Stopping Would Be Nice

I recently noted a new undesirable feature of the brakes. 

It took two presses of the pedal to come to a stop. Some advice suggested this would be one of two things, master cylinder or brake adjuster. 

The last time the brakes were adjusted for the MOT Steve had commented they did not feel quite right so that was the obvious place to start

It's an easy job to remove the hub cover 

And you can see the corroded adjusters in the wheel - everything felt a bit unmoving or smoothed off so it had to be cut-off

Then we hit the problem the kit provided did not seem to fit as the bolts in the front hit the brake pads. There seemed to be no sensible combination of the washers that could be made to made to fit with the adjuster so we made up a new next of washers that got the cam in the right place

But even then the bolt on the front still hit the pads so it was decided to resort to an angle grinder to get the final setting

Since fitting them I have found this useful instruction leaflet which does indeed say that you need to file down the bolt on the front of the kit so we were not too far off

MOT 2014

She passed !

Not even any advises !

Despite the brakes being B****** Awful

I think the rear adjuster is the problem - you have to press twice then the braking is good, but I don't like any vehicle where there brakes are not 100%

So she's not going anywhere more until this is sorted!

2013 Summary

2013 was at last a year of adventures.

That's not to say that there was no maintenance, or that there isn't more to do, in fact more was planned by now and I have the parts at home, but some work things came up which means I've had to postpone the installations until 2014

So what have we done

In January I was finally able to confirm that Katy had been an active ambulance on active duty in relation to Op Hanwood when we discovered a picture in a book of her parked in Bosnia

In February she let us down on our first trip for the year which was up to the Yorkshire Dales, but I'm glad to say that was the last time she let us down in 2013 (well almost)

By March it was time for another MOT and this year as well as the track rod ends that were advised last year it was the brakes that failed and needes some work, but Steve soon sorted it for me and I have to say the braking has been much better since, so it clearly needed doing

By this time I had committed us to going to the Alps so we needed to get some miles in to increase our confidence in her running so in April we headed off with the SWLRC and made our way to Pembrokeshire where we had some walks and some Land Rover themed fun. We were really glad of Katy as those in tents did complain about the cold.

Off again in May we went to the South Coast to Beer to see an old friend of ours who lives down there for the summer in her palacial caravan, and we had wonderful fun on the narrow lanes of the Jurassic coast. We also met a kindred soul who absolutely loved Katy, and then we made it to the Pencoed Show, but so did the clouds and rain so we all packed up and came home again. 

By June I was starting to really get into the swing of preparation and I sourced an awning through gumtree which fitted (just about) on the back to give us some much needed extra room and a means of keeping the door open in hot or wet weather, and we hosted a wonderful visitor Noel from the New Zealand Land Rover Enthusiasts who joined the club on our inaugural Cardiff to Langorse Road Run I'm not sure Katy actually wanted to do the trip as she let us down and it was only the purchase of an instant start charger from Halfords that saved the day, we arrived in time for the big set-off and had a wonderful day

July was to be the big month, but I started it badly. I had good intentions, get her serviced early so there was time to shake down any issues and then take her for some runs to make sure the battery was now in good shape. The trouble was on my first run after the service there was a small red car that stopped in traffic and I wasn't quick enough so I rear ended it. Net damage to Katy was just a bent bumper as you can see below

Net damage to the Vauxhall - write off.

I didn't blog this at the time as it was inappropriate, but now things are settled I can say thank goodness all that was truly hurt was my pride and my insurance premiums.

So then it was the Alps trip.

This was to be an important milestone. I wanted to be able to say we had done done over-landing and I wanted to do it without a major breakdown if possible. After some running repairs following the bump, we got enough confidence to set off. Our first aim was Dover. If we made it beyond the ferry and broke down we were at least on foreign soil and would just holiday where we landed.

The run down was faultless and we even made time to be put on an earlier ferry which was superb. Day 2 which was the first of August was probably the hardest days driving I have ever experienced. it was into a strong headwind and we were making about 5 MPH better than the large lorries and passing them was hell as the buffeting was really bad, but with such a long journey we felt we had to keep pushing. The day ended with at the wonderful camp-site at Camping Grappe d’Ore at Meursault

Day 3 and Day 4 were driving again, and we finally arrived in Italy quite exhausted and ready for a rest, but of course that was not to be as the very next morning we were on our way from Salbertrand to Mt Jafferau for our first day's green lane driving in the Alps. 

The experience was almost indescribably wonderful as we set off in trepidation and ended the day in success having achieved everything we had wanted to in terms of proving to ourselves that we could do this type of overland style driving. 

From then on everything was a bonus and we had wonderful fun on the following days, going from Mt Jafferau to Argentiera the next day and then from Argentiera to Gran Bosco via a wonderful high level track on the third day. Every day we faced another challenge and every day we overcame it and our confidence in Katy and ourselves grew. 

The second part of the week was to take us to our highest point, but unfortunately the weather was not to be so nice and we found ourselves dealing with snow fog & rain and being forced to take a lower route as we went from there back down again and over into France to Lac du Monte.

Our Last day was to take us on a wonderful high level route and back again as we wended our way back from France into Italy and to our final night at the Grand Bosco campsite

As we made our way back though the Alps into France and then we made a personal pilgrimage to the Thiepval memorial to see my relatives's commemoration on the memorial. It's an incredible place and if you are ever in the area I would encourage you to visit to understand the scale of the horror that took place.

All in all that trip was a wonderful experience and I've gained an immense amount from it

Since then things have been quieter

By the end of August we were able to join our friends of the South Wales Land Rover Club on the stand at the Eastnor Land Rover Show where we were able to source a new bumper to replace the one I bent in July. It was also an opportunity to see the great granddaddy of all land Rovers HUE 166

In September we went to the Hidden Earth Caving conference and we were spotted by our Friend Pete who did this wonderful drawing for us, and we also went to the Tredegar show in November we used her as a camper van again whilst visiting friends

Since then things have been really quiet which is disappointing. I have done some leak proofing which so far has not been 100% successful so more work is needed.

Inspired by the Alps Trip I have loads of new equipment ready to fit to Katy, but some other things have got in the way of actually doing that fitting. If you are interested in new lighting, rear view cameras, CB and more then please come back again in 2014 when it will all get fitted

In the mean time I've been adding a few things to this website with the Refurb log getting an update, a Technical page to keep the major rebuild items in one place, and last, but not least a History of Land Rover Ambulances which I am starting to research when I get time.

There is still a proposed respray to be done some time when I've got all the mechanical stuff sorted out.

Until then I hope that anyone dropping in to read this stuff is still finding it interesting

In 2014 I'll be 52 and she'll be 26 so that is 1/2 my age.

Happy New Year

Regards

Andy

Gaydon

Last year SWLRC had a day out to the home of Land Rover, Solihull.

This year we decided to go to the Design and Engineering centre at Gaydon which is also the home of the Heritage Motor Museum

I had worried that this day out would not be half as interesting and fun as the Solihill trip, but my fears were unfounded because this was a wonderful day out.

The 1/2 day tour stated with a look at the the (in)famous DC-100 and included a visit to the 3D cave where we saw models at all sorts of angles and it's certainly a lot easier to maintain a car in virtual reality than in real life

After that the competitor tear down area where other cars are taken apart to see how they work and see if there are any innovative new ideas that can give "inspiration"

Then onto the rapid prototyping area where 3D printers are used to generate realistic parts for mocking up cars.

but the highlight of the day had to be the sessions on the proving ground. The first stop was the breaking straights where we took a 2.7 ton Discovery up to about 120 miles per hour and then threw the anchors on in emergency stop mode. I have to say it was impressive how short the stopping distance was. The ABS system did a great job of making us feel like we were stopping safely even if a few of us felt a bit of terror on the way.

Then, after a trip into the old conning tower, we headed off onto the main track and had the  into the Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) allowed us to survive some full throttle cornering safely

And finally into the off road area where we sampled some rough road driving

All whilst looking out at the many prototype Land Rovers 

Unfortunately  we were not permitted to film or photograph any of the above, so all my pictures are from the heritage museum which included HUE166 which we saw at Eastnor

Here we are arriving back with Tim and Chris the nutters drivers who belted us around the tracks at well over a ton, both very knowledgeable about Land Rovers and their development and really nice hosts for the day

The original Tombraider Land Rover (sorry no Lara Croft / Angelina Jolie in sight)

Judge Dredd Taxi (no Sly in sight thank goodness)

Post Skyfall remains

And finally presentation of our club plaque to John Bishop – Heritage Motor Centre Clubs & Groups Co-ordinator and from our brief chat a real Land Rover fan. He said that many more events were planned for the museum and we really do look forward to going back

In addition to the stuff above the Heritage museum had the first and last Mini's and the last one was exactly the same trip as Rhian's (with the exception her's has the webasto Roof) which was fun.

This being a Land Rover Blog I Can't really go around just including pictures of random Mini's so here's Rhian's with a large bit of Katy in the foreground

It's well worth a visit if you are in the area and from the look of the planned expansion to display another 250 cars it's will be even better next year

Inspiration in the Rain

I tried working outside this morning, but it was awful. There's a storm forecast in the UK. It's said to be one of the works in about 30 years, but who believes's the Met office

So I'm spending some time looking things up on the internet and I thought that some of the people who drop in here may find some of the sites I look at from time to time useful as an inspiration

These are people in the 127 group who have made some wonderful trips and updates to their vehicles

John and Jean's wonderful Locomotors 127 http://southlow.co.uk/landrover.html has one of the nicest looking interiors I have seen

John and Edith Diggles adventures in "Liberator" http://www.balticandbeyond.org.uk/ give me something to look forward to doing when I get close to retirement and have more time

Joe and Jeanette seem to have loads of wonderful adventures in their well put together "Soletraveller" http://soletraveller.com/en/ 

Ash and Gill in their well traveled Florence (and Joe) http://www.loonytoone.co.uk/florence.html

Have fun reading :-)

p.s. I've bought loads of new toys to fit to Katy so when I get some decent weather there is lots to say

Lights, Camera, Action

By the end of our Alps Trip we had identified a number of upgrades that were needed

1. A CB had been useful and fun travelling in convoy
2. We'd had headlights problems and spots/fogs would be useful extra's
3. We wanted more charging points in the front and back and had learned about differences in USB performance
4. The fridge fitting had caused some problems with lights and battery discharge, and we were not happy with it's performance

All of this means a good sort out of the electrics so I made an arrangement to get an Auto Electrician to give me some advice and I've now been on a shopping spree and I've now got a whole bunch of new parts in the front room ready to fit.
 

I would put some pictures of all of that, but we went away for the weekend and we were "spotted" by an artist friend of ours so I thought I would give you his quick rendition of us parked up and enjoying ourselves instead

I think his scribbly style of his field sketches fits the dilapidated state of Katy's paintwork very well

THANKS PETE !

Lastly the South Wales Land Rover club was featured in Land Rover Owner this month. We even got a mention which is not entirely surprising as I wrote the article

Eastnor 2013

We were full of ideas of things we wanted to do following the Alps trip so we headed to Eastnor with anticipation of finding loads of toys to buy and some parts to resolve some of the things that have been needing sorting out for some time (and one bent bumper which is a more recent addition)

We found a new bumper, but not the other items we were looking for. I did find this very important part that is factory fitted to all new Land Rovers so it was good to see a large pile of them available for those who need a replacement

Katy as usual took her place on the club stand and attracted a lot of attention from people and we had a lot of visitors wanting to look over her insides and her undergarments (suspension) as there are quite a number of people out there who are either working on or thinking about a similar venture

One thing we were really happy to see was Katy's Great Great Grandpa Huey. HUE 166 is the first series 1 Land Rover and held in great reverence by all enthusiasts and this is probably the most sought after seating position in all Land Rover circles. Sadly it was out of bounds, but nice to take a look at it anyway.

 Here's HUE166 in it's full glory

And here it is in the open air as it should be seen
 

Our club did a line up in the centre ring, including us 

and one of our members won a prize for his efforts in the twist off competition and for his enthusiasm for Land Rovers which shone through... Well Done Ryan

Back at home today I've stripped and painted the new bumper and the bull bars ready for refitting when the paint has dried