[thechat] Longish reply -- RE: Calling Houstonians (is thataword:))

[Luther, Ron]

Elfur's field reporter checks in with this early exclusive:


"Day broke."

But it's okay.  I quickly roll a +12 and summon the spirit of Bob D.,
'the Moggie 
Mage', who, armed with naught but his trusty Whitworth spanners quickly
puts things 
aright.  Sorry.  But there _is_ something vaguely fantastic about the
Mog. An 
atmosphere of adventure that captures the imagination and bespawns RPG
allusions. 
Atmosphere?  Hell.  With the mass of this booger it might well have it's
own 
gravitational field!  Hmmm.  Maybe the Daleks arrived in these?


"Day broke.  I huddled in the quiet stillness, waiting.  Heart beating
rapidly in 
anticipation."

Well, I would have. If I had been able to find any quiet stillness.
Between the 
lumber yard on one side and some boisterous FFA event on the other,
quiet stillness 
was at a premium.


"Day broke.  I huddled in the quiet stillness, waiting.  Heart beating
rapidly in 
anticipation.  At last I saw it!  Most impressive ... These 'Moggies in
the Mist'."

;-)


Quick Impressions:
- Vroom vroom! 

{No. no. no.  The 'other' kind of impressions!}  Oh!

* A few spots of surface rust here and there, mostly seen on the cab
around some 
emblems and the door hinges.  Doesn't look too serious.  Looks pretty
minor.  
Some steel wool, elbow grease, (or a nice Dremel moto-tool), and a bit
of 
Rustoleum paint may suffice.
* 'Bear' bars across all the windows?  Didn't really notice those in the
earlier 
pictures [but you can see them if you magnify them a bunch.  Seem to be
on all of 
the camper windows and the side windows of the cab as well.  [IIRC
'bear' bars are 
attached to the outside - 'anti-looter' bars are attached from the
inside.  These 
are attached from the outside.]
* All four tires (Gee. I was kinda expecting the rears to be 'duals'.
They are 
not.) look to be pretty worn but I'm not sure how much that really means

with a vehicle like this.  (It's not like you are going to be clipping
apexes in this 
thing!)  Yokohamas!  The two spares above the cab look to have very good
tread.  They 
also make me feel very very fortunate that I didn't have to try to lug
them up there!  
Waaaaay up there!  Or have to try to get them down again!
* No puddles of strange fluid on the ground under the beast.  No patches
of black 
grass or anything like that either.  So, no obvious evidence of
leakages.
* No inspection stickers anywhere on the windshield.  Dunno if that
means anything 
for legal road use or not.  Only has those long skinny 'Euro' license
plates front 
and back.  Maybe that's fine as long as you have "your papers, jawohl"
in order.  
Again, I dunno.
* The scooter wasn't on the back.  My guess is it's either inside -or-
in a separate 
storage locker with more junk.
* That boat thingie on the side of the vehicle is a folding boat!?
Looks to be 
aluminium and fold length-wise.  Some scratches from being slid into
that bracket 
on the side of the Mog.  Not sure how much trust I'd put in a folding
boat.  YMMV.
* There are a pair of metal Jerry-cans under the rear passenger portion
of the vehicle.
* Okay. I saw some rubberized material tucked between the cab and the
camper back and 
figured it was some uber-cool tarp or something.  However, if you go
back to the 
'coffeemaker' photo from the travel site, you can clearly see that they
have cut a 
hole from the cab into the camper.  Since those are two separate boxes,
this is, 
apparently, some kind of weatherproofing between them!
* That tall 'exhaust pipe' behind the passenger?  We're guessing here
that that is 
some sort of interior vent - maybe to the shower or the head.  The real
exhaust 
pipe seems to be just in front of the driver side rear tire.  The end of
that 
pipe is pretty black and kinda ratty looking, you know, kinda like the
end of 
the exhaust pipe of a diesel truck with 124,000 miles on it.  NFI how
long those 
boogers last.
* Size.  Yes, it certainly has plenty of that!  My best guesses
measuring by myself:
	* Length - Measured twice.  Got 27' 10" and 27' 7".  So
roundabouts there. 
Pretty much all of that is camper.  The cab is pretty short and,
guessing here because 
the side windows were blocked with towels and an immense sunshade
covered the windshield, 
but it looks like it might seat two - with a large 'engine hump' between
them.  The 
camper windows were not blocked ... but I didn't bring a ladder with me
so I couldn't 
get up high enough to see in or shoot any pix in through the windows.
	* Width - Somewhere in the 8' 6" to 8' 8" range I think.
	* Height - About 11' 10" from the tall side of those tires over
the cab down. 
Beware of parking garages and low bridges!  The camper portion in the
back - best 
guess measuring from the outside is that it might have close to 7' of
headroom.

Reality check: Yeah, it's big.  It's heavy.  It's boxy.  The height and
width may 
keep you out of the drive-thru at McDonalds.  The weight may keep you
off some 
rickety bridges.  But it really ain't all that big.  Taking pictures it
certainly 
seemed enormous.  But looking over the measurements back in my office it
dawned 
on me that the Mog is about the same width as my boat and, when I
include the 
trailer tongue, actually a bit shorter ... and I tow that around behind
my wife's 
truck without much problem.  So, sizewise, you shouldn't have any
problem getting 
where you want to go in this rig.

If your brother can talk the seller down a few krona he may want to
invest in a 
valise ... cuz that is what he's gonna need to carry *ALL* the dang keys
to this 
thing.  As Bob Davis noted to me offlist, this is a military-type
vehicle, so 
it has access panels everywhere ... and the owner has padlocked just
about every 
dang one of them.  There are padlocks on the access panels.  Padlocks on
the junk 
handing on the back and sides.  There are even padlocks that have been
added to 
the cab doors!


All in all it looks to be very sturdy and studly.  It exudes that 'heavy
machinery' 
vibe that causes boys, (males of any age that are still breathing), to
stare at 
large construction machinery all day.  Looks like (very) Big Fun!



Hope to have the pix ready on Monday!

RonL.


Whoa!  Imagine this thing with some 40" Sprewells, ghost-flamed metallic
cerulean blue 
paint, a few speaker columns 'borrowed' from your favorite futball
stadium put to service 
as subwoofers ... slow rollin through the hood at night.  Where's them
Hummer poseurs now, 
baby?  ....  'Verily, it was if a god had driven amoung them.'


Perhaps it's my mispent youth but when I think 'Moggie' I think of
vehicles more conducive 
to driving with a pair of stringback Jimmy Clark's.  <shrug />