robhybrid

Hi looks interesting. got a few questions. I am treading carefully as I would like to consider myself a friend of Jim GP. I too would have been interested in seeing a deviation from o rings(I have seen issues,I have replaced them a couple of times in my arb's) does the spring give safety on? has the (dog clutch) system got any means of holding its self in tighter the harder you winch? are the 2 parts of the (dog)easily replaceable should they ever get damaged due to misuse? and at what cost? How are the components kept lubricated? Should you need to replace components in the field is it easily possible?what tools would be needed? would you need to remove the winch to work on it? What level of warranty is being offered? Is there a part of winch drum accessible from the non motor end?I have fancies for attaching a brake disk aka Paul Whiteman. or possibly even a 2nd hydraulic winch drive.

Just to be totally different I compete in winch challenge events and would much rather go without a locking rear diff than go without a locking front diff. If I am in a situation where I need lockers I am almost always in a position where I need the winch too. If I am using the front winch then I am also using the front locker. having the front locker in whilst winching means that both front wheels are trying to climb out or climb over the obstacle I have encountered. When the locker is not engaged you tend to get one wheel spinning and one wheel bulldozing against an obstacle. I have gone slightly against convention and tried to make my vehicle front heavy, the front locker becomes even more useful.

I have tried numerous different oils and notice a big speed increase when using fully synthetic oil (qtf)? compared to ep or atf, saying that having not touched my truck for a while on the first event this year I used engine oil hoping it would have cleaning properties. I do intend on siphoning it out and re filling with 250ml of qtf

basically yes, a little more complicated than that in practice though. don't know wall thickness of the top of my head but I do know it is a tight fit over a oem trailing arm and that Gwyn is quite particular on what he uses, he recently sent a large batch of steel back that was intended for making these as it was not to his specifications.

have a look at these :- gwyn lewis trailing arms

I have a basic tradex policy Fully comp £567 I may own up to 6 vehicles each with a value of up to £16000 , one of these is my winch challenge vehicle, after giving them a description they had to go back to their "underwriters ?" and check before confirming cover. I may drive customers vehicles up to a value of £25000. on my terms and conditions it specifically notes that the policy does not cover retrieving vehicles from police compounds. My insurance broker tells me that tradex are one are the more basic policies.

as you have a short bell housing r380 already attached to a 2.5td I cant see why the conversion should be any different to that of a lt77. get ready to take hills in 4th that you currently take in 2nd.

If you are only ever using short bursts of power (typical winch challenge) I cant see why you cant run without an intercooler, if you are towing a trailer or regularly hard on the throttle for long periods of time I would not recommend removing the intercooler. I think the engine may well run slightly hotter without the intercooler depending on what you are doing.

I liked the night sections it reminded me of a slightly easier version of mamby setup, in the dark I think slower and being able to see how other people do it is a good thing. not sure about how the scoring worked for night though? On the Sunday I really liked the punch setup with gates that you have to go through and being able to choose your own route between them suited my style, with the number of cars competing I only got stuck behind other competitors a couple of times which wasn't a problem. I would have liked to have seen a handful of harder sections though,saying that if it would have rained I am sure I wouldn't have driven any where near as many banks, for my car the level of grip their was unbelievable this weekend. More gates? yes and no, too many gates and you might as well have rope? drive over/through a severe obstacle quickly or take the long route round slowly in my opinion allows all classes of vehicles to play without discriminating against more standard vehicles and gives people the option to overtake in a section by taking the quicker harder route? I enjoyed the weekend with minimal damage to a freshly altered truck that I didn't know how would perform. Thanks to all

in the past no lights were better than too much light as the punches had luminescent? sticks attached to them and you couldn't see them if your spots were on full. I wish all I had to worry about was lights no winches fitted yet and cage in pieces front wings have got to be altered yet

surely the powder coat would only cover the outside? dont chassis need to be protected inside and out? Galv first then powder coat if you want a specific look.

you need bolts to match the 8274 housing. Jim Giglepin was doing some sexy bolts with fixings to allow you to mount your albright on the end at the indoor show, I think they were £12 per pair or £20 if you bought 2 pairs?

just a thought, can you check very carefully around servo where the master cylinder bolts on, get someone to press the brakes HARD with the engine running. I have seen master cylinders crack and the crack is not visible unless the brakes are pressed hard. With this fault the servo appears to be working fine when the brakes are pressed lightly so you don't notice the lack of servo when you are driving other than poor quality brakes. A mate of mine changed his 90 brakes to 110 vented to try and improve his brakes when this was the fault.

As I have loads of landrover parts kicking around I fancy using some of them to build a landrover on a budget to put on the road. A year or so back I bought a pile of bits from a breakers yard with the intention of using the chassis to repair my bent offroader. The pile of bits consist of:- front and rear 300tdi axle. 300tdi engine block. 300tdi chassis. 300tdi bulkhead. Have got on the bulkhead and on the chassis the vehicle chassis number,I guess if I look hard enough I can find axle numbers and a engine number. Would it be possible for me to apply for a v5 given the limited information I have. I seem to think the heritage center? or somewhere used to keep a log of chassis numbers and could inform you to the age and registration number for a fee is this the case for a 300tdi? has anybody got a useful link? buried in the front of the bulkhead were numerous business cards and I am in the process of seeing if I can find the registration number.

I use a 16ft ivor to move my challenge truck around and with 2 spare tyres on the front the trailer looks nicely fully loaded. The extra length allows me to strap the back axle backwards at a nice angle and the front axle forward. A mate of mine uses a 12ft trailer but I think it always looks overloaded. I have done all of howling wolf/ awdc series 3 years consecutively and done a fair amount of towing using a landcruiser and a discovery as a tow vehicle. I would only sell my 16ft ivor to replace it with another 16ft ivor.

nothing against goodwinch but horses for courses. I havent seen a direct comparrison back to back though. On paper the specs are pretty close for the goodwinch highest spec and a std 8274. There are numerous utilities that buy from goodwinch, I noticed our local fire engine has one fitted. goodwinch low line winch in top spec is a very capable winch and in my opinion an exellent work winch, get me out of trouble when I am stuck winch but:- There is scope left to upgrade and improve a std 8274 but lowline? If you dont intend on entering winch challenge events or like the idea of your winch being slightly more discreet then Goodwinch could be well worth a look. Second hand 8274's tend to sell for about 500-600 pounds on e-bay these days but expect to buy some hd winch breaks £34.66, albright solenoid £41.66, and possibly a new motor £182.12 to be sure of reliability. the list of upgrades can go up obviously. Prices taken from Gwyn Lewis website :-Gwyn Lewis winch accessories Interesting site on 8274 upgrades Gigglepin

if vacuum operated there could be a hole in the governor diaphragm?

I am sure ascroft told me that auto box clutches? would wear quickly if the kick down was set too loose. I played with a home made in cab variable kick down when I first fitted my auto box to see if it helped any with hill climbs, I haven't adjusted it more than an initial play since fitting and wouldnt bother again, it is easy enough to attach a kick down to the throttle anyway.

The underdrive is great and takes the strain out of the auto box (clutches/brakes) without the underdrive I have seen auto boxes die with the pressure of severe off roading. keep an eye on oil temp if you run without an underdrive or lower than std ratio diffs.

design????????????????? costs minimal <_< with a little digging I am sure some comments will make sense.

When driving down a hill forwards that you should have winched down. I find it very useful when the slope is so steep that if you were being held back in gear the back end would lift. Because the auto box tends to allow the vehicle to (run away)when in D The back end does not lift the same as it would with a manual and you have got the option of planting your foot on the throttle if you think it might try and go end over end forwards, in a manual I don't think you could do more than put your foot on the clutch if you had initially set the wrong gear.

My winch challenge vehicle is auto and the control whilst winching is fantastic. I used to run manual and the manual was definitely better on the open road and possibly better at putting the engine power to the wheels. For my driving style, I prefer the auto. I can get the wheels helping the winch without them spinning wildly, I believe in most situations it is best for the wheels not to spin whilst winching, spinning wheels tend to dig holes that you then have to climb out of. Spinning wheels in my opinion increase the chance of damage to axle components. I ran my truck for several years with standard 10 spline rear half shafts. If I were to for example have to drive(not winch) through a mud run I think I would prefer a manual I wold also prefer huge horsepower to go with it. Horses for courses.

I have run +60 (not quite 2 years, I pestered Jim to get them into production) and had no problem whilst winching in I have also got my own turbo speed increase on this at a touch of a button the speed increase when I touch the button is visibly noticeable. The motors do slow down if I am badly caught up, this is a good thing as it has reduced the amount of winch ropes I break. I think I would not go more than +40 if I regularly had to winch through deep bog. I do run 2 large (tractor size) yellow top optimas and a small std size exide gel battery, 2 electrical 12v circuits each with 120 amp alternators these circuits join together with a separate contactor whilst I winch in. Now when I lower back down a severe slope the speed is a bit too much, I have ripped small trees out of the ground not whilst winching up but the jerk whilst lowering back down. Quite worrying when the tree in question landed on my co driver and I careered back down the slope. I have wandered if I could run the motors at 6v just for lowering down severe slopes, the switch gear and wiring could be a little interesting though I fear

I have fitted a britpart solid flywheel for a customer and It was considerably cheaper than rakeway :-( the landrover afterwords had a strange gearbox chatter/noise when the engine was idling in neutral. The customer was happy enough though. When I fitted the flywheel it did not come with replacement flywheel bolts as the new flywheel was thinner in section where it bolts onto the td5 crank. I ended up cutting the original bolts down shorter. I also had to use my own bolts to hold the pressure plate onto the flywheel, as none were supplied.

If I have filled form in correctly on line I have registered for this year.