MogLite

You should really just wear your own pants any way back on topic..... I've got a big family tent, that works well, as kids and roof tents is gonna be madness. I'm currently building a rear awning for my Isuzu, like the Hannibal awning. I can sleep in the vehicle, but solo camping, that will give me enough shelter to sit/cook etc. Maybe even change my pants. If we camp later into the season this year, I shall look at a teepee as previously recommended by G-Rover.

I think thats where I'm at - I think I'll rape my current jumpstart pack for the charging circuit and voltmeter etc. I'm certainly not into/upto building MOSFET circuits Andy

I've got an el-cheapo jumpstart pack at home. Its a useful piece of kit, but it isn't up to starting a big diesel, and I've seen them with inverters in them, which is a brilliant idea. So I put some thought into building one, which is easy enough apart from the charging aspect. My bought one, I can connect to a cigarette lighter to charge from 12V, which is a nice feature. But assuming the vehicle battery is fully charged, and the jumpstart pack is pretty discharged - what stops 100's of amps flowing from the vehicle battery to the jumpstart pack ? Is there some kind of 12V -> 12V trickle charger module I can build in ? Thanks

Doesn't seem so. The mesh on my roof rack was rusty, so I've cut it off, whats left will be easy enough to do with a brush.

Has anyone seen the Hammerite Metalmaster ? An electroatatic paint sprayer for metal. The unit seems to be about £40, and a 350ml aerosol - £12 I might have a roof-rack to paint soon, and it seems ideal

Just bee browsing the TowSure catalogue.....they are only £10.50 in there Andy

Mo Is £12.95 more to your liking ? I had one of these before I upgraded to an Engel and split charge :-) Andy

Your a gent :-) PM on its way in a mo.

Brilliant - off to the chemist then tomorrow. Thanks all. Andy

I've got the first camping trip of the year next week. And I'm gonna use one of these for my water But its been sat in my garden for ages, and is probably harbouring lots of disease. How can I sterlise it so its safe to drink from ? Chlorine and iodine tablets I can get from the camping shop, I'm sure the wife has got some bleach and other cleaning stuff around the house. Many thanks

Windows sysadmin huh....... Do you need someone to do the installs - ie press <next> <next> <finish> or do ongoing maintenance ie <ctrl> <alt> <del> I can't do either alas, now if there were Solaris or Linux.........

All vehicles that never leave a garage can be classed as MOT exempt

My Ibex 300TDI auto shifter Angled for ergonomics and to use the stock cable A Defender should/could be similar IMHO Hope it helps Andy

My Ibex - back in May 2001 - about a week or two before it was mine and a picture earlier this week (March 2008) just before going off to its new owner on the Shetland Isles Quite a few mods in the intervening years, front and rear Salisbury axles with ARB's, 300TDI and auto from 200TDI and manual, and Simex and beadlockers years before they came passe Andy

Get one of the thin cutting disks in there, at 45 degrees, you should see a crack at the edges, and its easy from there.

My old Vauxhall Omega had the same BMW engine. I only ever ran it on diesel The guy I sold it to, bought his own fuel down in jerry-cans for his 200 mile drive home. I forget what it was in the cans, but it lasted 10 miles before it expired on the motorway. He did say he'd been using the same fuel in an Isuzu 1.5TD for years, but it blew the Omega up. Be careful out there. Andy

Ours is a road car - an 98 4.6HSE, but I've owned it for 5 years or so. There are some foilbles, but once you understand the way they work - they are surprisingly logical, and easy to work on. Rust wont be a problem. The alarm thing is true. If I park next to the house, the wireless internet keeps it awake, and flattens the battery in two days. I believe there is a modified reciever available from the dealers. Make sure you get two keys, there are only 4 available, so once you've lost 3 - you are on borrowed time. They also cost ~£100 each It must have a perfect battery - nothing less will do. They like to be used regularly, our air suspension valves are a bit sticky if left for a few days. Rovacom is great for getting/setting faults. But the new one - Rovacom Lite I believe is locked to a VIN number, so you can't share it amongst your mates. Its also got OBD-II for engine codes, but I've never had to use it. Not sure you'd need Megasquirt, its already distributorless, and with coil-packs at the back of the engine, so should be fairly water resistant. Hope it helps Andy

There are boats and ships all over the world that do that - its not a Southern thing

So what is the European equivalent of Billing ? The Val D'Isere show seems to have some political issues similar to Billing ran through. The Germans and Swiss have some really nice expedition equipment eg a misc German expedition company Be nice to see what they do with their Landies and Toyota's etc, but also the bigger stuff such as Action Mobil Any ideas ? Andy

For my next build I want to add a secondary fuse box, but I also need at least one maxi-fuse, and some relays would be nice. So something like this That one is from a Toyota Surf, but I'm sure there are loads around. Our p38A has similar, but its got way too many fuses and relay sockets. Andy

The only journey I regularly do is work <-> home Work is Central London EC3R 6DU - home is south of Winchester. But I'm on public transport for most of the journey, so forget winch-bumpers !!

No you are right - 35's look great - spot on When I went from 33" BFG MT's to 35" Simex on my Ibex, the road manners were a lot worse, not for the tread pattern so much, but the extra rolling radius and weight of the tyres putting extra forces on the vehicle. I noticed the weight again when i went beadlocks. Does you loss of MPG include the fact that your odometer will now be reading low with the bigger tyres ?

Ah good to see this thread re-surface. I've been doing a lot of research on Cruisers, and I reckon I want one, in the same style a Paul's I'm not too fussed about the badge on the bonnet, but for me its the right blend of practicality/size/refinement/cost. The closest LR is the Disco 3, but I'm don't think I want to go down that route, especially as they are a lot more money. Reads90 - thanks for the piccies - sell ice-creams, nah. Send it back to the rental place with a mullered CV - yes Paul - I'll be interested to see how you get on with those 35's. I do worry if they over-gear it. Whats the handling and braking like ? I hope to have a small dog on the front of mine too

The budget way (and my way) is to use an old pair of mole grips. Weld a ridge onto the bottom jaw, and grind a suitable recess into the top jaw. Then just work around the tube, forming a bead 2cm at a time, by clamping up the mole grips. Works fine in ali tube IMHO

Ah that makes sense - thanks Reads90 - rooftent - just wait till I get hold of you......