Night Train

Am I the only one more interested in the kind of wife that buys her husband a Land Rover to play with for Christmas? All I got was a dressing gown and a box of chocolates!

I am a 'hardline environmentalist' and I signed it. There are better ways to deal with the issues.

I stand corrected, it has been over 20 years since I stripped down my own engines, prefered transmissions to engines.

What happened to burying your spare wheel and attaching a strop to your wheel brace through the centre hole? You're not carrying anymore weight then. Can't say that I have needed to do this myself as my rig tended to be the anchor for others to winch from.

There are plenty of closed box options on trailers but also there are companies that make canopies for pick up bodies and, I suppose, trailers. I don't know how secure removeable canopies would be though as I've never used one myself.

Yeah, Ifors are pretty good and they usually end up being towed by commercials as well so height should be fine with them. I am just a little tight and mostly skint so I tend to make or adapt everything if I can.

Depends, a manufaturer may use differing tyre sizes but will still make sure their hitches are at their standard height. Changing tyre sizes on a trailer could cause more problems then they solve so it would be best to check hitch height at running weight for both vehicle and trailer. There have been adjustable height hitch trailers made but I don't know who by.

If you do find a way to set your hitch to a very low level make sure the bottom of the hitch plate is well braced back to the chassis otherwise it could flex or bend under towing and braking loads.

It is worth checking all the earth connections, including ones in the dash, as any bad earths would allow current to flow back through other parts of the circuit and eventually find their way to the lamps. The earths needn't even be obviously to do with the rear lights. Given you are using LEDs then there should be diodes in the units to ensure the correct polarity, however, your dashboard repeaters would still be filament lamps and so could still allow current to flow back down the circuits to the tail lamps. If you have any current flow in the system then you could use this as a tracking system to figure out the current flows. Usually there would be current still flowing to clocks, alternator, alarm, etc so you can pull the connections on these in turn to isolate the suspect area of the vehicle.

The input shaft may not be 'damaged' as such but if the box had been sitting for a while they could be rusty or just dirty causing the clutch plate to stick on the shaft. Maybe the replacement box is naff. It is also worth considering damage to the bush in the centre of the flywheel as that stablises the end of the input shaft. If the vibration occurs when he is driving he could try declutching momentarily to see is that makes a difference.

If the bearing cap was loose then you do need to check that the shell bearings are still correctly fitted and not rotated round blocking the oilway. I would be tempted to change the bearings while everything is apart as it would be better then finding there is wear that you didn't notice. However, if you can, do check for wear with a micrometer so, if nothing else, you ahve a record of what things are like now for comparison later if things go wrong again. Also there should be tab washers or equivenlent fitted to prevent the bolts working loose in the first place.

When I had a S3 it had light guards that had dented the wing fronts and made removal and light lens replacement a pain. I ended up using the round headlight guards used on racing MGBs. They clip in place on little clips attached to the headlight bowl flange and protect the headlight from minor damage. I also carried spare lenses for the side and indicator lights.

The only chequer plate I ever used on a Landy was to fabricate a winch mount as it was all I had. As for walking on the wings and bonnet, the dents and ripples were never a problem given the potential for more serious ones caused by off road use. Matt paint and a brushed finish generally provides sufficient grip.

Make sure the levers are free to move as they should and the yellow knob is able to spring up (try pulling it up when you move the red knob). Is it a diesel? If it is it could be the pump being set up wrong and not allowing the engine to rev up to speed.

If a Sankey isn't going to be big enough they aren't difficult to extend with a cut and shut both behind and in front of the axle to keep the balance correct. I was going to do that with a Sankey chassis myself but it was going to be a bit too extreme to tow behind my Octavia.

I build my own to suit my needs as I can't really afford an Ifor Williams. I needed a dry box bigger the 8x4 ft and came up with this one. It is based on a caravan suspension, 50x3mm box tube chassis and 3mm aluminium sides all made to fit a LR Series roof for the top and front panel. Cost about £200 via Ebay for parts. It is 1300kg gross with 900kg payload. I had to open out the door arch at the back as I kept banging my shoulders on them getting in and out. The next trailer is going to be an open box extendable trailer for hauling long timber.