redneck

My apologies anderzander for dribbling on your screen. Rock crawlers are mentioned being as Bill stated that he was himself coming at it from this type of driving in post 10. Budget has a great influence on what people do to their vehicles, it certainly does to me. I guess a little translation is required, as your colonial version of English doesn't seem to picking up the subtleties of my posts. "Very little" does not mean none. "May" means there is a possibility. Sag is quite an important feature of suspension travel. Dribble over, I shall not trouble you further.

Interior panels were stuck on with contact adhesive when required, but most were tucked under the various lips in the body panels etc without any glue, not ideal but it was cheap and very quick to do,in a knackered old disco. For the windows just cut them to a slightly oversize fit and push them into the window frames. I haven't done one for my current 110 windscreen but I would just cut it a snug fit and push it into position, it should stay without any extra fixings. I suppose a couple of suction cups would do if really needed.

I've used the closed cell sleeping pads with good success on the interior panels of my ex Disco, easy to cut to shape for the windows too. Not to mention a very cheap and easy fit. Currently doing the same with my Defender.

Just to clarify, rock crawlers use slightly different set up to off road racer (baja bugs) Rock crawlers dont use anti roll bars, or they use dislocating ARB's. Race buggies do use ARB's and utilise a lower Cof G. Getting long travel is not just about using very soft springs, its about using the correct springs, if using the correct spring rate the shock ends up doing very little work on the compression stroke, more about extension control. 2 or even 3 springs or x springs are an example of variable rate springs, they are just made of separate components (may be whats causing confusion). For one trick ponies i.e very specific set ups (rock crawler) a linear rate spring may be more applicable. Absolutely agree on the unbalanced suspension seen on many land rovers, all looks very pretty on a ramp. I could easily achieve similar results by just removing the shocks and cutting the end off one of the front radius arms, b*****r all use to drive, but could probably win a twist off comp. My point and I suspect yours too Daan is that a well engineered set up, with consideration to balance, corner weights, spring selection, and dampers, is a far more useable and capable than throwing some bits of angle iron there to compensate for a poorly designed system. Like everything in life though suspension set up is always a compromise of one sort or another.

Bill It doesn't matter if your a high speed or low speed driver, that wasn't the point of my comparison, it was the difference between loads of poorly controlled travel to less, very well engineerd control. i.e well engineered variable rate springs /shocks or just letting the wheels flap around hoping that they do something. You seem to have gone down a fairly well tried route with your vehicle, dislocation cones, three link front end etc which does seem to work adequately and the results of many vehicles show that as well, however this is at best a compromise. all the "suck down winches" spring reseating devices etc etc are just to compensate for cheap adequately engineered spring/shock set ups. It doesn't take much to find some far better engineered suspension set ups they use over in the states. Your local road regulations and cost may prohibit such set ups but that is another issue altogether. Open diffs and limited articulation are the realm of land rovers, the endless stories of broken diffs and axles say it all. Lifting a wheel, giving it some go pedal making the free wheel spin fast, and then it drops to the ground shock loading the drive train, how many times has that happend???????

It did seem a little quieter than last year, but I put that down to the weather. As punter I didn't know about the charges for the vehicles, although the guys do get to camp out for the week so I would say that its not too bad. However the entry charges for punters are a bit on the high side, especially for kids, many people I know were put off going because of the high costs for a family. I'm not sure if it was the cost for support vehicles but there were definitely less of them, and the many that were there, were well camouflaged, making the displays far more authentic. Personally I found it worthwhile going, I went Friday (on my own shopping and drooling) and Saturday (with the family)

Stateside the rockcrawlers have enormous travel with coil overs, and not a dislocation thing in sight 18" travel off the shelf, more than any land rover could handle without some serious modification. Variable rate springs with spring stops etc I suppose the real difference is in the cost, £10 for a bit of angle iron or £1000 per corner for a long travel coil over and springs.

What would an articulation ramp prove, with diff locks you would only need one wheel contacting the ground /ramp (impossible I know) to move, without diff locks you only need one wheel to lift to stop you dead. Springs dislocating always seem a bodge, a typical backyard mechanic solution to stop the wheels losing traction rather than driving all the wheels via diff locks or similar. I'd rather have a properly engineered solution, correct length variable rate springs or x springs (as an easy fix) obviously this would require some proper engineering and fabrication for longer springs etc. It seems the first port of call for most land rover owners is to lift the vehicle (myself included), in the misguided idea that it will increase articulation. While it may do that a little as a by-product, you have also increased the c of g and added extra problems. I mention this as I've just been watching a Bowler flying around a very rough track, watching it made me realise how good a properly set up suspension can be. the body barely moved as the suspension was taking all bumps etc most definitely not dislocating the spring thats for sure. The track was rough enough to stop a Scammell Explorer which has incredible articulation.

Some of the many landrovers at the show, probably in the hundreds. And one of my favourites, from the other side of the Iron curtain

Sika make sealants for a lot more than windows. But I do agree the loctite is good stuff as well.

Are you sure you have a 1.4 in there, I've got a 1.6 box with a 200tdi 7.5 x 16 tyres and will cruise at comfortably at 55-60 no problem. I was looking at fitting a 1.4 to up the cruising speed a little.

Check your fuel tank breather or fuel cap (my 110 has the breather in the fuel cap), had a similar issue recently.

Its a 1990, but for the seat rails to line up with the holes I have they would need to be about 6" longer and a good 4" wider.

I got round this problem by extending the alternator adjuster bracket, to give me enough room to run the pies under it made it a lot easier to adjust the alternator as well, I managed to pick up some intercooler pipes off a 300tdi disco, that with a little cutting, fitted a treat please excuse the sh***y K&N but I haven't got round to fitting a real air filter yet

Many thanks western, thats a very handy site you have there. It looks like I have the captive nut plates but they are in line with the outer seat fixings, nowhere near where the centre seat rails fit, not a problem to make them up, but I didn't want to start drilling more holes if there was some sort of subframe I was missing. cheers