sean f

Depends on what it is damp with!. If it is brake fluid then the wheel cylinder is leaking (I assume this is a drum braked axle). Not a big job to change one and by changing the brake pipe you will be doing most of the work any way. If it is EP90 gear oil then it is probable the oil seal in the back of the hub, again not a big job to change, and neads to be done as it often leaks onto the brake shoes, oil and brakes don't mix well!. One thing to add to your list of bits from Paddocks is the Haynes manual if you don't already have one and give it a read before starting work. Items like wheel bearings and brakes are safety critical and need to be done right, its not rocket science and common sence will see you through most of it along with items from the tech section. If you are not sure about bits its worth getting some one round just to have a look and confirm it is correct just for peace of mind if nothing else. Not my part of the country but I expect there are people on here willing to stand around a confirm you are doing things right if you provide beer for them whilst they do it!.

This is definately not the first time I have heard of this and it is unlikely to be the last!. A lot of the problem seems to be that Land rover weren't consistent in the way they plated vehicles, some are 3050 kg hence Class 7, some are 2950 kg so Class 4. (The same problem sometimes comes up with numbers of seats, sometimes it is on the V5 othertimes not). There was probably some logic to it somewhere although knowing land rover maybe not. Many test stations, especially ones that don't know land rovers well don't realise they are not all the same and apply one rule to all of them. A class 7 MOT isn't significantly different from a class 4 one it just means the test station needs bigger ramps, I believe this is the reason they are allowed to charge more. As far as I am aware the items tested and the requirements are the same, it isn't a HGV type test which is more involved and tighter. I know there are several MOT testers who post on here so I am sure some one will be able to confirm this or correct me if I am wrong.

Simplest solution to angled parking bays for the council is to reverse the traffic flow, it virtually forces people to reverse park. We to have a reverse park only policy at work and although it seemed a pain at first now I just do it automatically.

I did basically the same set up as Steve descibes and had no problems with it. I did find the studs in the manifold were to short so I assume the 300 manifold is a bit thicker, but no real problem to change them. The exhaust was a bit of a problem as it exits directly over the engine mount but a bit of messing with the exhaust as shown in Steves picture fixes that, although mine never looked as neat as his does!. The vehicles drove well and I am told by its new owner that it still does so the oil feed must be OK.

Holbeam Lane – UCR The area just before the ford is not for playing …………….. it belongs to Fountain Forestry and they are not best pleased. FF have now fenced a lot of the area ………….. please respect. Remember if you use the lane after a day of rain then Kestor Brook which feeds in the River Lemon will be in spate as this feeds the Holbeam Dam catchment area to protect the town from flooding. Under these conditions (which is not unusual) Kestor Brook will be 4ft to 5ft deep as brings water down from Woodland & Bickington……… if you cant cross then just use the man made reversing bay in front of the brook to turn around …………. It is not for playing to try and climb the bank………… Went through last month and a dam had been built against the foot bridge at the ford, looked to be deliberately built rather than a natural blockage. Cleared it away as otherwise as Ian says the water flow in flood is pretty powerfull and it was likely that the bridge would be damaged or ripped out completely. The churned up mud just before the ford was pretty bad earlier in the week and leads to every one getting a bad reputation or a TRA getting put in place.

Could be interesting if some one who attended every event but never got out the carpark won overall at the end of the year due to other competitors being unable to attend various events!.

I have got one fitted. Fitted it about 7 years go and had no problems. Its not going to stop some one breaking in and depending on the area you live in you may also want a big visable steering lock or similar to put off some as it is almost impossible to spot unless you are looking. Since it effectivly disconnect the clutch the vehicle will be impossible to drive, not going to stop it being towed but then what is, the only way I can see to bypass it would be to replace the clutch pipe and then re-bleed the system, not something people are likely to want to do at the side of the road somewhere. I fitted it as any electrical imobiliser on an old (well pre-elctronic engine managment) diesel can be bypassed by just about anyone in minutes, won't explain how here but it doesn't take much brain power. I drove my old 2 1/4 diesel (pull cable engine stop) from Plymouth to Camborne with no electrics at all after the wiring loom went up in flames going over the Tamar bridge, apart from having no light, indicators etc which did make manouvering in traffic interesting at times there was no problem.

Once it's back on the deck check that the prop isn't binding on the UJ as well, mine did, it depends on the prop you currently have (or are getting) and the amount of lift the springs have provided which would depend on the vehicle configuration / weight and the springs you have. The fix is either a wider angle prop shaft or wedges to tilt the axle back to the right castor angle. You can by wedges I believe pro-comp sell them via there website but have never actaully seen there's. I made a set of wedges out of some plate drilled to hold in place with the u-bolts then made wedge shaped with an angle grinder, I just ground it down till it fitted and looked about right.

One important part mentioned by several people in passing is what is listed on the V5 document. This seems to change for every vehicle and model with no great consistence as is showing up in some of the answers. If the V5 lists a number of seats greater than allowed this will have to be changed which may involve an inspection by VOSA, otherwise an ANPR check may well see you pulled. If there is no number listed then just removing the extra seat is probable all that is required. Also covered it is the maximum ALLOWABLE number of passengers that counts not the number actually present, this also applies to weight. Those of us that took our test many years ago will be allowed to drive up to 7.5 tonnes and tow a trailer on the standard test, in later years this was restricted to 3.5 tonnes and a trailer over a certain weight (can't remember what) also requires a seperate test. This regularly catches people out who borrow large vans etc which may be basically empty but have a MAM listed as over 3.5 tonnes, since they have been driven by other people on standard licenses they assume this still holds true, as you have discovered with the seats this isn't always the case. Several friends took part in the Plymouth - Dakar a few years ago in an HGV truck tractor unit, they got this re-registered as a 7.5 tonne vehicle after cutting the trailer attachment off (they welded it back on underneath for weigh distribution). This needed to be done by the book due to the number of different countries they travelled through.

Just about any supplier of lifting kit will be able to supply a master link. If you have any problems Anton at OEC has a shelf full of them of the correct size. For the bolts you should be able to read off the info from the head of the bolt, provided it is a metric bolt it will have a number stamped on it. As said 8.8 is good, higher is better, lower is not good, cheap bolts can be only 4.6 which is not suitable for a recovery point. If there is no number then they are either cheap bolts which aren't rated or imperial bolts which are marked differently but I can't remember how at the moment.

Your not missing any thing I know of!. Very bad access to the nuts, once they have rounded off the only way I have fund is a chisel and a big hammer. If the bumper is a write off then chopping that away will improve the access and you may then be able to grip the nut with mole grips but if it has corroded enough to round off then they aren't likely to grip the nut well enough for you to unbolt it.. If you have access to an air saw or an electric saw you may be able to get in with that and cut the nut and bolt an angle grinder just won't fit. Just cutting the heads off won't get you any where as you have probable figured out already since the bolt can,t go out downwards.

I believe in Australia there is a Good Samaritans Act (perhaps one of the Austrailia members can correct me). The basic premis is you cannot be sued for doing something which you believe to be for the good. If you give first aid and then provided what you do you believe is helping you are OK, obviously if it is disputed then the level of knowledge of the helper comes into play a trained medic would be expected not to make basic mistakes that an untrained person might make. I assume the same would apply to recoveries, an experienced (qualified?) winch / recovery person would be expected to assess the recovery point suitability before the recovery not after you have torn there plastic bumper off. I have recovered various people on the roads in the past, normally I do it out of the goodness of my heart, on a few occasions I have charged some one but only if they don't ask nicely the first time.

I do think this is something which has to be thought about before acting. As one of the comments said many people only have one set of tyres which need to do every thing so having to buy different tyres to compete in different events would be expensive and start limiting the sport to only those with deep pockets. At the moment a set of BFG MT or similar will work on just about all events, they may not be the best in many cases but will work and are still usable as an every day road tyre. I run TSL Swampers all the time and live with the road noise and handling but then due to the work I do I cover very few road miles, I wouldn't want to have to buy less agressive tyre to enter an event. This is particularly the case with control tyres, buying a set of tyres specifically for a certain event is Ok on big national or International level event where sponsoreship is possible but at club level would price most people out. I can understand why they would want to restrict particularly agressive tyres on a certain site or certain levels to try and keep the field level or prevent damage, most people don't run simex style tyre on an every day vehicle so they would be against the spirit (if not the rules) on a RTV type of event.

Lots of comments about the training, but however it is done having a gun pointed at you is scary accidents DO happen, the use of a weapon sight to check out an object / person may work but is normally considered bad practice (different rules apply in higher risk areas). I guess this is mainly a case of people not being used to this sort of thing happening in the UK. I agree they have to train but I would have though as others have said the use of other military personnel would be better (and possible more realistic if they are told to react in certain ways), rather then pulling over members of the public. Many of who would not recognise what the blank firing adapter was or what it signified so would assume the weapon was live. There was an investigation a few years ago of a training exercise where a junior soldier was shot and killed with a live round when only blanks were supposed to have been issued, how this came about I have no idea, I only heard the news stories and don't know the military procedures involved but it must have involved a lot of mistakes from several different people, the lad still ended up dead though. I shoot regularly on a range as a civilian, safety is the top priority. The only people I have ever seen thrown off a range were two naval pilots who repeatedly left the firing point with out having there weapon checked clear or turned around to talk to someone with the gun still in there hand. After several warnings the range office refused to allow them to continue shooting. Since we were a civilian club (with civilian range officer) using a military range the range officer had given them more slack than the rest of us due to the politics involved, if we upset the base comander our use could be stopped with no further discussion (after wards he stated he fully backed the actions of the range office). Should add the club had an agreement that military personnel could shoot with us if they wished with out being a member of the club, I have no idea what autherisation they required to draw a pistol and ammunition from the armoury and leave the main base but if they got that we let them shoot, normally it seemed to be juniorish officers who were approaching time to requalify or some similar test. The general assumption was if they could get permission to draw the weapon from the armoury they must know how to use it safely and this was almost alway the case.

I have the JD2 model3 bender, makes very good bends with no kinks or marks, working out exactly where to position the pipe to get the bend where you want takes a bit of getting used to but not difficult once you have worked it out. It is also very repeatable so would be good if you were making batches of hand rails etc. It is not light and does need fixing securely to the ground so it would depend on where you were going to be working, whats available there to bolt it down to, you could probable bolt it to the bed of a lorry or trailer if you needed to move it around on site, but definately not as portable as a hydraulic bender. You do also need a different set of dies for each size of pipe and these aren't cheap but thats what gives you the quality of the bend.

As said the ball joint takes a lot of force to get the old one out and a new one in. Best bet is to take the joint of then take it to al local garage or machine shop and get them to swap the ball join over for you, saves a lot of hard work!. Getting the tapper out from the axle casing is often a bit of a job as well. The best way I have found is to remove the split pin and nut (30mm normally) then belt the joint with the biggest hammer you have to shock it out, last time I used a 9lb sledge hammer, a 1 lb lump hammer just didn't do it. Ball joint splitters aren't normally large enough or up to the job.

Not really connected but... Read an article in a motor home magazine a while back about someone who had heard noises out side his van one night but thought nothing of it. When he went out in the morning he found some one had tried to syphon the diesel, they had levered the hatch open and left behind a hose and a puddle of vomit. They had got the wrong hatch!!!!!!. They had tried to syphon the septic tank and obviously succeded in get a good mouth full. Thought it would amuse people, made me laugh.

I have commented on this in the past but.. If you have a modified truck which should be SVA'd and is not, you may get away with it and never have any problems as has been pointed out most Policemen, MOT testers wouldn't notice or know how much modification was allowed etc, although don't forget some policemen drive land rovers as well so they will know and will notice. The real problem will come if you are involved in an accident, particularly if people are injured or killed (the accident doesn't need to be your fault, it could be some one commiting suicide under the front of your truck). After this the investigation people will look at the vehicle in detail and decide if any of the modification MAY have contributed in any way, this is why you MUST notify your insurer about any modifications. If they decide the vehicle should have been SVA'd and isn't you can be prosecuted for having any unroadworthy / incorrectly regestered vehicle (due to a lack of paper work) the vehicle could be impounded and potentially crushed. As for the insurance, it is your responsibility to ensure the vehicle is road worthy with the correct paper work, and maintained in a safe manner, there is a clause to this effect in the small print of all policies I have seen, there is also a clause which says you MUST reveal any other relevent information (wonderfull coverall), needing an SVA and not having one would be covered by this and ignorance is not a defence, it up to you to confirm if you do or not. If you haven't they can decline to pay out, as Steve has said they are obliged to pay out BUT most policies are only obliged to pay to Road Traffic Act level which only covers injuries to other parties (minimum legal cover) if they believe the policy was incorrectly or faudulently obtained, not revealing convictions etc IS fraud, or you were not driving in the correct manner covered by the policy i.e. business driving isn't always covered unless asked for particularly on "special/restricted" policies, driving whilst unfit (for what ever reason) to do so would also be covered by this get out. It may not cover damage to other vehicles which would leave you being chased in court personally for any other damage by the other parties insurance. In my view driving a vehicle with out the correct paperwork is just not worth the risk involved.

And a few more. A problem with the winch at this point wasn't helping Good quality Devon mud Thats D4x4 under that lot somewhere.

Some more from the James last challenge event in Febuary Gently was mentioned somewhere. Then round and up here

Here's a few all from JST's events, I am sure people will recognise them selves!. Ian going in, seems like a good idea at this point Stuck, now not seeming quite such a good idea!. This is a V8 after all. The same bog coming out in a different direction. Different area but still pretty boggy! I will have a dig through the rest of the pictures, theres plenty more!.

Not sure what use it would be though. With modern fibres it is comparatively easy to make a fabric "bullet proof", the bullet won't actually go through but with out heavy padding to spread the load the bullet carries on going and carrys the fabric with it. Its all a matter of kinetic energy. Even with heavy padding you still have something similar to being hit with a baseball. To be of any effective use a jacket has to be fairly heavy (well bulky any way), you only have to look at the jackets the police wear to see that, they don't wear something that bulky all day if there was an alternative. Having said all that it probalay would be some use in a knife attack.

Lewis's desciption on how to fit tyres to single beadlocks seems pretty much on the money, its the way I did it any way. Fitting a LTB tyre onto a Allied Rock-A-Thon beadlock was quite easy as the bead below the locking ring is smaller diameter than normal so a bit of leavering and the tyre fitted ok. If you have welded on rings and the rim has been left full diameter as is normally the case then getting the bead fitted using a tyre machine will make your life a LOT easier, the tyres should fit in a standard tyre fitter as the SS LTB's say they are 34 10.5 16 but when you measure them up they are actually only 33" diameter, I measured mine after they arrived. The tyres are good with very good tread although like you say you will get flat spots if the vehicle sit still for any lenght of time. I fitted dynabeads in mine to aid the balancing and it reduced the shake for the first few miles a lot, still bounced abit but they soon go round again once you start driving. The side walls are very stiff, I found I was running about 17 to 18 psi on the road to get a decent ride then dropping it to 7 or 8 off road

The diff will bolt in with no problems. The shafts will depend on the age of the axle. The PCD is the same but the bolt diameters may be different. Early Range Rover axles used imperial threaded half shaft bolts (9/16 AF Head size) which are smaller diameter than the later 17mm M10 bolts. If you fit later shafts with early bolts it will all bolt up but there will be play in the bolt holes and over time the bolts will work loose or shear off particularly if you are driving hard. Early shafts are cheap and plentyfull so if it is imperal bolts just get shafts to fit. Worth checking or replacing the wheel bearings before fitting it all up particularly if the axle has been sat around for any time with the shafts out as this allows dirt and water into the bearings.

The MechLock from Mudstuff is great, fitted one years ago and never had a problem, no electrics to go wrong. It's especially good on older vehicles where as people have said engine imobilisers are virtually pointless and easy to bypass. It won't stop the vehicle being towed but then not a lot will, its also small and discrete so not likely to be noticed till to late. Once the clutch is in its staying there unless you get underneath and bleed the hose off, you may be able to drive a vehicle with no clutch but not after the clutch is locked down, it could be bypassed with a new clutch pipe but if some one is going to go that far they are going to get the vehicle some how any way and it would take quite a time to change a clutch hose and bleed it, likely to get noticed in a carpark, hopefully it would make life difficult enough to cause them to give up and find another easier victim. Did see a home made car alarm in South Africa with a percussion grenade wired in to go off once the engine started , pretty sure it wasn't legal even over there but it certainly would have been impressive even if the car might not have been in very good shape aferwards!!.