Daan

Adrian Flux is who I use. Are you a young driver? I think the van thing is more important weather you can carry passengers in the back. You can maybe go for a classic car insurance on lower miles, depending of the year of car. Daan

That is way too new fashioned for this build! I do, but I don't want to. Will cross that bridge when I come to it. Daan

But that does not solve the problem of where to put it. Lovely stuff chaps.

Good, and good to hear you have a sense of humour, you will need it!

I drove all on the mudzillas. Jez obviously had the car trailered, but even he has driven in the past with the boggers. They last easily there and back. Have you actually entered the event? Is Jimmymad99 going this year? Daan

I can predict the outcome of that. And making the same mistakes, while expecting a different outcome is the first sign of insanity. Daan

Cheers Dan. Plenty of space under the bonnet, the engine is tiny. Other areas are still a problem though, alternator mainly. Daan

Now you just give the game away!

I had something weird like that for a long time (the car does not get much use). It was only at 70mph fully loaded on the motor way. I had gone through all the motions you have. And it was air pressure at speed bending the rear fender and eyebrow inwards while driving, causing it to rub on the tyre. right at the rearmost point. All I had to to was cut out 10mm of the corner of the eyebrow and it was gone. I have also had a mudflap bending backward at speed, touching the tyre, doing the same thing. Daan

I think the later you sell, the better. Inflation is the word I think is what raises prices of property and classic cars. So if you have money in the bank, you need to spend it on either of these commodity's or you will just loose money. How long it will keep going up is the big question, but i think for years to come. There is the American market for the older defenders and also the Twisted, kahn and Arkonik etc tuning crowd who need base vehicles to create their Chelsea tractors. You cannot get new defenders anymore (not proper ones anyway), so the demand will always be there. Series land rovers are now seen as proper classic cars, and even series 3s are fetching quite a lot of money, so I think that will keep happening. Daan

I think if you go with Insa, the extreme line mud terrain would be the best bet: The problem with the special track, (or any simex pattern) is that they don't work well in the swamps. They seem to dig holes in a swamp I think. I have first no hand experience with this, but Uncle Jez has forbidden me to take my Simex tyres to Ladoga, so I bought the Mudzillas. They were amazing in the swamps, and even on the forest tracks, although they are not that course, they are the best self cleaning tyre I have ever seen. If you look at this picture, the thread is completely open: It is as real shame you cannot get them anymore, as it would be a great choice IMO. In Russia, the solution if your tyres are too big is a chain saw. Daan

Hi Dan, long time no see! Good to see you are keeping well, and the dirtydiesel workshop is still going. Jeep looks good, when is the first test? I am working on a jeep project as well, link at the bottom. Regards, Daan

A high mount winch would be better, as you need 100 foot minimum, plus several extensions if you are in a swamp and the tree is too far away (we had 800 ft extension in total). The come up or goodwinch seems to get good write ups. I have a superwinch EP9 as rear winch, has worked most of the time (I run a PTO at the front). Perhaps a bowmotor for more punch as well as double batteries to back it up. Your car will be the best part of 2.5 tons, so you need a lot of pulling power to get it out of a swamp. Fit the new winch to the front and your spare to the back, so you can swap them over. Daan

Hi Panda, and welcome to the madhouse. I was with the group of landies doing Ladoga in 2009; Tyres, the locals like to use the bogger tyres: They are not available here anymore due to EU regulations on noise. If you want them you can still import them from the US. I used the Maxis Mudzilla, and they were very, very good in the swamps, and average in the forests: Maxis now has the Trepador, which I think does get used in Ladoga as well. As mentioned, get the biggest tyre that is allowed in your class, and you need some kind of tyre retention option. Bead locks are not allowed in TR1, but you can gorilla glue the tyres to the bead or at the very least use inner tubes. We were running tyres as low as 2 psi in the swamps, which was key to the performance there. The winch will need to be very dependable, if it dies, Ladoga is over for you. So at the very least a spare motor or spare winch and use double batteries. I would not rely on traction control; If it even works, you will go through a set of brake pads in less than a day. Diff locks are a good idea, as are heavy duty shafts. If you think of building a new car for Ladoga, Can I suggest choosing a different car? A disco is heavy for Tr1, where you are up against Suzuki Jimnys which are half the weight of a disco. Most important thing is to get to the end of it, and 8 days of hardcore offroad is not easy, most people struggle to get to the end of a 1 day pay and play event in 1 piece, let alone 8 days non stop. Reliability and weight are the most important things for Ladoga, in this order. We liked the event very much, it was completely different from what we have done before. To give you an impression of the swamps, where the average off roader likes to apply max power where it gets difficult, in ladoga, you race at tickover in the swamps. Your car need to be able to do this for miles on end: If you can do this, fine, if not, you are winching for miles on end. That is Ladoga in a nutshell. Daan

I always thought that, but now I have 2 projects too. On the Jeep, well get it running, but I doubt that will happen in 2022. The landy, fit rear seats, so I can take the family, and fit door locks. Daan

Very sorry to hear, wishing you a healthy 2022. Regards, Daan

It will shred the tyres at the first bump.

Merry christmas!

Indeed a generalisation. People who are older got a towing license through grandfather rights, and why should younger people have to do the test. What would be fair (and safe) is that the grandfather rights are removed for older people, and they would have to do their trailer test too, just like younger people. Waiting for a lot of grumbling of older drivers.

Thanks, should do...

Here we are again, only 8 months since the last update! Live got in the way from spending time in the garage, but finally I am back on it. After fitting the springs, shock absorbers was the next logical thing to nail down. With the reduced friction in the spring packs, the job of the shock absorber has become a lot more important. In this application, gas pressure shocks are usually advised. I used Monroe gas magnum in Jeep cj5 fitment. They are available in many lengths, so I choose the ones which worked with the increased height of the parabolic springs. They get a good write up usually, and they still have the old fashioned metal dust covers, which mean they will look stock once painted army green. The rears were easy to fit, using the original top mount and the CJ7 spring plate with mounts at the bottom: The fronts were more involved, on the right hand side there now a is a PAS box in the way. Conveniently, the front top crush tube is virtually in the correct position for the shock absorber mount, as well as the right diameter. So I removed the previously made crush tube and replaced it with a longer version, and a turned spacer was added to space the shock away from the chassis (glad I only tack welded the pas box mount!): The other side has a clash issue with the wing, so I fabricated a new mount, identical to the original willys jeep: Mounted, the shocks look like this: The forward top PAS box bolt, now has 2 jobs: holding on the PAS box, and mounting the shock. Lh side, the spring plate problem for the front axle was also solved with rear Jeep CJ7 spring plates. You may have noticed my shiny new front axle: I managed to buy a narrow Dana 30 front axle from a Jeep CJ5. This is much better design of axle compared to the previous Dana 27; It is much stronger, and very common (it is still being used on the new Jeep Wrangler). Spares are much easier to find should you need it and the after market support is very good for ratios, shafts, diffs etc. It is also direct fit to a willys jeep without modifications. This makes it convenient to fit, and means no points are lost under the radically altered points scheme. It came about cheap locally with a 4.27 ratio, which is what I am planning to use, replacing old the 4.88 ratio. It also had freewheel hubs fitted. So buying this means I only need to change the rear axle ratio, and therefore saved me money (Man maths at its best!): So this is some future proofing as I now have a dana 30 at the front, and Dana 44 at the rear, which are the 2 best supported axles in the US. Thanks for reading! Daan

What I used as the only silencer in the system: https://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/p/jetex-handy-round-stainless-250mm-long-2-5-inch-u456300r It is the last thing in the exhaust; the turbo is the main silencer, than about 2.5 m of pipe to damp the biggest exhaust waves, through the silencer to the outside world. Sound is good without being ridiculous. Daan

I cannot see removing the body being easy if you don't have a 2 post lift. So that leaves the conventional way for the DIY spanner man.

6 figures!: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/294585313737?campaign-id=90001&run-date=20211128053500&templateId=200fb594-80a8-4101-afb1-a7ad982fde56&templateVersion=200&co=14600&placement-type=mfe.piyi2v2P&user-id=43060723166&instance=1638102900&site-id=3&trackingCode=TE76002_T_ALL&placement-type-name=mfe.piyi2v2P&mfe-Id=101311&mkevt=1&mkpid=2&emsid=0&mkcid=8&bu=43060723166&osub=ffc2d9c0bb706b9cf8381ef7278f3750%7ETE76002_T_ALL&segname=TE76002_T_ALL&crd=20211128053500&ch=osgood&sojTags=osub%3Dosub%2Csegname%3Dsegname%2Ccrd%3Dcrd%2Cch%3Dch%2Cchnl%3Dmkcid

The main problem I can see is that you cannot use series wheels, which would put me off, but I am a bit of a snob when it comes to wheels... Also, the site states you need to machine the hubs, which involves a large lathe. Something to think about before you buy. Daan