Tarts and Trucks

Sunday night and Widget, Bernd and I are relaxing in the delightful sitting room of our self-catering cottage in the Peak District.

We've had a couple of days' laning already with one final fling tomorrow and all I can say is, upgrading the Discovery for a Defender was so much the right thing to do. Yesterday we descended Stanage Edge and despite taking over an hour to cover one short rocky stretch, the silver Defender seemed simply unstoppable. Even the slight knocks and bumps we did encounter seemed less of an event to the three Defenders.













The weather had been variable to say the least. Yesterday we met up in driving snow, yet by the end of the day I was wearing sunglasses when driving.
As well as some good laning we've had numerous refreshing brews whilst on the lanes, along with that most crucial element of Land Rover ownership, a nice bit of cake, and some Frisian sugar bread brought by Bernd from Holland. It comes close to crossing the border between bread and cake but if push comes to shove I'd have to go with calling it bread.
As we were staying near Bakewell we took the opportunity to try out a genuine tart too. A little sticky when warmed up, but easily shared between three and very satisfying.
The three Defenders have performed pretty well throughout. Widget's has a nasty grumbling bearing somewhere, and the rear door on my car is a bit tatty, but those issues aside, together they make a discreet yet capable convoy. No frills no limits motoring which is what a Land Rover is all about. Bernd has had no problems. Continental efficiency I guess.
We did encounter a few other laning convoys today, which gave rise to some rambling discussion about the merits of big knobbly tyres. And selective dentistry.
We came to the slightly mathematical conclusion that, based on our observations today, the number of knobbles on a tyre is inversely proportional to that of the driver's teeth, whilst the frequency with which they wash their Land Rover is, by contrast, directly proportional to how often they wash anything, including themselves.

But overall, a successful weekend, come rain, snow or sun (and we've had all three)

FFR

Successfully fitted the CB radio and the external antenna mount.
Took bloody ages due in no small part to there being no obvious spot to attach the radio on what passes for a dashboard in the Defender, probably because when Defenders were originally dreamt up, the more common way to communicate was by telegram, or perhaps Semaphore.
The dashboard is more of a handy little shelf on which to store screwdrivers, spanners, rolls of tape, string and so on. It's like an integral tool box.
After several hours trying out different positions around the car for the radio (including one moment of utter insanity where I seriously considered mounting it to the inside of the roof), I succumbed to doing something I vowed I'd never do and drilled two holes through the dashboard cross member in order to attach the radio mounting bracket. I'd hoped to keep the Defender free of Swiss cheese characteristics - there are plenty of Landrovers out there already peppered with holes - but in the end this was just about the only solution.
And actually, it's worked pretty well. The radio is out of the way yet still accessible and it doesn't foul any other controls.
When routing the antenna co-ax from the rear of the car through to the front, the dire build quality of a Defender came to the fore as I was able to gently pull back the headlining and hide the cable behind it without too much effort. It runs in through the rear door seal, along the roof line, over the top of the drivers door, down the off side A-post, then down the corner of the dash where the heater controls reside, under the steering column and in to the radio itself which is just to the left of the ignition barrel, down a bit from the fan control. For electrical power I tapped in to the cigarette lighter feed.
Outside, the antenna mount looks pretty sturdy although I have my doubts. Like anything bought for a Landrover it needed modifying slightly in order to fit, but this isn't what bothers me. It clamps to the gutter and although in theory this is a good idea, the gutters are lined with some kind of gooey sealant gunk, meaning the bolts which provide the clamping action have nothing really solid to bite in to. Might have to fabricate a small metal plate to go under the tails of the bolts, give 'em something solid.
Now all I need is someone to talk to....

Oh and an added bonus, I found my 13mm spanner, missing for several months.

Count down to Carnage

This weekend I'm off up to the Peak District with Widget who has a 50th Anniversary Defender 90.

It's the first big outing for my Defender since buying it to replace my tired Landrover Discovery which had got to that stage in it's life where I drove everywhere with my fingers crossed and had to beat it with a stick every now and then.

I've taken the Defender off-road a couple of times since getting it last month, and it feels so much more capable, even without bogging it down with blingy modifications.

There are a couple of things I'd like to get sorted out before the weekend though. The ever-so-slightly tacky CB radio needs wiring up so I can abuse Widget over the airwaves, and I could really do with some heavier duty recovery points, certainly on the front.

The CB should be easy - It needs just a power supply and an external antenna mount fixing to the car. In due course I'd like to add a second battery to power the fridge I've got for longer trips, fit the winch (with a suitable winch bumper) I took off the Discovery and that's about it. Might get some light guards and possibly a ladder to help with access to the roof tent when it's fitted (again something I've transferred across from the Disco)

As for recovery points for this weekend, this is somewhat dependant on being able to source some JATE rings before Friday.

Where is Stanage Edge anyway?

Week one, day one.

Blogging is new to me, I've read a few but never written one....

As the title suggests both my cars are aluminium, a Year 2000 Land Rover Defender 90 and a 1996 Caterham Seven.

Not only are they both aluminium they are both British, conceived over cups of tea and then loosely thrown together by hand in sheds by men called George wearing tan-coloured dust coats. As a result of this they are largely rubbish at being cars but very good at being engineering benchmarks and design icons and thus utterly absorbing to drive and maintain.

Owning either of these cars will never leave you rich.

Owning both of them at once will leave you borderline bankrupt. But happy. Occasionally.