NegevLandRover

My cousin David has arrived and as it's his first time in this great country I'm showing him around my area abit and today we visited the Shunra Nature reserve. This part of the Negev desert is special in that it has quite alot of sand as opposed to the rocky terrain typical of most of this area. The area also doubles as an exercise ground for the military and as such is open only on Saturdays and bank holidays and even then one has to watch ones step as there are a fair number of bits of ordanance lying about like this little beauty (drive over this and you won't be needing a new Defender...just a new life). I hear you ask how an exercise ground doubles as a nature reserve ? Even the boys in green have to abide by certain rules regarding nature preservation and add to that the fact that army's presence keeps other users out and in fact some of the better nature reserves are to be found in army exercise zones. The first stop was to visit the fantastic Clay Canyons We were also lucky enough to find the Negev Lily (a seasonal flower that blooms for a short period at the end of summer). Although a desert the area actually abounds with life if you know where to look for it. This is the shell left after a caterpillar built it from bits of stick and dirt to protect itself while it chrysalized. And in one of the many water cisterns cut into the rock by ancient civalizations we found this lovely harmless snake that refused to be rescued and jumped back into the abyss just before we got it to safety. The area used to be populated by Byzantines around 2000 years ago and one of the now ruined towns (Rucheibe or Rechovot Be Negev) lies in the middle of this desert area and as we passed the ruins we startled a fine Golden Eagle that was to quick for the cameras but we did get a shot of some of the ruins... The road home - or at least towards home.... And we got home just after sunset - this was taken just five minutes up the road from where I live.. No rest for the wicked and tomorrow we are off to see another part of the desert........ Adam

They already have unmaned aircraft and have had for several years now. In many ways it is easier flying an unmaned aircraft than driving an unmaned vehicle as there are less obstacles in the air by far to deal with and radar is much easier to use than all sorts of other types of sensor needed on the land vehicle. I was wandering around an exercise ground a few weeks ago and came across an unmaned tank that was being put through it's motions - pretty mean piece of equipment. Adam

Sorry to hear that - what a bummer . There is a model in public works and gov't services that dictates that every employee ends up filling a position higher than his job capabilty because the easiest way to get rid of a useless employee is to promote him - getting kicked up the ladder. On that note you should be chuffed that they are obviously very happy with you where you are now ! Good luck in your planed appeal. Adam

I wish Defenders were that easy - the last time I had to unbolt the door hinges I ended up having to use an angle grinder......the bolts were rotten and got stuck and the philips screw heads are not helpfull in getting any torque on to the bolts. Adam

You will probably find that the wire joining the latches to the mechanisim itself is disconected - easy fix once you get there the trick being prising the door card away while the door is jammed shut. This is possible but difficult. Take off window handle, take off the piece of plastic behind the inside door latch (held in with piddly philips screw), take off inside door handle. Now prise the top of the door crad awy from the door frame and reach down to the door mechanisim and open it. If you want a better explanation then the best thing to do is take the door card off the front door that is working and do your home work there before you start on the door that is stuck. Adam

Actually I probably should have put in an appearance earlier as I was born and raised in Kenya and spent most of my youth travelling around Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia in LRs and Toyotas. Now I live in Israel and earn a living running desert adventure tours. Was last in Kenya a year ago and did a couple of longish out of the way safaris with the wife and kids. Adam

Bubbles on their own do not mean anything. Is the LR over heating ? Does the expansion tank develop pressure - ie when you open it is there lots of air in it ? When you open the expansion tank is there a smell of exhaust fumes in it ? Does the engine smoke ? Is there water/coolant in the engine oil ? Does the engine lose coolant ? For your bubbles to mean anything at least some of these other symptoms should also be present. Adam

Now sorted - this picture is hosted on my web site rather than photobucket or similar and linked to here automaticaly !! Guys you are GREAT !! Richard that last bit of advice has now completed the picture (excuse the pun !) Now all I have to do is go through all my albums and change the pics from BMP to JPG This alone will take a month of Sundays as for some reason ALL my images are saved as BMP. Before I do that is there any reason at all why I may want to keep BMP images rather than JPG ones ?!! TIA Adam

Trev, thanx for that - now clicky. Adam

Thanks for that FridgeFreezer. The hosting ain't cheap at 290 USD per year ?!! I'll re-check the the address for the link and try again and start to look for some link exchanges. Adam

I manage to post images hosted on my photobucket site with no problems at all so why can't I post images hosted on my own web site. Just so as to clarify: I wan't the images to pop up on the forum not for users to have to click on a link that takes them to my site. Before anyone asks why I care where the images are hosted I do care because I want to try and float my web site higher in the search listings and if it recieves more 'hits' then it will rise in the rankings. TIA Adam

My Webpage

NO.....But when he catches up with Will then Will will get a punch... (not the type you meant though).

Sad indeed. re. the great north run - a senoir official said that they normally have one or two deaths each year and that the high number of deaths this year suprised them ?! Definetly more dangerous running. Adam.

When we wade on our SAR missions we often open the doors both so as to avoid the vehicle floating away and to reduce the surface area offered towards the flow and therby decreace the 'push' of the flood waters on the vehicle. It also helps empty the vehicle out quickly.. Adam

Some of the ambulances we have here run turbocharged V8 6.2 liter engines and those things can go faster than I like to drive even with flashing lights and wailing sirens to warn of my passage. The ambulances are heavier than a standard defender and believe it or not probably have a worse drag coefficency so a defender, gearing permitting, would probably go just as fast if not faster - IMHO NOT a good idea. I too have heard that GMC do not treat LR gear boxes nicely. A couple of guys in these parts are using the turbocharged diesel Isuzu Trooper engines with fair success. Adam

Stephen, On your little islands with their small and poorly serviced roads what are you going to do with more power ??! Adam

Hi Jon, I was running the standard defender rims and running the tyre at a low 28 PSI even on the roads. The tyres were dirt cheap at the time (about 25 quid a tyre including innertube and fitting) as they were xe-army tyres being sold due to their 'shelf life' having expired ie. second hand as new. I finally gave up using them after having a 'brand new' one blow out at speed on a nasty corner which aged me some and caused me to reasses my whole approach. I now run 7.50 R16's or as close as possible and the Defender behaves, drives and handles much better than it ever did on the bigger tyres. Adam

Er Will - it might help if you tell us what model printer you have ?! So what is it ? Adam

I'll happily post a link on my site and would be even happier if we could have a section with links to other sites both for the interest factor but mainly because that would also help promote our sites as most search engines rate sites according to the number of hits they take and links they have. So any chance of a LR4x4 link section on here ?! Adam

Not heard that before - one could always weld the wheels straight ?! LR turning radius isn't great anyway even with the 7.50 R16 tyres on i The CVs are designed to handle the lock on the standard set up and as I said in my post above one is not likely to need heavy lock at high speed and at low speed the CV's can definetly cope with it. I ran 275 85 R16 tyres for four years and the tyre size did alot of damage to the CVs, wheel bearings and indeed whole drive train - as soon as I went back to the standard 7.50 R16 tyres about 3 years ago those things stoped wearing out so fast - conclusion being that the wear factor was the tyre size NOT the turning radius which has remained as factory set since new. IMHO just leave the bolts as is and let the tyres occasionaly 'polish' the radius arms which incidently clean the tyres of mud quite nicely at full lock. Adam.

When I ran oversized tyres I left the bolts alone as I found that sometimes a bit of tyre rub on the radius arms is worth the extra lock in tight areas. You soon get to know the limits at low speed and if you get that much lock at high speed then the tyre rub is going to be the least of your worries. Adam

Bromide gas is a highly poisinous gas but dilutes quickly in the atmosphere and proper breathing aparatus will allow you to work safely in an area poluted with it. It is easily recognizable as it forms an orange/red cloud. A few minutes after release the area could be safley approached. It used to be used widely by farmers to clean soil of disease and bacteria but now the EU prohibts it's use although a black market thrives. Adam

Good way to deal with them once and for all is to fill the tyre with Bromide gas - it'll kill them in no time at all and disperses fairly quickly afterwards. Adam

Alpine and cliff SAR teams use two stroke powered winches, in fact two types. One is cable on drum and the other is a capstan type where the rescue rope is passed around a capstan that is driven by the engine. The ones we have here are rated for a 500 kg lift load but I am sure that one could easily change the clutch on the capstan and therby raise the load rating. So they are out there. Adam