simonr

That is, of course, the Elephant in the room! However, my Elephant is my friend & I'm keeping him 🙂

When I was looking for quotes, I found some of that. I ended up looking on Check-a-trade (or one of the similar sites) and one of the recommendations was a local electrician who also did solar. They weren't that interested in selling me a complete system. I researched what Inverter & battery system I wanted, it happened to be one they were a reseller for. They quoted, I've paid 25% up front and the balance on completion. He couldn't supply the panels I wanted - so he suggested I order them & just get them to wire them up to the inverter - which I thought was much better than giving a hard sell on the panels they could supply. Just like buying a car, mobile or double glasing - you just have to find the right company.

Good idea for a thread! I've been looking at Solar & Battery Storage for at least the last decade. Back in 2012, battery storage didn't make sense. The payback time was in the order of 30 years based on what you could potentially save. Payback on Solar was 10 to 25 Years. Better, but not worth it really. Gradually however, it has got better & better, until now it's a no-brainer. So long, that is, if you can afford the system in the first place & have somewhere to put batteries and / or panels. Luckily I can / have - sort of. Based on our electricity consumption and the rates you can buy it (off peak) from Octopus Energy, the payback time for Batteries is now in the 3-5 year range. I've just ordered a GivEnergy HY5 G2 + 9.5kWh of batteries due to be installed next month. I talked to a few Solar companies but based on the area of our roof (as viewed on Google Earth) they didn't think I could install more than 1.5kW capacity - which is just not worth the installation cost. I have almost that capacity on my Camper Van! My solution (yet to be built) is this: Effectively a solar-porch or pergola with 5kW worth of translucent panels (to let a bit of light through). I had planned to build it at the moment - but availability of panels says otherwise! The inverter I've ordered will just plug into whatever panels I eventually install - but will start saving money immediately. It will be interesting to see how the batteries on their own perform & if the real savings compare to the potential. I had to apply for planning permission for the above, which seems daft to me when I could build the porch without panels without permission. You need permission for anything over 9 sqm of panels not attached to your roof. Fortunately Planning were reasonably enthusiastic about it. I think they can see the writing on the wall for a future where every available surface is covered in panels! I bought a single translucent panel to test. It's connected to a micro-grid-tie inverter from Amazon which you just plug in to a mains socket & it feeds power into the house. It only generates about 400W peak - but it has made a noticeable difference over the summer.

Even Leafs are not terrible. Below average, but not the worst. The worst I can find on that list is the BMW I3 - 80% at 3 Years.

I completely agree! There's no point changing until you need to / have to. I'm going to carry on driving my thirsty RRS until it dies - then consider an EV. Hopefully by then I'll be able to find one I can to with.

Might be worth doing one of the chemical tests for fuel / combustion products in the coolant? I had a similar problem with a 200 - it was drinking a couple of litres of water every 100 miles with no obvious leaks, no water in the oil. Chemical test showed positive, changed the head gasket and the problem went away!

I agree that the cost is on the high side at the moment - but all indications are this will fall to be at least comparable to current ICE vehicles, right down to 'city cars' with limited speed & range, but costing very little. I disagree with this. The batteries do not suddenly become knackered, you just loose range as the batteries age. The amount of that reduction is much smaller than most people imagine. This is the average across all the vehicles in ths study. You can see the data for specific vehicles here: https://storage.googleapis.com/geotab-sandbox/ev-battery-degradation/index.html The average looks like about 10% every 4 1/2 years. At what point would you (we) consider the battery knackered? 50%? - That's likely to be about 20 years old. Most vehicle management systems will give you a SOH% - State Of Health of the battery pack. At the point of buying, you can read this & see what percentage of the original range the batteries can still deliver. I think this is much more reassuring than trying to guess the SOH of an ICE, perhaps by looking how clean the oil is or at the service history? It just means you need to figure out what would be a usable range for you and figure out which vehicles / age has at least that range remaining. OK, it's an additional thing you have to think about / calculate, but not a biggie! I think most current car owners will end up with an EV with enough range for maybe 90% of their journeys, accept that for longer ones they'll have to stop & recharge and occasionally hire a car / truck for the exceptions. Apparently 90% of journeys are less than 30 miles. Some (rich) people will have vehicles with 500m+ ranges - but they will be the exception. Maybe this will be the new gauge of a 'status' car? How long can you drive without stopping? I guess even rich people still need 'comfort breaks' though! I read somewhere that in terms of the cronological evolution of EV's compared to ICE's, we're currently at the stage of the Model T Ford. It won't take long for our current perceptions of EV's to seem laughable!

I put Defender seats in my S3 Lightweight (back in 1994) & had the same problem! My solution was to modify the seats drastically. I got rid of the slide mechanism, mounted the things that clip the front of the seat base directly to the seatbox & fabricated some brackets to mount the seat back to the bulkhead so it was still rake adjustable. The seat base still lifted up (so I could access the fuel fillers). The end result was a lot more comfortable and no higher than the original. Before that, I had a S2 which had seat bases with springs inside - that were really comfortable. The lightweight had the same bases filled with foam - but not so comfortable.

🥳 That's what I'm hoping! (Electric, that is). I'd heard it was going to be smaller overall, maybe more Suzuki Sized, to sit somewhere between a Land Rover & a SXS. Again, that would suit me.

Me too - but mainly because nothing has broken yet!

The meaning of Lifetime is so vague - that the warranty is meaningless. Halfords wriggled out of the lifetime warranty on their Advanced tools claiming it's a like for like replacement. Since Advanced tools are no longer sold, they wouldn't replace it, even with their current equivalent! This kind of thing happens so regularly that a Lifetime warranty is worthless!

Quality!

I have a Dyson handheld, which I bought used on eBay (for very little as it was filthy dirty, but works just fine). It lives in my camper van now.

Ooooh! I must have me some of them! I've ordered a set now. Looks like an ideal Xmas prezzie for other nerdy Engineering friends!

Battleborn are some of the best batteries on the planet IMHO. Hard to get in the UK though 😢 I went for 5.2kWh of CALB LiFePO4 cells in my van, with 1 kW of Solar on the roof. Possibly a bit OTT, but I never have any power-anxiety & it means I can run the Microwave or Electric Kettle without a second thought! In the summer there's sufficient excess Solar to heat the hot water cylinder too. In the winter, it takes 10 days (living in the van) for the batteries to drop below 50% without plugging in or starting the engine. Thanks for explaining the 'dry bath'!

What's a "Dry Bath"? Also "500kwh of lithium batteries" - presumably you mean 5kWh. With 500kWh you'd have close to 1000 mile range on Electric! 😉

One of my friends wanted a 200Tdi to put in his vehicle - and had the same issue with finances. He put an ad in Friday Ad seeking MOT Failed / Scrap Discoverys - taken away for free! He got several hits. One, IIRC he fixed & sold but eventually ended up with a good engine - for free plus whatever he got weighing in the remainder. That way at least you can usually drive it, or at least start the engine to see if it's OK.

What I found was when you increase the airflow, it generates so much additional turbulence in the pipework that the back pressure cancels out most of the gain. Even at 24V, I was probably only getting 25% more air out of the outlets. I liked the continuously variable control - but if I did it again, I'd stick to 12V.

I went though loads of options to improve the heater in my 110, including: Running the heater motor at 24V through a DCDC Converter & proper speed control. Replaced the slider on the dash which gave zero to double speed Adding a PTC heater between the plenum chamber & heater inlet Adding a spring loaded flap to the top of the heater inlet which could be pulled shut with a choke cable. Then added a duct between the plenum chamber and passanger footwell to give me a recirculated heat option. Replacing the foam gasket between the heater and bulkhead Adding the 'Defender Demister' side vents I liked the Defender Demister vents - they worked surprisingly well. Replacing the foam gasket made a big difference to the airflow and how fast everything heated up. This was on a 4 year old vehicle, so it must have been badly fitted in the factory. The recirculation option did make the inside warmer, but obviously made the demisting useless. The PTC worked pretty well - but made my headlights dim noticably wen it was switched on. It drew about 100A. Made demisting quite fast but barely made a difference to warmth in the cab. Doubling the speed of the fan really didn't help at all. The best thing I did, which made most of the above obsolite was to fit a heated screen. It was blistering! Ice on the windscreen to clear in 60 seconds. Mist on the inside to clear in 20 sec.

Assuming it's this type: http://graphicvillage.org/meritor/MM0401.pdf The pedal switch isn't a simple switch - two resistors, one of which is bridged when you press the pedal. It would be worth checking with a meter that the new (or old) switch gives values close to 27680R when released & 680R when pressed. It's possible that over the 30 years, the resistor values have drifted out of the range the controller will accept as OK. If the switch is OK, try some random resistors between terminal 1 & 2 on the controller, with the switch unplugged. It could be that the resistor inside the controller, it's using to compare the switch value against has drifted. It may be that by plugging in different resistor values, it will work again?

Another thing is how well it will 'wear' damage. At work, someone (different dept) had a new Defender - which looked very shiny. One Monday he came in with the rear quarter panel stoved in (green laning) and I was surprised how bad / ugly it looked. A few weeks later, it was fixed (it had cost over £10k apparently) and looked good again. In a Defender, you kind of expect it to have a few dents & look used - and they wear it well. I think the same will be true for a Grenadier.

When I bought my first 110, I had endless problems with the brakes - similar problems to those you describe. I changed the master cylinder, servo, serviced the calipers - and it was still just as bad. The solution turned out to be this: Known as a PDWA (Pressure Differential Warning Actuator). It's located in the engine bay on the drivers side footwell below the master cylinder. Mine was rusted solid inside and was blocking most of the flow to the front calipers. Replaced it - and it was like a new truck!

Mine has a slightly pointy blade which seems to start cutting before squashing too much. I've not been looking for perfection - but they make a way better job of it than a knife!

I use a pipe cutter - strangely enough! I can't find the exact one I have, but it's similar to this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dickie-681701-Plastic-Cutter-Multi-Colour/dp/B0779BJ5Y7/ref=sr_1_49?crid=3NF73RLAS1858&keywords=pipe+cutter&qid=1660923333&sprefix=pipe+cutter%2Caps%2C92&sr=8-49 Mine only cuts up to 2" OD - but makes a beautiful job of it! The above claims 63mm, which I guess is 2" ID. It also makes a very nice job of cutting 70 sq mm cable - much nicer than the tool supposedly designed for it.

It can run without the display. If you want a display though, the best option is to buy the biggest TV you can find. One with a tube is better than a flat screen - as the gearbox is fairly old, an older TV has better compatibility. You need a big TV because the signals coming out of an old gearbox are very weak - the big screen helps you to see them. You'll might need an inverter to power the TV (unless it runs on 12V). Have a look at the oil filler plug on the side of the gearbox, to see if it has an antenna connector in the middle. If not, don't worry - just unscrew the filler plug and push the connector through the hole. Push the wire in as far as it will go - you might need a longer wire. Stuff an old rag into the hole to stop the oil leaking out. Switch on the TV and tune it to a channel without any signal. Start the engine and you will see everything the gearbox has to offer, display wise. Si