ThreePointFive

I'll keep this brief as it's Nak's thread for a completely different thing. The new screen was £32 from here but it seems I bought the last one - they'll no doubt relist. First thing to address is no, any big screen in a Defender looks wrong. It's never going to blend in like it's OEM. The sound is good enough for a 90, the touch screen functionality is very good and it does everything I need of it. The main/only purpose I want it for is as a screen for the blind spot and reversing cameras. At the moment I only have the blind spot camera as you can't manually cycle through them, so I need to get it wired in to activate with the reverse light. For this purpose, it's perfect: It fits well and doesn't obstruct the controls, I can and have operated the passenger side from the driver's seat. It looks like it's in the way but it's a trick of being stuck out from the fascia. I originally didn't lke this screen for its taper, but that makes the lower controls more accessible. Hope that helps someone.

I vote for the cheap/rubbish clamp pliers. A pair of mole grips are fine when the clip is already on a pipe and a slip means it ends up back of that same pipe. Off a pipe in a pair of normal pliers, I find they invariably fly towards your face.

It's a shame you're over there or I'd send you my unit. My new one has arrived and suits my needs so now I have one surplus. I suspect the postage is more than the unit cost, which would wipe out the benefit?

Apologies, meant to reply but life is hectic. Glad you found it. I have now ordered a different unit to any of the ones above. Turned out the one I tried to buy is a Chinese seller pretending to be in the UK and it was going to take an age to arrive. I'll put an update in my thread at some point.

I agree, they offer a package at a price that very few vehicles can compete with. It's the comparison between ~£30k and £75k that I was trying to draw out more than the pickups being bad value.

Well......I'm not so sure, but it is entirely functional. I think you have two options for the nav, either to use the carplay/android functionality or just 'dumb' screen mirroring stuff. I'll have another play with it later as I haven't driven far enough to need the nav. I've just used it for the rear view camera and music so far, which it's done very well. You do need to be careful with some of these units, this is the second type I went for. The first wanted me to download an app that would have 1000% told The Party what brand of socks I wear. That only really becomes an issue for the more advanced integration and the new one doesn't seem to want to do any of that. The first one was a better looking solution but was exactly 1mm too large to fit in the fascia with the centre removed and in fairness was good in every other way. In the interests of transparency, I was inspired to find a larger/better looking screen after my post yesterday. Having had two units that both worked acceptably well, I took the risk on this one. It was available for £55 if you look carefully on the listing (all legit through ebay). A bigger screen is better for the cameras and more visible at a glance, and I have the space around the fascia to use. I think the connectors look a bit suspect so if it's not a straight swap or works any way differently, it'll just go back. Sorry Naks, complete derail to your thread.

I wanted a double din/large screen to replace the annoying mirror mounted one in my car but I didn't want to cut my dashboard facia about. I ended up with one of these: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374973947631 For this price I thought it would either be an empty box, immediately set on fire, or send all of my personal data to Chairman Mao, but no. It works unbelievably well. I don't know how they can make complex electronics for this kind of money. It's ugly enough to make a grown man cry, but when the alternative is £1000.....

Let's hope it is a move towards more sustainable purchase of vehicles built to be less disposable.

I have to wonder how these stack up against the usual pickups in terms of fleet costs. With those, you can dispose of them by the time their first service is due when they cost so little to buy and the residuals are so low (a slight exaggeration, maybe). There's a reason RNLI use the L200, nothing to do with off road ability when it gets covered in salt every day. These will have to reach a longer service life to 'pay back' the purchase cost and that takes actual maintenance. I don't doubt they're capable of a long life, but curious to know how the numbers work when your starting point is almost twice that of other vehicles.

I don't disagree, but like you I would let intended purpose dictate equipment fitted, not the other way around.

Because we all know lots of lights = increased ability off road. Just ask the owners of most generic pickups these days... I have never understood it. The extra lights were the first thing to go when I rebuilt mine.

The cheaper of the two was the nicer, in my opinion.

If there's no demand for it, the market will show that. I think it's good LR are making ridiculous things for people with ridiculous money, they'll only waste it on Mars rockets, buying entire social media platforms or NFTs otherwise.

That is what I meant! Beautiful.

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I think that's what the thread is for... Also, some say the Victor was the more advanced, more useful of the V fleet which is why it stayed in service much longer. Not me though, I'd never say that.

Yeah that's a much better explanation. The upshot is that the current gauge in any form wouldn't give me useful information, so I've already purchased the one above. Knowing the actual temperature is going to be far more beneficial, and I can check its calibration against the measquirt readings.

Oh yeah, I suppose it could mean that too.

All the good names were taken.

I know this has been asked countless times, but I am just looking to double check the collective experience of the forum and raise something of an issue to people that might not be aware. My current setup is a TD5 tempature gauge with wiring directly to the green top (AMR1425) sender that came with the V8. For reasons I don't want to go into, I recently discovered the gauge will not go beyond halfway in any situation. This makes it pointless, but also potentially catastrophic. Research confirms that TD5 temp guages are meant to be driven through the speedo, with a different 'curve' than the direct connection gives and hence the wrong display. I am convinced by this event to get a real gauge which shows actual temperature, so I want to change, I also want to make sure whatever I get works. I wish VDO made white needled gauges in the TD5 style, but they don't, so I have to settle for orange unless anyone is aware of any. My alternative is to use the guage out of the original 1988-era binnacle, but this is also the 'cold/normal/hot' style, which I don't want. Aesthetic preferences aside, is there any reason why this gauge and this sender will not work properly in the Rover V8? I can't see a way that the gauge/sender will not work, hot water is hot water no matter what engine it's in, but I am sure I can find the one exception to this which ruins everything. Thoughts/comments welcomed.

That gets more interesting the more you look at it. Turning the 4x4 drivetrain into 6x6 that way is not something I've seen before (my knowledge of 6x6 vehicles is low). Do any of the forum gurus know more about this type of drive? Is the power split by gear/chain drive in the beam? I also wish there was a better photo of how the main beams attach to the chassis. I can't work out from the photos if the rear track is wider than the front, from some photos it looks like it is but in others not. It's a bit awkward looking, but understandable why it would be.

Of course, the problem here is that it took crowd funding to allow him to recover. What is this, America? Until industries of all types look at the whole picture of recruitment and retention, they should be made to think again before complaining about staff shortages. Or, people wanting pay that reflects the nature of the job, if you want to give it its actual name.

I agree, the consumables are still abundant from good suppliers, as are things like clutches and some of the related components. It's the LR-specific stuff that can degrade just being sat on a shed shelf long term that worries me. The problem with the market for a middle ground quality supplier is that it's been tried. Bearmach were very good until their last few years, but they couldn't shift the volume of someone like Britpart so the profitability is much lower on parts that are already more expensive to buy (for them). A lot of owners aren't willing or able to maintain a vehicle on anything above absolute minimum cost, so BP became their default supplier despite knowing the longer term cost would be higher. Then you have the fact that most garages will fit the cheapest part they can for any job, as they aren't as worried as they need to be about the longevity of their repairs. Now there's no choice, it only strengthens BP's grip and makes it impenetrable by anyone else. Coupled together, it's very difficult for a business to operate at scale and be viable in the middle of the market.

The choice between unobtainable genuine parts (not even talking about cost) and Britpart as the sole aftermarket supplier has killed all of our vehicles. It might not take effect for 20+ years for some, but critical parts to the operation of the vehicle will slowly fail over time and there will be nothing to replace them with. Sounds dramatic until you realise that a part that doesn't fit is no more useful than trying to bolt a raw potato in its place.

Funny, I thought I was pointing out the obvious when I said it. For all of the reasons above, it just looks like a 110 chassis. Plus if it was much else, it would be on rear leaf springs - that's clearly a coil spring seat. It seems to be very cleverly done, though.