Paul Wightman

Rumor has it that Matt is only making rims for Devon 4x4, another exclusive supply opportunity for Simon.

Dan, do want to SVA your vehicle or just fancy a Q on your number plate?

Lewis, you need a few more screws in there. Fitted to BOTH sides of the rim I assume? Dan, Where did you get the correct tube from?

Fridge, are you sure you are talking to a s-t-e-e-l s-t-o-c-k-h-o-l-d-e-r? Other problem may be you are not explaining yourself properly? You should be asking for ERW (electric resistance welded) steel tube available in wall thicknesses from 0.81mm to 3.6mm. Diameters, squares, rectangles an ob-round (flat sided oval) from 9.53 dia to 152.4 dia and squares from 10mm to 120mm. There is also the lesser known CEW (cold finished electrical resistance welded tube) available in similar sizes. Try Parker Steel, IS&G, Crawley Metal Services, Rudgwick Metals, West Yorkshire steel, Tomrods Ltd and of course Hub Tubes, They all carry ERW on the shelf.

Will, you could bring on a heart attack!

I would like to point out this is not an attack on Will, more a celebration of an institution of this forum. There have been many who have tried to inflict their opinions, talk carp and verbally attack others on here, they have been tolerated far longer than they should have before finally being kicked off. Will has always prepared to offer his thoughts and has taken more stick than most others without throwing Teddy to the floor. Long live Will!

Are we not drifting off topic a little here? I was refering to our one and only Will the Warne! Bless his cotton socks!

To be fair I did start from the oldest posts so the information and comments are 2 years old!

Knowledge has evaded us all till now. Below is about 15% of EVERYTHING you will need to know, if you want the rest let me know. John, I've recently done quite a bit more driving in a standard 300tdi 110 and its very interesting to compare it to my 90 running 33" tyres compared to 31s. The 300 feels dead and laggy compared to the TGV but it feels better on the motorway even though its down on power. Although the TGV is much much better on hills than the 300 I had in before it does still struggle on the steepest hill. The biggest hill near me is the one heading north on the A34 a few miles after the M4 junction. If I start at 70 at the bottom my trucks ususally at 55 by the top, the 110s at about 60-65. Part of this is gearing but some will also be the extra resistance of the tyres on the road and the air resistance and weight of the cage, bumper, lights etc. I, personally, wouldn't go for any higher gearing on a 90 like yours. Although the engine's a little louder with a 1.44 a lot of the noise comes from the wind and the gearbox so its not as noticable as you'd imagine. This is why I'm going for a 1.66 t.box with the auto, it'll just make the truck more spritly at low speeds and it'll make life easier on 35s. Hmmm, Brick Kiln. I'll be there but I might not bring the truck, I'll be sparing it for Tony's I know the sticky numberplate is a grey area but I was breaking plates so often I thought it was better to have a front plateeven if slightly dodgy) on the way back from an event than not having one at all I've got mine mounted on the front of the bonnet.I paid about 140-150 (can't quite remember) for one of mine earlier this year. I'd go for either 35x10.5x16s or 35x11.5x15s. Have you bought much from Devon before? If you have you might get a bit more off.... No prob. I've got the front axle to sort today then I'll be nearly done! Yeah, I've been meaning to fit one of the kleen oil ones. IIRC they reckon oil can last something mad like 500,000 miles I've used Optimas in my truck. Over 4 years I've had one die (the starter red top). The yellow I use for the winch has performed faultlessly so far. I've got a set of Jez's arms on my truck and I'll happily vouch for the quality; They're superb! Due to a change of plan I now have this radiator for sale. Its a TD radiator that's been recored (and has not been used since) with a straight finned core with 7 fins per inch. Its designed to be as open as possible and to resist blocking. The core alone cost over £200 + VAT. Also, the oil cooler has been blanked off and both the water inlet and outlet are on the same side to suit my 2.8. I'm looking for arround £175 but I'll take offers. If you're interested or want photos, PM me. Jon, I've used the ARB compressor to reinflate tyres and it isn't much fun; it takes ages and it gets seriously hot. I've now got a dive bottle (Ali's old one) and its superb. V V V fast (it did 8 35" Simex from 18 psi to 30 psi in about 5 minutes) and lasts a while (said inflation used about a third of a tank). My local place is quite expensive £4 a fill but its only a couple of miles away so its dead easy to do before a weekend! As far as storage goes, have you thought about making a recess in the floor where it could sit under the spare tyre? That way its protected and out of the way. Keef, the jobs not too bad. I did most of mine in 2 days using a big workshop; having use of a plasma cutter makes life a lot easier for this sort of theng. If you're not 100% happy with your welding, don't do it. I used 5mm plate for the mount which is also braced with some 3mm wall thickness box section. Get the Southdown gaurd, its expensive but worth it. If you want any photos, let me know. Jim, you're quite right although I can see my drum because of the gaping hole in my rear floor. Cheaning isn't actually too bad as long as you don't mind getting a little mucky. I normally lie on the ground and then give it a blast with the pressure washer. As with C, its a valid point but we are talking about Land RoversI'm thinking about sealing off the rear winch to stop the Southdown plate funneling muck up into the tub. I know my setup isn't perfect but everything's a compromise. I think probably the best setup is to have a winch just behind the cubby box (a la Ibex) as its in the centre of the vehicle, is a good distance away from the muck and in a good place to keep an eye on it.I've bent both of mine fairly well and I was thinking of doing something like this. I'd probably do something weld on and if anyone wants a pair it'd be fairly easy to have a few more sets cut and folded.I'll be doing something simerlar to my 8274 soon (sworry I haven't been in touch, Jim, I've been a little busy with other projects..... Rob Hybrid on the forum has also made a reduced diameter drum (at 2"). If you go to the trouble of reducing the diameter, go longer too. The big problem is getting the right wall thickness of tube, when I did the sums I worked out you'd want a wall thickness of about 10mm. Not easy to find! That's why I'll be getting Jim to make mine; for the price its not worth me doing it myself! DD, I've run a 6hp motor for about 6 months and its superb. Its fast and torquey. The only thing you need to do is run it in for a while. The bearings seem to have quite a lot of resistance when new; I noticed a drop in no load line speed when I fitted it. Now I've done a few events its a lot better. Personally I wouldn't go as long as 16". I'm looking at 12.5" (about a 50% increase) with a 2" diameter centre. With that its long enough that you can put you can get 150" of 11mm rope on the drum on one half so you can do a first layer pull even close to the vehicle. With the brake, I'd keep the standard one as it works pretty well most of the time. Give it a rebuild with the genuine brake kit when you do the drum. If you only have a manual brake you could run into problems with the motor over running when lowering out or taking tension off the cable. The extra brake is only really needed on big decents (to take the strain off the standard brake) and its also useful to stop the winch over run when you stop powering out. I don't know of any double motor 8274s in the UK although there are a few abroad. Its a bit overkill IMHO. It'll make a very heavy winch and a well set up single motor winch with a vehicle with an autobox (for better drive assist) you should be OK 99% of the time. Also with a double motor setup you could end up drawing close to 1000 amps at high loads. If you do have problems, just get a snatch block out. Jims the person to talk to, he's very clever when it comes to 8274s, his is truelly awesome Tony, I'll try and remember to get some photos of the filler and drain plug later as I need to get some of the autobox. FYI, I used wading plugs (cheap and easily available). I can't off the top of my head remember what the thread was but I've got the tap (was expensive) if anyone wants to borrow it. Les, fit an auto into the hybrid. I'm sure it'll go into an 88 inch without too many dramas; I've had no major problems getting my box into the 90. You may need to move the engine arround a bit to keep the propshafts a sensible length. Yep, finally, I finished putting the auto in my 90 earlier this week. It was a little emotional (it took about 120 hours in total) and it caused a fair bit of head scratching at times but it was deffinatly worth it. I'll try and sort some photos tomorrow but for the moment I thought I'd give you a write up of what i did.( Posted on: Oct 9 2005, 11:09 PM) I've tuned the engine (coming soon). This was fairly straight forward appart from the lack of an EGR blanking plate on the manifold on the TGV engine meaning I had to drill the manifold. I chose to do this on the rear branch just before it joined the centre branches as it was easy to get to and should give a fairly accurate reading. However, this meant I had to re-profile the web on the manifold so the jubilee clip fitted properly. It wasn't difficult but it just took some time.... The gauge I actually used was from here. Its nicely made and was a good price. It's also avalable as a 52mm round gauge so its easy to fit into a LR dash. then came the autobox fit itself. I thought that would be fairly straightforward but it threw up a few suprises. I knew I'd have to rebuild the gearbox cross member which I destroyed at Bamptonbut I was not expecting to have to take off the extra deep sump to get the auto backplate on (to add insult to injury I'd only done an oil change a couple of miles before I started the conversion) and then muck about with the exhaust again. As it is I'm going to have to make up a new downpipe as the M&D one passis within millimetres of the auto selector.... The one job I was expecting was redrilling the mounts to take the rubbers 15mm further forward. This isn't neccesary on an HP22 spec box (the standard) but the HP24 spec box I had built by Ashcrofts has a 15mm longer oil pump (this caused more problems later). The HP24 spec build up is a lot more expensive than the standard one (about twice the price) but its well worth it as the HP22 is only designed to take 280lb/ft and I've already got that sort of figure before I set about tuning the engine. The build I I chose is also well prooven; amoungst others Jez (aka Dolly the lightweight) had a very simerlar spec box in his yellow thing and it took a fair amount of punishment without suffering any ill effects. Next the transfer box went in. I decided to change to a 1.66 box as the auto has a slightly higher top gear and the truck was overgeared with the manual. The transfer box saw a fair bit of attention too, though; it had a strip down with new seals all round and a few new bearings. I also replaced the split cross shaft in the centre diff (the weak link on an LT230) with a solid one from Ashcrofts (KAM also do one). I also took the opertunity to fit one of Simon Rafferty's X-Eng disk hand brake conversions (absolutely superb bit of kit). That went on without any problems although I couldn't do a straight swap for a 200tdi hand brake cable as I'd expected: my seat box was of a differant design. I'll try and remeber to get a photo as its a bit complicated to explain what we did (had to bastardise the old cable to get a rubber insert). The next headache was then propshafts. I was hoping to reuse my old propshafts with a spacer on the front and then winging it on the back. The front worked fine (thanks to Tonks for the 15mm spacer) but the rear wasn't going to play ball. I was hoping that because I'd raised the vehicle I'd get away with the rear output flange moving 15mm further back but as soon as the box was in place it was obvious I couldn't even fit the old propshaft, let alone having any sort of compression on it. After a bit of a hunt arround I discovered a 200tdi Defender front prop would fit although I'd be risking it a bit when pushing the articulation. I managed to find an OK 200tdi defender front prop to make do and ordered a custom one from the propshaft clinic as I knew I'd have to do it eventually. They're a company I'd strongly reccomend; very good prices and a superb, quick service. The next job was sorting the shifter and the centre console. I decided to go for a NAS spec console as they're nicely finished and give you plenty of space to mount locker switches and winch controls. Its a bit of a fiddley job to do as theres a bit of trimming to fit but it was fairly straightforward. The wiring, however, was interesting. When I took the fuse holder out I discovered some rather shocking (literally) wiring that a previous owner must have been responsible for so that had to be tidied up. I'm just amazed I hadn't had any serious electrical fires, only a small smoke episode with the cigarette lighter (I should've look closer at the wiring then....). Oh, and the ARB compressor needed moving to behind the driver's seat as there was no room for it in its original position (behind the cubby box). The last part of the job was the oil cooler. I opted for a Mocal Laminova cooler. Its not the cheapest or easiest to fit but it is tough and won't block up (its water to oil). First of all there was the problem of where to fit it. Anyone who's looked under the bonnet of my truck knows its a little busy in there and trying to find somewhere to mount the cooler which had acess from all 4 directions for the water and oil pipes was a problem. After some thought it ended up mounted in the offside front wing. The oil pipes were then made up (proper aerospace spec ones to stop any problems) and we then tapped into the coolent returning from the heater matrix (cooler) to cool the oil. That was pretty much the job in a nutshell. I was worried all through the conversion the truck would be horrible with an autobox. Its not, its truely awesome. On road its a bit slushey but the 2.8 suits the autobox very well. The gearings also spot on with 35" tyres (75mph is 3000 rpm) and I think I'll just about get away with using the BFG 255x85s. I've not used it propperly off road yet although I've done a couple of lanes and I can already tell its going to work a lot better than the manual did. If there's anyone out there wanting to do a TDi auto conversion I'd strongly reccomend it. However, it'll cost 2-3 times what you expect, take at least twice as long and its a rear mission to find all the parts you want. I'd also VERY strongly reccomend you fit a VGT turbo. M&D do a kit and its not horribly expensive but a good mate of mine who's driven a few 300s converted to auto commented how nicely the 2.8 went with the autobox and how well it pulled without any turbo lag. As far as the specs of the boxes go, AFAIK the HP24 (in hydralic valvebody form) was never fitted to a production Land Rover, they were all HP22 although the box fitted to a 4.2 RRC was somewhere between an HP22 and an HP24. The HP24 in electronic form was fitted to 4.6 P38s and 4.6l NAS spec discos, all the others had HP22s. My gearbox started life as a standard 300tdi disco HP22 (serial number 744). I managed to source one from Rob Hybrid which meant I saved a few £££ on the core charge (£500 from Ashcrofts) Myfords are nice if you're only wanting to do small stuff; I've used a couple of super 7s and I'd reccomend one. However, I've got half an eye open for something a little larger. I used to use Harrison's at school, I can't remeber the model but they were about 1000mm between centres with all the features you want (oil cooling, thread cutting, power feed in both planes etc). They're a bit more expensive but it just gives you the scope to do more. I'm also not convinced by Jack Mac. The only potential issue I'll soon have with my axles is crown wheels and if I have problems I may have to go down the route of using toyota diffs (but still using a 24 spline locker and rover shafts for the reasons you've stated). However I'd rather not do it as spares then become a problem... Steve, the cenrtre pannel is a pattern NAS one (from Frogs Island who, IIRC, have have them made specially). Its very smart but its a bit of an arse to fit, particularly the cubby box lid as this come in two peices, has to be bonded and then everything made up for the catch (mines a DII glove box one). Hmm, wear wise Simex aren't great. I've done a fair few miles on mine (6000-8000) and I'm doing some sums right now. I'm toying with the idea of selling the 10.5x16s while they've still got some meat on and getting 11.5x15s. In the end they are a soft tyre so you'll have a fairly high wear rate. I'm not sure about balencing. I had them done initially (I got EEEE like Nige) but since then all the weights have fallen off and I really haven't noticed any differance in handling. They are interesting at speed (85-90) but I'll happily sit at 70 all day with mine (I did 250 miles in it the other day). Les, the differance off road is awesome, you'll never look back Mudplugger, my vote's OME. I've used it for 3 and a half years. I've never broken a damper (in fact they're all the original ones I bought originally), no spring sagging, it handles well on road and off it, its nicley balanced and composed and I'm in no real hurry to change it. Its not as flexible as some setups but I'm very happy with it. The only mod I had to do to fit the cooler under the wind was to space the header tank out slightly to clear one of the oil lines. The brackets were made from angle section Aluminium extrusion. It the bolted to the wing top and was attached to the cooler using the bolts that attach the end plates of the cooler. With the radiator cooling both the engine and gearbox now and the fact I need a new one, I decided to get Allisport to build me a radiator using the intercooler core. They've only done a couple and none in this size (appart from mine) but it works very well. I decided to go for one of these on the reccomendation of someone else who's got one. So far it seems to work plus it meant I could run a standard sized intercooler (giving quicker response than a large one) and meaning I can push the winch back further. On the subject of intercoolers I fitted an Alisport one at the same time as the rad to help keep the gas temperatures down. This should help significanty when I come to tune the engine. You can see the EGT probe here. It was fairly easy to drill; I just used a greased drill bit. It takes a little while but there's no point rushing it. You can see where I had to reprofle the web on the manifold so the jubilee clip fitted properly. Also to keep the under bonnet temperature down I decided to drill some holes in the bonnet. Initially I thought about doing them in the centre of the bonnet (a la Red Ibex) to keep keep them discreet. However, that wasn't an option really with all the bracing under the bonnet. Instread I drilled 3 2" holes on each side of the bonnet. IIRC they are 40mm from the bottom edge of the bonnet, the rear one is 100mm from the rear edge of the bonnet and then 75mm between centres after that. You also need to trim some of the baicing as the rear hole is so far back. You won't loose much strength and the holes just seem to look better that far back. They've made a significant differance to the under bonnet temperature as there was really no where for the air to go before I drilled the holes. One other thing to think about is removing the bonnet liner first, this also helps keep temperatures down. Inside I chose a NAS spec centre console, it gives lots of space to mount switches and looks smart (or dos when the nside's clean ). I also chose a front push button shifter rather than a side opperating one for the moment (I'm planning to fit someting slightly differant soon). You can fit the side push shifter to the more common front push shifter. The only thing you need to do is turn down the inner shaft in the selector mechanism. Personally I prefer the front opperating one. With the extra guages I needed somewhere else to mount them. The tacho went into the main pannel and then all the EGT, water temp and boost gauge went into the centre of the dash. Eventually I'll fit an 02 spec dash and do something simerlar to Si White in on the centre pannel. I'll then also fit an engine oil temp gauge, engine oil pressure gauge and a transmission oil temp gauge. I've made a simerlar system to his and, if you're running a diesel then you'll be fine. Perhaps I'm missing something but WTF does intercooler size have to do with engine response apart from the obvious cooler charge = more power and less restriction = better reponse, how does smaller = better? Fridge, its about the path length of the air (which acts in a simerlar way to a spring). Because the engine in where it is I couldn't fit a single pass intercooler in front of the radiator, it would have to be double pass. that means you've got a much longer pass. Off road the larger intercooler means there's more of a wit between putting you're foot down and waiting for things to happen, not good. Airflow also isn't huge off road so the differance in cooling will be negligable between big and small. On road, there's no contest, a bigger intercooler is best however, a nice compact intercooler with good gas flow and low pressure drop works better. In the end, what's better; less, low pressure cool air or more, higher pressure warmer air? James. Its very tempting, I'm going to have to think about it however I'm spending a lot of time up in the North East at the moment and I'm coming down for Sodbury. However, I really want to test the auto..... Edited to add after TCs post, the path length is probably twice as long on the bigger intercooler, that means twice as long to respond (which is noticable). On road you probably won't notice it but off road when I put my foot down I want things to happen ASAP. Personally I'd give up a little power for better drivability. Hi there Mr Trimmer, the axles have been modified a little; I've got ARB airlockers front and rear, Maxi Drive halfshafts front and rear and the earlier AUE2522 CV conversion on the front axle (this is due to change fairly soon). Crownwheels and pinions are stock 3.54s but I'll probably make up crown wheel anti flex pads soon. Muddyplugger, I spend a fair bit of time up in you're neck of the woods. If you'd like to look at my setup you're very welcome. Give me a couple of weeks, though, as I need to weld on a couple of mounts that are currently jubilee cliped on Well, I've always wanted a proper Cobra replica (large block Ford V8). One of my Dad's friends has one and after a couple of drive's I was hooked. Other cars I'd love to own are a TVR Cebera 4.5 or a Lotus Elise (with a 190bhp engine). I've taken the latter arround Castle Combe and they are awesomly quick and so involved. I've driven Impreza's and Evo's and although they're quick I've never found them anywhere near as much fun or as involing. I'll be at sodbury. Not sure which vehicle I'll take, though, probably the 110 (i've got quite a bit to get rid of this year). I'm on the hunt for a fair bit this year; 300tdi axle casings (front and rear), a double cab (if I can find one dirt cheap), possibly an 8274 etc etc etc. I'll have a sellers stand this year, anyone whos passing please come and say hello. Mo, my Simex run on 7's (and they're 285s IIRC) and I've no issues. Also, 7's will pull the tyre in more making it a little taller. Hi Spec, if you're using a tuned 4.6 in anger it probably won't last too long behind an HP22 (unless its a 4.2 spec box). You've got a couple of options when it comes to take up the extra length of the new box. You could move the engine (impossible in my case as its quite far forward) or you can redrill the mounts to accept the rubbers 15mm further forward (pushing the box backwards). I did the latter. The front propshaft now has a spacer between the output flange of the t.box and the propshaft. The rear propshaft was custom made by the propshaft clinic (awesome service) Stephen, I can't see why you won't get away with 2". I have NO wobble with my setup. True, the steering is a little wandery at speed but I'll happily take it up to 70 (on Simex) and sit there for a couple of hours. Part of your problem may be that you've got quite soft springs meaning when you acclerate hard (in low) you're effectivly raising the front up some more. As you know I'm pretty seriously fussy when it comes to drivetrain and if I wasn't happy I wouldn't still be using a standard (well TD5 high angle) prop on the front of my truck Tuko, nice job. Its a really well thought out disign that pretty much anyone could do at home. However, I'm not a fan of disslocation and particularly lowered shockmounts; the only time you want more droop is when you get more upwards travel. If you take it to extremes you can end up with virtually no upwards travel and loads of droop (and there are systems with a CoG Ah yes, D'oh. That was stupid! Yes, you need an electrolyte so that the ions can flow and complete the circuit. That said, over short didstances (10mm or so) as whenever there is a flim of water over the surface you'll get protection. For example, my Southdown winch plate only has a very thin layer of surface rust where I removed the galvinising and it lives in terrible conditions. If you can afford it, get annother engine with 2.8 litres The International 2.8 TGV is awesome but, if its used hard off road, it will destroy you're drivetrain. I've spent an aweful lot of time and money getting it to run as I want it to. My advice is fit a Tdi, you'll love the preformance increase as it is! No, you either want to get a turbo socket that'll fit (you'll need an air gun, though) or cut a flat in the plug with an angle grinder (use a 1mm disk) and then use an impact driver to free it off. You'll probably find its stuck as the aluminium bell housing's corroded arround the plug. Tim, if you leave the 2.8 in standard tune you'll be fine; the design limit of the HP22 is 380Nm of torque (just under the peak output of the 2.8). However, make sure you get the box rebuilt as its unlikely a second hand box will be terribly happy running on the limit. Also, Ashcrofts do a mod to stop you flipping the one way valves, this is a big plus. The one thing you will need to watch is the gearbox temperature so I'd strogly reccomend a Laminova cooler, that way there's no oil cooler to block up. The important thing with an autobox is keeping the temperature down; they don't last long when they get too hot! looking at the 2 dyno readings you can appreciate how much more torquey the 2.8 is than the 300: its got basicly the same torque at idle as the 300 has at peak I got my VDO one from low tension and it works very nicely. Fitting the gauge itself is nice and easy although if you have to move other instruments you'll have to deal with the mess that is Land Rover dash wiring. James, I have/plan to have a rev counter, fuel gauge and voltmeter (not ameter) in the main binicle then coolent, EGT, boost pressure, oil pressure, oil temp and gearbox oil temp in the centre console. I know it initially doesn't seem sensible to have all the engine gauges not in front of the driver but it means all the engine/transmisson gauges are in one place so a quick look lets you know everythings fine. If I was you I'd go for everything appart from a transmission temp gauge (not so much an issue on manuals). The only instriment I've lost is the clock which I never used. Errm, I don't want to say too much but the projected outputs for my engine but the figures should be VERY inpressive. Power will be about 50 horses behind a 4.6 but the torque will be considerably higher James, the bonnet nets a good idea, I've got one but I've not got round to fitting it. I'm about to do something with a wing mounted winch hook but it'll be designed not to damage anything if the cable gets tight I've had mine for about 3 weeks now; what a superb bit of kit! I was going to develop one myself but for the price and considering the quality of Si's product I didn't think it was worth it! Buy it, you won't regret it Well, I didn't get too much; a couple of axle casings (one was a P38 spec rear axle casing that was brand new and only £40!!!), a decent winch hook, a master link and some Gwyn Lewis winch brake pads from Rob. Sold most of my stuff, which I was pleased about. I saw a few 8274s but they were either totally scrap or rediculously priced (and sometimes both Quick question really. I found a brand new P38 spec rear axle at Sodbury for a good price so its now sitting in my garage. I bought it becasue I knew it was straight and its already stronger than a standard coiler axle (diff pan is much thicker, as is the bottom of the bottom of the axle arround the diff) although that won't stop me breathing on it the questions I've got ate about the diff. A standard coiler diff housing won't fit without a few mods (very doable, though) but I was wondering if a P38 crown wheel and pinion is stronger? Are they any differant from old style ones (ie are they interchangable in the field). If so, I'm sure I've heard you can fit an RD56 ARB airlocker (ie what I've already got) into them but I think I may need an adaptor. Is that right? Yep, same as Ali's and Jules'. Helpfully, Scrap Iron make them in a size that you can't buy a hole saw in so either you have to open up a smaller hole or drill one slightly oversize. I chose the latter so they wouldn't seize but, because the backing plate's tiny, they've bent the bumper out. Mark, I'LL TAKE 2 PAIRS, one for the front, one for the back. No hurry, mate but when you get round to it..... P.S. Was that you who left a Coke can in the back of the truck on Saturday? Its a combination of problems really. Firstly, the winch is quick so you often find you are putting a side load on the points when your stowing the cable. Secondly, you can't buy a hole saw to cut the correct sived hole. thirdly, the distance between the small spreader plate and the shackle is too small so you can't fit your own largeer spreader plate. I used to run BFG MTs on road and I loved them. Unfortunatly, they're a bit too small now so I need to find something else.Nige, I agree with you on all 3 points but I wasn't really left with many options. A spreader plate would be the ideal option but, unfortunatly, the dimentions don't allow for it! I bought and fitted them before I really knew enough about recovery points.Re the x-member, I invite you to attack it with a sledge hammer It certainly isn't something I'm massivly proud of but I was in a hurry (I literally had 6 hours from start to finish, hense no paint!). If I hadn't been I would have let the MIG cool down before continuing. As it was it didn't seem to like 2 hours on full powerIt was really annoying as itslowed me down a fair bit; no matter what I did I couldn't make the arc stabilize Nige, I agree with you on all 3 points but I wasn't really left with many options. A spreader plate would be the ideal option but, unfortunatly, the dimentions don't allow for it! I bought and fitted them before I really knew enough about recovery points.Thanks guys, i forgot about the diff being on the wrong side on a P38 RR. The mounts for locating the axle aren't an issue; they're all coming off anywayThe plan is for 4 link at the back and either 3 or 4 at the front. Annother bonus of this is I'll be able to see how the setup works on Moglite and make any adaptions to my design I want to do. Gary, its a great bit of kit. I've heard from Turbocharger that the Turbobits gauge responds quicker but its all swings and roundabouts as EGT doesn't jump, it just changes linearly (although quickly at times...). You can cut a thread in the manifold to fit the probe but I personally wouldn't as it means there's more likelihood of getting swarf into the manifold (and then into the turbo). In terms of readings, I've got the temp up to 680 holding the vehicle in 3rd up a steep hill. Really the limit for a road engine is arround 730 but if you're less worried about shortening the life of the engine you can use 800 as the absolute limit. On a Tdi, I'd expect the max temp to be more like 550-600 in standard tune; the TGV has overboost at the bottom of the throttle travel that pushes max boost up to 1.2 bar and really shovels in fuel, that's wen the EGT gets high. Using just the normal travel you only get to about 560 degrees. Tony, the 800 figure was the upper limit given to my by one of the directors of this company (they are going to do the tuning on the engine). IIRC, rally vehicles run up to 1200. However, he made me aware that was an absolute upper limit for tuning purposes NOT the upper limit for everyday driving. The way I use the vehicle means I want low and mid range grunt and I won't be using full throttle off road for more than a few seconds. AJL, yes, they will bend your rear x-member but I just bend mine back again using the rear winch. In the end you're damed if you do, and damed if you don't; if I didn't have them fitted I'd have seriously damaged the rear tub several times. Don't get me wrong, TC, I'm very aware that there are big risks tuning an engine; things can go bang in a very expensive ayI know EGT is the big killer on Tdi's so I'll use mine accordingly; if it gets high I'll just back off. However, the vehicle isn't really an everyday vehicle anymore so I'm prepared to sacrifice some engine life for power; If I can get 70-100k / 5-7 years out of the engine before a rebuild I'll be happy with the engine life. When I got my max reading I was trying to get that and I really was pushing the vehicle harder than I normally would. The other thing to think about is that if the vehicle has more mid range grunt then I won't need to rev it so much meaning lower overall EGT: I find the EGT is considerably higher at high revs (makes sence really) so keeping revs down is a good thing as it'll mean less stress on the bottom end too. Tony, I wouldn't dream of mucking about with an expensive diesel engine without an EGT gauge; you then know when to stop. I probably won't drive the vehicle much faster on road, I just want the power off it. Interestingly Si White reckons my truck is slightly slower than his (same gearing allbeit that he has an LT77 and 200Tdi) so that suggest I've lost a few bhp in the auto conversion.Trev, its something i'm going to have done (I REALLY can't weld ally, it just ends up as a big mess on the floor) when I rebuild the winch. The setup I like best so far is Jim Marsden's support, very, very bling plus it adds a good deal more rigidity to the winch which is a very good thing. The thing that jumps out at me is the torque curve, shouldn't it be peaking at low revs and then tailing off? I don't know how well it would work to give exact figures but it would certainly give you a relitive, ball park, figure. Yes, trying to model the air resistance for a Land Rover won't be easy, particularly a non standard one. You've got a blip at arround 1500 rpm which should be peak torque so I think you've got something that's been shifted by something like y = x^2. Les, I killed a Red Top about 6 months ago (I think that was due to spike charging) but the other's going strong (after 3 and a bit years). I've been told blue tops are the best suited to winching so it might be worth giving them a pop. James, I'd seriosuly consider looking at an 8274. They're not cheap but there are some good deals on at the moment. IMHO its far better suited to the sort of thing you'll be doing with it. As your XD is fairly new it should get a decent price on ebay. Stan, send it back and say you want a refund (you are well within your rights). Then go and buy a DII (double cardon) front propshaft and have a word with Jim Marsden at Gigglepin 4x4. He'll convert the UJs to greasable ones (major flaw on the factory prop). Tony Cordell (aka White 90) had the same problem a few months ago and he's been very happy with his modified DII prop. Gigglepin 4x4's number is 01732 463 600 I'm considering portals at the moment, I'm a big fan. They may or may not appear on the 90, I'm not sure yet. I've got of other things to think about at the moment. However, if I do go portal I'm tempted to try something that bolts onto Rover axles as mine will be strong enough by then. Richard, I know about the MD kit but you're looking at about £5k for the kit! Still might go that way, though. 303s are a possibility but I'm not sure. The probability is they'll be hybrid axles if its anything. Stephen, I've run a Safari Snorkel with no serious issues even when things get a bit tight. Gas flow is excellant too. I've had no problems with mountings and that includes quite a few big smacks. James, the minimum you'll have to do is cut a small nick out of the top lip of you're bumper to stop the gearbox fowling. Making an adaitional brake act as you suggest is possible; it just needs something that is operated by a soliniod that engages when the winch soiliniod dissengages. Personally, I wouldn't do that, though. Most times you don't need the additional winch brake engaged perminantly when no power is applied and its sometimes useful to use the brake while winching (ie lowering down). I'm really annoyed I couldn't get to this one, I'm still doing shake down work on the gearbox and my winch bi*ch couldn't make it. By the sounds of it you had a superb weekend, its deffinatly one to add to the calender for next year! OK, I'd agree with Daan here. I don't think portals are a fit and forget, head straight to GO, collect £400 and win the first event you enter solution. In some cases I think they're awesome but in some they're not ideal. My thought on this is that if event organisers don't want people running portals or huge tyres then they need to take away some of their advantages (like have some speed sections and make some of the punches VERY tight on sideslopes) rather than a blanket ban. That way it still gives people the choice. I will play arround with portals at some point basicly beacuse I'm curious to see if I can make them work. One other thing to think about; The OBC, one of the most respected events in the world, bans portals and tyres above 36"s. Sorry its further OT but I thought it might spice things up a bit more. P.S. Jim, I'd agree with you about driving to an event; if you've got to drive home I think it makes you drive better as you have to think about what you're doing rather than diving in head first. Although I don't really use my 90 as a daily any more I still take it out at least once a week as it makes me smile when I drive it and it stops me finding any nasty suprises the day before an event. Bloody nice, Nick!!! That's a very good, well thought out set up. Did you think about having a single upper link rather than a single lower link or were there sump issues? I like what you've done with the brake lines; I hadn't thought of that. I think I'll have to use that when I multilink both ends A bit OT but I'm going to make up arches out of the rubber stuff the rally guys use for mudflaps. Its nice and flexible and you can get it in loads of colours. If I can make them for a reasonable price I might make them to order (any width). Les, your CV may well have been damaged a few minutes earlier. I've had them let go doing fairly normal things after a few minutes of abuse. I'd agree with James; great bit of kit. I've had mine in for about 6 months. It traps some moisture but nothing serious. The noise reduction is noticable too. Jamie, I decided to keep all three pedals so this didn't apply to me, however, the only differance is you remove the clutch pedal and master cylinder, blank off the hole and then weld a larger footplate onto the existing brake pedal assembley. Sounds like you've been busy, Andy. From the photos I've seen its a very smart looking truck! Good choice of engine BTW I'm going to set about tuning mine sometime soon. All I'd say with the propane is try not to gun it for too long at high revs; EGT figures are already quite high in standard tune. Try and use the propane to give you a kick in the low and mid range. I think I'll have to pick your brain sometime about underbonnet cooling. I'm really struggling to get the air through and out of the engine bay. I've got an Alisport rad too and that made a noticable differance. I'm still not sure about double gearbox 8274s because of the weight but I'll be interested to here how you get on with that setup. With a pair of 6hp motors it should pull quite well, though Nige, I'd go for a contact adhesive. Its rubber based so has a bit of flex but it won't let go easily if you use it properly. The only problem is you need to get the position right first time, once its made contact you can't reposition it. Ahh, that'll be for additional drum brakes for the front (and soon to be rear) 8274s. I'm going to lengthen and narrow the drums at the same time. Lara is perfectly right about the thremodynamics. Keeping the inlet temperature down means more air and less thermal loading. The only thing to watch with intercoolers is to fit one that has a low pressure drop. There's no point fitting a HUGE intercooler that cools the air right down but means most of the boost pressure is lost as you'll only loose performance. Its Steve Lloyd's new machine. IIRC he had a couple of issues first time out (Argyll) but I'm not sure how it did at 3 peaks. Its a very nice looking bit of kit but it clearly cost a few £££ It certainly looks the bussiness! Yes, the 2.8 does run hotter than the 300. I've had 680* out of mine (locked in 3rd, foot flat on the floor), that was after about 30 seconds on a steep hill, though. I've got a lot of work to do to try and improve airflow, though. At the moment the horn sits right in front of the I/C which isn't going to help. A bit OT but what should I use to seal the gap between the rad and intercooler? At the moment there's a reasonable gap between them and it can't help my cooling. Al, the bellhousing will mate so, I'd just get an LT77 and if its still got the mainshaft and its too long, cut it off. The external differances between the LT77 and R380 are so small it'll make no odds for you. IIRC they're effectivly interchangable (with the right bellhousing) on a 200tdi. 99.9% sure Unfortunatly that's not my engine but 'kin hell!!!!!! I'd been hoping for 400lb/ft. That's AWESOME! I'd love to see the dyno readouts. I know the figures sound high but that's the joy of a large VGT turbo. Life expectancy will be shorter but this is on a competition vehicle (as mine will be) so as long as it doesn't blow up 2 minutes after leaving the rolling road its OK. On the gearbox, an R380 might be OK with an oil cooler and TVR spec internals but I think you will be running on the limits! As for as the autobox goes, you'll need the build I've had but that still might not be enough Mo, I've looked into this, possibly doing a fibreglass roof for a double cab and a king cab (shorteded double cab roof). If the demand's there I'll do it. Headlinings will be included too. Doublecabs are expensive. I can occasionally get hold of them at a good price but they are fairly rare beasts. Les, +12" is the norm, not too big but a lot more useful sapce in the cab. That's the figure I'm going for. You can do more but I don't think you gain anything cab wise and you loose space in the rear of the vehicle. Hello and welcome. A 300tdi is an excellant choice for a base vehicle but you'll soon find plenty you'll want to change Oils wise, there's nothing to add. All I'll say is get used to changing oils regularly. I normally do axle (and swivel) oil and now gearbox (auto) after every event and then engine and tranfer box + all the filters every 2-3 months. If you've just got the vehicle, have you changed the cam belt or have you got any record of when it was last done? 300tdis are notorious for breaking belts so its worth doing (and checking the timing case modification has been done). As a guide, I think a vehicle used regularly off road really should have a cam belt change every 18 - 24 months. Challenging is great, you'll love it. All I'll say is don't rush the vehicle preparation. Take it slowely so you can learn the vehicle and decide waht you want to change. I've had my 90 for about 4 years now and I'm still no where near finished with it. James mentioned bodystyles. I've run a hardtop for quite a while. Its OK bit its a little more work to get it arround tight sections but, more importantly, its less easy to store things conveniently (particularly waffles). I believe the king cab (basicly an extended truck cab) is the best all rounder as its compact but gives some useful extra storage behind the seats. I'll be going this way some time soon. I fitted one of these a while ago. If the alternator's got a W terminal its easy, just plug and play. Adjusting isn't difficult, all you need to do is set the idle rpm when the engine's idling and then its set. That's very strange, Tony, I wonder if they were poorly made. I've had my 38s for about 2 years now. They're a bit chipped in places but they've never cracked even when bridging ruts and rock steps. Mine came from Fibregrid, not as cheap as some of the small places but cheaper than most. Just make sure Jay eats his Weetabix if you get 50s, he'll need to keep his energy up Haha, no piccys as yet, the roofs are still being developed. You got a choice with bulkheads, its whatever you want to do really. The simplest solution (one I don't like, though) is to leave the original bulkhead and then make a parcel shelf to go between the bulkhead and the back of the cab. The second option is to unstick the bulkhead and move it back. Si's done that with his. Its not terribly difficult but its just a bit fiddly to make it look good and seal (that's tricky). The third option is the one gelf suggested but I think you'd end up with boxes that were too deep and difficult to use. Plus you can't gain any legroom. The final option is the one I'm going to do. Use a hi-cap bulkhead and bits of old tub to make an entirely new tub. That's deffinatly the way to go if your traybacking IMHO. The most likely thing is that we'll provide instructions on moving the bulkhead with the kits although we may look at providing bulkheads or converting tubs oursleves if there's demand. I've got a set of these at home waiting to go on rims and I'm about to have annother set made up (for 15" rims not 16s). 36 bolts seems sensible. I'm also using nylocks after Andy's 'fun' expereince with torquing (5 attempts per bolt, 36 bolts per rim, 5 rims..... ). Centring shouldn't be an issue as the clever chap who designed mine made them so the outside of every bolt was the same diameter of the bead so they centre the tyre. He's even done a set of rims that uses locking rings on both beads. They went to the Army and apparently they loved them. You've got to be careful with fingers. I've come close a few times and it always makes me think. The other thing to watchis gloves. I find unless the gloves are good they are more of a liability (with plasma) as you've go less feel and more chance of getting caught up in the cable. As far as the bling thing goes, I wouldn't use one; too slow really and there will always be someone who tries to use an unsuitable shackel... Either SD or North off road would get my money. SD's not cheap but I've been very happy with mine. The finish is very tough and they tubing follows the body very nicely. I've sat on and smacked quite a few trees and winched the vehicle over on it and its still the shape it should be. North Off Road do simerlarly designed cages and, having seen James I'm going to talk to them about doing the cage when I go king cab. The only major name I don't know about is Ray Harvey. The others I've heard some good, some not so good, reports. I keep mine on the floor. I just find if there's a tyre that big on the back door it makes it very heavy to open, gets caught up and restricts the rear visibility. - Engine: Castrol GTD Madnetec 15W/40. Superb stuff but it does cost a few £££ - Gearbox: Dexton III (autobox), normally castrol. - Transferbox and axles and swivels: EP90 (whichever is cheapest in large drums I've played arround with both grease and oil in the swivles and you deffinatly want oil. Grease tends to find its way past the seals into the axle case and then it doesn't come back out again. In terms of protection grease is OK, though. One other point is remove the seals in the stub axles to allow you to let oil into the wheel bearings; they last much longer if you do. Fridge, do the job propperly! With all the work that's going into your vehicle you might as well do a decent job with the exhaust. If its designed properly it won't get caught up unless your very unlucky. Remind me on Thursday night and I'll give you the number of someone to talk to. You'll probably find the calibration curves aren't the same. However, my EGT gauge came with a black box that the theromcouple pluged into (mounted mine in the back of the . The gauge was then literally just an LED display. I'm not sure how the Thermoguard ones are packaged, though. For sale one pair of deep drive flanges, and 4 conversion bushes (2 have had some use). This doesn't include the CVs or the halfshafts (need to be supplied by Ashcrofts, Maxidrive, GKN or KAM). The splines on the drive flanges are in good condition (no slop). The reason for the sale is I'm moving over to a differant CV setup (details to follow). PM me for datials, I'm looking for £50 (spare bushes alone are £30 a pair if you go direct). Well, my CVs are in and tested. There is only one word for them: AWESOME!!!! I went for the second type; the 32 spline replacment ones. These have the same sized bell as the AEU2522 sized CVs but with a shorter stubshaft and allow you to use the standard roller bearings in later hubs rather than conversion bushes. I also got a set of drive flanges. The quality is superb, better than MD IMHO. I was out yesterday testing at Brick Kiln farm and they got a real going over. This site has been responsible for a good number of my breakages and those who've been there will know why. I'll give you an idea of a couple of the things I was doing. First off I tried to turn into a deeply rutted watersplash at the bottom of a slope.. I couldn't turn all the way in and there were trees in front which stopped me bouncing the front of the vehicle out to do a 3 point turn. The solution was to turn the wheel to full lock, engage lockers, pop the box into reverse and floor it. The tyres gripped the side of the rutts and the vehicle crabbed sideways several feet where there were no trees. Most impressive. I also did a lot of the rooted climbs out of the bomb holes. These are brutal on the drivetrain. One of the other things that you can do with these CVs is engage the front locker and turn the steering wheel from lock to lock to hunt for grip. Pegging my diffs is on the top of the list (along with an underdrive). Its a great mod that's well worth doing. M, as Steve said, the freespool on 8274s is usually VERY poor even when new. I used it once, the first time I used the winch to tension the cable and that's it. FYI, Jim Marsden is going to introduce a kit that allows you to dissengage the drum from the gearbox. I can see that will be a very popular mod. Nige, welocme to the problem that's had my attention for quite a while now. I'm not up on LT85s but can you get differant ratio t.box centres for them? Assuming you can't here's what I see as your options: R&Ps, low ratio transfer boxes or an underdrive. The first is the only option that allows you to keep your current gearbox/transferbox setup. The major dissadvantage is strength, the second is supply. AFAIK, KAM does not make gears for Ashcroft although I may be wrong. My inclination would be to go no lower than 4.11s just for strength. The second and third will mean you need to fit an LT230. That'll mean you need an R380 with TVR spec internals, oil cooler etc. It should take the power, though ([wisper]or you could go auto[wisper]). With No 2 you can get one of Maxi Drive's gearsets. They'll offer you a reduction of 30%, 40% or 70% in low range with any factory high range gearset. Ashcrofts also do their gearset although high will remain at 1.22. I've looked at both and decided not to go for them. The last option is the one I chose. That way you keep the naturally strongest R&P setup, you have some legs in low range (useful on a speed section) and, if you choose high range carefully, you cangain a useful extra ratio. In my case I chose a 1.66 t.box to make driving on raod better and to give me a useful reduction on low range when high ratio and underdrive are engaged (about 35%). One last thing to thin about, Nige. Don't underestimate the rolling resistance of Simex. I don't think my truck is any faster with a 1.66 tbox than with a 1.41. It should be, though, as it was massivly overgeared with the 1.41. The rolling resistance seems to kill it at about 75 (on private roads, of course). 300tdi type (no side vent), preferably with inner wing and spat. I destroyed mine yesterday; a tree root hooked up behind the wing ripping it away from the baulkhead (all the way up the wing) and taking the inner wing and spat with it. Must be relitivly straight with no filler. Any colour. If you've got anything PM me or post here. Thinking about your setup again, my advice for you would be to go for a 1.4 ratio setup and then get a MD 30% low range reduction if you think its too high. If youy didn't have the PTO pump I'd say an underdrive would be the best option, though. A couple of reasons; I like engine breaking and an underdrive will give me that again. Also, with a 1.67 transferbox in high and underdrive engaged you get a ratio of 4.49. That's a 35% reduction on low range which could proove useful at times. Peter, just drop Lara a PM. His rings should fit straight onto Ashcroft's CVs as the OD is the same as the CVs he's got fitted. Zed, pretty much anything reasonably well made would be an improvement let alone something from the Ashcroft stable. Also, if you have a couple of CV failiers a year then they actually start to look like excellant value (my last one cost about £200 and a couple of days to sort). I have no doubt at all that these will sell VERY well once they've prooved themselves in a few events. Hahaha, pets and pills have caused me no end of problems. One of my Labradors was on 6 pills a day for about 18 months before she passed away so I became quite good at making sure the pills were swallowed; bread and butter worked a treat. Anyway, I got puppy over the summer and a few weeks after we got here she decided she wanted to have some of these special doggy treat. When I had my back turned, she jumped up, pulled the pills off the side and then ate most of them. That resulted in a hurried trip to the vet to have her stomache pumped. I could have killed her! With the vets bills and the cost of more pills it was a rather expensive little incident. Why is it that when you want then to swallow something its impossible to make them do it but when you don't want them to eat something they wolf it straight down..... Not sure about the engine cooler but there are two options with the gearbox cooler. The first is a Mocal Laminova (oil to water) cooler. That's what I've got. Its easy to mount and won't get bocked with mud, however they're not cheap. The other option would be to get a 50th anniversary/NAS gearbox cooler. That sits below the rad. nice and compact and the pipework can come off the shelf. Nice and easy to do. Frogs or Ashcroft will have some in stock. Nope, it was for a CV, a new stub axle, new nuts (had to split the old ones as the stub axle flared), new wheel bearings (didn't get all the swarf out in the field so they wrecked the bearings on the way home) and a new MD bush. Add 5 hours and lots of anglo saxon to strip it down and you'd be amazed how much I'd have been willing to pay that day for uprated CVs Nothing wrong with ARB bumpers. If you really don't like the approch angle, shift it back a bit (not that hard). However, on that subject, you will need to do something about recovery points; the factory ones are made of chocolate and just bend. Not a problem for a couple of pulls but after than the metal will become stressed and the points will eventually shear off. I've tried some other options but nothing's yet been satisfactory so I'm going to have annother crack at them over Christmas. This time they should be strong enough. On the mods front, get a winch. I'd always suggest an 8274. Its a lovely bit of kit. Other things worth having is a bit more underbody protection (can never be too safe) and to loose the plough off the back. I'm not sure about the LT230 swap, as long as the BW is in good condition they seem to work pretty well. Julian Read's still got one in this 90 and it never seems to struggle Jim, I'll be interested in one of your drums. I've got a few other bits I want to sort first and I want to do a few other things to the 8274 at the same time (mainshaft, full rebuild, shim the gears and possibly something naughty on the motor front too) so it'll probably be a couple of months into next year before I can get round to it. I'd also want to do a drum brake off the side of the drum. Its been on the to do list for quite a while now. I'll have to have a word with you soon about it, I know roughly how I'd do it but it depends on the final design of your drum and endplate. Edited to add, I'd been thinking about disk brakes before Paul did his. I'd come to pretty much the same conclusions as him; its the most elegant and effective way of doing the conversion. The only thing that would be nice is if you could mount the calliper from the endplate... Frogs Island 4x4 supplied mine. The price was good and its nicley setup. If you speak to Ed or JJ they'll sort you out... Les, is there a partcular reason you want to keep the 200? The reason I ask is my advice would be to sell the 200 and LT77 and buy a 300 and ZF4 speed complete. That way you'll end up with most of the stuff you'll need to do the conversion. I reckon this is the cheapest and easiest way of doing the conversion. I was very close to buying a 300 and autobox complete so I got everything I needed but, in the end, I managed to find just a box with most of the bits I needed(thanks Rob) which is more unusual. The main job that may need doing is replacing the electronic pump with a traditional mechanical one (most of them have an electronci one) and you'll also need the kickdown brackets to go with the pump (about £15). Length wise, I'd try it and see. What did you reckon to the overall increase in length? Also, if you swap the engine over too you might be able to coax it a little further forward. Even an inch would make a big differance. I'd also reccomend the Propshaft Clinic. They're a superb company and its well worth having a word with them to see what they advise. I reckon the way this is supposed to work is that you spray on the outside of the tyre and then the resulting vaccum sucks the tyre back onto the bead. If you fill the tyre with lighter fluid I think you'll just blow it off the other side of the bead (as in the first video). Jez, your lucky that that happened in sand, its pretty easy to clear that up. Both times mine's come off the rim its happened in mud at (10-15 mph) speed so you carry on a couple of yards filling the tyre with mud. Last time it was so bad it was a struggle to get the tyre into the back of the vehicle again after the change (that was with both me and my co-driver lifting it). I'm still convinced that you don't want to spray anything as volitile as lighter fluid into the tyre, your producing too much gas too quickly. It'll reseat the tyre but the gas will still be expanding and will just blow it off the rim. Liquid oxygen, hahaha. I've seen a couple of close calls with that, normally with liquid oxygen condensing in vapour traps on vacuum pumps. Not good if you've distilling organic solvents.... However, the worst one was someone who managed to put some liquid oxygen in a lab bin; that went up in flames quite smartly! Oh, I know the deep joy of clearing muck out of the insides of simex. Really not ammusing. The last time it was going dark and it was in deep ruts in about 18" of goo. Out of interest, who's doing your internal beadlockers? Your going for split rim one's aren't you? I need to really sort out a set of 15" rims soonish so they're ready when I switch to 35x11.5x15s. Simon, I'm pretty sure the early 300tdi autos had mechanical, not electrical. I've seen a few that aren't. Your completely write about avoiding them though, they're troublesome and, if you go the electronic route, you might as well use a TD5 or V8. However, you can convert back to mechanical on an electrical engine. Andy Marshallsay did ity on his Ibex. There are a couple of things you missed, Simon. You will need to get the bush that bolts between the crank and the flexplate aswell. Plus the flexplate and ring ear are two parts (if they've been separated that can cause 'fun'; the bolts in the ring gear have a habit of shearing). The list of consumables is pretty big too; the full list of parts down to the last nut and bolt is about a page and a half long. Jez, I think you're idea may be the best case here. An Isuzu lump is very compact and works well with an auto (probably better than a Tdi). Certainly something to think about Les..... Tony, consider yourself very lucky, on the 2.8 the filter is in the most God aweful place; right up against the brakelines. Its a bit of a mission even trying to get the filter wrench on. I use a chain one and its never failed. I prefer the three legged ones, though, but there isn't the space on the 2.8. Also, to make you feel better the list of remedial jobs for me is: one new wing (had a small tree issue last time I was out), both pinion seal starting to weap, stearing box to change, one slightly moist swivel seal, the transferbox inspection plate seal (the only one I didn't change grrrrr), difflock to sort (not engaging fully), new radius arm bushes, a tyre to clean out and a snorkel to fix (jubilee clips make one hell of a bang when they snap I'm up north so its waiting for me when I get back home in a couple of weeks. BFG muds are OK on ice but no Land Rover will be good, they're just too heavy. Once they start to slide there's only so much you can do. The condition I found they were terrible in was a thin layer of snow; very scarey at times. Once your into deep snow, though, they're absolutely superb. Nige, I've been thinking about a rear snorkel once I've traybacked. It would help with the breating and both the underbonnet plumbing as I could put the airbox in the back of the cab and then out. Its hard to do the a hardtop, though. James, do you really find you have handling issues? My 90's lifted and it wanders a little on the road but its no problem. Cornering is fine as is selfcentering so I've not bothered. In the end, its a competition truck that runs mostly on Simex so I don't really make a habit of throwing it into bends like a go-kart. Les, I'm going to suggest a differant method. Why stretch in the middle not cut off the rear and sretch there? That way you get a nice flat chassis to mount the tray on, a higher rear cross member (so better departure angle), longer radius arms straight off and there's less bodywork to remover to do the stretch. Its how I plan to do mine. I've not thought about the fine details yet but I'll probably work through those as I'm building. The plan at the moment is to start next spring with 6 months to a year of fabrication before the rebuild. The other bonus is you can build your rear chassis and tray before you start to strip the vehicle meaning less down time. The other thing I'd say is you may want to do more cage mods; you really want the stays coming down to the rear cross member. P.S. Jez's suggestion of using C sections, puddle welded is the best method to actually add the chassis IMHO. P.P.S. SVA is a grey area, however 12" is more noticable than 7" Tony, I decided on trayback for a couple of reasons: less weight, less chance of damage, easier to get at kit and I start with a blank sheet so I can put things exactly where I want them. Some of the ones I've seen don't look too nice but I've got some slightly differant ideas about how to do it. If, in the end, it doesn't look right when I start to build it then I'll just use a normal backbody... 'm looking out of the window right now and its wet, grey and can't be much warmer than 5 degrees.... I heard about your problems with the car but I didn't realise it was all your stuff. At least it has all made it to Aus, it'd be far worse if it was stuck over here still! P.S. Let me know if your address changes before you head off on your walkabout, I've got a club mag to post out to you. Dino, however if you peg the LR diff you should have simerlar strength without the issue of getting hold of Toyota parts. Its not a problem in places like Austrailia but its not too easy over here. Also, with the Ashcroft CVs there's no need to do any machining to make them fit (as with the Longfields). Wolf axles aren't too bad. you get a 4 pin diff, uprated shats (apparently) and a strengthened casing. The only downside is that IIRC they have bracings between the bottom of the diff housing and the axle tubes reducing your ground clearance. I've got brand new P38 spec 110 rear axle casing at home (same as a wolf but no bracings) and its a fari bit tougher than a traditional rover axle casing. The only issue is its going to be a bit interesting making a normal rover diff fit into it. It sounds like your fueling's out. Sound VERY simerlar to what happened to my winch bi*ch's Tdi Golf. Basicly the bottom end bearings went allowing the crank to wobble about ant the cam belt to skip a couple of teeth. When was the cam belt last done? I've heard of the belts on 200s rotting and then loosing their teeth. 35x10.5x16s although I'm probably going to switch to 35x11.5x15s in the next few months (more sidewall flex and easier to get rims with a sensible offset off the shelf). Arches have been trimmed slightly but they don't need much. I need to look at front recovery points again and I've come up with a design but I really need high tensile countersunk machine screws to make it work. I'd be using 4 per recovery point, bolted through one of the faces of the bumper onto a spreader plate behind. I'd prefer not to weld as the bumper's only 5mm. So, has anyone heard of them before? Thanks guys. The backplate will be VERY strong and will use fins to spread the load over most of the face of the bumper. The bumper itself is more than up to taking the load as its well designed to begin with and it will get strengthened 'slightly' when the winch gets breathed on. Its just that on the flat faces it does bend as its only 5mm. Mountings won't be a problem; its got 3 bolts to each dumb iron and then it will be attached to the cage too. Cheers again, 4 x M12s was what I was going to go for. Most of the time I just use the fronts to take the winchline when doing a double line pull so the loads aren't quite as bad. Whenever I do a snatch recovery its always off 2 points using a bridle (be it front or rear). I've not killed a phone in the field but I did crack the case on my Nokia (can't remember which model but its their latest ruggidised one) when I fell off one of the wings while doing the last service. Endied up with a big, phone shaped bruise on the outside of my thigh Appart from that I've managed to drop it 2 stories onto concrete but it was fine after that! Hahaha. I've always thought that big tyres and a good amount of flex doesn't really work with standard arches no matter how you trim them. All the extended ones don't look right IMHO, spacing them away from the body just looks strange. I'm going to start doing a bit of research in the next couple of weeks as I need at least one new eyebrow so it might be time to think about changing. I am, but its a little way off and I've still got to do the arches at the front and have some sort of flexible arch at the rear. The trayback is still coming. If I really get adventurous I might start getting some dimentions together over Christmas so I can think about ordering material OK, I have very simerlar veiws to Nigel on this one; I really dissagree with the theory behind lowered bumpstops. They reduce upwards travel which is the very last thing you want from a system as it raises the centre of gravety at the time you REALLY don't want to (ie when cross axled) making the vehicle more unstable. The only reason extended bumpstops are on the market is because people fit big tyres and don't like the sound of rubbing and then to get travel back they extend the shockmounts. In the end you don't gain anything (as long as springs aren't binding and tyres hitting the arches), you just change the ratio of upwards to downwards travel. Ideally you want a matched upwards and downwards, front and rear, travel. Its not easy but the results are superb. That's what I'm aiming for but my system will be pretty much done from scratch (long multi links, coil over shocks, forced articluation etc) Fair point Steve but I still don't like the way they perform. Ok, here's how the CoG point goes (simplified a bit, though, as I'm not going to consider the differance in distance from the centre of the axle between the wheel and the bumpstop); when the axle starts to move the axle wants to move up at one side the same ammount as the other side wants to move down (given your using constant rate springs) as one corner loads up and the other unloads. Basicly you consider the centre of the axle to be pivoting. If the upwards moving side hits a bumpstop then it stops but if the downwards moving side is still unloaded and the shocks haven't bottomed then it will continue downwards with the bumpstop acting as a fulcrum. That now means the centre of the axle is moving downwards effectivly pushing the body upwards. If you look at lots of off the shelf systems on a pair of cross axled stands the vehicle is considerably higher than it would be sitting level, this is basicly why. What's the use of increasing stability by having wheels on the ground if you destabilise the vehicle by pushing up the CoG? Adrian, 2.8 Isuzu and V8 auto works fine. I've spoken to people who've done lots of these conversions and they never had any problems. Jez (Dollythelightweight) ran a V8 box in his yellow Pig and he never complained about it I'd also agree with Si. Having used both Extreme Trekkers and Jungle Trekkers I'd say the latter handle better on road, I guess due to the softer rubber they're made from. However, all Simex are interesting at the limit and truely scarey when either cold (ie below 5 degrees) and in the wet. I've had both snap oversteer and understeer turning in and out of junctions at fairly sudate speeds. You can keep up with traffic but I wouldn't advise pushing the vehicle until you're 100% sure of how it handles on the limit. Although I have driven my truck reasonably quickly on Simex its tiring on a long jouney so I just prefer to drive more sudatly. Lara, you totally right. That's why I'm using the people I am; I'll get decent figures including the transmission loss. I'm not sure how I'll do my test on the rollers as I can't lock out in top (the only gear with effective torque convertor lock up) so it'll have to be probably 3rd. However, I'll leave that to the experts. I run ARB as well and I wouldn't have anyhting else. The problem I see with many high mount bumpers is they bend too easily and its all too easy to damage your wings. I'm going to push mine back a bit further than it is at the moment which will give a pretty good approch angle and whenever it isn't enough I can just push things out of the way. How many bumpers can be used to push treestumps out of the ground??? As far as steering gaurds go, I'm not so keen on the D44 one, one of the big things I think it needs to do is protect the drop arm but, on full lock, it doesn't. The next one I will buy will be a double skined W&H one. Totally agree, winch prices have fallen massivly over the last few years and, anything other than a superb 2nd hand 8274-50 isn't worth a penny more than £500, and then anything that isn't a 50 is deffinatly worth £400 tops (fully rebuilt, new motor, brake pack etc). Back onto the XD9000i, I'd go for Albrights straight away as the standard solinoids do seem pretty useless. I really need to solve this problem too until I go trayback. I've tried on the roof before but they were a PITA as they're heavy when muddy. The solution at the moment is just slung in the back with all the other recovery gear. Its not very neat and they're not secured so I don't really like it much. I'm thinking again about something on the roof; probably slide in with one quick release latch on the back. The big problem is making something up to stop the front end rattling but still makes slidign it in easy enough.... Andy, how about sliding yours in behind (or under) the seats. That way theyre easy to get at and not too high. Other option is 2 somewhere easy and 2 more out of the way. Most of the time 2 is enough, its only a few occasions you need the extra ones..... Very interesting results Tony, What suprises me is how low your max reading are. Were they done on Simex? I'm not running mud terrains at the moment (need to find a suitable size) but the max I've reached is about 680 (locked in third, foot welded to floor on overboost) on a long steepish hill starting from rest. However, the last 1/2" of travel on the pedal is overboost (max goes up to an indicated 1.2 bar from one bar, exhaust not changes, EGT rockets) and if you don't use that it maxes out at arround 540. I've been having a look arround and just about the only 'mud terrain' you can get in a sensible size (something arround 35" diameter and less than 12.5" wide) is a Cooper mud terrain (available in 35 x 10.5 r 16s). My 255 x 85 r 16 BFGs were great but now I've changed my gearing they're too small, mostly because when I have muds on instead of Simex I'll probably be doing motorway speeds. Kev, if your watching, I know you run their all terrains in that size. How do you find them? Where did you buy them? And, what sort of price did you pay? Thanks everyone, I'll have to have a look at them. Kev, sorry, must have been weong about the size, I could have sworn someone told me they were less than 12.5" wide. However from the photos I've seen they don't look as wide as most of the other 12.5s. Si, no problem. How did the Xmas day shift go? Laminova coolers aren't cheap but they are very good (if installed properly) and very simple. There's just less to bloack up and go wrong. The only thing to watch is you need to make sure the radiator is up to the job or you can cook both the engine and the gearbox in one go If the gearbox and transfer box are getting on a bit then I'd put money on one of them being the culprit. My R380 made all sorts of noises and did some very strange things in the few months before I changed it! One other thing it might be is the diff lock on the transfer box not engaging properly. OK, I'll try and put in everything that I know. The box fitted to p38s is an electronic version of the ZF4 box. Instead of using a hydrolic valve body to control the shifts it uses an electronic one controlled via an ECU. On top of this the torque convertor has a lock up clutch controled via a solinoid. Lara has added a switch in to allow him to lock up the clutch on his to give him better engine braking. Both of these mean you can have a 'Sport' mode that locks up the torque convertor and means the vehicle drives more like a manual. Annother differance (I assume) is the rear end of the box as I can't imagine the bolt patterns for the BW transfer box are the same as those for either the LT230. On top of this there are 3 differant flavours of p38 box: the one fitted to the 2.5D (I guess differant bellhousing, TC and ECU) which is HP22 spec (so simerlar oil pump and clutch packs to those on a 3.9 RRC box). Then there's the one fitted to the 4.0 which is a V8 version of the one fitted to the 2.5D and is HP22 spec. Finally, there's the one fitted to the 4.6 which is an HP24 spec box. This is where the oil pump, clutch pack and, IIRC, quite a lot of the internals in my box come from. However, the person to ask about exactly what's in there is either Ian or Dave Ashcroft. The next complication is the DII boxes. These are also electronic boxes and I think they're very simerlar to the ones in p38s. However, they have a differant shifter setup so I'm guessing at least the ECUs are differant. Lara might be able to throw more light on this. Fitting wise, its a little harder than using a hydrolic valve body box as you've got an ECU to waterproof and, as far as I understand, you've got to make the engine talk to to the ECU on the gearbox. Its far from impossible, though, as quite a lot of people have done the conversion to Tdis/TGVs along with other mechanically controlled diesel engines. My advice is have a word with M&D, they've done quite a few kits now for p38s. The other thing that might cause problems is transfer boxes. You can't use a standard p38 t.box as the output flanges are on the wrong sides. That means you need to fit an LT230, which means you have to change the casing on the back of the box. You then run into problems with the shifter. I guess the ECU will throw a wobbley as it'll be difficult to link up an LT230 to work through the H gate (which I think you'll have to keep). I the end, although you gain a 'Sport' mode and the ability to lock the TC, I'd use a hydrolic box. The Devon 4x4 bobtail uses a DII based box which I think is easier to work with as the gearbox is stand alone. I looked into fitting an electonic box but decided against it on the grounds of cost and complexity. Also an underdrive will sort the engine breaking problem and my truck isn't really a road vehicle (making sport mode fairly useless). The other thing is that the electronic box torque convertor seems to be weaker. Lara has had problems with them once you put big torque through them. I'm sure I'll think of something else to add but that should be most of it.... Jules, are any of your Freelander ones from TD4s? Just thinking as its a BMW engine........ I maight have to take a look at one of those, any alternator I change to has to have a vacuum pump off the back as thats where the vacuum pump is on a 2.8. Si, what he said ^^^^^ I've got a couple of breathers to sort properly as well. Do yu have tubng or would you like me to pick you some up? Do you want me to knock out a second, thicker, inspection plate for the timing case (standard one just ends up stripping)? I've had ARBs in both axles for about 2 and a half years and they've done me proud. Probably not as strong as Maxi Drive or Jack Mac but parts are easier to find and the price is good. On KAM I say nothing. Personbally I wouldn't use a toyota r&p conversion over here because they're not as common as in Aus. The alternative is to get the diffs pegged which ends up cheaper anyway. I use Maxi Drive shafts because they're strong but they cost a FORTUNE. If I were to do it again I'd pay less and get stronger ones made out of Margaring 300. What sort of tubing have you got? I hadn't actually picked up any yet so I might like to blag some if you've got any spare (I guess you should from 30 m). If you've got a couple of spare push fit elbows that would be great too. How did you do the snorkel then? I'll be interested to see how it looks. Since going auto I've been running only Simex but I don't use the vehicle every day now. Having said that, I've done a couple of longish motorway trips and they've been OK. Mud Terrains are on the shopping list, though, as they'll help the top speed and the fuel consumption when I do use the 90 on road. I know some guys who did something simerlar in Malasyia driving well-ish speced 110 (had LSDs or lockers in the rear axle, Simex or simerlar and a decent winch on the front). From what I've heard they had a superb time; I was very envious. Possibly but I'm not sure what I'll break first. With the diffs pegged the 3 things I think I may break are the short front halfshaft, the propshaft or I'll shear the pinion on the diff. Is there any significant differance in the diameter of the pinion on a Toyota diff compared to a Rover one? The price for the shafts was for an axle set which suprised me as it was lower than I'd have expected. Al, I guess the price Ashcroft gave you will be for one with TVR spec internals so'll be quite a bit harder to break than a standard one. I'm not sure how easy they'll be to get hold of privatly. The other thing is you know it'll be done right and if it goes wrong you've got some comeback. They'll also do it pretty quickly (my box took less than 5 working days to get back to me). ....but need stripping. Basicly, it was the old engine that sat in my 90 and suffered a Zeus timing gear failier. One of the gears shed some teeth and timing skipped. Oil pressure was lost right before engine changed although it was only then run into the workshop (about 30 seconds). There is no sign of the engine running for a prolonged period at low oil pressure; Mo Murphy has been running the turbo for about a year now with no issues. The engine will need stripping to remove the reminants of the Zeus gears and unblock the oil pump (assumed cause of loss of oil pressure) however, it is being sold in a partially stripped state. The engine is minus the inlet and exhaust manifolds and thermostat housing but includes PAS pump, injector pump, cylinder head, flywheel, etc. Cylinder head is unwarped and uncracked and head gasket was in good condition. Bores are excellant with no step or scores. Crank is also superb as are the bearings. Injector pump was fine when removed 18 months ago (always run on good quality fuel) and was slightly tweeked. The engine's located in Oxfordshire (nr Abingdon) and viewing's welcome. Ideally I'm looking for £500 but I'm open to offers. If I had the time (or needed the engine) I'd have it balanced and I'd fir a VGT turbo as the engine was superb. P.S. The original timing case is also included. Based on a TD radiator but with ports to suit a Tdi (ie both on same side). The core is open and straight finned to prevent clogging, this core material cost over £230! Also, the oil cooler has been blanked off. I was going to use this in my challenge truck but had an alloy one made instead. Offers arround £180 ope, the valves and the pushrods are straight. There's valve imprints on the pistons but I'm not sure if that's just in the carbon deposits or actually into the crown; I've not cleaned them up to see. Jon, just out of principal I wouldn't give zeus my bussiness even if the product was OK. Given the fact they knowingly sell a fact they knowing sell a faulty product and don't seem to give a **** I would never waste my money on their stuff again. Rob, FYI, the one lever rubber boot is a LR part; AWR6174 and the insulation pad to go beneath it is AWR6175. The setup Lara's got is very smart, however, the TD5 boxes use a VERY differant shifter to the old hydrolic boxes. That means you'll need to make up your own cradel to hold the shifter and, as the shifter cable comes out of the front of the shifter housing rather than the back, the short console might not work. One alternative is a NAS console like mine) although they are a bit of a pig to put together. On the plus side everything comes off the shelf. I've done the axle strip method and the cut the seal method. The second one is quicker but, if you do it, you need to cut it very carefully and then glue it (again very carefully) otherwise it'll let water in the first time you hit a puddle. I normally strip the axle when I replace the seals as its a good time to check CV, stub axle and bearings. Les, I've got a V8 auto that's been converted to be used with a 2.5 TD (same back end). I've only got the box and TC but, if you'd like it, you can have it. You'd need to do all the work again to make it fit a 200 but its been done once already..... If you want it I'd take £150 for the box whole lot including a 1.6 transfer box. I've also got a spare 300tdi flexplate if its any use to anyone. Les, what I've got is the autobox with modded bellhousing. The main thing that's missing is an engine backplate and a flex/drive plate (plus ring gear). However, the gearbox may have been re valved (the seller said it worked well with the 2.5TDbut it has had all the transfer box linkages modified so that's done for you. Looking at the box its got a modified V8 bellhousing (to accept the starter motor in the original position) so my guess is you'd have to have a V8 backplate modified to fit a 4 cylinder engine. That would be the hard bit. The flexplate and ring gear whould, probably, be off the shelf V8 items and then the only bit you'll need is the adaptor to mate the flexplate to the crank. I'm sure both the backplate and the crank adaptor could be sorted by either Paul Wightman or Tonks but it would probably mean you'd have to do the work at their workshops....... Les, if you want to give me a call that no problem. The adaptor's just a case of getting the dimentions right (not difficult). Its the backplate that's harder; you've got to get the starter in the right place and then you've got to make up something to hold the oil seal in place. My guess is that the backplate was origianlly a hybrid V8 / TD one. I just wish I'd known more about autos when I bought it, I'd have bought the dead engine too as that would have given the parts to make up a 200tdi fitting kit. Yeah, I don't bother either as they're fairly easy to remove. When I lived in London I saw a few expensive cars in the area (mostly Jag XKRs and AMG SLs with the several £k wheel options) loose wheels. The guys who did it seemed to have it down to an art; they're only remove 2 wheels (road side, not curb side) and then drop the car onto its brake disks. I guess they'd then do the same to annother car with the same wheels. Brett, pattern ones start at about £30 going up to about £60. GKNs are about £100 - £120. GKNs last better on road and will break at the bell. Pattern ones are softer and normally break on the stubshaft although I've broken the bell of one as has Tangoman. Swings and roundabouts really. Not significantly. Hockey sticks are soft (Rockwell of about 17), I think mainly to to act as a weak link in an accident. When they're bent that goes down to a Rockwell value of about 15. Still plenty strong enough. In the end I'd rather bend a radius arm than an axle or the chassis. It really depends what your going to use it for. If your using it heavily off road then it has to be a solid one; the holed ones just bend too easily. For anything serious 8mm is only just up to the job; in a big impact it'll be destroyed. My personal preferance is a 5mm steel, twin skined one. Steve, I'm going to be doing KittyGripper mountings soon. I'm planning something along the line's of Andy's mount for the back but using a cup rather than a spike to support the bottom. I'm having a bar made up to go arround the back of the hard top and I'll use that to support the top of the anchor. At the front I'll do some sort of the quick release mount which will also serve as stiffening for the bumper (if you use an ARB bumper in anger, don't remove the fairlead gaurd....). I'm not exactly sure how I'll do that but I'll post up some piccys when I'm done. Fridge was quite right, an R380 has to be well sorted to last long behind any TGV let alone a tuned one. You really need a TVR spec R380with a paddle clutch. As far as autoboxes go, I wouldn't run a TGV behind a standard ZF4 if you're going to tune it or use it hard off road; your VERY close to the design limits of the box. Making an autobox reliable with the torque figures involed isn't easy either; a tuned TGV should push out over 350lb/ft of torque. I run a Tdi ZF4 that's been slightly breathed on by Ashcroft transmissions The V8 autoboxes can be made to go behind TGVs but I don't see the point; its not really any cheaper and not all V8 boxes are the same (a 3.5 box is best to get the shift points right). Turbo. I think to notice a differance you need to have a really fine spray to get the heat out fast and efficiently. The other day my truck was getting a little warm on the motorway so I stopped and propperly cleared the radiator and intercooler (5 minutes and I left the engine running). This dropped the underbonnet temperature down massivly as well as cooling the intercooler. the result was an EGT of about 380 - 400 degrees at 70 (opposed to about 500 - 550) for a few minutes. I think you will achieve a lot more by increasing airflow under the bonnet. This has been my big problem; the 2.8 is plummed in a way that leaves no where for any air to flow meaning it gets a little warm under the bonnet on the road... I'm thinking now about using fans to physically suck air out. Si and are still looking into it, it'll probably happen at some point but, at the moment, I've got too many other jobs. The other issue is getting a good donor roof; a decent one will cost you £500+ unless your lucky. Steve, here's what I did. The 'fanny' drain was glued shut, filled with silicon sealant and then I've used a jubilee clip to hold it to the filter housing. I then smear silicon grease on the join between the two part of the filter housing. That's been flawless for me. I've found my optima's very good. I've used reds and yellow tops; both are excellant although I've been told blue tops are good for winching. If I were you get a couple of those but don't forget to get a split charge setup. John, I think the differance comes when its done commercially. A one man band doing it for him self is not doing it for commercial gain so I think it would be impossible to proove infringment of the patent. Whereas if Scrapiron, or any other company for that matter, came up with a simeralr kit then I reckon they'd have a pretty strong case. Si, I think the easiest approck is probably the internal hoop which is connected to the outside SD bars (proably the neatest way is to link them where they bolt through the body and, later, somewhere towards the top of the vehicle). The only other issue I see with your cage is the rear stays. At the moment they only go the the top of the rear of the tub. This means that the cage may well just fold backwards in a roll. If I were you I'd get some stays going from the top of the SD cage going down to the top of the rear x member either side of the tailgate at the same time. The spare tyre should still go in OK I guess..... The worst case scenario is you'd have to lower some of the 'floor' of the tub but I guess that isn't a massive issue. Nige, interestingly, when I do the cage for the trayback I'm going to have all the chassis mounts welded on and then a complete external cage bolted onto the mounts through the body. That way if I want to remove the cage there's no body work to come off and just bolts to undo. With either 9 or 10 bolt ponts each with 4 bolts I don't think it will shear in a hurry. I'd agree, Steve. The only way to test it is to see if, when the snorkel is covered, the engine stops and doesn't loose its vaccum instantly. With the engine stopped you'll hear where any air is coming in. Its looking very nice Nick! I'd seen some of the earlier photos but this is the first one that shows the whole vehicle. The only bit I'd add now is something arround the rest of the inside of the rear aches. Once you start spinning your Simex mud'll go everywhere Steve, I think a lot of people underestimate the strength of Safari snorkels; they're massivly strong things. To give you an example. I was driving through a wooded track and an unseen branch went through the snorkel grill and ripped the top off backwards breaking the snorkel and breaking the jubilee clip. The bang was incredible. The top looked pretty bent (the hole was about 2" too long ) when I picked it up but after about 2 minutes it had returned to its original shape with no visible damage (although the grill is no more). When I do wing bars I'll have the snorkel rigidly mounted to the bars/cage and I'll have no worries with sitting the vehicle on it. Rocket, I've been watching this thread progress and I thought I'd add my 2p worth. I ran for about 3 years a tuned Tdi then TGV engined 90 with an R380 and 1.41 LT230 with 255x85s (as a road tyre) and it was superb. It was reasonably lively and pulled well on the motorway and A roads. Low was a little high but you learn to drive round it. However, both on and off road were a bit of a struggle on 35" Simex... I now run the vehicle with a ZF 4 speed auto box and 1.66 transfer box and 3.54 diffs with 35" Simex perminantly. This gives me a very nice on road ratio, plenty of legs off road, the naturally strongest ring and pinion setup which makes getting hold of spares a breaze, a good hill climbing ratio (2nd low). To sort out the overgearing in low range I've also just got an underdrive. That gives me engine breaking and low speed control, plus, if you put the transfer box into high and engage it you get a 35% reduction on low range; ideal for really nasty hill climbs. This isn't a cheap solution but, having looked at all the transmission options, this is the one that I liked best overall. If I were you I'd pop in a 1.41 transfer box and see how you get on. Mo, thow about mounting them in a waterproof junction box? That way if they're close to the bonnet there's no issues with it shorting. Annother wiper mod I'm going to do soon is to use Discovery headlight washer jets in place of the usual jets. A guy in the Shire's has done it on his Tomcat and it works unbelievably well. Looks ugly and won't be that effective IMHO. Steve, what about a Safety Devices, or simerlar, full external cage? There's no bars inside, it offers some roll over protection and superb bodywork protection. Noth Off Road do a nice looking one and they'd also be able to add a bar to go arround the back of the hard top to protect the back of the vehicle. Also, with this set up you could add in diagonals at a later date when you want them. Tony, I'd be suprised if its UJs, they should last longer than 2 years but it seems to be a sensible thing to try. One thing I'd look at is the Sumo bar track rod to see if its slightly bent. Its not unheard of and could just be catching on the axle or gaurd bracket. Steve, I'm just worried that if the vehicle's at an angle or if there are overhanging trees you'll damage the top part of the roof. If you had bars the went along the top of the radius of the roof too that'd give much more protection IMHO. I've not done any really long decents yet but so far its been fine. I've always used 3.54 diffs so even with a manual I often has to use the brakes. It shouldn't be an issue with an underdrive, though. Ok, I wonder if anyone has any more ideas for me. I just can't seem to work out what's going on. Since fitting the 1.66 transfer box I've had lots of problems with the diff lock. The first problem I had was, I'm 99% sure, down to the linakges needing adjusting properly. Basicly, the locking ring didn't move all the way across so diff lock was only partially engaged..... The problem I've now got is that it won't come out of diff lock and hasn't for a couple of months. I've only just discovered this, though, as the new sensor switch I fitted when I put the transfer box in didn't work What's strange, though, is that the locking ring isn't engaged so I can't work out what's keeping the diff locked. I've taken the inspection plate off but it doesn't seem to make sence. I've tried all I know to knock it out of diff lock but its still in although I get the occasional bang when turning hard although its skipping a tooth. When it oes this the hi/low selector also jumps over to the left towards diff lock. Any one got any ideas? Aftr about 10 hours of getting no where I've run out of ideas! Tried that a few times at speed. the last attempt had 2 wheels off the ground. The thing that's strange, though, is wouldn't the locking 'ring'/dog still be in the forward position if wind up was keeping it locked? Mine's back in the unlocked ie rear position. OK, thanks everyone so far. I'm not worried about the centre diff breaking, its got a solid cross shaft so it'll be a ring and pinion that goes first. I partially rebuilt the transfer box and fitted the solid cross shaft when about 6 months ago. I didn't go for an Ashcroft box as I knew the t.box was in good condition. I don't think I did anything stupid when I rebuilt everything but I'm begining to worry I might have done. What really annoys me is the whole point of me doing the solid cross shaft conversion was to give me a trouble free transfer box setup....... Jules, tried jacking it up and wheel turns a couple of degrees (transmission backlash) but that's it. Si, don't worry, I'm pulling it appart on Saturday. I've given myself all weekend to sort this and fit the underdrive. If the wors comes to the worst I'll pop the transfer box out to get a propper look at what's going on. I will get it sorted though! Cheers for the accomodation, what time do you want to head off on Saturday? I was planning to get the tyres tubed on Saturday morning when Frog's is quieter so leaving about 12 or 1 would be good for me. P.S. The switch is a total swine to get at. Its a skinned knuckles and anglo saxon job Jez, I think the sport will evolve but we don't have the bottomless swamps that Ladoga have. I think portals will get used over here but on smaller trucks. Some of the massive machines are just tooooo big for tight forest sections. It'd be nice to see you run an event, i'm sure you wouldn't have to do all the work yourself. Fridge, you hit the nail on the head. That was really the point I was trying to make to begine with. I don't really think the spec matters too much, its really what suits the driver and what he finds works best. In bogs there's no doubt wide, floaty tyres with loads of clearance is best but when you get into tight, clay soiled forests, you want narrower tyres and loads of manouverability. The person who can make a truck that can do everything will win hand down. That'll never happen, though. I think ground damage is sometimes an issue but a lot of it depends on the terrain. If the soil's soft its going to be more suseptable to damage but it'll heal very quickly. The places that really suffer, though, are the harder soiled sites that do, eventually, rut but then take forever to recover. Zed0, I wasn't thinking about your machine. Its very tidy. I don't think Volvo axles with 35" tyres is huge. I think 37" tyres with portals is probably going to be the next bench mark in the UK. Out of interest, though, why 88"??? I'm ust intregued as I'm going t do the opposite to my 90 some time soon and stretch the wheelbase by 7" Mmmm tempting but there's the time and money thing at the moment. I just seem to run out of both far too fast. I'll have a thik about it, though. 40" boggers certainly are a little differant. How about you do the AFC this year? I'll deffinatly be doing it and it'd be good to see you competing over here. Quick winches.... You'll like what I'm planning. It should raise the bar a fair bit (as long as it works) and it'll be nice and simple. More of that to follow in the not too distant future. I'd agree with Chris, its far easier to remove the transmission tunnel and then use an engine crane through the doorway. One other option to think about is how about getting someone with a 4 post lift to physically put the box in (less than a days work) and then trailer it back home? Most of the work involved is doing things like plumbing for the oil cooler and building the transmission tunnel. Source the box is difficult and there are lots of parts you'll need. Ashcrofts do a complete kit but its not cheap. IMHO, the cheapest way to do it is to buy a 300tdi and auto box complete and then sell the engine. Its cheaper and you get 90% of the parts in one go. Well, I should have known it wouldn't be good when I saw the state of the drainplug. Lots of swaft with one VERY big bit Diagnosis was correct, the spider gears on the centre diff were totally destroyed; I've now got about 20 small bits of gear, a wrecked cross shaft (which includes a spider gear that's welded itself to the shaft ) and a lot of work to get done for next weekend. Time to give Mr Ashcroft a call, me My list.... Transfer box to rebuild Underdrive to finish fitting (it will be in even if I'm up all of Friday night....) Hand brake assembly to change (I'm half way with that, though) Axle oil to change Front winch oil to change Propshafts to grease Front recovery points to fit (are you listening Mark? Tyres to be tubed and valve protectors welded on (Saturday morning job) oh, and about half an hour's welding to do. Good thing I've got a couple of days free this week...Althoug I'll have to make time for my fortnightly "hippie hunt"! Can't wait to nail one of those bean-eating nature monkeys between the eyes by an internal combustion-powered gauss cannon! Mmm - greenhouse gases. Oh, it WILL get done. If the worst comes to the worst I've got a spare transfer box at home and I'll get the vehicle (up north at the moment) trailered back. Hopefully Ashcrofts can sort me a new set of gears as that'll be the easiest solution. Looking at the piccies I've seen the front prop comes out on the lest hand side of the engine so you'll need a P38 front axle. Rear prop is central so should be OK with a 'normal' rover item. Electrics will probably be a nightmare, hopefully you can make it work without using a DIII alarm system as I can see that causing problems on a defender. In the end, everything's do-able but is it worth it? Brake is possibly sticky. I know Les Brocklehurst had simerlar problems when he abused his too much. Very few of the in drum winch brakes seem to take kindly to hard use. New parts are pretty easily available, though. Beautiful photos, M. I hope you'll be bringing your camera this weekend, you'll get some good shots! P.S. If you get any of mine, driver's side only please. I've added far too much character to the passenger side (you'll see that i mean Andy, the other thing exta water does is it gives you a bigger buffer against short bursts of high temperatures (ie when you start throwing N20 into the engine). If your a bit down on capacity I'd get a nice, big, alloy header tank made up. I can't help but think what sort of people these kids will turn into. Its frightening really how many kids don't appreciate even the most basic manners and simple courtesy and respect. I've found its best to leave it to the authorities, though. A lot of the time, if you get involved, they end up becoming resentful and then they really start to make a nuisance of themselves... I'd agree with Andy. Get into London and you should be able to pick up a quick commuter train. Its also going to be about the most direct route for you. Don't bother with a bus, it'll be pretty terrible with luggage after a long trip and you'll get stuck in the afternoon 'fun and games' on the M25. Andy, how about having the header tank at the front of the vehicle? Run water to and from it with copper pipe so you get even more capacity plus apprecable cooling. I also guess you'll be running an air to oil cooler for the autobox? If your not cooling any of the lubricants with the radiator you won't be needing to get rid of quite so much thermal energy. That'd be Mr Feeney's truck. IIRC he's ditched pretty much all of the LR drive train appart from the LT230. I remember seeing an article a few years back that said he kept blowing up propperly built ZF boxes and LR axles so he's now got a US gearbox and some very bling, D60 based, axles. I suppose I might think about one for serious towing but I'd save your money and get a 2.8 tgv instead. You get good torque, its nice and lively and isn't laggy. Having said that I don't think they're much better on R380s. Even road vehicles seem to go though on easily in 3 years. IIRC the M&D 300tdi to V8 autobox is about £600+. I looked at this but decided, in the end, it was going to be cheaper to source a Tdi box. There's also accelerating. It puts more load on the rear as weight shifts. FYI, the best test for CVs is powering out of ditches on lock. That way you've got the weight against them and at they're weakest possition (ie not dead ahead) I went for starting in gear ONLY with your foot on the brake but out of gear without foot on brake. Bish. If you want to resart in a hurry do you really want to be fumbling into neutral and then into gear? I prefer to be able to turn the key and have it work. The ideal example is a failed hillclimb. I suggest you talk to Ashcrofts. An HP24 spec build up should be up to the job. It what I had built for my truck. What are you planning to do about cooling? I use a big laminova cooler. That would've been interesting! It was the last punch I did with about 15 minutes to spare (Si was out by that point and I was on the hunt for more points). I drove up and then used the rear winch to pull the back end up the slope before driving forward again to get the punch. I was on a bit of an angle by the end of it, though.... The other one I liked was the one where you had to get out of the ruts and stradle them to get to the punch. Can't remeber the number, though. No winching needed but it was a nice bit of technical driving. Thanks again to Nigel and all the mashals, a great, fun, event. They're just over 200kgs so go for the 500kg one. Because the engine sits so far back you might be able to get away without pulling out the rad. You don't need that much space to change the oil seal assembly. Jules, I know a guy who has a 90 he bobtailed but since then he's gone trayback with the same sort of overhangs. It looks a little funny the first time you see it but it really grows on you. Oh, and it's seriously effective. Def110, I've also run 3.54s with 35" tyres and a 1.41 (normal defender) transfer box. Its OK (depending on your engine) but 5th gear really is an overdrive. I now run a 1.66 transfer box with 3.54 diffs with an autobox and its spot on for the road (75mph comes out at arround 3000 rpm). I managed off road fine with 35s, a manual gearbox and 3.54s for a couple of years. Yes, you do go through clutches and you do loose engine braking but it can be driven round. Auto's a differant kettle of fish. With 3.54s its awesome and getting it low enough is possible with an underdrive (not cheap but SOOOOOO much control). I've intentionally kept 3.54s and, IMHO, they are still the best option. Grrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!! It doesn't work with me!!!!!!!!!!!! If I try and run it by clicking on the link it only downloads the first 5 seconds or so and then stops and refuses to download more, If I save the target it plays for about 9 seconds then I get a warning coming up saying a buffer overrun has been detected. Any ideas? I'll be there too. Not really after much but I do need to get rid of some stuff. A few sets of wings are probably on the cards, though. I'm with Nige, very appropriate date. Some of the muppets there really want silly money for the contents of their skip. Winch earths as side (because I reckon that needs to go straight to the battery, I've been on the other end of chassis earthed winches and the results are poor IMHO) I reckon the baulkheads a good bet. It keeps the cable short and tucked away so it doesn't snag and is nice and thick. Jamie, the mod is a solid cross shaft. IIRC Quaife, Ashcrofts and KAM sell them (mine's from Ashcroft). They don't make the centre diff indestructable (as I've found out) but they do make them stronger. Fitting's fairly easy; I do it by pulling the front output housing and then splitting the centre diff. Its an easy job on the bench and a bit of a swine under the vehicle. The only advice I can give you is replace ALL the seals on the t.box (I didn't as it didn't leak before it sat empty for 6 months) and replace the bearing on the front of the diff (much quicker to strip/reassemble and allows accurate torquing). Oh, the other thing is don't forget to allign the 2 halves of the diff correctly. I did that the other day and wondered for 5 minutes why it wasn't going together properly... Shortening's anice idea, 88s have a longer overhang than 90s. Will you still have space for the spare, though? Your ideas sound pretty much there, though. I like the idea of the holes too. They don't need to be big, just enough to get a drain clearing attachment in. The only problem is how to get rid of the big lumps. Last time I did mine there were some urprisingly large stones in there Oh, one thing you could do is only do a central xmember so you've got less bodywork to damage (ie take the top of the arches straight back to the end of the tub and then cut at approx 45* down to the bottom of the tailgate). Sorry its a bad description, I don't really feel very with it this morning.... For an off roader, get a 2.8. Its what I did and its an awesome engine however, it will cause havoc with the drivetrain; a decent gearbox is a must. The torque is absolutly awesome. A 5.2 full Eales would be nice too but I'd do it on a road vehicle rather than an off road plaything. Jim, parts shouldn't be too bad with the TGV. A lot Tdi stuff could be made to fit to get you home even though it may not be 100% correct. The part I'd worry about most is the head gasket but you can always carry a spare. Anything more major than a cam belt or head gasket and its time to get a free ride home IMHO. P.S. Tonks, I'm guessing that means I'll be seeing you at the AFC then Dan, sounds like an overfilled gearbox to me. Also, what colour's the motor? If its 'gold' (well zinc passivated) then its going to pull a little better than the old 'black' ones. If you've got the latter I'd think about changing it too as they're not great even when new. I can't remeber the last time I used the remote but I think it was for tree stump removal rather than vehicle recovery. I just have interior switches and a bi*ch switch on the front wing. Not sure how mine let go as I ALWAYS run it locked off road. I think it may have got stuck in diff lock and gone bang on the way home due to wind up. Either that or the diff lock never went in and I broke it VERY quickly as the diff appeared locked. I'm 95% sure I did it in November when I was playing with the CVs for the first time. The diff then stayed locked and didn't casue any problems until is started banging and crunching. I reckon about 70 - 80 kg for each. I've lifted both separatly and I don't think there's a lot of differance between an LT230 and an R380 also together they seem to weigh less an a tdi engine (200kg). FYI, they weigh significanly more than an 8274 at 50kgs. James, I think the shape has a lot to do with it. An LT230 is particularly difficult as there's not a lot to grip whereas a gearbox has an output and input shaft you can hold. Jules, IMHO tray backs look really good if done properly. Its the way I'm going to go as it'll be light, tough and easy to get at equipment. The other reason I'm doing it is its a lot easier to build a trayback than a hybrid tub (I'll need that with what I'm doing). I'll text you JJ's mobile number. Give him a call, he'll give you the bitch's opinion on both a tray back and a bobtailed 90. P.S. If you can get up to Frogs I think they've still got Bob Seamen's 90 in there. Its a beautiful example of a trayback. Nice idea, fridge. Try giving HFH a shout. IIRC he's got a few photos of breaking chassis and bending axles doing silly recoveries/being recovered from silly places. A lot of these people will think even harder if they think they're behavior could destry their vehicle as well as injure themselves. I guess I saw it about a month ago and it was looking really good then. It'll be great to see it out of the garage as, even in the flesh, you don't really get a good idea of how it looks. So..... Whens the big date for the first fire up? OK, I'm not totally sure about the mounts; on a 300tdi the mounts are identical but I think they're differant on older vehicles. Probably the easiest way of doing it is to get hold of a 300tdi type gearbox x-member as that gives you the gearbox and transferbox mounts and then move the engine mounts to suit. This also means you can use an 'off the shelf' centre console which'll cut down the work involved considerably. Getting the engine and gearbox in place is the quick part. Its all the other bits that take the time. Ah, yes, I wasn't reading propperly..... A discovery to pick over probably is the best option as you get a front propshaft, an oil cooler and pipework, a shifter assembly plus some of the fittings and fixtures. Agreed. Turbo, your 90 is tweeked. With an auto (so more power loss) and a standard level of tune you won't like a 1.22 transfer box. It'll just be too high and, consrequently, a pig to drive unless your cruising on the motorway. Nice idea, Si. I'll be interested to see how it works out. FYI, I was also tought an interesting trick with your hand brake a little while ago by JST; unlock the centre diff and engage the hand brake to allow you to turn tighter.... Toby, the main reason discos have rubber mounts is to stop vibrations going through the chassis and into the body. Its basicly just to make them more civilised. Winch bumpers can be used as rear x-members but I'd just be tempted to fabricate from scratch if your going to all that effort. I just don't think it looks quite right. Yes, Nick's vehicle is a work of art. I'm very much looking forward to competing with him again soon. I think portals can be made to work very well. I know of at least 5 forumers who are building/have built portalled vehicles (some using Volvo, some Mog and some doing other things). Basicly, if you want to do this properly the ammount of work involved is pretty big. Whether its worth the money depends on what your doing with the vehicle. For anything other than a dedicated off roader, forget it. Otherwise its probably worth a go. Dribble. I bet your feeling good tonight; getting it out of the workshop for the first time is a massive milestone plus you can sit back and say to yourself "I built that...." Paul, I can see exactly where your coming from and, in the end, I think its almost 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. I chose ARBs, even thought they're not quite as strong, primerarly because of availability. I can pretty much always be within an hour of somewhere I can get parts from. There's also the problem that MD stuff has a MASSIVE price hike and service by the importer leaves much to be desired I think the actuator could potentially be a problem but, having said that, I know of no one who's damaged one. Yes, bracing is a good idea, particularly on an older winch. These motors are quite heavy. Also, the internals may start having problems with the sort of power they push out. Its not unheard of for the mainshaft to snap. However, D90 SV on here sells an uprated mainshaft to deal with that problem. You want to make sure the rating's high enough AJL. I know a guy who tried to order a few km of 12 strand from a top manufacturer of cables and couldn't get anything with nearly enough tensile strength. About 8 months ago Mo Murphy and I came across a guy in a Vi*ara using a roadbook and driving like a rally driver. We saw him approch at about 40mph in the opposite direction! Our group of 3 then had to go and passify the owner of the land he'd just driven through. I think lanes need to be seen to be used but, unfortunatly, a growing number of idiots seem to be abusing them. I hate to say it but I think there's an increasingly large irresponsible element. I don't know what we can do about it as they just seem to ignore everything they don't want to hear. The Shire LRC bought one about 6 months ago from ebay. Its pretty solid but has needed some work after Fridge had a little incident towing it down South. Basicly it needed a few service items plus a coat of paint and some work inside. So far its been significantly cheaper than having a trailer made to spec. Andy, i've probably got a few bits and peices you could have. I'll have a dig and see. I doubt I'll have enough to make up a full linkage set but I'm let you know. I certainly know I've got a mounting block and leaver assembly (300tdi but I think they're the same) What these people don't realise is that I think Land Rover are probably as big a problem as other marques, if not more. Most of these people will drive the cheapest vehicle they can get and, because of availabiliy, there are a lot of people in cheap RRs now. In 6 months time this idoit could be in a RR, a series, an SJ, a Hilux, a Trooper, a Vitara or something else. I hadn't thought about that but you're totally right. TC, I use a dive tank and that's far more useful IMHO. I've found when the tanks below half empty the performace of a rattle gun really starts to drop off. Oh, and filling's cheap. I think you'll find your cylinder useless if you've only got 100psi in there; it'll barly inflate one tyre and that's about all it'll do I've got a red key type one. It was wired in by someone who better at electrics than me after my first effort let the smoke out.... Not entirly sure how its done but it cuts EVERYTHING although it doesn't take the winching current (I think its been done by taking the feed to activate the winch cut off solinoids from the started battery, not the winch one). Since fitting I've had no problems with battery discharge, either. Pete, I'd have thought a 24V Warn spec Albright with welding spec wire would be up to the job. That way you can wire the motoors in series and upgrade to 24V. Otherwise the current draw will be HUGE; 800 odd Amps is going to result in a smoke episode or dead batteries VERY fast. If you do want to link two albrights I'd say the best way is just to take piggybacks off all the switch wires for the first albright so the second runs in parrallel. Tony's right here. The solid cross shaft should be strong enough (although I've blown a centre diff with one fitted) and the only stronger option is an entire diff assmbly from Quaife (about £700 so not cheap). In un-pegged form an Ashcroft (ie propperly designed) 4.11 will be stronger than a 3.54 as the material and processes are better and the crownwheel is thicker. However, the 3.54 has a finer tooth count so has natural strength on its side. Once pegged I'd guess that 3.54s and 4.11s have very simerlar strength (ie seriously strong) although I guess the 3.54 will probably be slightly stronger. However, there's no real way of testing this. Gearing is a difficult nut to crack. I've looked at every option available over the last couple of years and, in the end, I decided for a 1.667 transfer box, 3.54 diffs (soon to be pegged when I get some time to take the axles appart), an underdrive and an autobox. I spent a long time thinking about the gearing and this option gives me 4 separate ratios along with massive control and easily sourced spare crown wheels and pinions in the event of a failier. These ratios are: High t.box/high U/D - Spot on for the road with 35" tyres and the slightly higher top gear of an autobox. The vehicle will happily sit at 70mph. Low t.box/high U/D - Great most of the time off road plus means you don't run out of gears running arround a site or on a seed section High t.box/low U/D - Approximatly a 35% reduction on standard low range. I've not really tested this properly yet but it should allow me to get up momentum faster if required. Low t.box/low U/D - Amazing engine braking and control with an auto; Yippe!!!! Absolutely stunning plus it allows me to take some off the strain off the gearbox during long winch assists. Popping it into low/low should stop the gearbox getting too hot.... I find this setup's perfect for me and I'm very happy with it although its far from a cheap option Rob, I think you misunderstand me; photos are of the winch (I'm guessing Pete's done a double gearbox 8274) What I was suggesting with the second wiring soulution was to have the high current systems totoally separtate coming from a common power source. The only bit that would be connected is the low current activation circuit. I still think you want to use a single solinoid even if it means getting something higher rated directly from Albright. Its a neater solution IMHO. Yeah, nice winch but expensive (rumour has it it cost £10k + . I've had a look into something simerlar and, yes its possible, but its a little complicated and I don't really see the need for the electric motor, then. Why not just have a hydrolic 8274.... But then why have such a big winch when a MM or simerlar will do..... So, the 2 options I'm looking at at the moment are twin motors on a single gearbox but standard top housing (easiest and lightest way of doing twin motors but the gearbox has to be built well) and using a custom motor (need to have more words with SimorR about this as he know more about this sort of thing than I'll ever know!) The only reason I'd see for 2 solinoids is to allow you to only opperate a single motor when you don't need the power (spooling cables in, small pulls, etc) as you'll be wasting a lot of current otherwise. I don't think reliability is an issue. How many people have had contactors (ie albrights) fail??? I really think it'd be worth giving Albright a call to see what they could do for you. Their website is I've got some BIG rated chains at home somewhere; the type used for recovering light armour. I like the idea of testing some Plasma to get some decent figures. You'd need a big winch, though. Que Mr Barker ARB do an airbag bumper; it has replacable crush sections. The other thing to remember is, in an accident, an airbag may well save your life. The write off thing is an issue but if you can get salvage retention of the vehicle its less problem as you can remove all the expensive bits. OK, said winch has a custom top housing, custom gears, custom mainshaft, custom clutchpacks, custom drum and probably more on top of that. I think it'll be the gears that really throw the price. Getting a set of gears done as a one off costs a fortune! Its got to be oil every time. Pack the bearings with grease when fiting, though, as this will give a little extra protection and stop innitial dry running. The other advantage is that oil can easily be changed and a small amount of water ingress in the large volume of oil won't cause a massive loss of performace over a short period of time (normally the trip back form an event). Well, I'm still not sure about beadlockers; some say they're OK, some not. I think the best way to go, though, is internal beadlocks (what I'm doing) as they lock both sides of the rim, centre properly and are made using split rims (totally legal). I still think a court would have difficulty prosecuting if you've got locking rings unless they prooved they were dangerous. As far as silencers go; I'm going to be using a selection of 90 degree bends to silence it. The fact that they also allow the exhaust to pass arround the roll cage is irrelivent IMHO, that law is full of holes and you stand very little chance of being convicted. Both are VERY strong, you get to the point where the inner shaft is going to be the weak link of the axle. Ashcroft get my money, though, as I'm only an hour or so from them and there's no machining or conversion parts are needed. OK peeps, I'm wanting to compete at this years AFC (August Bank Holiday weekend) but Nick Walker (aka Tangoman) who was going to compete with me, now can't make it. This means I'm looking for someone with competion experience who want to have a go at the toughest event in the UK. Entry forms are going in as I speak and it'll cost you £150. Let me know if your interested, Speak to Tomcat Motorsport, they do a quick ratio box with an HD sector shaft (you can't get a standard ratio HD box). You probably want to get the overassist option plus get the PAS pump flow rate increased (just some machining) to keep the steering nice and light. Its not a cheap option, though. I looked into it a few weeks ago but I didn't think I'f need it with my small tyres IRC its about £600 for the box and annother £100 or so for the pump. I think Adwest also do a quick ratio box but I'm not sure if the internals are beefed up. Was it a propperly built 727? In LR form they're not that strong but when built propperly not much is stronger. They need to be kept cool, though, IIRC. Well, it looks like I've got a team mate although he's not got a truck at the moment. I need to make a couple of phone calls tomorrow to make sure there are still places. Adrian, thanks for the offer. If things go t*ts up I know who to talk to I totally agree but I think there are 2 big issues with LR cages. The first is the wieght of the vehicle (making it nice to have a bit more safety factor) and the second is the fact most cages are external to a certain extent. That means you need a little extra strength to stop damage from trees/rocks when tree rubbing or falling over. I still wouldn't risk it in a competition machine. I think the issue is a big roll where you stand a chance of cracking the battery case. Your also less likely to be able to get out of the vehicle as quickly as normal as you may be a bit dazed/upside down. Gel's a bit safer in that respect. Concentrated Sulphuric acid is nasty stuff; if you get it on you it'll make a bad day much worse. I've personally got Optimas (red and yellow) fitted and I've been happy so far. When I go over to 24V I'll fit annother yellow top just to keep commonality. When these die I might try something else but I've been happy with their performance so far. P.S. Jon's hit the nail on the head about bolting down. Its absolutely essential as a battery could easily short on the lid of the battery box and then you're really in trouble.... Yes, its a regular mod on race cars (replacing every bush with a rose joint) to go and sharpen everything up. IMHO a mixture of bushes and joints would probably work quite well. The only issue with them is that if they get any wear (likely in mud) they have to go in the bin. Much, much worse than a worn out bush. IIRC Paul Wightman experimented with them on his 3-link setup but soon found he as replacing the joints after every event. Chris, LOVELY JOB!!!! There are only a few people out there (and even fewer businesses) that build really good cages. What really pi$$es me off about a lot of cages out there is creating an external cage that doesn't follow the lines of the bodywork (particularly on bends). WHY???? It just looks wrong! Yours is a nice design that looks a bit differant. My experience with tube is limitied but for an A level I built a go-kart and the tubework for the chassis drove me insane. I reccon it took me 40 hours to get it right! The only question I have is why didn't you go for diagonals over the roof rather than straight bars? However, the Equipe method might be more effective. If you didn't hear what they did when SR copied their extreme kit I'll tell you some time; its not for public consumption TC, SR make their bussiness by doing this: Start with a quality product that they distribute, make a poor copy of it and then shove 2 fingers up at the guys who did all the hard work. I hate to say it but quality doesn't enter into it; how many people over here use Equipe in place of Scrapion Racing stuff??? Very few. Its all down to SR's agressive marketing and the fact they keep the magazine's in their pockets. Ok, I don't know if I can get T-shirts done for this weekend but I'll try. If I get 5 minutes tomorrow I'll see if I can sort something. If I do I'll have to post them as I won't be at Slab... Anyone who wants one I'll be doing them at cost price; anything I can do toi spread the word I wil do..... Andy and Rob, that's a superb idea with the stickers. I will certainly be doing that. However, Scrap Iron REALLY don't like me and I may well find myself being asked to leave before I get to use the stickers jed, the CVs thing is totoally unbelieveable. I think they should be reported to trading standards for that one as I know for a fact that no one had Ashcrofts CVs fitted for any of the rounds of the AWDC series yet they claim a 100% sucess rate. They've also claimed Ashcroft's drive flanges as their own along with the Underdrive. I also assume the shafts are the same new shafts that Ashcroft now sell. I hope you all read it and didn't skip anything? OK, I thought I'd start a new thread for T-Shirts so I can gauge numbers. I'm not totally sure about the design yet, I'll have a play arround just to see what works but I guess they'll be white with the logo on either the front or the back. I'll try and get things underway this week but I'm not sure if it'll happen. I'm also going to away next week so if you don't hear anything, don't worry. Price wise, I'm not sure. I guess it'll be arround the £8 - £10 mark. On a not so related topic I'd like to add my support for Ashcrofts. I got a call from them the other day out of the blue to check that I'd fitted the correct seal when I'd changed CVs several months ago. This is the sort of service not many companies give.... Actually, I have no problem competing as its NOT their series; its the AWDCs series with SR only offering some sponsership. Why should Neil suffer when he's done a fantastic job with the series. I have a HUGE ammount of respect for what you've done!!!! However, I would not put the stickers on my vehicle; why should I support competitiors of companies who support me or display advertising for products I don't use???? If I can't win prizes because of that, Im not really that fussed. In the end I just enter to drive and have fun. P.S. Jules, what happens if you win the event with a truck with no SR components on? What does that do for their publicity?

Option #2 HERE From eBay

Nice buy Steve. The big advantage are the drawers which with a home made you would not bother.

This is so valuable, it should be in the technical archive.

Where do you get Numax batteries from?

What make battery are you looking at?

Not a clue.

Best bench I ever saw consisted of two 20" brick 'walls' tied into the wokshop wall with railway sleepers bolted on top! It's a brick yard thing.

A simple angle iron frame is best if you have welding. A storage shelf fairly low down with lots of heavy stuff stored on it will add a load of stability. Any bench with a vice will need as much diagonal bracing as you can fit. I would go for a thick wood top, if you want steel then add a 3-6mm plate on top. Wood benches can be good but watch the construction as they tend to ‘come loose’ with heavy use. WORK BENCHES Mine is good, 4" x 2" RSJ frame with 4" x 4" x 3/8" angle legs and a 1.5M x 3M x 15mm steel top, bit heavy though!

Ban trailers

Go on doc, don't beat about the bush! Edited to add.... Sorry, Paul was still logged in on the office computer, roguevogue here.

Not too bad for the organiser then, you only need to see paperwork and obviously a cursory glance at the vehicle and recovery equipment. So as far as competitions are concerned if one could blag his way through the SVA, MOT, C&U, insurance etc and avoid capture by the Gestapo one is in. I think it all comes down to conscience, honesty or perhaps nerve, lack of fear. Maybe part of the sport is to see how much you can get past the regulatory system. Unless we have an AWD logbook system there is only the MOT/SVA etc. to control vehicle build and condition. I know of a present situation following an off-road accident and nearly two years later the legal rottweilers are sinking their teeth into anyone remotely connected and shaking violently. Accidents don’t exist these days.

Hi Andy, looking forward to the hell and damnation that only a principality like Scotland can offer in the shape of the Tay! As you say, this thread is throwing up some very important questions. As an Organiser what lengths do you and your scrutineers have to go to to satisfy your insurance obligations that a vehicle is road legal? Neil and Nigel, could you both answer the same question?

Pete, you've not been attending your elocution lessons have you?

Somebody touched a nerve?

Hi stranger! No, not banned yet but are you sure about your choice of axles?

Devon has many who are above trivial issues such as vehicle legality and others who don’t have a clue as to what’s going on. On the other hand here we do tend to waffle and go round in circles. Will, thanks for the compliment! I did deliberate for a long time whether to continue with Piggy or start again. Piggy is pre SVA but I do have a letter from VRO stating it is a 1971 Range Rover hybrid. You can have a tax exempt coil sprung series II ! Piggy needs bringing up to date, bigger engine, 4 sp auto gearbox, 1.4 transfer box, 100” wheelbase, less overhang front and back, re-wiring, storage in the cab behind the seats, less weight and no protrusions below the chassis. Easier to start again! Not that I am in any way building a new truck!