Q If you are buggin in do you NEED.........

[bigpaul]

I've told you before Scythe-i'll be the last one standing! I even named my scenario that!!!

[Scythe13]

(30 March 2014, 17:11)bigpaul Wrote: I've told you before Scythe-i'll be the last one standing! I even named my scenario that!!!

To which I cannot argue.

[Lightspeed]

OP: Q If you are buggin in do you NEED.........
a big sodding 4x4

A Depends on your bug in situation.

Just because you plan to bug in should not rule out bugging out.

If you have garage space at the bug in, why not get a full blown 4x4 and stand it up, just in case?

Land Rovers are becoming very low cost now, as they are being taxed off the road. Get an elderly one, fix it up, but keep it on a SORN and you'll have the means to get out if the need arises.

Land rovers are designed for UK conditions. Their size is fine for most situations.

[Tartar Horde]

Yes I need my Audi Quattro thank you

[Skean Dhude]

Just to be clear. You may decide you are bugging in but circumstances may change and you are forced away. You need to have a back up plan for that eventuality. Even if that plan has you abandoning 90% of your preps. Perhaps leaving as a cache or just in the loft but destroying easy access or even just walking out and leaving never to return.

[NorthernRaider]

Some good feedback coming in on this thread, I thank y'all So many options that could be tailored to meet different folks own needs n wishes. In my own case for MRS NR and myself with getting her home from work and NR junior home from 6th form the very small 4x4 appears to have the most for it and I'll explain why. Whilst I would like a Landy or real 4x4 like a Geland the problem is that if the main or primary roads are unavailable the alternative routes in recent years have become very limited. Many of the small rural back ways home around here cross various farmers, council , ex colliery land and in recent years those land owners have been blighted by travellers accessing the land illegally and taking months to evict. Accordingly a lot of the farmers have blocked either totally or partially many of the routes I could have used with huge tree trunks or lumps of concrete only leaving enough land for them to get by on Quads and Mules. Equally the local authorities have been increasing the use of fencing and ditches around common land to keep the travellers out and using steel barriers to keep them out at the main entrances. They have left enough room for the councils motorised grass cutters to get through . I reckon t a push I could get Jimny or Terios sized vehicles through those remaining gaps without having to stop, dismount and deploy a winch ( something the travellers have been seen doing) . If TSHTF I want to recover my family quite and get home without delay.

Naturally you my peers all face different geography and topography so a mini van or full sized 4x4 is still the best option available for your needs. But if you have not checked your alternative in / out routes fully in recent years I suggest a fully recce with a tape measure to hand, it could be prudent cos I reckon farmers and land owners in other areas will also have been busy making access points to their turf small and more difficult to access. I heartily recommend trying to find swift remote routes home that require the absolute minimum dismounting and use of winches.

---

Skean Dhude
RE: Q If you are buggin in do you NEED.........
Just to be clear. You may decide you are bugging in but circumstances may change and you are forced away. You need to have a back up plan for that eventuality.

I do have alternate plans in place should we be forced out, but as any soldier will tell you most plans fail within seconds of the first shot being fired. I know my luck is usually not good and I cannot plan for every alternative, I don't think any of us could, but my "current" primary plan is to bug IN, but traffic up here is becoming a serious issue even with 4 primary roads N to S and W to E there appears to be gridlock log for hours each day, so its head into the maps for bridle ways, RUPPS, Green lanes, farm tracks , cycle ways and old railway lines etc for me for now.

[Devonian]

(30 March 2014, 20:41)Lightspeed Wrote: OP: Q If you are buggin in do you NEED.........
a big sodding 4x4

A Depends on your bug in situation.

Just because you plan to bug in should not rule out bugging out.

If you have garage space at the bug in, why not get a full blown 4x4 and stand it up, just in case?

Land Rovers are becoming very low cost now, as they are being taxed off the road. Get an elderly one, fix it up, but keep it on a SORN and you'll have the means to get out if the need arises.

Land rovers are designed for UK conditions. Their size is fine for most situations.

I agree with everything here except the cost.

Whilst Land Rovers are low cost to operate, maintain and tax etc, they are not cheap to purchase and in fact the cost of Land Rovers, even old knackered ones is increasing significantly and with the end of production of the of the Defender in December this year, that problem is getting worse and worse.

But once you have one, you can effectively just keep rebuilding it which is why something like 80% of all the Land Rovers (excluding the Disco's/Freelanders etc) ever built since the 1940's are still on the road today

[bigpaul]

I don't know what the roads are like in Northumbria, or Norfolk or The Wirral for instance but in my neck of the woods the back country unclassified roads are very narrow, one car wide-with grass growing in the middle- so most modern cars are too wide and would get stuck, what is needed around here is an MPV or small van(Transits are too big they get stuck on the corners) so that we can drive on through without stopping, also what look like hedges around here are nothing of the sort..they are hiding solid Granite walls! we also have deep ditches which we need to keep clear of(as I know by personal experience!"

[BeardyMan]

(29 March 2014, 14:35)NorthernRaider Wrote: a big sodding 4x4 or does it makes sense to use a vehicle that get onto narrow paths, tow paths, small lanes, bridleways, alleyways etc?

I'd stick with a big 4x4. You may need to use it in an offensive manor to make an escape, which it will do quite happily. Whereas it doesn't take too much damage to make a normal vehicle undrivable.

[bigpaul]

use a 4X4 as a ramming vehicle around here and you'll come up against a sodding great tractor with a huge spike on the front!!! skewered like a rat on a stick!!!