More 4x4 banter

[Hugh Jardon]

Originally Posted by Richard B

Yes, but I bet there wouldn't be anything left of the caravan after you enjoy your drive
C'mon, that sorta vehicle wouldn't ever be out of your sight!

very true, and would never let the mrs near it, does look superb, love off roading, but only really do it on bikes.

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by Richard B

Really?

Space frame chassis?

Discovery front and rear axle?

Close to a normal Land Rover?

And look at the "RIB flicker" type underchassis device on their race chassis... not standard LR kit by any strectch of the imagination.

Oh, and "LAND ROVER TO SUPPORT BOWLER OFF ROAD TEAM"

http://www.bowler-offroad.com

I said CLOSER!!! They have far more common parts than the Jap compaines use for their special rally vehicles!!!

I think you will find that discovery axles ARE pretty much standard LR stuff......

[randski]

codprawn

I do admire your loyality to land rover.........

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by randski

codprawn

I do admire your loyality to land rover.........

YES I am loyal to LR but it really pisses me off when people who have little experience of them keep slagging them off for no reason!!!

Pretty much the same with Rover cars - are they REALLY any worse than say Ford???

I still have one of our Rover 420 diesels - we ran a small fleet of them with no probs at all - no problems of any kind and they did very high mileage. The one I have kept as a spare car has done 155,000 miles and still runs like new - I have test driven a few other cars similar year(1998) similar mileage or often a lot less for mates of mine and they have been dogs - including an audi A4 a friend of mine has!!!

Same with Alfa Romeo - people will STILL say they rust - despite the fact I still have a H plate one that is mint!!!

I drove a load of different cars over the last few years as I was doing silly milages - had a new car every 6 weeks or so - why the hell VW has such a good name I will never know - there were problems with the passats and the golfs I had - water leaks - box trouble - sunroof trouble etc. Not only that but compared to say an Alfa or Vectra nor Focus not even that nice to drive!!!

[donutsina911]

for those wanting a bit more poke...

www.overfinch.com

[Hugh Jardon]

Hi codders, hope you did not mind me slighting the LR engine, TD5 unit as a gutless lump at speed.

but for the records here is some feedback on two recent cars


i have had around 35 cars now and i do tend to slag em off if they deserve it, ie

my jag xjr
fantastic engine
crap auto gbox, from the point of driving it manually
does not make enough sexy noise
rear bumper falls off at 4 years due to dissimmilar metal corrosion of the parts they use, jag garage laughed and said oh yes they do that
wheel bearings go on front every 12-18 months if you drive it sportingly
brakes are naff, not powerful and i could cook em easily
tracks, they all do it due to suspension set up
boot is too small
inside is too small
is like a f1 car, fast and furious but not sure if you will finish the race
cam chains all 4 go at around 60k miles so need replacing, mine did at 63k, 2k fixes it
wheels crack
head gasket blew on one bank
had all suspension replaced at 40k
had all brakes replaced same time
suspension on back needed replacing at 60k
over eager gbox kicks down to easily, tricky in wet
wheels spins at 90 and also done at 115 in wet
my advice, great little car in big car proportions, buy with caution
average mpg is 17.3, if you take it easy you might get 20 on a run, it does not reward careful driving with good mpg so just boot it
did not meet a faster car on the road?

landy
every single landy i have had i have replaced the steering box, lube the shaft by ptfe washer with grease, they rust there damaging seal causing leak
had three, 200, 300 now td5
td5 better than other by far
driver heated seat prone to failure, one gone already
gearbox indicator and microswitch fail, gone twice on mine
stability control system grunts when you boot it from standstill, LR say they all do
have every electric gadget on it imaginable and all seem fine, even remote controled suspension for raising and lowering for heavy trailers
but the engine
gutless at speed when towing, good at low speed but crap at towing decent weights at 60 mph
vgood on the slipways for towin boat out
air suspension works a treat when very heavily loaded

if something i own does not come up to my expectations then i am happy to say so if others can benefit from it.

jag gone now and replaced with a beemer, much better all round in every way except sheer power from engine.

[Simon B]

Got the 110 v8 station wagon, looks reasonable, led an urban life near London not much off raod grime apart from one rotten door any Ribnetters know of a rear drivers side door in blue (Arles?) I be interested. Just need to sort out the gas kit with under the floor tanks.

Now do I fit the front tow hitch or let someone else cop for all the collar! Yet to speed test it to see if it will beat Codder's 105mph.

[codprawn]

Not a lover of BMWs - probably the only one I liked was the M3 - mate had an M5 - one with dogleg Getrag box - bearings kept going all the time. New Mercs are causing lots of problems with electronic niggles - problem is the electronic niggles control major things like engine and box!!!

Merc A class recalled for being dangerously unstable - same with Audi TT.

The point I am trying to make is that ALL cars have their faults!!! So WHY do people take such great delight in only slagging off British ones???

TOTALLY unbelievable but a mate of mine JUST phoned as I was typing this!!! He was stuck in a Tesco car park in Cardiff in his brand new BMW 5 series - he just couldn't get it to start. He said he had tried everything.

I talked him through a few things - in the end I told him to sit still in the car - open and close doors and then lock it. He did and then moved around to trigger alarm - then turned it off again with blipper. Car started first time!!!

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by Simon B

Got the 110 v8 station wagon, looks reasonable, led an urban life near London not much off raod grime apart from one rotten door any Ribnetters know of a rear drivers side door in blue (Arles?) I be interested. Just need to sort out the gas kit with under the floor tanks.

Now do I fit the front tow hitch or let someone else cop for all the collar! Yet to speed test it to see if it will beat Codder's 105mph.

Get a removable front hitch from Bearmach - they are great.

If there is no rot underneath give it a damn good jetwash - then paint the underside with Acrypol - just bought some from Selco for £40 - wire brush off any loose stuff and slap it on with a big brush. It sticks to anything and can even be put on a wet roof!!! It also deadens sound and stays flexible - great stuff!!! When it is dry spray waxoyl underbody sealant all over and waxoyl cavity stuff into all the cavities you can find - will last you for ever if you take these simple steps!!!

As to speed I doubt it - mine goes like no LR should - frightens the crrap out of people to see something so big going so fast!!! Handles quite well but the rear antiroll bar does limit axle articualtion offroad - am about to rig up some "quick disconnects".

[eupa]

frightens the crrap out of people to see something so big going so fast!!!

always boasting....................!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hugh Jardon]

Originally Posted by codprawn

The point I am trying to make is that ALL cars have their faults!!! So WHY do people take such great delight in only slagging off British ones???

cos, and i say it with sadness, british cars seem to have more faults than german or japanese items, suffer from iffy build quality and poor designs.

and

the british are known for self critisism

but

some of us love our trusty old semi british cars, and if i chip the landy and pork up the performance a bit and am happy with it and it does not blow up then i will be a happy chappy.;-) but give me an amazon any day of the week.

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by eupa

frightens the crrap out of people to see something so big going so fast!!!

always boasting....................!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No it happens to be true - I said 105 NOT 150!!! Mind you it does FEEL like it in a Defender!!!

Seriously though I don't know if it is because it's an ex police one but as far as I know the engine is a standard V8 with SU carbs - I had it tuned but it was crap - way too lean so jujst richend it up a bit - have to lean it out again for the MOT but it pinks like hell on the "proper" settings!!! Fine line though - get about
18mpg at a constant 60mph but I prefer to cruise at about 75 - 80 where it drops quite a bit!!!

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by Chris Hartley

cos, and i say it with sadness, british cars seem to have more faults than german or japanese items, suffer from iffy build quality and poor designs.

Do they REALLY??? Or is it just that people go on about them more??? My mate who had the BMW with the Getrag box also has a Pajero that is on it's second auto box - has also had 2 new alternators and and aircon pulley amongst other things. My Land Rover is older and has done more miles and yet he stills says - you should scrap it!!! See what I mean???

My Landrover has not had any faults since I have had it other than propshaft UJs which are normal at high milage - and God only knows what sort of life it had with the Police chasing joyriders across mountains - probably similar to the way I use it actually!!!

[Hugh Jardon]

Originally Posted by codprawn

Do they REALLY??? Or is it just that people go on about them more??? My mate who had the BMW with the Getrag box also has a Pajero that is on it's second auto box - has also had 2 new alternators and and aircon pulley amongst other things. My Land Rover is older and has done more miles and yet he stills says - you should scrap it!!! See what I mean???

My Landrover has not had any faults since I have had it other than propshaft UJs which are normal at high milage - and God only knows what sort of life it had with the Police chasing joyriders across mountains - probably similar to the way I use it actually!!!

sounds like you have a good landy!
had a shogun 3500 and i could give a long list of the things that went wrong with that thing, which was a dissappointment as they are supposed to be very reliable, i think a lot of it was down to the numpty dealer i was using who made a good living on the items they replaced on my car under warranty.

one thing i must say with landys is i have always sold them for more than i paid for them which is very cool actually

dont mind people slating beemers in the slightest, mine has more electrics than most with tvs, dvd, and playstation built in for the kids so fingers crossed i wont suffer electrical issues. but i love it and that is all that matters and have 3 yrs warranty.

one to think about
RAC 5 star warranty with car value per claim uplift......
3 yr warranty on a beemer 740, £500 ish, i paid £200 (this year)
3 yr warranty on a jag xjr, £1250 (paid 3 yrs ago, even more now)

why.......because they expect more claims, and they got them, boy did they get em.......haha

will let this one die out now from my perspective as dont want to sound like a broken record. but if you have chipped a landy go to the tread about chipping a td5 and give me some feedback.
cheers

chris

[Hugh Jardon]

Originally Posted by donutsina911

for those wanting a bit more poke...

www.overfinch.com

i love those overfinch conversions, a friend had one on the older style Range Rover and amazing difference and noise but the fuel economy....oh my lord!

[Simon B]

Codders,
What have done with your engine then?
Also have you seen the 3 link suspension system by Gon2far suspension based in Wales coincidentally!

3 link kit

Now I had wondered could I use this with the anti roll bars in place then when required drop them off real quick? Will look at Bearmach product but do use tow ball as another recovery point.

[randski]

Codprawn
a small vid you might (not) find amusing

http://gallery.pc-house.co.uk/displa...album=17&pos=2

[wavelength]

is that an ex coastguard landrover??
We had one of a batch that were all registered A ***SYM Cant remember which number ours was now-but it was our last Landrover at this station-on Jap stuff now, which means they spend far far less time in the garage than that last landrover did! Absolute nightmare for reliability!

[Hugh Jardon]

Originally Posted by randski

Codprawn
a small vid you might (not) find amusing

http://gallery.pc-house.co.uk/displa...album=17&pos=2

nice one, clearly shows how inexperienced the guy was in the landy as he did not change his approach at all, he just kept trying the same thing, never mind

i am sure if he had tried using the steering wheel to change vehicle dynamics he would have made better progress

what do you reckon codders?

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by Hugh Jardon

nice one, clearly shows how inexperienced the guy was in the landy as he did not change his approach at all, he just kept trying the same thing, never mind

i am sure if he had tried using the steering wheel to change vehicle dynamics he would have made better progress

what do you reckon codders?

Well I haven't been able to watch the video - tried in IE and Firefox - this is why I HATE this streaming video stuff so much!!! Much better to be able to download the file first.....

A hell of a lot depends on driver skill - in Africa I have seen people drive old Ladas and Pug 504 estates through areas where other people have got 4x4s stuck!!!

I do know one thing though - I took that Discovery along Gap Road in the Brecon Beacons no problem at all - NONE of my mates with their Jap stuff would risk it - I didn't ding the underside even once!!! My mate tried to drive his Toyota Amazon along the Roman Road and grounded it before he had gone 10 feet - there is a nasty drop off the main road onto it!!!