BogMonster

Steve, It's not a myth as such - Land Rover themselves don't approve fitting of anything on the front that hasn't been crash tested with airbags, it certainly applies to bull bars so I expect it does to bumpers too. Doesn't mean the airbags won't work - just means that they aren't certified to so I imagine insurance companies might take a dim view - but if they are OK with it then fine. It is all to do with the rate of crumple versus the deceleration characteristics that trip the sensors, I think. I've seen some pretty massive accidents where the bags have not tripped so I think they must genuinely only detonate in a hard frontal impact, I've seen a couple of vehicles that have rolled several times after coming off a road at speed and the bags haven't gone off! A Discovery of that age will use one of the two systems: - Multi point sensing which is two impact sensors at the front and inertia sensor in the ECU - this is what my 1996MY Disco had so probably most likely - on these you need to trip one of the front sensors and the ECU sensor simultaneously, IIRC, to get a face full of bag - Single point sensing which is in later Discovery 1s, just the airbag ECU sensor Don't know about later vehicles, I just read up on it when I got my last Disco as I was worried about setting them off when off road. The reason they need replacing every ten years is that is the life of the airbag propellant (sodium hydrazine?? something like that) after 10yrs you cannot guarantee it will detonate on command because the juice goes stale, the only way to test it is to detonate it, and then of course the airbag is F'ed anyway and needs replacement! I don't know what view UK insurance companies and MOTs are taking on this now that it must be a serious issue with older vehicles coming to that age - but I guess most people aren't going to fork out the stupid amount of money required to change 2 of them, less so when it becomes 5 or 8 or 12 bags in a few years time..... I did hear somewhere a while back that LR had backed off a bit on the 10 year rule because it might come back and bite them with the vehicles being worthless if the rule was enforced, but I'm afraid I don't know the current score. You can convert the vehicle to non airbag in a D1 because the correct bits are available, but of course most later vehicles like the D2, D3, etc only have airbag steering wheels and to fit an aftermarket wheel and dump the bag may mean type approval is invalidated which might give insurance/MOT problems? don't know but I bet the insurers would find it a convenient excuse to wriggle out of something!

I'd love to have a go but it's a bit far.... Be interesting to see some figures though What would the test be, pull to a stall, pull till something breaks, pull till ??? I guess you can't really rig a "rolling load" to see how far a winch can pull the load which would also be interesting

As I understand it you should only really fit a bumper that has been crashed tested with airbags. Which is probably none of them so I guess most will ignore that. MOT don't know but I bet if there's a warning light it'll fail. You can't "test" an airbag without detonating it hence the requirement to replace them every 10 years. Write off - probably, airbags are £1000 odd a side on older vehicles. A bit like ECUs on older vehicles, if they require replacing it could effectively make the vehicle uneconomic to repair.

I did, and an excellent weekend it was too But I did happen to be passing Wales (relatively speaking) - I was in Sussex

Not had any problems with mine, all as originally supplied except for the remote controller which is the only truly cr&p bit of the MM system - and actually I don't think I have used the (new Husky) wired remote in anger since I discovered the joys of wireless so I probably needn't have bothered replacing that In contrast to certain types of winch I could think of which have had a few different motors in some people's vehicles in the time I have been on this forum............................................. Though I imagine this will get edited like other recent posts on the subject

What happened to the "I'm outside the hemisphere - in your F dreams" poll choice

It'll be something like 20 to 25% increase in gearing from the tyres so I think LR90 is right

No idea - mine clonk, one direction makes a little more noise than the other but you can hear it with the engine off. I seem to remember the (new) valve wasn't fully assembled when it arrived but I can't remember what bits it came in however I vaguely seem to remember that there were 2 electric solenoidy bits which were separate to the hydraulic bit and needed to be bolted on somehow? in which case probably not, the messy bit is probably inside the valve block so I think you can take the solenoid coils off somehow but of course when I put it together it was all empty and it was a while ago now

Colour coded boat eh? - very flash Andy

Yes they are, from RAF Brize Norton via Ascension Island to here. Camel Trophy RIB mmmmmmm very nice now that would fit the bill nicely wonder if it's left hand drive being in Spain? Also got half an eye on a fibreglass speedboat up for sale here, allegedly good for about 60kt on a good day, has a 140 on the back, but the seller (who may well be reading this... he's a lurker on this forum from time to time) is going to have to knock the price down a bit first I'd prefer a RIB though for the full wind in the hair picking seagulls out of your teeth experience anyway I am going to go for a spin in it when he gets his butt into gear and puts it back in the water (it was in the other weekend but rather embarrassingly for him broke down and would only do about 3 kt! turned out to be muck in the carbs apparently)

Thanks John Another question: wot sorta mota? forgot to ask that originally, doh! I've seen Johnsons, Mariners and I think the odd Honda or Yamaha, is there much to choose between them? I think the fisheries guys here use Seariders with lots of horses on the back, but they are operating out in the middle of the S Atlantic which is a bit choppy at times... So far I've drawn a blank trying to get a used one out of BAS, the military have not long replaced theirs so I doubt there will be anything out there sadly Your trailer sounds ideal, I've seen some struggles with launching and recovery in the past but really I want something I can deal with myself without needing to find somebody else. Have you got a photo of that? sounds interesting and the sort of thing I need.

Thanks for the offer Dave, much appreciated, I'll see what turns up here in the way of boats but that sounds like a very good idea regardless of what I end up buying

Changed it a couple of weeks back. Thanks for the replies so far. I'm not spending a huge amount of money because it's just something to mess about with on a nice weekend, I don't think I am likely to do much more than that because outside the outer harbour you're into a whole different ball game in the South Atlantic swell.... our company runs 2 high speed launches (one is I think based on a lifeboat hull) and there's a fair few days in the year when they don't go too far there are days when you could go well outside but they are few and far between and there's an awful lot of wind/rocks/currents out there too, definitely not something I'd try for a while. Oh and I forgot to mention as well, if you do go out along the south coast and have a problem, many of the beaches are minefields for the first 5 miles or so... so you don't really wanna be landing there So I think inboard diesel and four stroke, while nice, are probably out of the price range. Running costs are a bit like having a V8 in a play vehicle - not gonna be using it enough to be a major concern, probably only a few hours a month even in summer and not at all in winter (wind chill is a bit of an issue!) If I order one ex UK I won't be able to try it in anything, there are a few around here but they mostly seem to change hands for a lot of money and I'm not sure about condition either. Centre seating is what I was looking at, and oil injection was also pretty much part of the spec but I must admit I thought it was pretty standard these days? I have no experience at all but I do know several people round here that have quite a bit going back a number of years - just after some extra opinions and thoughts from people outside the immediate environment As for training - unless I can pick up something locally (unlikely) it'll be the beginning of next summer before I get it (no point in having it sitting round through the winter) and if I go away on holiday this winter I'll probably try and find somewhere doing that sort of training in the UK, don't think anybody does that sort of thing here (though there is plenty of expertise around)

IIRC it is a glass with some sort of fitting on the back but I seem to recall that you also need something extra to clip the glass onto the motor mechanism. It was a long time ago that I broke mine!

Jim, do you mean a Rigid Raider? I could have got one of those in a sale from MPA a few years ago but didn't have the money at the time and they were in a bit of a state anyway, needed a lot of work doing all the controls and stuff were wrecked. A chap I know here has one, a beast of a thing he's only got one motor on it though, I think the "real thing" has 2 x 140s on it, even his one will zip along at a pretty respectable speed though from what I have seen it takes a while to get up to top speed, but having seen it on the move I think it is a lot more stable than a RIB because of the extra weight. I'd have it like a shot but I don't think it is for sale... nice bit of kit though, virtually unsinkable and there is definitely something quite B) in driving something that the Marines use B)

You can certainly get just the mirror glass because I changed one on my old (1996) Discovery, it's easy to change. I don't have the p/no handy but no doubt somebody who does will come along shortly

My finances are looking almost healthy at the moment and rather than waste any more money on vehicles I am thinking about tackling a long standing item on the wish list and getting a rigid inflatable So - I am sure there are boaty people on here but I can't remember who (haven't seen boat_buoy for a while) Any tips, what to get, what to avoid? I'm looking at something for fun on fine days, gotta do something up around 35-40 knots for fun factor, much more than that is a bit wasted as it is rarely likely to be calm enough to use it. Probably about 5 metres or so, big enough to not sink at the first sight of a wave but not too big to move around and store, and probably somewhere between 65 and 90hp. Don't need to carry lots of people but up to 4 maximum would probably be ideal, I'd certainly want the ability to carry at least one passenger even if I'd not use it that often. So, some obvious questions might include: 1) What make? I've seen Avon and Humber ones round here, I guess they are OK, any others to look for? any to avoid? 2) Two smaller engines 35-40hp or one big one 65-70hp and a little auxiliary one for when it breaks? (which the 2 stroke ones I have seen seem to do quite a lot...) Four stroke would be nice but I think they are way outside a sensible price? 3) Looking at the Humber site, they do shallow-V hulls or deep-V hulls, which is best and why? From what I have read the deep hull ones are supposed to be better on rough water as they cut through waves rather than bouncing off but presumably the shallow ones require less water and therefore are easier to get on and off a trailer? The British Antarctic Survey apparently use the shallow V Humber ones which can't be a bad recommendation ... ? 4) Are they normally "naturally buoyant" i.e. if you rip open one side or put a hole in it will it float rather than sink? I guess so, but for safety it seems like a good thing to have - it's 'kin cold in the sea here and if the worst happens, it could be a while before you got fished out depending on where you were. 5) What sort of age do they start to become a liability in terms of the tubes perishing? We have very strong UV here and there's no point in buying something that's half knackered already ... but I don't really think I want to go for a new one, a bit too expensive really. Any info gratefully received! Ta Stephen

I was going to use an old propane cylinder for extra reservoir capacity for my little garage compressor, but when I looked into the specs those are only certified to 12 bar or something when they are new, not much at all, I thought it would be much higher than that so I abandoned the idea! You might find yours isn't as high pressure as you think - I reckon a dive tank where you know what you are dealing with, would be a safer bet.

Yeah but he never thought of what to use to lever against - use the Moon and it will move first, and anyway you'd need something to put your feet against as well and if you used the sun you'd set fire to your shoes. Plus there is the inertia of what would be quite a long lever, and even if you could stick the moon to the milky way with superglue or something to stop it moving, over a distance of 93 million miles (assuming you could find some fireproof wellies) you'd probably find the lever had more than 6 feet of bendiness in it so you wouldn't in fact move anything, and it would come up and whack you under the chin instead, a bit like a sort of giant cosmic Hi-Lift jack. Old Archie was not a very bright chap when you consider the practicalities of this particular task

A type 072 battery if you are just looking for a generic type, this will have the correct terminal pattern. Later vehicles use fancy calcium ones and you could use those, they are very good but not cheap! I think the 072 equivalent is part number YGD100860 but check that with a dealer before buying it, not 100% sure.

Really? I suppose they could do, if they are lighter than air ones they must presumably be thinner PMSL @ rtbarton - the old ones are the best ones....

Erm no the latest news thing works ok I do get the cloverleaf thing on some sites though, as you suggest I spent 2 hours trying to download it the other day with no success and gave up in disgust Anyway Mo has offered to send it to me on a CD if reqd, thanks Mo

Don't think it is prefs because this is FF displaying a message saying it needs to download a plugin, which is the problem because I've wasted hours and quite a few £ on the phone bill and the stupid thing doesn't download "automatically" and the manual multi language install everything download is too big. Not sure about movies, not worth trying those really as you can't even think about playing them live and downloading for offline is 'kin expensive!

I've recently started using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer and it is much quicker for forum access - but it doesn't support Java which leaves me with a lot of pages with the "Download plugin to display this" message I presume the fact it isn't included is some sort of licensing issue as I've never had to download anything for IE, but a couple of aborted attempts at installing the plugin only added a few hours to my phone bill and got me nowhere. I've just been searching around and you can download the offline Java installation which is probably what I need to do (cos its going on 4 different computers, 1 at each job, 1 at home and my laptop) but it's 15MB which is a non starter on dialup - it'll probably fail half way through and leave me with nothing (big downloads usually seem to). So does anybody else who uses Firefox have any bright ideas on installing this please? It must be on the computer somewhere - IE has support for it - is it possible to copy the plugin thingy (no idea what that is) out of IE and into Firefox...? Ta Stephen

The MOD Defenders here (civilian spec ones not Wolfs) have the NATO towing electrics mounted in the hole in the rear crossmember, mine doesn't have the electrics but this is where I mean sorry about the poor photo, best one I have and it's enlarged a bit as it was mostly a photo of the view!