BogMonster

I haven't seen a gas steering damper, do they really do that? seems like a dumb bit of design to me! I sort of assumed they were pressurised on both sides or something, to even it out. I guess if so it would pull to the left, if the damper was trying to extend.

Cosmetically it's hideous but if you put the sexy oily bits in to a sensible looking Mog to give 280bhp 800lb ft B) 455/70R24 tyres B) B) I'd have that like a shot if I won the lottery!

OK here is a re-post of something I put on the old LRE forum, it was fitted to my old 1995 300Tdi 90, haven't managed to sort anything near as good on the tinfoil crossmember of the new one yet Just out of interest the quoted tensile strength of a NATO hitch is something like 22 tonnes and the tensile strength of 4 M12 8.8 bolts is 21.35. This is the sort of overkill you want when dealing with snatch recovery As for the bad/ugly: worst I have seen is a NATO hitch held on to a winch bumper with four bits of mild steel stud bar.... deeply scary ---Original post--- Note that this post only applies to pre 99MY Defender and 90/110 vehicles, later models (Td5 age onwards) have an entirely different rear crossmember, far weaker in its design, and need a different approach to make suitable for snatch recovery. You must also be absolutely certain that the rear crossmember of your vehicle is 100% sound. To start with you need the following heap of bits: 1 x NATO 4.07 tonne military spec towing pintle (shown here in bits, not all the bolts are shown in the picture) 2 x bits of good quality steel plate approx 190x110mm and at least 8mm thick 4 x M12 high tensile bolts, 8.8 grade or higher, nuts and washers to match 1 x Defender (obviously ) The above size of metal plate is as big as can be fitted in to the inside of the crossmember, which is what you need, as big as possible to spread the load. My bits were pre-drilled to suit a NATO hitch. I used 8mm steel plate and 8.8 grade bolts; to make it even stronger you could use 10.9 or 12.9 grade bolts, and thicker plate (although this is only really worthwhile for the inner bit) - you'll need longer bolts as well of course. It goes without saying that the nuts need to be the same grade as the bolts. Fit the blue plate inside the rear crossmember. Why is it blue you ask? Because I had some Stratos Blue paint left over from my old 90 which I thought I might as well use. Put the bolts through the NATO hitch, then through the outer plate (the black one in my photos) then through the crossmember, then through the inner (blue) plate, then some washers and finally nuts. I used Nyloc nuts but you can also use doubled up ordinary nuts locked together. Do everything up just tight at first to get it all seated in place, then wind the nuts up about as tight as you can get them with an ordinary combination spanner. You won't distort that bit of 8mm plate, and you really don't want them to come loose! After this is all done, it is best to give the whole lot a good coat of paint. This will prevent moisture getting in - there was a lot of surface rust on my crossmember under the NATO hitch when I took it off, although nothing serious. I used some matt black brush on paint, which gives a finish I like for the crossmember and hitch. The finished product from the inside: and from the outside: The function of the outer plate, for anybody who might be wondering "what is the point", is to spread any sideways forces generated on anything other than a straight pull back, and stop the crossmember distorting. Otherwise you can bend the crossmember slightly, then the bolts are loose and that's when large lumps of metal can start flying round rather too quickly to be healthy! Now go and pull something ... but be wary of others because yours is probably now stronger than theirs which means if theirs isn't up to scratch, it'll be you getting the bumper round the back of the head Always use snatch recovery with caution and preferably only if you know what you are doing, and know the other vehicles towing points are as good as this. But if you manage to rip this setup out of the back end, you're either using a chain or trying far too hard! I know from experience that I can take off absolutely flat out in 3rd low difflock on the end of 10-12m of nylon rope and this won't even blink.

Oh dear ... I go off for some supper and we're well into the "Snatch recovery is the spawn of Satan" discussion Yes it is dangerous So is driving off road So is driving on road So is going out the front door in the morning So is drinking a cup of hot coffee All if you don't weigh up the risks and act accordingly I have seen people do a LOT more damage to vehicles trying "snatch recovery with a solid rope" than the other way around... More often than not, driving off road here you can forget about recovering something with a dead rope (you'll end up with 2 stuck vehicles instead of 1) or a winch (the two vehicles will just get closer together...) so a bit of twang is the only solution. Used sensibly and with suitable precautions in making sure bits don't come off the vehicles at each end (I have a dent free vehicle, so was my last one, so I like to think my judgement is reasonable on this) it is safe enough. We have all seen either first hand or in photos, where snatch recovery has gone horribly wrong, and the one thing every case had in common is that somebody cocked something up, whether it was a bad recovery point, a good recovery point held on with the wrong bolts (or even stud bar!), an old rope which should have been thrown out, an idiot standing in the way taking pictures, or whatever. The key, IMHO, is OVERKILL - making sure everything is much, much stronger than it needs to be. The single most important thing after that is to make sure spectators keep the hell out of the way, IMHO, and shout at them if necessary. The second most important thing is to make sure no bits of metal are in a position to fly around. Shackles joining ropes together, shackles onto towing attachments, anything like that, all bad, Tony's example is a classic. It's one reason I use what I do, so if the other guy has only got lashing eyes on the front you can loop it over the bumper and the fire hose will stand that, if I rip the bumper right off then I figure I was trying too hard.... FWIW I don't own a "solid" strap and if I did I'd either use it for winching only, or throw it away - seen too many elongated crossmembers where somebody thought "I'll just give it a bit more and see if it will shift". Also spent many hours in a swamp in the middle of nowhere once (as a passenger) because nobody had a good stretchy rope that would have shifted us in minutes. Oddly enough I passed the very same hole the other week and the non-stretchy tow strap that somebody took there that day (brand new) and broke (three times) is still in the bottom of the hole five years later... Rant over, because my wine glass is empty Edited to say that what I mean by "overkill" can be seen on the other thread. 20 odd tonnes of tensile strength is adequate overkill

Erm without giving away "Bearmach's trade prices" I paid less than £100 for a full set of 4 Monroes and that was delivered to me (7,700 miles further from BM than you are!) and with a % for our company's handling charge on top.... They were actually cheaper than Genuine std ones would have been! I don't know what BM retail them for in the UK but I'd guess about the same so you might get them for £25 or so a corner, a bargain IMHO

I find 4th gear low range and about 3000rpm is quite effective at that

I just use rope - you can buy from any chandlery. 24mm three strand white nylon, proper spliced eyes in each end and protect the eyes with some offcuts of old 2 inch fabric fire hose - tougher than anything you find on the eyes of ready made ropes to buy and you can usually scrounge a bit free from a fire station from where they scrap punctured hoses. My main recovery rope - about 10 metres of the above - has probably done somewhere around 100 recoveries a good proportion of which have been snatch recovery, and a fair number of those were quite serious ones (back right up and take off flat out in 3rd gear low range kind of serious - in the good old days before I bought a new 90 with a crossmember made of tinfoil). I've had mine about four years now and I guess it's about three quarters of the way through its useful life in terms of wear and tear; I already have a new one made up to replace it and I think it cost about £2.50 a metre, allowing an extra metre on each end for the eye and the splice that is £30 for a damn good 10m rope that will last for ages. It doesn't have to be used as stretchy - it won't stretch much on a steady pull if you take up the slack first - but it has plenty of twang if that's what's needed and since 24mm nylon is rated at 12 tons when new there's a good safety margin. As far as "proper" straps go, I know somebody here that has one of the ARB stretchy recovery straps and reckons it is brilliant, but I haven't seen it in action. No idea if you can buy them in the UK or not though, this one came from Oz I think.

Most gas ones offer stronger damping than standard. The adverts also blither on about the gas pressure reducing oil foaming which leads to reduced shock fade in hard driving conditions blah blah blah but with few exceptions its a load of irrelevant advertese unless you are racing or something like that. I put Monroe Adventurers on my 90 recently which were a good price from Bearmach, and the ride and damping is noticeably better I think - there was nothing wrong with the ones I took off except that the damping on the front was too soft, the Monroes are quite a lot stiffer. Now it doesn't bottom or top out unless I do something really stupid or was really not looking where I was going and hit something I should have seen 100 yards away... The other main reason of course is to get a longer shocker for lifted suspension etc but this doesn't apply in your case. For what you are using the vehicle for, I would be inclined to either stick with standard ones, or go for one of the lower cost gas options which will offer a bit of an improvement without breaking the bank. This is the second set of Monroes I have owned and I have been pleased with both of them.

Thanks all, I'll give the suggestions a go. I've already tried GPS Utility but it won't talk to the eTrex, just gets a sulk and says the Garmin driver isn't installed. Which it wouldn't be as it's a GPSW interface cable not a Garmin one but despite shouting at it for some time it didn't agree with me cheers Stephen

Heard this on the radio yesterday ... Google is a wonderful thing There's this bird called Mary, yeah? She's a virgin (wossat then?) She's not married or nuffink, but she's got this boyfriend, Joe, innit? He does joinery an' that. Mary lives with him in a crib dahn Nazaref. One day Mary meets this bloke Gabriel. She's like `Oo ya lookin at?' Gabriel just goes 'You got one up the duff, you have.' Mary's totally gobsmacked. She gives it to him large 'Stop dissin' me yeah? I ain't no Kappa-slapper. I never bin wiv no one!' So Mary goes and sees her cousin Liz, who's six months gone herself. Liz is largin' it. She's filled with spirits, Barcardi Breezers an' that. She's like 'Orright, Mary, I can feel me bay-bee in me tummy and I reckon I'm well blessed. Think of all the extra benefits an' that we are gonna get.' Mary goes 'Yeah, s'pose you're right' Mary an' Joe ain't got no money so they have to ponse a donkey, an' go dahn Bethlehem on that. They get to this pub an' Mary wants to stop, yeah? To have her bay-bee an' that. But there ain't no room at the inn, innit? So Mary an' Joe break an' enter into this garridge, only it's filled wiv animals. Cahs an' sheep an' that. Then these three geezers turn up, looking proper bling, wiv crowns on their heads. They're like `Respect, bay-bee Jesus', an' say they're wise men from the East End. Joe goes: 'If you're so wise, wotchoo doin' wiv this Frankenstein an' myrrh? Why dincha just bring gold, Adidas and Burberry?' It's all about to kick off when Gabriel turns up again an' sez he's got another message from this Lord geezer. He's like 'The police is comin an' they're killin all the bay-bees. You better nash off to Egypt.' Joe goes 'You must be monged if you think I'm goin' dahn Egypt on a minging donkey' Gabriel sez 'Suit yerself, pal. But it's your look out if you stay.' So they go dahn Egypt till they've stopped killin the first-born an' it's safe an' that. Then Joe and Mary and Jesus go back to Nazaref, an' Jesus turns water into Stella. APPY CRIMBO

Think it used to be called "Special Projects" or something though didn't it? 71 was before I was around too

Wasn't there one in the film "Who Dares Wins"? I still have that on video somewhere, must watch it again some time. I seem to remember the SAS boss man was carted around in one. Lewis Collins charging through the embassy was completely cool and the whole 15 min shoot out scene is one of my favourite bits of film ever Something like that factory fitted tank guard you referred to earlier would have been put on at SV so that would have been enough to get the magic plate riveted to the bodywork somewhere.

Funny thing that, I was also thinking maybe Hereford if it was Govt.

Caption competition (follow on from the last one): "Damn, I knew I'd forgotten something ... still haven't done that rear winch cable" Good pics

I know of a few Defenders here with 2.5NA and R380 gearboxes, 1995 model year, it was still available to special order then. Though why anybody would have opted for a special-order NA when the 300Tdi was available is beyond me

A vehicle doesn't have to be very "special" to go through SV - just have anything at all that isn't line standard. For example the MoD Defenders here are std civilian spec Defenders but they are "SV" simply because they have a military towing pintle and electrics - nowt very "special" about that! You could find that a customer simply ordered one of the SV "enhancements" for that Range Rover - I believe they offered a range of things from different paint colours, to interior bits and pieces like different leather seats, DVDs etc etc, on Range Rovers, not sure if they still do that on the current model (but I expect so).

My GPS setup is pretty basic: a yellow eTrex, a GPS Warehouse data/power cable to connect it to my computer and the Garmin Trip & Waypoint Manager to store tracks, waypoints etc. It should do all that I want ... but I have a problem. Due to the small amount of memory in the eTrex I have had to delete some of my older tracks, not a problem I thought as I have them stored on T&WM. So the TWM file now has my older tracks in, and the GPS has some newer ones but not the older ones. I want to transfer a couple of the older ones to the GPS in preparation for Christmas, but want to keep some of the newer ones in there as well - an obvious thing to be able to do you would think ... but I can't get it to work! Opening the GPS data into TWM over-writes all data that is in there, and while I haven't tried it, I assume saving the data to the GPS from TWM will overwrite that too There doesn't seem to be any way to merge the data into one large file on the PC and then selectively save bits to the GPS, or am I missing something? I can import the GPS data into a separate file on the computer, but then I have two files and I can't get the whole lot to be in the same place. There seems to be a facility in the program to export data to one format, and import it into the program in other formats, but not to import it in the one you can export it in! Grrr..... any ideas please? In the longer term I will probably look at a GPS with a bigger memory; the eTrex does everything I need (and no GPS at any price has base maps for here unless you work for the MoD!) but seriously needs more memory - waypoints are no problem but half a dozen decent all-day's-driving tracks is close to the limit, which is not much good. I want something nice and small and portable like the eTrex, not a permanently mounted one. Any recommendations for a little unit with lots of memory that isn't too expensive? Ta Stephen

I'll see what price comes back on the Dewalt one but I have dealt with NT before and they were quite good, might look into that Thanks all

That does sound like a good deal

Some decent looking stuff here good prices on Ingersoll Rand stuff by the look of it. I have got stuff from this place before (Waxoyl ) and the prices mostly seem pretty good £100 seems to buy you something that looks quite decent

From personal experience, if you want to run air tools take whatever you think will be enough from the published manufacturers figures and double it.... The specs are all lies (a bit like electric winch ratings). I got one of these on the basis it was supposed to be 5.7cfm FAD and the rattle gun I wanted to use was supposed to use 4cfm. Forget it. Either the compressor only produces about 2.5cfm, or the rattle gun consumes more than 8 - less than 50% duty cycle and no oomph at all. To get alloy wheel nuts off (130nm? mine are probably tighter than that, torque setting is "1 grunt on a 3 foot bar" ) I have to crack them off with a bar first, or it takes about 30 sec to shift each nut (and waiting for ages for the compressor to catch up). It is still useful - and I still use it for wheel changes as it speeds things up no end, but it doesn't do what I wanted. However if your main use for compressed air is mostly cleaning things, pumping up tyres and stuff like that, then a little one like this is fine. It is quite noisy though! If I bought another one I would look for 3 things 1) 150psi minimum - the 100-110psi ones don't have the same amount of oomph for running air tools and while most of the air tools say they only want 90psi, that's a lie as well! Most of the smaller ones only do the lower pressure. 2) A bigger tank probably 100L minimum 3) 3KW motor The trouble is that the prices go up exponentially - there's a nice sized 150L 3HP one on that same website ... over £1000 though! When I asked much the same question on compressors a while back somebody suggested going for a bigger one second hand. I didn't because it isn't very practical to get a used one shipped down here, but if you have that option, it would be worth doing I think. I don't know much about spraying - never tried it personally - but I know the guy who does our painting at work uses a Draper one similar size to the bigger one mentioned above and reckons it can only just keep up with the air demand when he is painting a big panel like the side of a 110 or a bonnet. Running out of air half way through a panel would be kind of a PITA

Just having a 100,000 acre garden is quite effective too, plenty of space to lose the odd rambler, and plenty of space to bury the bodies if they won't go away

Erm Maybe I am being thick here (no need to answer that bit ) but surely the lower ratio diffs will make the speedo over-read not under-read??? The diff ratio is lower thus the propshafts and transfer box will be spinning faster for any given road speed, therefore so will the speedo drive so the speedo will indicate higher for any given road speed than before, will it not? Approx 16.1% difference in the diff gearing (gearing down) Approx 6.25% difference with the tyre diameter compared to a 7.50 (gearing up) So about a 10% overall net difference (over-reading compared to std vehicle) Most older Defender speedos I have calibrated either with GPS or against a measured mile over-read by about 8-10%. ....so if there is a 7.50 speedo drive fitted it should end up being way over-reading shouldn't it? Have you got a GPS? The speed reading from those is very accurate, I calibrated mine (yellow eTrex) against the measured mile the police use here for the same purpose and it was something like 0.2% different which I was quite chuffed with Edited to correct my calculations before somebody else does

No, I meant nice tread i.e. big and chunky, all shoulder lug and not much else so hopefully lots of grip B) Prob find they are Simex money though which means by the time I ship them down here we're talking £1000 for a set which means n F chance

The heat through the tunnel is mostly off the exhaust on a V8. When I converted my Disco to an auto I took it for a run without the tunnel covers on and within 2 min of leaving the garage there was this blast of hot air coming up through the hole - but it was from the exhausts not the gearbox, the gearbox hadn't even warmed up.