Dave W

I use a K&N on mine with an Outerwear cover, as supplied and specified by the engine builder. They shouldn't be used on any engine that relies on a "hotwire" air flow meter (TD5, some V8s) because the oil from the filter can contaminate the wire. They give better performance, especially improved torque, by allowing more air through than a paper filter, the "downside" of that is they also allow more dust through, especially if they've not been oiled properly (many of them are never oiled at all). On a standard engine with a perfectly good air filter box ? I'd stick with the standard paper filter myself. The K&N is a LOT easier to fit into a custom engine installation though and is waterproof - I've had paper filters suffocate my engine when they've got a bit damp.

The solenoids are only powered up when the winch master switch on the dash is switched on, on my motor this has to be done before any winch can be used from either it's external controls or it's dashboard controls. What kills switch contacts is switching large currents but in this case the solenoid will already be closed when the winch solenoid is being activated so it will be taking a lot less pain than the winch solenoid. In terms of reliability I'd expect them to be far more reliable than the winch solenoid. Having it easily accessible in the battery box means that, should a solenoid fail, it can be bypassed very quickly and easily. To reduce the current through each even further and also mitigate some of the voltage drop I might add BUS bars between the solenoids although the downside of that is that I may not notice if one of the solenoids fails so I'm undecided as yet. One advantage of this arrangement is the ease of adding an emergency stop button for each winch which, sited somewhere near the winch could completely kill the power to a winch when hit. Yes, I think it does. For years it has been acceptable to use a solenoid control system as a cut off switch in other areas of motor sport and not just cross country. They've even been advertised in the Blue Book in the past. A solenoid is fitted next to the battery and then control switches are mounted around the vehicle that deactivate that solenoid when they are operated, killing the vehicle's electrics. To my mind that establishes a principle that isolating the vehicle electrics "remotely" from a switch is acceptable. Some of them are sold as "fully complies with FIA technical regulations" and they are regularly fitted to Rally cars as a simple way of providing all the required kill switches around the vehicle. If you accept the principle that the switch you operate doesn't have to directly isolate the circuits itself then I can't see any reason at all why we can't use them to isolate winch circuits. A quick Google for "Brise EV200" should show up an example of the devices I'm referring to. They cost £150+ though whereas the Albright one costs £25...

I've decided to go for the remote solenoid option for mine. A single solenoid on each winch supply triggered from the FIA master kill switch and my on dash winch switch (that kills all the control circuits to the winch solenoids). I'm using one of these for each winch circuit, located in the battery box... Click here If you look at the specs for the solenoid it has a slightly better current rating than the winch solenoids. Being in the battery box also makes it much easier to bypass should one of them fail for some reason. Once activated they take just over 1A to hold them closed.

Have you calibrated your firmware to match the sensor ? Have you got the correct thermfactor.ini files loaded in Megatune ? If you are using standard MS1 or MS1-Extra firmware the only way to calibrate the ECU so it knows what resistance is equal to what temperature is to recompile the firmware with a suitable table to match your senders. With MS2 you can change the settings in the front end and adjust the table on the fly but I assume you'll be running MS1 if Nige has sent you an MSQ. Having incorrect thermfactor.ini files loaded in Megatune won't effect the operation of the ECU but will mess up the displayed/logged data.. "Out of the box" MS1 and Megatune are both set up to match GM sensors although even those of us running a GM engine still end up having to fine tune the tables.

A couple of updates on the event. The Muddy Truckers Trophy has always given all proceeds from the event to a nominated charity. A decision has now been made and this year's proceeds will go to Help For Heroes. The entry list has started to be compiled and is available on the web site... http://www.muddytruckers.co.uk/ If you are not on the entry list and have sent in your entry form more than a week or so ago, please let me know. If you are listed and have no photo, please email a photo to the address on the web site. If you've sent a hard copy photo these will take longer to get onto the site as I have to go and collect them.

There is no legal requirement to have tyres that are speed rated for the maximum speed of the vehicle. They do need to have a suitable load rating. In both cases the law in the UK requires that they be suitable for their actual use NOT suitable for some mythical use that would be illegal anyway. Obviously if you were caught speeding on tyres rated below that speed you can be prosecuted. Many years ago there was a requirement that tyre speeds be suitable for the top speed of the car but the law was changed after a prosecution was successfully challenged. ISTR it was in the late 70s early 80s that the law was changed.

Had a similar conversation with my insurer about taking my motor to Australia. I phoned up to see if they could offer any cover (which they couldn't). I then asked about the limited mileage and what to do about the speedo reading. As with your insurer they basically said the speedo reading was the only thing they could go off and they couldn't accept my word that around 6000 miles of the annual mileage was done in Australia. In the end the solution was simple, I happened to have the old KM/H speedo head that my motor originally came with and that I'd swapped out for a MPH version. Before shipping to Australia I simply swapped speedo heads (a 5 minute job on a Defender) which, as well as the mileage issue, made travelling in Australia a lot easier too as all the distances/speed limits are in KM/H there anyway. When the vehicle returned I changed back to the MPH speedo head.

Just bought a replacement caliper for mine from Britpart, went for the "G" suffix part which came in a plain brown box but contains a Lockheed part.

"All vehicle types" is there because the comp safari etc... regs are broken down into different sections for monocoque, chassis, space frame and all vehicles. It is still specific to comp safari etc, hence the requirement for rear running lights, passenger grab handles, rear mud flaps to within 10cm of the ground and so on in the same "all vehicles" bit.

You mean the section specific to "Competitive Safari, Point To Point and Hill Rally" ?

"It" being ? I ask because the MSA regulations don't require a spill kit to be carried in the vehicle and suspect someone at the AWDC has misread the regulations. The small spill kits are also £4.00 each from the official MSA supplier.

Why do you need a spill kit ?

Replace the rear windows with perspex and either have the perspex in two sections or, if you can get the pipe through, make a suitable sized hole. The only usual downside with perspex is it's tendency to go opaque but on the rear window it should be OK as it won't be in contact with undergrowth too often.

OK, in that case it's almost certainly the dim/dip relay that is faulty as the only way that can happen is if it is activated. Having 12v on the blue wire and the white wire should cause the relay to deactivate giving you "full" dip beam voltage. Removing the relay and putting a jumper wire between the two blue/red wire connectors will fix it until you can source a replacement relay. I might have a spare here somewhere, I'll have a dig through my spare looms on Saturday. If you don't have 12v on either the blue or the white wire then you have a bad connection somewhere in the loom but it's very unlikely to be the case as you'd see all sorts of other things not working.

Where to start... ! I guess these days the MT could be seen as more of a "traditional challenge". It tries to incorporate as many different aspects as possible with GPS navigation, special tasks, special sections, speed sections and so on. In previous years it has also included things like compulsory camping and self sufficiency (carrying all your spares, camping gear, food and tools with you on the vehicle) although this year with it being a longer event it was decided to drop most of that for practical reasons. This year's event includes 3 days and 1 night of competition. It starts in Baldersby St James (near Thirsk, North Yorkshire) on Thursday 3rd where paperwork is sorted out and then there is a night special task which will be against the clock but, if it's anything like last time, will require some mental agility too. On Friday the competition will take place near Helmsley (North York Moors), Saturday and Sunday the competition will take place at sites near/around Duns (Borders) The Muddy Truckers Trophy is an event that was created as a tribute to Steve and Wendy Maddison by Steve's team mates. The "Muddy Truckers" was a club founded by Steve and Wendy and the Trophy seemed like a suitable tribute to one of the best and well liked navigators of the challenge scene at that time. The stump hook that forms part of the trophy played a pivotal part in one of the many anecdotes told about, and by, Steve. It was first run in 2002 ( was supposed to be 2001 but Foot and Mouth put paid to that). Every year it runs the MT passes all it's profits onto charity.

March 3rd to March 6th 2011 The format and date for the 2011 Muddy Truckers has been decided on. There is just too much land available to do it justice in 2 days so we moved the start forward a tad as you will see. Schedule: Thursday 3rd - Baldersby St James Signing on and scrutineering opens at 2pm Night Section, 6pm start, should end by 9pm Friday 4th - Helmsley Competition starts at 9 am Finishes at 5 pm Travel to Duns either friday night or Saturday morning, trailers may be used and/or taken to Duns. Saturday 5th - Duns Competition starts at 9 am Finishes at 5 pm Sunday 6th - Duns Competition starts at 8 am Sites close 2 pm Prize Giving 3 pm (ish) Eligibility As usual, the event is a team event with each team comprising two vehicles. All makes and types of road legal light 4x4. Quads and similar are not eligible to enter. Which are Road taxed, tested where applicable, and insured for road use. All documentation will be checked at signing on. Tyres no more aggressive than Simex (no Maxi Cross etc) and no bigger than 36" tall 13" wide. All tyre sizes will be measured, not the sizings on the tyre wall. . Portal axles, hydra steer, 4 wheel steering are not allowed. Helmets are not compulsory but are recommended Some form of minimal roll over protection is required for all vehicles. All vehicles to comply with MSA Road Legal Challenge vehicle regulations. In particular it should be noted that ground anchors must not be mounted on the front of the vehicle. As usual all proceeds will go to nominated charities, these are yet to be decided on. All drivers will need an MSA license (None-Race Clubmans) which you will need to obtain prior to the event. Navigators will require club membership for either Yorkshire Off Road Club, All Wheel Drive Club or Buxton and District LRC, you can join at signing on if you are not already a member of one of these clubs. There is a limited entry, places will be allotted on a first come, first served basis so get your entry in early. Additionally, preference will be given to competitors that have fully complied with entry requirements, including supplying a picture of each vehicle in your team for use on the event web site. Entry form and further information available on the event web site.. http://www.muddytruckers.co.uk/

The first relay (C282 connector) is a yellow relay below the fuse box. This is unlikely to be the cause of the problem as it's ignition switched and also supplies power to the high beam "flash" circuit. If it wasn't working then the high beam flash wouldn't work either. The Dim Dip relay is the most likely source of the problem and is the best place to start with a multimeter as all the required circuits go through it. As has been said already it's a pink coloured "relay" that sits behind the fascia on the right hand side. It has 8 wires going into it, The first two you need to check are the two Blue/Red wires. In normal use with the ignition on and the lights on dipped beam you should get 12v at pin 8 (the supply side) and pin 2 (the output of the dim/dip relay). If you have 12v at both then the dim/dip relay is OK. If you unplug the dim/dip you can test the rest of the circuit (or as a "get you home" fix) by removing the relay and putting a jumper wire between these two pins as that will effectively disable the dim/dip function and bypass the relay. All the dim/dip unit is doing is providing a low voltage to the dipped beam when the lights are switched on and the ignition is turned off. One thing that is odd about your description of the problem is regarding the headlights having sidelights in them.. they shouldn't have. Are you sure it's not just the dimmed dip beam as that would change the fault substantially ? If the dim/dip is activated you'll get a low voltage reading on pin 2 (possibly as low as 2-3v). If that is the case then check the voltages at pin 1 (white wire) and pin 5 (blue wire), they should both be at 12v - again with dipped lights on and ignition turned on.

I just bought some wrap to put on mine, not for the headers, just trying to keep the heat down around the tailpipe where it passes very close to the rear winch. I notice on the pack it suggests "the wrap can be painted and sealed with exhaust paint" which might stop it getting full of mud/water. It also mentions you should wear gloves when handling it as the ceramic material can be an irritant.

Fitted a new Britpart one over a year ago with a heated screen, no problems at all with fitting and no problems since.

It sounds as f the earth point isn't connected to earth anymore. As a result the aircon relay is trying to earth through the indicator relay and the indicator relay through the aircon one. Your description of the original fault is a classic earth problem. If the earth point isn't connected you will get up to 13v at that point, fed through the aircon/indicator relays. You can probably resolve the problem by running an earth wire from the dodgy earth to a known good one and/or finding out why the earth is bad. It's not that 12v is being fed through the chassis, it's actually the fact that the earth point isn't connected to earth that is causing you to see a voltage there.

Thanks, will try a PM and give challenger 4x4 a call tomorrow.

Are these still available ? Been trying to order one for over a month now without any joy from West Mids 4x4, if they're not available anymore I'll import a Flaming Fabrications one but was hoping to get one more "local".

If it fails on idle emissions they can do a fast idle test instead, basically that allows the closed circuit emissions to come into play as they are normally disabled below 1500 RPM or so. However it is "fast idle" not "rev the nuts off it". Don't you have a rev limit setup in MS ? I do wonder if he entered the details correctly and didn't think it was a diseasel though.

An iPad screen is quite a lot bigger than most of the touch screens used on in car PCs at just a smidgen short of a 10 inch screen (most in car PCs use 7 or 8 inch), it's also much higher quality (132 ppi at 1024x768), than most of the touchscreens being used. I assume you're confusing it with an iPhone ? The iPhone actually makes quite a good "in car PC" but the screen is, as you say, a bit small. The main downside to using an iPad to my mind is the difficulty of adding an external GPS. While the internal GPS is pretty good on the iPad it's not as precise or as quick to update as an external GPS. You need the more expensive WiFi + 3G model to use the GPS. There are people using them quite successfully though and they'll do just about everything else an in car PC is normally used for. You'll even be able to fiddle with your megasquirt with it soon - http://mobisquirt.org/

I have one in my comp motor. In total it cost around £450 to build including the touchscreen. The PC itself is built into an IP67 enclosure so if/when I get into deep water the PC survives (sadly not the touchscreen though so I try to avoid going dashboard deep !). It's used for all sorts. It's main use is for navigation and I have developed an overlay that runs with oziexplorer to allow waypoints (punches) to be entered extremely quickly. Not such a big requirement for most of todays "winch trials" but for real challenge events it's a real time saver. It's linked directly to the main vehicle GPS (Garmin 128) so it uses that to provide the location and, if need be, waypoints can be uploaded to the GPS. As well as navigation it's used for MegaSquirt duties, MP3 source, playing DVDs. It also has all the technical manuals installed and wiring diagrams for my vehicle. I'm using a normal 2.5 inch laptop hard disk, been running it for about 5 years now and the only failure I had was when I didn't put the lid on properly and then drove into a river a few weeks later... had to replace just about everything in the PC as a result