reb78

I am about to bite the bullet and buy a new chassis. XD seems to get the best current reviews - they do OEM and Heavy Duty https://www.xdchassis.co.uk/ When would you need a heavy duty chassis? Why buy one over the OEM style?

They only seem like a short term Solution to my very unexpert eye. Hydrogen seems like it could be a more long term solution as Deep says.

Thanks for that. Its silly - I was driving it as it got smashed, but I cant really remember what the cars looked like! The idiot slid towards me as he was going round a bend too fast. He even admitted it, but I couldnt be bothered with a fight for what will end up being £15 and some hassle, plus I had a baby in the car.

Personally I think for anything but extreme use on slopes, people talking about excessive body roll due to the weight of a Brownchurch on top are not driving well setup vehicles. My 110 has had a Brownchurch the entire time I have had it (in my family since 1992 and in my ownership since 2006) - I havent rolled it yet and I drive it in a fairly spirited manner. I frequently carry a roof tent on top of the Brownchurch (including 2500 miles round Europe a couple of summers ago). My suspension is well setup - genuine LR Springs, shocks and bushes (no play/slop) and I run with a rear anti roll bar. No lift. It handles very well for what it is. I also use it on our land to drag a harrow and go collect logs etc - the slopes are steep in places but the rack gives me no issues. The biggest advantage of a lighter rack is more capacity as you say but how much stuff do you really want up there?

Some tool in a white van came round a bend far to fast towards me earlier, cut the bend and smashed my wing mirror on the D2. Are the originals convex or flat on a RHD car?

Haha. Just for the record I thought the LR ones were stupid money too but like Snagger says, they sold so why wouldn't Bowler think 'why not try a little more?!'

That's what I was thinking. Makes the Bowler one seem a lot more reasonable!

Werent land rover churning out rebuilt old defenders for this kind of money? Bowler wont be far of the price mark set by LR with this surely.

Someone will make an aftermarket Defender style bonnet.

Hmm. I guess that would get it hot enough to burn off any coatings of oil from the rebuild?

Did you run it for long after its first start? I'm no expert but I wonder if this is just oil from the rebuild??

Its not like selection pressure is there for a lot of these .... we aren't dying because we have wisdom teeth or weaker jaws.... so its a wonder these changes are happening... surely there are also nations/cultures where takeaways are not common and so the reverse is true - i.e. a strong jaw is still an advantage?!

I guess prep and application are actually really really hard... particularly while the body is on. Its horrible work, especially laying on your back na drive and even with a ramp, some bits of the chassis are near impossible to get to with a brush, wire brush or blaster etc etc so prep is also impossible. Then you paint what you can perfectly and end up with a seam between well prepped and poorly prepped areas that water can get into/under and rust can work forwards from. This is why I went for waxoyl - I thought it stood a chance of working even on the poorly prepped areas. My prep was a really really good wash with an industrial steam pressure washer (but this was far from perfect as I had to do this on the floor even though I am lucky enough to have a ramp (its inside so cant pressure wash in there). Then there is the inside of chassis.... you cant clean or paint properly in there...

I don't buy pound shop socket sets

Thats what I thought too Nick ^^^

Theres an irony here ... you have done all of this to protect your chassis and mine has had a couple of sprays over with waxoyl and at 31 years is nearing the need for replacement (it has had a few patches). This isn't a criticism at all. We all feel we are doing the right thing and weigh up time and money in those decisions and it just makes me wonder if we did nothing compared to the effort of painting like you or the intermediate like me.... i still don't think anyone has hit on a solution (other than replacement with a galv chassis) that really works.

White90 did a long review of POR15 many years ago on here. I think the overall conclusion was that his chassis was just too clean and shiny when he applied it but the main conclusion was that it wasnt great. For a laugh, i looked up the latest shenanigans of our favourite waxoyler the other day (thankfully very little forum inputs since 2017) but he claims he can no longer get the ingredients for kleenex.... that got worse reviews than POR15.

You dont have a galvanised bumper do you?

I run BFG ATs on the 110 so cant recommend any road biased tyres from my experience. My last set got to 120k miles when I changed them. Fuel economy is fine, they aren't too noisy and suit dry, rain, snow, tarmac and off tarmac. So not the recommendation you were after but thats my opinion!

As Snagger says. How bad is it? Sometimes I wonder if the MOT folks just feel they should pop down the odd advisory and its not all that serious when you take a look.

Hats off to him and I agree that the service intervals are crazy long (especially when it will be in the dealership regularly to have other things fixed....) but I wonder if he has just voided his warranty?!

Same (without the freelander 2 bit )

Well. Opinion went 50:50 In this thread when I was about half way through the job. I disconnected all ECUs and the battery. My hands are too big to easily get to the alternator on a TD5 so that remained connected. Earth is always near the work area. Its all gone back together and started fine.

I'm not really Snagger. I am having a moan about bad retailers and Britparts crappy products. I realise the warranty should be pursued with the retailer but BP dont care when you report a retailer who wont honour their warranty and a product thats not fit for purpose. Neither retailer nor BP are worth dealing with again. They both give each other a bad name. Its not worth small claims court level of hassle so i just use neither again!

I wonder why the tractor kept the arm so high?!