simonr

That shows how subjectively we view cars! People clearly like them - as they buy them!

I had a Discovery Sport as a loan car. It was a couple of years old - but I thought "What a POS!". It felt like a low-end Ford. Very plasticey. While it had lots of gizmos, it didn't have the one I needed, a Sat Nav. I had assumed they were cheap - but it seems not. I've driven several Freelanders (and owned one) and quite liked them! While not a Defender, they felt like a Land Rover. I also (a couple of weeks ago) had an Evoke as a loaner - and was much more impressed. It felt much nicer to drive. I thought they were based on the same platform? Unfortunately the seat was uncomfortable - so there won't be an Evoke in my future. I also had a brief test drive of a new Defender. While I still think they look ugly - I was quite impressed! It was immediately comfortable, great visibility and handled like a RRS. I'd definitely consider one! I surprised myself!

I tried this, with solenoid valves - but found it made the vehicle too unstable to be worth engaging.

Just so you can see I'm not going to die just yet 😅

👍 The 'off switch' is by unplugging the Anderson Connector. "significant emotional event waiting to happen" Good expression! 🙂 It has a shunt resistor which discharges it over an hour or so. The amount of energy stored is actually quite small (4.3kJ). Just to see what would happen, I tried shorting it out with an old Soviet 10,000A Vacuum Contactor. The (35 sq mm) cables got quite warm, but nothing particularly exciting happened. It looks Dangerous, but is probably less so than an average car battery and certainly less than a LiPo. To be honest, most of my workshop - and indeed life is a significant emotional event waiting to happen!

I think so! It used to be used on EV's to deliver & absorb high currents back in the days when Lithium Batteries couldn't. It would still get to the point where the voltage is just too low - but it would allow you to use a titchy battery and still deliver very high currents.

I hadn't spotted that! 🤣

Only a screwdriver so far! An unexpected behaviour of Capacitor based power banks is that it will start a vehicle where it's only just too flat to start, only using the flat battery to charge itself. The car battery still has enough energy in it, but when you engage the starter, the voltage sags enough that it will not crank. If you connect the bank to the battery for a minute or so, it will charge the capacitors and build up to nearly the no load terminal voltage. Then when you crank the engine, the capacitors can deliver the current with almost no sag & the vehicle starts. Chris GBMug was amazed when we did this on his 110!

What you need to do is replace the battery with a pair of Super-Capacitors in series (they are 2.7V max, LoPo are 4.2V max, so you need two to make up the voltage) I use an old mobile in my Van as a tracker using 2 x 500F Super Caps https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204229022629 Unlike a battery, they don't care how discharged they get, though the power density is low compared to a battery. The pair gives me about 24h on standby - but you might need to parallel up more than one pair to give you the life you need. It makes for a very relilient solution! I also built this out of 25 x 360F Super Capacitors as a Super Jump Pack. It will deliver thousands of Amps for an instant which is ample to start any engine.

Are Grenadiers more secure?

Are new type Defenders getting stolen frequently? Or, is it just their experience with old type that are tainting the new ones?

I once got pulled over on the M25 for driving at 85mph in my Series 2 (down hill with a tail wind) - and the Police Officer had to let me off as my Speedo only went up to 70! The fact that the needle was pointing at the oil light should have given me a clue!

They look good! I've just ordered one. Thanks for the link Steve.

What he said! Everyone has been very kind about the rubbish I've posted over the years 🤣

Doh! It should be fixed now.

This is one of the jump cylinder tests. It's at quite low pressure here - we were trying to tune the pressure & exhaust valve timings to jump, then absorb as much of the impact as possible on landing. IIRC the concrete block was 700kg. https://youtu.be/IFFuSKjjOpg This shows how the suspension on the vehicle was going to work. There's no way the coil-over would extend fast enough when the jump cylinder fired - so we mointed it on a swing arm. It extends at it's own pace then just tidies up the last bit of energy on landing. https://youtube.com/shorts/ZKzf2hKQMhE This was the suspension setup on the test vehicle If you look below the jump cylinder rod, you can see a clevis with two holes. We kind of cheated, and put a steel wheel in here which hovered 50mm off the road such that on takeoff or landing, you see the tyre compress, but it didn't put too much force through the end of the axle. We also had to add bump-stops on top of the coil over swing arm as on landing, there was enough force to bust stuff. This just softened the impact a bit. In the end, this was all canned in preference for traditional slug-firing canons. Marcus, Mikey & Joe (built all the test rigs & conducted the testing itself) - if you ever see this, you did an amazing job!

I had ones which look very similar (can't remember where they came from though) fitted to a DoubleCab. I remember having to modify them (or possibly the vehicle?) to fit. It's just one of those Land Rover things unfortunately! No matter how much care the manufacturer of an after market part puts in, there's always a variant the part will not fit easily.

Kind of! I used Firstone Air Bags. While it all worked quite well, they were very prone to punctures off road. The smallest stick seemed able to push through the wall of the bag. If I were doing it again, I'd use airbags from a Discovery 3 / 4 / RRS for the main reason that the airbag itself is protected inside a metal can - and they seem largely puncture-proof. The negative (maybe not so much of a negative?) is that the damper forms a part of the spring assembly & lives in the middle of the air-bag.

I think, on the whole that's true. People are buying the dream/image of a lifestyle. Not terribly different to people buying £100k restored Series 1's.

The off-road repair looks like a fairly typical day out at Walters in a Land Rover 😉. I suspect most of us have had to improvise something similar. I want to know what these 'pods' on the roof are: Speakers? Vents? Lunar Landing Modules?

The Boge units were a fantastic bit of Engineering. I swapped out a worn out one on my first 110 - and regretted it ever after. I never found springs which did nearly as good a job. On my next 110 (a Td5 Doublecab) I often wished it had the Boge unit instead of the spine jarring HD Rear springs. I would bet, if you took it to one of the many Hydraulic Specialists who rebuild cylinders - they would be able to repair it. The problem is most likely to be piston or valve seals wearing & becoming leaky. A few specialists we use at work - Hopespare, PPK, Steerforth, Oddy Hydraulics, Custom Hose.

They're known as 'Alpine Windows' (for some reason!) I've only changed the seals it once - and swore I would never do it again! I'm sure there's some tecnique that makes it easy, but it eluded me! I started with patterned seals, I can't remember where they were from though. They proved completely impossible. I then bought genuine ones (I assume they'e still available?) which were eye-wateringly expensive IIRC, but they were possible to fit, with a lot of swearing. I said at the time, if I ever have to do this again, I'll get a grown-up to do it!

Love it 😆

On my last but one 110, I found the back end was kind of lively under breaking in wet weather. I retro-fitted the G Valve (PCR) and it made the world of difference! It always struck me as odd that even on 110's the bracket was included on the chassis rail, but the valve omitted. Probably different legislation in different countries? The PWDA valve was nothing but trouble! The internal piston often seemed to jamb at one end or the other, which reduced the flow to the front or rear. I ended up just removing the piston & fitting a replacement cap as others have suggested. The PWDA switch would tell you when your brakes have failed - but that was generally obvious from the fact the brakes didn't work! The level sensing cap at least gives you a bit of warning before the brakes fail.

The powered grease guns are just AMAZING! They develop enough pressure / force to push grease into anything. I've even considered using it for Hydroforming (but that's a project for another day). We had some hinges with about 60 Ton load on each hinge (On a hydraulic toppling Bell Tower, Spiderman Far From Home) where someone had forgotten to grease the pins prior to assembly - and they seized with the pin being pushed against the grease nipple hole. No amount of force on a manual grease gun could get any in. Someone pitched up with a Milwaukee gun and seconds later there was grease oozing out the ends of the hinge and the tower was free to wave around as intended. That was an extreme example, but I've continued to love them. It just makes it so quick, easy & mess free. The fittings on the ends are really good quality (to be able to handle the pressure). Note: I'd recommend the Makita ones now over Milwaukee as they have a pressure relief valve and 2 speed - meaning you can use it more safely on small things.