Dave SweetappleSpring has arrived, which should mean flowers start blooming and life relaxes – but not my life, and not this Spring.
The good news is that the better weather means I can finally free my ’95 Defender 130 from her winter hibernation place (my three-bay shop). It’s great to have her back out on the salt-free roads.
However, as I write this, the owner has sold the shop building and given me three weeks to vacate with all the loot of my hoarding sickness. At times like this, I curse myself and wonder why I don’t collect lighter objects rather than auto parts. Last week, I moved as much stuff to my home garage as space would allow. With the help of seasonal neighbor Mike Kenney, we loaded the half-rolling chassis of my 109 build onto his car trailer.
Ancient engineering skills came into play for this feat. With the repaired bulkhead and front end completely put together and installed on the 109 military frame, moving the non-roller required some thought. The Salisbury rear end is still not finished, and I didn’t want to install it without being complete, but the parabolic springs are in place. Mike and I lifted up the rear end with a floor jack and placed the center of the springs onto two car dolly casters. I didn’t want to have metal on metal, so I made little pillows from FedEx envelopes stuffed with old music band T-shirts. We rolled the frame outside and jacked it up once again, while sliding a wooden pallet underneath. We lashed it down and used the trailer-mounted winch to drag the frame onto the rails.
Getting the 109” off the trailer called upon different engineering skills. We attached a snatch block to the rear rail of the trailer and ran the winch cable back underneath to the front of the pallet. The reverse pull slowly pushed the track right into the garage. The tub was placed on the frame and filled with enough doors, tailgates, bonnets, and wings to build two and half other trucks.
More chaos ensued when Mike and I joined Glenn Parent at his land in Grafton, VT, to finish prepping the field and trails for the 2nd Annual Vermont Rover Club Weenie Roast, held last month on May 13.
As mentioned in a previous Rovers Magazine column, Glenn’s property includes five acres of fields along Route 35 and ten acres of gnarly woods behind it. We ran the “course,” cleared downed trees, and removed fallen branches with the help of my Series III 88” pickup, Glenn’s tractor, and a chainsaw. It’s funny how we have trained ourselves to look for obvious paths through the woods that would allow a Series Land Rover to make it from point A to point B without obstruction. While weaving up and down the ledges on the land, we traded suggestions for trail routes, followed by, “Do you think the 88” would make it through there unscathed?” With the removal of a few select saplings and the clearing of old rotten mature trees, we ended up creating four new paths in amongst the existing trails. These new ones are a little more technical than some of the older ones; we’re excited to see what the trail runners think.
One route would have required an old-fashioned log-lash bridge to complete the loop. We opted to wait until next year plus countless non-Rover attendees on board for a weekend of Rover gawking. As we go to press, over 100 Land Rovers and many more non-Rover owners had signaled their intent to attend.
To add to the chaos of moving and running an event, my rock band, Witch, will play in a couple of Australian music festivals; I’ll be on a plane when this issue arrives in your mailbox. While there, I’m hoping to break away from the pack to find an 80” Series I to export back to the States. For years, I’ve been hearing stories of Rover gold scattered throughout the Australian outback; this time I’m hoping to do a little treasure hunting myself.
Which will cut the Australian tour short by a few days so I can return in time to attend the ANARC 75th Anniversary Diamond Jubilee event at Greek Peak. I arrive home on a Thursday night and jump into my Series III on Friday morning to convoy to Cortland, NY, with seven other Series and Defenders from this area. I really hope to make it to the site in time to compete in the ANARC Cup on behalf of the Vermont Rover Club. We’ll have quite a few club members present to cheer us on.
A respite from the chaos came from a historic source — Creem Magazine. From 1969–1989, Creem, founded in Detroit, influenced the growth and popularity of Classic Rock. In 2022, a relaunch of the magazine included features that had appeared in the original. One called “Stars’ Cars” featured famous Rock musicians with their primary ride: Alice Cooper posed with his ’57 Chevy and Ted Nugent sat on the hood of his ’73 Ford Bronco. (Was Devo being honest when they boarded a school bus? Did George Clinton of Parliament Funk really drive a garbage truck?)
Well, in my band, our drummer, J Mascis, also serves as the frontman of the more famous group, Dinosaur Jr. His daily driver is – yawn – a Lexus SUV. That would have looked ridiculous, so I offered up my Series III pickup, the Little Blue Beast, to stand in as his principal ride. My Series III gets a photoshoot with a famous musician, which in turn will enhance this issue of Creem, and help my composure during this challenging time.
With all this going on, Spring remains colorful but chaotic; my Rover season will last until Autumn when the flowers die off and the salt trucks fill the roads.