Old Tony ... your posts are absolute GOLD !!!
About the snorkle appearing: The first weekend i got my car, we went camping and 4wd'ing. I did a couple of creek crossings, first one was about axle deep so no problems. The 2nd crossing was much deeper - the bow wave was lapping over the front of the bonnet. Two months later my car went off to have its bull bar fitted and came back with a snorkle as well. The MRS was not happy, but then i tactfully reminded her that the snorkle was not optional, it was required equipement .... 'remember i nearly drowned the car the first weekend?' The funniest thing is that she did not even notice the snorkle on the car until our 4 yr old son asked me what it was (on the 2nd day after fitting) - boy did she blow her stack then !!!
Now i have got a bit more savvy. We went in early June off with the 4wd club that i've joined (family membership) and we did a couple of adventurous day trips. Out of 6 vehicles, mine was the only one without suspension mod's. I was bottoming out nearly every humps we went over, and then draggin the tow bar through everything else. By the end of the 2nd day trip
she was asking when i'm geting the suspension lift on the car. YIPPY ... the car is booked in for tomorrow for the 2" lift kit (with 'her' blessing)
Other items she is passively agreed to, is a long range fuel tank. She does not like the fuel smell in the rear tub area from the plastic jerry cans leaking in the back. THe 12K pound winch has not even raised an eye-brow from her, winch is also getting installed tomorrow. To give credit to my darling wife, she did not flinch when i came home one day with a different tow bar and spent nearly 2 hours in the garage with a mate taking the old one off and putting the new one on, and then spent the following weekend getting a better step made for the bar
http://www.navara.asia/d40-general-chat/4070-ironman-rear-step-bar-d40.html
BUT, she is slowing me down from getting an awning to come off the side of the roof rack at the moment.
I'm lucky that my wife actually was happy for me to upgrade my falcon wagon to a 4wd, so we could spend more time going camping as a family instead of me taking off on my boat going fishing every weekend. But the costs have kept coming, replacing a trailer with an off road camping trailer, chain saw, car upgrades, spare rims (soon to be fitted with muddies), replace the axle and hubs on camper trailer with an electric braked system with hubs to suit the navara alloys that i've bought .... geez, the list keeps going. Guess i better get a 2nd job ... or send the MRS back to work ...