RichardAllen

Yes. the nearest I have come up with is a Vango Equinox 450. But making a roofrack for it is not simple, and it will not be the instant put-up that Eightpot sees as being the main advantage. I am more concerned about having the option not to sleep on the ground because the surface is so bad. For example , most US campsites I have seen cater mostly for RV's, so do not have the luxuriant grass we have so often in UK. We may need to ncamp by the roadside in transit. As for wilderness camping, who knows what surfaces may be available.

I want to take my wife and two children under 12 into the wilds camping. I want a tent which can fix to a custom roofrack on a 90 or 110. It would be useful if it couyld piych on the ground too. My other half wants two sleeping compartments. I do not like the standard Hannibal style foldout rooftents because - they are very heavy (bad having weight high up) - they are very very expensive (bad for wallet) - they are said to be noisy in the wind (bad for kids sleep) - I don't trust that the construction will stand up in some of the windier, more difficult areas I have in mind (northern Scotland, Scandinavia, Russia) My tentative solution is therefore to buy a mountain tent (Vango Equinox 450 or similar) and build a fold-out roofrack to pitch it on, probably aluminium framed boarded with plastic board or thin marine ply as a stressed skin. I spoke to Vango who said they had not had anyone ring up trying this. Has anyone done it and succeeded ? Or tried and failed ?

Noting Jimmy's post, I fitted a TD5 tank in the back of my 300TDi, not least because insurance is easier if your modification is mainly fitting a standard Land Rover parts. There are excellent posts on nhow to do it here http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=23208&st=0 and http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopi...i+TD5+fuel+tank This approach does requires some fairly serious grinding and welding, but ends up with a robust solution. For the record, I also tried re-shaping the TD5 tank to avoid cutting out the rear cross member stiffener. I tried using heat, and a cut/plastic weld. Complete failure all round. My steelwork is a little different from the above posts as I wanted to keep the rear anti-roll bar as an option. I decided against a fuel change-over switch as I had heard from a kit supplier (probably the one in this thread) that the lift pump struggled lifting from the rear tank (this may be questionable). For filling, I made a T pipe off the main filler pipe going to the rear. I put in a facet transfer pump and piping from the rear to the filler pipe for the front. This means that when the front fills up, if the transfer pump is still on, excess fuel drains back to the rear through the T of the filler. I did put in a changeover switch for the fuel gauge to save having a second gauge. I have now run my setup for about 10 tank fulls including some reasonable green-laning with no problems. From completely full on both tanks to as empty as I dared go I can get a range of 620 miles, though it is usually in the high 500's if I don't let the level get too low. Do reply or pm me for more details if you decide to go this route. Regards Richard

My vote is for Axminster, had one for years, not too dear, bomb proof. I would also think hard about getting a floor mounted one if you have the room, for the extra flexibility and it leaves more bench space for stuff.

Regarding the MoT, I took advice from my usual chap when I was putting in a 2nd fuel tank, which needed ARB mounts to be fabricated. His view was that if an ARB were fitted then it needed to be sound, have good bushes etc. But it did not haveto be fitted. So I just took the whole lot off for the MoT and then replaced it when I had fabricated the mounts. I have found noticeably more roll with rear ARB off, but the articulation is clearly less and have not found either ARB on or ARB off a problem for normal on-road or relatively mild off-road driving. I have not yet taken the front ARB off which will affect the cornering. The rear ARB mounts under a TD5 fuel tank are susceptible to off-road damage.

My neighbour here in rural Gloucestershire told me that they used to give farmers snowplough attachments for their tractors and pay them a small amount to clear local minor roads (often steep around here) of snow. This allowed the council to concentrate on trunk roads and motorways. Then they cut costs and took all the snowplough back. Does that mean that there is a shed full of old snowplough attachments somewhere, or did they just cut them up for scrap ? Anyone had a go at fixing one to a Defender ?

512

How did you do? Question : 1 Correct!.. Question : 2 Correct!.. Question : 3 Correct!.. Question : 4 Correct!.. Question : 5 Correct!.. Question : 6 Correct!.. Question : 7 Correct!.. Question : 8 Correct!.. Question : 9 Correct!.. Question : 10 Correct!.. Question : 11 Correct!.. Question : 12 Correct!.. Question : 13 Correct!.. Question : 14 Correct!.. Question : 15 Correct!.. Question : 16 Correct!.. Question : 17 Correct!.. Question : 18 Correct!.. Question : 19 Correct!.. Question : 20 Correct!.. Question : 21 Correct!.. Question : 22 Correct!.. Question : 23 Correct!.. Question : 24 Correct!.. Question : 25 Correct!.. Question : 26 Correct!.. Question : 27 Correct!.. Question : 28 Correct!.. Question : 29 Correct!.. Question : 30 Correct!.. Your score is : 59

The stereo in the 90 is rubbish and my THB Bury phone hands free kit has thrown its hand in. (This is the second early failure unit I have had from them and the last one). I am looking to put in a bluetooth enabled stereo eg Sony MEX-BT5100, to kill two birds with one stone. I want to put the stereo in the front of a cubby box, rather than the dash but I notice that you cannot add a remote microphone for making calls, so you have to use the built in one. Has anyone any experience of such a setup ? In particular will the microphone in the stereo be able to pick up my voice against a noisy Defender background when I am making calls ? Especially if it is in a cubby box ? All help gratefully received as always. Regards Richard

I did the same with an Anderson plug. You can also use the same socket for quickly attaching jump leads too, though your fuse rating and socket to battery cable size must be right to handle the current.

An estimating rule of thumb which has stood me in good stead for years is: Ask three experts and add the results together. Slightly more optimistic than the PI formula.

Yesterday I got the sob story that my daughters (2 and 4mths) were getting me "something lovely" for Christmas, but the suppliers had not replied. So this morning my daughters bought me some truck seats from Trakkers. Result !!!

Pete, Brilliant tip. My daughters ( 2 and 4 mths) have just be bought me a pair of front seats for Christmas Merry Christmas All Richard

I got lots of help recently from a chap in the spares dept at the local LR dealership who correctly informed me that a fuel gauge connector I needed for a Defender modification was the same as a rear bumper light connector on an early Freelander. The Freelander breaker would not even take any money for my connector + bit of loom. One up for main dealers in my book. I should have added, I also got loads of help and a connector from people off here, just a shame it was not the right one.

On road, I've run PC Navigator on a TC100 for some time. It is quite like TomTom with some differences which make it a bit less intuitive to use, but overall it is excellent. Off road memory Map 1:25000 is the business in UK. OziExplorer seems to be the favoured option for Expeditions, but I have not played with my copy much yet. TomTom have also stopped upgrading their Navigator beyond v6, presumably to concentrate on their packaged prodcuts. Personally, I think this is a poor business decision, though it may have something to do with the number of PDA and phone operating systems around now.

They've removed it now.

I'll second that. They are called Plasma. The guy at my local Machinemart indicated that I was not the only customer who did not think much of them

I found a massive change in attitudes moving from Surrey to Gloucestershire. Here is Glos there are many more narrow single country lanes with passing points, so most people are used to reversing back to let someone through. This then gets reflected into a generally more tolerant attitudes by all motorists towards their fellow road users, in my experience. As for Landy driving my 90 is big, red and visible; so motoring is easier than in a Smart, I would expect. Part of the reason I bought it, and commute with it (30 miles each way, mostly motorway), is that it only does 73 tops, so I cannot compete with fast-laners. The result, much more relaxed, stress-free travelling; albeit slower. There is nothing quite like pottering along home behind a truck at 56 to drain the stresses of the working day on my way home. It is also helping get my points tally down. The driving standard I try and set myself is: - leave plenty of time for the trip - give way to everyone, - leave plenty of space for everyone - relax - relax again. I don't always live up to this, but having a comparatively slow Landy very much helps. Regards Richard

I got mine from MM4x4: http://www.mm-4x4.com/. It was a reasonably good fit, but still needed some fettling. Regards Richard

I need to weld a 54mm thin wall mild steel branch pipe (pipe A) onto another 56mm thin wall mild steel straight-through pipe (pipe B), at about 30 degrees to make a Y shaped pipe joint. The joint needs to be a watertight when finished. How do I best shape the end of the branch pipe A and cut the corresponding hole in straight-through pipe B, to get a good fit so that it is nice and neat when welded up ? Regards Richard

On the subject of snatch recoveries, I do not have a kinetic rope, and having seen David Bowyer's instruction video a few times, I am content to leaving this technique alone until I have done a proper course and got the badge. In the meantime, I do have a non-kinetic tow rope plush winch and bow rope to help get me out of the odd green-laning trouble spot.

Western, I have in mind Whitecliff 4x4. http://www.whitecliff4x4.co.uk/ I did an excellent full day driving course there a while ago, so I want to do the follow-up. I think they call it Full Day 4x4 Extreme (so maybe it's painted orange !!)

Brilliant help as always. I note the dangers of flying chain, which recall my merchant navy distant past and training on the dangers of stretchy stuff springing back, with, or without heavy metal bits (bitts !) attached. My intended use was definitely for positioning snatch blocks, and attaching a winching vehicle to something solid, rather than have it as a winch rope extension. I am looking forward to doing a full day's recovery course at some point soon, which will help all round. It would have saved a lot of hassle when we were pulling out tree stumps with a hi-lift earlier in the year too. Does anyone know what the markings on the hooks mean ? Thanks again to all Regards Richard

I recently picked up a 30 foot odd recovery chain from a car boot sale. It is clearly used but looks quite serviceable. I have washed the mud off, dried it, oiled it and inspected for damage, and it is in pretty good condition, no obvious overstrain, or cracks. Each link is 50mm x 35mm made of 10mm wire butt welded to form the loop. It has a hook on each end of the slotted type, so if fits well when looped back on itself and hooked between two links. The hook is painted yellow and attached to the chain with a free 10mm pin held in place with a rollpin. It has forged on it in raised letters 10 8 ACE AP25. I intend using it for green-lane / expedition style recovery in conjunction with a Goodwinch TDS 9000lb and tree strops etc. It looks pretty chunky, and the guy I bought it from did not look like he was selling iffy copy stuff. Can anyone tell me anything about this chain ? In particular, is there anything I should sensibly do before having to use it in anger ?

I would really recommend doing a training day before going out. I did a full day at Whitecliff 4x4 in the Forest of Dean (not too far from you, but there may be a nearer place). This will teach you what your vehicle can do, and how to read terrain, so you know what to avoid if you don't want to get stuck. Regards Richard