Peaklander

I'd say there's a bad connection somewhere, this could be on the feed or earth side or your 6 mo old battery isn't happy. I'd start with a voltmeter on the battery (a handful of £). Then try the obvious earths such as chassis to transfer box and big thick battery negative to chassis or wherever it goes. There's a small earth high up on the RHS of the Transfer box and another on the bulkhead near the pedal boxes. You could also clean-up the 12v feed from alternator to chunky fusebox in engine bay. That would be a start...

^^^^^ i knew that the original switches the 12 volts or whatever the alternator delivers at any point but I'd always assumed the switched is much quicker. The output is a nominal 10V but I don't know how to work out what the "chop" frequency would need to be. (I might have known this at a point in the past but I've forgotten now). Is it really only 1Hz or less - just for interest?

Why do people moan when they haven't a clue what the new Defender will look like? It's pure speculation that it will follow the SUVs even though it's apparently going to be a Defender, which has never been one.

^^^ this. I did the same on my 88 and even put the regulator in the little box that the original one was in.

There is a light bar...is this a recent addition?

I think that the voltage is getting pulled down somewhere at a high resistant connection or it might be the battery itself that's showing signs of old age and taking a moment to recover when a heavy load is applied. To try to isolate the problem to the wiring you could disconnect each of the four outputs in turn at the relays. So pull one of the connectors off pin 87 so that you cut out N/S dip then O/S dip then move to do the same to the mains. That would also reduce the current required anyway so it might not be a fair test but could be worth a try.

It sounds as though that permanent live is suffering from a volts drop as you switch on a heavy current load like the lights or beam and then it recovers a split second later. Have you used good thick wires capable of carrying the current the lights demand?

What's that "thing" lurking in your roof trusses? Is it an interesting knarly branch?

My workshop manual for 1996-on 300TDi specifically says no to jacking under either of those. I'll add a pic of the page in a mo. I suppose you are asking a single bush to take the whole weight of the rear or front quarter at least.

The other thing about not needing a hookup is that even within the confines of a campsite, you can go on any pitch rather than being restricted to those with hookups. For (anti social) types like us that often means up top with the view, in the back, right at the front next to the beach or other advantageous positions.

Holy Mackerel - this is an old thread. I doubt that wheel brace is available now. The OP hasn't been on here since 2009 either 🤣

I thought one of mine might be on the way out. I took it off when I removed the body but now, in the vice, I can't find any play. I'd earmarked a pair from SP for £21, which are either Allmakes or Bearmach. Probably I'll stick with my 22 year old ones.

Yes that is interesting. I've seen it before but never realised what was going on. Presumably most listings like this will be "last one".

Apparently the last one. Hurry!

NIce pics Cornish. It all looks very shiny. I can also see a cooling fan (very useful) and a bottle of beer or whiskey (can't see which). Priorities correct 😓

You mean pics from me or pics from John as he does it "live'?!

I presume it's there as a first line of defence against stone damage. As you have a big guard anyway then I think you are fine to lose it.

Hi it’s optional and has the same holes as the tank. However I found it an absolute pig of a job to fit. Really really hard. The guard doesn’t seem to be the correct shape and to get it to closely fit the tank and therefore to get the holes to match, is where the swearing helps.

The Picos are obviously to the west. If you do go east from the western end of the Pyrenees there's lots to see too. East of Jaca is Parque Nacional de Ordesa y Monte Perdido. It depends what you like but if you want remote high mountain valleys then look no further than Bujaruelo which is at the north end of the A135, to the western side of Monte Perdido (3,355m). It's a magnificent spot, with an approach road of gravel that pushes up through a narrow gorge with a torrent alongside. At the top end is a huge flat campsite and views up to the peaks. After that, drive south then east on the N260 and north on the A139 to Benasque. The N260 road includes a knife-slash gorge and the road hugs the bottom of the cliffs, just above the river. Benasque is a great town and from there you can drive further north again and into another dead-end valley with several campsites near to Pico Aneto. I hope I've got the directions correct. That's just my two-penneth. There's so much to look at on the south side of the mountains...

^^^^^^ time for some wider shots of the vehicle coming together!

I know that, it’s just me trying to be humorous.

I think that's a brilliant idea. By the way, does RTFM 'translate' into Flemish?

Yes I am referring to a Peltier coolbox too but mine has two "cycles". There's a "coldness" setting but usually we had it set to coldest. Only on cool days did we reduce this setting. It was / is a lot more costly than others but far more effective than the first ones we tried. It sits on a low fan setting and depending on heat load / temperature measured in the cold space, it then switches to a much faster fan speed periodically and then that draws the bigger current. This duty cycle gets more and more demanding on the battery with increasing ambient temperature The second fan only runs when the lid is closed and I assume that runs constantly. I'd still recommend an electric compressor type though (not the big gas ones unless you don't mind carrying gas too), if you can justify the spend. The difference is night and day. You don't need a big one. We have a 35l Waeco chest type and it's amazing what you can get in.

We ran a Waeco coolbox for many years. Initially this was in a car off the engine battery and then from a dual battery system with a split charger, Without a doubt the current drain depends on the ambient temperature as the hotter it gets the more the unit has to work. In hot camping we could only keep running for 24hrs without risking flattening the car (which we did a couple of times). With the split charger we would run until the cut-off ( which was around 11volts I think). This can still be only two or three days in hot weather. When the unit is fully running you might be drawing 4A. Ours had two fans, one to cool the Peltier junction and one in the cold space. Eventually I played around changing fans to try to reduce current and sound (they are quite noisy and in a tent this can be disturbing as they cut in and out). It's obvious but you need to keep it in shade which isn't always easy. We carried a piece of silver bubble wrap to protect it from direct sunlight and that is really effective. I would definitely run a power cable to it if you are staying for any length of time and not intending to move it back into the vehicle for a top-up charge. There nothing wrong with using a waterproof power socket but the issue then is that if there is wet weather you will want to put the unit in the tent. If it's hot as well then you have the problem of high ambient temperature. These units can only reduce the inside cold space to 20deg C below ambient and that's the theoretical best. If you do pay for camp electrical hook-up then take a small kettle too and make that €4 / £4 daily payment more useful by saving on gas. Two batteries and spit charge is a better system but then you run the risk of damaging the second battery through under charging. A normal split system will connect the two batteries in parallel and they will never both fully charge. One of them will suffer and eventually will lose capacity due to this problem of never quite being charged-up. Lots of people will now say that they don't have this problem but I'm going on my own knowledge and reading around the subject as it has been an issue for me (compounded by a slightly low output from my alternator). A solar panel would solve the problem and I would have thought that a fold-up 100W connected to your second battery will give you longer service at the camp site and the split charger can help to replenish once you get back on the move. Without a doubt the single best thing I did was to buy a compressor fridge combined with a 100W solar panel and a little box of electronics that handles the panel and both batteries. On our recent trip around Spain we didn't even take a mains cable. That was the first time in many many years! By the way, fit an rccd trip inline with the mains cable up near the plug. The same style as you get with garden equipment. Don't use a plug-in one as there often isn't room in the connection box. Also get a yellow or orange cable so you can see it and make it a long one. It doesn't have to be a big current size.

That's not allowed under the trades descriptions act or something similar!