LiftedDisco

Congratulations... another Harpers success by the sounds of it! [Edit]... actually, having walked the dog and thought a bit more about what I had put here, the success is yours and HAU has simply given you the tools to be able to learn and, equally, the respect in the employer community that helps you find roles like this... Bowler do a lot of super secret stuff for LR where LR want someone to do the 'mad professor' bit with 'would this work...' that keeps LR at arms length from the truly nutty stuff but which then pays dividends when it does actually prove to be viable. Nice one, well done... hope Jess (current 1st year) can follow in your footsteps.

Try A-Plan I know that they have a scheme for modified Land Rovers - it always used to be run out of Bletchley but I think it's now being administered by Clare on 01635 874646 My D1 was with them (now changed to the in-progress RRC) as being heavily modified, 5,000 miles a year and no NCD at an agreed value with premium of £110 per year! Hope this helps

Absolute bar-stewards.... It might be worth ringing the bloke at Disco Breakers - he has a huge presence at Newbury (they have the hugely lifted D3 and the stand by the main vehicle entrance) and I would imagine are pulling light clusters out on a regular basis. He's not known for his generosity, but for the cost of some postage and a sob story might just fire some into a jiffy bag for you. Just a thought - hope you get sorted.

Doh... just looked at your address on your avatar and it says 'Weert, The Netherlands' Looking at Google maps, you appear to be reasonably close to Bree which might be easier as that is our logistics base...

Where in Holland? It's a very long shot, but there's just a slim chance I might be able to get it to Alkmaar... Any good?

Thanks for the response - the RRC is a J plate, '91

Hope this is the right(ish) sort of place to post this and that someone might be able to shed some light on the subject before I start stripping things apart... I am currently working with a Range Rover Classic as the basis for a Tornado build and have picked up a pair of hockey sticks from something described as a TD5 (with the little 'knobble' on the underside of the sticks)... These appear to have virtually new bushes - I thought these might be useful as all the other bushes are knackered on the RRC so I am in the process of replacing all the way round... Will these fit as a direct swap for my current arms or are they completely different beasts? I'm hoping they might be a straight swap but wondered if others might be able to confirm or deny ahead of me getting the two side by side for a measure and direct comparison. If not, the TD5 ones will be at Newbury next week! Thanks for reading this far - let's have your thoughts...

Western... Sorry, link doesn't work... Thx

Newbury is generally 600-700 sellers and is only slightly quieter if it is poor weather but what's there can sometimes be confusing... I've been there looking for D1 stuff and found it's all Defender items whereas next time round the mix is different yet again! I'd always go as a seller - it costs you a bit more but you are in at 7am and get first glimpse of the goodies on offer - there aren't too many bargains early doors as people think / worry that you are simply buying stock for your own stall but there are some nice things out there. Only slight fly in the ointment this time round is the new show at Donnington which clashes...

Jamie... try A-plan as well. I don't think I have ever had a good experience with Flux - they seem to quote a price and then ask if you have an alternative quote which (mysteriously) they can then match; they charge you to change the policy; they charge you to cancel the policy and I know of folks who have had horrendous times getting claims resolved... Worst of all, a mate of mine had a shunt (hit a house in the fog...) and there was no real damage done to third party property so (potentially...) no claim to consider. Flux (who were her broker) then proceeded to aggressively pursue the passenger to make a 'personal injury' claim - surely they should act on behalf of the insured party and not go ambulance chasing... Every experience with Flux has been less than savoury...

I think insurance with mods is wholly dependent on your age - the OP said that they are 18! My D1 with loads of mods (including things that could do lots of damage like HD bumpers and winches) was £110 a year fully comp... but then I am slightly older!

You need nylon as far as I know... it sets to a rock solid mass and doesn't compress. I will be at Newbury at the end of the month and am sure there is a chap who sells solid discs for spacers - if this helps, I can get you some and stick them in the post???? Alternatively, solid nylon rolling pin and chop it into segments to suit. The other thought that a lot of the Frontera boys use for body lifts (and therefore, again, needs to be resistant against compression) is ice hockey pucks. As hard as a hard thing, cheap as you like and you can drill them as required. They will never rot, never compress... Any good?

Another vote for A-Plan only I am sure that I deal with Bletchley. That may be due to the fact that the old manager there (Steve Marsh) set the 4x4 scheme up but he has since left so not really sure where they run this from. Try Bletchley but I do agree that there is one of their team at Thatcham who now seems to have 'ownership' for the scheme. I suspect they will see it as a 'modified' vehicle (notwithstanding the various engines and options that can be / have been found in factory produced LR) and your age is going to be against you - typically, specialist schemes are often only open to 21+ NFU will do most things LR related and don't seem to be fazed by mods but when I looked into this for our daughter, they would only look at her if we had all the other household, business and motor insurance with them so I have told her that she needs to wait until she is older (or opts to pay her own insurance...)!

Photo of the Liverpool structure during build:

Right... not likely to be easy to do over emails and forum posts but I will try to help... I don't do polytunnels but do sell huge great tensioned fabric structures - things like the hangar over Concorde at Manchester Airport, various salt barns around the country and the most recent being a biomass storage shed at Liverpool Docks of 65m x 170m and measuring 36m to the apex! No matter the size, tensioning things is relatively simple but will really depend on what you have on your poly covering... I think that poly tunnels are normally poly-ethelyne which should give a service life of around 10 years as the plasticisers in the material are affected by UV and go brittle at the 9-10 year period which then means that any movement in the material results in splits and shredding. Ideally, you need to have a pocket above ground level - we build ours off a concrete ring beam and then put box section through the pocket and use threaded rod that is resin anchored into the concrete ring beam. You then use nuts on the threaded rod to tension the box section within the pocket downwards - if you do this equally on each side you will pull the fabric taught over the structure. When you talk about material being 'buried' or pulling out of the earth, I don't really know what the current set up looks like - perhaps you could post a photo? All I do know is that the system we use doesn't really need any attention after installation - we use PVC for our roof sails, offering a life expectancy of 25 years. Hope this helps!

In terms of hi-viz, yes it's definitely one per occupant with the added complication that they need to be in reach. It's no good having them in a box in the back - the old Gendarmes want to know that you can put them on before leaving the vehicle. I stuff ours into door pockets but, to be fair, I can see the sense in this idea having had to bail out on a couple of occasions to help others - you feel kinda vulnerable / invisible in fast moving traffic! Not something that I make a habit out of but having a hi-vix to hand makes sense... The Viamichelin site is useful in giving distance travelled, allowing you to determine range you can cover in a day / morning etc.

The Belgiques are very definitely the worst drivers in Europe - watch out for the them and treat them as social pariahs and complete psychopaths that should be avoided at all costs. Lane discipline (in France) is generally excellent but if using the RN's then watch for speed traps when the limit changes at entrances to towns, hamlets or other such locations. For mapping, try dropping your route into www.viamichelin.com as you can enter both port of choice (or, indeed, your home addy) and the destination - this will then tell you fuel costs and potential toll costs for the journey. You can drag the route to alternative options to judge the travel times, cost differences and savings on tolls - it's a really useful website.

It rather depends on where you are heading... Some routes are best done on the Route Nationale (RN) roads - for instance, dropping from Le Havre to Le Mans is simple and quick without touching the autoroute. If you are heading onto the autoroutes, it really is worth getting a toll tag for the peage as it saves getting your passenger to fight with payment machines - the thing just goes 'bing', the barrier lifts and the fees get taken from your bank account the following month. Get one at www.aprr.fr - note, if you do so, just enter your address into their form as best you can and enter 00000 (five zeros, not O's) in the section for area code. It'll turn up within a week and Bob's yer Mother's Brother... Not really sure this helps with the decision between Autoroute and RN butgood luck...

We use Henderson gear to hang 10m high doors for salt barns - each door leaf is 10.6m tall x 3m in width. Typically the doors are retained to either side using channel (door slides into the surface mounted channel on opening) but this system leaves the actual door aperture clear for vehicle access or, in your case, the engine crane. Security on a salt barn is not generally an issue - we fit shoot bolts on the inside to drop down into the concrete slab and then exit the barn using a personnel door... I assume you can do the same. These people may also be able to help: www.runners-uk.com They seem to offer all sorts of suitable stuff including some useful looking folding door systems that I have planned for a couple of projects. Hope this helps - the Henderson stuff we use above can all be fitted after the building is in place; the only issue is getting the header in the right place (height-wise) and level... Good luck!

Again, I've used Winch-It and found their stuff to be good...

Oh yes... A mate of mine is working on the film on vehicle special effects - we've seen a few photos of the various cars 'in build' and it would appear that oodles of money has been lavished on this lot! Filming this week in Oxfordshire, next week he's off to Rome for around 6 weeks. Jammy git, where do I get a job like that...

Barry... What premium are they quoting? Mine (with Markerstudy) is £100 plus £10 'admin' fee from the broker - this is for fully comp on a limited mileage policy. It allows for a host of modifications but the premium hasn't changed year on year - mine is arranged through A-Plan in Bletchley. Hope this helps you find an alternative quote / better price...

Another vote for the NFU. Alternatively, you could try A-Plan - I use the branch in Bletchley who have been cracking but I think that the specialist 4x4 contact is now in their Thatcham branch. Hope this helps

Different seller but I have just bought one of these: http://www.sgs-engineering.com/garage-equipment/tool-chests-cabinets/mechanics-8-drawer-tool-box-chest-cabinet Purchased Friday morning and the delivery tracker shows that it is due for delivery tomorrow (Mon) so am very impressed so far. One of the Northants 4x4 chaps has this set and says that quality is good - they also appear to offer various other well priced items...

Why D2? D3's are available from 2005 and are a whole different beast with significant improvements in both performance and comfort... There's a really good 2005 D3 with considerable history currently on Disco3.com with an asking price of £7,800 but he may take less if you don't want various extra bits... Good luck with the hunt...