Filbee

Now we're talking! I'll have a look at that group if I can find it 👍

Thank you for the kind offer to look for the drawings of the boxes you made for the back of your truck, but I'm going to stick with the plan to keep the inside of the rear tub as clear as possible and put the lockers under the wheel boxes in front of the back wheels. Like the MOD ones, but accessible from the inside only.

Hmm, I hadn't thought of bonding to the inner and outer panels of the wheel box. Good thinking! If I did that I'd only have to fold up a U-shaped piece of ally sheet with some flanges, cut a hole in the top of the wheel box and fit a door/hatch. Am I likely to have any issues with strength by removing the rib under the top panel of the wheel box?

Thanks for the link David. I need my storage to be underneath the wheel boxes so I don't loose any space in back, but there are some good ideas there all the same. The plastic lorry boxes are looking promising at the moment. I just need to take some measurements under the wheel boxes to see if any might fit!

That's my plan B! I'm looking at plastic storage boxes for lorries at the moment to see if there's anything suitable out there...

Thanks Mike, I didn't know that. I'll have a look and see what I can find out 👍

This may seem like an odd question, but does anyone supply side lockers for a 110 hardtop that you access from inside the vehicle? I don't mean getting some "normal" side lockers and cutting a hole in the top so that you can access the contents from inside as well as the outside. I was thinking more along the lines of fitting a locker each side that can be accessed from inside only. So externally there would be no visible signs there are lockers fitted. Internally there would be an access hatch in the top of the wheel box/bench. I didn't find anything when I searched t'interweb so if anyone knows of anything suitable, please let me know!

Get those pictures up when you're ready. We all like pics 😎👌

Just out of interest, how are the factory fitted side facing seats fitted, or something like the Exmoor Trim fold-up front facing seats? Are they tied into the chassis or more securely mounted to the tub than my full length rails?

Apologies to Luther that his thread has ended up in a debate about how to mount seats in the back of a Defender! It is interesting to hear some different views on what's acceptable and what's not though. My rails are bolted through the floor using the correct tensile rated bolts and either genuine Unwin plates or washers that are acutely bigger than the size stated in the fitting guide where I couldn't use the plates. I think there are at least 16 bolts holding each length of rail to the floor. Some also pass through ribs the run under the floor, but not many. The belts are built into the seats. Yes, that is a lot of leverage. Looking at how the front seats and belts are mounted (see below - seat mountings are what looks like 4 rivnuts passing through 2, possibly 3 layers of steel sheet), I'm comfortable that my rear seats are fitted safely, but if anyone has any tangible evidence they aren't, I'll have a rethink.

Nope. They're bolted through the floor of the rear tub just as they would in a minibus, camper etc. The fitting instructions tell you to bolt through the floor and use spreader plates/washers. They don't suggest the rails need to be bolted to the chassis of the vehicle you are fitting them to. Do you think they should be? I'm pretty confident the only way the seats will come adrift is if the whole floor of the rear tub became detached.

They go by several names including Unwin or Koller rails, cargo track, cargo rails and many more I'm sure. They look blue in the pics but are actually just sliver-grey machined ally

IMO it depends what you are intending to use them for. I've fitted 3 Unwin rails like yours in the back of my 110 hardtop, and most if the time there are two minibus seats attached to them so I can get the kids in the back if we go off somewhere. I made damned sure I bolted them through the floor of the rear tub along the full length of the rails, using the correct spreader plates underneath where possible, and big old washers where there was room for the plates. I wouldn't be so worried if I was just going to slot some cargo/tie-down rings in them to use to stop a few bulky item sliding about. Just give some thought to how easy it would be for the rails and whatever the rails are attached to to separate from the vehicle structure 👍 Here's what I did with mine. Yours looks much nicer I have to say 😎😊

Having done this very job last year on my 110 TD5 I would suggest the following: Drain the tank completely. As there's no drain plug, you'll have to pump or syphon the fuel out through the filler neck. Carefully drop the tank. Do it in stages so that you can disconnect the fuel pipes at the earliest opportunity to avoid breaking the connectors when the tank is fully lowered. The pipe connectors are colour coded, but it's a good idea to label them too. Give the outside of the tank a good clean, especially around where the pump goes in before you remove it. Once the pump is out, give the inside of the tank a good clean. Get rid of any carp that's accumulated over the years. And if I was you I'd also order new breather/overflow pipes for the filler side (larger bore breather/overflow) and the opposite side (small bore breather). Mine were both perished and it's much easier to do them whilst the tank is out. Then just put it all back together 😁

I plugged mine with a 2" blanking grommet 👍

https://gwynlewis4x4.co.uk/product-category/mud-shields-flaps/ I fitted a full set of Gywn Lewis mudflaps and mudshields to my 110 hardtop last year. The rear mudflaps dismount in seconds when you want to remove them, and as far as unintended dismounting goes, I'm sure I hit 70mph once and they didn't fall off 😁 The front mudflaps aren't quick release, and it would be a bit of a faff to remove them but then I'm not sure why you'd need to take them off regularly anyway. The rear flaps attach to a redesigned rear tub brace (you just swap the original one for the Gywn Lewis one) and the fronts attach to a new bracket that attaches to existing holes in the front wing and body to chassis mounting bracket. No need to drill the chassis at all. You can download the fitting instructions off the GL website so you can see what you need to do before you decide if that's the right option for you. Hope that helps 👍

If there's no noise from the fuel pump, it's also worth checking the fuel pump relay under the driver's seat if you've not done so already. Mine cooked itself.

Hmmm, maybe I need to research this a bit more! I thought it would cost me about double if it was M1 rather than N1.

My TD5 110 hardtop is registered as tax class N1 and gets a class 7 MOT. I have been debating whether it could be reclassified as M1 and class 4 now I've fitted a pair of removable seats in the back and at some point will fit some side windows. On balance I think the saving I make on the tax each year (it's a 2006 so if it was M1 I'd have to pay a lot more than N1) outweighs the lower speed limit and the class 7 MOT.

Ah, well done. Sounds like you've sorted that one out 👍 And 12 amps is a lot closer to my 13 amps, which makes me feel a bit better. It doesn't solve my overheating relay issue but would that extra amp of current make it too hot?

Steady on! You'll be telling me it's got aircon next as well! Thanks for the heads-up on the blipper. I guess I'll need to get another one off eBay and get it coded to the ECU. And a new key cut at my local locksmith type establishment.

What is this "central locking" you speak of??? 😂 Ex-utility Defenders tend to be a bit light on creature comforts! So no central locking. It does have an alarm and immobiliser fitted but it must have been disabled as I don't need to press anything on the blipper to start up. That's why I just need to find out it the key has a built in transponder and have to go to a main dealer and pay for a genuine key, get it matched to the ECU and pay through the nose...

My ex-utility 110 TD5 (2006) only came with one key and blipper so I want to get a spare. Plus the original key is getting a bit worn. My question is does the key have a transponder hidden in it? I want to know if I can just get a key cut at my local key place, or if I need to get a proper LR key blank and get the main dealer to cut it and match the transponder to the truck.

Thank for the update! Still sounds very low compared to mine... On the plus side I don't appear to have any smoke (yet). I managed to check for voltage drop across the relay, and it was negligible. Not sure what other points a can check as there is no way that I can work out how I can check the voltage drop between the relay output and the fuel pump. Another thing I noticed was that the glow plug relay was also a bit warm. Nothing like as warm as the fuel pump one though. And I don't think it's due to heat transfer from the fuel pump relay because I moved them apart for that very reason.

Thank you kind sir!