SWLRC to the rescue

 What happens when you are at a Land Rover show and you have a conversation with someone about a problem that has occurred with your vehicle on the drive to the show 

Well the first thing is that you redirect the person to the best mechanic that you have on hand in this case Mr Rout SWLRC mechanical supremo. 

After a quick diagnosis it was determined that there was too much play in the hub bearing and that could be resolved with a fairly standard toolkit (which there were many available given that we all carry one) 

First off with the wheel and make a start on the hub 

Who needs power tools when you have hands as fast as our Tom 

His hands do stop occasionally 

Then with the vehicle owner getting a bit of an impromptu lesson and an opportunity to get his hands in to the grease you tighten things up and put it all back together again 

 

A quick test drive proved that the work has been carried out to Tom's high standards and they were ready for off

Campervan Rescue II

 Back in 2018 we helped an unfortunate campervan owner who had tried to make room on a narrow road and found themselves bogged down in a soft verge https://landroverkaty.blogspot.com/search/label/Northumberland 

Well someone proves at the 2025 Great British Land Rover show at the Bath and West showground that it's not always soft ground that gives you an issue. it can be complete absence of ground which is just has bad. 

So having reversed your shiny campervan over a concrete edge what do you do ? 

Well this being a Land Rover show the first thing is to securely attach it to a Land Rover so it can't go any further

Then you get a team with a high lift jack and set of suitable props to lift the wheels up to a point where they can move forwards instead of just hitting the concrete (in this case a couple of spare wheel hubs and some camper levelling wedges) 

And then you get the vehicles to pull whilst the team does some pushing 

Luckily no significant damage had been done and the vehicle was able to be safely driven away 

Great British Land Rover Show 2024

The Great British Land Rover Show 2024 provided an excellent opportunity for a trip over to Cheddar to visit my uncle where I was invited to stay over for the night. Unfortunately his drive is on a bit of a slope so not the best place for sleeping

Luckily he also has a very comfortable spare room and I was able to stay there instead

The next morning Katy and I took a drive up a very quiet Cheddar Gorge which looks a lot better on a sunny day than it did for us.

Onward to the show and the sun did come out for a very pleasant weekend camping with the team. This was us setting up on the Friday

And by the Saturday the sun was fully out so it was time for a few beers and a wander around to look at everyone else's vehicles whilst our stand and vehicles basked in the sunshine

 

Defender Day at Eastnor

Well what a wonderful day with Liz and Huw Gulliver and Rhian Kendall where https://www.facebook.com/landroverexperienceeastnor kindly let me drive this £££ car over some very muddy and steep terrane Many thanks to Bron Harty and Stratstone Land Rover for the prize at the Welsh Festival of Land Rovers 2023 and gift that let us have such a nice day out. 

No vehicles were harmed in our adventures and my old 127 Ambulance got quite some interest in the car park

It's a totally different way of driving compared to the old Defenders, but the instructors were complimentary that we all knew how to drive off road

What they let us play with were these Hybrid vehicles. The electric parts does make an automatic a lot nicer to drive 

There was mud and wildlife

We were Off-Road honestly 

Waiting for the less capable model. We then took a steeper track 

Enjoying the view 

Getting back to the mud

Mid you we still had the best car in the car park :) 

But the new ones do look impressive when posing don't they :)

 

Children in Need 2023 Road Run

We took part in the 2023 Children in Need Road Run which rurned out to be quite an adventure on some flooded roads 

The start was at Stratstone jaguar Land Rover in Cardiff where Bronwyn had kindly laid on coffee and breackfast items and we had a lot of fun parking our older vehicles alongside some of the latest (sorry abot the oil on your nice clean tarmac) 

There was a prize for the best dressed vehicle and this was a clear winner along with Tom and Sandra 

At the alotted time we lined up ready for off, but of course it took a few more minutes to get going so sime for a few more pictures 

Then it was off to the Cardiff Rugby ground for a quick stop (made all the quicker because we had lost time in setting off and in the traffic) and then to the Tesco car park where there were already some running repairs needed on Fluffy

After that we headed out into the country for some real fun with a whole load of unplanned water features on a load of lanes that had become flooded 

I was licky that Brobwyn was following in the brand new Defender 130 and she managed to get some excellent pictures from the in car systems that show us having such fun 

This shows us plodding along at a suitably slow speed because you don't know what you will fund in the water even if it is a tarmacced lane 

And a bit later when it got a bit deeper. You can see that we are going even slower in this deeper water

And finally what the fantastic in car video systems were showing in the 130. from talking to her later on she was able to clearly see a tree stump or rock on the verge that  she needed to avoid whis was hardly visible in the near dark by that point 

I have to say that I'm very impressed with the new Defender. 

I hope thay sell well and one day I'll be able to afford one to go on my drive (second or third hand) 

Vintage Sports Club Hill Climb

 Land Rovers don't feature in this post even though we were camping with SWLRC

We went up with a bunch of our friends to Ralphs Cider Farm to see the Vintage Sports Car Club Hill Climb. 

These wonderful cars are bring ragged up a muddy field and tracks with the sole aim of having a lot of fun (OK and maybe possibly winning the event) The cars have to be between 1 January 1919 and 31 December 1930 and fully road legal as they have to get from site to site

Rolling backwards is a failure and marks the highest point you made. Many have been modified to help grip on the driving wheels, but also (and you can see this in the last car which doesn't make it passengers can bounce to add grip  

Here's a bit of video I took 

I'm no expert if you want to find out more abot the VSCC take a look ar their website https://www.vscc.co.uk/  

Llangynidr Show

It may have been be just a local agricultural show, but it's one that we (SWLRC) have joined for a few years and we were able to join the fun this year 

We had great fun with our vehicles. first of all geting one of them (fluffy) started in order to get to the event 

Up over the hill we stopped for a quick photoshoot (sorry about the caravan :) )

And it wasn't long before we were set up having a cuppa 

Just as it got dark we had a plea for help from the food vendor who's van was not up to pulling his trailer onto the site so the Series III was called in to move it with a whole bunch of the SWLRC in the back for ballast to aid grip 

And that wasn't the last call for help - as we left the burger van wasn't able to pull his trailer again so the stricken vehicle the previous day was called in to help and did it most sucessfully 

Welsh Festival of Land Rovers 2023

 We're going.. maybe see you there 

WFoLR in The Landy

Once again we (SWLRC) were proud to host a fine collection of vehicles at the WFoLR and we've got a good writeup in The Landy (see https://issuu.com/thelandy/docs/landy_december_2022_small for the full issue 

Katy was of course on the SWLRC stand and once again I was honoured to be the compere for the display of vehicles 

 

Welsh festival of Land Rovers 2022

 After a lot if disappointment in 2020 and in 2021 as well it was absolutely fantastic to meet up with good friends again at the Welsh Festival of Land Rovers at the Royal Welsh showground at Llanewedd / Builth Wells 

As usual we were on display on the SWLRC stand with a very fetching mini Land Rover painted in a very close colour (OK it was camel trophy colour not NATO colours)

For once we were not the only 127 on show because there was this excellent camper conversion (nearly finished) which Ian & Elke had done using a more modern chassis and engine and a Marshalls 127 body that he purchased to go on it. The quality of work was impressive!

As usual the highlight for us on both days was the parade which was led by Huw Williams in his toylander watched on by his mom and dad (and Gary) 

Given this was Queen Elizabeth IIs Platinum jubilee we decided to have a patriotic theme and we had our very own "queen of fundraising" Paulene chauffeured around by our friends from the Family Land Rover Club

But the highlight of the show had to be "Fluffy" the 101/110 and other bits hybrid who turned up on the Saturday night after a family close disaster on the way here on the Friday. Well done Zeb! 

The weather was good, the vehicles superb, the atmosphere was excellent and another fantastic weekend was had by all 

Welsh Festival of Land Rovers 2020

EVENT CANCELLED BECAUSE OF COVID-19

As part of the South Wales Land Rover Club we are pleased to be supporting the 2020 Welsh Festival of Land Rovers

From what we already know there will be some superb vehicles on show, at least 3 ambulances, a Land Rover Hearse (presumably in case the ambulances are not successful) and a really wonderful set of Series and Later Vehicles.

There are only 70 places available for display vehicles so click the pictures or this link to go direct to http://welshfestivaloflandrovers.com/ if you want to register to be on the display

Welsh festival of Land Rovers 2019

The South Wales Land Rover Club were once again the hosts at the Welsh Festival of Land Rovers and we had a fine selection of vehicles on show and a good crowd coming to look at them as you can see

We were there as usual - all setup for camping and a good nights sleep

There were plenty of kindred spirits as you can tell

We had an excellent parade of vehicles on both days, but I only have pictures from the Saturday because I was commentating as you can see (i'm the one in the low-vis jacket) and on Sunday Rhian was driving Katy around the ring. 

Nigel's lovely Series 1 

John's equally nice Series 1 107

An incredibly capable vehicle from North West Flex

From the incredible Jones family a selection including this which looks so much like the toy Defenders

Phil's lovely Series 2A

And Bryn in the wonderful fire tender with Sam Tan waving out of the window

As always an event like this is a nice opportunity for taking pictures like the suspension work on these - Defender on the right and Disco on the left.

Talk about flex...

Clive's wonderful wolf. rebuilt after its "explosive" time in Afghanistan

and to top it all our own transformer.. none other than Difflock, Defender of the Universe

Who was helping us raffle off this toy Defender