1985 110 In West Chester PA

[bossongs]

Frank Markowitz of MiniObsession in Wester Chester shot me a note yesterday that he had this 110 for sale. Nice looking truck. Frank and Michael were the source of my TD5 and are stand up guys. I'm not back in the market now that I have my 110 back from the shop - post the roll-over, so thought I'd share the listing.

Steve B.

Asking Price: $24,995 Fob West Chester, Pa.
Mileage is 92000
Regular chassis
Factory LHD NOT converted
Country of origin SWITZERLAND
Location Euro Workshop
Updated Landrover Defender, V-8, Stick Shift,
original 1985 body, updated interior,
repainted several years ago.
Excellent frame, never been welded.

Contact info:
miniobsession@hotmail.com

[galen211]

You rolled your 110? Yikes.

[bossongs]

Yep, turned it over last July while camping with the Family up on Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. We had just spent two nights at Meat Cove (highly recommend) and broke camp in the rain to start our trek back with plans to camp at other places on the way South.

We were driving along a coastal road when we came around a corner and a car was stopped in the road waiting to make a left hand turn. I hit the brakes and put the truck into a mild skid ... and we came to a stop about 6-8 feet behind the stopped car and a bit off set to the right side of the road. My wife and I turned to look at each other in relief as the vehicle came to a halt ... I think one of even started to say 'Whew, that was close.' In that very instant of relief, a 12 foot long by 5 foot wide section of the shoulder gave way. As you probably guessed ... that was the very section supporting our right tires. Over we went. (Highly don't recommend.)

There's very few things that I've experienced both as unnerving and unforgettable as hanging from your seat belt and looking around to see your wife and kids in the same position. We had ended up in a small stream that started flowing water through the downside of the truck. With some help from a good Samaritan - Wade Aylward - I managed to climb out and lift out my kids and wife to Wade. As unlucky as we were - we couldn't have been more fortunate than to have Wade and his family come to our rescue.

Wade arranged for a wrecker to come and pull the truck out - several hour wait - we were pretty far from anything folks around here would call a town. He also happened to be the village mechanic. Please don't interpret that as a shop/dealership/etc ... Wade worked out of the garage at his house. While he and his son started to help with what turned out to be six hours of field repairs ... his wife set my family up in their trailer-camper for the evening.

The truck started and seemed to be functional - so we went to work on cutting away bent metal from the wheel wheels, knocked out all the broken glass (including the windshield) and then started to secure loose panels with sheet metal screws, 4 rolls of ducts tape and a make shift windshield from 1/4 inch Plexi. Wade even passed along the remnants of a bottle of Rainex for the road (the wipers would have ruined the Plexi). I took it for a test drive and then called my insurance company to discuss my options. As you might guess - I had not selected the International Towing option ... and there were no dealerships or any place in the Province that we could find where I felt I'd ever see this thing again.

So ...we started the 1,200 mile trek back home and figured we'd go as far as we were comfortable ... hopefully make the US boarder and get it towed South from there. We ended-up making the trip in two days at low-speed (I'm talking Series kind of speed).

In terms of repairs - we had to replace every panel on the truck with the exception of the following: Hood, Firewall (very lucky, that would have totaled the truck), Rear Tub and Rear Door. We picked it up from Brandywine Coachworks tow weeks ago after numerous problems souring parts (getting wrong bits ... shipping back to UK in exchange for the right bits ... a few times). Brandywine did a super job ... all new panels were painted separately before assembly, they replace every single piece of rubber on every panel, etc ....

Overall, we were incredibly lucky that no one was hurt ... incredibly lucky to meet the Aywards and very pleased with the attention to detail from Brandywine.

That's my ROVER story for '09 ... we're hoping for a more relaxing bit of camping this year.

Steve B.

[galen211]

Crazy story but glad to hear everyone is OK. Trucks can be replaced but people can't! That is all that matters.

[Rob P]

That's a great story worthy of LR Lifestyle magazine. So glad that you and your family were OK after all that. Do you have any pictures you can post of before and after the crash and then the rebuilt product?

[mlp141]

Hey Steve -- I second Galen's thoughts -- stuff can be replaced but loved ones cannot.

Did you have any insurance issues given the trucks "unique" place in America? ;)

[bossongs]

Absolutely agree that all that really matters is no one was injured.

Here's a few sequence shots <attached>. The first one is before the accident in the Highlands, the second is over on in the stream; the third is a side shot right after it was puled out, titled 'the bear' ... this one hit's me, give's you the sense of a relaxing family moment suddenly turned 'upside down' and the last one is in the shop, awaiting new body panels.

Rob, you'll have to wait for the next ROVERS event to see the finished product.

Steve B.

[Rob P]

Wowsers