Snagger

Speedy cables and other similar recalibration companies do small gear boxes to plug into the drive cable as an alternative to recalibration of the speedo itself.

Similar to Elon Musk’s comment regarding Starship: “The best part is no part.”

How about using a GPS based speedo? No need to recalibrate it ever again.

Yes, some of the drivers are plain stupid. Same many Nissan Patrols being driven fast into deep water. 🙄. A lot of vehicles have been flooded while parked, but a lot were driven into ridiculous depths. Every car I have owned, after driving it home I have clambered underneath and inside the bonnet to learn where everything is and how it is made so that I can predict any issues like this, diagnose noises, know what will need servicing and so on. Maybe it’s just because of indoctrination, but I think knowing all the systems and layout of your vehicle is essential to operating it correctly!

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One of the cats in this instance. With hindsight, we would have cancelled, but there was no information on the roads yet and we didn’t expect it to be worse after the morning storms than usual after long heavy rains (it was). At least we made it back just before the worse afternoon storm - even then, we had to turn back on several major roads, twice driving with a handful of others the wrong way along dual carriageways (slowly) until we could cross over at junctions. As for the cat, he’s fine. Thanks.

In terms of building a huge city and screwing up the natural drainage (which constantly evolves anyway), leading to flash flood, yes. Floods happen annually here as the rains usually come in big storms, just not on this scale. They really need some storm drains like LA and a lot of pumping capacity for low areas of the city and the airport. It’s the same as in the UK, especially all the front gardens being concreted over for parking and all the new estates built on flood plains, just wider spread. A lot of people are banging on about cloud seeding. Yes, they do that here, last seeding was two days before the storm but the whole region was hit by this, not just the seeded area. The storms were completely natural. Seeding will trigger rain in marginal conditions where you have small scattered clouds, but can’t precipitate (😉) storms.

Streaky said it was a 12-13 foot drop under the road remnant. Not a smart place to sit! The engine intake is in a scoop above the radiator, just under the bonnet, so is as high as they could site it. There are plenty of idiots who take the XC90 into the desert because it has pretty good ground clearance and is AWD, but the car is not for that. They get stuck or burn out the transmission. It isn’t an all terrain car. It is, however, a very good all-weather car.

Pictures by a friend (Streaky Chambers) of some damage to the rural roads.

Had to get one of my pets to the vet after the morning storm. The roads flooded so fast that there was no information on the radio, Google maps or other media and the police had not had time to get out and block the worst roads. Lots of people were caught out, including parked cars destroyed just because they were unlucky to be in a low spot. 5.5” of rain in 12 hours, more than half the UK annual rainfall. The XC90 did brilliantly in some pretty nasty conditions, well over 18” and close to 24” wading in places. Still, some roads were far too deep, and the tunnels were full to the roofs. The car didn’t miss a beat, even where BMW, Audi and Porsche SUVs had hydrauliced or soaked their ECUs and got us home safely for us to clear our ground floor of valuables and most furniture before the afternoon storm arrived. The barrier on the right in the third shot is the Armoco crash railing on the junction joining AlKhail highway, the picture with the water bowser is on the highway itself. The red and white strip on the right of the fifth photo Aus the tops of the Jersey barriers identical to the 30” high barriers on the left of the same shot.

They save a lot of crud from blocking the filter (incredibly badly sited) and strangling the oil flow.

The current trend, especially by Korea, to design cars with all these lines and angles is really ugly. They look like overpriced,poor fashion trainers.

They’ll fit, you just need a lot of camber and some Monster stickers.

I had been considering making a front hinged version of the original roof for my 109. Should be easier than on a 110 because of the flat profile all the way around the sides and front edges. Still a bit of a headache over the rear door, but I have some ideas. Unlikely to ever happen, though.

Yes, from a comfort point of view, the Alucab and similar types are better as they offer more space and contain a full bed. Still, like Mike, I’d go for the Drivelodge for the better closed appearance and the price, plus the fact that the Brownchurch rack can be modified but left in situ to protect it.

Edited the previous reply, so please check it again.

Gas dampers are pressurised and will naturally extend, but conventional oil dampers are not pressurised and will stay in whatever position you stopped apply force. That is why you should not use gas dampers for the steering damper, even though they are often mis-sold as “HD steering dampers”. If you can move oil dampers at about 1cm/second with significant hand force, then they are probably ok.

Those wheels aren’t bad looking, but I’d prefer to avoid that diameter and keep 18” or less. Those seats look his typical vulgar fare.

Odd that they didn’t finish the wiring loom apertures, as you said. The ovals are welded in on SIII bulkheads, but I have no idea how they are fitted on Defenders. I’m sure you can bond them in if you can cut them out of the old bulkhead.

I think they were fairly common on SIIs, but not fitted without the rear windows to SIIIs.

That could be the cause. Throwing the rubber boots in the bin helps - they just trap condensation on the piston and cause the rust. If the piston can “breathe”, they last considerably longer. I recall one of the early UK kit vendors (Welsh, I think) selling kits of TIConsole springs and Procomps with specially fitted standard steel shrouds instead of the rubber boots. That may have helped.

One of our 777s hit a flamingo (they migrate through DXB) and it tore a big hole in the forward fuselage by the FO’s feet. That was very surprising, given the oblique nature of the impact and how sturdy a 777 is. A former colleague hit a Golden Eagle in a Vulcan - it went through the wing leading edge and front spar and damaged the main spar. There was a bit of a fuss by the authorities about killing the bird, less concern over nearly killing the crew and airframe…. I see so many guys asking to maintain high speed below 10,000’, but it just isn’t worth the risk. Sorry for the tangent, everyone! 😬

Once straightened as best you can, a drop plate for a hitch or rear step will hide any remaining distortion.

Stainless is much harder, so fitting it to a chassis is going to be much more difficult if there is any variation in the bolt hole spacing - it won’t flex like the mild steel or galvanised bulkheads. It’s harder to machine or weld, so production tolerances might be a bit vaguer and the welding has the potential to be a bit weaker to, not because it should be but because of difficulty working and the time pressure to clear their backlog. It’ll also be much harder to modify, like we all tend to do to some degree. It will also behave differently in a severe accident - it may behave better than standard, but equally may behave worse, and given the rather limited protection we are already afforded in a Series or Defender and the lack of crash testing stainless bulkheads have been subjected to, I would prefer to go with a known behaviour. On the flip side, galvanised bulkheads can have issues with warping and clogging, though I would expect that new manufacturers would brace the feet and only add the bonnet and vent flap hinges and the fly screens after galvanising, eliminating any issues beyond the possibility of slight ripples in the flat faces directly above the wing tops.

Why not really cheer us all up by telling us life is only temporary! 😜😂😂😂