Eightpot

I don't think the problem will be because of wheel alignment - check a few other things first: Check wheel balancing Panhard rod bushes - get down at the front of the car and take a look at the panhard rod while someone moves the steering wheel from side to side - if there is any movement in the rubber bushes, get them changed as this will make the car shakey and unstable at speed. Check for play in ball joints on the drag link and track rod ends. Check the pre-load on the swivel housings. Can't help with any mechanics in your area, but all of these can be checked and repaired easily enough if you have a few tools and don't mind getting your hands dirty

I've been really pleased with Tetrosyl (I think??) underseal with added waxoil (halfords sell it as well as other places). Been using it for the last five years and I still have a rust free chassis on a 23 year old car. Goes on very quick with a brush, and pretty much dries after a day or so, so you don't always get covered in gunk when you're working underneath. it only costs about a fiver for a tin as well which will easily do a full chassis. I just use a thin coat every year and it goes on really nice and looks good. Get all the mud sticks and roadkill off the chassis first - don't just jetwash, get right under there and clean it out by hand to make sure you get all the deposits of caked in cr*p out - then give it a day to dry out properly. If you have rust, remove it first with a wire cup brush in a drill or grinder and prime it. Do this every year and you should keep the rot at bay. I've also been using some Tetrosyl spray on black all in one metal primer/paint - comes in spray tins and seems like a good alternative to Smoothrite but half the price - used it on the rangie chassis last week and it seems like good stuff, but time will tell if it works or not. I'm still going to go over it with my brush on underseal to make sure.

I'm having precisely the same prob with my Isuzu conversion - I've narrowed it down to either a slight air leak on the fuel line from the tank to the injectors, somewhere, or timing is slightly out. From stone cold it's lumpy as hell and loads of white smoke, once it's 'caught' though, after a 30secs its Aok and pulls like a train, smoking stops. If I give it three/four cycles on the glow plugs though it starts much, much better, almost no smoke, and the lumpiness goes so I reckon it's down to timing. I have tried bleeding the fuel lines up to the injectors before starting but that didn't seem to make much difference. these engines shouldn't really need glowplugs to start (haven't had them connected on my 90 in two years, starts first click even in ice) so there will be an underlying problem even if this helps.

You shouldn't have any problems with that gearing if you keep the weight reasonable, I've been running a 1.22 'box and 235's for a while now. Sand crossings were the only place I noticed the gearing being anything less than perfect, though 50% of that lies with the TDi engine not being that gutsy on sand anyway. probably another 25% of that is down to tyres as well - MT tyres can tend to bite into the sand rather than float on it and causes more drag. I did at times find myself wanting fourth gear a little lower geared, but overall I wouldn't swap it. If you have a good engine and have tweaked the pump a bit to give you a bit more poke this will help.

Don't need much more than that though do you, depending on which definition of 'expedition' we are looking at - assuming we are looking at a long road trip with some off roading and wild camping, then that is all you need isn't it? A six month scientific exploration of the polar regions would probably entail some additional gubbins, but on the keep it simple principle, a standard defender with roof tent and some crates in the back is all you need for your average overland trip? On the Libya trip I did, a guy came with us who had just spent 25k weighing down a 'cruiser with every conceivable piece of 'essential' expedition kit following advice from a well known 'specialists' - you name it, it was bolted on. Can't possibly cross the desert without it. My 22 year old ex MOD rag top and some home made mods went round just as well (better, never got stuck) and cost approx 22k less. Even further down the scale, our Arab desert guide did the very same route in an even older 'cruiser which would be laughed out of an MOT station. After his rear brake shoes wore down a few years ago, he ripped them out and clamped off the pipes.. His 'expedition' kit consisted of a big overcoat, a blanket, a bowl, a cup , a teapot and a teatowel. Not even a tent. We all did the same trip, saw the same stuff and arrived back at the same time, though one of us spent twice as much on fuel dragging his lardy arse round the sand

They work well to be honest - it's only a black plastic bag with a bit of hose on the end and a little shower rose. If you leave it out in the sun, it just warms up. The hose and shower head is a bit feeble and brittle though, so worth fettling something a bit more sturdy, but aside from that they work. Only problem is you need to be able to lie them flat somewhere high up and they can tend to flop of the roof and slap you in the kisser when you've got eyes full of soap. You could acheive a similar result with a pump and a black plastic water container. I've got a sink with leccy tap in the back of mine, so I'm just going to tee off to a shower head on the back door, and maybe drop a kettle of hot water in the water container if I want it a bit warmer.

All well and good in theory. But these companies are vital for those that rely upon them. There are people out there with very, very short arms who would not be able to reach thier beer if it were not for Fridge slider kits. And how could you tell Wednesdays socks from Fridays socks if you did not have a neatly laid out underwear section in a convenient slide out drawer system?? You can't pay enough for the kind of peace of mind that brings.

There's nowt wrong with doing your first trip with a company - the tips and knowledge you can pick up from people who do it for a living will be useful, and there's argument for saying that it may be money well spent if it saves you making your own mistakes further down the line. It also means you can concentrate on enjoying it and getting the most out of your time off without getting bogged down with practicalities and paperwork and route planning. If you go down this route I can thoroughly recommend these guys http://www.onelifeadventure.co.uk/

From the searches I've done it looks like the LT85 is a straight swap, but they tend to be a bit pricey and not come up as often. It looks like an R380 would need a crossmember swap for one with the correct mounts on? I'm sure I also read somewhere once that a R30 would foul the gearbox tunnel - must be a few people out there who have changed the auto box out for a manual who can verify this perleeeze?

Appologies if this has been covered before, not had much look searching the archives. in fact I'm sure I asked this myself a few months ago but have forgotten the answer.. I'm contemplating swapping out the LT95 on my rangie for a R380 as I could use a fifth gear and would like to drop a sorted gearbox in place before my next trip rather than deal with the daily paranoia fed by oil leaks, funny smells and the occasional stiff gear change. Just wondering if anyone has done this swap, and if there are any major hurdles - ie do mounts need shifting, tunnel need chopping etc? I do know that I'll need a V8 gearbox rather than a TDi one.

when I did my oil cooler pipes I cut the fittings out of some old pipes, bought a couple of metres of hose from pirtek and a few of the crimp on collars - didn't cost much, and has been absolutely fine - the pressure is fairly low in the cooler pipes.

take your nylon trousers - you're going to get wet.. you can put sealant round the floor panels, but what tends to happen is if you seal off one part, the water then squirts through another bit with more force You need to check there are no holes around the seat box/gearbox tunnel as well (you tend to get high pressure squirts round here when you hit water) and in the bulkhead. I always got a squirt in the eye from gaps in the handbrake gaitor and missing screws in the gearbox tunnel.

As said, the N/A aint all bad, they are good low down chuggers and quite good off road where torque is more important than speed. They are pretty slow though, especialy on motorways on even the meagerest of inclines, which can see you dropping down to third on occasions. The lack of power can be a bit of a plus, as they simply don't have the power to wear themselves out... Easy enough to stick a TDi in if you have a spare few hundred quid and like tinkering - a 200Tdi pretty much drops straight in with only a few mods to exhaust and some pipework. 300 Tdi needs mounts relocating. Ex MOD stuff is ok and I would say in general pretty well maintained without having amature modifications and bodge jobs like you get on civvy stuff. If you can get it direct from the MOD via somewhere like Withams, all the better.

..ring who - Scorpion don't exist I have contacted extreme4x4 who seem to be the reincarnation but they couldn't tell me/know/give a f*ck. no probs, only posted the question in case someone had the data to hand, don't want to start yet another spring thread which can ultimately only be resolved by trial and error.

I haven't been able to get axle weights as there isn't a suitable weighbridge in the area, but I did beg a favour and drove on to the scales at the local council depot where they weigh the rubbish trucks - the weight with me in it, half a tank of fuel and a couple of loaded wolf boxes was 2200Kg - not bad as it's already fitted out with the beds/lockers/kitchen etc. I calculate that I will load another 450Kg on this on our trip bringing total weight up to about 2650Kg. Reading through archives I'm thinking of going along the lines of the later 110 purple/brown rears with helper springs and HD fronts. Would be very useful to find out the ratings on the scorpion springs though to judge if it will make enough difference - not sure taking them off and measuring the free length and diameter will be of much use in reality?

..I should probably mention that they are on a Range Rover ambulance with a 110" chassis with 110 springs and helper springs at the back, and brand new deCarbon shocks. It should be a bit heavier than a 110.

Does anyone have any info on the spring ratings for scrapiron springs? - can't find them published anywhere... I have a set I want to replace for something else as the ride is to bouncy and soft, and generally get the orange cr*p off my truck (bought it with em on) - but without knowing the rating it's difficult knowing where to go from here - there is a tag on the springs which reads SR7 which I would think is the spring type. Any ideas?

Noty sure what a ranger is, but have you had a look at Milner 0ff Road? http://www.milneroffroad.com/Default.asp?c=204320

nothing complex to it, just a few nuts n bolts really. from memory though, you may need to remove the front crossmember (there are four bolts on each side) in order to get the front downpipe off. If you are replacing an existing system, just take note of the route the pipe takes over the axle/chassis at the rear. having some bits of string handy can be useful to tie up the pipe sections while you get the joints assembled, saves your arms a bit.. If you can get new hangers and rubbers etc it means you can just cut off the old ones as they are probably seized up to buggery and can be a pig to get off.

Take it off, clean up the hub end, put a new cap on. Warming up the cap in hot water before you put it on is an idea to avoid damage.

If you get the Rebel 'universal' snorkel, you'll be able to fit it no problem - You need to drill a hole in the wing top near the bulkhead using a normal hole cutter, and the pipe and flexi tube drops down the side of the heater ok - you should be able to see how it fits on this piccy: ps I took the heater out as well as it was only ten mins work and made the job easier.

I had loads of shunt up until recently when I changed the axle end rear trailing arm bushes.. they were the last ones I changed as well. they didn't even seem that bad, even though they were completely shot - even got past an mot examiner, and only got picked up when I went back for a retest by a different examiner.

Fasthosts aint bad - I've just registered a domain and hosted a site with them using thier site builder software, had the site up and running within an hour (first one I've done). Costs less than a fiver a month.

Land Rover orphanage are selling off some old stock cheap at the moment - not sure if Rangie swivels fit? but I picked up some new chrome swivels from them for £8 each! I notice at the moment they have brand new freelander and 2 door rangie windscreens for £9.99! (on thier ebay shop)

The cyliner liners on the isuzu engines are chrome plated - and unfortunately a lot of chrome has flaked off as well. Not sure how well these would repair, if at all and I don't want to chuck good cash after bad. I was seriously considering a rebuild up until I saw the cost of a piston/liner kit - £750! No doubt I could have got the necessary bits for way less than that, but I had a good bit of luck yesterday and managed to pick up a low mileage engine for £350, so jobs a good un. Should be able to flog a few bits of the old engine and have a few useful expedition spares left over as well, so not the worst result in the world. The moral of all this of course, is that a 'bargain' radiator, is not always a bargain radiator..