a European specialized industrial equipment manufacturer.
I head up our Australian projects team where we do detail system design and technical specifications on large automated production and materials handling systems.
My role is also to manage all of our large projects in the Australia-Pacific region, so I get to travel all over Australia and New Zealand….. A lot!
How did you get started in Suzuki's & how many have you owned?I grew up in North Queensland, so I’ve been camping, fishing and 4wding my whole life. But up there it was all Landcruiser utes, and I mean ALL Landcruiser utes…..
My first experience with Zooks was one afternoon playing around in a mud hole with a few mates in our Cruisers, another mate’s grandfather came putting down the track in his LJ50, we all couldn’t believe it when he floated straight through the big slop hole that we had just made (we couldn’t drive through there ourselves any more) he simply floated across it, almost like it wasn’t even wet.
Right at that moment I got they whole Suzuki thing….
I’m still a n00b when it comes to actually owning Zooks though, at the moment I’m only up to number 2.
Our first one was the Jimny, we bought it brand new as the wife’s daily driver while we were living in Sydney.
I left it stock for the first 12 months and did a few trips.
But I soon got tired of finding its limits in stock form.
So I chucked a lift, tyres and snorkel on it and had some fun.
And then found its limits…. Again….
We love camping and at that time the Jimny was our only 4wd, but with 2 adults and 2 kids I needed to use every little bit of space available, so I squeezed as much storage into it as I could.
On the roof.
Under the seats.
And behind the seats.
That setup actually worked pretty well for a lot of trips, but we wanted to do much longer touring so I knocked up my little zook sized trailer;
http://auszookers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=45620.
Unfortunately Photobucket wrecked that thread and I’m still slowly fixing the links.
With my little trailer hooked on the back we hit the road and did some decent trips.
We zig-zagged our way across Southern NSW and did a couple of trips out to the Snowies and a bit of exploring in the VIC high country.
After seeing heaps of NSW we loaded up had 35 days on the road to do a lap of Tassie.
We had heaps of fun in that Jimny, but kids grow and soon enough it was time to upsize.
I’m not sure what was harder to accept, selling the Zook or buying the Jeep…..
Technically the Jeep is the wife’s car, but I still had to test it out.
Turns out these big things actually go alright.
The Jeep is fun, but it’s just not my thing.
So I was pretty stoked when the next Zook found its way to my place.
A neighbour further up the road from us was moving and he had heard that I was looking for a Sierra, so he brought his over for me to check out and I just couldn’t let it leave.
That’s when 'Jeff' joined our family.
He was stock standard when he arrived, right down to the driver’s side perspex wind visor and 15 year old highway tyres..
No rust at all, only needed a little bit of tuning and a basic service, otherwise mechanically good.
I chucked on an old set of muddies and wheeled it basically stock for a little bit.
So far I’ve only done a couple more basic mods, but I’ve got plans……
I picked up a second hand lift kit off Gumtree and some 30x9.5 KM2s that I bought another forum.
The wife was also happy that I got my Sierra, it means now she can drive the Jeep herself on trips these days.
As they say, the family that plays together stays together…..
How long did it take you to build your zook to what it is today?The Jimny was almost 3 years of constant tinkering.
I’ve only had Jeff for 6 months now and I’m trying to drive it and get a feel for each modification as I do them.
This was my first Sierra and I don’t expect it to be my last. So I didn’t want to buy a stock one, then park it in the shed and strip it down to do all mods at once. Not saying that won’t happen in the future, but for now I want to actually know how each modification changes the way the vehicle handles and feels from stock standard to wherever it ends up.
Any changes in store for your Suzuki?Yeah, heaps.
I’m mostly looking forward to getting into some fabrication work.
But realistically it will be gears and probably at least 1 locker first (judging by the metallic oil that came out of the rear on the last service I got a feeling with will be a rear air locker first).
Right now I don’t have a lot cash to throw at it, so I'm just doing little bits at a time, but I’m sure it’ll get to where I want it eventually.
What has been your best modification?No question, it was the low range reduction gears I fitted in the Jimny.
http://auszookers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=49478That was a fun little project, I’d never split a transfer case before then and really enjoyed doing that one.
Haven’t really done enough with Jeff to what’s the best.
Though after having one of the scariest night drives ever going over the range on the way home from a run out at the Old Coach Rd, I was really glad I put on these cheap shitty LEDs when I was driving in the dark out to the NBS bodgy run not so long ago.
What has been your worst modification?I was really happy with everything that I did on the Jimny and I’ve only just started working on Jeff.
If I have to pick something, I’m going to say the rock-hard shocks that are in the front of Jeff at the moment. My back hurts just driving to the shops now….
If you could have anybody else's zook, who's would it be and why?Hmmm….. Hard to pick just one.
I have to say the LWB that Pezz built was pretty much my ideal Zook.
I liked the subtle mods, the lines on the canopy where perfect and as best I could tell he kept it very drivable.
That was ultimately the car I was looking to build after I sold the Jimny, but clean LWBs are getting hard to find these days and I’m happy with my tin top as a first project.
What has been your best 4wding trip?I did the Cape in the early 2000’s and always thought that would be my top trip.
We camped on the east coast almost at the tip, the fishing was awesome and I went with a couple of older guys that knew their way around everywhere up there, but the 4wding wasn’t super exciting for me. Apart from driving on the beach to fish the mouth of the creek, most of the trip was 2wd. In fact, the whole return trip for me was in 2wd after busting a front hub on the cruiser being young and stupid on the beach one afternoon.
But I’d have to say the most memorable 4wding trip for me was the first big run we did after I finished building the trailer for the Jimny a few years ago.
Sydney to Bendethera for Easter, then down to Wadbillinga and over the range again to the Snowies and up into the VIC high country and back to Sydney.
I had never been to any of these places before, I had no idea what any of the tracks would be like and apart from one short test drive had never really towed my new trailer with the Jimny.
Before we set off I just spent a heap of time on google earth finding tracks and planning a route, then bought a bunch of paper maps, then hit the road.
For us, it was a true 4wding adventure.
If you could go to any place in the world to wheel, where would that be?New Zealand.
I travel over there a lot for work and driving around through that awesome landscape I always spot something off in the distance that looks like it would be fun to drive.
Who are you closest to in the auszooker's community?I’ve been a member of the NSW Suzuki club for a few years where I was the trip co-ordinator for a couple of years and I’ve recently signed up with NBS, so I guess I know a few guys and gals that hang around in here.
What other toys/hobbies do you put a lot of time into?Apart from spending time with the family or working on my land, I love being on or in the water.
I’ve got a 4m tinny with a tiller steer 50hp on the back, she gets up and boogies.
We go skiing and fishing when we can, but I just like get the boat on the water and go for a run, trim it right out and fly around at full noise for the afternoon….
We used to take it out to the reefs and outer islands up north, pulling 65-70km/h in a little tinny out on the open ocean was heaps of fun, as was the expression on the guys faces in their big plate boats to see a tinny turn up out there.
After being spoilt with the fishing up north I struggle to get excited about bream and whiting hunting down here in SEQ (and don’t even bother trying to convince me that Taylor taste good).
These days I mostly just run the crab pots up the Pumice Stone Passage and take the kids with me for a lap around the creeks.
Or we head out to Somerset and I whip the misses and kids off the tube for a laugh or two.
But really surfing is my biggest passion, though I don’t get out there anywhere near as much as I’d like.
What is it about the auszookers that brings you back for more?The tech.
There’s so just much knowledge on here.
I like to see when someone who is actually having a go at sorting things for themselves gets to the point where they need a bit of advice or help, there’s generally someone out there willing to make an effort to get them back on track.
What about the auszookers forum would you like to see changed?I was going to say I’d like to see more participation. There’s heaps of members lurking around in here that know their stuff, but rarely or never post.
But now I’m thinking in this modern age of social media, I actually reckon forums like this are vital for good tech.
I think those of us that choose not to be on social media will just have to live with the fact that most of chat and banter has now moved to facebook.
And while forums like these are generally much quieter than they once were, as long as they continue to have good tech they will stay relevant.
Now for the million dollar question, who do you select to be the next Z.O.O.M. & why?This was a tough one….
After all these years of helping out so many members on here I think he’s well over due for a nod.
I’d like to nominate Scrawny.
