Chicken Drumstick

Extra lights can be handy. Depends where you drive and what you use a vehicle for.

Curious, but does anyone have any proof or referenceable docs that spot lights do restrict airflow? Surely there would still be a big air gap behind the lamps for air to be drawn in?

Don't disagree, although I'm not convinced the op actually falls into this category. A SerIes 88 with a roof tent isn't all that much considering the 200Tdi is perfectly acceptable in a 130 or Discovery in standard output. I assume either they are being unreasonable with expectations, not willing to down shift, have a setup that is over geared and maybe an engine that just doesn't run great. Over the years, I've found Tdi's can be quite variable in how they perform. Some seem much stronger than others. My 88 with a 200Tdi in pulled my loaded (camping) Sankey trailer fine. The Tdi was stock, no intercooler and I'd never tweaked the pump (unknown if it ever had been, but I don't think it did, it didn't smoke). It drove really well, even on 8.25 x 16 tyres and 3.54:1 diffs. Although my plan was to return it to 4.75:1 diffs and fit an over drive.

Please do. Interested to see what you think. Are you doing any dyno runs at all? Certainly not saying you shouldn't mod. Mine is most certainly not stock!

This one? https://falconturbos.com/shop/land-rover/discovery/2-5-tdi-td5/land-rover-defender-2-5-tdi-td5-stage-2-hybrid-turbo/ What is the rest of your setup? What are you trying to achieve with a different turbo? Unless you are rolling road tuning or some other way to measure performance. More boost may not increase performance. Not saying it won't. But there is more to it than just slapping on an aftermarket turbo. A mate built up his Tdi with a hybrid turbo and lots of aftermarket bits. On a club dyno day his made significantly less power and torque than my stock turbo 200Tdi. Another friend also cranked up the boost on his Tdi, the boost gauge showed this. He recorded the lowest figures of any Tdi at the event.

BTW - what hybrid turbo specifically are you looking at?

More appropriate gearing for your intended use might be a better thing to spend on. Ashcroft offer a number of different diff ratios. Also remember boost pressure is a measure of resistance, not flow. Meaning high boost does not always translate into high Horse Power.

Not really surprising a car magazine would opt for the most car like vehicle (while ignoring price too). Also a bit of an odd test really. Would be like getting an Elise, Focus RS and BMW estate together. i.e. they could all be labeled as drivers cars, but all very different vehicles.

Somewhat off topic. But I would say it has. I haven't printed anything for work for over 3 years and don't use any paper notepads or anything.

So far they have seemed very helpful. I have ordered a prop. 7-10 day lead time, which is the same as Bailey Morris. They said they would take payment once it is built. Priced quoted was £180+ VAT but including shipping. This is for a 1310 wide angle prop. Assuming it turns out all ok I’ll probably order a rear prop too when I upgrade the suspension next.

They still potentially need gears. The Tacan is a 2 speed and I believe either Renault or Citroen have announced a manual EV on its way. The motors also need a lot more than 3 wires to make them go, they need an entire speed controller setup.

Not so much stats. An interesting article. But it says they don't have enough data, not that they are actually safer or less prone. Also worthy of note, the article first talks about fires on a car transporter ship. So very obviously cars that aren't running or being driven. So oil, petrol or diesel is unlikely to be the cause of such a fire such as dripping onto a hot exhaust or similar. The fire will 100% have been an electrical fire. Showing that the electrical component is the most risky part. As all EV's also have 12v lead acid batteries, they must logically be at least the same risk of fire in this situation as an ICE car. And as they then also contain a large capacity high voltage battery, the risk profile must increase. There is no other logical way to look at it. The article also cite some other conclusions from another party, although logically they don't make sense. As this claim is Hybrids are the most dangerous with regards to fire, petrol then EV. Logically if EV is safer than petrol, then adding a hybrid system to a petrol should make the hybrid safer than the petrol. But they are saying adding a motor and batteries makes it less safe. Clearly this is conflict with the conclusion that batteries and motor in an EV is safer. It doesn't cite the source data, although I'm willing to bet the conclusions are likely based on poor assumptions and/or bad data. The article also says this about EVs: "What is clear is that the fire is more difficult to deal with, the energy release during the exotherm of the electrolyte takes a lot of cooling to extinguish" So even if there was a minuscule less chance of a fire with an EV (which I'm not implying there is.... ). It is certain that any such fire would be more dangerous, costly and risky.

I think there are something like 33 million cars in the UK excluding things like lorries and buses. ICE cars have also been around for over 100 years. And every single day cover huge distances. A quick Google suggests 323.8 billion miles a year in the UK. Car fires are and have been relatively rare if you look at it per car per mile basis. And ICE cars are not limited to the UK, they are used globally and have been for over 100 years also. Therefore with a high degree of certainty, that despite the volatile nature of petrol. Car fires have not been a common or major issue in the history of the automobile. As you have access to Google too, if you want more info, please feel free to look it up yourself. But there really is no other conclusion to be drawn. Google also suggest there are currently 850,000 EV cars in the UK, although the vast majority are only from the past few years. With 265,000 being registered in 2022 alone. This means the number of hours or miles an EV has spent on UK roads vs ICE cars is miniscule. If they had the same ratio of fires per car per mile. You'd expect the EV numbers to be so small that they would effectively be zero. Again it is clear to see that there is a disproportionally high number of EV fires occurring. This can be seen in the news and simply by searching for photos on Google. If it was a rare thing, then such photos would be hard to come by. There have also been a number of high profile fire risk recalls too: Which suggests there is a known risk by the industry. There is therefore plenty of evidence to suggest that EV fire risks are much higher than ICE. so to bat the ball back to you. Are you able to provide stats for how many ICE car fires occur? Preferably on a per car per mile basis and how does this compare to EVs for you to make the assertion that EVs have no greater risk? I don't see you providing any stats, your only claim is you own an EV and it hasn't caught fire. Let me state it again for clarity. I'm not against EVs...... Some EV's do have good range. The Mustang Mach-E I had recently would have done well over 300 miles on a charge. But it is an expensive car. And not really a viable claim for most people to be able to afford. The MINI Electric I tried is more affordable, although still rather "Premium". But the MINI only did 100 miles on a full charge. The official claim is slightly higher, but real world was only 100 miles to be safe of not running out of power. This is not enough to go many places and is highly restrictive. The car drove great and if it could have done 200-250 miles would be a different story, but 100 mile range is pathetic. As for charging. Home charging is the game changer, as I suspect in every instance you where able to leave home with a full or nearly full charge. So if you have a 300 mile range, you are only needing a top up to get home, even with an overnight stay. If you didn't have home charging you might have been leaving home with only 10-20% charge. As many people might leave with only 1/4 tank of fuel, with the intent of filling up on route. If you have a time constraint to get to a destination, you really don't want to have to have a 40min - 1hr+ pitstop on your way there. Of course you can plan differently, but that is then a compromise you are making. You personally might be fine with this, but it is still a compromise. Lots of people will never ever have home charging solutions. Anyone with shared parking such as at flats or street parking. There is no viable or practical solution. Many people can't even guarantee to park outside their own house even. As for charing points. It is highly variable. One of the main offices I go too has only 2 charge points. For an office that holds several hundred people. This is a modern, multinational technology company. I have also been to lots of places that have no EV charging facilities. A nice hotel in Cheddar and several places I've stopped in Wales and that is only this year. An EV would have been a real PITA for any of those uses. As you really would have had to go off and waste your time finding a charging point. Instead of going to the places you actually want to when on holiday. If you personally find no issues, then you are fortunate, but that hardly typifies that every other person in the UK would be fine too.

Then why are there so many EV related fires? 🙂

Obviously I don't have figures on EV fires. I'm a person not a centralised database. But there seems to be far too many photos for it to be a rare thing. In the RC plane and car world LiPo has taken over from Nitro glow engines. But there are also a lot more fires these days too too due to batteries. Sometimes you don't need stats when the obvious is slapping you in the face. As for EVs. Again you seem to be missing the part about charing at home and didn't answer if you have a driveway or not. Supercharging is also only available to Tesla owners and not all EVs are Teslas and there are a finite number of supercharging points. Also cars like the Tesla (or the Mustang I had on demo) are not cheap cars!! The Mustang had a list price of £66,000. Lesser EV's often have less range. And even with supercharger points, you still end up going places you don't actually want to go, to spend time you don't want to spend waiting for charging. You clearly are fine with this, but it is ignorant to assume everyone would be happy.

Thanks. Have messaged them.

Well please don't label me as a hater. As stated I'm not against EV's. I had a Mustang Mach-E on demo recently and a MINI Electric prior to that. But none of this changes the risk profiles or reality of EVs. Yes other cars catch fire too, although it is fairly rare considering the shear number of ICE vehicles globally and the distance they travel. EV's are involved in a disproportionally high number of fires considering the numbers of them. And when they do catch fire it is generally far worse due to thermal runaway.

As said, I'm not against EVs, but my comment was very specific about people who do not have off the road parking, aka a driveway. I'm guessing you do. If you can charge at home it is a game changer. But lots and lots of people can't and never will be able too. As for infrastructure, it depends on which part of the UK. Around London there are lots of charge points, but other places less so. Which means you do need to plan journeys differently or make stops you wouldn't have otherwise made. Some people might be fine with going places they don't want to go. But it isn't for everyone. I think you are rather belittling the fire risk. While petrol is volatile, over 100 years of petrol powered cars have shown them to be quite resilient to fire. Electric cars make up a tiny proportion of the vehicles on the roads globally, yet there have been a high number of EV related fires.

Need a wide angle prop due to the new shocks I've recently fitted, no vibrations or anything. But serious binding under suspension droop. I was eyeing up this one at Gywn Lewis: https://gwynlewis4x4.co.uk/product/300tdi-td5-front-wide-angle-hd-prop-shaft-gl-ext-600/?attribute_colour=BLUE £306 inc VAT Someone suggested Bailey Morris: https://baileymorris.co.uk/extreme-4x4-propshafts More info in their catalog: https://baileymorris.co.uk/documents/Extreme Catalogue.pdf Although they list a price of £226 inc VAT, having spoken to them, they tell me their catalog is out of date and the current price is £288 inc VAT but doesn't have a greasable slider like the Gwyn Lewis one. This would be another £60 on top. So off the shelf the Gwyn Lewis option is £18 more. But quite similar priced. Bailey Morris say 7-10 days lead time, Gwyn's site shows in-stock. Although I'm in no particular hurry. Both have £14 of shipping to add to the price. Anyone have any views on which they'd go for?

Most definitely is down to fire risk. I can't name names, but a firm was testing an electric HGV (which turned into a failure). The failure was partly due to the fact their insurance wanted something like 12x their annual premium for 1 month if the vehicle was to be stored on site, due to the fire risks of having the vehicle there.

I'm not against EV's. But the infrastructure does not exist and never likely too in our life times to be able to replace ICE cars for everyone. Just think about all those millions of people who do not have a drive way or dedicated parking. As for fires, well just because yours hasn't set of fire, doesn't mean it isn't a real risk. Just do a Google search if you don't believe me.

Not meaning to be flippant. This is of course what the world and brand needs. A likely £150,000 off road focused model that nobody will use off road due to the cost 🙄 Talk about about a brand loosing its way.

You are probably off starting a new thread, likely to get more replies and info. If there isn't anything wrong with your current engine/gearbox. The swap would just cost money with no gains IMO. Same power, same torque, same mpg, same revs. And while the R380 is in theory stronger, the majority I've driven have been less nice to shift than an LT-77.

Have you tried another temp gauge? Maybe even buy a cheap eBay one and plumb it in separately.

Its not the feed pipe as such, more that there isn't physical room for a normal spanner head to turn in the space provided. You also end up with the spanner jammed up against the turbo outlet or something else that doesn't move. However I'm pleased to report that a flare nut spanner fitted perfectly and was the tool for the job, providing you have a 22mm one.