Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2024 i Land Rover Monthly

AFTER getting the call from Lee to say the Lightweight is ready for collection, I ask my brother Nick to run me up to Hemel Hempstead. He’s also looking for a new mechanic as the long-term relationship with his own is souring. “I just can’t understand it,” he bemoans on the way up to Lee’s premises. “He’s become really unhelpful, always saying he’s too busy, yet I’ve given him absolutely thousands to keep my two vehicles on the road all these years.” I cheerily reassure him that it’s totally normal. “It’s a relationship that seems to have a shelf-life. I’ve fallen out with many mechanics who have worked on the Lightweight,” I say, as we’re bumping along in his old Ford Ranger. “It always starts off well enough but, sooner…

I can’t lie. The Lightweight has always been my least favourite Land Rover. And in the early 1990s, when I got to take a rather tatty example for a spin, I concluded that it drove as bad as it looked, particularly on the road. I couldn’t wait to get back behind the wheel of my Range Rover. This somewhat prejudiced opinion has lived with me for the past 30 years, despite the fact that a very popular and tidy example of the Lightweight lives in the Dunsfold Collection. A recent visitor to the Collection’s new museum was Tom, who turned out to be an exceptionally well-informed Lightweight superfan. We enjoyed a very interesting half-hour conversation as we looked around Dunsfold’s vehicle, and Tom’s enthusiasm made me wonder whether I’d perhaps…

I bought my first Land Rover for two main reasons. I wanted to join the Northern Ireland Land Rover Club (NILRC) to have some fun with off-road driving and to participate in events. The second reason was because of my interest in classic farm tractors and the associated need for towing a heavy trailer. It was towing needs that tipped the decision to buy a Land Rover, following a particularly bad day on the road. I had purchased a David Brown 880 tractor in County Tyrone and naively embarked on towing it home with a Saab 900 and a rickety trailer that I had borrowed from my uncle. The bad part of the day started when I had driven the overloaded Saab/trailer combination less than 15 miles, when one of…

HAVING completed the build of our Production class Freelander 1.8 three-door in March 2022, we spent the majority of that year getting to know the car, whilst also competing in two high profile cross-country events – the Welsh Borders Hill Rally and Scottish Borders Hill Rally. We won our classes in both, which gave us a good indication of the capability of our car when planning the next season’s schedule. With the announcement that the All-Wheel Drive Club (AWDC) was to be running an eight-round Freelander Trophy within its main championship in 2023: it was a decision that took little thought. The venues included Bovington military training area, Ebbw Vale, Minehead, Ilfracombe and three rounds at Walters Arena in Wales. We were excited by the opportunity, even more so when…

MY wife, daughter and I went on a bit of a post-Christmas road trip. The plan was to mix it up with a combination of camping and hotels. I’ll immediately own up and say we didn’t travel in one of my Series vehicles. Instead, our gateway to adventure would be care of a new Defender 130 on loan from Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). I really haven’t seen many 130s so was looking forward to experiencing just how much more spacious it would be over the 110. The vehicle provided seemingly had most of the options ticked and cost around A$140k. My favourite features, included the refrigerated central console and air conditioned front seats. Of course, there were lots of other no doubt exciting features, but those were the two that…

THE Canning Stock Route, Pamir Highway and Road of Bones are some of the most highly acclaimed overland routes in the world, but while travelling in Botswana 20 years ago I met two gents in a Defender 110 who asked, “Do you know of the Rubicon?” When I replied ‘The Con’ was just two hours from my home they nearly fell over. Having grown up nearby, the Rubicon was a natural venue for learning how to navigate technical terrain. Little did we know our humble backyard trail would land on the bucket list of nearly every four-wheel drive enthusiast on the planet. When I received an invitation from friend and Land Rover nut, Jesse Coombs, to run the Rubicon in his D90, I jumped at the chance. What I didn’t…

An intensive trip like this with a little one requires more preparation and organisation, so leave plenty of time to do that and eliminate ‘unknowns’ before heading out. That includes a thorough service of the vehicle and at least one practice run with every item of gear you need for the trip, including how you intend to pack and repack it into your Landy. • BUY A TENT that goes up and comes down fast – quality tents that do this are not cheap, but if it’s raining when you get to camp, it will save you getting wet and, potentially, from a much more expensive divorce.• INVEST IN A PROPER AIR MATTRESS: There is nothing worse than waking up after a not-particularly sound sleep on the hard ground, as we…

YOU remember when the new Defender was launched in 2019, and some people said they didn’t like it until they saw it in person? We’ve just done a similar thing with the latest model to the range. A press release came through in mid-2023 telling us about the V8-engined Defender 130 – not a major news story as it was just following the lead of the 90 and 110 – and the 130 Outbound. Pictures accompanying the press release showed a grey 130 adorned with some of the accessories from the company’s range; it just looked like, dare we say it, a tarted-up 130. But now we’ve seen it in the flesh, we can see exactly what it is – and we wholeheartedly approve. Think back to the introduction of…

MY name is Katherine Clements, and my Dad and I have been subscribers to Land Rover Monthly for many years. We both love the magazine and look forward to it arriving every month. My Dad’s birthday is coming up and I thought what better way to wish him a very happy 60th than by sharing some of our favourite memories with our 1973 Series III, nicknamed ‘Spud’. We have worked on our Land Rover together since I can remember, and I just wanted to immortalise our love for each other and Spud for his big birthday. We got Spud in 2007 when I was three-years old, and some of my earliest recollections are of being outside working on him at every opportunity we got. Spud (named after his number plate)…

lrmtechnical@gmail.com WE see and hear about plenty of tricked up Land Rovers, especially in LRM. And while some of these desirable machines cost a fortune to produce, many are built for minimal outlay, and plenty have been successfully personalised into something special for normal money. Some owners build their bespoke Land Rovers or resurrect a wreck, and then don’t necessarily drive them a lot. Others drive across continents gaining a double whammy of satisfaction from both the build and the adventure. It’s not compulsory, though it’s extremely wise, to have an overland vehicle built to perfection, at least in respect of reliability and survival of the machine and its occupants. But after building your own personal dream machine, it isn’t compulsory to justify the time and expense by doing amazing…

THE roll cage originally came in to being as an off-road necessity for enthusiasts who push their vehicle’s abilities to the limit. Today, roll cages may equally be fitted for cosmetic reasons, to create a rugged look an owner desires for their dream build. Land Rover itself utilised this appeal in the 1990s with the North American Spec (NAS) 110, featuring a body-coloured external roll cage – and it looked the absolute business. Cage manufacture has moved on since then, and modern cages now fit snugly to the body, and intrusion inside the cabin is minimal, whilst offering maximum protection. Don’t get confused between a thick cosmetic roll hoop set and a roll cage: the thick hoops (intended for supporting a canvas hood, not supporting the weight of the Defender)…

MILITARY SPEC BREATHER SYSTEM FOR 19J DIESELS In Richard Hall’s recent article in LRM he mentioned the 19J’s notorious breathing issues, and fitted a modified breathing system based on a cyclonic oil separator that had been developed by the British army. He said he had all the bits on the shelf, but sadly gave no further details. I am keen to look into this as I still have the original 19J engine in my 1989 90, which also suffers from an oil saturated air filter. Could LRM provide more information including how to fit such a system as I’m sure I’m not the only one still running the vehicle on its original engine. Anthony Kent RICHARD HALL REPLIES: A modified breather system was fitted to many military 90 and 110 vehicles…

I’VE just read what could be the most depressing email I’ve received since I started this column seven years ago. It came from a regular LRM reader and hardcore Land Rover fan. I’ll call him John, although that’s not his name, but he’s happy that I share his recent experiences with you. For years, John’s owned a succession of Range Rovers as his daily drivers. He also cherishes a Series I and a first-generation Range Rover among his collection of classic cars. But now he’s reached the end of the line. Two months ago, I wrote on this page about JLR’s bizarre announcement that thefts of Range Rovers built between 2018 and 2022 had declined by 42 per cent following the company’s £10m upgrade programme, which it claims has led…

POOR planning means that this month is when the insurance and MoT are due on three cars in my little fleet. The wallet-draining will be reduced slightly when the Ninety becomes tax- and MoT-exempt in a year’s time, but I’ll still need insurance. That has almost doubled this year on all the cars, and my usual trick of shopping around has revealed that my current cover is the best deal. That’s bad enough on my renewal which has gone from a laughable £77 to £136 for my County. But if I was trying to insure a Range Rover and lived in a city, that sort of percentage increase could be enough to send me down to We Buy Any Car. In fact, there was an interesting clause in the small…

WE bought our 2011 Defender 110 TDCi – christened Wallie – in the summer of 2022, lured by its promise of adventure and a rediscovery of the great outdoors. It was not a rash purchase, especially given the eye-watering prices of Defenders in recent times, but a deliberate lifestyle change. We simply felt that there was a more fulfilling way to experience the world around us – and that the answer, at least in part, lay in a Land Rover. However, we would not be undertaking these adventures alone: the intention always was to drag our rambunctious little boy, Kai, along for the ride as we fulfilled this newfound desire to explore and experience life off the beaten track. Keen to crack on, a quick online search of ‘off-road holidays…

‘BLAST off for Britain’s brilliant new 4x4’ was the cover headline in Autocar magazine’s 12 November 1997 issue, accompanied by a wonderful photo of an airborne Caledonian Blue five-door Freelander. The magazine compared the new baby Land Rover with Toyota’s RAV4 and the Honda CR-V and concluded that the Freelander was the best of the bunch. ‘A class act’, Autocar wrote, ‘and no one will be more aware of this right now than Toyota and Honda’. For retired Land Rover and MG Rover manager and Freelander enthusiast Ron Brown, who is now the proud owner of the car, provenance doesn’t get much better than that. The car in the cover photo and test report is R202 BAC, a very early Freelander press launch vehicle with chassis number 600434, and Ron…

HOW late in the year do you normally leave it to bust out the camping gear? I have to admit, I usually wait until there’s no longer frost on the ground in the mornings and the sun comes up before 7.00am. But I made an exception this year, and joined the local chapter of the Series I, II and III Club for a pub-based social camp out and greenlaning excursion on the last weekend of January. Arriving at the Wishing Well pub in the village of Dyke, Lincs, at around 4.00pm on the Saturday, I quickly set about unloading the Series III and getting the trusty cot tent up, as the sun rapidly dipped behind the tree line. Fellow clubbers filter in as I hurry to get my bedding spread…

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ELECTRICAL problems can be incredibly frustrating. One minute you’re driving along without a care in the world, and the next you’re stranded in the lashing rain with no way of even trying to find or fix the cause – at least, that’s what happened to LRM’s Associate Publisher, Steve Miller, a couple of months ago. He was so frustrated by his Defender’s lack of forward motion that he wrote about it in Writers’ Rovers in the January 2024 issue. The problem that he experienced is one that’s not uncommon on Td5 Defenders. The accelerator pedal, which is fed with a supply voltage from the engine control module (ECU) feeds back a signal voltage telling the ECU how much fuel to inject, in simple terms, depending on how far you’ve got…

FREELANDER 2s are one of Land Rover’s more reliable offerings in recent years thanks to their relative lightness and simplicity, but they still suffer from wear and tear on the moving parts, in common with any other vehicle. If you get a rumble or whirr from the back of your F2 while driving, it’s normally one of three things. If the wheel alignment is out, the tyres can wear unevenly, causing a hum that gets louder at speed and can change over different surfaces; the rear differential’s pinion bearing can fail, which is a whirr most evident under hard acceleration and deceleration and, finally, the hub bearings can get worn or pitted, which manifests as a whine or rumble which generally changes volume or pitch as the vehicle’s weight shifts…

March 1 WILD WALES 4X4 EXPLORER TOUR Llandovery, Wales offroadadventuretravel.com March 2 4X4 AND TYRO TRIAL Wolfhill, Belfast, Northern Ireland 4wdni.co.uk 4X4 OVERLAND EXPLORER TOUR Rhayader, Wales offroadadventuretravel.com RURAL RIPON AND REETH RELAXED AND SCENIC TOUR Ripon, North Yorkshire trailsandtracks.co.uk March 2-3 BOWLER DEFENDER CHALLENGE 2024 Walters Arena, Neath, South Wales bowlermotors.com March 3 4X4 LAND ROVER AND VINTAGE SPARES DAY Ripon Racecourse, Ripon bit.ly/lrmriponmar24 4X4 TRIAL West Harptree, Somerset awdc.co.uk CCV TRIAL Dersingham, Norfolk brecklandlrc.com CCV TRIAL Week Farm, Great Torrington, Exeter cdlrc.com CCV TRIAL Eaton Lodge, Melton Mowbray lrlrc.co.uk CCV AND RTV TRIAL Penrith, Cumbria nero.org.uk TIMED TRIAL TBC slroc.co.uk GREENLANES West Meon, Hampshire sadlrc.com MOORS LAND ROVER TOUR Great Broughton, North Yorkshire uklandroverevents.com 4x4 OVERLAND EXPLORER TOUR Llandovey, Wales offroadadventuretravel.com 4x4 PAY & PLAY Bolney, West Sussex…

How long have you owned it? After an abortive attempt to buy a Disco 2 for my son who wanted a 4x4 with overlander potential but had a limited budget, I saw the advert for a 1997 Defender 110 ex-Water Board van with 204,000 miles in Southampton for £4500. I rang the guy, got in the car and went straight down there. Two days later it was on the drive. I bought the vehicle early May 2023. What made you want to buy this particular Land Rover? We chose this for the 300Tdi and its simplicity. We wanted a two-door rather than a four-door as restoring that could put another £5k onto the bill. What’s the story so far? I had previously rebuilt a 90 many years ago from a new chassis…