Lara

It 's surprising how quickly your arm and hand starts to hurt when beating something as hard as that with a good size hammer!! That's why air hammers were invented for blacksmiths and why you don't find many skinny "manual" smiths Lara

Although it is taking a beating very well, I Would like to see what happens if the hammer would be beating in the centre of the main diff pan as long and as hard as it was in the initial test! It seems to have averted it's accuracy to hitting the stronger sides after the first few more damaging impacts! However as initially said, fairly impressive anyway! Especially as it's made of that "weak" Ally stuff Lara

Hi Steve, I personally have 6mm Inox pipe caps on mine and quite cheaply. So do know where the argument is coming from. However, I can't un bolt mine to service the diff etc either. VERY useful in the field!!! and believe me I would pay a lot for that in the middle of a wood somewhere in the middle of nowhere trying to replace a halfshaft with a heavily stuck broken end in my diff!!! Ultimately against heavy impact you are right, but the D44 one is an extremely good product in my view, especially due to the design and material used. It will take a BIG rock to split it! that I can assure you And remember that the standard LR cover is 1.5mm mild!!! THE BEST FOR EVERYONE? Surely not though But we do need to look at these products objectively and not just dismiss or accept them without thought! Lara

Diff covers in my opinion are one of the things that are quite important if you want to do any off roading in rocky sections and expect to be driving hard! If you accept body damage as par for the course when "eventing" you will probably be in the kind of event where a little throttle will not be rare, a rock can so easily wreck a standard diff cover and spoil your day or week etc!! Mine was as battered as hell before I changed mine! In the heat of battle care is not always on the forefront of your thoughts! Lara

Hi Simon, I whole heartedly apologize if you took offense to what I said, It was not meant in any way to criticize you or your very good products, please do not take it as a slur on you or Fridge for that matter, it was just a general comment about the general forum mood. You have created a following and that is truly fantastic for you and down to good marketing, be that on purpose or accidental. Fair play to you! But you do seem to get your bum cleaned rather well on here if you excuse my saying so in the most respectful way (And I do mean respectful) I think Mr headhunter has just proved it for me too Very best regards to both you "Simon" and Fridge, Julian (Lara) PS. They are almost Orange! Maybe they should have been Yellow

To be honest I think they do look cool! They are heavy duty ally castings, they come with a weld on heavy duty flange so they strengthen the axle banjo a lot, and you can get very easy access to your diff if you ever need to in the field! The only bad bit is the colour! and I think 180 is a reasonable price. Could you retail the same product cheaper? Come on, if they were called "X" covers etc you would all be smegging over them! Lara

Great link thanks!!! Just ordered some to go with my new plastic wings!! Lara

I have had my original arches on since the first day and never yet damaged one!! Despite SERIOUS abuse that has seen the wings both front and back badly bent and dented, all plastic factory arches are un damaged! other than scratches. I do however need to change the wings now and was going to get some ABS ones, at the same time Padocks etc advertise ABS wings and ABS extended arches, so am going to try these arches also as mine do not cover my tyres. Abuse Lara

Sounds like someone got a Radiator specialist to make a new one and they made it in copper. nothing wrong with that other than they are generally less efficient than ally cores. Love the pencil drawing of your series!! Done by you? Lara

Hi, Personally I think the bad rep of B'n'A has been because he insists on arguing his point when someone has a complaint and it just goes on and on and makes him look a dick. I have had several good jobs done by him and have no complaints with either his Waxoyl jobs or his Klean Tect jobs, In fact after 8 years of total abuse, with the Klean Tect on my 90, it still looks better underneath than a 1 year old Defender!! In fact I have absolutely no rust or corrosion anywhere on the chassis or body!! I would seriously advise to go to Chris at B'n'A and get it done there, tell him you have heard bad stuff and ask him to prove otherwise! He will oblige and unless you are a total pedant you will be extremely happy!! Remember that pedants can't even satisfy themselves, even though they are experts at self gratification if you know what I mean Lara

There is no reason you can't reliably turbocharge the Rover V8 even starting from an early 3.5 lump, Just ask Nick Mann who squeezed about 500 ponies out of his in the early 80's, But you pay for what you get!! People calling anything about modded Landrovers Practical are missing the point or under some illusion Come on, LANDROVER!!! It seems that as you want to turbo your RRC the purpose is not to build a race car, but just to have some good power? If this is so then you could get away with running low boost of say 0.5 bar on a fairly standard engine, (read: freshly built to standard 8:1cr spec and "Felpro" head gaskets) but you would need to be careful with ignition timing and fuel mix etc. and Use and intercooler!! Over this and you will be looking at special pistons as a minimum, and going toward the need for the later heavy duty TVR type blocks etc if you want to go further. It is possible if you want a lot of work and it would be fun but as others have said, there are easier ways!! Personally I would go buy a 4.6 from a scrappy, have top hat liners fitted and rebuild it well etc. 250bhp and a good bit of torque would easily be found and your RRC would be a dream drive coupled to a good ZF auto box!! You could even run it with Carbs if you wanted!! Lara

Knew it! Lara

But revolving round the garage is the only chance Will's parts have to move!! Let's face it how long is it since the last update Lara

I remember Porsche bringing out a trick like that on one of their 928 models in the 80's, the steering shot back and jammed you in the seat if you didn't have the right code etc, Some guy in the states got wedged and hurt by his own car and as you can imagine, Porsche were a little reluctant to leave it as an option after that I did once see a custom show bike that had a spike that shot out of the seat if you were not supposed to be riding it! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Painful but not un-deserved Lara, Just Googled the Porsche thing and found nothing so it might be an "urban Myth" but it sounded good

Don't be so "Eccentric" Lara

Met up with this guy the other day while on holiday. Said he would like to do some off roading and when I offered he said he would like to be my winch bitch. This is him collecting a little parcel for me yesterday that got delayed at the couriers head office Turns out that he needs little sleep and has no problem watching over my truck and winch etc while it's parked. He reckons that even Orcs think twice about nicking his stuff, Sounds like a plan I thought!! Eats a lot though so maybe I need to move to a rougher neighborhood Lara

Fit an Auto box! Manuals are old school Lara

That has given me an interesting idea! Will post a pic when I get round to doing it! Thanks! Lara

I think it looks quite good and reasonably well made, has obviously had a lot of thought put in. and I can see absolutely no reason from the pictures that it would fail scrutineering on a safety front, without going into individual event regulations like tyre sizes and makes etc. Think it is a good and well made truck. I also doubt many people could do better. Lara

Actually I have to admit to reading the initial post incorrectly, It seems we are now talking about winching out and needing to mark the last few winds on the drum etc. Apologies for sarcasm, (well I am almost sorry ) Not a bad idea, I have a black protective sheath over mine for the last 3 metres, seems to stay in place fairly well. although it wasn't fitted for that purpose it would do that job well. You can get this from Warn. Lara

Very sorry to hear that Kevin! It is always one of my nightmares when parking mine anywhere! To the extent that I would rather sleep "in it" than park it outside a hotel in England! On a lighter note though. If they are clever they will realize the extra value of your ownership and advertise it in LRM as "Ex K Baldwin LR90" Unfortunately not very likely though Very sorry to hear of anyones pride and joy being stolen. These thieving scum need clamping down on real hard! It's the only way to deter them long term!! The sentences most get when caught are laughable these days!!! Lara

Ask whoever is operating the winch to open their eyes! I can't imagine anyone actually "needing" to be told when to stop spooling in if they are actually looking at the rope! Or perhaps get a winch bitch who is competent Lara P.S. Superpants, what do you use to mark the top of your climbing rope to tell you to stop climbing? Sorry but it is a funny thread

As long as you don't get fooled into buying a "Rovacom" like I did!!! Biggest heap of badly made and hopelessly supported S--T I have ever paid money for!!! I would rather pay 500 quid for a pair of fluffy dice than give them money again!! Lara

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh you are in trouble now!!!! Lara

Absolutely! And what people must realize too and what a few people have touched upon is that a service is not just an oil and filter change! A full service is a hell of a lot more. Changing fluids is the start, but then a complete systems check on a landrover with a decent knowledge is a real task! Checking EVERYTHING! Ball joints, swivels and seals, wheel bearings and greasing both the aforementioned. Props greasing, axle oils x 2, gearbox oils x 2, Battery condition, Charging, cam belt check if you have one, engine mount condition, suspension bushes condition and physical checks, prop shaft play with correct knowledge, shockabsorber checks, spring examination, door hinges oiling / greasing, lights operation and setting if needed, steering play and checks. We have a list of over 100 things to check and sign off on a service, ok ours may be a little more than most but it's made by me and based on work carried out by a friend of mine who services cars daily. 300 quid is a "deal" if you ask me! And ask your self how many times have you passed a guy down the road when going out on a Saturday morning, Just doing his car service, sitting in his drive on car stands at 8am, you return at 5pm and he's still there struggling and the job still isn't properly done when he's finished, Wasting a day to get a job done badly, worth 300 quid? find a good guy and spend the day with the wife! THAT is worth 300 quid!! To her anyway! Lara