MOT Time

I'm scared ....

It's Katy's 1st MOT since we bought her and quite simply the MOT she had on her when she was sold to us was a joke !

In the last 12 months I've: -

• Replaced all the tyres which had cracks the size of the grand canyon in the sides
• Replaced 2 sections of Exhaust which were blowing
• Replaced all the electrics that worked when they felt like it
• Repaired a leaking fuel line

Now all I can do is hope

More Tyre problems

I had a call from the Security guys at work today

"Is that your truck? Do you know you have a flat tyre?"

That wasn't what I wanted to hear, but it got a lot worse from there and once again I've learned a lot

This was the sight that greeted me...

OK I thought get the spare down and change it...

First I had to get the car in the space next to Kart moved and then I got the wheel down.

Out with the jack and started lifting her up only to discover that the jack wasn't tall enough to lift her off the ground. So I had to call GEM to get someone with a bigger one to lift her up

After work I popped over to Celtic tyres who diagnosed a problem with the inner tube caused by a label on the inside of the tyre. Apparently when a label is present it causes friction on the inside of the tyre onto the inner tube to be concentrated in one place and is a common cause of issues. The tube was shot with a small tear along the side of this label mark.

So they fitted a new inner tube  as you can see below, refitted the tyre and all seemed well...

Until Friday ...

All looked OK from a distance, but when I got closer it was clear that tyre was soft. I really didn't want to call the breakdown people twice for the same fault as that just makes you look dozy so I went hunting for a solution at work 

I found a nice large breeze block that proved to be too big and then some paver bricks that were just fine to get the wheel off, but when I tried getting the fully inflated one back on the lift had been just a little short, but with some kicking of the tyre it popped into place and we were away 

So today (Saturday) I'm going shopping. First to another tyre garage to get to the root cause and then to get a bigger bottle jack

Commuting

I mentioned a few days ago that I'd dropped the car in for a service so used Katy to go to work.

I had no idea I would be still using her as a regular commuter vehicle a week and a half later :-(

I'm starting to get frustrated by not having my car back, but here are a few thoughts that have occurred across the time we've been sharing the 20 miles to work and back each day

1. I can be mellow driving at 60 - Honest
2. Isn't it frustrating when you are trying to pass a slower vehicle, but one that has more power uphill. I have found that I've had to slow down in order not to be a road hog in the middle lane. it doesn't come naturally as I'm used to shooting past in the fast lane

And when it comes to other road users

1. Why do 7 Series BMW's pull in front of you when you are just about to go up hill, slow down and then accelerate just after you've had to lose all your speed?
2. What sort of person buys an Audi TT and drives it at 50 MPH in the middle lane on a motorway and why are there so many of them in South Wales?

What a Difference 2cm Makes

A while ago I wrote about A Wheely Interesting Dilemma which came about after I bought Katy some new tyres

I had a problem with scrubbing on full lock which i knew would be an MOT failure

I had thought that it was an issue with the new tyres being wider, and so I looked into wheel spacers as I talked about in that post

With all the wonderful feedback I had from LRO and LRS, and the learning I had about wheel offsets, and information that having scrubbing wheels was an MOT failure I decided that before I did anything else I needed to get the front and rear wheels swapped to see if the more negative offset wheels made much of a difference to the steering and especially to the scrubbing, because the MOT was coming due

I have, and it does. 

The difference in offset according to my measurement of the front of the plate that is attached to the hub when measured to the plane of the front end of the rims is 2cm. I am presuming that this is reflected in the offset either fully or in part because I don't have wheels without tyres so can't make all of the measurements necessary to be definitive about this. Either the hubs are 2cm more offset or they are wider and some of this reflects in the offset.  At some time I'll have wheels without tyres and I'll try and work it out, but for now I'll just accept it

What is even better is that I've been offered some more of the wider wheels so I can get her to having all the same wheels and I don't need to worry about it in the future

The Truth, The Whole Truth and Some Fun

I know that many people we don't know drop in to this blog, and we also know a few old friends drop in from time to time because we get nice comments either here or in person

If you are either of these you may like to know that the full first year story is now available to read in a more relaxed and strightforward manner by looking at the PDF version of this blog which has now been updated to have the full first year of our adventures togther

Just click the link on the right of this post in the My Links section (you may need to scroll down a bit) and there it all is

With MOT and insurance due soon there are bound to be some new adventures and expenditure

It's windy enough...

Yesterday I had a bright idea.. 

Drop the suzuki in a day early for a service when I had plenty of spare time it being a day off and take Katy to work this morning

Driving a 7 foot wide, 9 foot high 18 foot long Land Rover to work this morning wasn't fun

Water dripping onto my knees as well proves she's still leaking

Note to self... look at the forecast first next time  

2011 Summary

What a year...

Back in January, the days lengthened and I started looking forwards to the year, but we were met with the sad news of the loss of a good friend, he would have laughed so much if he's known that on the day of his funeral in February we would be sitting with other good friends in Cheddar, drinking red wine and I'd be bidding to purchase a 24 year old vehicle for no better reason than I wanted one to have fun with.

I won and then being terrified stated as I wondered what I had done. No way to stop things now and I arranged insurance and road tax and by the end of that month, with a few adventures in Preston to go with it we had collected her. In March the hard work began. So much of that has been a learning experience that it's hard to reflect on how little I knew back then... Mind you I am not sure even now whether I realise how much more there is to learn.

April was a real set-back being recovered home on the back of a truck from Hopwell Services on the M42 having learned that the gearbox(s) were shot and therefore May was a month of trying to work out what to do about it, ordering parts and making preparation

June came along and so did the new gearboxes and I had wonderful fun installing them with help from Steve, so in July we had our first real adventure camping in Anglesey and cooking in the rain

In August we learned how much she leaked in Pembrokeshire and I made a start on what I nwo understand will be a lifetime in water prevention and I gave up on the electrics and had someone else do it, and then in September we all went to a wedding together which was real fun

In October I failed to fit a new exhaust a few times and I learned the ancient martial art of waxoyling. I also got a copy of Katy's military history and we joined a Land Rover club 

In November I fitted some exhaust sections and learned that some more needed doing, but I didn't have the parts

In December with all the parts I finally got the new exhaust in place and I have started to look into some of the next things I need to do

I know a lot of my friends tune into this blog from time to time, and I've met a whole bunch more people on-line and in person in the local Land Rover club that I don't know well yet so I think I'd like to say to my friends old and new, readers and anyone just dropping in

My best wishes to anyone who's enjoyed reading this in 2011 and my thanks to those who have helped so far. especially Rhian who's put up with me on some bad days during this project and will have that joy again I'm sure

I didn't start this as blog as anything other than an on-line diary of an adventure, but from some comments (BTW If you are enjoying it I'd lve to hear about it through a comment) and links made to the blog from other websites, it is clear that it is starting to be of use to come people and therefore it will be continuing. 

I will start to add a few articles about things I've learned and other items of Land Rover interest from time to time, but  the essence will remain a story of our adventures  together. 

 Happy New year for 2012 !