Ed Poore

Another point might be that with the increased use of momentum you are possibly more likely to do damage to components. Of course it's down to the driver that once they have traction aids such as lockers that they don't also use extra momentum to get stuck even further. Basically they allow you to overcome the same obstacles in a much more controlled manner. I actually use the lockers quite a lot on lanes, partly because I spent quite a bit of money installing them, but I also find that it provides a much more pleasant ride. Some people I've been out with like seeing how far they can get without resorting to engaging lockers (i.e. using a more standard vehicle), I take (perhaps slightly a perverse) pleasure in seeing how slowly I can creep through an obstacle. In the summer we joined a friend to help him out guiding a trip in the Highlands, the last track has a potentially* quite dangerous hill climb on it if things go wrong - you can easily bypass it and some do but the vast majority use it as an opportunity to learn. I suspect for the vast majority of people on this forum it would be a non-event but given the majority of these people haven't been "off-road" with their vehicles it's an eye opener. It's only about 100ft but a 60%+ slope (>31°) on a loose surface. The only two crucial bits are ensuring sufficient momentum to get up and making sure you turn left at the top because otherwise you suddenly drop onto a nice 45° side-slope you can't see until your front wheels are on it. On this summer's trip I sat in the vehicle for almost everyone to offer advice if they needed and we practiced good failed hill-climb descents on the start of the slope before they tackled the full climb. Anyway those who wanted a go had a go, then they all wanted me to drive up. There's a video somewhere of one of the group shouting "he's not going fast enough!" as I set off in low second just above a tick-over (but with all three lockers engaged and the anti-roll bar disengaged). The friend in charge of the trip just replied "he knows what he's doing". Well it was a rather uneventful pottering climb up with very minimal wheel slipping, oh so satisfying! One of the clients at the end of the track commented about how uneventful and simple my 110 made things look compared to everyone else (mixture of modern pick-ups, Land Cruisers, Defenders etc). That was a very welcome comment. * they have had rolls on it down, largely, to inexperience when someone fails the hill-climb and loses control on the way back down.

Well I guess see how next year pans out but is it perhaps on the cards to consider having an earlier in the season one and an August one if that holds out?

Not something I've experienced in the slightest. I'm assuming when you mean bad conditions on the road then it's down to ice and snow? I wouldn't ever think of engaging them at "high speeds" say above 20mph so suddenly coming across different traction conditions is largely moot. In the recent icy conditions we had down here (whilst the rest of the country had some snow before Christmas we just got the roads turning to sheet ice where they hadn't been gritted) I still had to go out and about with a trailer (fetching bales of hay for animals etc). If conditions were that bad I'd quite often drop down to low range and lock the centre diff to counteract slightly what you describe. I'm not overly concerned about running that diff locked on the road because you can feel the steering get very heavy to the point of not wanting to turn but at that point you can disengage it because you know you have decent traction. If I came across, for example, on of the bigger hills with ice on then on the straight bits I'd engage the rear locker before setting off. You can feel things beginning to get heavy and struggle to steer quite readily I find so it's easy enough to quickly unlock the diff, make the turn and re-engage if it's a sharp one. If you're on slipper surfaces then it's irrelevant because the wheel just slips. Contrary to your comment I find it far more predictable driving in those conditions because you know the wheels are all locked together. When you're going downhill then potentially you might induce a skid because of a wheel having to skid to go around a corner but then the flip side (and a bigger benefit in my experience) is keeping all the wheels locked together so you have greater traction overall so the risk of a slide is less overall. It's really just getting used to the way the vehicle responds in any situation. I've personally not had any experience of LSDs in a Defender, the Range Rover has them but then it also has a very capable traction control system so you're isolated somewhat (still doesn't get you out of trouble as I found recently). Of the two systems I prefer the Defender setup mainly, I suspect, because I learnt to drive off road and have the experience and like being in control. Another factor may be tyres, I'm running mud terrains all the time so I know that they tend to break traction before breaking something driveline related. Whether that'd be the case with standard components (running Ashcroft HD all around) I don't know.

Did you read the first post? I'd say as load lugger then standard open diffs would be fine as after all pretty much all Land Rovers are capable of 7t+ GTW in standard form. Then the latter answers whether it's on-road or off road.

That to me screams adding a locker. People say LSD etc., but I like the preemptive nature of being able to engage it before needing to. All other kinds are reactive, i.e. something has to happen before they respond. People make a big song and dance about upgrading everything else like half shafts and CVs at the same time but in reality are they needed? I did because they needed doing and I could comfortably afford to at the time but rather ironically it meant my weakest link then became the crankshaft because the only thing I've damaged since the upgrades was snapping two cranks . Sympathetic driving will do more for saving components than anything else, after all the standard ones have got a lot of people around a lot of the world in a whole host of setups. What lockers do allow is more control over being sympathetic to the drive train as you can lock them all and not have to spin wheels and shock load components in order to find traction. If you're spinning wheels with all four wheels locked either you don't have traction or your driving can improve. Of course adding lockers might necessitate extra expense such as compressors and changing other components but that's down to the individual vehicle's wear, tear and setup. My initial air setup cost under £100 because I sourced a second hand air con pump and bracket, most of the expense came from pipework. Cheaper upgrades are certainly possible but none will be as profound I feel.

I'm going dry weight about 1450kg dry add a couple of hundred for wet. Centre of gravity 6" off the floor

Says the one building a lightweight

I agree it doesn't matter but I'd turn it up a wee bit on the next bit of welding and see how you get on.

Dare I say it those welds don't look hot enough

No same orientation but move the VSRs etc the other side of both batteries. My setup won't be relevant at all anymore since it's a completely custom seat box - plus it's a mess...

Depends on how much work you wanted but if you swap the electrics around so that the VSR etc are on the inner side of the box then there's enough space for 2x 019 batteries which I think are bigger than what you've got there. I packed out the bottom of my 300Tdi tray (handy for running cables under the batteries) and had an auxiliary fuse and VSR wedged (never actually got around to mounting them) on the inner side. You could then lift the rear end of both batteries to slide them in and out. The way you have them mounted at the moment means you have to slide the vehicle battery over to get it out past the lip by the looks of it. Just a thought. I know the two 019 batteries fit because I had that for ages and have them in the current setup but that's a custom seat box to take the L322 seats (ironically smaller battery box but was made to measure).

How recently? I looked a few years ago and it was based on curtilage. I.e. No more than 50%, given I have a 4.5 acre garden means with half an acre for the house I could have a 2 acre garage . Falls into building regs but not planning.

I haven't read through everything but why do you appear to be discounting used lifts? I picked up a wheel alignment / MOT test bay spec 4 poster (wheels free bars, two jacking beams and those tiddly things for the front wheels) for £400. They come up fairly often that cheap but you do have to collect. Easy enough though with a trailer.

Ah sorry I thought you were on about isolating the battery rather than just the winch.

I wasn't so much thinking of cabling being an issue but rather all that extra wiring for (to me) very little benefit since you not only have to go from the battery box to the switch but back again unless you reroute all the existing wiring in the vehicle. All that adds voltage drop unless you add stupid sized cables to mitigate it.

Can you not mount the isolator external to the box and just have the handle poking through? Personally though I'd consider whether that location is the most suitable for the isolator switch? I'd keep the isolator nice and close to the battery to keep cable runs short, leave that space for stuff that you want to access more regularly / from outside the vehicle such as air lines and jump points. At least that's how I'd consider doing it (did actually build everything for it but didn't find a way of doing the lid I liked with what I had to hand). Incidentally I just bent and welded some thin steel in probably the time it took to draw the model. Just make a base template and draw verticals up from there and welded the edges together. Think I just used a clamp and a piece of metal to bend it at the time as I didn't have my bender.

@steve200TDi requested I took some photos of this but due to circumstances I didn't. But as it's still fresh in my mind I'll document it and if I get a chance I'll take some photos to update the thread. So basically this happened Hmm I think that should be attached to this... Ah there are some of the missing bits Which resulted in a Range Rover, 14ft car trailer and Argocat stuck in a ditch blocking access onto the hill. Thankfully we were able to unfreeze the neighbours tractor's door and get it started. He trundled off around the farm to approach from a different direction and succeeded in pulling it all out despite the sheets of ice. We got it back to our place and diagnosed the snapped propshaft. So with some tools, a trolley jack and the rubber boot mat to lie on the snow on ice fixing it started. The tools required E12 socket for propshaft bolts 13mm socket for centre bearing support 10mm socket for front heatshield bolts 8mm socket for rear heatshield screws Possibly: BFH (hammer), sharp cold chisel Extensions / ratchets as required This is on a 2011 4.4TDV8 Range Rover but I think the procedure is the same for most including Discos and Sports. I'm going to leave it up to people as to how they want to support the vehicle as doing this on sheet ice with minimal tools is probably not how most people will attempt it but you ideally want to be able to jack up a rear wheel and maintain access to the front. So first step is to remove the "intermediate" heatshield. This is just behind the transfer box and is held in with a number of 10mm nuts fixed to large washers. There are two up under the floor quite high up and a number down each size of the vehicle. Once that is removed I found you also needed to remove the self tappers holding in the heatshield above the exhaust where it goes between the fuel tank. This allows you to slide it forwards to gain access to the rear diff pinion. Note you can get away without removing the exhaust as I did but its probably a bit easier if you do. Now looking backwards from the transfer box end you'll see two 13mm nuts that hold up the centre support bearing bracket. These need to come off. There are 6 E12 headed bolts per flange at either end. These are done up quite tight. With the tools I had available I was able to undo these with a 3/8 ratchet and a spanner on the end of it. In my case the prop has snapped in half so I only had to worry about half at a time. To put the gearbox in neutral there is a red lever in the centre console you can pull vertical. Remove the cup holders next to the gear knob then using a screwdriver prise up the panel in the middle. You'll see the red lever to pull. To let the rear diff flange spin for access you need the handbrake off and one wheel off the ground but you'll need to block it or lower it when you want to undo / tighten the bolts. Once you've removed the two intermediate nuts and all 12 flange bolts you need to separate the prop from the transfer box and diff flanges. If you're lucky they'll fall off, in my case I had to use a sharp cold chisel and big lump hammer to knock it away from the flange. You should be able to wiggle the prop out forwards without having to remove anything else. Refit is the reverse of removal as they say. I did the intermediate support first, this was easiest with a 13mm socket on my Milwaukee M12 long reach ratchet (yeah minimal tools but I had that). If you've got bigger hands you might need to wiggle the rear heatshield as far back as you can. Only difficulty with my refit procedure was having stacked it spectacularly on the ice in the morning I haven't been very mobile due to a very painful knee. Disappointing to see things are un-greasable on this prop both due to design and in normal conditions inaccessible. This one I think is original since I've got a lot of history and there's no mention of it. It's done 146k and the last 20k ish of that has usually been towing heavy loads under my ownership. I will try and get some photos when I'm back at home to update the thread. Oh and a genuine prop from LR is definitely a don't ask how much kind of question. Unfortunately there were not many options between Christmas and Hogmany in the Highlands.

Mo having seen you driving a fair bit you are a very sympathetic driver. The stuff that kills transmissions will be being doing silly things that shock load it - your driving style isn't conducive to that. With the auto-box that'll be smoothing things out even more. I'd focus your pennies on other things but where possible put some money aside to upgrade once you've got it on the road and given it some miles.

Looking at the installation manual for my lift the thing that was emphasises was that you could get away with quite thin concrete provided you had rebar tying all the legs together. I.e. What @Stellaghost has suggested - basically you want to stop the four legs from splaying apart or twisting over. If you couldn't put rebar in the requirements for the concrete pad in each corner were huge. Something of at least a cubic metre of concrete in each corner provided the ground was good. Compared to a 2-4" slab depending on concrete strength if you had decent steelwork tying the four corners together.

Euro torch conversion kits aren't dear and then the parts are standardised. Just double check if you need a gas solenoid - my cheapo Clarke has it built into the torch. Did the conversion, forgot the solenoid. That was 3 years ago... After a friend looked over my shoulder with a stick welder in my mitts I've not found the need for the mig to be honest, most of my stuff recently has been nearer 20mm and no thinner than 5mm. He used to be a top notch gas pipeline welder so was a good teacher. I have managed to weld 0.9mm sheet with a 2.5mm rod, did blow few holes but patched them up successfully.

My only concern is that for @Stellaghost it's now where near big enough.

Different teeth / aggressiveness on the blades? I've heard mixed reviews about the Milwaukee blades, some really rate them and others say they just snap but I wonder how much of the latter is abuse. The bandsaw above I picked up for £100, admittedly I did rather worryingly have to go to Essex to pick it up, it's a bit unusual in that it push cuts. One of the wheel covers has a stamp "Made in West Germany" which dates it a bit. I've used it a couple of times, the last time was cutting through a 1" round bar and it went through in about 10-15 seconds, scarily fast, even with the hydraulic damper right down.

Simples

I've got a portable version too... Not sure I want to pick it up though...

If I get my power supplied free of charge by them then I'd be up for it