M&S

And today I found out why I'm happy to put up with a bit of road noise... I've posted this elsewhere but thought it made a decent tyre review I'm still grinning. It was great. Guess I should tell the story... We went to watch a trial run by a local club at a quarry. They were really friendly and we both found ourselves having a ride around a section. Before they pulled the flags in they asked if the Disco was gonna give it a go...I wasn't sure but agreed to give it a go if on of the marshalls sat in the passenger seat He agreed and so I was commited. I must admit, I thought we'd loose the front bumper completely and wouldn't make it over the ramp-over, and as for turning between two ramp overs on a side slope But the thing I was most worried about was getting through the flags. Apparantly they are 8ft apart...but they didn't seem it from where I was sitting. Anyway, 1st low, through the first gate and down the hill. Smooth, controlled. Plenty of grip from the new tyres and I could even steer towards the next gate. At the bottom I had to turn left through another gate and then left again for the ramp-over where we'd seen a few struggle with cross axling. I used one of my "bumps" here, we are allowed two as it's over 90". Line up foir the ramp-over, turn upo it, steady, floor it, and, and, and over it went. Easy, no problems. Some may say we cheated as the two wheels off the ground only spun once before stopping and over we went Through the next gate, and this was the tight one, turning on a side slope and having to floor it back up and over the next ramp-over. Yes, it's going, we're through, straighten up quickly. Crack The back end snapped the cane. It was great to give it a go, and I realise just how tight those gates are! I don't think there are many clubs that would take the time to let us give it a go just because we turned up. But we had a good laugh and it made a change to do some challenging/technical driving rather than greenlaning. Oh, and the tyres... The Disco is a different vehicle. Seriously. Forget lifts, forget winches, forget remaps, forget everything, the first thing you should do with any Landy on road tyres is get it a new set of boots! We were always impressed with the vehicle, never afraid to give it a go. But now everything has fallen into place, I can drive the vehicle in a controlled, sure footed way. I can steer instead of sliding! And the TC light only ever came on when in a cross-axled situation. Just like when you might engage difflock. Superb The engine can work in it's torque range now instead of reving for the TC. It can climb hills, boy can it climb hills! And if it can't, I can stop, select reverse and drive back out (unlike previously where I'd slide backwards whilst still in a forward gear!) You can probably tell I'm rather excited and rather pleased New tyres ROCK, and the D2 is a seriously capable off road vehicle. Oh, I said something about a tyre review...erm, well on the road they do squirm a bit under heavy braking, down hill, when going into a corner. But they don't actually skid. They just seem to lean a bit. Driven like a land rover, or driven like my father would drive the tyres are fine on the road. If you want to corner at silly speeds and fly up motorway slip roads doing 90mph before hitting the brakes at the roundabout, then you probably don't want these tyres. You probably don't want a Landy either

And finally, a battery voltmeter for keeping an eye on the system. Position 1 is main battery, centre is off, position 2 is leisure battery. And teh green matches teh rest of the dash

Yeah, I did, but never got any reply to emails so... but as above, if you disconnect the solenoids then no vacuum will be applied to the egr pipes anyway.

Another update - the 8 piece pro screwdriver set that they have in at the moment for £19.99..trade price...£8.49 Vehicle batteries are typically 40% off.

Try giving 4site4x4 a ring on 08701129407 - this is the technical advice number, but they will give you the number of your local stockist. They stock Kumho KL71's. When you ring the second number they will give you a fitted price, but you can ask for a price without fitting and collect them if you want. I should let you know that I shopped around on Tuesday and these were unavilable with no answer on when they will be in stock. They are a REALLY chunky tyre also, they look huge. Average price was £71 for the Kumho, £91 for the STT (235/70R16).

I have the standard LR tow bar on my Disco, but without the drop plate fitted. The towball is mounted straight onto the towbar, and isn't too high. Despite what everyone who sees it says ("that'll get hooked up straight away") it's not taken a bump yet. And I don't exactly avoid the difficult stuff I'm going to use the towbar to mount my fuel tank guard to. Just cut a sheet of 4mm aluminium (actually I'm going to use thinner as I don't need THAT much protection) to shape, an bolt on. Cheap and chearful B)

I picked a friend up and went for a proper drive. He runs the Insa Turbo Special Tracks. Anyway, after a while of general chat I said "so don't you think that they are a bit loud then" "what? oh, your new tyres, hang on, I hadn't noticed" "no, they sound alright, you should have heared my bog monsters, etc, etc..." Some banter later (mostly aimed at me and how fussy I was) we took a detour down a lane. It is muddy and ends at a field which then becomes private and there is a muddy, rutted turning circle at the bottom (heavily used by tractors which have make a right mess of it on a day to day basis). Low third, lock on, clutch out and around it turned without so much of a flicker of the traction control light "Look at you, grinning away?" "Honestly mate, you have no idea, I've never been able to drive out of a rut before, not even with the BFG AT's on the Freelander" "Eh?" "You have no idea how much work was involved keeping the disco (when on the balding road tyres) in a straight line on mud or grass, never mind trying to steer in a direction that I want to go. Driving out of ruts, never done that before" And I used to think that we did pretty well before So, are they noisy? Yes. Are they REALLY noisy? Apparantly not. Can they be forgiven a bit of noise for their off road ability? If they carry on like that, YES Time to turn the radio up a bit B) I've come from low profile road tyres to these. I knew (and hoped) there would be some changes apart from the off road ability. The deeper sidewalls make for a more comfortable ride and we sort of bounce rather than thump. The steering is lighter and actually doesn't wander over white lines like it used to. The handling is just fine, I haven't tried them in the wet yet, but around my usual route I drove a bit harder than I normally would to test them and they didn't twitch at all. No worries there then. Looking forward to giving them a full and proper review after a month or two's driving, by which time I won't notice the noise anymore

Well the first test drive isn't great - these things are noisy! What a whine! Handling wise they feel fine, no complaints there, but the whine from 30mph onwards I expected a bit of noise but even the radio doesn't cover it up. Will it get any better with a few miles on them? Or do I take 'em back now? As I say, handling wise no problems, they feel pretty good.

Cheers mate, will leave alone then The turning circle is pretty good anyway. Well, better than my LDV van was Oh, and you forgot to say how much better suited the wheels and tyres are to the busted front bumper and scratched paintwork

Cool. Just got them fitted to the disco now. No time for a test drive, will have to do that tomorrow. But they look good and we think that the steel wheels look good as well. Do you think I'll be able to change my steering stops now? I've come down from a 255 to a 235? Might get a bit better turning circle?

Of course, you are both correct Sorry. (I got confused whilst writing it, I had momentary switches and latching relays on my mind and if this were the case I had planned to take a live from the clock, just for thr momentary switching of the relay). Speaking of switches, mine just arrived so it's all wired in and working now B) I can't remember where, but I did trawl around a lot on the web and from a manufacturer of switches site found these had a rating of 5A. I've done a proper job of it. In trying to keep it brief I missed out a few bits...I should have mentioned that I have a 4 way fuse box under the dash (there's loads of room around the steering column). There is a 30A main cable coming in from the leisure battery to the this fuse box. This main is fused at the leisure battery. From the fuse box there is a wire to the switch, and then this continues on to the worklight. A 5A fuse is fitted in the fuse box. My CB is also wired into this fuse box with a 5A fuse, but also has a 3A in-line fuse at the CB. Phew, think that's covered it Thanks for the concern (advice is always appreciated) and sorry for misleading anyone

Yup, it is a CB gutter mount, cost £5 which I was happy with. And yes, the cable does frun through the door seal. I wasn't sure about this but it seems the "done thing" and to be honest, now its in place, I don't see it as a problem. It would be easy enough to drill a hole as well and I might do this in the future if needed. I've used a twin core cable (so it has 2 lots of insulation) for the section running from the light through the door. I've removed the plastic trim in the rear quarters. I earthed the light just inside the door (by the skylight) and passed a single cable behind the roof linging, across to the drivers side, along the rooflining, down the interiopr A pillar (that trim pops off easily). It then goes behind the dash (beneath the steering wheel) and will be wired to a switch that I have on order. The live is from the leisure battery, but I'm sure you could take it from another suitable source behind there (the clock live is my favourite The switch I have ordered is an original hazard warning switch that will drop in below the existing hazard warning switch (I have a blank there at the moment, but some have the fuel filler flap button here?). Stephanie is going to paint it with our own symbol Just a note when choosing a switch, it needs to be a latching switch, not a momentary. So that's the hazard warning, HDC or cruise control switch if you wanted to wire it up to the instrument console. Otherwise you'll need to find a latching relay. Hope this helps. Martin. PS - The worklight is the Wipac square light, the only one that I could find that would fit without hanging out in the line of branches etc (this was well tested on Sunday!). Also, in case like me you didn't know, the light doesn't come with a bulb It's a H3 55W

I find that standing on the rear wheel gives me a lot of extra height for photos. And you can sit on the back of the roof with your feet on the spare. Just buy a rear door ladder if you need to, £50. Unless you need to carry things on the roof then a roofrack is an expensive purchase that will also increas your fuel consumption and make it harder to get into carparks. This weekend a 110 got stuck when out green laning. The roofrack got well hooked up on branches and some prunning was needed You'll be surprised at how good the standard disco is without any mods. As said, some tyres would be the biggest improvement that you could make to it's off-road capabilities (but again for laning you don't need swampers!). A chequer plate bonnet might be useful. They look purposeful, give you something to stand on with a tripod, and throw bags on etc? A friend or club who are into greenlaning would also be a worthwhile investment That way you can go out, see how the vehicle performs, see how bitten youa re by the bug, and see what you actually need rather than what you think you need. Just my 2p's worth.

Well I've got a set on order so they should be here and fitted tomorrow. I think they will be the compromise that I am looking for. I've found it's not a case of seeing a tyre and thinking "I'll have that one" I ended up finding all of the tyres avaiulable in the size I wanted, then working through that list looking at the tread patterns etc. Then finally deciding on a copule, ringing around for prices, finding they are too expensive or unavailable right now, so moving on to the next one! It came down to a choice of two really, the Insa Turbo Ranger (BFG AT copy) or this one. I'll happily report (good or bad) my thoughts as I add some miles to them Cheers, Martin

Yes, yes they do Nice one, thanks for the quick reply. The BFG Trac-edge got some great reviews I seem to remember, but are not available anymore? I know these won't have the same wear rate, but at half the price I can afford to change them twice as often. And to be honest I more likely to rip a hole in the sidewall before they reach 50k+ miles Looking like a good choice then I think

Hi all, Am finally getting rid of the road tyres and fitting something chunkier B) I've got a really good price locally for some Insa Turbo Traction Track. I'm happy that I can buy them locally, and having phoned around there's just nothing in stock at mostr of the usual advertisers Anyway, just wanted to hear some opinions on these as apparantly: "One of the best loved tyre patterns ever made for Land Rovers is now back with the new Insa Turbo Traction Track. " "This superb all purpose dual pattern provides a central area of closer spaced tread blocks for low noise, stability and wet weather grip on tarmac along with a more open aggressive outer edge tread and shoulder lugs to give bite and grip in tough off-road conditions. " So, even if you haven't used the Insa Turbos you may have had a similar pattern in the past? Also, which "legendary tyre" do they resemble? They sound realy good, a bit more aggressive than some of teh so called AT's out there, but not a mud or extreme tyre? Keeping in mind some of the places I've been in the vehicle with nearly bald road tyres on I think that they should suit the D2 for laning, pay and play, and of course, the motorways? Cheers, Martin. PS - I'm not after any other recommendations for tyres, thanks. I've spent loads of time reading up on them, doing searches etc as well as actually checking sizes, price and availability No more options please! (unless the comments about these come back as complete rubbish )

Thanks Dave, looks like you are right Streaky - show off

It's fun this isn't it They are looking a lot more like what I was after. Streaky - thos boots look quite good too. As I say, I have hiking boots etc but find them too heavy. These are getting closer to what I want. Cheers.

Here we are. They are quite low and look really soft:

Thanks for looking everyone. I might try and take a photograph of the ones in the video. The closest match though are the army surplus desert boots, so I will have a look next time I'm passing. As I say, I have good hiking boots already, I just find them difficult to drive in. Don't forget I'm in a D2 so the throttle response is perhaps a bit more delicate than in some other vehicles The gortex jungle/army boots etc aren't really what I'm looking for. To prove the point though, whilst opening a gate yesterday the grass "gave way" an I ended up with a shoe full of s**t And I had my wellies in the back Will try and grab some photos later.

The guy I purchased my D2 commercial from replaced it with a D3 commercial. Load space on mine is 1.8m long or thereabouts. Mine also has a solid bulkhead unlike the one in this pic - but should give you some ideas what to expect: http://www.neneoverland.co.uk/4x4discovery..._commercial.php I think that a genuine commercial (ie one from Land Rover) should have the special vehicles badge and plate under the binnet. Ours does.

Hi, and welcome to the forum. I have a D2 commercial and you are right, there's loads of room behine that plastic trim (or there is with the D2 anyway). I reckon another 4-6" which is nice. It also gives a squarer shape to the load space. For racking etc, try http://www.mobilestoragesystems.fsnet.co.uk/ expensive though, but good quality. We had an LDV van but when it came time for that to retire I too opted for a Land Rover. It's car-like in the front, comfortable, etc. But the rear loadspace is huge (enough) and you can head off-road at the weekends, or for months on end if the fancy takes

Screwfix are doing the clutch claw for £50 at the moment

Well I have been busy. In no particular order here are a few more additions to my D2. I'm getting there, very slowly. Not helped by the fact that as I tick off one job I add a dozen more! Flexible map light Reflective tap (for safety on country lanes etc) Rear worklight Leisure battery Split charge system (voltage sensing relay) I'm happy with how it is coming together. I've also fitted some Disco 1 mudflaps to the rear. A straight forward job and they fit really well. Much more flexible and larger than the originals (that got ripped off in the first week!)