Turbocharger

Just hotwire it, feed all the ignition wires to the horn and put a switch somewhere else for starting it. You can change the door locks easily enough and if someone uses a screwdriver to start it you might notice. Of course, if they've got the bonnet up then they'll probably just take it anyway.

As you add weight it will get lower. The tyre should be roughly 10x as stiff as the springs, ie if you add 100kg, the suspension might move 10mm and the hub centre would drop 1mm. It sounds slightly over-sprung but quite under-damped, more on bump than rebound. Some things to try: 1) measure the spring stiffness - add a known weight as above and measure the ride height and hub height. 2) somehow, "drop" the trailer and see what frequency it bounces at - how many cycles in five seconds, before the bounce dies away? That'll help point you at likely causes. 3) run it with the ram extended - sorry about the corrosion but it might make the problem go away? 4) After 1) and 2), you could either run lower-profile tyres, add damping or change the spring units.

Do you have any damping on the trailer suspension? You might find that the mass is perfectly resonant at certain speeds. Otherwise, you could try running it with the splitter head at the furthest position from the towball, and see if it makes a difference with more weight over the wheels.

I was out in the Peaks on the day before, further west than you were. I chose to avoid Chapel Gate etc on the grounds that it was SO wet it wasn't responsible to dig any more mud. Some of the rocky options presented great views and driving for us though. The ford at Allgreave was somewhat deeper than I remember too! I thought Roych was TRO'd at present, and I certainly thought it had a voluntary restraint from east to west?

At least she was grateful - I've stopped to help people in snow, they've treated me like it was my fault they got stuck, and then when I (and others) help and push the car out from where it's stuck, it grabs some traction and they just disappear into the distance...

OK, making progress now. Problem 1: fuel leaking back I've changed the injector spill rail and the pipe that runs from the filter head to the injector pump I've cracked the bleed screw on top of the filter while the engine's running, there's a healthy spurt of diesel so the lift pump's working well. But it's still cranking for a while before it fires, and misfires for a few moments from cold. Next point of call is the glowplugs, though it still feels like diesel isn't present at the injectors initially. Problem 2: poor cranking Starter was changed two weeks ago and is known good from a mate's car. Battery was replaced under warranty since it was at 80% of 'new' CCA Earth leads have been cleaned and another earth run directly from battery to starter body Pos lead has been cleaned at the battery end Result: cranking is now acceptable (though it's excessively long because of problem 1). This morning showed 10.5v across the new battery (right) and >9.5v across the starter (left) while cranking, drop is 0.3v on the negative side (bottom) and so maths says there's 0.5v on the pos side, which seems reasonably low for 350A. Of course, now I don't know whether it was the battery or one of the leads - I should have looked at all the voltage drops earlier in the week when it was behaving strangely so I could see where volts were going missing, but hopefully the electrical problem is now resolved.

Problem 2 - weird starting behaviour: But I've changed the starter two months ago and the symptoms are the same?? On review, at work we spec commercial batteries to 90% of their CCA as a failure limit (for commercial 24v systems) and 80% for vans (12v systems). Mine's at 80% so I'm going to hump it back and try to replace it. Though I won't know if the stronger battery is just masking a voltage drop somewhere else... Problem 1 - long cranking time before firing: It's never needed glowplugs before in the ten years that I've had the engine, so something's changed? The lift pump is working well, plenty of fuel from the filter when I slacken the top banjo. I've changed the injector spill rail, the pipe from the filter to the injector pump and now I'm running out of ideas but it's still cranking significantly before it starts. For both problems, I don't like throwing parts at the problem until something fixes it but for an intermittent issue like this I'm struggling to see other options...

OK, battery was checked by the vendor. It's showing 560CCA against its new spec at 700CCA = 80%. Acceptable? He doesn't want to swap it, though it's still in warranty. I managed to capture the weird behaviour on video this morning. It cranked slowly without firing, so I gave it 5 mins to recover and then shot the attached video, showing the voltage at the battery: - 12.8v at rest - 7 to 8v for 2 sec while cranking slowly, it's really lugging. - Then the voltage drops low enough to bounce the solenoid momentarily - Then 8.5-9v and a nice fast crank, which then starts the engine. (The misfiring and poor cold performance is due to the fuel problem, which I'm still changing pipes to try to cure). Is it a high resistance somewhere drawing more current and the battery can't cope, or is the battery struggling to maintain voltage but is better after a moment's recovery? Remember that it's done this with two starter motors so it's not a dirty solenoid.

Update: Problem 1: some of the injector spill banjos took a little more torque but I don't think they were leaking. It cranked a little less this morning but I'll swap the rail anyway, for the cost of the thing. If this was letting air in (or if the lift pump was letting fuel drop back to the tank), how would the filter still be full when I swapped it? Problem 2: after lots of time with jump leads, volt meters and measuring voltages while it was cranking, the starter is seeing 0.5v less than the battery voltage during cranking, but the battery voltage drops to 9v within five seconds of starting to crank. The battery is 14 months old, but came with a 3-year guarantee and I've still got the receipt I also found the negative clamp was loose because the clamp bolt thread had stripped. With the post and clamp cleaned and the bolt replaced, it still cranks slowly or quickly, at random though. I found yesterday it'll crank slowly, drag the battery voltage down until the starter solenoid would 'bounce' a few times (clickclickclick), and then it'd find better voltage and crank quite happily. I'll swap the battery and the fuel rail, then cross my fingers for a reliable car at Christmas - and take the jump leads!

Thanks guys - some really good pointers here. Hmm. I've a memory that I replaced the leak-off pipe "recently", though for me that's probably five years ago. Problem 1: For completeness I'll do the leakoff pipe and the lift pump at the weekend and see if it makes things better or worse. It's never had the glowplugs wired up, so at least I know they've not stopped working... maybe now it's got 100k miles on the engine it's starting to need them. Problem 2: I've added an earth strap from the battery to the starter, that didn't work and that's when I replaced the starter (assuming it had a dirty connection). I'll clip up my multimeter and see where my voltage is going missing at the weekend too. I suspect if it didn't need to crank for 60 seconds first, the second problem would go away by default... Scott - you should hear me doing my "Never mind the Buzzcocks" intros - chicka wow wow.

Problem 1: Engine turns over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over before it finally fires, no smoke while it's cranking. When it finally kicks it misfires for a few seconds. It feels as if it has to pull up fuel before it reaches the injectors. If I restart it immediately, it's fine. If I restart it after 8 hours in the work car park, it's ok. If I leave it at home for 24hrs and then try, it cranks and cranks and cranks before it'll eventually fire. I changed the fuel filter (which was full) hoping there was an air leak there, no joy. The problem has been around all summer, and it coped ok in the warm, however... Where could air be getting in? Problem 2: now it's cold, it's testing the battery harder with all this cranking, and sometimes failing to start. However, it'll crank and go wuh-wuh-wuh-wuuuh-wuuuuh-wuuuuh. Given a minute to recover it'll go wuh-wuh-wuh-wuuuh-wuuuuh-waclickclick But then if I turn the key again I'll get a happy sound wawawawawawawawawawawawawa If it doesn't start then, the next effort returns to wuh-wuh-wuh-wuuuh-wuuuuh-waclickclick How do you get an intermittent starter fault? Dirty solenoid contacts I guess, but I've changed the starter and battery (same fault with both, though it's worse when it's cold). I've not run round it with a volt meter or amp-clamp yet, but what should I be looking for? Vehicle is a 300Tdi, mechanical fuel pump, autobox (if it matters).

We had a good day out yesterday. The site is a steep slope on clay, with natural springs flowing from the top corner. As such, it was *very* slippery! Scott and I were on MTs and two of my friends were on more road-biased tyres. The tone for the day was set when we stopped before the sign-on van and couldn't get going again in the car park, but we found plenty to play with in between the major bomb holes. I'm pleased to say the site was well run and well marshalled - it's not huge, and at lunchtime there were probably 40 vehicles moving round which felt crowded, but there was usually a quiet spot to go and play in. The only problem was getting to it!

The bigger-power small capacity engines are all slathered in electronics - not a concern per-se, but certainly not an easy conversion like a mechanical pump would be. Driving style: most of the 26mpg stuff round the Pyrenees was at 50-60mph. On constant speed runs of 150miles before I went, it gave 32mpg at 55mph and 22mpg at 75mph. I don't think it's too bad at the moment, but as Soren says, you always want better. Gearing: it's a ZF 4spd gearbox, torque converter locks up at 50mph and it's pushing a 1.2 ratio box, which suits the VGT quite well. Biofuels: no thanks, I've played with these professionally and SVO, homebrew biodiesel etc isn't good. I know there are people who swear by it, but I've written and presented papers which say there's no commercial case for it after damage to the fuel system is included. Given the choice I wouldn't burn any biodiesel at all, even the 7% that we have to have in pump fuel today. Cummins B-series injector after 4 months on WVO-derived B100 (click to enlarge): I'll do a health-check on the Tdi and make sure it's behaving as it should do - though I'd advise anyone getting 40+mpg from a Tdi to look at their odometer calibration first!

My Ninety burns a lot of fuel, so I'm not using it as much as I should. The Tdi is around 150,000 miles old and giving 26mpg. On 5k miles per year, that's £1200 - so there's not a lot available to spend to make it more efficient - this is for engineering interest and because filling the tank irks me. Looking at smaller engines, it's clear that the Tdi is a torquey beast but more modern designs are catching up. It's possible to use a reasonably simple smaller unit and still give acceptable performance - it'll never be a racing car. I'm idly wondering if a 1.9VAG or 1.9 PSA engine would give my soft-top Defender reasonable performance and 30+ mpg, even through the autobox. I've attached a table of comparisons. Thoughts? Has it been done before? Clearly it'd need adaptors making up, mounts moving etc, but there's plenty of space in a Defender bay and it'll be lighter as well.

Since it's my birthday (ish) I'm planning to head to Foxham on 21st October. I've never been before, but £25 for a day's entertainment can't be bad. Has anyone been before? Is it a big site, wet, trees, sand etc? Is it safe to take a car I'd like to bring home again, or is it infested with mouth-breathers at wide open throttle? Would anyone like to join me? I believe some of the Swindon crowd are also interested. Cheers, John

Fantastic writeup, thanks. Its hard to comprehend the size and space from the UK - 70km of dirt road seems like nothing to you guys, but we'd pass three or four major towns in any part of England in that distance, and certainly a city if you chose your direction.

Baah! Stupid local fireworks display to organise, otherwise I'd be with you despite the cost of fuel.

As Neil says, VWP, it's fit and forget. Though my black cover panel didn't fit afterwards, but it was just ballast anyway. Make sure you label each circuit before you reinstall it though, it's awkward to write down there afterwards

Jason - there isn't an advert in the world that could top that - a positive story from a satisfied customer, including how they fixed it when it didn't go 100% to plan. My holiday's going to be more relaxing now

Jason - I know you're having problems, and I'm about to head to the same area, but from your recommendation I've just called and paid up my membership. Easy process too: <00 49 1805 10 11 12> "Sprechen-sie Englisch?" and then the Mastercard routine, covered from tomorrow. Brilliant.

I've finished the moving parcelshelf cover thing tonight. It has a parallel movement so it can cover the whole area but still lift vertical to allow access, it locks to the tailgate to make the whole vehicle more secure, and now it's well-lit for camping trips (and ready for winter!). I bought some adhesive strips with 3528 LEDs (not the brighter 5050 LEDs, but it doesn't seem to be struggling for light), and I've put 2x 50cm under the shelf, and a metre on the rearmost hoop that holds the tilt, to complement the 50cm of "ice white" 3528s that I've had on the ceiling just behind the seats for years. Overall, i'm quite pleased with the whole thing, it doesn't even rattle!

In fact, since your sharp projection wouldn't be "by corrosion or damage" then that's arguable as a failure too - though I think there might be representations made if you'd deliberately bolted a bowsaw to the front of your car, for example!

The only time you'll see an issue is at a roadside inspection or at MOT. Since the MOT standards are higher, I've highlighted a couple with the potential to cause you an issue. Obviously you'll need to notify your insurer of the modification too... Unless it meets the MOT reason for refusal: "A sharp edge or projection, caused by corrosion or damage, which renders the vehicle dangerous to other road users including pedestrians" then it should be ok. There's scope for a failure under "Towbar assembly is attached to the vehicle structure using a mounting, support or fixing which is obviously of an inappropriate size or type." but you could either argue the adequacy of your mounting (if it's under question) or label it 'not a towing point' (despite what you might use it for). Or just remove it for the MOT.

The LogRover is possibly one of the most dangerous things I've ever seen - I love it. Failure mode: "Well, the string tangled in the propshaft so I went to grab it, but I tipped the workbench over. What happened next is a bit of a blur, but I think the prop UJ went to 90 degrees and bound up, so it flung the workbench round three quarters of a turn, and then jammed against the floor and the side of the Rover, which hopped off the axle stand and started driving around the woodyard. Luckily I was catapulted clear of the developing wreckage."

I used their 'contact us' form but it took a week to come back to me. If you're not fussed about having it in writing I'd suggest ringing them?