"Blue Light" Adventures

My friend Dave helped me again with some work on the electrics today

It was quite a successful day before it stated getting cold so we decided to halt and do a test of the new features. The reversing camera cables were run underneath the vehicle and in through an existing gromit in the battery bx and then up to the plate I had fitted to hold the screen. A switch was added as we used a feed from the leisure battery rather than messing with wiring to the ignition

The reversing camera works just as expected ..

The connections to the leisure battery and camera were all tidied up ..

The Fog lights work  just as expected ..

The Spotlights however have been wired into a spare switch on the dashboard and when we turned them on this was the result (Click the picture or the link below)

"Blue" Lights on my Land Rover Ambulance

That will be great for car shows, but we will need to make an adjustment before they are useful at other times. 

Patrick and Jenny's Barn Find

Howdy folk... 

Travelling in the US you never know what you will find, and as I sat inside Uncle Viniie's Clam Bar in Raritan NJ I was pleased to see this little beauty pulling up outside.

The owners seemed pleased to see a kindred spirit so we spent a few moments exchanging information about our shared passion for Land Rovers before we all went back into what is reputed to be one of the best places in town to go and eat. 

Well folk, It looks a "mighty fine soft top" and well suited to the warm evening we were sharing

One of the really nice things about Land Rovers is when you find someone in a strange place the people driving it are almost certainly nice people 

I hope you had a nice meal folk....

Do Land Rovers Dream of Electric Sheep Part 1

It was a bright sunny morning today which was excellent news because I had taken up a friends offer of help. Last year at the Margam car show Dave Kilburn kindly offered to help me sort out the electrics I wanted to do on Katy.

Dave had been an Auto Electrics instructor in the RAF so was the absolutely perfect person to help with this sort out.

To set the scene Katy has three sets of Electrics

1. Normal Land Rover Electrics
2. Military Electrics
3. Camper Electrics

The problem is that some were disconnected when she came out of service and some were cross linked when she was converted to a camper. back when we first had her the lights were so unreliable I had to spend quite a bit to get the basic Land Rover lighting sorted out 

Since then we decided in the Alps that we needed more lights as a backup as one failed on us but then was working again - spots and fogs are not strictly needed at the speed we go, but are valuable backup to the main lights. The trouble was which switch works which ? 

there were cables at the front from previously fitted lamps, but no power in the wires so Dave and I started our investigations and quickly identified that without power to the military fuse box none of the yellow (military) wires worked

Once we did it we were able to take a close look at the switches and identify what switch worked which wires

Soon they were labelled up and ready to go

Then whilst I drilled and ran a proper cable to that fuse box, Dave made a start sorting out the mess behind the passenger seat put in as a prior project and removes about half of the rats nest in the following picture 

And all of this mess

One downside - it seems the large Solar Panel is not working which needs to be investigated as the leisure battery will run down as it's not connected to the main battery any more 

So we decided to end the day on a high and Dave kindly wired up one of the spots and one of the fogs whilst I drilled some holes and prepared cables with spiral wrap and he connected them up and we were able to finish with 2 working new lights 

A really successful day and I could not have done it without his expertise 

BTW the power to the Military box has one very non subtle addition... Nee Naww,, Nee Naw.. strictly for use at shows only of course

Thanks Dave !