Living with an Austin Champ???

[matchlesswdg3]

Assuming its well sorted in the first place, how easy is maintaining and living with a Champ?  Most of us have had a Land Rover at some stage and those are easy enough to manage, but is a Champ challenging?

[tankdiver]

I have had a lot of military vehicles .The champ is easy to maintain and is a superior vehicle to the land-rover in comfort , cross country, and looks. If the axles are checked for oil then they give very little problems. I run one for logging pulling  1.5 tons twice a week and have had little  problems .I am at present restoring another one but this is a long job. Best get a good one,

[David Herbert]

When I was a student I commuted 120 miles each way every weekend and it was my daily driver in between for two years. I ran with the ignition considerably advanced on the official setting (but not to the point of pre-ignition) and got 16mpg routinely. The only problems that I had on the road were a baffle came loose in the non standard silencer which blocked the outlet and a master cylinder failure which was a bit exciting as I was going down a fairly steep hill with a T junction at the bottom with traffic lights. Luckily they went green at just the right moment ! The gearboxes have rather fragile synchromesh and I rebuilt my gearbox out of two when I first got it, fitting the best synchro rings in mine. They are bronze and several had broken up. I also reinforced the handbrake pivot on the seat base to stop it moving back and forwards when I applied the handbrake. Big improvement. Oil levels are critical and if it doesn't drop oil it is either fine or run out in which case some part of the transmission is dying.

As mentioned above it was vastly better to drive than the S2 & 3 Land Rovers but you must remember that 65 is about the maximum speed and don't expect to stop quickly from that ! I really loved mine.

David