It's a start...

Well here we are with our first Blog entry and hopefully the start of an interesting and exciting blogging journey for us all. So firstly, let me introduce myself. My name is Tim and I have been into 4WDs for many years. I was introduced to 4WDing as a lad living in the Northern Territory of Australia (way too long ago). My first car was a Suzuki Sierra and since I've been hooked ever since.

My love of 4WDing lead me to work in sales and fitting for a couple of 4WD stores around Brisbane and eventually moved into wholesale aftermarket accessories. This was a great way to build knowledge of the accessory industry and the vehicles themselves. The one thing that struck me throughout this time was that owners of small 4WD’s (just like me) often had a hard time finding suitable accessories for their vehicles. I often meet people who were almost laughed out of stores across Australia by sales staff who told them that accessories just didn’t exist for their vehicle, or who just had no knowledge of accessories and parts for anything other than mainstream large 4WDs.

I knew through my experience in hunting down hard to find accessories that those products do exist and are often just not stocked by larger 4WD accessory suppliers who have a focus on larger turnover products. A niche market existed for a specialist supplier, like us, who know our market and our vehicles (and who work hard with customers to grow that knowledge every day!)

So Outdoor Auto was born in late 2006 as a part time project to help owners of small 4WD’s who love getting outdoors and going off-road (just as much as any Patrol driver) to fit-out their vehicles. In July 2008 I left my ‘day job’ and went full time into the business and our product range and customer base continues to grow. We aim to source hard-to-get products from across the world and also support other small businesses by having custom Outdoor Auto designed pieces fabricated locally. We have the pleasure of supplying 4WD accessories across the globe while predominately basing our business from home and on-the-road.

So why are we blogging?

Well firstly, Outdoor Auto is more than just a business, it's about family. There is me, the lovely Jo my partner of almost ten years and our three kids BB, E & Bx. We are a family of five who love the outdoors. We love going off road, camping, touring and basically getting out and about together in the stunning Aussie landscape as much as possible.

So while our business is all about the 4X4 and accessories , this Blog is more about creating better experiences for us to share. Our motto for Outdoor Auto is "It's your life. Get you there!" and basically this blog is to keep us accountable to that mission. It is our life, and we want to get out there and we want to share the adventure with you.

So we will try to be dilligent bloggers and share our adventures with you. Expect trip reports on the places we visit, posts to pass on the tips and tricks that we have learned along the way (especially about camping with a family) and product reviews of some of the products that we come across in our travels.

So we hope you come along for the ride - even if it get a little bumpy (after all - it will probably be off-road!