BogMonster

Yeah, 2 I think, same place each side The bulbs in the upper clusters are really fun to get out too....

Build me one while you're at it Yeah, I can surf myself as well, with the wireless remote Gotta be careful you don't fall off though and it only lasts until the back of the spade disappears out of sight anyway..... Due to a number of other problems recently I've not made any progress on this but it really is a swings and roundabouts thing - I think the ultimate would be a KittyGripper design with a 3 foot by 3 foot spade and twice the thickness of metal in the arms but then you couldn't carry the damn thing and it wouldn't fit in the vehicle anyway my current plans include enlarging the current 11x22" spade to probably about 24x22" and 6mm steel not the standard 3mm (which will be far too weak at the increased width - it'll just fold in the middle) and see how that goes. But really, the answer is that I try not to get very very stuck unless there is somebody else around (i.e. look before you leap) because at the moment the winch can comfortably pull both my anchors out when chained together. A top tip though: a SWB Pajero makes quite a good ground anchor if you can take one with you Nigel will be along in a moment to drag this thread back on topic

3psi what you want is a Morooka The one in this pic weighs 13.5 tons and exerts approx 3psi Fabulous bit of kit

I don't even have lockers yet never mind CVs but my thoughts on whether I would buy them would be: I would be interested to see comparative figures e.g. a std CV breaks at x lb ft torque, an Ashcroft one breaks at 3x that because.... if you are a habitual CV-breaker (which I'm not) and know roughly how much abuse you have to give a normal one to break it, then if you know it should be able to take roughly 3 times that level of abuse (or whatever the actual increase in strength is) then you know more or less what its limits are (maybe it is no longer the weakest link and won't break - no idea) If there are no figures then if you needed them I guess you'd buy them anyway on the basis that anything that improved on the standard item would have to be a good thing! But it would be interesting to see test results and to know roughly what you were getting. As for me ... how much does 2 x ARBs 1 x compressor full set of halfshafts, a pair of CVs and a set of drive members cost? Dunno but more £ than I have spare at the moment anyway

It is surprising - I don't know what the "measureable" difference is but the "feel" is completely different when driving the vehicle - particularly on acceleration. It's things like pulling up hills and pulling out of slow corners off boost that you really notice, with 31" tyres on the old 90 and a tweaked fuel pump it felt quite racy put 33" on and it felt like you had a trailer on the back To illustrate what I mean - we have a Td5 90 on the fleet at work with 205R16s on. As long as there are no policemen looking, there is a hill in town that you can go up in 5th gear, which a vehicle on 7.50R16s will only pull 3rd on...

The flip side is that once it all gets wet underneath the cover (like if you splash through a bit of deep water) it will take a lot longer to ever dry out if covered up whereas if out in the open, it will dry off relatively quickly. Swings and roundabouts IMHO On plasma/UV, I'm living under the ozone hole so I'll find out in due course if there are any problems on that score. The Dyneema is supposed to have a "UV proof" coating - we'll see!

Progress Sinton Tyres stock the new STT pattern in the 245/70R17 which will fit a Discovery 3 with 17in rims They seem to get a good write up too, from the Aussies: here, here, and here Nothing for the 18in D3 rims though - I think a 35x12.50R18 might require some bodywork mods I think even the 275/65R18 would be too big

And for the next trick How to give your cat a pill.....

Er ... well I was sitting at my PC round about 5 minutes before I posted the original "top tip". Next to my chair is a flip top bin - you can't get many beer bottles in an ordinary sized one and it saves emptying it so often The orange cat wanders in and makes a pest of itself, so is duly picked up and held in its usual upside down position which it seems to enjoy, and sort of dozed off as it usually does when you tickle its tum. Now I have tried to put a cat in a rubbish bin before when I was young and foolish (I don't know why it just seemed like a good thing to do at the time), and it's one of those operations that is really extremely dangerous if the cat is alerted to your intentions in advance, and can cause intense personal injury with absolutely no chance of achieving the objective ... but in this case he was asleep, and with his head only about a foot from the bin it was just too good a chance to miss after a few beers... Suffice to say that a bin bag is not strong enough to hold "frantically flailing claws" and was rapidly reduced to a non-rubbish-tight format, and the traction available from an assortment of Heineken bottles and crisp packets is also somewhat limited. I can also confirm that feline four-paw ETC attempting a vertical climb on a loose glass surface makes a spectacular noise unfortunately some of the rubbish came out with the animal and the rest fell out through the bottom of the bag when I attempted to remove it, which I suppose serves me right really... NB it is also wise to retreat rapidly after the act of depositing the animal as the exit trajectory is somewhat uncertain

Oh come off it chaps, we all know Land Rover don't make anything waterproof!

...put a half asleep cat in a flip top swing bin It makes such a bl**dy mess!! no prizes for guessing how I found that one out just now

Oi that's swearing that is

Tyre diameter makes a big difference - when I ran 31" tyres every day and 33" tyres occasionally, the difference in braking was really noticeable when you swapped. As was the difference in acceleration - the 33s felt horrible when you first put them on!

Southdown? I seem to remember somebody (maybe white90) saying they would supply parts when I was after something (I never bothered with it in the end as I have ordered a complete Safari snorkel now I know it will fit) I doubt you'd get a Safari one unless ordered from Oz, they probably come over as complete kits...?

I look forward to the first photo of Cordell Coachworks plc modifying the back of the roof with a sledge hammer Nice, I always wanted a P38 but never really got around to it for no particular reason

Interesting point about Oz... prob very true! I have sent off to my suppliers for prices anyway - I hope they are available in the UK. To be fair I have no experience of the MTRs. The G90 is one of the toughest tyres I have ever seen (G90s are just horrible in every other respect....) but the "normal" Goodyears as fitted to Discoverys, Freelanders etc - Wranglers, Eagles and things like that are junk compared to the Michelin or Pirelli OEM fitments which are much better. I don't know about Goodyear sidewalls, anything bigger than a matchstick goes straight through the tread on a Wrangler so the sidewalls never get to be a problem

That wasn't what you said when your 300Tdi blew up Will....

I looked very hard at those ST's for my Discovery Kev, it's a really nice looking pattern, but they weren't available as a 255/70R16 which was the size I wanted for the D2. Any comments on how tough the tyre carcass is on Coopers? They aren't a common brand here (apart from some STTs but people seem to have gone off those in recent years) and I've never tried a set of Coopers on anything. Really good puncture resistance on gravel roads is probably the most important thing - I know of a few people that have junked Goodyears and fitted BFGs on older Discoverys just because they got p*ssed off with getting punctures on a weekly basis!

Hmm found these looks interesting 245/70R17 will fit.... wonder if they are available in the UK.....?

Question on behalf of somebody else.... What is available in 17" all terrain or mud terrain tyres to suit a Discovery 3? The original tyres are 235/70R17, I have found a Cooper Discoverer ATR which might be OK and comes (in the States at least) in that size and a few other similar sizes that would fit a D3 e.g. 255/65R17. Has anybody put 265/70R17s on a D3 and do they fit? 18in rims have a 255/60R18 size on so a 255 section will fit, but the 265/70 will be quite a lot taller than the standard ones as well as being a bit wider. The 18in rims have got the new Grabber AT2s available but I just wondered if there was anything good around for the 17s. Good puncture resistance is a must (so throw away anything with Goodyear on it; the tyres on there have lasted about 5000 miles....and like all Goodyears I have seen they are sh***!!) A good hard wearing BFG AT sort of pattern would be ideal - but I haven't turned one up yet. Thanks Stephen

Another interesting link sent to me by Neil Marshall Discovery 3 Road Trip report seems to like it - I guess it would be ideal for that sort of journey I guess the guy hasn't tried opening the fuel filler with the vehicle locked though

Forgot to say, I'd also go with the new rods/caps/belt and see what happens, seen dozens of 300s and a couple of 200s with snapped belts at work and not one of them had damaged valves or pistons so it's be awful bad luck if you did, and it means you can still say "200,000 miles and the head's never been off"

Think yourself lucky you got them out! We had a 300 with a broken belt at work a couple of years ago, the rods were so bent they were jammed in the holes, no way they were coming out.... would come up so far and then jam solid in the hole Eventually shifted them by: Putting a big block of wood along the top of the head to spread the load (4" x 4" I think...) Getting a 4 foot crowbar with a forked end Hooking forked end under the top of the bent pushrod and using the block of wood as a fulcrum Jumping up and down on other end of crowbar Got them out though by eck they take some breakfast to shift when they are like that.... How long since your cambelt was changed? The reason I ask is I've never seen a 200Tdi with cambelt problems apart from just old age - we had one at work a few years back that broke at about 7 years old (original belt) the belt was just completely perished and eventually stripped the teeth off about 6 inches of belt so the timing went all to cock and everything stopped rather suddenly belt didn't actually break though! I think you are doing the right thing changing all 8 rods, some might be "slightly" bent, not sure but I assume the 200 also has rotator caps like the 300, I'd change all those as well as they can crack when the belt breaks (at least they do on a 300) and you end up with bits of them in the sump and about 150 thou valve clearances which is a bit clattery....

Wasn't somebody (I'm thinking RogueVogue or Paul Wightman?) offering SS hoses that you could make up yourself at one point?

Duh If I was out with somebody else I wouldn't be arsing around carting half a ton of ground anchor 50 yards, I'd chuck on a tow rope and be out of there in 45 seconds Done what you suggest, on the odd occasions the freespool on the old 8274 was being really pig headed -- usually goes something like this: Cart ground anchor out to suitable bit of ground and set it (3 trips if using the military ground anchor) Walk back to vehicle Winch out estimated amount of cable reqd Walk out to end of cable Find cable is 2 feet shorter than distance to ground anchor... Utter a word beginning with F, another beginning with C and possibly another beginning with B, jump up and down a bit Walk back again Power out another couple of feet Walk out to ground anchor again Hook on Walk back again Winch out Walk out again Unhook Walk back again Drive to anchor to pick up because too F tired of walking.... Too much walking I think is the answer