mickeyw

I had 4mm at the old house, connected to a 32A circuit. The phase converter ran absolutely fine on this, the lathe has a 3HP motor. There will only be me working in there, so only one machine at a time . I got a right bo11ocking as an apprentice for running two surface grinders, and a cylindrical grinder at the same time. In my defense, two of the machines were doing jobs where you to do a lot of sit and wait, and I could see them all from . I'm still unsure to this day whether the foreman was more angry that one machine was being used for a 'foreigner', or if was a safety issue. I'm fairly sure it was the former, as safety didn't feature too heavily 20 years ago Agreed. Here's a rough layout of the garage so far. If the Rangey will fit under the roller door, there is still space to fit it in. Not sure if there'll be quite enough room to actually work on it though

Barry you are right about the roof sheets. The ceiling will be insulated with the same polystyrene sheets used for the walls. The 8x4' sheets look like they'll be a nice wedge-in fit

My nice new shelving had been in use for just a few days, when I entered the garage to find things didn't look quite how I had left them. Thoughts of WTF...... passed through my mind. Now I had not loaded these anywhere near their rated capacity, so I was greatly and unpleasantly surprised to find such a sight. I emailed the picture above to the supplier, subject line 'My new shelving last night'. I soon received an email requesting that I called them. A short discussion about how I was using them, confirming they were on a level concrete floor etc, resulted in profuse apologies and the offer of not only replacement shelves, but ones of the next grade up. So while the product was lacking in strength, I cannot fault their customer service. As you can see in the photo, the vertical members of the shelves are two-piece. The top clips into the bottom, and this turns out to have been the weak point. the replacement units have a single piece vertical, of much thicker steel. So a word of warning to avoid 'stacked' shelving. The new stuff going together.

What I really want to do first is to insulate the walls and roof, but with so much floor space already occupied, shelving was a priority. As much as I would have loved to build some strong timber shelves, such a project would take time I don't have to spare. HfH has been speaking highly of BiGDUG's shelving units, so I had a look at what they had to offer - their prices are pretty good, and looked like an attractive time saving proposition. There is a lot of similar stuff available on that well known auction site, some is a little cheaper but didn't seem to feature a central support strut I chose 3 units, 900lg x 450dp x 1800h, each with 5 levels, capable of supporting 150kg uniformly distributed per shelf. Sounds plenty to me, even for Landy bits. Linky. The shelving arrived very quickly and only took an hour or so to assemble all 3 units and load 'em up. The component parts did seem pretty flimsy, possibly not much thicker than a bean can, but when assembled they took on a surprising degree of rigidity. Now I had some space to sort out the insulation. The concrete wall sections are 4ft wide with a vertical cast leg between each panel. The panels are held in place by several clamp plates that are secured by coach bolts through the cast legs. As the bolts had a good 10mm of thread protruding, they seemed an ideal means of fixing my insulation to the walls. Plan for fixing insulation to the wall. A trip to my local builders fixing shop yielded 100 off M8 coupling nuts (aka studding connectors, just long nuts really). The plan was to screw these onto the end of the bolts, only my plan went a little awry when I realised the bolts were in fact 5/16" UNC. Armed with the necessary tap in the chuck of a battery drill I rethreaded one end of each nut. I can't say this is a correct thing to do, but with the threads being close in pitch (not quite close enough though) I don't think I have lost too much strength. Takes a while to run through 100 of 'em... I then bought some lengths of 50x50 timber. These will be bolted to the concrete uprights. I cut the timbers to length, stood them against the nuts and marked hole positions. A 20mm hole through is big enough to clear the M8 nuts and allow for a little positional inaccuracy. Next I routed a slot through, deep enough to clear the head of the bolt and the washer. Timbers were then bolted in place. Now to cut the polystyrene boards. Measure twice, mark out, measure once more then cut. Fridge's ni-chrome wire cutter worked a treat, I just need more practice to get straighter cuts. The boards were cut to be a snug fit between the timbers, thus avoiding the need for glue of any kind. I could have sworn I took some photos of the timbers bolted up, but here is a rather carp one of timbers and polystyrene boards on the wall. By the way, the horizontal timbers are screwed through the vertical ones at mid height and ground level. As the vertical studs don't go all the way to the top of the wall, the top horizontal one is held to the concrete with Gripfill This will give a bit more to screw the plaster boards to.

I have replaced my seals in the past with genuine items. They had inserts at the shoulder curve. I always found that this was a good place for drafts if you had seals without the insert.

Just one question - HOW?

Well I was surprised who it was too. That is shocking behavior that cannot be excused. I actually know someone who writes with the sarcasm displayed above, only without such good grammar. Luckily he is not in customer liaison. My only experience with the business named was the purchase of a Defender speedo transducer. I ordered a genuine part, but the one that turned up was clearly not. It was in a white box and broken. I think the visible quality of manufacture was the cause of it not being intact. I complained by phone and was sent the part I ordered, in genuine packaging.

Sorry for slight hi-jack. Fridge, you mention cleaning the oiled up lambda. So this works? Can one 'dry out' a lambda too? Mine got the hump after a good amount of wading, except the fault didn't occur till as few days later. My lambda (NB) controls LPG flow, and my ignition is by Megajolt. The lambda was reading over rich, causing the fuel control stepper motor to shut down until the engine died.

BFG Muds are not a great tyre for icy roads, although they don't do bad in deep snow. However I have found that the close tread of the regular Pirelli Scorpion on my Rangey are much surer footed on icy roads than the MTs on my Ninety. The OP is asking about road tyres suited for low temperature use. These are a legal requirement in some countries during winter months. As we are talking about a 110, I would stay with the standard range of tyre size, probably 235/85R16 in this case. These are commonly fitted to 7x16 rims by the aftermarket tyre companies. 265/70R16 is marginally smaller diameter than a 235/85R16, but I am sure it will be absolutely fine for the intended use. As for rim size, what you have will be fine. 7x16 is a standard LR size if you have alloys. They just have less offset than the aftermarket steel rims.

Or blue...

If you want a colour in keeping for a B reg, I quite like Trident Green.

The problem is compounded in our area by developers building on the flood plains, despite huge concerns from locals that know exactly where flooding occurs EVERY winter, never mind in the 1:1000 year extremes. It seems however that the developers thought they'd be clever, and build their new homes on vast raised levels of ground. Consequently ancient farm houses and other properties that have never flooded before, have been near destroyed this winter. I drove though flood water up to my bumper to evacuate one such unfortunate family on Dec 24th. They had 6" of water in the ground floor of their home. That was after driving through near bonnet depths to get my mother to A&E on the same day. Emergency services were completely immobilised, so it really was a case of help ones self as best you can. I agree that driving unnecessarily through flood water can do all sorts of damage to property. Unfortunately there are also countless morons in normal cars who believe that hitting the water at launch speeds will get them through. On the above mentioned trip to A&E we witnessed one car race through a flooded section, creating a splash higher that the car. I'm sure the occupants of the car were impressed that they made it through, however the poor woman wading through the water, with her hands full of shopping bags can't have been happy to get completely drowned! If I hadn't had my mother on board, I feel I would have been inclined to stop them and inform them of their lack of consideration The flood levels we have seen in the last month exceeded those of 1968, the previous all time high in our area. It's about time the EA woke up and joined forces with locals campaigning against poorly conceived developments. It's all very well flood proofing new builds, but the impact to the existing environment seems to have been completely ignored.

From what I can establish, the G valves were not fitted to all 90/110/Defenders. My 1986 Ninety DOES have one, and started life with drum brakes at the rear. I have rarely ever managed to lock ANY wheels up unless the road has been wet. That said, it has always passed MOTs without concern. I swapped to a 300Tdi Disco rear axle, and matters barely improved, other than the disks not needing the adjustment and cleaning the drums did. All calipers have been rebuilt, discs replaced, as well as the master cyl and servo with the later 300Tdi version. I have never touched the G valve, but assume it must be working, otherwise the rear end would lock up. Agree? I would suggest that hearing the ball moving inside would sound correct. You can exert a fair amount of inertia by shaking such a device. Was there a spring inside? Or do you think the crud was the remains of one?

<Massive rant> I absolutely can't stand DRLs. What is the point of lights so bright as to dazzle oncoming traffic in the daytime? some manufacturers have got them right, but too many have missed the mark by miles. </Rant>

Just before Christmas 2013 we moved house, to a larger place with more space for the family, and importantly to me, a larger garage. I thought I should attempt a write up of the transition from garage to workshop. Partly I hope to provide ideas for others in future, but also to generate discussion regarding methods and materials for different aspects of process. I don't expect progress to be particularly fast, as time to do things is fairly limited. At the old place I had a brick built, flat roofed, very tightly packed single garage. This was home to my Colchester lathe, drill press, and all manner of other tools, equipment and parts. To call it a workshop would be stretching the definition of the term, as there wasn't much space to move, never mind work! Nige (HfH) has seen this and will vouch for the amount of equipment I had crammed in there, Anyway, the new place has a double garage (16'x20'), of sectional pre-cast concrete construction, with a corrugated asbestos roof. The lack of headroom means that vehicle repairs will still happen outdoors, but the additional space will be very welcome for the machinery. There is room to build a car port outside so the lack of truck-in-garage opportunity is not too great a concern. The main entrance is a powered roller door. Apart from being tediously slow in operation, it's trying to fall off the front of the building, as the timber it is attached to is pretty rotten - work will be required here. There is also a personnel door, also falling apart, so I have not attempted to open it yet - more work to do! Kitting this out as a workshop would be easy if the garage started off empty, but with all the gear I brought with me there will be no end of shuffling stuff around to enable work on different walls. This is where having an engine crane comes in handy Currently there are two fluro battens hanging from the steel roof trusses, and a double socket each side of the building, so some electrical upgrades will be necessary before I can call it a workshop, and get the lathe running. Following previous enquiries on here about insulating and damp proofing, there were mixed views as to how damp this type of building would be. In reality the concrete floor has remained dry, but the roof seems to be damp on the inside. Anything metal has been running with condensation in the recent wet weather. My appeals for insulation ideas attracted a kind offer from Mr Fridgefreezer, of some surplus 2" expanded polystyrene sheeting and plaster board, materials left over from fitting out his own inventing shed. I think there are about enough sheets to line the whole building He was also good enough to pass on a home-made polystyrene cutter, which after some initial trials I can say is going to make cutting sheets to size relatively easy. More details will follow on this part of the project. Other plans include a full rewire, with larger armoured cable (currently 2.5mm2 and will be 4mm2) from the house supply. Also a new consumer unit with separate circuits for the lathe's phase converter, wall sockets, lighting, and a dedicated socket for the welder. Plenty of wall sockets and lighting are also on the agenda. A weatherproof outside socket sounds a good idea too. Then I'd like to add a modest air ring with a few sockets around the shop, providing use of air tools at the bench or outside, blow guns for the lathe and mill (yet to move my Bridgeport in). I know Dangerous Nige linked to some nice plastic stuff a while ago, but it ain't cheap. If it comes to it I may end up using rubber hose around the walls with sockets fixed to the walls here and there. As for layout, I am thinking machinery down one side, storage shelving on the other, and work bench and tool cabinets at the end, hopefully leaving a nice working space in the middle.... maybe. I expect more ideas to pop up as time goes on, please feel free to make suggestions, or add your own experiences of products, preferred methods etc.

Might be worth your while contacting David at Goodwinch for advice on what winches the Bowmotors will fit.

Jeez! The one Cookie64 linked to looks fookin lethal! In fact I am surprised that spinning so fast it didn't self destruct. The second one looks rather steam age, but more controlled.

That is a good deal. I have the same top two units, and the bottom cabinet with 2 drawers and a hatch. All good sturdy kit - mine is overloaded beyond belief and still standing. Not sure I'd pay £250 for the roller cabinet on its own though ...

Never mind the annoyances of removing it - that exhaust is one fine looking piece of work.

20 odd years ago I went to Holland in my marine blue Series 3 88". At the time, the Dutch army were still using soft top Lightweights, one of which we saw while out and about one day. The squaddies riding in the back nearly fell out of the truck with all their excitement and waving. Far more recently I was queuing for a cross channel ferry in my RRC, and I saw a 101, rare enough to see them out and about these days, never mind on the ferry. (This one was well loaded with large timbers!) I didn't get the same enthusiasm from the guys driving it, although a later conversation opportunity revealed them to be Polish. I doubt they appreciated what they were driving, other than that it was probably faster than a Trabbant. They had driven from Bordeaux and were headed Up Norrrff once back in Blighty.

The truck in side profile looks rather Ibex-like.

Screen blaster Screen Jets Vision Jets Screen Clean Super squirters (sounds a bit rude)

Oh dear Jeff, not a good day for you, but most entertaining for us, as we have grown to expect. It always amazes me how little you can get done in a day, yet how much can go wrong in the same length of time.

Yes, nice truck indeed. I had vapour plans about such a truck. I had more rear overhang in mind for a more balanced appearance, rather than off road clearances. Good luck with the squirting.

I stand corrected, I wasn't 100% on the year, as with my Ninety being a 1986 model I don't have to worry about that legislation. I am in no way advocating that those of us with older vehicles shouldn't fit towing equipment that is suitable for the purpose. When you compare a Dixon Bate adjustable kit for a Defender Td5 vs a 300Tdi version, there is a very clear improvement in sizes of materials used. Pleased to see such a clear article on eBay, although I wonder how many take the time to read it.