qwakers

that probably started as a temp bodge to get them to the end of the day.... and when it worked promptly got forgotton....

looks blown to me... se circled areas in the pics....

diff ratios vs rpm at the limiter. ignore the gear ratios from 1-5 as those are guessed, and 6th ratio is a calculation from where i know the rpms sit at 56mph. all i did then was input the final drive ratio, and lower the max engine rpm till 6th gear read 56mph. crude but effective. first is 5.13:1 (current) second is 4.1: (this is the option i think id choose...) last is 3.73:1

the major downside to where i keep my lorry is the lack of water supply. i have no intention of drinking the water from the river, but for washing the lorry and other uses, its free and useful. ive already got a petrol pressure washer, but its a old model, so cannot draw water, it has to be supplied under pressure.(not much pressure, mind...) so cheap submersible pump... a hose and crock clips to a 12v battery. once lorry was a lot less green i filled a couple of 25l drums up with drinking water, stuck the pump in them and filled the lorries water tank.. the flow rate from the pump is so slow i sped it up, somewhat, with the pressure washer once it was all washed off i got the da sander out and used fine paper to take the very top layer of gelcoat off. this has the advantage of changing the entire surface to the same colour so you cant see where the hovis stuff came off and it'll give a very good surface for the signwriting to stick too. also if i spray it in the future to change the colour, most of the prep work is done! pics of the finished product. 90% of the scrape marks (from trees, other lorries, corners of buildings etc, did i mention it was driven by neanderthals?) are gone, the hovis lettering is still visible but less so, and it in general looks much more presentable. not bad going, methinks. but very hard work

new bits from a rebuilder. finding a diff from a breaker is turning out to be elusive. id happily pay £200 for a diff, that's just a tank of fuel for it but £1k for just a CW&P? not happening.

the only issue for me with the lorry driving wise is some idiot specced it with a 5.13:1 diff. so its revving its tits off when doing 56 which goes some way to explaining the woeful fuel economy.... so i did a bit of research and found my options where a 3.73:1, 4.10:1 and 4.46:1 crown wheel and pinion. oooh, boy, you think land rover prices are expensive? try these prices..... 3.73 - £1240+VAT 4.10 - £985.98+VAT 4.46 - £890+VAT i found another supplier that would do the 3.73:1 for £750 + vat not quite as bad but holy hell!

i spent time fiddling with the lorry today. one very loaded car later and i have the ramps and their extensions at the lorry, ready to try them out! in the garage i thought up multiple complicated ways of supporting the hinge, from a complicated locking mechanism through to folding legs, but the easiest way is often the best.... as you can see there are no problems with the weight or rampover angles (this isn't a lot higher than the rx8 and the wheelbase is way longer, so this amount of clearance means the 8 should go.) that being true, taking the ramps out i thought was the best plan, give the lorry more versatility (see for sale thread) assembling the ramps is actually really easy! i fit the main ramps as before then lift them off the ground with the tail lift (finally a use for it!) the just slide the pin through the hinge and lower the tail lift down, slide the two chunks of wood under the hinge then finish lowering the taillift out of the way. easy

i was thinging about taking the tail-lift off and having the hydraulic pump fold the ramps up for me. probably wont happem though.

todays work, whilst waiting for another delivery (read freeby!) from RRP i decided to do something about the ramps on the wagon. the original ramps are long enough, right? well anyone who's seen me load up knows the cars nose has been comprehensively dragged along the ground, so no, not long enough. folding ramp extension time! about another 6 feet of ramp... stage 1 hinged up and skinned... and whole ramp painted (silver because i have it in stock...)

last time i had this issue on a d1 it was the pushrod length. if you take the m/c off, stick a bit of blue tack to the end and bolt it back on (don't touch the pedal) then take it off again youll see the clearance. you want the clearance to be about the thickness of a sheet of paper.

and ugly nah, the cosmetics are getting there.

yeah i did try to pursuade rrp to wrap the entire lorry, he didnt want to pay a £5k bill.

just wrap it in lots of bubble wrap and cardboard they'll never know.

doesnt help that im in no way a machinist and all i know ive gotten from the likes of this old tony and the fabrication series! (and binky of course!) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcxlBLmujrjTVSSUkzZ2Jlg https://www.youtube.com/user/featony/videos