Ed Poore

Was going to offer to try it on mine if you wanted but it sounds like you've got a suitable press locally. Mine is somewhere around the 80t mark and most definitely not made from Chinesium. The previous owner thought the frame was close to Victorian era and apart from the hydraulic fittings everything is measured in inches (the four nuts holding it together are 3" AF). It's certainly not struggled with anything I've put in it yet.

I can better that - moved the 110 once by 1" and transformed it.

I also thing caravans are probably the worst culprits, they're big and have no substantial weight to them so any cross-winds as I experienced will catch people unawares. If manufacturers didn't try to stay under the 750kg limit then I think you'd have a much more solid caravan less prone to tail wagging. Never actually towed a caravan though and not sure I ever want to.

It might breed some complacency but having done my fair share of towing there have been a few situations where if the system is as good as they say it would have been a great addition. Weight isn't actually so much of an issue - usually if you're shifting 3.5t then it tends to be fairly low down in the grand scheme of things. Towing a 2t milling machine on a 1.5t trailer from Birmingham to Pembrokeshire was sublime but the centre of gravity was pretty damn low. Moving stuff from Surrey to Wales again was usually running at about the 3.5t mark but it was all heavy stuff down low in the trailer. The worst one was towing the 110 behind the TDV8, loaded it correctly, strapped down all the wheels and also put a large strap over the front bumper and tow bar to pull the chassis down onto the bed of the trailer. But the bonnet was still level with the roof of the Range Rover. Tended to be sitting more at 50-55 than 60 all the way but coming past Swindon picked up a cross-wind whilst simultaneously hitting a really rutted bit of the M4. God the snake was bad then as the trailer was just the wrong width to avoid the lorry tracks . My sister grabbed the door in a panic because it was so sudden and violent. It all happened very quickly but a quick easing off and gentle braking didn't cure it and actually ended up accelerating up to about 70 before easing gently back off to settle it back down. I suspect in that situation any electronic system that could brake each individual wheel to cancel it out would probably have reacted quicker and been able to sort it out much faster.

I wouldn't be surprised - this was an option on the Disco 4, remember trying it out pre-launch at Gaydon. We didn't get to experience the anti-sway, difficult to simulate (safely) I guess. Did try out the hitch-assist (zoomed in on the tow-ball as you reversed closer to the trailer) and the reverse assist which showed you where the trailer was going to go as you turned the steering wheel.

I've used a spark plug socket with some electrical tape to "calibrate" it to the right diameter before. Done it by eye and also turned one down out of a scrap of steel. Friend of mine if he has a knackered gearbox cuts the input shaft off with a grinder to turn into an alignment tool.

From memory Soar-Y-Mynedd only gets slightly slippier in the wet, it's over the top of the mountain (clue is in the name). Gets fun in deep snow and ice mind. Brechfa just gets muddier in the wet, some puddles can get deepish but nothing to bother a standard vehicle. The stream / river crossings don't swell up like Strata so there's no flow issues to contend with sweeping a vehicle away.

Further south and west you have Brechfa Forest which has some real gems - all perfectly drivable in a normal Defender. If you want some more scenic routes then although not challenging there's the Elan Valley (Claerwen Reservoir) but you'll almost certainly have to do a U-turn at the end. There's also Soar-y-Mynedd near the western end of Strata Florida.

One of the Jeeps I laned with in France used industrial cling film... Can't remember how they got in and out - perhaps through the sunroof. There were some neat magnetic panels for the D3s and D4s in the group but they probably won't work on aluminium

Um, fairly sure Strata is currently closed for repairs (or at least most of it). If I remember correctly they were hoping to have finished repairs by now but winter weather and Covid has put delays on it. https://en.powys.gov.uk/article/2444/Temporary-closures-of-Public-Rights-of-Way-in-Powys Shouldn't have an issue with a standard vehicle in the slightest - OK mine is twin locked and winch but running standard suspension setup and never had an issue before any of that, remember it is a green lane after all. I did it in my L322 a few years back so 18" tyres on a Defender shouldn't be an issue compared to the smears of rubber that Land Rover deemed acceptable at the time. Water wise it's sensible to pay attention to what the weather's done the day or two before because that area of the Brecon Beacons is liable for flash flooding and the river through Strata Florida can rise several feet in the matter of hours. [didn't click post and James responded first]...

You don't have to fit the supercharger if you do go down that route. If you never buy the supercharger then it'll be more difficult if you do fancy it later

Yeah but which sounded better

If the AJ6 is going to be too long then what about a shorter engine such as the AJ-V6?

That may be true but, from my admittedly limited research, there seem to be far more options for souping up a 1UZ compared to the Rover engines. OK it's all internet backside on chair research but there are multiple instances of people pushing towards 1000hp from a 1UZ (albeit with replacing rods, etc) where as everything tends to stop not far above ~300hp for the Rover V8. I realise that I'm now talking power rather than torque but since power is torque x angular velocity then provided you don't up the RPMs too much then you get more torque with more power. Will find out shortly (well hopefully a bit quicker than 6 years) with the 6x6. Mind you anything's better than what's in there currently. Was half tempted to shove my spare 300Tdi with a new crank in there. I almost went down the 5.9 Cummins but glad I haven't now since it would have been a lot of messing around with gearing as I can't do the usual trick of increasing tyre size.

When the switch is very close to the battery I don't think it's going to make a difference. I now disconnect negative first if I'm removing a battery, for some simple reason, if I hit the spanner against the bodywork / chassis when undoing the positive then it doesn't spark. Even more apt in a Defender battery tray where there's a tendency to hit the seat box with the spanner.

Thinking about alternatives, although I haven't looked into their availability. What about the L28 (petrol version of what's in the 6x6)? (and subsequent variants) It's an amazingly compact engine and favoured by the Skyline crowd because you can get big big horsepower numbers out of them. Nissan built the petrol and diesels so they're compatible and consequently the diesel crank is used quite often as a stroker for the petrol engine. Also means the petrol is (comparatively) quite a lump but immensely strong because it's basically a diesel block. I haven't investigated it too much but my general feeling is that most of the more modern "British" engines tend to talk to everything within the vehicle (E.g. Gearbox, ABS, Body ECU etc). I was pleasantly surprised that the 1UZ ECU is standalone, might be worth looking into a Jap based inline 6? Toyota springs to mind. I've got a mate with a 4.2 straight 6 (but diesel) in an 80 series and that thing pulls very very well, especially as his truck recently got weighed at 3.2t on 35s. Had a quick measure up of the engine and would fit in the 6x6 I think. Although auto boxes tend to be a bit longer.

Hey it's not the worst diversion. I had to do Surrey to the Inverness via Pembrokeshire a few winters ago, and then the same in reverse two weeks later. More or less in one hit - just a few hours sleep at my parents on the Pembrokeshire border.

A ex-builder friend of mine killed his very expensive wet and dry vac. In a rush bought a Henry, filled the bag, chucked it in the skip when full and then proceeded for the next 10 years to run it without a bag. Did eventually kill it when a delivery lorry drove over it.

If it's like most of the estates I've been on then a car with good ground clearance will travel most of the roads. After that then a car is simply too heavy and you're into foot territory, quad or similar ATV. I mean I've sunk an Argo above the wheels and that's sub 2psi of ground pressure... and amphibious. People underestimate peat.

I may have created a little Python based Web scraper than downloaded everything related to the L322. Wonder if those files still exist. Wonder if the hard drive still exists... It was certainly very comprehensive

But this is Nige - bigger is always better

@Hybrid_From_Hell - Nige just pop up to Manbat in Guildford (on the left as you go in, opposite Kwik Fit in the little industrial estate between the train station and Ladymead) - they've got plenty of batteries for you to choose from there and I popped in to get a battery and cut me a deal just for being polite . In all seriousness at least the guy I spoke to was knowledgeable and can help you out. For reference you can relatively easily squeeze two 019 batteries into at least a 300Tdi battery compartment side by side if you put a highly calibrated spacer (piece of wood) in the dip. I think the 019 size comes in from at least 830CCA - I think the Yuasa I have in the 110 is at least 900CCA so you can get 1800CCA there - hope your wiring is up to snuff! Pretty sure I found some 1000CCA as well. If you think you've got problems there was a pilot boat that my company installed a data-logger onto. Half the boat was two Marine Diesel CAT engines, quarter of the boat was batteries to start them and the other quarter was fuel tank. Starter motor contact was 2 inch solid gold...

I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest why not just picking up a Clarke machine? They're actually quite nice machines for the price - I picked up my 130EN (gas and gasless) for £100 including helmet and gloves and to be honest I've built some stupid heavy stuff with it. This was the most recent - the vast majority of that was done late at night on 0.6mm wire with the wire speed wound up because my 0.8mm wire had hidden itself away and I was on a time crunch with a 260kg sheet of steel supposed to have been delivered the following morning. Quick hitch brackets were gouged out of 20mm steel. Admittedly I did finish it off by teaching myself to stick weld because I ran out of gas... I've been doing more and more heavy gauge stuff (perhaps even thicker than Nige style fabrication ) and been wondering about getting a more powerful unit. If he gets on with the MIG then you can save your pennies for a more expensive / better TIG where I think you'll notice much more return for your money on the quality of the unit.

Wingdings

Correct, at least on the L322