Land Rovers can drive on water.

[RLWP]

15 minutes ago, Jess-- said:

I've yet to find a vehicle with all round visibility as good as my old 1990 rangerover (classic 3.9 v8), the landcruiser amazon (4.7 v8) that replaced it is horrible when reversing

Unfortunately, you are comparing apples and pears. The earlier vehicle would have met much lower crash requirements than the Amazon. Side impact in particular has lead to much bigger pillars to the roof on all vehicles

Richard

[Jerra]

1 hour ago, Mike Hurley said:

Series 3 would have been a 109.

Sorry you are of course correct.

53 minutes ago, Athy said:

Isn't that because the bodies are made from aluminium?

Yes the bodies are aluminium, at least in the age I am conversant with can't speak for the last generation defenders.

[Mike Hurley]

29 minutes ago, bizzard said:

Land Rovers which were just driven about on the roads by people who wanted to look powerful and important like the latest trend with enormous brutish 4x4's that have never been on wet grass didn't rust their chassis. It was the hard working ones that did, reversing into sea water to pull out boat trailers ect. Farm use driving over fertilized muddy fields and farm yards, then it was usually only the rear end of the chassis and cross member that rusted.

Back in the late nineties i replaced the chassis on the rustiest one i ever seen, turns out it was used on the film set Rob Roy, pulling boats in and out of the sea.

[bizzard]

The original 110''' was the rare forward control version, then the later Defender. I had three  L/R's over a great many years for heavy garage and towing use, A 1954 80'' petrol, 1964 2A 88'' petrol and 1969 2B 88' petrol both with Harvey Frost cranes on the back. They unfailingly did very heavy work indeed that was unbelievable.  The later Defenders I didn't think were as tough, certain things had been cheapened up, and I never reckoned that their Ferguson gearboxes same as fitted to early Strange Rovers as well were anything like as tough as the old L/R constant mesh box.

9 minutes ago, Mike Hurley said:

Back in the late nineties i replaced the chassis on the rustiest one i ever seen, turns out it was used on the film set Rob Roy, pulling boats in and out of the sea.

This was it, as I explained. Constant recovery work on salted winter roads too. 

[BWM]

This one looks a little thirsty! 

[RLWP]

6 minutes ago, bizzard said:

The original 110''' was the rare forward control version,

With two chassis, IIRC

 

Richard

[bizzard]

1 minute ago, RLWP said:

With two chassis, IIRC

 

Richard

So I believe. The army and woodland rangers were the main users of them. I think.

[David Mack]

41 minutes ago, Stilllearning said:

Back in the early 70s I worked in the UAE, in Dubai then Khor Fakkan, and we had land rovers. The roads were so bad that they were written off the bank’s books after three years. However Toyota land cruisers were written off after one year. The series 2a SWB that I had was knackered but always got me home from some fairly inhospitable places, up mountains or in the desert. The most spectacular things I remember happening was when the rear door fell off one day - driving daily over corrugated sand is really bad for bodywork, and once coming off the beach in 4WD the rear prop shaft broke in half, so I stopped, pulled the spinning broken bit out of the diff, and went home as a front wheel drive Land Rover. The local mechanic was having a coffee in town and was a bit surprised when I waved the prop shaft out of the window at him.

In the mid 80s I worked on road construction in Oman. The contract specified that the Engineer's staff, of which I was one, had to be provided with Landrovers, whereas the contractor provided Toyota Landcruisers for their own staff.  I soon found out why.  My LWB Series 3 Safari was horribly underpowered (you had to switch off the AC in order to get enough oomph to overtake), and the door seals might as well not have been there. The only way to stop the back from filling up with dust coming in round the back door, was to have all the front vents open. If you mounted the spare wheel on the back door, the door fell to bits, if you mounted it on the bonnet, the bonnet fell to bits, so generally it just rolled around inside. While out doing a bit of wadi-bashing one weekend the links supporting one of the rear springs sheered, and I drove back to base with the thing sitting at a drunken angle. On another occasion the hydraulic clutch sprung a leak, and until a replacement part could be obtained I managed by getting the site workshop to refill the system each morning, which was OK for a day's driving, but by the next morning the clutch wouldn't disengage. Not a problem though as I just put it in first gear and turned the key, and there was enough slack in the drive train for the engine to turn over several revs and fire before the vehicle itself moved, and I could then lurch my way across to the workshop for the day's refill!

 

[bizzard]

4 minutes ago, BWM said:

This one looks a little thirsty! 

Hope it remains there. Horrid great poser SUV brutes cluttering up the the roads and parking places.

[RLWP]

6 minutes ago, bizzard said:

So I believe. The army and woodland rangers were the main users of them. I think.

[bizzard]

2 minutes ago, RLWP said:

Aha, interesting

[bizzard]

I once had a little Suzuki SJ 410 up for sale. I kept it for a while for towing. It was brilliant, only had a 1000cc engine but had a proper transfer gearbox and could really pull heavy loads, almost as much as a Land Rover. Its traction on rough and boggy ground was tremendous. They've been superceded by the Suzuki Jimney.

Edited December 14, 2017 by bizzard

[mrsmelly]

25 minutes ago, bizzard said:

Hope it remains there. Horrid great poser SUV brutes cluttering up the the roads and parking places.

Yep and lots of them prove it by having " Vanity " plates fitted

In fairness to the old proper land rovers then they did/do a good job off road by farmers etc as they were meant to be used and not for posing. However for Joe Bloggs who doesn't off road but wants more traction ON road like during the last few days there are a hell of a lot of superior, more reliable alternatives.

6 minutes ago, bizzard said:

I once had a little Susuki SJ 410 up for sale. I kept it for a while for towing. It was brilliant, only had a 1000cc engine but had a proper transfer gearbox and could really pull heavy loads, almost as much as a Land Rover. Its traction on rough and boggy ground was tremendous. They've been superceded by the Susuki Jimney.

The Jimny is an excellent if small piece of kit ...apart from the swivel hubs.

[Jess--]

here's my pair in a very rare clean state, both used as workhorses

left one is S reg (1998) and the right one is R reg (1997)
oddly despite them being the same vehicle the one on the right (older) has a lot more low end power then the other.
in 5 years the most expensive thing i have had to do to them is replace the plugs, at £11 each it gets expensive (running lpg is harder on plugs so you go through them faster)

[bizzard]

12 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Yep and lots of them prove it by having " Vanity " plates fitted

In fairness to the old proper land rovers then they did/do a good job off road by farmers etc as they were meant to be used and not for posing. However for Joe Bloggs who doesn't off road but wants more traction ON road like during the last few days there are a hell of a lot of superior, more reliable alternatives.

The Jimny is an excellent if small piece of kit ...apart from the swivel hubs.

This is it. Why do folk buy the huge SUV's when there's smaller ones like the Suzuki to help cope with icey roads. You only usually ever see just a driver in them, and some of them are 6 or 8 seaters. One little blond tart with a Doberman with its nose poking out of a window invariably, or one little pompous bloke trying to look important.   One reason I think is, like vans you can see over the cars in traffic ahead. But it looks like the SUV's are getting bigger and bigger and taller and taller for the drivers to be able to look over the previous models of Suv's. they'll soon be as big and as tall as double decker buses.

Edited December 14, 2017 by bizzard

[MtB]

43 minutes ago, BWM said:

This one looks a little thirsty! 

 

Cue David Attenborough voice-over...

"And here we have a Wild Range Rover found drinking from a stream on a very cold winter's morning."

[Stilllearning]

4 minutes ago, Jess-- said:

here's my pair in a very rare clean state, both used as workhorses

left one is S reg (1998) and the right one is R reg (1997)
oddly despite them being the same vehicle the one on the right (older) has a lot more low end power then the other.
in 5 years the most expensive thing i have had to do to them is replace the plugs, at £11 each it gets expensive (running lpg is harder on plugs so you go through them faster)

A thought has occurred to me. What is the tax situation regarding using LPG from a fuel station as against keeping a tank in the garden and doing your own refills?

[Mike Hurley]

5 minutes ago, Stilllearning said:

A thought has occurred to me. What is the tax situation regarding using LPG from a fuel station as against keeping a tank in the garden and doing your own refills?

You can do your own bottles for the boat too, much cheaper.

[RLWP]

 

It had better not be fishing

Richard

[bizzard]

And what about the width of some of the latest so called prestige cars these days, like certain Mercedes, Jaguars and as for the latest Audie A6, wow! unbelieveably wide and ridiculous, wider than some lorries. They jam up ordinary roads something rotten, keep holding up all the traffic behind because the drivers can't judge the width to get past parked vehicles and won't fit in parking slots in supermarket car parks.  They don't leave any room for my Hummer.

Edited December 14, 2017 by bizzard

[cereal tiller]

19 minutes ago, bizzard said:

This is it. Why do folk buy the huge SUV's when there's smaller ones like the Suzuki to help cope with icey roads. You only usually ever see just a driver in them, and some of them are 6 or 8 seaters. One little blond tart with a Doberman with its nose poking out of a window invariably, or one little pompous bloke trying to look important.   One reason I think is, like vans you can see over the cars in traffic ahead. But it looks like the SUV's are getting bigger and bigger and taller and taller for the drivers to be able to look over the previous models of Suv's. they'll soon be as big and as tall as double decker buses.

Good Idea ,you mean a 4x4 Routemaster?I would buy one even if it was just to look important! would have to be Black or Green though..

[philjw]

3 minutes ago, cereal tiller said:

would have to be Black or Green though..

Not purple then?

[Jess--]

16 minutes ago, Stilllearning said:

A thought has occurred to me. What is the tax situation regarding using LPG from a fuel station as against keeping a tank in the garden and doing your own refills?

if you have your own bulk lpg supply you just declare how much you use in road vehicles and pay the appropriate duty.

lpg bulk tanks for heating are no good as they are vapour take-off (gas comes from the top of the tank), you need a liquid take-off tank (gas comes from the bottom in liquid form, usually pumped), about the only liquid take-off tanks I know of (apart from car filling stations) are those used in hot air ballooning

[bizzard]

3 minutes ago, cereal tiller said:

Good Idea ,you mean a 4x4 Routemaster?I would buy one even if it was just to look important! would have to be Black or Green though..

Ah! You need an ex Midland Red Bristol coach, they could do well over 100mph before the 70mph limit was introduced on motorways.

[cereal tiller]

2 minutes ago, philjw said:

Not purple then?

Why Purple?it is not Wide beam!

2 minutes ago, bizzard said:

Ah! You need an ex Midland Red Bristol coach, they could do well over 100mph before the 70mph limit was introduced on motorways.

Sounds good ,Did they have Blacked out Windows?