 | Home > Pictures & Video > My Land Rover story (lots of pics!!) |
 
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| warren Member Since: 14 Oct 2009 Location: East Lancs. Posts: 903   
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As I've got a bit of time to kill thought I'd explain how my Land Rover obsession started...
I guess it all started after seeing this on an episode of Top Gear when I was about 12 or 13... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RULA8iNQNaM Ever since then I've always seen Land Rovers running about but never knew much about them. It wasn't untill early 2007 when I was invited to a local quarry to play in a Hagglunds BV206... 
An amazing machine that would go ANYWHERE it was pointed. I phoned my dad and told him to come up and have go. He turned up in his J**p and had a play
After a few nasty grinding noises coming from underneath and a 'Check Engine' light lit up on the dashboard it was decided that a Land Rover would be needed! Looked at a few Discovery's but they were either overpriced or rotten. Or both. Then we found an early Defender 90, 200Tdi Hardtop which had lived on a farm in the Lakes all its life. The same night it arrived back home it was fitted with mud tyres, steering and diff guards, and had a good scrub to get shut of the remains of sheep from the back.
The Astra was mine, I still couldn't afford my own Landy!
The next week it was time for it's first off road outing, unfortunately I wasn't about to have a go!
My first off roading experience in 'Old Blue' as it became known was the next week... We were also joined by 'Big Blue', a late 300Tdi 90, identical in every way to Old Blue except newer. Big Blue already had a head start in the days off roading!
We also had Big Red, also a 300Tdi 90.
It didn't take Old Blue long to get muddy...
Over the next few months the three Defenders got off roaded hard, but they never let us down. After every off road play day they all got treated to a full wash (wax too if they were lucky!) and a full service.
Of course there was the friendly banter between rival 4x4 owners, but it always seemed to be the Landys that came out on top...
Although there were a few hairy moments whilst making new tracks...
...they were never less than impressive... Despite a few driver errors...
Old Blue had a few 'moments' too. After just fitting a two inch lift kit and slightly misjudging the ground...
But it wasn't long before she was back in action...
Unfortunately Old Blue did let us down once, and in a spectacular fashion. The handbrake failed...
Oh dear. Big Blue was sold on, but not before one last off road adventure!
Took two weeks to get back looking as new again! As time went on I wanted my own Defender to play in. I eventually found a tatty Defender on eBay, an early 300Tdi, that was cheap, but solid in all the right places.
This was another one owner from new car. It was owned by a plant hire company from new, so was pretty tatty, but the engine was mint! I ordered some replacement seat bases and cleaned out the thick layer of grime in the back... and it was still scruffy. I was planning on getting some new wheels, guards, snorkel etc, but whilst taking it off road in its standard form I noticed the brakes weren't quite right. A quick poke around that evening and I couldn't find anything wrong. The next week I was driving along early one morning when I tapped the brakes to slow down for an oncoming car, when there was a huge clunk from underneath and it pulled violently to the left, nearly smashing into a parked car. Turns out it had sheared the brake disc...
A quick call to the AA and I got recovered, at about 4am...
About ten minutes down the road the recovery wagon broke down too... What a fun night that was... Anyway, The Hoffmobile spent a while looking like this...
.. the bolt holding the brake calliper onto the hub had sheared, and was a right pain to remove! Once that was sorted the diff decided to play up. I replaced that then the prop started to play up. I replaced that and the diff went again. Replaced that again and it was fine, but I decided I wanted something a bit tidier. So I tidied it up a bit and put it on eBay...
It went a week later, and was going to be stripped down and rebuilt. No idea how it got on though... SO! I was back to no Land Rover again, but Old Blue was still going strong...
After five years of faultless service my Astra was getting to the stage where it was costing too much to keep on the road - although after 200k miles I think I did quite well with that one! So I was looking at Td5 Defenders, and somehow ended up looking at new ones! I decided to make use of the governments scrappage scheme and trade the Astra in against a new Defender. A couple of months later Big Black arrived...
One of the first things I did was waxoyled and polished it...
Not too long after picking it up we set off to France for a couple of weeks. I was a bit nervous about it as it only had a few hundred miles on the clock, and I was paranoid about anything going wrong. Faultless all the way down to Calais...
Any thought of any issues quickly went out the window, and Big Black took us from Calais, to Paris, La Rochelle, Bordeux, back up to St Malo and then back to Calais and home!
When it went in for its first service they gave me a Freelander...
This was the first time I'd ever had a go in one, and I was VERY impressed. Started to have unclean thoughts about swapping the Defender for one if something major went wrong... But it continued to be fault free until about 14000 miles. Then it leaked, a bit..
...The paint on the roof started to crack along the seam, the door locks seized and the fuel filter cover rattled like a  .
All this was sorted under warranty and it was fine again for a bit. If anything major was going to go wrong I think it'd have happened now...
But nope! Nothing at all went wrong. Until about three miles later. The roll pin in the diff had broken, but that was sorted under warranty within a week. Only issues now is that the gearbox is extremely clunky, and when taking up drive there's very loud clunks from underneath. But its due its second service very soon so I'll get that looked into when it goes in. Big Black hasn't been off road yet, it's helped out on my mates farm, so it has worked [a little bit] hard at least, but that's about it! Old Blue has been sold on now, and has undergone a full strip down and rebuild, and is looking super sweet apparently, although I've not seen it yet. It's been replaced now by a Series 3 lightweight, complete with Sankey trailer.
And thats basically my Land Rover story, so I hope it makes sense! I've missed a lot out (this has taken me more than an hour to do as it is!!), but it's killed a bit of time anyways! |
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4th Aug 2010 7:51pm |
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| MrFlips Member Since: 27 May 2009 Location: Cardiff Posts: 682  
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Excellent post Warren - very interesting read
 Peter
2008 SWB Truck Cab 1952 80" Soft top |
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4th Aug 2010 8:51pm |
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| 110SEB Member Since: 29 Jan 2009 Location: Essex, England Posts: 1444  
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I'll second that. I love reading about people's LR stories
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4th Aug 2010 10:25pm |
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| parktag Member Since: 30 Sep 2008 Location: Brittany Posts: 365  
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Nice post, good pics too.
130 crew cab
98 V8 Disco |
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5th Aug 2010 3:24pm |
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| discocuzzy Member Since: 16 Jul 2008 Location: surrey Posts: 1200
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Great post
You cannot teach stupid people to do clever things |
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5th Aug 2010 10:13pm |
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| Robofarmer Member Since: 17 Mar 2010 Location: cheshire Posts: 88 
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Top post love all the pics. .
There should be more posts like this  A dam good read with a few beers 2008 110 County utility
ex 1988 defender 90 ,td ex 1970 series III |
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5th Aug 2010 10:23pm |
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| Joe90 Member Since: 22 Jan 2010 Location: UK Posts: 95 
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Fantastic report mate, great to see all the photos of so many landys having fun! Cheers mate.
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5th Aug 2010 11:50pm |
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| warren Member Since: 14 Oct 2009 Location: East Lancs. Posts: 903
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Cheers chaps!
There's a load more that I was going to include, but was taking way longer than I thought it would haha! Unfortunately I'm without Big Black again, the clunk it had turned into a bang, after which there was no drive at all... Ironically as I was on the way to the dealers! |
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6th Aug 2010 5:53pm |
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| Blindpugh Member Since: 14 Jun 2010 Location: Reading Posts: 40 
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Glad too see my old lightweight is still going. He who dies with the most toys wins.
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22nd Aug 2010 12:07pm |
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| K9F Member Since: 12 Nov 2009 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 9610 
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Great post, worth revisiting time and time again!!!
If you go through life with your head in the sand....all people will see is an ar5e!!
Treat every day as if it is your last....one day you will be right!! |
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22nd Aug 2010 1:05pm |
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| warren Member Since: 14 Oct 2009 Location: East Lancs. Posts: 903
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Still going strong! It's never going to see a muddy quarry or be off roaded, so it's going to be going for a good many years! The worst it's ever likely to see is a slightly muddy field whilst picking some wood up with the trailer. |
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22nd Aug 2010 10:05pm |
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| Cibit Member Since: 26 Oct 2009 Location: Northumberland Posts: 424 
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Nice post glad you took the time and effort
BTW what will you call a 110 if you get one. Huge Blue 
 59 2.4 110 XS Utility
55 TD5 110 CSW Special Vehicle |
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23rd Aug 2010 3:17pm |
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| warren Member Since: 14 Oct 2009 Location: East Lancs. Posts: 903
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Haha I've often thought about what we'd end up calling a 110. Huge *insert colour here* would probably be a winner. Nowt like keeping it simple
 |
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23rd Aug 2010 3:25pm |
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| harveyg77 Member Since: 09 Apr 2010 Location: Derby Posts: 309
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I've read this three times already.
A mate of mine produced this show of his Freelander http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsBDkLxGCts A 90 hardtop looks best with alpine lights and a white roof, regardless of body colour (well maybe not with silver  ) |
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23rd Aug 2010 8:40pm |
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