deep

There is obviously an ECU that controls the electric windows in my Freelander 2. Every now and then, the windows inexplicably change their "behaviour". Frequently, different windows behave in different ways and, at the moment, one window thinks going fully up and then half way down is, in fact, fully up. A computer controlling electric windows???? Bonkers. Actually, there is a lot that is bonkers on that car, either because of the terribly designed Volvo motor or the bad choices made by the computer engineers. What worries me, is that it is now 14 years old and so 14 years behind the current excess of electronics. It isn't getting better. Will the Grenadier be better or worse? My expectation is that it will have more electronics, for reasons dictated by legislation, but the dumb choices should be far less of an issue and I'd expect the failure rate to be less. Frankly, in this day and age, that is the best we can expect. Fair enough venting a little about that here (we all do a bit) but, on balance, I wouldn't put the Grenadier aside for unavoidable complexity. Anyway, I won't be buying one in the immediate future but that decision is because I have bought a few acres and need a digger more...

I think car reliability probably peaked over twenty years ago. The electronics they pretty much all use now are shocking. You get a small problem and it sends you in circles for ever. Plug in a diagnostic machine and it gives you an unhelpful code (one on my Peugeot cracks me up - why is the car sometimes miss-firing? Plug in the scanner, check the code. "Engine is misfiring"!!). That's the sort of nonsense I would expect the Grenadier to rise above.

That lobby group has considerable power. They seem to sway that government policy no matter which end of the political spectrum is in power too! What we actually end up with is far too many vehicles which then get taken off the road for trivial problems, allowing more wasteful production. I believe hybrids and electric vehicles will be even worse for a quick turnover. I saw a hybrid Corolla taken away the other day because it hadn't been driven for five months and replacing the batteries wasn't an economic fix! It wouldn't run on petrol because the electric side was dead...

I had only my second drive in an electric car yesterday, my brother in law's Kia EV6. It felt like a smooth and sorted big V12 and not as annoyingly electronic as I expected. It was very awkward manoeuvring between parked cars as the engine basically switches on and off and feels very disconnected and visibility out the back is terrible, so you rely on strange cameras. Otherwise, though, I can understand why he likes it. Strangely, as I hopped back in my six cylinder Freelander 2, it immediately felt so much better. It took me a while to realise why that was - it's the feedback. Hearing and feeling the motor and transmission was surprisingly pleasant by comparison. They say you get used to anything (they're wrong - two years in and I still haven't got used to the FL2s terribly over-assisted steering!) but I'm sure you would get used to the different type of feedback in an electric car in time. It struck me that converting a Series might be better in that respect than a purpose designed modern electric car. Less sound-proofing, transmission noise, plenty of steering feedback etc. could make it a bit more tactile to drive?

Lumping Apple in with Tesla, completely unnecessarily, is a nice, provocative way to derail a thread about electric Land Rover conversions! I'll never understand why people want to be anti-Apple bigots, especially when the options are considerably worse (though Windows 8 was briefly quite nice and I still have it on an original Surface Pro - a gadget durable enough to have been made by Apple 😇). I do, however, understand why people could be pro-Tesla bigots. I personally find Teslas as bland as Toyotas, the man behind the company does distasteful things and the cars themselves perhaps a bit over-rated by the zealots. Nevertheless, the technology they have developed has probably moved us a long way along the road to being able to produce a practical electric conversion for our dear old Land Rovers, so I won't dismiss them.

Exactly what I do with my Series 3. It's not that hard to do, nor that expensive for a low mileage vehicle. I remember my friend used to visit in his Series 2. Each time, you could hear the valves chuffing that little bit more, so I'm wary of the issue! I'm doing the same with the Fergie tractor I have on long-term loan. Taking the head off is so low in the scale or priorities that I can't see it ever happening and the additive allows the procrastination.

Good to know. We weren't pushed into unleaded until the mid 90s but other parts of the Land Rover world must have had to face that much earlier!

The one thing I would do is to get hardened valve seats fitted, so you can run unleaded petrol without an additive. As for the rest of it, the very best thing is to get everything measured and inspected by an experienced engine reconditioner. If components are barely worn, it's just a waste of money replacing them but you have to know what you are doing to make that call (impossible from a photo!). Everything you hone or grind is removing service life from the motor, so that sort of thing should be done very sparingly. New seals and gaskets are obvious, new timing chain is probably a good idea and I'd look hard at the frost plugs too as they could well be corroded. Actually, I'd be looking hard for pitting on wear surfaces as a motor that sits and gets any moisture near it can get very light pitting, which destroys components surprisingly quickly.

They are known to have the input bearing on the rear diff wear noticeably by that mileage. Very likely what the problem is. Not as cheap to fix as a wheel bearing, unfortunately.

Looks like a slight increase here in NZ. We have done better than most places with recent economic pressures but the government expects us to catch up (in a bad way) in coming months!

I see that pic also shows my budget stereo rack! That worked well too...

Someone asked for a photo but I couldn't attach it to a private message. Not a great shot but it's all I've got. Probably just as strong as the clever bicycle one but a lot lighter, I suspect.

Very cool. I built my last one out of surplus tie rods. Very simple and self-aligning, it proved to be remarkably robust too. Never throw stuff away...

I realise we are well off topic, ho hum, but I can't resist sharing this. Only a few hours after I wrote my last post, I was driving back from the river on my tractor when I got passed by a Holden Colorado ute being driven fairly quickly by someone too young to have paid for it. He pulled right to pass, pulled in to the left and then swung right into my road. Perfect example of that rocking and I don't really know how he didn't roll it. Close enough to give all of us a fright though!

High centre of gravity, forward centre of mass, mismatched front and rear suspension and otherwise crude dynamics - many, if not most, 4WD crew cabs are not designed to have great dynamics. The Toyota in question was lifting a wheel at exactly that sort of speed. By the target speed of (I think) 65 k.p.h., I'd have been amazed if it hadn't flipped. That's fine if it's a work truck and you drive it accordingly. Worse as a top-heavy camper but, in that case, you'd feel the danger and tip toe around it. Unfortunately, they are immensely popular around here as a family car, with people believing they are "safe" (only ever a relative thing, to be fair). Dodging a kid in a suburb at legal speeds would be frightening. Really, I am amazed a lot more don't tip over. Though a lot do...

Twenty or so years ago, I did an advanced driver training course as a work requirement. My work car at the time was a (dreadful) Toyota 4WD crew cab. When we did the elk test, I think I scared the instructor as the car lurched heavily and lifted a wheel. I wasn't too bothered. Lifting a wheel was a regular part of fast driving on winding roads...

Good things are worth the wait, assuming you don't get too old to enjoy them before they turn up! You might get to appreciate the relative simplicity of that Vauxhall one day. It's bound to be a bit less Big Bruvver than even a Grenadier. Meanwhile, that is a genuinely exciting email, of which I am genuinely envious. Good luck.

I actually lived in a bus for four years, in my exploratory years. There's a lot to be said for coming home from work to familiar surroundings, no matter where that work takes you. Though it was a bit more compact than that! I doubt that overhang would be legal here. Then again, I am pretty sure a few working buses here aren't technically legal like that but they seem to get the right bits of paper on the windscreen anyway.

It felt good to get that email this morning. For the Land Rover lover, this is a great day! At long last, a vehicle that continues the long tradition established by Land Rover seven plus decades ago is actually being built. It's all a bit convoluted, admittedly, but that's how the modern world is. I'd say a British owned company building cars in France just pips an Indian owned company building cars in Slovakia slightly, when it comes to winning my own heritage battle too...

Cheers. My memory was still working then. Sometimes, I think I have a sieve like a memory...

Yes, I'm sure I read they had bought it and were assembling vehicles for clients in part of it?

Our mainstream media also seems to enjoy promoting mischievous, destabilising press releases. I assume controversy sells better than facts? How on earth could the Grenadier be running at anything but a large loss, given the only real income has been a decent number of small deposits from eager customers?

Now that is nice! I'd have to turn the bed around, being tallish, but otherwise it looks really practical - and small enough to use as a car when needed. I really like that.

Such a great project. Must be a lot of fun. I'm also impressed by those tyres - Land Rovers love tall and skinny and that's exactly what you have there!

Which is why I have carried a Tirfor for years - and had occasion to use it!