Some Broke Students, a Sailor and 'Nessy'!

Hello all,

We haven't quite got a name yet but I'd like to introduce myself and Nessy, my 110 TD5 who desperately wants to enter LR09! (see profile pic!)

(Cue blind date music) "I'm Dan, 22 and from hereford", I'm in the Navy which may make time off for organizing difficult but we can work around that. Hopefully joining me will be a couple of broke students, and therein lies our question/request for guidance!

We really want to enter and we can raise the entry fees, but anything more becomes dubious when you add fuel etc to our meagre earnings, include to this the Uni terms starting at pretty much the same time!

We can start 'fundraising' asap, but we're having difficulty justifying the rally if we have to fundraise before even raising money for charity and we'd really like to be able to support either Help For Heroes or one of the myriad of similar humanitarian ones (don't worry, we're not politics students!). We cant say that we're in it to win it and thus go for the prize money because that isn't the spirit of the rally!! Other ideas would be to go overboard on the fundraising, stating that we've already made a serious contribution to the event and therefore try and secure much higher levels of funds or just aim to raise awareness of our respected charity!

What realistically have people managed to do in the past, and we understand that the entry fees are required to fund the camping/off-roading but is there a donation from the organizers to a charity? Also i've read on here that some people managed to secure grants from companies for fuel/supplies etc, any guidance on this would be v. much appreciated!

Cheers very much for any help, I hope we don't seem too money driven in this post, we are still up for the banter!!

Regards,
Dan/Rob/Oli/Steve & Nessy!

Greetings, Dan + Co! Welcome to the forum.

Learn the following phrases, and use them between deciding what you want and being told how much to pay;
"Interested in some advertising in exchange for a discount?"
"We were really after the bigger one, as it's for a charity event..."
"Charity discount perhaps?"
"Do you have any stickers with your logo on?"
"If we bring it back in October, can we have a refund?"
"Are you one of the companies doing a Landy Rally discount?" (Particularly effective at 4x4 shows).

Some teams go out looking for sponsors to help towards the entry fees and fuel, some teams put all the contributed funds to charity. It's up to you at the end of the day.
Charities do tend to be thankful of any contributions and free advertising (so as long as you don't spend money raised for the charity on the trip), so it's very hard to fail on the charity front.

Don't waste lots of money on flash things for the vehicle if you have to sacrifice beers during the event to do so... if it can do 3000 miles, it's equipped enough already.

Hi and welcome to the nut house that is “Landy Rally”.

First off, good advice from Andybloke, first priority is to make certain Nessy can travel 3,000 miles. Second is to start adding the 'funnies' as and when you can acquire them - horns, lights, sound systems, etc. - either donated, bought for peanuts from breakers or auction sites (Kieran’s particularly good at this). No third, fourth and so on, just this – Keep the ‘commercial sponsorship’ and the ‘charity sponsorship’ totally separate. Go to the company where you buy your spares and simply ask – “If I were to put your stickers on Nessy, would you donate £100 towards our fuel bill?” or ferry, or the jerricans we want to buy, or whatever. And don’t get down-hearted or dejected with people saying NO. You’ll get 8 or 9 rejections for every 1 YES, but every YES is another £100/£200/£300 towards your £500 fuel bill. Perseverance is all it takes, although a thick skin also helps!

As for ‘‘charity sponsorship’, the simplest way I have found is to embarrass your friends into giving you £5 or £10 (up front if at all possible – all that collecting bit afterwards is a pain) for the entire adventure. Everyone can do a fiver, and providing you have enough friends, it sure adds up into something substantial. It also helps enormously asking them when they are well lubricated alcohol-wise. Just produce your Sponsorship Form (just like the ones you had at school – 10p per mile cycled / 50p per length of the swimming baths), get them to sign and hand over their hard-earned … simple! Help For Heroes is a really worthy cause, so don’t think you will have a problem there. The bottom line is charity fund-raising for Landy Rally is not compulsory, so do as little or as much as time and your commitment allow. Charities are thankful for even the smallest of donations, so anything you raise is something they never had before you walked in the door; it really is entirely up to you.

Whereabouts in Hairyfordshire are you Dan as I’ll be in Ross-on-Wye this coming weekend. Reason is my son (Deano – my co-driver on LR 2008) and daughter (Bonnie – possibly my co-driver on LR`09 if she’s up for it) both live in Ross, so I’ll be there Sat & Sun for our Christmas get-together! Better late than never!!! If you’re around, why not join us for a drink and/or meal Saturday evening? Meal is in an Indian restaurant with good prices, plus even better, you can BYO and they don’t even charge corkage; say no more! None of us are too flushed with cash at the mo, so we won’t be going mad … except for the BYO that is! Either come as a group or on your own. There will be a crowd of us so you won’t feel like a spare part. Like me Deano runs a RR, so I’m sure you’ll find plenty in common. Come on down, it’ll be the ideal way of ‘breaking the ice’ and having your questions answered - in person.

I’ll let the other students on here (Marc, Kieran, Simon, Manda, James) fill you in with the money side of things as collectively they have entered both Landy Rally events so far, not to mention most of the shows and events in between. Over to the young improvised ones …

Welcome

It's worth looking on the team websites from previous years (in the diary section of the website) for ideas, as well as previous forum posts.

We raised money for charity the usual way (forms, justgiving etc) from friends, family, work colleagues etc. Then got fuel costs, a roof rack, ferry costs, camping equipment, vinyl lettering, free tyre fitting / balancing and various discounts etc. by asking companies and then (for some) putting their logos / websites on our Disco and getting local paper coverage. It seems to work best with local companies, in person and sometimes through mutual friends. It's good to have a picture of your Landy so they can see how their logo would look

(Sorry, I'm not a young 'improvised' one, but am fairly impoverished after Crimbo!)

Lu :bom:

Hi Dan and friends,

I do hope you will be able to do the rally. It is quite an amazing experience - even for us old uns !

Kieran and Marc (our sons) did all their own fundraising last year. Selling advertising space seemed to work quite well for them. They chose our local air ambulance and spent time selling merchandise for them as well as raising funds for running costs.
Our local spares place was very good with the sale or return on things such as spare bulbs, filters etc etc

Kieran seems to be an expert at digging up allsorts of lights horns etc off ebay.

For the ferry. Norfolkline will usually do a very good deal for you particularly if you don't mind the crossing at 3am. Although it will depend on which Uni's your friends need to get to for Monday morning.

So good luck and hope to see you and you friends on the start line in Holland in September.

Welcome on-board.

If Nessy is the 110 in your avatar it looks like you are already streets ahead of those Range Rover boys

If it'll do 3000 miles, simple service before you go thats all you need.

Your kit list should include:
1 x serviced Nessy
1 x co-driver
1 x tent (assuming co-driver(s) sort themselves out)
2 x packets of pro-plus & red bull
1 x VISA card for fuel bill, food, coffee & more Pro-plus
1 x Thick skin
1 x Good sense of adventure & humour
1 x something to cook with
1 x something to sit on / at (I forgot this in 2007!!)

Not essential but would seriously recommend:
1 x CB. Im sure Andyboloke will advise on this front.

Nice things to have:
1 x fridge

As for the charity stuff. It doesnt matter if you raise £5 or £5000 - thats a bonus. They key thing is that you do the event, realise what a hoot it is and enjoy the experience... cos is certainly is!!

When you sign up you'll find its not just a week long holiday, theres much more to it. For a start you'll find most people turn up at the LR shows for a good old banter, seek out donations & pester traders for free stuff - like we aint broke at the moment too!!. Then there's Landy Rally club etc etc etc... Before you know it, the week holiday has turned into a year long adventure!!

Roll on September :arrow:

VentureOverland wrote:

Not essential but would seriously recommend:
1 x CB. Im sure Andybloke will advise on this front.

Indeed... the first bit of advice, is that a CB is essential - it's in the rules and everything.

Cheers guys, thats fantastic advice!

Its pretty definite that Nessy's entering, but as to who the team will be is far from sorted, but never mind, its not for another 9 months! The big green machine will be on the startline come september!!!

Tom, yep i'm free on saturday. I'm being a roadie for my friend's band tonight in bristol (& next week they've got london - See if i can get nessy into the congestion charge to start with and then somehow into deepest darkest camden town!) but i'll be back by midday sat. I'm based 'up north' in bumrod Bromyard.

Cheers again all!
Dan

Yep, she's got a CB. The previous owners (Pam and Terry Brown from North Wales LRC) took her to Morocco amongst elsewhere so she's up for the distance!

Good advice from Jon, only I think he's skimmped a bit on the Red Bull.

As Andybloke says, CB essential which you have anyway. CB banter is half the fun, also very practical as it's something which helps gobble up the miles. I gather you have a UK/Euro set?

What type of band is it? Try to get to Camden so you have time to look around Camden Lock Market, it's fantastic. That advice goes out to anyone who's visiting London - make certain to include this market in your schedule, it's the best in London!

Brill! See you in Ross Saturday night then. I've sent you a text, but just in case you never got it, my mobile number can be found within the main www.landyrally.com website and I have yours of course (now deleted from your post just in case of Spam messages). See you tomorrow. BTW, if you're into wine, Iceland are doing a great 3 for £10 offer at present on Stowells 14% Aussie Shiraz~Matro. Happy (hic) days!

hello, and welcome,
looks a nice landy you have,

main thing is a mini fridge the right size for bottles of .... coke of course
a small cooker comes in handy for bacon
but dont forget bread tomato sauce, brown sauce butter and the all important backing song for cooking bacon....
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dPlo7H0o6Eg
and of course the chart that makes you decide what you want ....

now for a bacon curry

anyhows welcome, will we be seeing you at the shows?

cheers kieran

That's Kieran, one of the "Improvised" students Tom was muttering something about. He specialises in burning things .... bacon, fingers, wiring looms....

As he says, the fridge is something that could come in handy. In 2007 we didn't take a fridge, as neither of us drink milk. To cool beers, we used cold water at the campsites, or bought cold as we went.

If you can cope without milk, or with powdered stuff, you need no fridge on board!

Hey Dan, you progressed any further or did Deano and myself scare you off for good? Good to meet you anyway, and if you decide not to enter this year, then come and say hello to us at one of the shows.

The LRW Show at Eastnor Castle, Ledbury 6th - 7th June is the nearest for you - details via www.4x4calendar.co.uk

Hey all,

No I havent dissapeared off the face of the earth, just been at sea chasing naughty fishermen!

Back in the one true 'shire tomorrow to restart the campaign!

Dan

Well I had an exciting weekend too trawling the internet .. sorry!

Actually I'm looking to decamp a bit further norf as the fuel bill of chasing up and down the M3 is getting a little tiresome, or should that be tyresome? Sorry again!!!

Welcome back on dry land Daniel.

Hi Dan, Team Thames Valley 4x4 Club did the LR in 2007. We were fortunate in that all the money raised by begging was able to go to our charity.

There were 3 of us so the cost was shared 3 ways. We raised £2,500. If I found anyone who was a bit hesitant in offering cash then I would follow the Bob Geldof method GIVE US YER F@@@ING MONEY. I must admit this was only people I knew in our club, but effective non the less.

I don;tsuppose you remeber Bob Geldof and Band Aid. It was the first one I think in 1983/4 and a new concept. He was shouting at Margret Thatcher when the VAT was being taken by the government on the sale of the Band Aid record.

Quote :

If I found anyone who was a bit hesitant in offering cash then I would follow the Bob Geldof method GIVE US YER F@@@ING MONEY.

Either that or set 4x4Bun on them ... I wouldn't cross her!!!

Yes she has very sharp knees, so I am told.

Not in a submarine by any chance were you? If you were is it all right if we just follow at a distance ?

Not sure about the knees, but she can just smile at people and they fall into line ...

Hey Dan, like your new avatar of Nessie in the mud at Driffield; good photo.