Ed Poore

As an aside since you mentioned the Disco arm conversion. I got fed up of replacing these ball joints and drop arms, it was pretty much a guarantee that I'd have to replace it annually for the MOT so bit the bullet and got one of Gwyn's conversion kits and have not regretted one bit. Haven't had an ounce of bother from the steering setup since I fitted it and despite completely overhauling the steering joints etc., on a couple of occasions using the swan neck style the steering never felt anywhere near as tight as it does with the Disco arm. Had I been aware of the difference the Disco setup caused to the lack of play in the steering I'd have swapped it a long time before - it was an utter transformation. But as you say it's not a trivial swap cost wise, having said that a non Britpart ball joint repair kit isn't peanuts. I did a couple of swaps using the usual culprits at a few quid for the ball joints, got fed up with those. Eventually I stumped up and bought a genuine kit which I think was the thick part of £50, the wonderful irony was that I then needed to replace one of the track-rod end joints I think and those were seized solid and decided sod it and bought Gwyn's kit instead. After 4 years I've finally opened up the genuine ball joint kit because the 6x6's ball circlip kept popping out, luckily not been going far and it's fallen out either at my place or my parents down across a few valleys so always found the bits. Last time I managed to misplace the plate on the bottom so opened up the kit to purloin it from there and also reused the circlip, really made sure it's home this time. I think the previous occasions I hadn't fully seated it so with the solid suspension on that thing it eventually shook out. I've given it the last chance - if this pops out again I'm cutting it off and speaking to Gwyn about a Disco conversion. Need to do some measuring to see if the tie-rod is the same length.

The ones I liked were, I think, a big mine in Russia. All electric dump trucks and they had to haul downhill from the mine. They'd generate so much electricity fully loaded coming down it cost them nothing to go back up when empty.

Worth pointing out modern tractors are being asked to pull larger and larger implements to be more efficient. Was watching some videos of a farm in Canada recently where the tractor was being weighted up to close to 40t just so it had enough traction to pull the massive air drill. Mind you they were seeding fields that were multiples of 1000s of acres. Think they had about 5 of these tractors on the go simultaneously. The hilarious bit was they had some flooded spots they revisited at the end because the water had receded. One of them they gained another 100 acres because the water level had gone down. Different sense of scale out there. One moment on the road where a car goes past the pilot vehicle and doesn't pull over very quickly. Doesn't realise that the tractor physically can't stop off this little hill because it was fully loaded with seed at the time. Could slow down but not actually stop because despite having wet brakes they would have overheated.

Incidentally the situation you described is a (very) useful by product of why almost all tractors have independent brakes. The main reason is steering... Shove a heavy load on the back or lower a plough in the ground and suddenly your front wheels are no longer on the ground (or with enough weight on them to be useful) so they're how you steer in those situations. Also used for turning on steep slopes or crossing side slopes without having to dangerously shift weight by turning the front wheels.

Eh? The link above for Gwyn's is £78 Inc VAT?! £86 Including the bolts if you want them.

Just had a look and I paid £44.42 for a ball joint complete with bracket from Paddocks in 2017 which was when I overhauled the rear axle on my 110 due to fitting an Ashlocker. That's the non-greasable one although I think that it was a pucker manufacturer (probably Lemforder) when I opened the box. I've not touched it since apart from re-tightening the nut mid-way through it's shakedown off-road in France, not quite @miketomcat / @FridgeFreezer levels of test driving though. I'm fairly sure the one I took off was original - so that was 1994 to 2017... I do seem to be going through suspension components much quicker now it does more regular off-roading that the previous owners did, I mean actually my drive gives most vehicles a decent workout if they cut the corner like they all seem to. There was a very satisfying moment when Mum's friend had to take two attempts in a BMW X3.

I remember as a kid noticing the rear tyre on the tractor was a little low so put some air in it, took it up to about 5psi. Then got told off by Dad because he normally ran them at 2psi

To be honest I think I'd rather have that run over my foot than a lorry of equivalent weight... It's actually pretty impressive how little pressure (for their size and weight) excavators exert on the ground. The bottom bank of what will hopefully become a pond was built using the 13 tonner I pictured before and Ben did a lovely job of smoothing it off. Drove the 6x6 and the Defender across it and both left an impression in the surface because the 13t machine didn't exert the same pressure as the 2t Defender.

Nor did it leave with 3 axles but we'll gloss over that point

@L19MUD - as people have correctly surmised there is a correct way to place the crimps in the terminal. The two tabs need to be facing the female (bum shaped part of the crimp) as this will curl them over. I've had plenty of success with a non-ratcheting version, often find it easier since you can feel what it's doing better. One tip I can offer is to nip up the tabs with a pair of long nose pliers so that they are parallel before they go into the crimp. I find it makes it much easier to start the tabs curling over. If the crimp starts to twist in the tool then game over and cut your losses and start again.

I think it's all a moot point until the same person drives both vehicles back to back. As someone who has had experience blowing up tyres off road on a modern Land Rover I nominate myself for test driver . I can also offer a valid comparison between leaf sprung, coiled and new Defenders. Got a perfectly stock leaf sprung Landy (oh except the extra axle but that's irrelevant) and a stock Defender (oh except the twin lockers, also irrelevant).

Well if we're including machines that are sadly not ours then this was the little digger my mate showed up with to dig out the garage. And the smallest bucket he brought for it. I was surprised at how tiring it was driving a dumper truck for him. Had to jump off after parking up because he couldn't see me / most of the 6t dumper behind the bucket, which he'd fill in two or three scoops by which point I'd have to jump back on and go and tip it.

Yeah it's a shame there's no real competitor to the 2CX apart from a 3CX compact which is much newer (read expensive). Can't really justify two machines when I've got plenty of other stuff to spend money on so best compromise. Loader is actually more useful in general for me but backhoe also essential. I was extremely lucky that a mate down the road (with machines from 0.5t to 30t) knew someone who had one. Asked if he'd consider selling it, didn't initially but then his son convinced him to. Knew of another one locally but needed a new front hub and some electrical tweaking (dodgy connection when I went to view it meant it wouldn't select forwards or reverse). One I've ended up with is much tidier and a street master so dogs danglies in terms of options (extradig, more powerful engine and aux circuitry).

With difficulty... I've found the only satisfactory way is almost to build a jig / clamp or a large piece of box section you can clamp off to one side and exert pressure. That's not particularly great either because as it goes through the final cut it tends to catch the edge and flick it / knock it out of alignment. I've drilled and tapped a number of holes in my base (rather randomly) because I cut up a few thousand aluminium parts so made a jig that sat on a plate which then got bolted to the bed.

I can placate you. I sold the Kubota - wasn't heavy enough for the work I was trying to use it for so had a slight accident and upgraded it . Did have a look at some 3CX sized machines but a friend had a friend with a 2CX which was a slightly more sensible size long-term. Also being 4 wheel steer it turns on a dime compared to the other vehicles in the fleet. Ironically it's now the newest vehicle I own , Defender is an M-reg, 6x6 is an old fashioned Y plate and the P38 is no more... First job was trying (and failing) to pull out a stump, so it had to be dug out. Dogs tried to help out but 5t JCB was a little faster. And helping clear out of the floor for the slab in the machine shop.

Rear tank or not? Or willing to move the fuel tank to locate the panhard rod? Anything's possible - just how much work are you willing to go to?

Sorry, already offered them £101 expecting someone to come in at £100 . The full extent of the story I know behind it isn't much, it blew a head gasket 20 odd years ago and was parked up in the barn and never got around to being fixed... What with the multitude of other vehicle he had. There's also a 6-cylinder 109 county with safari roof in the barn too. Don't think it's the original 6 cylinder but think it did leave the factory as one.

It's probably not worth paying for it but if you can have a trip somewhere don't underestimate the value of large lumps of steel for whacking stuff against. I picked up a couple of I beams and a load of box section off cuts (said offcuts were 4ft long and 150x6mm box). The I beams I find very handy as straight edges for plasma cutting. They're heavy enough you don't need to clamp them. The big plates are useful as stackers for the press etc.

Sorry should have been clearer there's virtually no rust on it at all from my quick glance over. Neil kept the vehicles in a pretty good mechanical state. Because it was a pretty much original '72 3 door (he was trying to source a period correct engine for it at the time, might have actually got one somewhere in the barn) when a chassis and bodyshell came up for sale he bought it just in case it ever got to the point of needing replacement. Case in point when I looked over the 6x6 although the chassis looks rusty it's actually only surface rust - no holes that I've found anywhere. The only reason I haven't stripped it back and galvanised it yet is that there's likely an engine swap and a few modifications happening in the near future so will wait until those happen before stripping down and getting it galvanised. I'm lucky there's a place just down the road from me that I can drop off the chassis on a Tuesday morning before 9am and it's back on Thursday at cost (and fairly cheap because they get a bulk discount I think).

I have no idea, asked my friend and he said make an offer 🤷‍♂️. Unfortunately not the most convenient for you to have a look being near Swindon. Slightly complicated situation because the owner died suddenly without a will so his mother inherited most of the stuff automatically I think. The mutual friend we had / I have has a tendency to underestimate everything. E.g. the 6x6 he said needed a few things sorted before the MOT and we know how that went. It wasn't a huge amount, in terms of there was no welding etc, but there was a lot of time chasing dodgy connections, cleaning fuel system etc. I think I paid a reasonable price given the rarity of the vehicle but it was probably closer to the upper end of it given it didn't have an MOT. Having a few days after I picked it up on a trailer I had someone offer me 2.5x what I paid for it.

Apologies about the carp photo - the bits stored on the roof rack are now in my barn (new roof for the Sandringham 6x6). I can't remember the exact details but I have a vague recollection that it was an official support vehicle for some rally hence the lighting setup and some of the livery.

I do know of a 1972 3 door that is for all intents and purposes rust free and been parked up in a dry barn for the last 20 years with a blown head gasket. Not sure if it's the original engine (recall it might have an SD1 one in there) but I think there was a period correct 3.5 sat in the barn as well. I think it's been valued for probate at a not unreasonable but hefty price tag. There's also another 3 door body shell and chassis because the owner (now deceased) was paranoid about rust on it. But there's also a soft-dash classic (diesel rather than petrol I think) that got rear ended. Was part way through a conversion to pick-up / tray-back but I suggested that they sell the (new) 110 Hi-Cap tub separately and then sell the soft-dash with the spare chassis and body-shell.

Most useful I've had is 20x20 box. Other stuff I've had is massively oversized because I used to go raiding Pyramid Steel in Aldershot when I lived in Surrey. Good source of inch plus thick plate.

That's one way to try it.

Not quite (if I've followed your procedure correctly). Your BECM and "old" clocks are in sync, correct? If you do what you propose, removing the high mileage chip will reset the BECM to zero. But when you put the high mileage chip back in it's contents have not been modified (an EEPROM persists its memory during power loss) so the BECM will pull the high mileage data from the instrument chip. For what you are trying to achieve you need to reset the EEPROM on the high mileage instrument cluster. The good news, according to that website is that the only thing that chip stores is the mileage. I was going to see if we have a programmer in the office that can read this or if not I can make up something easily enough. I can then read the contents of my "sacrificial" lamb and see if I can see the mileage on it. If so then I can simply clear the EEPROM and send it to you. Provided it has a lower mileage than your BECM then when you plug it in the mileage should be updated to the BECM one because it is higher. Make sense?