Howitzer

Thanks gents, This one was well abused but oozing Patina. The boy was around 9 so that rings true. Dave!

Hello all, long time no post. I met a guy in Churwalden in Switzerland at the start of August. He had a fantastic Camel Trophy and think he mentioned he was a member on here. He was there with his wife and 2 kids and my son would like to get in touch with his, he forgot to grab their number, as did we. If that rings a bell to anyone then I can leave my details and get in contact. Any help would be much appreciated. Dave!

I see a lot of modern diesels in Africa. If the diesel filter system is easy to access and service I don’t see a problem. Dave!

Hi all, I’ve had my spare wheel carrier on for around 10 years now but it’s got a little slop in it and the powder coat has seen better days. I greased it whenever I did my props but it hasn’t saved the bushes. Now after 10 years I can’t remember who made it, I think it was a Safari Equip one but I bought it through Footloose 4x4. Ive mailed Safari Equip but haven’t had a response yet. I’ll ring on Monday. I was wondering though if anyone knew exactly what carrier this is? Incase I’m completely wrong and need to order bushes from elsewhere? Dave!

Yeah that’s right, it goes from just behind where the ARB mountsbused to be to the front inner section of the spring mount. i think I’ll ring a few places when I get home to see if they would send me a rear quarter chassis in kit form. Dave!

Hi all, My 200tdi 110 commercial is getting a little tlc soon and I need a section of chassis replaced. i fitted an MIB rear crossmember a few years ago so that is fine but one chassis leg around the spring and behind it is flaking and expanding through rust. Just in front of the spring is solid. Where can I get chassis sections without the rear crossmember attached? The rest of the chassis is really good and I’d rather not patch it as it’s a keeper. Dave!

I fitted Peugeot 405 wiper mounted screen washers, ran the screen wash pipe around the upper heater hose and removed the NRV from the line. we saw -36 and never had a problem with it freezing. i use the purple berry Halfords screenwash mixed 50/50 (I like the smell) and have never had an issue in the uk. Simple and cheap. Dave!

I had some aluminium wing protectors made the same shape as chequer plate panels and then glued some non slip marine rubber on top. Non slip, look smart and 6 years on still come up looking good. I’m 20 stone and stand on them fine when us8ng the roof rack. Dave!

Brilliant, thanks for that ! I don’t suppose you also know where I can get the small wire clamp which screws onto the control wire ? Its due a few tweaks in general since doing my bulkhead swap 5 years ago so should really start getting all the parts together. Dave!

Does anyone have the part numbers to the small clamps which grip the cables at the heater box end? Mine just fell apart and the right ones would be nice before I adjust the flaps. Dave!

For some reason I can't paste a link in. It's the Forward Facing Fold Up seats, roughly £200 each. The fully intergrated ones are nearly £600 each. Dave!

This was my thinking, the frame doesn't look that different from the front so should itself bolt up well enough. If not currently strong enough it wouldn't be too hard to strengthen it up. The MOT only calls for a suitable mounting point. Dave!

Hi all, I am looking into fitting the exmoor trim forward facing flip down seats into my 1991 200TDI Defender van. Having the seats in the rear is not an option as the dog will struggle to get in with the seats deployed and the kids will be too far away on long journeys. They will both be over 1 when this is finished. So, my understanding is this.... 3 point belts available, seat available and the upper seatbelt mount needs to be structuraly sound. This I can do so am not worried about this. Large spreader plates and I believe the same support for the front seats can be used. Inform the DVLA of a change of seat and also inform the insurance company. A bulkhead removal kit will be fitted also and it's already well insulated and relatively warm. What worries me is the lack of side impact protection and also rollover protection. I don't want to save the truck from a multiple rollover at 90mph but I would like it to be stronger in the event of landing on its side for some reason. A small internal cage is what I was thinking of and could have this fabricated by a friend who does fantastic work. Has anybody got pictures of something similar, seats mounted in the centre of a 110 van. Also the rollcages ive seen look particularly intrusive and I hope this can be made to fit tighter to the roof. I know a CSW would be the best practical option but I couldn't sell my old bus and the kids love it. Any and all opinions welcome, I'm not near the vehicle at the minute but think doing it over winter will be doable for me, presuming I've not thought of anything obviously wrong. Dave!

I had this problem on my 110 Van, after I did the chalk test on the tyres and dropped the pressure in the rear tyres from 42 to 34/36 it pulls up far more square. Dave!

I just had a look through the tech archive and saw the posts, an 18 litre tank seems a bit small but thinking about it the space isnb't huge. What size tanks are they ejparrot? Also do you have a picture of them and where you intend to mount them? Dave!

Hi all, I have a T-Max electric compressor which I will use as the base for an onboard air system. It's running off a second leisure battery and will be used for an impact gun, airing up the tyres and general bits and pieces. The compressor is mounted in the cab but I want to run as big an air receiver as I can. Lorry tanks seem popular and I would like to mount it in the rear arch on the passenger side. I have 2 side lockers already so that position is out. I'll run a connection to the front and rear. So has anyone done a similar set up? Not interested in a converted air con compressor, my Webasto is going near that space and it's overkill for my uses. Regards Dave!

If that was the case I think it would flame out and log a fault. My Eberspacher is pretty keen to log a fault when everything is not perfect, I'd guess the Webasto is the same but I don't have any direct experience of them. A picture would be good. Dave!

I have a Thermotop Z i intend to fit on my 200tdi. I was going to mount it above the fuel pump as it gives a very straight run to the heater pipes. Is yours plumbed directly into the heater pipes at the passenger side of the bulkhead? Dave!

I looked at the Ferries but decided cost wise it made more sense to drive it, it only takes 2 days to get to Oslo and the ferries are not quick. The road from OSlo to Bergen had the tunnel in which was somewhere I really wanted to drive through which also helped with the decision. If I was to do it again I would use the same amount of time, it sometimes took us an hour or two to find somewhere suitable to sleep overnight so a lot of distance was made up there. It is quite a mileage heavy trip though so having a second driver is a real help when doing this for 2 weeks. Prep wise the main difference was the heated washer jets, which despite the super Norwegian screenwash still froze up on me, after the engine had warmed up though they worked fine again on numerous ocasions. I fitted Silicon wipers from Mud UK, these worked amazingly well, the spring on the wiper froze up but the wiper blade itself was maleable in the coldest of temperatures, it really made a difference as on some roads you are wiping the screen every other minute so you use a lot of fluid and need good wipers. I also replaced the diffs and gearboxes with Ashcroft fully synthetic fluid, these were amazing, when minus mid 20s the gearbox felt like it was already fully warmed up, I was worried the gearbox would be a pain as the LT77 is a bit notchy when cold but this transformed it completely. Highly reccomended although not cheap. A seperate air heater is very important imo, it really takes the edge off and can be used before bed to warm you up, once you get cold it takes a lot of heat in those conditions to get you warm again. An amazing triup though, i'd reccomend it to anyone willing. Dave!

After talking to a transmission place he thinks the shaft that 5th runs on has snapped. I'll have the box out in a couple of days and we will be able to see then. Dave!

I'll have to go through my credit card statement as I used this for all the tolls.... We averaged 26mpg all in, when travelling north we were averaging 28mpg, this is with an all up weight of 2.5 tons, a full length roof rack, travelling at 60mph etc. We also used the diesel Eberspacher for i'd say on average 4 hours a day for the whole trip, mainly as we slept in the car every night and it warmed it up in the morning. Also 2000 or so miles of that were done in 4th gear and there are hills everywhere. We covered 5652 miles in 14 days. There is a lot of driving but the scenery makes it well worthwhile, absolutely breathtaking. I'd highly reccomend a Rad Muff, mine was fitted all the time apart from in europe, on one long uphill climb I noticed it got warm after about 15km or so, I undid it halfway but the engine never really got warm afterwards, the air from the heater was reduced a lot and also the car felt colder, I think this may have been from air hitting the bulkhead more? In the end I ran with just 1 corner lifted for the INtercooler and despite some long hard climbs, the engine settled at its temp perfectly as the heaters were on full for 90% of the time. The oils I put in from Ashcroft, although pricey were brilliant, even in the minus mid 20s you could select all gears like the box was already warm, this was despite the box always feeling a bit notchy going to 2nd in the morning when in the UK, I have the LT77 box. Starting the engine was fine, no issues at all, my Glow Plugs were good and my valve clearances set. Tyres are a bit of an issue, unless it's a full winter tyre, emergency stopping was not going to be very good at all, in some cases a Moose would step out in front of you and no careful planning would allow for this. You just needed some grip on the ice. My new BFG Mud Terrains worked fine, with the studs fitted on ice you had to brake slightly harder than you thought but after getting a feel for them i'd say their performance with the studs screwed in was about the same as they felt in the wet in the UK. I was really impressed with how they performed and the damage to the tyre after removing them is no worse than a heavy going pay and play day imo. I would certainly never take chains after being out there, I can't think of a situation where they would have been of any use. We spent £1500 on fuel alone but being able to sleep in the Landy reduced costs massively. You really do need a well prepared vehicle though, good strong recovery points, everything serviced, new fluids all over etc, it does take its toll and one of the few non genuine parts failed, my door hinge. Pattern parts just aren't tested in these conditions and if the top hinge had broken at speed, it could have wripped the door off, luckily it was the lower. We took spares, a jerry can, compressor, recovery gear, 2 weeks of clothes (too much, just take 3 pairs of trousers, some coats and lots of underwear) cooking gear, tools, cooking fuel, a Barebox full of food to cook, electrical bits and pieces and a Jump Starter should the main battery die on us somehow plus an Eberspacher fitted. You certainly don't need to travel heavy. Driving over there was fine, the drivers are curteous although they do pass and pull in quite close. The conditions are easy to adapt to, you just need to react differently if you start to slide, either power through it or knock it into neutral and steer where you hope to end up. Having a play and doing emergency stops when conditions allow really give you a feel for the road and means when you are reading the road, you know pretty well what grip is available. On some sections the road is incredibly rough where some ice sections are broken away, probably by lorries with chains and these really hammered the car. I can't reccomend the trip enough, it's not easy on the vehicles but i'd leave again today if time and money allowed. Dave!

So, we were now travelling at great speed to Nordkapp in just 4th gear. The engine was whistling away and the weather was really getting cold that night. The heater, heated seats and Eberspacher were working overtime and we were travelling through the night. The church was more of a focal starting point to an unknown part of our journey more than any kind of religious symbol, a little holy water, un-frozen naturally, wouldn't have gone amiss though So after 6 hours of foot to the floor motoring up the many hills, wondering where the road had gone to in one of the frequent white outs and loud music being used to drown out the death rattle of our poorly but soldiering on gearbox, we made Nordkapp Commune. At this point we went through the shutters in the tunnel, paid the toll to enter Nordkapp itself and found the first place to park. We were both shattered and needed some sleep so went straight to bed. We awoke at around 10:00am and did our morning routine. re-freshed, slightly, and knowing it was only a few short kms till we made our target we headed off. Boris jammed in gear again which was a bit dis-heartening but once out it worked perfectly all day, 4th gear doing its thing. These are another couple of favourite pictures, Thor the god of Thunder had obviously beat the earth with the fist of an angry god vto give us such gorgeous weather and its wake can be seen in the background. I'll be sure to give him a high five should I ever meet up with him 8) The final part of the drive needs yet another snow plough, the snow is a good foot deep and it was pretty windy on that side of the mountain so it was quite nice to have someone making a clear path. I was secretly hoping the plough driver would go fast as the hills on the map were shown to be quite steep and twisting in places, needing 25mph on the dash before the turbo woke up in 4th was a bit of a pain but couldn't be helped. Luckily our snow plough was a good one and the driver looked just like the man below and drove to the image he portrayed, we had found a boy racer snow plough driver With the odd red arrows black smoke trail when the speeds dropped a bit low trailing behind us and the relief in knowning we would only need our legs for the final few metres we arrived at the visitors centre 8) We had made it !!!!!!!!!!! Now I was expecting to find a 1980s Fiesta parked up here and a young lady driver looking at Boris our Landy wondering why the silly idiots had brought so much gear. Well in many ways she would be right but with a Land Rovers many failings but huge bonus points it was to be expected. I loved how mechanical it was, nearly everything was fixable, it has proper recovery points, it can drive flat out into a snow bank, be pulled out and carry on with just some extra patina added. It was cold in the mornings and the heater was feeble at times. It made hitting problems seem fixable, something a more modern car can't equal imo. Spending all that time 2 feet from my other half, the stresses, fun times, sing alongs etc while we rattled northward made it by far the best holiday ever, to make it to Nordkapp and actually see the lights was the icing on the cake, a focal point to aim for as apposed to the sole reqason for the trip. To do the same trip in a new reliable Land Cruiser would be missing the point entirely, it will mark me out as a hateful fanboy but doing it in a Landy was the best feeling ever and I can't wait for the next trip 8) After wandering around for a bit, seeing the visitors centre and watching Treina interact with one of our more northerly friends.... we had to start heading south for the first time, we had to wait for the convoy again as despite not snowing while we were there, the wind had blown the snow across the ploughed route and we would need help getting down again, snow is different up here obviously, it doesn't even need to fall from the sky. We carried on south with the intention of stopping somewhere for a BBQ as it felt like a ludicrously perfect way to finsih our last night in the far north. Now this far north the picnic areas are not always ploughed and some were 3 foot deep in snow, we spotted one and the snow didn't seem that deep so Treina said we should stop and see how deep it was. Being the Alpha Male I grunted how this wasn't needed and drove straight in, it was about a foot deep at the entrance but I used my amazing driving skill and Jedi like cunning to plough on and straight into a .... Ditch :oops: Not for the first time in my life has my better half looked at me in the way shich means only one thing, PLEB. These pictures were taken after Treina had dug out many many snow shovels full of snow and after I had connected up my winch rope and hi-lift jack, using it as a winch. Two passers by had offered assistance which had laughably little affect on the 2.5 ton lump of stubborn pig iron currently perched on part of its chassis. After Treina had cleared a path underneath and I had winched it over so both back wheels were at least touching solid ground it became apparent how damaging the cold can be. The strops were frozen solid, the jack mechanism was frozen solid aswell and the shackles were seemingly as one with themselves. It was while heading to the storage cupboard to retreive my blowtorch to free up the jack mechanism that our saviour arrived. He had a 300hp permanent 4WD Chevy running full aggresive winter tyres and said he could get us out 8) Using the hi-lift and winch rope as a pivot point to stop it going further into the ditch (as annoyingly deep as it was) we hitched up my kinetic strap and with Treina orchestrating the rescue attempt, me burning rubber and bouncing myself backwards, Mr Norway, rescue extraordinaire nailed his Chevy time and time again trying to drag me out, after a good 10 attempts there was a jerk, I buried my throttle and with the V8 of the Chevy blaring away, stainless exhaust, very fruity, Boris was removed from the icy grasp of mother nature 8) I'm gutted we got no pictures of this but we were a bit busy at the time. With payment made in the form of a pound of whale meat we had bought in Bergen our smug, and rightly so, saviour drove off into the night. When the people stopped to try and help no-one looked at the stupid British who had driven into the ditch, they just saw it as something that happens when you live in these kinds of areas. We had obviously, that's the royal we, been a bit silly but the general friendliness of everyone we had met was finally cemented by the assistance we were offered that night and is one of the reasons I love the place. BBQ time!! Just as we set up the BBQ the northern lights made their most vivid appearance of the trip, it was the perfect end to the perfect holiday and really put the icing on the cake. We did intend to meet a friend in Amsterdam and visit Brugge but sadly driving in any kind of town would be pushing our luck a little, despite how resiliant our gearbox appeared to be. So we made time home as fast as we could, saw a few last amazing backdrops in Norway, seeing some penned in Reindeer, Reindeer with collars on roaming free and the very last of the snow. Apart from spotting but not capturing a giant 30 foot cheese grater in Sweden the trip home was largely event free and straight forward. Removing the snow studs in Sweden was the last we saw of any snow which was a bit sad in a way as it had been our bright and inviting backdrop for so long by this point. Then it was the lure of our home via the Eurotunnel, a hateful M25 slog and A1 blast and parkway shlep. Our now 217,000 mile Defender had made it!! Next winter, Finland! Dave!

Oddly I struggled finding a good anti-freeze. In the end I went to Land Rover and for temperatures down as low as I was expecting they reccomended a neat mix of their own brand. It worked out fine but as you say, maybe not as strong a mix would have done just as well. It did run very slightly warmer when in the UK although that could be my mind playing tricks on me. Mike, with studs in the fast driving was ok if you changed your driving style, I certainly wouldn't want to do it without them mind you haha. Dave!

I'd planned a trip like this for the past 2 years but it didn't quite go to plan, luckily it was the better for it in the end but it didn't start out particularly well. A large fuel leak from the engine, one from the fuel tank and only 10 hours to sort them and pack for the trip, David Livingstone would not have allowed such bad planning So with the engine leak sorted, the fuel tank removed, re-sealed and re-fitted we were on our way 8) Due to being a bit late we had to drive at IMMENSE SPEEDto the chunnel to catch our train. This IMMENSE SPEEDresulted in low teens fuel consumption and when re-starting the Landy to drive off the train I noticed how the fuel gauge didn't move, the following picture shows our first picture taken in france :oops: I shall leave my views on the french people as my own but 2 wonderful heros came to our aid and refused blankly to take any form of payment, be it fuel or money for their help. So, now with tank brimmed we drove for a few hours till taking a break, a midday sleep after the overnight ferry trip. We awoke to this wonderful view, cunningly forgetting the petrol station to our front and us imagining rolling hills all around WQe then made pace through mainland europe, filling the tank, emptying it , filling and emptying till we arrived at the Legoland exhibit Treina had surprised me with a visit to . Our trip over the Ollesund bridge was a bit of a dissapointment, it was incredibly foggy and apart from the odd glimpse of water was mainly seen as shown in the picture below. Despite this it is an amazing engineering achievement and i'd love to see it in clear weather. Once into Sweden we made pace again to just outside of Oslo where we stopped for the night, when we awoke we were greeted with this.... I tried to follow the tracks of a deadly pack of wolves (Possibly just a small fox) and became prisoner to the snows icy grasp :shock: At this point the road we were on (the fun route i'd planned) was largely snow and ice free but this soon changed not 1 hour further along. Treina was driving at this point and noticed that during one of the regular emergency stop tests we carried out while driving that any kind of traction had left us and stood back laughing at our pathetic non ice and snow tyres. At this point we decided to fit the snow studs. Again we were lucky with our choice of place to stop as the views were incredible and it wasn't even particularly cold. Fully studded up we were now hoping that the studs did their job for the next few thousand miles. This proved great timing as just 30 minutes down the road we hit our first convoy, they had closed the road due to bad weather so we needed to wait and follow a snow plough. It showed how incredibly organised the Norwegians are and how pleasant they are with it. This was also the first of many white out situations and we were very relieved to see that the studs worked excellently. I had to change my driving style as we didn't fit studs to the centre of the tread, so you had to brake quite hard for them to dig in and on the longer sweeping corners it floated around quite a bit, most fun 8) After getting over the mountain we headed towards a tunnel I was very excited about seeing.... I think P{hil James may have had something to do with those tyre marks The studs as I fitted them.... As this part of our journey was going so well the music turned to AC/DC, the speed increased and I had one of the drives of my life, arcing turns, long hills with the boost whistling away and engine pulling hard after I gave it a bit more fuel and boost before we left. We were now using less fuel than expected, the cabin was warm and cosy and everything was good in the world !! After the Laerdal tunnel we headed out to Bergen, i've spent a lot of time here with work so knew a few places I wanted to go and knew somewhere I could park. The Landy is 2.3 metres tall and I only knew of 1 place I could park for a long time, sadly this has recently had a height restriction added so we had to abandon that idea and use a truck stop on the way to where I normally go to work :roll:. We did though stop off at Deli de Luca for some fantastic Carbonarra and stop on what is possibly the steepest slope i've ever parked on, Treina was a bit worried the Landy would fall over While in Bergen it rained permanently, which was a bit of a pain as it meant we couldn't go up on the cable car to see the views over Bergen as the cloud was so low. We did have a walk around the town thougth, eat some Reindeer hot dogs from the best place in town and go to the Aquarium. This Bear was playing dead, I think it knew the smackdown which would be going down if he awoke The Penguins were giving it billy big balls aswell and i'm pretty sure this room was named after me :shock: The town itself has loads of old buildings and stuff to see. We had a few long tunnels on the way out of Bergen heading to our first ferry of the trip, on one long hard climb in 5th the engine started getting warm, I opened the muff and it dropped right down within minutes. I had a neat mix of Antifreeze in there and just the air flowing over the engine dropped it down below the thermostat opening temperature in regular driving, essentially making the heater nigh on worthless. We stopped just as we exited a climb to 7 feet high snow banks. That's not a camp pose, it was chuffing freezing The ferries out there are cheap, a 20 minute ferry ride for a car and 2 people costs around £20, which isn't too bad and they are incredibly efficient. From driving on to leaving was about 5 minutes and you pay as you would an old style bus conductor, really impressive. When sheltering from the rain on the upper deck we noticed some sneaky Norwegian lady literature on display when the curtain swayed with the swell We parked up between Knarvik and Trondheim in a truck stop, most of these had heated toilets which was a nice bonus and despite signs saying they were not overnight stops everyone was doing it. Breakfast in a can was its usual greatness 8) It would be nice to do a proper fry up etc but it gets very cold after it is cooked and is too much of a faff. We made a thermos up each morning too as a ritual. The views during the whole of Norway are incredible, just postcard view after view, it never gets tiring and with the driving fun to be had at the same time I loved every single rattly diesel fueled mile. We went to see a museum the following day, after taking another ferry before stopping for the night. More Norwegian efficiency and friendliness was met. The drive in the morning showed some fantastic scenery yet again. It was while stopping for lunch in Stryn where I noticed the lower door hinge had sheared off in the cold, damn. Stiklestad was the setting for a huge battle many years ago and the information about King Olav and all the in-fighting, scandal and fighting was quite interesting, if a little vague in places as it happened in 1030AD. When finding a place to stop I tried and arty shot down a walkway, I thought it was well worth doing, Treina thought driving down a path being used by people was stupid, you decide We stayed in another truck stop that night and in the morning headed back to the petrol station where we needed to top up our water supply. up to now it had not frozen but it soon would and we had to melt the snow to make our thermos up each morning. We saw a couple of nice cars in the car park doing winter testing, they didn't want to listen about the finer elements of the LR 4 wheel drive system sadly, philistines :roll: The Aventador sounded incredible, Pagani, Ferrari etc have a lot to learn in this respect. Also, the 6.0 litre heaters were probably a little better than mine. I tried to keep up but alas their overtaking power was superior to mine From here we headed to Namsskogan Dyrepark. Due to it being deep in winter a lot of the animals were hibernating or just buried in 6 foot of snow somewhere, we did get to see the Wolves though which was worth the trip alone, absolutely incredible. These wild Boars are huge, at least 7 feet long :shock: A few face angels were created 8) Also the rule that if you fall over, you get pummelled in snow was well used, woman or not, a six pack of whoop ass was served at every oppertunity 8) The following section of report was full of much excitemenmt, we were essentially just heading for Nordkapp after one stop at a mountain and to Tromso for some lunch. The Landy was going great, very low temperatures and it started on the button, the diesel heater was working well by this point and we were doing 27+mpg despite long periods going uphill and me enjoying myself as much as possible. Sleeping in the back was still warm and cosy, it was better than expected aslong as you appreciated that the transition from warm bed to being fuilly clothed could be a bit chilly We left the Dyrepark and headed to Torghatten. This is one place I wanted to see and I simply didn't research it enough, I was told you could camp at the base of the mountain so that in the morning you could see the hole going through it, take a walk up it, make breakfast there etc. Thjis was all very true but the camping place was not accesible by car, I could have got there but not legally, so we decided to not stay there overnight. We did a short 1 hour night walk up it instead. The roads to Torghatten were the usual mix of wonder and arctic gorgeousness, we also had 2 emergency stops due to Moose in the road, they are huge and on both occasions managed to walk off before we got the camera out, which was a bit of a sod. A quick about turn was needed for this Getting to Torghatten means you have to go over yet another incredible structure, the Norwegians really do have this kind of thing nailed. From memory this is the town of Bronnysund.... So we finally get to Torghatten, find the place deserted and no way of legally getting to the base of the mountain to sleep, still, the solitude was really nice and the fresh air walk was nice and invigorating after spending so much time in the car. We drive out of Bronnysund back to the E6, which was a 2 hour drive, then find somewhere to sleep for the night and make our way again in the morning. The roads were less and less used up here, still seeing traffic but not enough to affect the road as much as further south. This sign intrigued me so I went to hunt out the track, secretly hoping to find some kind of spiked tyred go-kart racing centre As you can see, a Go-Kart may have had ground clearance issues here :shock: I noticed some lone animal tracks again, maybe the giant wolves were following us :shock: We stopped at every truck or lorry we found which had slipped off the road, when it starts to get away from you on these roads you just have to try and halt your progress with the snow banks or power through it. That works fine in a Landy, I fear in a lorry it would prove more difficult. We stopped off again for some dinner in a nice spot, we spent a few hours here, tidied up the back a bit and generally chilled for a few hours. Cooking was made difficult with the sudden appearance of giant hands You will also notice how our water is now solid ice, we sleep where this water lives so you can probably understand what it is like at night when you venture out of the sleeping bag in the morning. SOme artwork was also being created while we had the time. We slept that night and then carried on north heading to Tromso. We saw our first wild Reindeer just Reindeering about and just enjoyed the views, listened to music and talked carp till we arrived. I wanted to find a Land Rover dealership so we could find a door hinge, it was proving a pain to shut as you had to wind the window down to do it from the outside. We managed to see our first wild Reindeer on this part of the journey aswell which was pretty cool. After being told the parts department wasn't open on a saturday we carried on into Tromso, had some lunch and then headed out again towards Nordkapp. The snow started getting a bit silly and we came upon a gold Sierra GL with its hazard lights on in the middle of the road. The lady inside seemed most distressed that she couldn't see where she was going so I told her i'd go slow and she could follow me. We then saw a stranded Russian guy, as we slowed to a stop she slithered past completely oblivious to her weaving and lane straddling . The Russian spoke little english but explained that he didn't get such bad snow in Russia which we found amusing. I couldn't find a strong enough place on the front of his car to pull him out so strapped a strop and my kinetic strap to his rear beam, despite some momentum, heafty pulling and digging he was going nowhere. Even a passing Patrol used my winch rope to tie us together had no affect, we just both sat thjere spinning our wheels. The guy in the patrol gave the chap a number for a recovery company and we went on our way. That night about 450km from Nordkapp we saw the NOrthern lights for the first time 8) Quite faint and near a town so there was some light polution but seeing a ginormous green band moving around the sky was just perfect. Mother nature can be a pretty clever lady at times. Sadly, steel and gearbox components can be an utter tw4t :evil: Roughly 400km south of Nordkapp, going up a long climb at roughly 45mph in 5th, I get a massive bang and total loss of drive mixed with a massive clattering and banging from the gearbox. It sounded terminal and I said to Treina "Holiday is over, the gearbox has sh4t its biscuits". I was still heading uphill and tried the other gears quickly, 3rd was really noisy, 4th wasn't too bad so now doing about 30mph I p[ut it in 4th and completed the climb. The turbo works really hard and creates huge amounts of heat at low speed and high load and was whistling away beautifully, at oleast the engine was on perfect form. When it levelled out I checked all the gears, in neutral it was jumping into a gear, when you stopped it would often lock in 2 gears at once acting like a transmission brake and needed judiscious use of the clutch to bang it out of gear. In 1st, 2nd and 3rd it was clattering really bad and on a couple of occasions when on light load it felt like it was trying to engage another gear. Luckily 4th gear is direct drive and was only slightly clattery, so after some experimentation you had to always leave it in 2nd gear when stopping to prevent it locking in 2 gears, start with your foot on the clutch and get rolling by accelerating hard in 2nd gear so it didn't give it a chance to lock in another gear and then go straight to 4th. Now you need quite a bit of smooth engine braking on some corners so only having 4th was a pain. The biggest problem though was the uphills, it only starts to make useable boost in 4th gear by 25mph so some of the slow corners needed to be really attacked. I lifted up the corner of the muff so the intercooler had cold air over it and drove it like a hire car . You had to keep the throttle pinned and seeing signs saying 1/7 and 1/9 made me since slightly. I was reading the sat nav so I could build up to shaprer corners etc and after the first 20 minutes of wondering how it would cope started to enjoy myself. The engine was singing and we were not giving up yet 8) I did stop off at a rather idylic church though, just for a little luck Next stop, Nordkapp!!!! Dave!

A little history first.... The output shaft was badly worn so when my transfer box failed nearly 2 years ago now I had the main gearbox rebuilt aswell. This lasted around 3 to 4000 miles before developing a whine when slowing down after a long tow I did. The gearbox was removed and sent back to the refurbishers (They are known as a good lot and i've used them in the past) who said a bearing had failed and it was re-built under warranty. Now I just finished a 2 week norway trip and after between 3 and 4000 miles into the trip, probably 5000 in total since the rebuild I lost 5th gear going up a long climb. The engine was working but not excessively hard. Due to where we were we soldiered on and 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear made horrible rattling sounds but engaged fine, 5th wouldn't engage at all and 4th was still rattly but much much less than the first 3 gears. We covered 2000 miles like this driving back to the UK using 99% of the time only 4th. We pulled away in second till 20mph and then went straight to 4th, in the hills of Norway this really made the engine work at times. So, it's a mildly tuned 200tdi, just on boost fueling and boost raised slightly, I am sympathetic with the box, I used Ashcroft semi synthetic gear oil in the whole transmission and it has never felt better. Is the LT77 just not capable of high loads in 5th gear, I doubt very much if it wasn't, or is my gearbox chap just missing a trrick with these boxes somewhere? If I can find a manual i'll be building it myself this time or wimp out and send it to Ashcrofts. Considering how well the truck went the gearbox failing again has me wanting to fit an R380 or look at spending to do a 6 speed conversion, which i'd rather not do. Dave!