Night Train

Excellent, I will buy that one!

Before I commit to buying it, any confirmations that http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300688632371?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2648'>this Discovery 1 300TDi steering column on ebay will be 3/4" 48 spline please. Thank you.

Would it be worth thinking about a detatchable or tow ball mounting winch? I guess it depends on if he is able to hook it on and how often it is needed. I have hauled logs with a 1500kg winch on the rear hitch of my car. 10-12" logs at 10' long up a stupidly sloped garden using all my winch rope and all my old tow ropes to reach them. Using a makeshift log arch there wasn't too great a load on the winch until the last 45deg 12' 'bump' up to ground level. The winch is powerful enough on a single line pull to drag the car back over chocks and to lift the back end off the ground so I didn't need any more pulling power.

Would this work, given the holes only need to be accurate enough for the inserts to hold? Make a die, a lump of steel with a 7mm square hole filed into it. Get a length of steel bar at 7mm square. Turn, grind or file it so that one end is tapered, like a rat tail, to form the punch. Drill your 7mm round hole, place the die behind the hole, place the punch into the hole and strike it home with a hammer. The tapered punch would square up the hole to match the hole in the die. You may need to allow a little clearance in punch/die fit, or make them manageable to wobble them loose afterwards.

Cheers, I will look out for Jag stuff and keep searching for parts suppliers.

I figure they might be strong but I am using an MGB rack so I am stuck with 3/4" x 48 spline. Same size as in 3/4" x 48? I will look up Summit Racing, etc. Thank you.

Cheers. I might have to have parts made, eventually, if I can't get 'off the shelf'. I am trying to adapt a column to an MGB rack using Land Rover parts. I need to get two joints close to each other and then another for a tilt on the column. However, I am trying to do it all without any cut and shuts on the critical components as I can't be sure of the strength of the parts post (my) welding. Initially for the setting up to see if the clearances work I am happy to get cheapo patten parts and then replace later with original good quality ones. The 9/16 x 36 seems to be the more commonly available budget parts but I'd rather keep to the size I want to finish with.

Good luck in your new role DD, congratulations!

I have searched but no luck so just a quick one... Are the steering UJ splines used on the Defender, Discovery, Range Rover all 3/4" x 48 spline, like MGBs? Also, on the off chance, anyone know what other common vehicles use the same size splines in the steering column? Cheers.

At the scrap yard I found a couple of wheel bearings, those wide double row ones that you get in the front hubs of some front wheel drive cars. Not too large a diameter and very smooth on the outside of the bearing. If you can get a couple or three from a car garage you could put a spot of weld into the balls and then drive it from the inner race. Otherwise I'm sure most folks have one of those mini pasta makers in the kitchen that have never seen a second use since their wedding.

Could you use winch rollers for the rolling mill? I made my 6x6's three speed transfer box out of LR S3 transfer box gears and shafts, cut and shut and reworked to get what I wanted. My electric tractor is about 95% scavenged scrap, the other 5% is secondhand purchases and a few new electrical bits. The scrap metal yard I frequent is happy for me to poke about and buy as much, if not more, then I take in to them. My workshop has a scraps pile where, today, I was scavenging some diff gears, from an exploded diff, to make a right angle gearbox. I also recycle trees cut for firewood, and other cut timber, to make furniture and small wood craft projects. My fiance scavenges old bike tyres, inner tubes, umbrellas, electrical scrap, etc. to make belts, bags, keyrings and jewellery to sell. She also works collecting recycling in York and scavenges the collections for her employers for extra income. I built a 100% scavenged pedal powered smoothie maker for them which they are using for fund raising at events. I have also been asked to build a solar food dryer for them out of scavenged parts. My house driveway is laid with scavenged cobbles from when a nearby council was digging them up to replace with tarmac. The stone walls and stone gateposts on my drive are scavenged from a nearby house when the builders were demolishing. I have built a recumbent tadpole trike (Ratrike) from scrap and I am in the process of building a second (The Creature), with front wheel drive, also from scrap. I have the beginings of an electric pick up truck in my workshop that is also going to be scrap built, but it will ned to be IVA so I doubt it will be 100% scrap sourced [proud to be a Womble!]

I am admin on that forum. Sorry your thread didn't get any replies. The project would not have worked with the components you were planning on using. Reading about similar projects threads, and the information and wiki forums, may have been more helpful to you in determining what you would need for your project.

Just to throw a 'spanner' in the works.... If I was building a powered trailer I would give it electric drive. The throttle pot for the controller would be linked to the overrun brake damper in the drawbar so that it only drives when the drawbar is pulled and brakes when the drawbar is pushed. That would allow the trailer to drive only enough to counter its own rolling resistance and never push the towing vehicle. It also removes all the drive line complexities leaving only the tow hitch and a set of control cables for reverse, power on, and emergency disconnect. A reversing contactor set, triggered by the reversing lights, would switch the motor to allow reversing. The throttle pot can be a 'wigwag' centre off type (like a radio controller joystic) so that it acivates in the pull or push directions as switched by the reversing contactors. The motor can be direct connected to the diff pinion and the batteries carried low in the trailer chassis.

Here's another way of achiving what I was describing. [http://www.shinjeong.co.kr/e/product.html?p=isas⊂=isas/url] It keeps the wheels vertical instead of the swing arms tucking under during full drop. Drop boxes to the diffs would save having a drive through diff made up.

That would be sort of how I would do it now. A space frame back bone supporting diffs and double wishbones. A single propshaft line running above and to one side of the diffs with a dog clutched drop box to each diff pinion. Any or all diffs can be clutched in/out as required. It does mean running with only a single drive axle on tarmac but that is less of an issue for the sorts of thing I would do with it.

I don't get on here much nowadays. My projects tend to be pedal powered or electric now but also long term illness is slowing me down and limiting my project progress. Also had an urgent bit of building work to do on the house through December and January, on top of current renovations I have to finish before I get married. When I was building my truck I got all my insuarance, road fund licence and MOt test all at the same time so it was road legal. Then I started work. So long as it was 'road legal' the Police and council didn't trouble me. All the work was planned to get it road worthy and legal again at each anniversary for it allto start again, stage by stage. Not sure if one could get away with it now though, I doubt the IVA would be cost effective if it had to be done two or three times over as the project progressed.

Given Bill's input I should chime in too. My 6x6 used a front and rear suspension in the style of a [url=]http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?7308-Scammell-Constructor-Gallery/page14Scammell Constructor.[/url] The front axle had a transverse leaf spring free pivoting on a bearing, and the rear had inverted leaf springs also free pivoting. Not an easy one to produce but effective for load and torque balance. I also used wider axles, series 3 Salisburys with long shafts in both sides. I also designed and built my own remote mounted, 2 rear, 1 front output transfer box with PTO. It gave three speeds, a high overdrive, 1:1, and a very low underdrive. The only snag was that it was a four shaft box so the axles and diffs were inverted and driving backwards. I must admit that were I to build another 6x6 I would look at independent suspension with the diffs mounted to a backbone chassis. I would still use a load sharing suspension on the rear bogie, either inverted leaf springs ball jointed to the ends of the wishbones, or coil springs and cranks likewise, as in your post 49. The Scammell walking beam is a good but heavy system. Scammell determined that the gears within the beam had to be a 2:1 reduction to the wheels to prevent the beam unloading the leading wheel. However, under braking the leading wheel would dig in and the trailing one would try to lift. A good balanced system would counterbalance both driving and braking torque reaction, as in the Scammell Constructor bogie, and also balance teh loads on both leading and trailing axles/wheels.

How about welding or bolting on an antiluce onto the bottom of the U bracket and then have convenient brackets, with holes in, in the places you would fit the lamp? If you want a general purpose clamp then I would go for one of http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-axminster-power-hand-clamp-prod809357/?src=2007_wk9'>these rather then a spring clamp, as you can squeze it tighter then the spring will hold, if needed.

I have been using the Durafix rods to build bicycle trailers* and tow hitches by brazing together old aluminium tent poles. Very impressed with it when the surfaces are properly cleaned. I am happy to braze on a drawbar and rely on the Durafix to support the load and the towing forces. I wouldn't like to try it on the roof panel though as it is a very large panel to heat up and will distort a lot. I tried setting up my mig welder for aluminium but the results were not consistent or pretty. Also the tube I am using is too thin to mig but I can't stretch to a tig welder and lessons. *Trailers pulled by bicycles, not trailers to carry bicycles and towed by cars.

I have been ill (physical and mental health issues) and so all my projects, except the house renovation, have been on hold for a while. I am still on the look out for a Series Salisbury short half shaft for my ongoing tractor project though and will try to get on with that again later this spring. I am also drawing up plans for a small 4x4 electric load carrier, along the lines of a 'monster trucked' Bradshaw FB2.

Well, if you need another source, I am near the M60 J12. I have the proper tool for M3, M4, M5, M6, M8.

Double sided tape, of the very strong UV resistant exterior use variety. Stops someone nicking the plates off the car and doesn't leave visible fixings that may alter the apperance of the registration. Alternatively, use roofing bolts and fix the plates to a Land Rover and sell the Porker.

Great stuff! Thank you.

OK, I'll see if I can weld a taller flange on mine. I am hoping to get, maybe, 15-20m on there so I can have a reasonable reach with a snatch block before resorting to extending with chains. Cheers. Oh, I found this Flikr site that has some interesting specifications of the HF range. Linky.

Thank you, that is great. I had a look under the inspection cover and figured out the brake workings. It all seems to be working well and the grease inside looks fine. I will grease all the nipples in any case. Can your cable drum hold more then two wrap layers of cable? Looking at close ups of some of the various cranes there does seem to be a wide variation of drum diameter and width depending on applicaton.