simonr

I'll be there - sadly coming in the opposite direction though.

It is. It's easy - but people like the convenience and don't bother.

In 2016, I built this: https://openbuilds.com/builds/rigid-delta.3983/ which was intended to print as fast as possible. Steel chassis, very rigid. The Bed was a ground flat slab of Aluminium. It could move the print head and drive the extruder extremely fast. At relatively ordinary speeds, the quality was very good, compared to an Ultimaker (which at the time was about the best). But as the speed increased, the quality declined. What I found (and measured) were resonances in the frame and extrusion system which caused ringing on the corners and extrusion artifacts. Making the frame that rigid was in some ways the problem - Steel is elastic and the structure had very little damping. After a lot of experimentation, my conclusion was that the only way to achieve really fast printing was some kind of digital signal processing applied to both the stepper drivers and extruder to avoid the resonances. Using my (Bridgeport) Mill as a printer worked just because of the sheer mass of it (and having servo drives). IMHO, the DSP is the 'secret sauce' in Bambu Labs printers. Done right, you can have a more flexible structure and just map the resonance - exactly what Bambu does! In the end, it was a decent printer, but no faster than the Ultimaker for the same quality.

A lot of the problem is manufacturers (not only Land Rover) making new cars so easy to steal. Keyless entry & keyless start are the main problem. Only now, after years of thefts are the manufacturers adding Time of Flight measurement - so it works out how far the keyfob is from the car. Unfortunately, they've only done a half-a***d job of this as there's already a very simple exploit that defeats it. I saw this myself a few weeks ago with a guy in a supermarket car park wondering where his new (I think it was a Bentley) had gone. They must have wandered around the store with the repeater while someone outside just waited for a car to unlock. It's only a shame all Land Rovers of all ages are seemingly lumped together as being a high insurance risk. The last generation (Disco & RR) before keyless are apparently very hard to steal - but still the premiums are increasing.

I've been impressed with the slightly larger volume, compared to my last 3 Ultimakers. Particularly printing fast enough that the Z height is usable (without having to wait until Christmas for the print to finish. I printed one part 400mm long by printing it diagonally in X,Y & Z using support under the diagonal. Even using this approach, the print times are manageable. I've been printing structural parts in PAHT-CF (Carbon Fibre filled Nylon) with very good results. Parts which have failed in ABS, PC & PETG previously.

Fire Extinguishers are a good option. A CO2 Extinguisher has a rated working pressure of over 50 Bar so, even when a bit tatty will hold 10 Bar without too much problem. They mostly have BSP threads too. Plastic coke bottles tend to explode between 30 & 50 Bar - so, again at 10 Bar, there's a reasonable factor of safety. Even if they do explode, it's just a loud pop - no exciting schrapnel!

Bambu Labs - by any chance? I have one too!

Speeduino now supports both STM32 & Teensy. You'd be daft to use an ATMega for much more than stopping your table wobbling these days!

I believe this happened with both D3 & 4. I suspect there were two (or more) crank shaft suppliers or QA problems and only some were affected. The problem always seems to manifest in the first 100k miles - so if it has more mileage on it than that, it's most likely a good one.

It really is very easy! Access is restricted though. I took a load of photos from the footwell, looking up so I knew what I was feeling. I could definitely feel the magnet ring was loose. Didn't have to stick my head in the footwell at all! There's a bit of plastic trim on the RHS of the steering wheel, just above the footwell that pulls off. That gives a little bit of visability too. I just rolled a ball of jenolite about the size of a marble then squidged it between the tabs on the magnet ring & the steering column. Then another one on the opposite side. It didn't look pretty, but does the job really well. It's worth replacing the clock-spring in the steering wheel at the same time (only cost a few quid for a patterned one) as they seem to go around the same mileage. I'd been plagued with this problem for years but it was only when one of the garages who failed to fix it explained it was the magnet ring, but the whole steering column would have to be replaced. I thought s*d that! I might as well try gluing it!

Someone at work was talking about implementing Speeduino. He had previously run MS2 and some commercial implementation (don't know which nor in what order he tried them). Se said Speeduino was like a breath of fresh air. I've not looked at it at all - but his enthusiasm for it was infectious.

You (and Bin_Owl) have made a nice job of that! I wish it had a better type of display - though it may be that when this project started, 2x16 & 4x20 LCDs were all that were available! They are certainly the lowest cost option. You can change the brightness of the backlight - but it requires a bit of hackery. The LED connections are (usually) brought out on the display connector. Generally, you would connect one to a PWM output on the microcontroller - but it may just have been connected to power, to simplify the design. Either way, insert a variable resistor (2k2 is about right) in series with either the LED+ or LED- pin where it connects to the board. Some really low cost boards omit these pins - but you can cut the track & insert the VR in series too, but this is obviously more invasive.

That's a good idea, however once I'd thought of a self-levelling bed, though it's probably more complicated, I just had to give it a go! Why go for the simple solution when you can have servo motors, lead screws & computers 😅.

It doesn't look original. I would guess at it being to stop the wire from chafing against other metal bits. Maybe a previous owner had problems with that & fitted it to solve the problem?

That looks fantastic. It will be interesting to see if you get an improvement in fuel consumption.

My top-tip, as a previous Td5 Owner. The Relays may well be fine - however, what more commonly goes wrong is the contacts to the relay. If you pull out the relay carriers and remove the individual terminals, often the wires are loose where they've been crimped. Re-crimp it and put the tiniest bit of Solder on them to stop the folded tabs from loosening. The wires are better off not soldered into the terminals as this causes them to fatigue instead of just loosen. It's the vibration that does it! For half an hours work, it's worth a go.

Before I built my previous van, I visited a conversion place near Horsham. They said they would charge me £35,000 for a basic conversion not including the van - and they would only work on brand new vans! If that wasn't bad enough, I looked at their 'show van' and the fit & finish was terrible! The furniture was all made from chipboard with the press in plastic edging. None of the edging was centered nor straight. All the fixtures, taps etc were the nasty chromed plastic type, common in Caravans. Based on the cost of a van at the time, you wouldn't get much change out of £65k. However, their yard & workshop were packed with vans in various stages of conversion - so I guess that's what people are prepared to pay.

A little update! I was never happy with the bathroom floor. It was a (horrible) blow-moulded plastic thing which made creaking sounds when you stand on it - but it was all I could get at the time. After a couple of years use, it had become stained - then one day it cracked and leaked quite a lot! I patched it up with fibreglass - but the writing was on the wall. I drew this in Solidworks & had it cut & folded by a local Laser company in 1.5mm 304 Stainless. Nick Watts TIG welded the corners for me. The end result is much better! An added bonus is it conducts heat from the underfloor heating really well so the room is warmer when the weather is chilly.

That's quite a common problem! The sensors don't like being jet-washed & get water ingress. On hot days, the water evaporates & is less conductive. After market sensors are inexpensive & take minutes to fit. I diagnosed & fixed this on someone elses - and made a point of not jet-washing mine!

I have a 2005 L320 RRS V6 which is essentially a D3 with different bodywork. I kind of wish I'd bought a D3 as I think they've aged better! On the advice of a firend (who knows more about D3, 4 & RRS than anyone has a right to) I bought one with over 100k on the clock. He said most terminal problems occur before 100k. When I bought it, it needed new wishbone bushes. Since then (I've owned it 11 years) it's had: Replacement air tank for suspension (it had rusted through) Replacement fuel tank guard (also rusted) Changed the filter-drier on the suspension compressor. Nobody ever does this & it kills the pump if not done. Front & Rear Timing Belts - scheduled rather than due to failure. Intercooler hose (it split) Steering wheel clock spring (when you get an Airbag warning or your cruise control doesn't work). Cheap & easy to fit. Steering Position Sensor According to the internet, this is a difficult & very expensive problem! However, it's just a magnet ring slipping on the steering column shaft. I glued it back in place with some Jenolite Epoxy Putty which took 30mins without dismantling anything, just reaching into the footwell. It's been good ever since. Nothing very major. There have been a few recalls over the years. Any LR main dealer will fix these for free so worth going through the list & getting everything done. Most of the supposedly 'body off' jobs can be done with it on. However, you may need arms like Mr Tickle to do some of them! It's not hard to remove, just you need a lift. It's a lovely car to drive & the best tow vehicle I've owned. I used to average 23mpg on All Terrain Tyres. I replaced these with more road biased ones with an 'A' Fuel economy rating and my average has improved to 29mpg. With all the traction control trickery, it still seems quite capable on a muddy field. Just shows what a big difference tyres make! I agree about buying (or borrowing) a diagnostic tool when you go to look. However, most of the problems are easy to fix, so worth more as a bargaining chip!

Wow! That's an amazing build. I built my camper van for my specific needs which were more work related - but I think if I were building one for 'me' it would be more like yours. I went down the route of using Home Assistant on a Pi4 to connect everything in the van which has proven pretty good - particularly the automations. I have it making more sensible decisions about heating, ventilation & air conditioning than is possible with a thermostat. For example, if the interior temperature is > exterior, use the ceiling fan for cooling. If exterior is > interior, use the AC. It uses the three to try to maintain 22C inside with the minimum fuel / electricity usage. I considered Cerbo GX, but past experience of Victron was theat they are a bit of a black-box, closed system. While they tend to work, there's not much scope for hacking. My previous van was all Victron. The current one has none! Although lots of people build Overland 4x4's, I have a similar issue to you, being 6'7" tall and the idea of being couped up in a Land Rover doesn't appeal very much. However, I'd not considered a 4x4 van! I'd not seen the side-pod things either. They seem an excellent idea.

I don't think the local phone masts knew what hit them! During the day it was practically impossible to get a data connection. There was plenty of signal, just no bandwidth. I don't know what Live Events could do about that though.

Normally gravity will flip the toggle - however rotating the bolt, giving it a flick by hand is enough to centrifuge the toggle out when the bolt is vertical. We generally get them from Orbital Fasteners - but just google for 'Blind Bolt'

I would use Blind Bolts Handy for situations like this.

Including 304 Stainless ones - which seems a good idea to me. They were about the same price as Galvanised and much easier to paint over. I thought it was a great show. Way bigger both in terms of trade & visitors than any in the last few years, even before Covid. The site was pretty good. If it didn't clash with Goodwood, I think it would have been even bigger. I bumped into Maverik on Friday - which was nice, but didn't see anyone else from LR4x4 I recognised.