sean f

Doubt it would be possible to borrow any parts but I used to have a 4 wheel steer Honda Prelude for many years, worked great and except in very specific cases you never even noticed it in operation. With small turns of the wheel the rear wheels turned the same way so the vehicle crabbed slightly, as you turned the steering more the rear steer centered and then finally reversed approaching full lock, this was all fully automatic and couldn't be turned on or off. The only issues I had with it was when I drove into a parking space tight to a wall once, by the time I got back some one had parked tight in front and behind me, turning the steering full lock to get out meant the rear of the car drove into the wall, noticed what was happening before it actualy hit but still took a while to get out using reduced lock. For off road I think full manual control would be needed to get the best from it and as others have said some form of manual lock out would seem sensible whether electronic or just a drop pin pulled out before competion depends on how confident you can be in electronics, I generally lean towards, keep it simple and it is less likely to break!.

Have you check the rest of the wheel nuts on the car?. We had alert a while ago about leaving cars in long term car parks, apparently low lifes will go round loosening all the wheel nuts on a car with the intent of coming back later with a van and stealing the wheels, with all the nuts loose or missing they can lift all the wheels pretty quick with less chance of there vehicle being spotted hanging around. Otherwise check for dirt behind the wheel or on the hub, a small piecs of stone can make the wheel seem tight but work itself out later leaving the wheel loose. Never hurts to give the nuts a quick check after a few miles if you have had the wheels off, I speak from the experience of loosing a wheel at 30mph, still not sure why it came off but all the nuts and two of the studs where missing by the time I stopped and I had had the wheel off earlier so assume I didn't tighten them correctly some how.

Its basically as you say down to population density, in Aus there is not a lot of competition for land (once out side urban areas), if you are prepared to travel a bit you can do pretty much anything you like with out upsetting neighbours. Unfortunately in the UK most lanes (and paved public roads) are fairly well used, on a weekend in good weather you would be unlikely to be able to do much laning with out meeting someone. As with all things there are idiots on both sides, walkers and horse riders who will intentionally cause trouble, and land owners who will block routes, on the other hand there ARE car and bike riders who will drive at excess speed and drive off the route causing damage. A lot of routes are old rights of way, round here often old than white men getting to Aus, with houses near the entrances and exits of the route in some cases, with SOME drivers / riders driving past at full speed it can be dangerous, damaging and just plain annoying for the house owners so it is understandable for them to want action, unfortunately the easiest way to make the problem go away is to get the route closed. Police do have periodic crack downs in some areas to try and cut back the idiots, since lanes are legaly public roads all road laws apply, so charges of reckless or dangerous driving can be applied if the are caught, also with many of these people the vehicles and drivers are often not fully legal either, no insurance results in the vehicle being confiscated over here until you show a full valid set of documents, unfortunately with limited police resources where to put those resources is political and lanes don't neccesarily get to far up that list.

Yes, there are 6 bolts in all, undo all 6 and lift the whole thing away, with the seat box in place it is a bit tight but I have managed in the past, try and clean the top of the transfer box up a bit as well to reduce the chance of carp falling in. The actuator on the outside rotates the shaft and pushes a fork to engage high and low ratio, the fork is secured to a flat on the shaft with a grub screw or bolt and it probable this that has come loose so when you rotate the shaft there is enough slack that the gear lever won't engange gear correctly but by using an adjustable spanner you mover the shaft enough for the fork to change gear. Just tighten it up, blob of thread lock might be a good plan as well, re assmble and you might have to adjust the linkages for it to operate correctly but that is pretty straight forward.

I was always under the impression that as far as tyres where concerned if they could pass the MOT requirements then they were legal (ignoring potential issues of not approved, declared different to insurance etc). If threads show fail, if excessive small cracking (rubber to aged) then fail, not sure the Police can really enforce any other requirements. I have in the past had a hire car company (one of the major ones at Heathrow which I won't name) try and convince me a tyre was fine even when it had a cut in the side that went down to the threads and cut some of those as well, I refused to accept the vehicle as un safe and non road legal, they kept says as long as the tread was fine the tyre was legal, after a "frank discussion" I got another car, happy in the end as I went from a Fiat Brava to the only other car they had free a soft top Merc!. What annoyed me is after a pointed out the fault they still tried to send me off in the vehicle, even there mechanic said it was fine, would have been me that had the accident if it blew out or got the points and fine if I was stopped shows how good there vehicle safety checks are, it clean and shiny send it back out. Police check points often don't know the law, I got stopped quite few years ago and given a road side emissions test, which apparently I failed on excess CO2, I knew the engine was rough as the airfilter was covered in mud, got given a defect tickets which had to be stamped by and MOT tester to say the vehicle is now to MOT standard. I upset the police tester by leaving the vehicle at the test point and walking down the road to the MOT station getting the form stamped and then walking back and handing it back to him. He wasn't happy that the vehicle had had nothing done to it and MOT tester hadn't even looked at it. We both ended up in the test station and the tester and police then had a discussion over requirements, a 1954 vehicle had no CO2 requirement for MOT, test was "does not smoke excessively" (might be different now) so it had passed on what the police had failed it on as the criteria was invalid confirming this required several calls to higher people including DVLA? to confirm MOT reuirements. Fixed the problem when I got home by cleaning out the airfilter. Used to get the same issue with not wearing a seat belt, don't have them officer, you must have, no I haven't, few calls and I used to be sent on my way with a recommendation that I really should have some fitted, which to be fair was good advice, never did fit them though.

Can't see any reason why you can't use lead shot, might be a bit soft and start to break down after a while but still should work even then. As long as it doesn't start corroding together to form lumps it should be fine, on that point make sure it is lead shot, non lead shot is becoming more common over here for envitromental purposes particularly assosiated with wildfowling and I believe some of that is steel or steel alloys, not sure what the corrosion on this or other substitudes would be like.

I use the Dynabeads in TSL Q78 tyres (off road 35 10.5 - 16 approx) and they work fine. Fitted the tyres first and had horrible vibration, split the rims and added the beads and all is much more civilised. There are lots of scientific explinations of how the beads work but in a nut shell as the tyre moves in an offcentre way the beads get thrown out and compensate, any extra weight just spreads itself evenly. They do require some speed to work but then wheel wobble is less of an issue at low spead anyway, not sure how they work on rough ground as never sure how much of the vibration is wheel balance or just hitting an un even road!. Due to the way they work they will only balance around the circumfrence of the tyre, not sure of the correct terms but I think it amounts to the wheel would be balanced if balanced on a centre point with the tyre horizontal but might not be if out of balance from side to side with the tyre vertical (obviously you can't actually test this statically as the tyre needs to be spinning for them to work), in effect you would be adding weights evenly to each side of the rim rather than to a specific side. So a wheel balanced on a full balancing machine will be better in most cases in theory. In practice I find them fine. Once added it is not recommended to try and get the wheel balanced on a conventional machne as they will automatically try and compensate and will throw the machine off. Also in theory at least they will adjust automatically to any new imbalance such as mud build up or loosing a chunk of tyre tread then readjust on the fly as the mud falls off, in practice again I think this depends on degree, they can only correct so far. I fitted them as I have stazworks rims with a rolled bead so can't fit conventional wheel weights and stick on ones tend to fall off pretty quickly. They are a pretty recognised way of balancing a wheel but more in the states than over here and as fars as I know more common on commercial tyres. It is not recommended to use ball bearings as they can rust if there is any moisture in the tyre and then just form a big lump. Also the smaller and more dense the beads the better they will spread out and work.

That sounds almost exactly the call I had, except I had no problems and got suspisious also it was difficult to understand the person calling as there english was very bad which gave me more time. As with all these types of scam they can work if as unfortunately happened in your case they call at the wrong time, when you are expecting a call from someone and don't realise they aren't the person you expected. Genuine callers don't mind when you check them out anyone who objects would instantly make me suspisious.

Have done the same with a double glazing sales person who rang me at work, keep him on for nearly an hour even passed him on to some one else to talk to for 20 minutes, agreed that new windows would be a great idea even a conservatory was possible, it was going great till he asked me to confirm the address to send an engineer round to measure up, it was as Aberdeen number but he was very confused when I gave him a latitude and longditude, finally I let on I was on a drilling rig in the North Atlantic, I just about heard the swearing as he slammed the phone down.

Had similar e-mails from Barcleycard, along the lines of follow the link and re-enter all your security data so we can up date our records. Since I have never had a Barcleycard or banked with them pretty obvious spoof, also similar from inland revenue, you have a tax refund due please enter all your details here.... In both cases I forwarded it to the respective fraud departments and deleted the origional. I normally do forward the e-mals to the fraud departments (most of the big companies have one) as the sooner they know about these things the faster they can take action to shut them down. Other one I have had several times lately is a phone call from someone supposedly from microsoft (generally with a very heavy foriegn accent) claiming they have traced a fault to my computer and would I log onto there site and they will fix it for me....needless to say caller identification disabled. Looking it up and the scam is when you hand over control of the computer to them they disable your antivirus, suck in any useful data and then install a virus before charging you to take it back off again but leave behind a data gather thing which then forwards all you logins passwords to them in the future. Confused me the first time as it was unexpected but when they couldn't tell me which computer or which version of Windows I knew it was a scam, claiming I had a mac confused them more... They where pretty pushy on the phone though and I can see where someone with little computer knowledge could be taken in.

Insurance could be the big issue, you charge (or even allow) people to come in you ARE liable to some extent, renting a site to clubs with there own insurance moves most of the liability to them (short of you leaving obviously dangerous stuff or animals about). Clubs are likely to be better behaved as well, if they screw up to badly and damage your equipment or fences they don't come back, this is probable they way I would look to go. I suspect getting insurance for an anything goes site would be difficult or impossible. Rules might upset some people but are needed and just as importantly need to be enforced. You will always get some idiot who will drive like a pillock, they are a risk to them selves but more importantly to everyone else around, "do you reckon if I hit the top of that mound at 80 I would clear the next one as well? the people stood on the top watching someone else will get out of the way won't they........., brakes? what brakes they failed ages ago" sort of attitude, they might be there to smash there vehicle apart but doesn't help the person they hit. Its a sad fact but people will bring court cases for anything, to keep in the clear you will need insurance and some proper legal advice (possible from the insurance company) about what warnings are needed and rules to enforce. What ever people say on forums, myself included there is no supstitute for speaking to a proffesional, there opinion will also work to prove you took "reasonable measures" to operate safely. If you don't and something nasty happens you could be in a lot of legal issues. People signing disclaimers as they enter only covers so far, and not against some one else behaving so recklessly as to be criminal, it happens.

How that article I can agree with, the levels are basically an "unnatural" landscape, they were created by man and need to be actively managed to remain in existence. Lack of management will see them revert to there natural state of a huge swamp with islands in it. Whether this is ultimately desirable is political but it would end the existence of the area as it exists now, with massive disruption to any people or businesses there at the moment

Can't really see why there would be any issue with fracking, there would be nothing to gain by buying the land owners out, in the UK all oil and gas is state owned then license d out to produce, land owner gets nothing from gas, all they might get is some rent if drilling or production actually takes place on there land. Don't want to get to political but no real problems occure with fracking anyway IF DONE PROPERLY, UK legislation for drilling is very tight after several instances went wrong (look up Ocean Odessy), most cases in the USA where there are reported issues either had issues with water contamination long before fracking started or are traced back to a bodged drilling job.

It should be the PCD of the four bolt holes is the same sit it should work. Have you tried contacting the seller.

Calculation as Blanco has used is Pressure X volume = Pressure X volume. After that it get more complicated, working out the free air volume (atmosperic pressure) is easy and done above, working out the volume of the tyres is more difficult particularly as you would need to make anllowance for the change in volume of the inside of the tyre as the pressure increases. Volume of the tyre at 30psi (approx 2 bar) X 2 bar - Volume of the tyre at 15psi (approx 1 Bar) x 1Bar would equal the free air volume required. Air transfer would in theory be possible until the pressure in the tank equalled the pressure in the tyre, in practice there is friction loss as well (pressure to push air down line and open tyre valve). How if you can work out the volume in the tyre it easy........

Ok not technically fully stuck as they were winching out but would have been without the winch. Then turning round and spotting the marshal that had miss judged the mud just a bit!.

I have a digital EGT gauge fitted with a memory function for highest temerature. So far it has worked fine, I don't tend to push the engine to the limit if I can help it and so far all the readings I have seen have been fine, thats with running an improved flow intercooler and a peak boost pressure of about 18 - 20psi. The one I have is the same as Ebay item 200551078262, (sorry never quite got the hang of links, sure someone can do it if any one wants a link), the one I got came from a company in Germany but looks to be the same item, from the design and have looked at it I think it is a general industrial temperature display unit matched with a suitable temperature probe, (there are options to use different temp probes and change all sort of stuff I never bothered with) rather than a specifically designed EGT gauge. Its a lot less blingy but thats what I wanted and it fitted into the dash easily.

If the V5 doesn't come back as the correct vehicle be very cautious. Subject to correction as far as i am aware there are no 100" station wagons from new so this would be a conversion. Any conversion which involves cutting the chassis (major part at least) SHOULD have a IVA / SVA certificate to go with it (if the rest of the bits are origional it may keep its origional reg), providing shortening is all that was done passing the IVA would be easy they would just check the welding is to a good standard. As someone else mentioned there is a good chance this has been built up on a range rover or Disco chassis (as per "A 4x4 is born"), nothing wrong with that but the reg then should follow the identity of the chassis i.e. it would be registered as a disco or Rangerover with a body conversion, again nothing wrong with that if it has been done well. Having a vehicle where the paperwork and vehicle don't match up is potentially dangerous for the wallet (no suggestion here it is anything criminal but the possibility exists), also insurance can be an issue as they will look up the details from DVLA and if they aren't the same as what you tell them alarm bells will ring and many mainstream insurers will walk away, there is also the chance that if you do get pulled by the police for any reason and they start looking closely and details don't match they might impound the vehicle until they can establish correct details / identity and potentially ownership. My personal dealings with CWS haven't been the best for reasons I will not post on a public forum but PM if you want to know.

Relatively cheap source for a suitable air tank is an old P38 Range Rover or Discovery with air suspension. Lots have either been scrapped or converted to coils, most of the time when they are converted to coils the tanks is left in place but not used, they are relatively small and come complete with mounting brackets already attached. If you plan to use the air a lot then a bigger tank might be better but it is always a trade off of now big a tank and where you can put it.

The problem is pretty much as Simon describes. In normal form the wiring for the indicators run through the flasher relay then to the switch which connects it to the appropriate side, all normal. The warning light is fed from the POSITIVE side of each circuit, the warning light draws so little power that it can earth via the opposite side indicator bulbs without making the element of a standard bulb even glow, normally this is fine but with LED lights they draw so little power that even the amount going through the warning light is enought to make them flash (generally they are slightly dimmer on the side that shouldn't be flashing). The exact age of the vehicle involved will probable effect things as later vehicles may be wired differently, mine was a B reg so one of the first different types of LED lights might well effect things as well if they require different power levels to light. It can be fixed either with diodes as suggested or by rewiring the warning light so each side operates a different warning light which goes direct to earth, I used the towing warning light and doctored the wiring and picture to suit. This took me several hours of swearing to work out what was happening when it happened to me, then fixed quite quick once I found out what it was.

I have a Harrison M300 which has been fine for me, I think it is basically the same as the newer Colchester Student, when I looked it up it seemed about even which one people thought was best, probable based on which one they were used to. Also of course it comes down to condition pretty much like the argument about which is best the 200tdi or the 300tdi engine lots of views and no clear answer. Don't forget anything this sort of size is likely to be 3 phase, if you don't have a 3 phase supply this is something which would need to be looked at, there are various ways to sort it out, covered in another thread on here, none of them a cheap or easy.

If you look at the bottom of the pump suction tube there should be an adjustable pull out section which will allow it to reach the bottom of the 10 litre drum. I have two of the 5 litre version and they have pumped a lot of oil with no problems. Don't try using them for water though as they can rust internally then stop pumping and the nozzle section non return valve locks up, we used to have one on the display stand for DiffLock at the shows which just pumped water so as not to make a mess, worked fine first year, got stored wet and needed a bit of tlc for the next year.

Some site owners will set there own rules to minimise damage to the land (actual or percieved), if they own the site basically they can rule anything they like or just tell every one to up and leave, most people allow trials for only a token payment if any at all. You would need to find out if this was a club / event rule or a site rule, possible other sites the club operate on you might be allowed.

Not trying to put a downer on it and I think the P38 setup is almost ideal for a budget racer, big engine, good suspension, fewer rust issues than most LR products and of course cheap to buy, just need to ba aware of the potential pit falls from the beginning. I suspect the autobox could be switched for an earlier non electronic one if needed, no idea now the electrics work in the tranfer box but as a simple out I expect it could be put in high and then just locked up there, how often is low ratio actually used on a comp?. I have a P38 running a LT230 tranfer box, did require a few minor modifications though, putting the engine in the back and then turning the diffs upside down in the axles amongst a few others, so not exactly standard, with 400BHP it does shift though!.

Till it dies an drops branches on the car......... Even with a tree preservation order there is an allowance for reasonable trimming and cutting to protect the tree and prevent danger. Probable best to talk to a qualified tree surgeon and if they say it is "reasonable" and won't endanger the tree it is allowed, If it is not your tree then you would need to come to an arrangement with the owner, possible split the charges. This is what I was told by the council when they put preservation orders on some trees up the road, I know there are some profesional tree surgeons on here so I am sure they will have come across this before and know how the technicalities work.