Daan

Although almost nothing else from anothe landrove fits, I reckon 3.54 ring and pinions from a 110 salisbury fits.

Dutch prices: cheapest 90: 95.150 euro, roadtax 2736 euro cheapest 110: 102.325 euro, roadtax 2884 euro The plug in hybrids are slightly better due to tax breaks. There is also the problem of income tax increase when you have it as a companycar, which is eye-watering. The commercial versions are about 50% of these prices, however you need to be a registered ltd company to be using the lower road tax bracket.

I'd say so. Daan

Glad to hear you have not forgotten about my project! I have many updates in my head, but nothing physical to show you unfortunately. All my spare time is on the Landy right now, but the end of this is in sight. Hoping for an MOT this side of christmas As a bit of a test I have ordered a couple of Mahindra bits from an indian Ebay shop: Clutch plate, steering ball joints and heavy duty shackles. I really wondered how that was going to turn out, but they arrived 2 weeks later. The quality of the parts looks good to me, and they are about 1/3rd of the prize of the identical jeep CJ parts. The bit that puzzles me is that of the free postage from india; quite how that works is beyond me. Anyway, that test was successful, so that route to get mahindra parts is working! Daan

Welcome to the fold!

Indeed, he is making a gesture referring to No1. I must have a picture of this somewhere, but not to hand i am afraid.

Does it look like there is a gap between the doortop and bottom? I'd say if you move the bulkhead forward and move the door back ward on the hinges, it is not far off. It is a landy, and panel fit of the factory was never that good; using parts from different sources is not helping the cause either. i'd say there is a solution with what you have.

Shorter version of Fridges video on you tube:

With regards to the reliability, I suppose the car you are intending to use has been used in UK events before? Reason I ask is that it is probably wise to take with you equipment that is proven to work reliably in the past; So no new projects like winches etc, that has not been proven. Ladoga cannot be a test ground basically; you have to be confident that what you bring is reliable. The stages are about 30km per day, from memory, with an 8 hour DNF time. More than you ever do in a weekend in a UK event. And then do it again tomorrow. and the day after. The way I approach these events usually is not to improve the car, but to service it very well. For ladoga, the only thing we changed was the tyres and we added a tank guard. I dug up the thread of preparing the car: No major projects, I just replaced a lot of parts that might go wrong for new ones. I decided to go for the mudzillas in the same diameter as my simex tyres but 3" wider. I knew 35" would be reliable (I did not take a spare diff) and the wider footprint would give me more flotation, together with the option of airing down to almost nothing. The saley wheels are modular rims (8x15) that are cut in half with flanges welded in to create a split rim and 16" PVC drain pipe as inserts. The tyres and wheels performed faultless. Obviously, the approach of fitting new parts didn't stop me having problems. In hindsight I would have bought a genuine new alternator and added a guard around the sump. Official 2009 footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmBmGW9SVls&list=PLzdd2_OztTmSPz-nDbFPfTGgK4bVjnAuI&index=40 Only part3 sees some decent action, the other parts are mainly russian chat.

Love this car; mostly build out of aluminium, but mainly home build; 1200 kg, with VW TDI I believe.

I would fit a new bowmotor.

Did Fridge tell you about the GPS receiver and laptop you need? I got a used one on ebay that worked well.

Ordinary 02 phone worked almost everywhere I think. We had no other communications, buy a local pay as you go card to save money. You are not that far away from civilisation, it is not the jungle.

Yes, we carried everything on board. We drove the car to harwich (failed alternator 1 mile before the ferry). shoelaced the waterpump to get to ferry, which we made with 10 seconds spare. Got a new alternator in holland, carried on to travemunde to take ferry to helsinki. from there drive to st petersburg in a day. Competing went ok untill we also lost all electrics on day 4, causing us to go over time. We removed the plunger from the fuel pump and got a competitor to tow start us, and finish the stage like that. It was a shame as we were in 4th place, with 3rd in sight, but we dropped to 6th, only due to 1 min over time at the stage finish. Onday 5 we broke a cambelt due to the cam cover seal failed and cam cover full of muddy water. Luckily it broke driving in camp, so we could fix it in the evening. The alternator and cambelt failure were particularly gutting, as both were new/rebuild as part of our preparations before we set of. One deep river crossing (centre of steering wheel) also took out our fan; We drew a fan shape in the russian halfords store, and the serving lady found us a Lada fan; loo and behold the bolt pattern is almost the same as a defender waterpump pouly, so we fitted that. We also noticed a slight flicker of the oil pressure light on the last day. We investigated, but there was oil pressure, so we continued; this proved to be a mistake, as we did a big end bearing on the way home, 50 miles before the border to finland. Dan and jen towed us to helsinki, for which I am forever gratefull. We investigated here, and it showed that the sump had been clouted by a large rock, partly blocking the sif, starving the engine of oil. on the day we left home I arranged european brake down cover with the AA; It proved the best £70 I spend, as they delivered my car to my front door 3 weeks later and paid for my plane ticket as well. Writing all this, it reminds me as action packed in every possible way, it was a great experience which I would not want to have missed. But as you can see, as a whole the thing is rather draining on the mind/wallet/social life and therefore I have come to the conclusion my life is complicated enough without these events! I have done RFC in Malaysia, Ladoga and Croatia trophy and they all have similar stories. Great to have done it but just the thought of going back there again makes me feel tired. Maybe it is just my old age! That said, you either do it, or spend the rest of your life wondering what could have been. Daan

Build thread required! I'd say the hydraulic winches are more use to you in a swamp, you need the finest degree of control, and having a pair means you carry a spare. But I do want to see your god winch! You also need to keep in mind, you might get in a situation were you are stuck in a swamp and all you have is a 1" thick tree to winch off. You need the most controllable winch in this situation. Dug a trench about 4 inches below swamp level to have a strop as low down as you can and get your co driver to bend the tree in the opposite way of the pulling direction. You get enough pulling power out of this, as the tree roots could be 10 metre deep. Also, I had winch extension cables in case I got stuck in a swamp, like this:https://www.winchshop.co.uk/collections/webbing/products/50mm-webbing-with-hook I had 3 x 180 ft and 2x 90 ft with a loop sown in the ends. The idea was you could rig them all up to about 800ft (including the winch cable), and having multiples of 90 ft, you could pick over to the next extension. (the winch has 100 ft of cable). I only used 1 extension of 90 ft, and that was on the rear winch, when the front of the car had sunk in the swamp (bonnet under). There happened to be a tree behind us. Also crucial are beadlocks, can you air down to 2 psi without the tyres coming of the wheels? The problems of a computer controlled TD5 I take it you are aware of and can be solved with the ECU and throttle pedal high up and I would want some form of diagnostics in case it stops working.

I'd say euro is a good starting point if it is your first go. On the other hand, if you do open adventure, you do TR2 tracks which are done with cars on 36" tyres. You are allowed to run your 38.5 tyres on this course so should be ok. The only reservation I have is running 38.5 inch tyres on land rover axles; you are bound to find the weak spot, so carry spares for anything that is likely to break. Either way, you need spares for anything on the truck likely to break, and have all potential scenarios of failure in you head and have a plan what you are going to do about it, should they happen. Daan

Filip, maybe you can share for the OP what failures you had in 2009, as the spec of your car is almost identical to his car. Daan

This is not what you entered is it?

Could you explain a bit about the class you are entering? Adventure TR2 you mentioned in our facebook chat. What regulations does your car need to comply to? We competed in TR2 in 2009, which was at the time 36" tyres max, modified production cars. We had a great time doing the event and had a decent result also. I must admit, contrary to what was said above, I have no intention of going there again. These events really take over your normal life, which I cannot have anymore. It was double income, no kids back then, it is single income 2 kids now! That said, if you haven't done it, my advice is do it, you won't regret the experience. TR2 pictures (all involving a winch cable!): Daan

I think oven cleaner, the one in an spray can lifts the diesel soot. Not used it myself though.

I used to fill up at my local Calor gas station when I just arrived in the UK. This meant only filling up during normal office hours. Availabilty was one of the main reasons for me to convert to diesel. Maybe you can use replacable Calor gas bottles for forklifts? Daan

Have to say it: Awesome wiring skills! Good progress. Daan

There are all kind of reasons why this is the case, and Tax may be the main reason. I know that in Holland everything car related is way more expensive than it is over here. The pricing policies of car manufacturers is even more weird; I mean the price of a landrover registered on the road is about 200% that of it leaving the factory. As a result of this, Land rover lowers the price pre-tax, so the on the road price doesn't get so ridiculous. This were the return import of cars comes from; you ship a RHD to holland, than ship it back to the UK and sell it cheaper. I can imagine parts having similar issues. This thing really frustrates me, because is this why we have the EU? It should not matter were we buy it,as we should be in the same europe? Big hordes of dutch people go filling up the car in Germany cause it is cheaper, so now the country has variable duty rates on fuel, so the fuel stations near the borders don't go out of business. It is just bend as you like. Just hope leaving the EU won't hurt the economy of the UK too much.

As mentioned before, you need to ask yourself what you really need. On 7.50 tyres, the rear axle is as bombproof as it gets (I assume a salibury axle). The front, you might want to consider HD shafts and CV's and a 4 pin diff so nothing breaks. Certainly, if you consider diffs, the Detroit setup will alter handling, as will any limited slip diff, so selectable would be better with your uses. Winches, well if you like travel light, than don't bother, as you carry something wherever you go, and might need it only once. I have seen this though, and would be very keen on this in your situation:https://www.bogout.com/ Works front and rear if you need it and weighs almost nothing. Daan

Stunning video; Scotland should employ you to promote the country! I fancy going myself now. As a question, how much feasible is doing what you did in a usual Eurobox style car? I can entertain the idea of going with my family, but using the landy isn't really going to work I think. We would use local accommodation, rather than sleeping in the car. We are also limited to school holidays, which would make the before mentioned traffic problem worse. Daan