While up on the roof, winterizing the swamp cooler, I decided to swap-out my Diamond X50A dual-band antenna with a tri-band Diamond X6000A, which I’ve had sitting in the garage for a while. It was just in May that I installed the X50A.

It was an easy install, though I did install a second chimney bracket (a Channel Master 9067) as the X6000A is much longer, and I also re-terminated the co-ax using N-connectors rather than PL-259s. I’m glad to make the move to N-connectors, as well as having better impedance characteristics, they seem better quality than the PL259s (I especially like the Times Microwave TC-400-NMC that I’m using on my LMR400 cable).

The X6000A is a big bugger, at over 3m long, but it’s specs are impressive:

Band

2m/70cm/23cm

Gain (dB)

6.5/9/10

Max Power Rating

100/60

Wind Rating

112 MPH (no ice)

Height (feet/meters)

10.5/3.05

Connector

Type-N

Element Phasing

2-5/8l, 5-5/8l, 6-5/8l

So it’s about a 2dB gain over the X50A on 2m and 70cm. Of course, it now opens up the world of 23cm to me, which I’m looking forward to when I get my Icom ID-1 - D-STAR too! Of course, it’s an omnidirectional antenna, so I won’t get fantastic gain in any direction but I think it’ll be a great place to start on the 23cm band.

Installation Instructions are here (PDF link)

The other day I decided to get to the bottom of what was leaking oil over the right side of the block in my 300 Tdi Defender 90. It didn’t take long to track down.

There’s a black plastic thing attached directly to the rocker cover.

It’s the Cyclonic Cleaner, part of the crankcase breather system, Land Rover part number ERR1471. It’s easy to remove, just a single bolt and two hose-clips. On the tube that connects with the engine, there’s a small o-ring. That was my culprit! It had split and was spraying oil down the side of the engine. Now there is an official Land Rover part (LLO100000) for this o-ring, but a quick trip to NAPA had a replacement installed within the hour. Problem solved!

The filter is supposed to be cleaned every 12k or so, but I know it’s not religiously carried out. I cleaned mine in Coleman Fuel (as I don’t have any kerosene handy), and that did the trick. I left it to dry overnight, and the next morning, with just a few seconds of white fumes, everything worked fine.

Earlier in the year I noticed that my Eberspächer HYDRONIC D5 auxiliary heater wasn’t working. As the weather was warming up, getting it fixed slid down the priority list.

A couple of weeks ago, during a trip to the Maze, the plastic t-piece from the fuel tank to both the fuel lift pump and the heater snapped.

Here I am fixing it in the field (I discovered that the outer diameter of the raised breather tubes is the same as the interior diameter of the fuel line). Thanks to Steve for the photo.

So as I need to refit the t-piece (with a brass one this time), I stared investigating the rest of the problem. Once I’d freed up the harness, I discovered that it has shorted and melted some of the wires together - never good. It also seems that there’s a fuse missing, that would have been easier to replace than the harness.

In the diagram below, you can see the part that failed. I need to replace both the plug and socket - it’s a tight 8-way connector.

Once I discovered that Eberspächer is called Espar in North America, I contacted their technical support and got the following part number: 22 1000 30 10 21 - which has to be ordered from a local dealer. I contacted Thermo King of Denver who ordered the part from Espar in Canada. I’m hoping the thing will be fixed before it really gets cold!

Espar D5 manual here Good install thread on D90.com here A Defender installation here

This year for the Land Rovers “October Service”, I decided to stop using ATF in the R380 gearbox, as I’d noticed that Land Rover had issued a Technical Service Bulletin advising that a gear oil meeting MTF94 be used instead.

After a friends recommendation and some trawling on the forums, I decided that Redline MTL was the way to go (Royal Purple Synchromax also seems worth a look).

Armed with my 32mm wrench (for the drain; sockets don’t fit), my T55 Torx bit and a fluid transfer pump (it’s tight near the filler), I drained and refilled the gearboxes on the ‘96 Tdi and the ‘95 V8.

I test drove both trucks. The difference is astounding. The troublesome 2-3 shift is smooth for the first time ever (without having to think about it), and the downshifts are a dream. It’s hard to believe that just a simple fluid change can make such a big difference, it really is incredible. I’m interested to see what it looks like when I change it out in October 2009.

Next time, I’ll but it by the gallon rather than the quart, as it’s a right faff to mess about with the quart size containers and the pump.

Redline MTL: Highly recommended for Land Rovers with the R380 manual transmission.

I’ve recently bought a 2nd generation Drobo. It’s a cool little box that attaches to my Mac Pro via Firewire 800.

I had some drives from my failing ReadyNAS 600 (now retired), so after temporarily copying the data to a non-resilient drive I loaded the following in the the Drobo and copied the data onto it.

Slot 0: 1TB Hitachi HUA721010KLA330
Slot 1: 1TB Hitachi HUA721010KLA330
Slot 2: Seagate 750GB ST3750640NS
Slot 3: Seagate 750GB ST3750640NS

These are good quality SATA 3.0 Gbit/s drives that I even ran through SpinRite (highly recommended) to check for errors.

Anyway, I’ve discovered that when I unlock my Mac Pro (the screensaver automatically locks after a while, but I don’t put it to sleep), the Drobo restarts. No warning, just a whirring reboot. I’m running the 1.2.2 firmware and the 1.2.1 dashboard. I’ve tried plugging it into another Firewire port and also unplugging my other Firewire devices with no luck.

I’ve logged a support ticket with Drobo, let’s see what they come up with.

As I was reading ”Alice in Sunderland” (a fantastic book), I came across a reference to a World War 1 early warning system - an acoustic mirror.

During WW1, Sunderland was bombed at least twice by Zeppelin. As an important shipbuilding town it was a great target, and the acoustic mirror system was deployed over the North East to protect the industrial areas from attack.

This particular example is a grade 2 listed structure, and a scheduled monument. The City of Sunderland website has a good overview.

It’s not every day you learn something new about your hometown!

I’m often asked about engine oil. Regular oil and filter changes are simple and an important part of vehicle maintenance. Not only are you doing good by your vehicle in terms of performance and reliability, if gives you a chance to crawl around and check other things.

Anyway, I’ve tried all sorts of engine oils. I agree with the advantages of using synthetic oils on more modern engines, and in those cases it’s worth the extra outlay. I’ve tried them in petrol and diesel Land Rover engines (3.9, 4.0 V8 and 2.5 300 TDi) and don’t think it’s worth the extra money.

Recently, I’ve settled on Shell Rotella T for both my petrol and diesel engines. Specifically the 15W-40 Multigrade.

Even though Rotella was developed as an engine oil for heavy duty diesel trucks, it works very well in larger (and older) petrol engines, and meets the appropriate specs [PDF], API Service Classes SH, SL and SJ for gas engines and API CI-4 PLUS, CI-4, CH-4, CG-4, CF-4 and CF for diesels.

For me, this means I can use the same engine oil, year round and for every vehicle, from the Dodge Ram to my F650 motorcycle, except in the Infiniti FX35, but the dealer still does the service for that so I don’t change the oil anyway. And yes, it’s ok to use it in motorcycles, mostly!

The Engine Oil Bible is a great reference source for all things oily!

Shell Rotella T 15W-40. Recommended.

Land Rovering - A New Concept - Dormobile Review from Land Rover Review June 1961

Originally uploaded by indigoprime

I was happy to find this old magazine on ebay. I’ve just picked up a Dormobile, so I’m happy to see it got a good review back in 1961!

This was my first trip to the BMW MOA National Rally, an event this year held in Gillette, WY. As I didn’t have time to sort the new hitch for the truck, I had to leave the bike and trailer back in Denver. Still, as I only had the Friday evening and Saturday at the rally, it wasn’t a big loss.

I think the total number of people here was around 5,000. Most seemed to be camping and have their bikes with them, so it’s a good thing that the Cam-Plex site is so large. The overwhelming impression was of 60-70% GSs, which I suppose is down to the expolits of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. Still, an interest in motorcycle touring has spurred the market - there are a lot more travel companies specializing in motorcycle travel and goodies out there than ever before.

But there’s a lot of tat too. Any trip of vehicle-based/dependent travel takes a lot out of you and your machine, and more particularly so if you’re traveling outside of the developed world. So any gear you take needs to be

1. Justified - the less stuff, the better
2. Well engineered - it has to perform its function well
3. Well made - it has to last the trip

Walking the vendor halls today, I’d bet your could eliminate 75% of the stuff by applying #1 above. While I’m sure someone, somewhere needs a ”portable walrus polishing kit”, you probably don’t need it in the Rub ‘al Khali.

Number 2 catches you out too. I suppose experience is the guide here, I’ve bought equipment that looks good in the garage at home, but lets you down in the field due to some under-specified material or component, or just a poor design. Number 3 is of course related to this - I’ve chucked stuff on the road because it ends up being crap. You get what you pay for…

So here are my takeaways - first impressions of what seem to be decent goods and services on display.

Globeriders

Helge Pedersens global tour company. They offer a limited number of tours per year, longer than the average tour (50+ days), decent (screened) group sizes and trips to some great places. I particularly like the sound of the Indo-China trip. Helge seems like a top-bloke, but he’s come in for some criticism over his handling of image copyright on Adventure Rider.

Moto Discovery

I don’t know much about these guys, but they run some interesting trips, including one to Iran.

Rawhyde Adventures

Looks like this California-based company does some good training. It also offers some off-road trips in the Western US and Mexico.

ROK Straps

I liked these so much I bought some! Basically, an adjustable elastic strap. Aerostich stocks them.

Stop N Go Tire Repair Kit

After seeing a quick demo, I bought the Pocket Tire Plugger with CO2 inflation. It’s a super quick way to plug and re-inflate your tire after picking up a puncture. Hopefully, I won’t have the opportunity to review it!

Ear Inc. NYX Sport Glasses

A good range of impact-proof polycarbonate lenses.

Adaptiv Technologies TPX Radar Detector

Vibration and water-resistant detector, designed specifically for motorcycles.

MedjetAssist

A global medevac insurance company, that also offers bike repatriation when in the US. I may take out one of these policies, to bolster our current insurance.

The 2009 Rally runs from July 16 - 19th, and will be in Johnson City, TN.

Yesterday, I bought a 1972 Land Rover Series IIA Dormobile.

It didn’t sell on ebay, so I contacted the guy and made an offer, which he accepted.

Happily, it’s the 2.6l inline 6 engine. It’s also right-hand drive, which is, of course, no problem for me - one of my US-based Defenders is right-hand drive too.

Now, any vehicle that’s almost my age will need some work, but this truck had the good fortune of being an export model, and left Blighty soon after manufacture for South Africa. I don’t yet know much of its history, but I know it spent some time on the East Coast (of the US) before ending up in Reno, NV, where I’ll be heading out in a week or so to pick it up. As the vehicle hasn’t spend time on UK roads, it hasn’t suffered from the corrosive sea-air or salted-roads. In fact, it seems there is just some superficial rust on the bulkhead and a bit more rust on the rear cross-member, which is easy and cheap to replace, should it need it.

The other good news is the Dormobile company in the UK has a lot of the spares I may be needing. I know the roof-vent is broken and the table is missing, and I’m glad these parts are available off the shelf. I spoke to Tim there, he’s a really helpful chap - and pleased to know that “another one had been rescued”!

I’m looking forward to picking it up, doing some maintenance and getting it out into the hills as quickly as possible for some RV’ing, ’70s style!

Now if only I can find a decent Carawagon… :)

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Some links Dormobile Owners Club Land Rover FAQ - Dormobile Teriann Wakemans Dormobile Page