Jocklandjohn

Famous Four can supply a full stainless (4 pipe) system for a 110 (19j 2.5TD) now fitted with a 200tdi for £299 + VAT and delivery. Total of £381 including delivery overnight. If one of those can be made to fit there's your solution. And its made for them by Double-S.

I needed some versatile set up for my 110 Hard Top which carries quite a bit of stuff (extra fuel, water, gear, converted roof etc) and went for standard Original Parts LR springs all round, and basic Armstrong shocks, with AirLift bags in the rear. It works very well - I can run 'unladen' with the bags soft and its very pliable. Sticking the pressure up a bit makes it 'firmer' and reduces roll on corners, and if fully loaded - which includes bicycles hanging off the spare wheel on the back - I can pump up even more and it copes very well with the extra load without wallowing too much. Apart from the 'popping out' of the top plugs that retain the bags ( known defect and easily solved) the set up has worked really well for a relatively modest outlay.

What is NOT entirely obvious is that the gutter is actually (at least) three pieces of folded metal. I had a persistent leak from the inside roof channel right above front door on each side, but depsite vast quantities of water coming in the inside of the actual channel was always dry. Turns out the water was coming from somewhere further back in the gutter or at the rear and running along inside the structure of folds to emerge at the front. I'd to dig out all the gutter mastic and force new sealant in to remedy it.

Thanks Dave.

Can anyone tell me whats behind the two 'Lamp Cover Panels' that sit right at the rear of the tub below the upper/lower body joint (on the left and right side of the back door). They cover the inner/rear of the tail lights. I cant currently access mine because of the stuff I've built around them, but need an idea of whats behind before I start dismantling - I'm assuming its simply wiring?

PS - I'll be putting a full explanation of the construction and all the messing about on the original build thread for the roof so its all in the one place, with lots of pictures, well except for pictures of the 10 foot sheets that unfortunately 'escaped' from the pallet I built on the roof to bring them back from Glasgow. Despite my meticulous planning the wind got under the middle and lifted causing the front edge to escape pulling off the second wooden cross strap holding them down and the three sheets folded over 3/4 of the way to the back at the next cross strap and ended up banging on the road behind me (A82 Gt Western Road!)!! A hasty reattachment was required and taking photos was low on the list of priorities! The wind was blowing, the sheets were so buckled I could not get them back onto the pallet so had to dismantle and rebuild it on the verge with the sheets turned over. (Then I had to go back and buy another three sheets!) The ally suppliers were very amused when I went back, but having watched me spend 30 minutes screwing it all down on the roof before I left them were surprised I was so unfortunate! Guy who helped me said a few days earlier a lad turned up to collect an 8x4 ft 3mm ally sheet, with a Nissan Micra, they watched him put it on the roof, windows open, and several bungees wrapped over it. He was intending going 60 miles with it! They refused to let him leave the premises with it, and he was really Mildly miffed off!

Right, after a lot of contemplating and considering the various options I've come back to a straight lift, with a longer actuator - 800mm right at the rear. Mainly because its 'easier' in that once I've messed about cutting holes it should fit and work, whereas the alternatives I've considered above require far more careful engineering and fabrication, which I'm not set up to do (current work is being done on a pair of dustbins!). Assuming that the actuator will actually fit in the space I have available and the 800mm size can cope with the weight, can anyone well versed in physics give me a steer on weight calculations. Existing lifting section of the roof is just over 100 lbs. The additional hard sides and rear end I'm adding are coming in at 100 to 120lbs. So it looks like the combined roof/sides are in region of 250 lbs max. Am I right that with the hinge at one end the lift required is halved? So with two actuators it'll be halved again for each actuator's force requirement? I'm assuming that with the actuator on a pivoting bracket at each end the force-loading when the actuator is starting vertical and finishing about 4 or 5 inchs off the vertical axis is still going to be within their capabilities? So would a pair of 1000 Newton actuators be ok, or do I need to go to the next size up which appear to be 3000 Newtons? Here's what I'm contemplating and also where I'm at with the construction:

Update - hinges changed - bottom ones' nuts totally impossible to reach with the wing tank in place etc. So.....I removed the backdoor retaining arm (rear bottom left corner of door) and cut a small square of tub out to enable me to reach the back of the nuts with a spanner, then replaced and pop-riveted a cover plate back on with the retaining arm fastened to it - worth bearing this option in mind if any of you face a similar challenge!

Excellent Ralph- thanks very much indeed. Just about to set to!

Tried search and not getting much guidance. Quickie - rear door hinge bolts on the body side - the top pair are with nuts, I can see them. the middle one - is it nuts or captive plate (or combination) the bottom - is it nuts or a captive plate? I have various furniture bolted inside that prevents me seeing the middle so need to dismantle that first, and bottom has a wing tank in the rear quarter so may need some jiggery-pokery to reach it, but would just like to know before I commit myself what I'm going to find.

Just had a look - wow - what a flexible material. One thing not immediately obvious (to me) from looking at various videos - so far all the wheels running on the tracks are in the horizontal plane, is it possible to reorientate to the vertical? Or is the load bearing capacity so high that the H orientation has the capability (depending on wheel type?)? I found ASL (Amber Spyglass) who stock it but unhelpfully they don't have images of much of the stuff they sell so really hard to figure it out 'visually'. Any idea?

Well I was unaware of that treasure trove of stuff! Thanks for the heads up - will stick my head into it and see what I can unearth, but that looks really interesting. Who knew!

Thanks for thinking of me anyway! Dimensions are critical and the stuff I've linked to might just be wide enough/small enough to fit the gap I have available (out of all the stuff I've been looking at). Need to do some serious measuring, I've taken the fabric sides off yesterday so I can see in the gap properly, so a wee bit of measuring and scribbling is on the cards!

Back on the lifting mechanism again and have an idea and wonder if anyone can see any obvious flaws in it. The idea that lo fi kindly drew in his CAD software is the route I'm exploring (bottom one) which is an elaboration of the pic I posted further up the post. My main problem is I have no proper engineering kit to fabricate anything complicated, so as I did with my lifting roof I'm being creative with commercially available stuff. What I've been looking for is an industrial track I can use to allow the lower end of the lifting strut to roll along - the track preventing it from being pushed sideways by the linear actuator. I had a brainwave and looked at hanging door track and hey presto came across this which is the correct height to fit the space I have, is not too expensive, and seems robust enough. Basically I screw the hanging track 'upside down' onto the lower section of the roof, insert wheeled hanger and make a simple strut to lift and fastening for the end of my linear actuator. The roof weight is around 100kg, linear actuators 1500N push/pull each (x 2) and track/wheels rated for 75kg (in hanging mode). Wheeled bracket usefully has a threaded centre to allow me to connect to, and I'll have to come up with some form of metal 'shoulder' designed into it to straddle the casting (to prevent it rotating. The bracket should also be able to incorporate the 'flying wedge' idea lo fi came up with so I get that initial lift in the horizontal plane to take some of the pressure of the initial lift. Thoughts?

I'd a problem thats worth being aware of - had a LR Original Parts spindle and a Bearmach one - all hunky dory running off an old LR genuine rack. I changed the rack for a new one (Britpart) and it would not slide into the LR spindle box. It worked ok on the Bearmach one but there was some incompatibility with the LR one. I reverted to the Genuine parts and it fitted fine. Best to test all this before you get it into the dash void as its a pita to pull out again.