UdderlyOffroad

On my J-reg Disco it was M12 fine thread! And 12 point....gaa Do yourself a favour, buy some spares from a UK supplier if necessary - LRseries will pop this kind of thing in jiffy bag if you ask for a postage quote. When you get them, sacrifice one as a thread chaser bolt - run a 1mm angle grinder disc down the shaft twice (forming a cross with bolt viewed end on). Douse your bolt with WD-40 and wind slowly in. You'll be amazed at the crud you remove. This is half the battle - plenty of people (whether new or old bolts) just wind the bolts back in, having only removed the crud from the bit they took out! Then wonder why the bolts appear to be corroded in place!

Also take a look at this thread on D2 - a German chap has taken lots of piccies and even put up a sketch with some dimensions: http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic18115-15.html It's for a 110 (van/SW)too, not a 90, which is likely to be closer to what you need on a 110 DC As he says, in the end, thanks to Land Rover tolerances, you’ll probably have to fabricate the mounting brackets separately, and fit them to the bars on the vehicle. I’ve said it before on the other thread, but it’s worth looking at the pictures on the Entreq website for inspiration. These are f-expensive, but do show some very good attention to detail: http://www.entreq.de/produkte-lr-defender/protection/treeslider/treeslider-land-rover-defender-110.html

Exactly! 911, 000, 999; 112, all can be dialled from a locked phone with no credit/ or own-network signal (these days even from a sim-less phone, as pointed out). But 112 will work in a lot more countries than any other! Worth noting that 112 in a lot of European countries will connect you to the Police, not the "Which Service do you require?" Switchboard that 999-phoning Brits will be used to.

I used to fit the 'grey' connectors to recovery trucks when I was in that business. Why? Well a lot of the larger recovery vehicles had two sockets per bumper. One for 12 v, one for 24 v. But it seems the AA, RAC fit the 'colour coded' 12 v yellow ones. Most ones I've seen on anything else are grey, 175 amp jobbies, whether Durite or gen-u-whine Anderson, so that's what I would fit.

Small point – it doesn’t shift the liability anywhere. A current MOT is not a guarantee of roadworthiness – it’s down to YOU to ensure your vehicle is roadworthy at all times. An MOT is an independent inspection, once a year, that your vehicle is required to have (or not). Nothing more. It’s an elementary mistake that a lot of people (including motoring journalists who really should know better) make. This didn’t even need to go through parliament, it’s a statutory instrument. So even less democratic accountability. But yes, you’re correct, the danger is from knee-jerk reactions – witness the shower that is firearms legislation in the UK, and the dangerous dogs act. Both of which did nothing but punish law-abiding people and had zero impact on the people who were actually causing the problem.

Have a read of this thread, it's for a 110: http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=75763

There is an off-the-shelf solution for £50 if you're feeling flush. It comes in a blue box, so I will not say anything as that debate’s been had many a time. Two year warranty though, I would give it a punt? A new strut in the right size will cost the thick end of £20, so it depends how much you think your time is worth making bracketry? Matt

Agreed, it's like this thread has been a bit of a group therapy session! We've aired some grievances, got stuff of our chests, and it turns out most of us were thinking along similar lines. The A&M team responded and suddenly we have proper 'shed-engineering' back on show for all to see! I think it bears repeating, this forum is a broad church, from keeping-it-on-road, running repairs-type threads via rebuilds all the way through to competiton-spec, mog-axled, challenger-tank-engined, 8x8 monsters. Now, about my build progress...

'Bulgarian Airbags' is the correct technical term, according to theregister.co.uk

+1! Surely this forum is a broad church. From 5l V8 off-road monsters to meticulous Lesmond-esque rebuilds, to let’s just-keep-it-on-the-road, all are welcome in the member’s vehicles section. If the Projekt-Polizei turn up and start putting forth their opinions, just respond with “Noted, am not going down that road for this reason, let’s move on”. That said, I started my build thread (now neglected for financial and house-project reasons) as a keep-it-on-the-road kind of thing, I was given advice which basically consisted of “Got the space to fully strip and rebuild? Do it, you won’t regret in the long run”. After the third post saying that, I listened, and, you know what? They were right. Provided one thinks extremely long-term in my case, but nevertheless…(nudge, wink at Landynovice) Not only that, I am unapologetically a bolt-on-baby, my truck will feature both flash windscreen wipers and LED rear lights. I might fabricate my own rocksliders, later! If the more ambitious find it uninteresting, well tough, no bugger forced you to read it. The challenge boys are welcome to build their own beheemoths. I will read with great interest. But I’m afraid I won’t have much to say other than ‘wow’, ‘awesome’ and other teenage expressions of approval.

Playing Devil's avocado briefly: why do you need to get to the battery so much? Would fitting an anderson connector and investing in a suitable set of jump leads remove some of the need? Clearly one needs to inspect the battery, grease terminals, and so forth, every so often, but even so...A set of leads+anderson connectors might work out cheaper than TD5 seats. It's a thought anyway.

I think I speak for the silent majority* here by saying that there is very much a place on here for budget, keeping your truck on the road, on-going repairs and mods. Please do make the time to post up, you will find an interested audience. Pre-empt the rivet-counters and peanut gallery by stating 'budget build'. Matt *And by doing so have immediately removed myself from that group!

This thread appears to be attempting to answer two questions: 1. Where have all the exciting projects gone 2. What is this forum’s raison d’etre, and should it be updated My response: 1. Legal, climatic, financial difficulties are changing the 4x4 scene, as discussed by Si, et al 2. No! The ‘technical’ content of this forum is one of its benefits, the reason I check it multiple times a day (waiting for the IT system at work to catch up, honest gov). Yes sometimes SVA police but their jack-boots in, but frankly these people should be humoured a little. Given the environment we know live in, in the UK (ANPR, continuous insurance, HATOs, HMRC and VOSA inspectors, Tacos for 3.5 tonners, the list goes on) – an armchair bureaucrat playing devils avocado isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I think the point is, most ‘newbies’ (myself included), can with a google site-search (adding “site:lr4x4.com” to your search) find the answer to a question – and the technical content is still second to none compared with other forums. Also, google sitesearch works properly with this forum. Trying doing that with, say, Defender2.net. In addition, oftentimes people will revive an old thread to post an update, or ask another question. Technical situations do change – e.g. Teflon-coated swivels. Once considered second class, now often the only option if you need your truck back on the road. Yet still, some wise hands are guilty of parroting their knowledge (valuable as it is) without bothering to update it when things change.* Also, the fact that we are pretty intolerant of poor English, gay-bashing, lack of SPG, and banter in general, adds to this forum’s usefulness, it doesn’t detract from it. Yes that might be a barrier to people’s whose first language isn’t English, the hard-of-thinking and the literacy-challenged. But tough, that’s their problem, not ours. Finally, as a ‘noob’, I wouldn’t touch the competition scene with two barge poles strapped together. Expensive, cliquey, unfriendly on hardware, and real life contains more than enough ‘competition’ already. Why the hell would I put myself through any of that? *I find this happens in ‘real life’ too, especially in the work environment. Experienced people may have been there, done that. But when ‘that’ changes, it takes repeated attempts to convince them to listen that their hard-won experience needs updating.

SVA police or not, the legislative environment has changed dramatically in the UK recently. "Interesting" projects just arent as easy to execute (legally) as they used to be. But what about rebuilds? You weren't impressed by Adam's expedition 110? Or Steve200TDI's 90? Or Les' meticulous 90 Auto? None of these are exactly unmodified - but they're all conceived to not require a 'Q' plate & be better than when they left Solihull.

New bolts I've ordered appear to be 14mm 12 points, with 10.9 stamped on them

What Bishbosh said, dont just go substituting fine with coarse willy-nilly! If you're struggling to get hold of them, Paddocks do a suspension bolt kit for not much. Yes, you'll have to pay carriage from blighty, but at least it'll be a complete kit! Failing that, find a 'proper' engineering supplier, not a Belgie-screwfixie type place!

Socket is definitely the way to go, grips the nuts better & less prone to slippage if some cretin has done it up to VFT!

Hang on - is this with all your 'other' lights on or just generally? If the latter, you have a wiring problem which you need to sort first. mmgemini's headlamp wiring upgrade is a good place to start. And, as you've seen, there are many different ways to do 'twin batteries' - VB is a big avocado of a 2nd alternator, myself I prefer a beefy split charge relay (with a manual over-ride and link-together isolator switch for self-jump and winching). There's no 'right' answer - all systems have their pluses and minuses.

Whoa, hold the phone there Si, I never actually said that. I stand by my assertion that most professional CAD users learn 2D first, basically as an extension of hand drawing, then go on to learn a 3D package. HnC and Degree courses, as far as I'm aware still do it this way. Other than that, I completely agree with your post. 3D CAD is a completely different animal to to 2D, one where one is actually harnessing the power of a computer to aid the design/creative process. Matter of fact, one thing I tell the Industrial Placement Students at my firm is to get as much 3D-cad driving experience as possible, both during their placement and afterwards back at uni. Even if they don't end up in a 'design engineer' role afterwards, the skills they learn are very useful. In my previous post I was merely sticking up for AutoCAD, as some others it seemed to me were kicking it, because they didn't understand what it was for.

See me afterwards, the pair of you People misunderstand what AutoCAD is…. Computer Aided Drafting - AutoCAD is an electronic draft board, nothing more. If you don’t know how to draw, then you won’t have much use for AutoCAD. 3D Computer Aided Design Packages, such as Solidworks, Solidedge, Pro/E etc are great for developing an idea, creating an ‘object’, creating a BOM for it…but at some point you will need to get them to spit out a drawing. Hence why pros learn how to do ‘2D’ CAD first. This isn’t as absolute as it used to be of course, these days even man+dog-in-a-shed fabrication outfits can accept a 3D-file in lieu of a ‘proper’ drawing, but if you haven’t toleranced it correctly…. Lastly, and I’m sure Nige wouldn’t do this, but don’t confuse an ‘introduction to CAD’ course with an ‘introduction to basic engineering principles’. People seem to go on the former without an awareness of the latter.

Ditto, drove from Bristol to trowbridge in my Eurobox with no winter tyres and saw no end of idiots doing 5mph uphill with no lights on, peering out of the tiny gap they'd made in their snow-covered Astras. Has to be said i also counted 2 Discos being driven as though they were invincable! Why do we, as a nation, turn into such douchenozzles in snow? Rant over, will go take me pills now ;-)

Ahh, sorry didn't realise it wasn't yours!

As the abbreviation of the méme goes: POIDH!* Matt :-) *Pictures Or It Didn't Happen

I think Pongo might've been thinking more along the lines of fibreglass moulding Si? This of course is quite labour intensive, but it is relatively easy to make a mould, given Steve already has a plug! I'm by no means a fibreglass expert, however...

Thanks for posting this up Steve, as previously mentioned I can't see this on Innovate! Excellent project, like the improved ergonomics, very Truck-esque!