Rightfoot

SWB - and I was thinking of mounting mine just where yours is as its nice and protected. No supply problems with it being mounted that high?

I've got to replace the fuel tank as its starting to weep on the seams. Currently the fuel pump is mounted on the outrigger for the fuel tank, the good point is that its low down, but it strikes me that its a bit exposed, even though the bulkhead outrigger gives it some protection. As per the photo: I was wondering whether it was sensible to relocate to the inside of the seat box where it is more protected, but then it is higher up. Is this a good or bad idea?. Also there is no filter anywhere in the system as far as I can see, do I need one? If so before or after the pump (my instinct says before), and any recommendations as to type? Its an ex range Rover 3.5 on carbs.

Firstly a big thanks to Bob (and his tractor) for getting me off the filed so quickly at the end - I'm now in Sri Lanka where its 35 degrees An excellent day although the course had been set out for the dry it worked well in the wet, even if the scores were low. Can't believe Bob beat us by just 3 points, I wish we (I ) hadn't snapped the winch rope on one of the timed sections, it might have made all the difference. Would love to see the times as well. Looking at the scores I think the only difference lockers made was you got to spin all 4 wheels instead of just 2 As always thanks to the team for setting up, and Bob for the new site, and apologies I had to rush off at the end.

Excellent day - even if it took us an hour and a half to sort the starting problem, still not 100% certain of the problem The new layout with the gates clearly colour coded for LHS and RHS works very well. Some real technical driving required, and (for us) no simple pulls through deep bogs. The first two events this year have been better than ever, lets hope they are all like this and we can convince a few more cars to enter.

Excellent day, really enjoyed the site and the stages - even if we did have a smal roll on the first punch of the day! Thanks to Barry for being a handy anchor point on Section 1, seeing his truck drive up the 4 foot wall was awesome. The different colour tape for left and worked well, a good improvement on last year.

I personally don't see the issue with class 3 trucks - in the last three years we have never been able to complete all the punches on any event, equally well we have always run out of time rather than punches! Its not surprising that we are slower (sometimes much slower ) than some of the others but we put a full day in. Nobby is right that a couple of years ago it was frustrating hunting for punches, but that as when there were 40 vehicles and 40 punches. Last year with (I guess) about 20 vehicles a time there were no real issues with finding punches we could do. Half of the skill with a class 3 vehicle is choosing the punches that you can do. We had a damn good time last year, and in class 3 it went right down to the wire as to who won. I actually like the competitive element of a series, its quite different from turning up at one off events. I know the cost is mounting up, and I think most people complained about reducing to 4 events last year, maybe for some the jump back to 8 is too much - but (I think) the scoring is based on six rounds, so there is some flexibility to give the far flung sites a miss. I'll admit our truck is a trayback, rather than a full bodied truck, but that wasn't the case in our first year. Yes you have to try hard to keep a full bodied truck straight, but it can be done. Also staying in class 3 helps us keep our costs down - no lockers, no uprated drivetrain, 35 inch tyres. I'm pretty sure our truck cost a damn site less than some of those competing in the Challenger series.

Last year we managed to separately kill two Allbrights on our Gigglepin winch - in fact we did the final round of the Howlin Wolf only using one motor on the winch There are three options we can think of: 1) an indicator light so that when a solenoid / motor is working it lights up 2) use a single Allbright to power both motors 3) use twin Allbrights but also join the terminals on the motors so if one fails we still power both motors Option 1) means we have a quick indiactaion of failure, but I ma getting conflicting advice / views on options 2) and 3). Some believe you cant run only one solenoid - so option 2) wouldn't work. Also I have been told that as both solenoids will not wok quite simultaneously the option 3) would effectively put excess load on one solenoid at start-up. Any thoughts comments welcome as I'm confused

Had a great day - for a change we went into it with nothing broken, not even my ankle , and then we didn't break anything during the day First in class as well so good result, although probably helped by Sam's steering problem. Thanks to everyone as usual, I think this one goes down as the best event so far this year.

Thoroughly enjoyed the day, although like everyone else some of the marking out was difficult to follow. Pleased with the result given we had power steering problems (got through about 2 litres of PAS fluid) and cooling problems (topped it up with over 6 litres of water) Thanks to Saley for the quick pull to get us off the tree we were wedged onto Also thanks to Neil and Carol for changing the special stage so Alan had to run it twice while I sat in the car nursing my broken ankle Looking forward to the next event.

Have to agree, an awesome piece of kit that works really well.

It was an excellent event - Alan and I throughly enjoyed it, even if we were the only class 3 motor. Thanks to all of the organisers - and everyone else who made us feel very welcone. For those of you who saw me hobbling around with my twisted ankle - its just been x-rayed and is broken. So I'm now in plaster and on crutches Still i maaned to walk on it for 48 hours

At the moment I'm stuck in Ghana - I should have flown back last night, but no flights I have an option coming back tonight via Rome, but whether I can then get into the UK I have no idea. So we may be there, we may not be there. Its a b*gg*r as we were looking forward to all four rounds - typical of Iceland first the banking crisis and now they stop most of Europe flying

I sometimes tow exactly that behind a TD5 auto - challenge vehicle on a trailer with spares etc. I prefer to tow with the Mercedes Vito (as it has 200 hp so is much quicker), but also more stable, however it's limited to 2.5 tonne. I have found having ACE on the Disco makes it much betetr to tow with, but strangely the air suspension version seems more sensitive to nose weight than the version with coil springs. The real thing to remember is that the TD5 does rev well - if you manually hold the gears it will do 60mph in second, so to make progress you have to use the auto box as a manual. In a nutshell it does work but to keep moving at 60 then you have to work it hard. I don't have any experience of a tuned version, but people say it does improve them.

Sorry, make that last comment - I can't see that it specifcially excludes vertical exhausts, provided it is behind the mid point and within 15cm of the edge of the bodywork.

The MS Blue Book states: Exhausts • Have the exhaust system isolated from the driver/passenger compartment (e.g. beneath the floor or secured in casings of solid material). • Have no part of the exhaust system protruding to the rear of the bodywork more than 15cm. • If Racing Car with rear aerodynamic device, not have any exhaust pipes extending rearwards beyond the aerofoil. • If Racing Car without aerodynamic device, not have exhaust pipes extending more than 60cm beyond the rear wheel axis. • If Rear Engined Single Seater Racing Car, have the exhaust outlet between 4cm and 60cm from the ground. • Have all exhaust outlets terminating behind the mid-point of the wheelbase of the vehicle and within 150mm of the outside the bodywork periphery in plan view. Side exhausts not to protrude more than 4cm. For vehicles other than racing cars that are not fitted with enveloping bodywork any side exhaust may not extend beyond the plane through the outside of the front and rear tyres with the front wheels in the straight ahead position. Cars of periods A to E and Drag race vehicle are exempt from these requirements. I can't see that it specifcially excludes vertical exhausts, provided it is behind the mid point and within 12cm of the edge of the bodywork.

At the moment its 50/50 whether or not I have to fly out of Heathrow at 10pm on Sunday night - that'll be intersting to get the motor back to Oxfordshire and me to Heathrow in time to check in.

Excellent event - Alan and I agreed better than any last year (for us). No real damage by my standards (one rope snapped, one door handle broken, one indicator lens), just some more "character" on the body work. Found being in Class 3 without the lockers not as bad as we expected. Best new toy so far for this year - headsets: less running around and much clearer instructions. Thanks to all, and let's hope we do more than one punch at Kirton (I will check the air canister ios totally sealed this time!).

SMO had mine apart to remove some wiring for a phone kit - the top plastic cover pushes down and is a tight fit on the centre console. The centre console itself is of course bolted onto the tunnel, but presumably has been designed to sit that much higher to allow the cover to push down and be a tight fit. Hope this makes sense!

Mmm - don't remind of the deadline Alan's been working solid weekends getting the new motor ready, I've only helped out occasionally . There's a chance we may end up coming out in mine for the first event, but all I've managed to do on that since Slindon is sort out the rear axle, and give it a clean and service In theory we'll be camping Saturday night, but I think we might be finishing the build on Saturday and piling down on Sunday morning!

You'll be fine in general but I would suggest trimming the rear of the wheel arch (the Camel cut) otherwise they might foul on the rear bodywork on maximum articulation. I ran 255/85 x 16 on a Disco with a 2 inch lift, but had to trim the wheel arches back - effectively cutting off the lowest vertical area of the wheelarches, and leaving the bodywork ending on the angle.

I use a Vito 3.0 diesel to tow my 90. If you buy it new Mercedes will uprate it to a towing weight of 2500kg. For towing its awesome it will hold more than the legal limit going over the M62 without missing a beat. If you are very careful with choosing a light trailer - I actually bought a new 12 foot car trailer rated at 2500kg - then the whole unit is legal. Alternatively I've now also got a Disco Commercial so I'm rated at 3500 to tow with that. Which one I will use this year will depend on the site conditions, and whether we will need 4wd to move off. Just checking on Mercedes site again you can have a Sprinter uprated to 2800kg which gives you a bit more leeway.

Whenever I'm towing I always make sure I sit the wheel bracket in the chassis (assuming its a c-section profile). Never had one drop when I do this, but have had them work loose otherwise The best one was towing up the M6 behind a Series II - the jockey wheel came down, lifted the rear end and the whole lot (Land Rover and trailer) spun round and ended up parked facing the wrong way on the hard shoulder!

The O/E ones are actually friction welded, and were supplied by a firm up in Doncaster. This was about 10 years ago, but the volumes will have dropped right off now with loss of RR Classic and Discovery so there might be an option to have something stronger friction welded. Don't get me wrong I'm not a welding expert, but I was a buyer at Land Rover for a while. If anyone want's any more info PM me.

When I replaced mine I bought the genuine seal from Land Rover (about £15 from memory), and then went to Autoglass and had a chat with the fitters - £5 and half an hour later all fitted. Much easier in their workshop - they warm the seal and have all the right tools that make it easier.

I had it the other way on a "new to me 90" on its first time out - front wheel parted company with the rest of the vehicle just before we stopped. Turns out it had the shorter (series?) studs in it. My local garage was quite happy to change all five studs. The wheels have stayed on well enough in all of these years Howlin Wolf so i wouldn't be too worried about changing more than two.