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It's not about errors - more plumbing means more things to get damaged, more parts means more parts that can fail, more weight means more stress on the vehicle, etc... the most reliable part is the one that's not fitted.

If I remember correctly, when you go to larger tyres than the standard 32", you move off the end of the range of available gears. So of the available gears, Blue is the nearest to correct. Of course, if all else fails, you can just fit whatever gear comes to hand, and reprogram the speedo to read correctly. Any chance a bit of the old speedo cable is stuck in the drive gear? I can't think why else it wouldn't fit, though I have found it a bit fiddly occasionally. As far as I've seen the speedo drive gears all have the same centre square.

That's all true, of course, but if one can only build something like this with additional sources of error, one should leave it alone. Did I already say that tinkering is fun? Your pic looks exactly like that 😉 I like to measure temps with IR Thermometer. Maybe thats why I didn´t build it yet

It does add cost, complexity, points of failure, and weight though... I just stick temperature telltale indicator labels around my vehicles and if anything ever shows it's got too hot I'll consider adding cooling - so far nothing ever has.

I hope your currently in the process of starting a revival thread on the above.... regards Stephen

I remember helping my dad change the brushes on many of the dynamos on his old, junk cars. When I started my apprenticeship in the late '70's, they were, more or less, a thing of the past. My first 2A had a dynamo, but I converted to alternator as I fitted an electric winch to it. Currently in the process of reviving a '67 2A, which also has a dynamo, which has had a 'refresh'. It remains to be seen whether the regulator is operational, I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

I just mentioned what he wrote. The LT77 is not stronger for sure, but depending on the tires or on the ground it can be much better as we believe, which he confirmed The tyres ultimately determine the transmission load. If you drive carriage wheels, every gearbox has an easy life. It's different with wide tyres, which never spin. Only then does the entire torque of the engine have to be transmitted. I believe the LT77 is a good and proofen concept. It was constructed in the 30s of last century, when tyres was a lot smaller. Cooling it with my idea is not a really necessary improvement, but a nice project for hot areas, that can´t harm.

If you need the speedo surround I've got one in good condition. Brought for exactly the same situation, but the original came out nicely. Also have a black speedo gear (again in good condition) if this is any use

Interesting when you consider the r380 is supposed to be stronger... I suppose maybe rallying is a very unique situation that most boxes don't see so another area becomes the week point in the modified box?

That sounds good enough to me 😁 Thanks for offering your experience!

The speedo drives come out if you can twist it round with a gentle hammer and small chisel/old screwdriver then careful prying on both sides at once then a bit more chiseling and a bit more prying after a good spray of plusgas. If you just pry it tends to fracture the rim.

In a German LR forum a rallye driver said, he killed several R380 but never a LT77. No idea why, but even though the R380 is improved, the LT77 seems not bad. The only idea I had is to build additional cooling and filtering via an el. pump sucking from the drain plug, pressing through a oilfilter and back in the filler, controlled by an el. thermal switch. Result is more and cleaner oil, without changing anything in the box.

Technically not legal for UK, I believe.

How about using a GPS based speedo? No need to recalibrate it ever again.

Yes, some of the drivers are plain stupid. Same many Nissan Patrols being driven fast into deep water. 🙄. A lot of vehicles have been flooded while parked, but a lot were driven into ridiculous depths. Every car I have owned, after driving it home I have clambered underneath and inside the bonnet to learn where everything is and how it is made so that I can predict any issues like this, diagnose noises, know what will need servicing and so on. Maybe it’s just because of indoctrination, but I think knowing all the systems and layout of your vehicle is essential to operating it correctly!

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I saw the videos from the airport - also the one of some idiot floating a Porsche Panamera through the floods, sure that won't develop any electrical gremlins in future At least you knew where your air intake is, most folks just seem to plough straight into 3' of water and act surprised when they get washed away or the engine explodes

One of the cats in this instance. With hindsight, we would have cancelled, but there was no information on the roads yet and we didn’t expect it to be worse after the morning storms than usual after long heavy rains (it was). At least we made it back just before the worse afternoon storm - even then, we had to turn back on several major roads, twice driving with a handful of others the wrong way along dual carriageways (slowly) until we could cross over at junctions. As for the cat, he’s fine. Thanks.

@Escape's triple axle tiltbed Ifor is about 800-850kg empty. Probably a good chunk less now without that tailgate. So definitely plenty of capacity left. If you can transport a D3, you can transport an empty container... Center of gravity is probably the biggest issue, but also not a huge issue I would think.

Not sure about weighs for trailers but that sounds light for a big trailer, might be worth actually getting it weighed first, most scrap yards could do this for a small donation to the coffee fund. The centre of gravity would be higher than for most loads so care would be needed but unless you have particularly steep roads it should just mean no high speed cornering!. I can easily see why the police might get interested, it looks big and heavy, they won't know if it is also full, a lot of stolen cars and plant are transported in containers as they are out of sight and the steel construction will block any tracker signals, so they could see it as worth a pull just to check.

This feels like conflating using the wrong oil with just using fresh / better quality oil of the correct type... Most mechanical things will work for a quite a while with the wrong oil but unless you're sending oil samples off for analysis you won't know if you're knocking years off the life of it until, well, years down the line...

The CT177 being lower, wider and a bit longer than all but the biggest IFW flatbed, would make it more suitable IMHO. You'd just need to sort the rear lights. The step in the sides before and after the wheel arches could be used to fit wider beams and support the container under its sides. And plenty of holes to straps everything down securely. I'd certainly try it if the need arose.

I needed to do a similar exercise a couple of weeks ago. I found a good soak in Plus-Gas and then two sturdy flat screwdrivers did the trick - there is a groove in the housing a couple of mm from the top which should allow you to get in there and give it a wriggle. Be persistent - it'll suddenly come free. I also found it helped to jiggle the output shaft slightly as it seemed as though the drive teeth were maybe binding.

My neighbour once showed me a very long video from inside his Peugeot estate driving up a gravel track because he'd seen my 109 so knew I was into "off-roading"

Glad to hear you made it OK and had time to get furniture etc to higher ground. I hope you pooch is OK too? Must have been an urgent issue for you to risk driving through the floods.