simonr

They look good Neil Any idea of cost and supplier? Si

They look good Neil Any idea of cost and supplier? Si

I'm impressed with that chaps modifications - particularly putting Toyota axle contents into rover axles. On the PAS front, I saw a conversion done with a pas box from an old volvo. It has the same arrangement as a series with the box on the end of the steering column, push rod to an idler / bell crank and another to the wheels. The nice thing was it just replaced the steering column and left the rest the same. I don't know what model of Volvo it was - but I've seen such an arrangement on one in a scrap yard - so not too old to be found. Si

Paypal (so long as it's bin set up) will accept a card without registering or anything. Si

That qualifies as a Hybrid (or maybe a Lobrid) from hell! Si

Almost! It's the diode type that have a voltage drop. The MOSFET ones are Spendy. The SimonR ones, could leave you stranded - but they (or very similar) are what most people use. The change-over switch is not a bad idea - it's just remembering to switch it back to charging the main battery once you are done - which is also likely to leave you stranded. A last option (just to confuse matters!) is to use what is called a voltage sensitive switch in conjunction with a simonr type setup. These are fitted to Defenders in line with the rear de-mist. If your battery is below about 11v, it will not switch on the de-mist. If you connect one of these to the terminals of the main battery and connect the contacts in series with my relay, if the main battery gets too discharged, the split charge disconnects so the winch is running only off the second battery. The alternator charges the main battery until it is > 11v and then resumes charging both. I would incorporate one of these, but the VSS is about £30. Or 50p from Sodbury! This makes it absolutly fail-safe. In practice, I have never managed to completly discharge both batteries while winching. Assuming you leave the winch motor to cool down for a reasonable time, the capacity of both batteries will pretty much be restored. I'm only running a 70A alternator and using two yellow top Optima batteries with a 4.7kw winch motor. This would give about 15 mins continuous winching time at full load. The winch motor would be toast after less than 5. In practice, the time at full load (almost stalled = 430A) rarely exceeds a minute - and if it does, you should be using a snatch-block. This will reduce the winch current (on mine) to about 200A - giving about 30min run time with the alternator charging. I feel pretty safe on the being stranded front. Try the big switch - it's not a bad idea - I'd just worry about my goldfish like memory ;-) Si

Pushed the send button before it had finished booting! Today, it was the database back-end which went down - and refused to come back up! Time to dump MySQL and 'upgrade' to SQL Server me thinks! Thanks for keeping me posted! Si Off to the pub now! (Sorry to keep you waiting Chris!)

Thanks Col - server re-started. JW, if this were the case, your alternator would probably catch fire if you were to bump start a car with a flat battery - it having to deliver it's full rated load for best part of an hour? I agree that alternators are not continuously rated, but the duty cycle of an alternator vastly exceeds that of a winch motor. Your winch motor will catch fire long before the alternator is worried! There are 'proper' managed split charge units about - however, the alternator, batteries and everything else in a Land Rover are abused on a normal basis to an extent that a gentle, electronic managed charger is highly unlikely to have any bearing on the time between failures. Such a feat of electronic wizardry - to my mind is more of a liability in the kind of conditions we operate in. Give me something I can fix with a hammer any day! I can see this will probably degrade into one of those conversations about how your HiFi sounds so much better because you re-mortgaged the house to buy gold speaker wires. If you've spent £140+ on a split charge - and it works for you - that's brilliant. I just don't believe the extra cost is justified. Si

I thought it was an interesting concept - but as has been mentioned, you can't splice it & I doubt it will work with a standard snatch-block - although it is cheap! IMHO You'd be better off buying 'proper' rope from Nick (Rogue Vogue) which is cheaper than anyone else is currently selling synthetic winch line. Si

>he's not allowed to discuss (in detail) his other favourite hobby! What's that then? (not in detail - just a clue?) I think he'd be a fine addition to our group. Si

"Off - your head!" Si

The reason for having a split charge is that most batteries will be damaged by connecting them permanently in parallel (Eh Nick!). The reason for this is that if one has slightly more charge than the other - it pushes current into the other, but overshoots a bit. The other one pushes the over-shoot back, and it over-shoots a bit and so on. The charge is cycled between the batteries and each time, a little is lost as heat. Over time this can flatten the batteries - which they dont like! There are two common ways of making a split charge. first is using a pair of diodes. I diode is just like a one way valve - it allows current to flow in one direction, but not in the other, but just like a one way valve, there is a pressure drop across it - which manifests itself as a voltage drop of 0.7v (or so) This system allows the alternator to push current into two batteries, but does not allow any to flow between the batteries. This means that your winch will only draw power out of one battery. This is fine, except for the 0.7v loss - which means your batteries will not fully charge. You can achieve the same thing with MOSFETS with a much lower voltage drop - but these type of split charges are much more expensive. The simplest solution is essentially a relay which connects the two batteries together in parallel - but only when they are being charged or discharged (which is fine). The rest of the time the batteries are disconnected. In this instance, if your winch is drawing 400A, half will be drawn from each battery. (That's where the 200A comes from). When my 8274 is stalled, it draws 175A from the other battery (according to my clamp meter) - therefore the split charge needs to be able to handle at least 175A. If the relay which connects the two batteries together is only rated at 20A - it will quickly toast itself! The 20A split charges are fine for caravans where you will likely only be running a fridge - but not for winching! A common solution is to use a winch type solenoid as the relay. The problem is that the coil is not continuously rated and they tend to fail fairly quickly. Mine has a continuously rated coil and contacts continuously rated at 180A. I have tried pushing over 1000A through it for a short duration and it still works (shorting an Optima out with it!). Even if you are drawing well over 180A through the relay, your winch motor will burn out before the relay. The main thing I'm offering is easy to understand instructions on how to set it up and how to wire up your winch to get the best out of it. Most of the people who have asked for advice on why their winch cannot pull the skin off a rice pudding have made simple mistakes in the wiring and it was my aim to give both that and a decent high current split charge as cheaply as possible. If electrickery is your thing - then you will be able to do it more cheaply - but if not, I think this represents far better value than most on the market! What extra do you get in a £100 split charge? Mostly you get a nice anodised aluminium heat sink and some blue LED's. Si PS Cheers for the +ve comments!

>treasurer@lr4x4.com Via Paypal? Well done chaps! Si

I can give you a quick summary: 2nd low and floor it! If you have an auto: Just floor it! Works most of the time! Si

Although these are not that cheap - I've found them to be pretty good as such things go. They have a rubber cap which largely seals them against mud etc. Maplin Fag Lighter Socket Si

If you can find one - I'd have a go! Si

As Les says - Exactly the same as an Air-Con pump. There are two plates, one attached to the fan and the other to the pulley. There is an electromagnet near one plate. When switched on, it magnetises the first plate which attracts the second plate sticking them together and transferring the drive. It's quite an apealing idea - you can have the best of both worlds - having something reliable, that you can switch off if you need. Si

>" I have a weird clicky spikey noise on my steering" Broken CV? Si

I'm stating here! Green is just so last week! Si

Presumably thats + vat? Si

What sort of price are the deflators available at? I too have seen 'em used as was pretty impressed! Nothing beats using an air-con pump as a compressor! best part of 10 cfm - plenty enough for running air tools and will inflate almost as fast as a dive bottle! Si

Something you could do in an electronic mag is: What about identifying problems by the sound? Each month, supply a couple of MP3's of things like a failing UJ, wheel bearings, tappets, viscose fan not bolted on properly, the washers on the chassis end of radius arms rattling, big ends - the list is almost endless. I find that listening to the 'bad noise' is the first step in diagnosing a problem and a library of bad noises would be tremendously useful! Si

Now, that's exactly the kind of article I would want to read - and indeed, did! Si

I'd like to see more advanced technical articles - more like the American mags. More stuff on how to build your own, perhaps with paper cutting templates that you can print out? Although I have pretty good facilities now, many of the bit's I've made were done by the side of the road with some very basic tools - and if anything, I was more proud of the achievement than I would be making the same thing now. There are people supplying decent components which can be incorporated into designs - like ball joints for example which can fill the gap between what you want and what you can fabricate. A bit like the electronics mags of old. Each issue should include a couple of projects with enough info to actually complete it. There are people who would prefer to buy shiny bits they can bolt on - but given enough info many of these may be encouraged to have a go themselves - and will never look back. I really hate the "This month we show you how to fit <fill in blank> to your Landy" (Air conditioning is my pet favorite) where the article can be summarised in "Take it to a specialist & give them loads of money". Reviews of new kit are important - otherwise we would never get to know about useful stuff. Independent reviews are desirable - but in the real world, the mags have to steer a line between the public & retailers. One solution might be to allow the retailers to have a say in the article if there are negative comments about their kit - for example. "We welcome the feedback provided here and in future we will not be fitting the razor wire to our steering wheel covers" Tell you what - if there was an equivalent to Which? for off road kit - I'll bet it would sharpen up the customer service and quality of the kit of a lot of suppliers. Gets my vote! Si

I'll be going (with the rest of the Horsham posse) as a seller! What I need is a replacement 12v winch motor for the 8274 - but I'll see if I can chat up DB for that rather than buying a pre-broken one from someone else! I'd like some more RR rear shafts as well. There's usually something cool and expensive that I don't need that I manage to persuade myself to buy as well ;-) Si