BogMonster

That's quite a scary photo Les , how deep are those cracks? the ones I had seen only had tread separation, not breaking up like that! Yes, I understand that the newer Broncs are made in a completely different factory (same as Colway or something?) and presumably these days with BS and European regulations coming out of our ears that cover everything else, you can no longer sell tyres that fall to bits anyway. Mind you certain manufacturers still sell vehicles that fall to bits so who knows?

[wind up Bronco users] The Broncos I've seen don't take treads too well either [/wind up Bronco users] (now frantically jumping up and down on the lid of the can of worms erupting into this thread....)

Moi? Nah it's summer here so I will be too busy with killing stuff and BBQs no intention of coming to an English winter June/July maybe!

Really?

Whenever I have changed tyres recently I have always noticed sh&& buildup between the tyre and the rim but it's never caused an unscheduled flat yet. The reason I like tubeless is because I drive mine on the road and with tubeless tyres, unless you stick a big sharp rock through it, they deflate fairly slowly, whereas tubes are more of a "bangpshhhhhhhwubblewubblewubblewubblewubblescreeeeeeeeechSHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIcrash!!!" experience when it happens at speed For a pure off road vehicle which is not going to be used on the road I guess you could go either way and with v low pressures tubes are definitely better (though interesting to note that the Icelandic boys who use probably the lowest pressures of anybody, don't seem to use tubes - they just have a can of lighter fuel and a match on hand B) )

If its turning over quickly it can't be the starter (I assume you mean the engine is turning not just the starter motor?) it sounds like the "spider fault" would do if it was a Discovery (interrupting power to the injector pump shutoff solenoid), but it is worth checking the feed to the injector pump solenoid (dirty/corroded connector, its only a spade connector) if there is definitely 12V to that all the time and it is a good connection then it might be a dodgy solenoid, though if they pack up (fairly rare) usually it won't stop rather than won't start! As a get you home repair you could carry a made up bit of wire with a spade connector on the end long enough to go from the inj pump solenoid to a good positive feed (in through the door seal and into the top of the battery box would probably do in emergency!) and if it won't go, stick that on instead. Beats walking

Tubeless in all mine, don't like tubes any more and anyway they cost money, why spend £££ putting a tube in a tyre that is already airtight?

Priceless Many a true word spoken in jest though....

2 candidates from me: 1) Series wipers with no motor fitted - a strip cut out of an inner tube and tied to the wiper arm on the outside (!) provided the "return" and the "upward wipe" was operated by a bit of string going along the windscreen and in the drivers window... 2) Lightweight suspension lift: jam a set of 90 or 110 (not sure which) COIL SPRINGS in between the leaf spring and the chassis (and this one is still getting around like this because I saw it a few weeks ago!)

Argies had some 155s, I think our lot probably have some 105s stowed away somewhere just in case they come back! Not sure the difference would be noticeable when viewed through 99p plastic goggles though Never played with any of them but I was allowed a go with a 66mm LAW on my 10th birthday (Nov 82) that was quite a cool pressie for a young lad B)

I thought so too but that wasn't what was asked and I fitted the description of the suspect Thought for the day: these posts that say "don't answer unless you really know what you are talking about" really are a red rag to a bull aren't they I'll shut up... sorry Nige

Broadband eh Andy? By the way (speaking of stuff archived onto DVD) I got the DVD full of dirty videos you sent, thanks, only watched a couple of them this morning but V good. Jules wasn't kidding about his V8 being good in water

Have you figured out why yet Nige? I'm over here

Somebody is just gonna be in so much trouble....

You can, but b ) and c) still apply :) A mud flap when you are doing 50mph+ on wet unsurfaced clay roads, is about as effective as putting a set of 99p plastic protective goggles on when somebody is about to shoot you in the face with a howitzer at point blank range The only good thing about them is on a road with lots of loose gravel, they do stop a lot of the stones pinging out of the tyres and removing windscreen/lights etc from the vehicle behind

I think you might be right D2 diff must be on the same side as Defender because it uses an LT230 t/box but I think the P38 might be the other way round? Also what is the rear suspension arrangement on a P38 is it like a Disco 2 i.e. radius arms and Watts linkage, or is it lower links and A frame ball joint like a Defender? The nearest P38 is about 1000 miles away so I can't look

Oh how I wish that guarantee applied here Approx 12,000 miles between both my vehicles (old 90 and current one) and my MTs are getting towards needing replacement. Mind you the AT's on the Discovery were F'ed at somewhere around 24,000, I'm a long way off getting 120,000 miles out of a set of AT's or whatever the record is supposed to be

First thing I do on my vehicles when I get them is chisel them all off because... a) They get ripped off anyway every time you have to reverse into/over/through something interesting b ) on unsurfaced roads frankly they make F all difference, the vehicle is going to get covered in clay anyway c) it is about 4 square feet less of cleaning to do (8 if you count both sides) whenever the pressure washer is called upon If you do want to keep them on though, one thing I have seen some people here do is put a small U-bolt through almost at the bottom of the flap to make a "ring" at the back, then when you go off road you can get a small bungee cord and tie them up out of the way, works quite well to avoid damage.

As you will have deduced from the replies already posted, the answer is "not necessarily". I can't speak for colways as I have never tried them, but you could never describe the good new MTs such as BFG MT, General Grabber MT, Kumho MT etc, as "awful" they are just a compromise. In a vehicle like a Defender, a good set of MTs match the rest of the vehicle i.e. a bit noisy and (like the vehicle) they probably wouldn't be your choice if you did 300 miles a day on the motorway, but otherwise OK. MT tyre noise is much more irritating in a more refined vehicle like a Discovery where the other noise is much less noticeable - I ran BFG MT's on my old V8 Discovery and took them off after about 3 months because they annoyed me, but on a Defender, no problem as its only the difference between quite a lot of noise and a bit more noise. The one area where MTs do fall short - especially in the wet - is emergency braking. Drive reasonably carefully, and it's not a problem. For the BFG MTs I have fitted on the 90, I would say that apart from emergency braking the tyres are not the limiting factor on the way I drive that vehicle, the limiting factor is that with a heavy roof rack and spare wheel the handling becomes far too interesting when you start chucking it round, long before the tyres lose grip, and in fact I can't remember even squealing the tyres cornering, much less actually losing it. The general tendency of the door handles to touch the road on cornering, and the butt pucker factor that this creates, is the limiting factor, not the tyres I think refinement is probably down to how well the tyre is made and to use an old phrase You Get What You Pay For so a £45 Colway is unlikely to match a £100+ BFG but I would fit them and see what you think.

As a politician (well ex-politician now) I never waffle

What grounds would they fail on? Not trying to be difficult (who me? ) just curious I don't really like the swivelly recovery points - I personally prefer fixed ones if I am going to use anything at all - but I would have thought they would be safe enough? Or is it the way WW's are fitted? Nice job BTW Mr Tonk

Presumably with an electronically driven one if you connected it to a frequency generator your kid nicked from the school electronics lab you could crank the freq output up till it read 135mph and leave it there for a week or two until it got right the way round and back to the figure you wanted?

The diff is obviously different but I don't know if they are interchangeable into the axle casings or not - I know the diff pan on a new 110 rear axle is bigger than the normal 90 one so there might not be clearance inside a std axle. You'd also need a new prop as the nose of the P38 diff is much shorter. I looked into ARBs a while back for somebody who wanted them on a new sort of 110 and IIRC you fit an RD56 and some sort of spacer ring to make it go into the P38 type 4 pin diff. The guy decided not to fit it so I haven't any first hand experience but the advice came from Ashcrofts so I suggest you talk to them - Dave knew what was needed. The Disco 2 axles use std 2 pin diffs as found in a 90, not the P38 type diff, so they will take any normal 90 or Series pattern diff. Just dug through old emails and Dave Ashcroft said "use the normal RD56 ARB together with an adapter ring which we supply at £25" simple as that

Fridge There is - that belt dressing - but if you thought you had heard a noisy belt you ain't heard nothing until you spray some of that stuff on! I bought a can a few years ago, and 10 minutes after using it I had to buy a new belt

Just out of interest how much "grip" has the disc brake got compared to a conventional drum (assuming the drum isn't bunged up with sh&&&), does it have more or less? Just thinking of conventional brakes where discs are usually much more powerful than drums, although that may be down to the level of brake assistance on modern vehicles. Older (1980s vintage) vehicles here always had handbrake problems (usually expanders seizing up) but apart from the cables wearing out and sticking, the newer drum handbrakes on 300Tdi onwards seem to be OK. But we don't have deep silty wet holes which fill up the drum with muck and wear the shoes out, any holes that deep here are only fit for bog-snorkelling and this is best not attempted in a LR