Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2023 i Land Rover Monthly

(@LAND_ROVER_MARTIN) I know everyone says it, but this year’s flying by, isn’t it? Things obviously work a bit differently in magazine land (there are 13 issues of Land Rover Monthly a year, not 12) but can you believe this is the December issue already? Crazy. It got me pondering what I could do to make my pair of Land Rovers a bit better for daily use as the colder weather sets in and the daylight hours become few and far between. There’s loads of options and upgrades out there, ranging from those that cost just a few pounds to far more expensive pieces of kit. No matter your budget, be sure to keep an eye on the New Products pages (p16) every month – even if you’re not looking for…

THE Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) expansion project has now been launched, encompassing all London boroughs and almost everywhere within the M25. The five outer London boroughs which spent a ton of money taking Transport for London to court to challenge their inclusion in the controversial scheme lost their case, and the government dropped its plans to counter the legality of the devolved scheme after lawyers advised that it wouldn’t stand up in court. Apparently even the government could not overturn the motorist-persecuting, revenue-generating scheme instituted by a debt-riddled local government transport body and a city mayor – Sadiq Khan – who scraped his way back into power at the last London elections. Ongoing street protests by disgruntled citizens (including many who don’t even own vehicles) have been roundly ignored and…

BUYING used parts on the internet can be an excellent way to exchange piles of nice crisp £20 notes for lumps of scrap metal about which the vendor has lied through their teeth. Over the years I have been caught out a few times. A ‘good running’ 200Tdi engine turned out to have eaten its turbo bearings, causing it to run away on its own oil and destroy every moving component in the engine. A ‘500 miles from new’ set of tyres for which I travelled halfway across the country had cracks between the tread blocks big enough to lose a small dog in. I came home empty-handed from that trip. I have become very wary of internet bargains and nowadays I only buy something mechanical if it is cheap…

AT LRM, we love a Land Rover project. I’d wager that if asked, we all have an idea we’d love to execute. It might be that simple fix we keep meaning to get around to, the ideal camper conversion we have planned, or the dream of one day putting an old Series back on the roads. Working on a Land Rover is, for many, a huge part of the attraction of owning one. We’re celebrating those who undertake projects, because we appreciate not just the work that goes into a one, but understand the immense reward at the end. Those cut knuckles, oily fingernails and time spent looking for the 10mm socket are all forgotten when we get to savour the end result. One of the most satisfying parts of…

THESE won’t prevent a Land Rover from being stolen, but will give you a good chance of getting it back if it is. We’ve got a fitting guide opposite, but there are other items you can use to help find your Land Rover. Often thieves will park stolen vehicles out of the way for a day or so to see if they are found – if they are, they probably had a tracking device fitted and would have led the police straight to the thieves. You’re most likely to get it back within that window. BLUETOOTH TRACKING TAGS PRICE: From £20 LOADS of people use tracking tags to keep tabs on where their items are – apparently, they’re perfect for knowing where your luggage is when flying. But they can…

WHERE TO PARK PRICE: Free LEAVING your Land Rover in a busy, well-lit place is probably best if you’re going somewhere unfamiliar – it means people are likely to see something happening to it. Avoid poorly-lit areas where people can hide and work in the shadows. Someone is likely to see a person interfering with a vehicle. People often leave it to someone else to intervene. Might cost more to park. FACTORY STEERING LOCK PRICE: Free STEERING locks have been fitted to most Land Rovers since the 1970s – so use yours. Yes, it won’t withstand heavy abuse, but it may buy some more time in preventing your Land Rover going AWOL. It’s free. You may have to turn the steering with the engine switched off to work out where…

APPLICATIONS are now open for the 2024 Defender Rally Championship, which uses Bowler Motorsport-prepared Defender 90s and brings together experienced and novice race drivers for a series of cross-country rallying tests. With seven varied rounds across the UK that start from March 2024, the third running of the one-make championship offers competitors the opportunity to test and develop their skills on a mixture of surfaces, ranging from gravel tracks to hill rallies. Participants also have the option to join specific international events throughout the year. The Bowler Motorsport Defender is based on the production Defender 90 and uses the same powertrain as showroom models – 296bhp and 295lb-ft of torque – but with chassis, brakes and other components suitably modified by Bowler for off-road competition. Drivers can secure a vehicle…

TO celebrate 75 years of the Series I, Newark Vintage Tractor and Heritage Show will be recognising this historic moment with several iconic vehicles. Mike Fincher, who has owned and restored Land Rovers since 1986, will be bringing a 1955 Series I, which started life with the Ministry of Supply. Typically, MoS vehicles were drafted into the auxiliary fire service and the civil defence organisation, although Mike is unsure of how his was used. “The earliest record of ownership I have found is in the Borough of Lewisham, which it has painted on the vehicle door tops along with the Lewisham crest,” he reveals. Most of the mechanical components were in a dire condition and needed rebuilding or replacing, but Mike has managed to retain the original chassis and bodywork.…

SERIES I MODEL KIT PRICE: £14.99 CONTACT: uk.airfix.com This 1:43 scale Airfix kit is the ideal introduction to modelling for Land Rover fans young and old. The entry-level, 39-piece set comes with everything needed to complete the detailed long-wheelbase Series I pick-up, including poly cement, four different paints and a brush. SPARE WHEEL LOCK PRICE: £146 CONTACT: 4x4overlander.com Prevent your Defender L663’s alloy spare wheel from going walkabout with this new lock from 4x4 Overlander. It’s made in the UK and fitted with a tough, premium lock, giving discreet security to your spare. PHONE MOUNT PRICE: £55 CONTACT: 4x4overlander.com This nifty phone mount attaches to the click and go sockets in the back of the front seats of the new Defender, and lets back seat passengers watch video on the…

IT feels like every month the trayback gets a mention. This month is no exception. The latest news is that it now boasts a high-ratio transfer ’box by Ashcroft. These really are rare as hens’ teeth in this part of the world so getting my grubby hands on one was a real strike of luck. Someone had an incomplete project for sale and I noticed, amongst the cache of parts, it had the transfer ’box. With some negotiation I convinced the seller to let it go separately. What does the high-ratio transfer ’box do? It increases the high-range gear ratios by 32 per cent whilst not interfering with the low-range ratios. This update has transformed the driving experience. No longer is it screaming out for an extra gear on motorways…

AT the moment I have a very original mid-1990s Defender in the workshop for various major works, including a new front bumper. The number plate was stuck to the old bumper using double-sided thick self-adhesive pads. Personally, I prefer screws for plastic plates, or rivets for metal ones: in my experience the sticky mounting pads do not always adhere well to 30- or 40-year old paintwork. On this Defender the pads had done their job well, possibly too well, because the number plate was an original main dealer plate from Farnells of Bradford, and almost certainly the one which had been fitted to the vehicle when new. It had become fragile with age, and no matter how much care I took it proved impossible to separate the plate from the…

THERE is no hard-and-fast rule about what security devices will defeat a thief. Some may struggle to remove hardware, others may find electronics tricky, but one thing’s for sure – the more security you fit, and the greater the variety you use, the more secure your Land Rover will be. There are six main areas to protect your pride and joy, which needn’t cost a fortune – most of us buy ready-made security devices for convenience, but you can also knock up some of your own. The main categories are hardware to prevent your Land Rover from being stolen, immobilisers, tracking devices, hardware to prevent parts from being stolen, items to dissuade thieves, and theft prevention. If you add one item from each of these groups, your Land Rover will…

PREVENTING the engine from starting is a good way to foil thieves. Most opportunists will want to drive away in the stolen vehicle, as loading it onto a transporter is riskier – but it does happen. The best immobilisers are ones that activate passively – switch the engine off and the immobiliser will prevent it re-starting after a certain amount of time has passed – but you can integrate a hidden switch into the dash as a low-tech option. Some tracking devices allow you to immobilise remotely. PASSIVE IMMOBILISER PRICE: From £250 RELATIVELY simple to use, a passive immobiliser will only allow the engine to re-start after it has been immobilised if you have activated a plipper, inserted an electronic key or, more recently, have an automatic driver recognition (ADR)…

SO here we are. An historically very important Land Rover (chassis number R860001 and the first production Land Rover, no less) goes off on an exotic foreign adventure that has a whiff of pioneering 1950’s Land Rover overlanding about it, supported by four modern, extremely capable off-road expedition vehicles. But these support vehicles are not Land Rovers, they are Ineos Grenadiers. And I don’t need to remind you that this is happening in the year that is the 75th anniversary of the Land Rover’s debut at the 1948 Amsterdam Motor Show, a birthday that JLR seem to be hell-bent on ignoring. To be honest, I’ve been expecting a Grenadier-Land Rover ‘moment’ like this ever since Ineos founder and chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who is a big fan of the old…

IF you picked up the November issue of Land Rover Monthly, you may have seen Associate Publisher, Steve Miller, go to town on soundproofing and trimming the inside of his Defender 90. It got me thinking about what I could do to improve things in my Series III’s cab – while not unbearable, the swathes of bare metal and gaps in floor panels weren’t doing anything to dampen the hum of the mud tyres or the whine of the LT76 gearbox. Now, I’m a realist, and I know that a cart-sprung truck from 1975 is never going to boast Rolls-Royce levels of refinement, so I decided that my sound deadening was going to be done on a budget of next to nothing. Carpet and foam are all well and good,…

lrmtechnical@gmail.com MOST of us have wasted valuable time and effort taking some part of a Land Rover to pieces unnecessarily. There are all kinds of tricks to be used when, say, removing a body or part of it, as Trevor Cuthbert illustrates in his bulkhead removal story this month. Unfortunately, learning these shortcuts takes experience, so jobs that are being done for the first time tend to be done slowly and by the book. And the book, in the form of a workshop manual, can also give unnecessarily long-winded methods which don’t benefit from the mass of knowledge and techniques developed by enthusiasts and the trade over the years. The jobs shown in our tech features are carried out by technically experienced and enthusiastic writers and/or by professional Land Rover…

EVER started an engine on a really chilly morning and noticed how much more sluggish it feels when cold, but smoothes out and gets more responsive after driving a few miles? That’s because engines work best and most efficiently when they are up to their proper operating temperature – on electronically-controlled engines, this is when the fuelling and emissions control systems are operating at their peak efficiency, giving the best performance and cleanest running conditions. No matter the outside temperature, it’s the job of the thermostat to bring the engine up to running temp, and keep it there. When the engine is cold the thermostat should be closed, so that the coolant can only circulate around the engine itself and the heater matrix. This allows the engine to heat up…

AIR suspension on the Range Rover Sport meets a tall order in providing off-road ride height, generous axle articulation, a high quality ride and relatively sporting handling in a vehicle weighing over 2.5 tonnes. Credit goes to the manufacturer of the air springs and dampers, Delphi, and to Land Rover’s overall design and layout. And the proof is that my own Range Rover Sport was riding and handling reasonably well after nearly 170,000 miles on the original units – on a basic coil spring vehicle you can expect the dampers to be trashed after anything above 60,000 miles, depending on use and abuse. So, no complaints on longevity but, yes, the suspension was tired. The rear end was plummeting a bit through the potholes and I could tell the dampers…

SEND YOUR LETTERS TO MARTIN@LRM.CO.UK Fond memories My dad, John Clayton, was the Chairman of Peak and Dukeries Land Rover Club for quite a few years. He held Land Rover off-road trials and won many cups, and was frequently the champion. He won nearly everything in his day, and his club mates made a joke about the championship cup being constantly engraved with his name. He competed in Scotland, at Perth and other places. We loved the Scottish trials back then, especially as they all had hip flasks and laughed a lot. I do remember him saying they were all so friendly because they were all drinking whisky! I saw that you featured my parents on the front cover of your magazine a few years ago taking part in the…

I’VE recently completed a speed awareness course under the National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme. I was flashed at 80mph on the M4 near Bristol at 1.30am, since you ask. I pulled out into lane three to overtake an HGV that was in lane two. We were the only vehicles on the road for miles. I suspect the chances are that many of you reading this will have had a similar experience. It is easy to feel a bit hard done by. But much as I’d like to, I’m not going to whinge about it. My last speeding offence was in 1983, southbound on Gunnersbury Avenue in West London, if you’re interested, while riding my motorbike. The cop who gave me the tug took great pleasure in telling me, as he…

OCCASIONALLY someone asks me how much their Land Rover is worth and they squeal with excitement when I tell them. This is usually when it’s a well-used Defender which has a boot full of dried pheasant guts and straw which I tell them would fetch more than they paid for it a decade ago. This month I’ve been having the opposite effect and it’s resulted in some uncomfortable conversations. The first was with a friend of my father. She and her late husband were keen caravanners and had a Discovery 2 Td5 and their plastic holiday home stashed away in a small barn on a nearby farm. She hadn’t used either since before the pandemic and I think she’d forgotten about them entirely until the farmer dropped heavy hints that…

This category includes anything that will prevent a thief from driving the Land Rover before the device is removed, and ranges from steering and pedal locks to gearlever locks, wheel clamps and bollards. These are highly visible items and tell a thief that it’s not going to be that quick a job to steal the vehicle. All security hardware can eventually be overcome and, as a rule, the cheaper the item, the quicker it is to defeat. Don’t rely on a £10 lock to secure a £75,000 Range Rover. STEERING WHEEL LOCK PRICE: Basic ones from £20; Good ones from £120 IT’S likely that the first thing anyone sees when they look into a Land Rover is a steering wheel lock. These are typically brightly coloured security products which tell…

PRICE: £294.99 CONTACT: productnews@allmakes.co.uk YOU’VE heard the perks of tracking devices and remote immobilisers already, but what about a unit that combines both? The Terrafirma Proactive Tracker uses power feeds, GPS technology and motion sensors to alert you when the Land Rover is being tampered with – doors opened, battery disconnected, etc – and allows you to not only see exactly where it is at all times, but also kill the engine remotely from your phone. You can even set a ‘geo zone’ around your property or area, and will be alerted the minute the vehicle leaves it without the key in the ignition – so even if the Land Rover gets lifted and flat-bedded away, you’ll know where it is. We’re showing how to fit and wire up your…

THIS must be the first time that anything good has ever come from having a Defender stolen, because without that bleakly depressing experience it’s unlikely that Jake Williams would have become the proud owner of this remarkable 1991 Discovery V8 three-door. LRM first came across Jake, his partner Niamh, and their beautifully preserved D1 at the LRM Live event at Malvern in May, when the judges unanimously awarded them the prize for the Best Original Land Rover. Now we’re visiting them on the family farm in Monmouthshire to find out more, and we’ve decided to drive down to South Wales in the 1990 Discovery 200Tdi that is on loan to the Dunsfold Collection. Snapper Craig and I are looking forward to a day of interesting stories and fascinating comparisons. Both…

ENGINE conversions in utility Land Rovers have been going on since the days of the earliest Series I models in the late 1940s and 1950s. The prime reason for removing a Land Rover engine and replacing it with a powerplant from another manufacturer is to improve fuel economy (at least in the early days) – taking out a petrol engine and fitting a diesel engine in its place. Modern day engine swaps are probably more about power and torque gains, rather than seeking better fuel economy, such as the trend for fitting big Cummins truck engines and the currently very popular BMW M57 – a superb straight-six diesel. The popularity of these conversions can be seen in the numerous social media groups and online forums that provide help and support…

I have often been asked to take on the build of a project Land Rover where the owner has embarked on the rebuild or refurbishment and then run out of steam, time or talent. The mistake often made is to completely dismantle the Land Rover into component parts, causing unnecessary work, complication, confusion and expense. My method is almost always to remove the body in one piece, and then refit it to the new chassis again, as the same assembly. This is quicker, following a philosophy of not disturbing something if it is not necessary. For example, releasing the roof panel from the windscreen frame and body sides takes time, effort and usually extra expense if, say, the seal between the roof and the side was not previously leaking –…

THERE are several reasons why you may want to reskin your Series or Defender doors, such as rusty frames in need of repair or replacement, a damaged aluminium panel, or just that you’re looking to re-galvanise the door frames. In this instance I will be showing you the re-skinning of a pair of late Series I doors (1954-1958 models) on one of our current projects, a 1955 86-inch Series I. These doors, unlike those found on post-Series I Land Rover production, are dead flat, so they are a little simpler, but the process is very much along the same principles. Flaws and fixes For the first five years of Land Rover production, on 80in models the doors were made entirely from aluminium, comprising an aluminium outer skin with an aluminium…

Sat 14 Oct – Sun 15 Oct 4X4 TRIAL Clyro, Powys, Wales awdc.co.uk COMP SAFARI Neath, Wales awdc.co.uk WELSH BORDERS TRIP Leominster, Herefordshire 4x4adventuretours.co.uk CCV AND TIMED TRIAL Stainby, Lincolnshire lrlrc.co.uk 4X4 TRIAL Cow Farm, Hailsham, East Sussex scor4x4.co.uk 4X4 TYRO AND CCV TRIAL Wormhough, Macclesfield, Cheshire wormhough.co.uk RTV/CCV TRIAL Middleton Lodge, Matlock, Derbyshire panddlrc.uk RTV AND TYRO TRIAL TBC slroc.co.uk NORTH WEST TRIALS CHAMPIONSHIP Brymbo, Wrexham, Wales awdc.co.uk 4X4 TRIAL Haggate, Burnley, Lancashire scor4x4.co.uk Sat 14 Oct TYRO AND 4X4 TRIAL Wolfhill, Belfast, Northern Ireland 4wdni.co.uk PUNCH HUNT Barton-Le-Clay, Milton Keynes, Bucks muddyduck.org.uk CCV AND TYRO TRIAL Edenfield, Rossendale, Lancashire landroverclub.co.uk RTV/CCV TRIAL Chainbridge, Usk, Wales wwlrc.co.uk LAND ROVER TRIAL Aggs Hill, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire ccroc.club Thurs 19 – Fri 20 Oct LAKES AND WESTMORLAND TOUR blacklandy4x4tours.com Sat 21 –…