My SJ413 is now in Bulgaria

mike52 · Post by **mike52** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 9:26 am

Hi ,thanks to all the guys that wished me well for getting the sj over to our property in Bulgaria, but unfortunately there was a major misunderstanding in the contacts as they went down the line.
The guy that agreed to take it was under the impression that they were going to drive it in convoy over there. When i told him it had not been on the road fro 4 years and I did not want to go through the expense of getting it legal over here, it all fell apart (and to be honest I would not want to drive it all that way).
He did give me another contact with a flat bed truck but the timing did not work out, so I guess I will have to go up the mountains in the back of the Russian anus again this year instead of under my own power.
It will have to go out another time probably when we are not out there , but there are plenty of friends and family out there to organize it, in the mean time i will try to get a few photo`s to show you just how perfect it is for 4x4s out there.

Post by **dan_2k_uk** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 9:37 am

Thats a shame mate.

Don't think I would want to drive one to Bulgaria either

Post by **Jordi** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 10:03 am

dan_2k_uk wrote:Thats a shame mate.

Don't think I would want to drive one to Bulgaria either

Where your sense of adventure?

Thats a shame Mike. I hope you're able to get it sorted and shipped over there at a reasonable price soon.

turbo-tom · Post by **turbo-tom** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 2:11 pm

Ahh man thad bad luck! Pictures would be good! Always next year to export it I guess!

mike52 · Post by **mike52** » Wed Aug 21, 2013 12:37 pm

well it looks like its all change again, a day before coming out here to Bulgaria my wife phoned me to say a friend of a friend can pick it up next week and trailer it out to the village. So with luck it will be waiting for me here in the village when we get back from our apartment at the coast.

Post by **Jordi** » Wed Aug 21, 2013 1:32 pm

mike52 · Post by **mike52** » Tue Sep 10, 2013 6:24 pm

Well it finally got out here. It arrived late last night, a bit late in the holiday but hayho at least its here. i have had a couple of shortish trial runs up the logging trails today , with a longer one planned for tomorrow deeper into the wooded hills (with a neighbor armed with a metal detector, looking for thracian treasure - we live in hope.) I have already taken a few photo,s and will take some more, but it is a waste of time trying to load them on while I am here as i am using a borrowed usb modem, which is veeery slow. I will load the photo,s when i get back to England.
When you see them I think you will agree that this is SJ heaven, the trails are used by big Ural ex Russian 6 wheel drive lorries for logging, but with a bit of careful manouevering you can straddle the worst of the ruts.

Post by **Jordi** » Tue Sep 10, 2013 6:32 pm

Look forward to the pics Mike.

In all fairness i expect any volume of treasure will be claimed on behalf and shared with SCUK?

Edweird · Post by **Edweird** » Tue Sep 10, 2013 6:35 pm

Find me a trailer and 500 gallons of petrol and I'll take it.

mike52 · Post by **mike52** » Sat Sep 21, 2013 3:49 pm

As promised I have put a few photos on, ,I had a couple of moments on the longer trip. one where I stalled it going up a steep rocky climb (should have had it in 4wd and give it loads of gas), it rolled back and up the side of the slope balancing on 3 wheels, and the other one was going down another very steep rocky slope when the drivers side front wheel glanced off of a big rock and sent the sj rapidly to the left (in the picture) luckily I had a rolson hand winch on board and we managed to pull it backwards enough to straighten the wheels and get down the slope. Neither of these event went down too well with my wife sitting in the back (we were 4 up). The neighbor did find a very old badly conditioned coin from around 2000 years ago, but apparently its not worth much and he gave it to us as a present.
I have some more photos but thought I would put these on as a trial.
On the last day a big rallye (2013 Balkan Breslau Rallye) came through the hills into the village, but sadly I only got to hear about it quite late and missed most of the offroaders , I saw a few going through the village but not in action.
When I used the diff locks and 4 wheel drive, I developed an oil leak on passenger side, which has stopped again when back in 2 wheel drive, but I will pick peoples brains about that in another thread.