I guess I'm crazy (at least my wife thinks I am) but I absolutely love my Gen I. Even when I bought it new in 1990 it was already a throwback vehicle: the round headlights, the triangle window-vents and the flip-up vents that just let air from the outside right into the vehicle. (How come nobody makes those any more?) I love the clean look of the instrument panel at night. You could basically take it apart with a screwdriver and a socket wrench. But it had also enough creature comforts (A/C, comfortable seats, power steering, etc.) to be an huge improvement over my previous outdoor/camping vehicles (an IH Scout II and a '73 VW camper bus). But I had no idea I would still be driving it some 23 years later ;-)

Thinking back on it, even as a kid when I played with matchbox cars, I always found myself drawn to the square military-looking trucks over the sleek, shiny sports cars. Loved that Unimog toy I had...

I'm not a super modifier like a lot of the people here. I run the truck almost completely stock, I want something that I can throw four people and all of their camping gear into and just go. Pretty much anywhere. It's a little bit loud on those long highway drives and the gas mileage isn't exactly great, but I love going places in it.

I about killed it in the mid 2000s. Not sure what happened but it was running low oil pressure (overheated I'm sure). That's when I decided that if I wanted to justify keeping it I had to start doing all of the maintenance myself. So eventually I pulled the engine and rebuilt it. I made a lot of mistakes but I learned a lot along the way too. Now it's running as well as it ever did and it's just as much fun to drive as ever.

We also had a Gen II for several years. I think that my wife liked that better and it was more comfortable and quieter and definitely had more power. But somehow it never had quite the charm of my old one. I would love an excuse to buy a Gen III someday and see what that's like. I wasn't crazy about the look of them when they first came out, but now I think that they've aged gracefully. Or maybe it's me who's done the aging (though not so gracefully).

This forum and community has been a great place to feed my curiosity and calm my anxieties. And cater to my obsession too, I guess <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

steve