Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2023 i Land Rover Monthly

@busheditor A few weeks ago, I completed what was without a doubt the toughest task during my time at LRM. My letter of resignation. Normally when I take on something I give it a right old go and I know I have done just that in my nearly ten years at LRM. The magazine industry and the way we consume media has changed so, so much in my time here. TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram were not around when LRM published its first issue nearly 25 years ago. Today they are considered our competition even though Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have probably never even heard of LRM. Despite that, I know that there is still a real need for top-notch printed Land Rover content. The reason for my…

OUR thoughts exactly. Looks just like a Defender, doesn’t it? Well it’s not. It’s called the Munro and apparently it is ‘the world’s most capable all-electric 4x4’. Sadly the global launch event is after we go to press, so at the time of writing we can only confirm a few details. It is designed and built in Britain, and it will be the first vehicle to enter volume production in Scotland in more than four decades. It is powered by a ‘state-of-the-art electric powertrain’ and ‘best-in-class’ mechanical 4x4 driveline, enabling it to enjoy exceptional off-road ability. It’s said to be an opportunity for the mining, construction, agriculture, forestry and mountain rescue sectors to decarbonise. There’s no word on range, just a vague assertion that it can operate for up to…

Award-winning journalist Gary Pusey is co-author of Range Rover The First Fifty, trustee of The Dunsfold Collection and a lifelong Land Rover enthusiast. I’VE just spent a couple of days reading the new report from Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland where Santa lives that is also the office of the Geological Survey of Finland, or the Geologian tutkimuskeskus as the Finns call it. We’ll settle for GTK. Exactly three years ago, in LRM’s January 2020 issue, I wrote in this column about a letter that was delivered to the UK’s Committee on Climate Change. It was signed by the country’s leading geologists, geoscientists and mineralogists and contained some startling claims that ought to have made our politicians think twice about their simplistic plans for the future of the internal combustion…

SOMETHING I see quite often on Series and Defender vehicles is windscreen wipers which will not ‘self-park’, in other words when switched off they tend to stop in the middle of the screen rather than at the bottom. The cause is almost always the same and very easy to repair. On the side of the wiper motor gear housing is a plastic switch with three wires connected to it (normally red, yellow and blue). This is the park switch. It consists of a plunger which bears on a cam on the back of the wiper gear wheel. When the wipers are switched off the park switch continues to power the motor until it reaches the end of the raised section on the cam (designed to coincide with the wipers reaching…

CHASSIS number SALLDWLP7GA490318 was assembled at Solihull on 29 January 2016 in the full glare of the world’s media. Its proud new owner, Roger Crathorne, had hoped to watch it every step of the way, but he found himself in great demand for press and TV interviews. Only ten more Defenders followed it down the line before production of the utility Land Rover ended forever. But Roger had managed at last to secure a Land Rover that he had spent over 30 years trying to persuade the company to build. What’s so special about it, I hear you ask? After all, there are plenty of soft top Defenders out there, but the vast majority of them are either ex-military or aftermarket conversions. The last UK civilian market soft top Land…

THERE’S nothing more enjoyable than spending time in the Malvern Hills, setting up at the Three Counties Showground for an LRM Spares Day. And as it was our last event for 2022, we wanted to ensure it was one to remember. How did we do that? We made it bigger and better by adding an additional hall. We then set about ensuring all the halls were crammed full of stalls. We’re glad we made the extra space because the trade arrived in their droves, completely filling both the Wye and additional Avon Hall. There were outside traders in abundance, too, there was plenty to look around the whole showground complex. There were more trade stands in attendance than ever before, making this a record for the October Malvern event. We…

Letters through your door… EARLIER this year you may recall my saga with the DVLA, where they technically wrote off my Series I – except the car hadn’t been anywhere to be written off. I’ll never know for certain, but it most likely occurred because of an administration error at Swansea, or at one of their authorised breakers when scrapping a car and typing a reference number incorrectly. Either way, it became a headache that took me over three months to sort, eventually with the help of some industry intervention. If you didn’t catch it, it is worth getting the 2022 issues of LRM to appreciate the scale of the task. Amongst the people I wrote to was my local Member of Parliament, who you may recall swiftly wrote back.…

• Wear protective gloves when working with sharp edges, grinding, cutting and using an angle grinder. • Hold the angle grinder with two hands to control torque twist and kickback. • Wear eye protection when grinding, cutting, wire brushing, sanding, releasing springs and clips, when opening fluid lines and working on overhead parts. • Wear a particle filter when removing rust and cleaning brake parts. • Wear steel toecap work shoes to protect against falling objects and ensure better grip on slippery floors. • When welding, wear specialist welding gloves, clothing and mask, and ensure appropriate firefighting equipment is available close-by. • Never work on a cooling system, nor remove the filler cap, until the engine and coolant are fully cooled. Always remove the filler cap slowly in case of…

THE plan was to buy the cheapest Freelander 1 that I could find, and turn it into a reliable long-distance vehicle, all for a total outlay of £1000 maximum. The project got off to a good start by buying a car for just £300. But cars at that price come with a few issues, some of which could be terminal including, in this case, the engine cooling system. That initial purchase price leaves me with £700 to splash out on parts, with all the work being done on a DIY basis. Last month we introduced the Freelander with an appraisal of its condition and what might be needed. Right away, there were fuel leaks to sort on the injector spill pipes, a thorough cleansing inside and out, and concerns that…

Sat 10 – Sun 11 Dec WILD WALES SAFARI WEEKEND Aberdovey, Wales protraxoverlandadventures.co.uk CHRISTMAS CUP RTV TRIAL Cowbeech, Hailsham, East Sussex sroc.co.uk Sun 11 Dec QUARRY DRIVING DAY Tixover Quarry, Lincolnshire protraxoverlandadventures.co.uk RTV & TYRO TRIAL Briercliffe, Burnley, Lancashire landroverclub.co.uk PAY & PLAY DAY Aldermaston, Berkshire 4x4-withoutaclub.co.uk PEN9 RTV/CCV TRIAL Rothwell, Leeds penninelandrover.co.uk AUTOJUMBLE Newark, Nottinghamshire newarkautojumble.co.uk AWDC 5 GATE TRIAL TBC, awdc.co.uk 4X4 OWNERS DAY Slindon, West Sussex 4x4driving.co.uk Sat 17 – Sun 18 Dec WILTSHIRE WEEKEND Devizes, Wiltshire protraxoverlandadventures.co.uk Sun 18 Dec WHO DATES WINS TRIAL Aberbeeg, Wales wwlrc.co.uk RTV & TYRO TRIAL Aldeby, Norfolk brecklandlrc.com ORIENTEERING PUNCH HUNT TBC northlakes4x4@gmail.com Sat 24 Dec XMAS EVE LAND ROVER TOUR Stokesley, North Yorkshire uklandroverevents.com Mon 26 Dec ALBERT MEMORIAL EVENT PAY & PLAY DAY Harbour Hill, Aldermaston, Berkshire 4x4-withoutaclub.co.uk…

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HIDDEN within the corporate section of Jaguar Land Rover’s media site was a press release simply titled ‘Executive Board Announcement’. The staff member was none other Chief Executive Officer Thierry Bolloré, who on 16 November announced his resignation from the company for ‘personal reasons’, leaving on 31 December 2022. In a statement Bolloré said: “I am immensely proud of what we have achieved together at Jaguar Land Rover over the last two years. The company’s transformation and acceleration towards a sustainable, profitable future as a modern luxury business is underway at great pace. I would like to thank the whole team for their dedication and passion and I wish the entire organisation the very best for the future.” Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons, Tata Motors and Jaguar Land Rover…

THE idea for Ruskin Design’s self-install range of front seats, cubby boxes and rear seats/benches was born out of Defender dealers and owners who wanted to upgrade their existing seats to something of considerably greater quality, but were unable to bring in their vehicle for fitting, or just wanted the satisfaction of fitting new trim themselves. Customers will initially be able to choose from four pre-designed options: The Classic, which is simple and traditional; Brunel, inspired by Isambard Kingdom himself and his iconic bridges and features Ruskin’s signature quilting; the Boudicca, embroidered, perforated and embossed with ancient Iceni designs; and the Attenborough, created with sustainably sourced materials to reinforce Ruskin’s commitment to the environment. There are a further three exclusive designs already in the pipeline, which will be available later…

Along, long time ago I bought a smart-looking old Series III short wheelbase hard top from a veterinary surgeon in Hertfordshire. It was cheap for a reason: the engine (a 2.25 petrol) rattled horribly on startup, and once warmed up there was a distinct knocking sound from deep inside the crankcase, from which I deduced that the big end bearings were no longer as smooth and round as they should have been. At that time old Series petrol engines were worth little more than their weight as scrap, and I could easily have just dropped in a slightly better engine and sold the vehicle on. But first series Discoverys were starting to find their way into scrapyards in large numbers, which meant that 200Tdi engines (previously sought-after and very expensive)…

YOUR 2015 Defender 110 was recently stolen – every owner’s worst nightmare. Tell us more about it I was in Brazil filming a survival show at the time. I started getting messages from mates about a Defender that had been stripped and was on bricks not far from where I live. When I saw the photos I knew it was mine. It had been taken from our back garden and parked in a little side road about half a mile away. They then nicked the wheels, doors, seats and even smashed the windscreen just to get the headlining out. I remember thinking at the time that I will find out who did it and take them out. Incredibly, they left a lot of Gucci bits like the winch and steering…

ALMOST every Land Rover enthusiast I’ve interviewed over the years has had a story to tell about learning to drive as a teenager in a Land Rover owned by mum, dad, a relative or a family friend. Tim Dines has jumped to the top of the leaderboard, though, because he first took the wheel of his uncle Barry’s Land Rover aged five, although he confesses that he wasn’t doing much more than steering it through the woods, given that his feet couldn’t reach the floor, let alone the pedals. “My lifelong love of Land Rovers began in 1963,” Tim tells me. “We lived in Kent and in the ferocious winter of 1963 we were snowed in for a couple of weeks, and the first vehicle to get through to us…

NOW in its seventh year, the Patina National, hosted by the Yorkshire Land Rover Owners Club at Helmsley, has become the must-do event for many owners of age-worn, leaf-sprung Series Is. However, this year the trend towards more shiny older Series IIs and IIIs was more apparent. The site, which has been used by various clubs for around 40 years, gives the opportunity to set out some great trials sections as the natural lay of the land allows for really challenging axle-twisters. And one thing’s for sure, the sections showed up the difference in suspension set-ups. A couple of Series models fitted with ‘modern’ parabolic leaf springs, for example, found that their set-up didn’t offer as much articulation as they thought. All they could do was stand and watch as…

EARLIER this month, I finally had a call to say my 1982 four-door Range Rover was ready to collect. You might remember that I’ve called him Mr Brownie, in honour of his Russet Brown paintwork. I’ve not had Mr Brownie for nearly two years. When I moved from Yorkshire to Devon, I left him behind with a good friend of mine to rebuild his engine. Back in 2020 when I was still using Mr Brownie, he had developed a rather nasty metallic noise in his V8, which sounded terminal. On top of this he was burning oil like there was no tomorrow. So it became apparent there was only really one thing left to do: remove the engine and have it stripped down. I set about removing it in January…

UP to this point in the project, the 110 Td5 has been a non-runner, ever since the original truck limped into the workshop and the tired old engine was shut down for the final time. Now, with the donor Discovery’s engine and transmission in place and the dash built up with the wiring largely completed, we’re getting close to the point where the engine can be started for the first time. Soon after this, the Land Rover will be able to move under its own power, rather than being pushed about on wheel skates. Getting the engine running is always an exciting breakthrough moment for me, and a significant steps towards getting the project finished to the point of being a fully functioning, working Defender. But first, there are systems…

EARLY SERIES I 80in, 1948 to 1953 RATINGS: PRICE GUIDE Poor: £3500 – £6000 Average: £6000 – £7500 Good: £7500 – £18,000 Excellent: £18,000 – £50,000+ SPECIFICATIONS 1948-1951: 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol, 55bhp, 83lb-ft torque. Four-speed manual, two-speed transfer box with permanent four-wheel drive (to 1950), later selectable. 1951-1953: 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, 52bhp, 101lb-ft. EXPERT OPINION: THIS is the ultimate classic Land Rover – 73-years old and more desirable than ever. The early 80in models fetch the highest prices. The earlier and more original, the better. Pre-production and historic examples are the most sought-after, and 1948-50 models the most expensive. Even barn-find derelicts are in demand for restoration projects. The Holy Grail of all Land Rovers is the missing Centre Steer prototype from 1947 – if it still exists. BUYER’S…

SAVE UP TO £20.29 WITH OUR PRINT SUBSCRIPTION OFFER PRINT OFFER Subscribe for yourself or a friend and enjoy Britain’s fastest growing Land Rover magazine every four weeks! Plus, enjoy all these great benefits: Free delivery direct to your door Get your copy before it goes on-sale in the shops Protection against cover price increases Risk free – cancel at any time And much more! Choose the deal that suits you best – £11.99 by quarterly direct debit 6 issues for £25 or one year (13 issues) for £49.99 Don’t miss out – subscribe now! Visit bit.ly/lrmjan23 Call 01778 392033 quoting LRM/JAN23 Offer is open to UK residents and closes on 31 December 2022 PREFER DIGITAL? Check out our Budget Digital Subscription – it’s just £2.99 a month – that’s…

WHEN is a restoration not a restoration? I had a Defender 200Tdi, supposedly restored about five years ago, in for its annual MoT and service recently. I first saw this vehicle a couple of years ago, and last year I drew the owner’s attention to the bubbles which were starting to appear in the paint on the front face of the bulkhead adjacent to the upper door hinges on both sides. Bubbling paint generally indicates rust working its way through from underneath, and the only way to find out what is going on is to clean the area back to bare metal. This time round the owner asked me to do just that. I gave one of the bubbles a prod with a screwdriver and a hole appeared in the…

IT’S 2016 and we’re breaking in our new-to-us Discovery 2 and escaping to the desert once again. Our set-up is simple yet effective for the task at hand: a two-person ground tent, an inexpensive cooler from Walmart, a secondhand two-burner propane grill and a couple of sleeping bags and mats. Our only goal is to get away and enjoy the outdoors. The word ‘overlanding’ isn’t even in our vocabulary yet. Fast-forward seven years, and we’re now travelling the world in a fully converted Defender 110 camper, complete with Alu-Cab roof conversion, running water, induction cooking, solar, a diesel heater and a fridge – the works. This wasn’t an overnight transformation. We’ve tried and tested countless set-ups – from a ground tent exploring the West Coast of the US, to a…

“THAT has never run so well,” I’ve said no end of times in recent months, of my Series I. Pride comes before a fall, I know, so should know better than to assume all stays well. There is always more to learn with a Land Rover – or there is for me. When I was finally allowed to legally use my Land Rover this year, I did so, and from April the Range Rover as well. The Series has had the most use – it’s just such an engaging thing to drive and a 20 minute pedal around local lanes scratches the Land Rover itch like nothing else. The Range Rover has been used sparingly, partly because of the cost of fuel, yet both cars have been doing everyday stuff…

lrmtechnical@gmail.com EXPECT the usual extremes of freezing and flooding, combined with low light levels on the roads during the next few months. The plan is stay on the tarmac and avoid other traffic. If we’re attentive at the wheel, have good visibility out of the windscreen and windows, and we have a good lighting system to help others see us, then we stand a decent chance. On older trucks it’s worth fitting a set of daytime running lights to increase visibility, or at least driving with sidelights on. Staying on the road, or on the correct section of it, depends much on tyre grip. It’s a no-brainer to check tread depth (in addition to wipers, lamp bulbs and lenses), but the best of tyres won’t grip a wet or icy…

WE’RE almost there with the transplant now, with the most difficult and critical work behind us. The engine is finally out of the build room, and we’re ready to install it in the Defender. And we can be confident because, in doing the work to this point, we’ve confirmed all the vital elements as being set correctly, such as timing and correct torquing of all the fixings around the motor as we went. From here, the work is simpler, but not without challenges, so it is important we still maintain our methodical, accurate working habit. We must not rush, though the temptation is never greater than at times like these when the finish is in sight. The hardest job now is getting the engine into the car and sitting on…