Journal

2008-06-05    Installed rock slides.

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2008-06-08    Installed 4 lights on the roof rack.

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2007-09-21    Swedish Land Rover Club (SLRK) annual Fjällsafari.

This years Fjällsafari (Mountain safari) of the SLRK was at Vålådalen, near Åre, in the mountain area in middle of Sweden. I met up with 15 other cars in Rättvik then we went in a big convoy towards Vålådalen and picked up others along the way ending up at about a total of 20 vehicles. We took some smaller dirt roads passing over mountains which made the trip really great. Communication via 27Mhz CB-radio throughout almost all the cars in the convoy made the trip very enjoyable.
Friday morning we went to the top of Åreskutan, which is the ski slope where the World Cup in slalom is held. The view from there was simply magnificent. Thereafter we drove through mountain passes to a remote hotel and restaurant in the mountain area where the road was very close to the snow border of the mountain peaks.
We visited also a couple of water falls on the way back to the base camp.
On Saturday a large group of vehicles took of on an adventure trip to a mountain top. Out of almost 15 cars only 3 made it to the top. Unfortunately I had to leave in the morning going home to celebrate my daughters birthday so I missed out on that great trip. I heard that it had been a real adventure with hard struggling and lots of winching.

The RR worked perfectly throughout the whole trip and with the new drag link, panhard rod and steering damper installed I have got rid of all the vibrations I have had earlier. So I just simply enjoyed the 520km ride back home on the sunny autumn day, but still jealous of the others who went to challenge the mountain top.

A photo slideshow is at the "Photos" page.

2007-08-24    High Chaparral Offroad meeting.

My daughter and I attended the offroad meeting at High Chaparral in Hillerstorp, this was our third time at this event. Previous years there has been around 200-300 offroad vehichles but this year there were actually 466 vehicles of all different kinds attending.
The event was great, as usual, and it had even became better than earlier years since there were now also driving arrangements on Friday evening and also on Sunday besides the main event on Saturday.
The night trial on Friday evening where everyone attended became a success, the track was supposed to be easy so everyone could attend but proved to be a bit more difficult than expected for some vehicles, but everyone enjoyed.

The driving at the forest tracks on Saturday became a bit too crowded with so many cars involved that lining up and queuing was frequent. With the slight rain and all the cars driving the track soon became quite muddy and everyone seemed to have a blast.
I teamed up with some other Land Rover members and we drove through some muddy sections. During some later mud exploring I got stuck a couple of times and the winch did a great job to recover. Unfortunately I was a bit careless at one of the mud holes and winched myself straight into a cut-off tree and bent the steering arm (drag link). Nothing too serious and I could still use the car but with a steering wheel off center.
Basically the car worked very well in the mud but I do suffer from limited ground clearance under the axels, I will seriously consider bigger wheels for offroading.

A photo slideshow is in the "Photos" page and video is in the "Videos" page.
 

2007-08-10    Damaged potentiometer linkage during offroading.

During the offroading events at Oknö I managed to break the linkage to the potentiometers for rear wheels. This is now the second time. Well, actually it broke 2 times during the event.
I had a spare potentiometer with me so I could change it at the forest track and continue to drive. The spare one was also broken later but not so badly so I could actually continue using it to get home. After have done some investigation I have realized the problem. Due to the modifications of the suspension system with the increased travel we have had to extend the potentiometer arms with about 20mm, but during extreme flex the dropping wheel will actually be further extended so the linkage was too short and at the same time there will be a sideway force on the linkage arm that will further increase the stress on the linkage and cause the breaking.
I have now modified the linkage with an additional 15mm increase in length and also installed a linkage that will allow sideway forces.
To protect the linkage I have covered it with vulcanizing tape to create a watertight seal.
                        
 

2007-08-09 (-12)    Swedish Land Rover Club (SLRK) summer meeting at Oknö

My family and I brought the caravan and attended the annual SLRK summer meeting, from Thursday 9/8 until Sunday 12/8. This year the club celebrated the 20'th anniversary so it was a huge event with ~230 vehicles were almost 70 came from abroad.
Excellent organization with lots of activities for the LR drivers and the kids got a lot of events to attend to as well.
There was offroad driving with an exciting track in the forest close to Mönsterås. Easier offroading took place at the local motocross track where a Challenge competition also was held. Barbeque and dinner at the meeting tent every evening.
On Saturday all the LR's drove in a convoy through Mönsterås city and all cars parked at the harbour area for the locals to come and look at.
 

2007-07-21    Meeting in Ludvika with some Greenlaning & off-road driving

I invited the other regional Swedish Land Rover Club members for a drive through my local area including some lighter off-roading. We were totally 5 cars that had a very nice day in sunny and beautiful weather.
See photos under "Photos >> Other", I uploaded a video to YouTube as well.
 

2007-07-10    Roof rack 

Due to the larger size of the spare off-road wheel it would not fit well inside the car so I installed a Thule roof rack for carrying the spare.
 

2007-06-26    Installation of M.A.R.S. 

Installed a Manual Air Recovery System for the air suspension system. The kit allows each individual air spring to be pumped up manually with any compressed air source. Very easy installation and seems to be working very good. It works in "parallel" with the EAS system.
An additional feature is that I now have the possibility to monitor or check the air pressure to the individual suspensions during normal operation.
 

2007-06-03    Mud driving

Did some mud driving, got stucked. Had to put the winch to real use for recovery. Had some real fun but was quite tiring with the recovery work in the 20-40cm clay mud.
Link to a video.
 

2007-06-03    Test of winch

Did the first winch test. Just pulled the car up-hill a reasonable steep slope. Worked fine. Seemed to be no problem with the winch fittings. Noticed though some modifications are needed of the brackets for the control box.
Link to a video.
 

2007-05-28    Repair of damaged air-suspension potentiometer

I repaired the plastic casing of the potentiometer with epoxy-resin and fiber-glass, which actually became very good. The broken linkage to the potentiometer axel was MIG-welded, which also became good. The alarm in the "EAS-system" had though to be reset by a Land Rover service center.
 

2007-05-27    Wild Wäsby Offroad Big Spring Meet - Rimbo.

My daughter and I started early in the morning going the 270km to the meeting. Normal onroad driving is a pleasure with the Range Rover, even with the quite extreme tires but though a bit noisier. Good to meet some old and new friends at the meeting. Had some nice driving there for a few hours. But at the end of one of the forest trails I noticed the "EAS-failure" alarm came up. After some inspections I found that rear left linkage system for the air-spring suspension was broken together with the potentiometer. It was probably a branch or something on the ground that had bent up and broke the linkage. We had to cut the day short and decided to go home early. Unfortunately during the travel home the alarm "EAS fault - Slow 55km/h" appeared, which cause the air suspension system to go into "emergency mode" and the system then release all the air from the air-springs. So the remaining travel home was done on the bump stops. Fortunately the roads were very smooth so it was not too bad but still though quite bumpy ride. When this happened I realized how lucky I was that I had not pushed through with my thoughts of bigger tires (~33") because that would definitely had put a halt to our return trip home.
 

2007-05-10    Installation of winch. 

Yet another trip to Miktec where he did all the winch installation. The 4,2 ton winch together with two work lights was mounted on a frame with the detachable fittings for the frame of the car. All the electrical wiring was done with plug-in type.
 

2007-05-05    Another test drive - Björnhyttan.

Went to a nearby off-road event but I had only the street tires on. Tried though some tracks in the forest together with some friends and it worked quite well, I suffered though from a limited ground clearance due to the relatively small wheels. The diff protections was though very good to have :-)
Link to a video.
 

2007-04-28    Ekeby offroad meeting.

Had changed from the winter tyres (Cooper Discoverer M+S) to the off-road tires.
Left Ludvika early in the morning. Arrived at Ekeby around 9:30. Drivers briefing and then free driving at the open tracks and at the gravel pit. Were playing around and had some fun, the car went just fine. After the barbecue lunch I met some friends from the SLRK (Swedish Land Rover Club) and we went on a joined drive around one of the off-road tracks. Not too serious driving though but was OK. Was not too much of a challenge for the car.
 

2007-04-08    Some test driving after new installed modifications

Was trying the car in some off-roading to see that all the things are working. Everything seemed to work very well.
Link to a video.
 

2007-03-22    Installation of new air-springs, shock absorbers, reprogrammed ride height.

The new Arnott generation III air-springs together with the new long travel Bilstein shock absorbers were installed. Some adjustments and modifications were needed. The original bump stoppers were replaced with the tougher polyurethane type. Increased the length of the linkage for the potentiometers to accommodate the longer travel.
The EAS (Electronic Air Suspension) system was then recalibrated to give the new ride height.

I noticed that the road handling of the car became improved even though the height increase of ~20mm in highway mode. This probably due to new and better shocks and also of the better characteristics of the new air-springs since they are stiffer in lower modes.
In off-road mode the increase in height is nearly 100mm and the the suspension is very soft. The articulation is very good.
Still though I have not noticed any vibrations due to the height increase.
 

2007-01-18    Installation of limited slip differentials, diff protections and additional recovery points

The TrueTracs limited slip diffs were installed in front and rear axels.
Diff protections for front and rear axels were also installed.
The original recovery points were improved and additional recovery points were installed in front and rear.

The on-road handling is basically the same as without them. The steering centering is more pronounced. The car behaves well balanced with a slight under steering in winter condition or slippery roads.
In deep snow or mud the difference compared to without them is remarkable. The car is now pulling with all 4 wheels even at very slippery condition. Earlier when going in deep snow I ended up with some wheels spinning and the traction control (TC) working hard and the car came to a stop. Had then to reverse and then get some more momentum to continue. This repeated in the very deep snow. Now with the limited slip diffs installed the car is pulling and digging through the snow like crazy but still very maneuverable. I am amazed every time I go in these conditions.
 

2006-07-15    New off-road tires (basically the beginning of the project)

Maxxis Mudzilla 31"x11,5"/16 on 16" CW rims. Fitted to the car without any modifications. I removed the front mud flaps since the tires rubbed them at full steering when in max in-flex.
I noticed though that when the air-suspension system is at "loading height" (empty air springs and at bump stops) the extra width of the wheel and tire cause the fender arch to rest on top of the tires.

The tires are quite noisy going on roads but handles quite well. Becomes though serious vibrations at speeds over 90km/h. The balancing of the tires are OK but the vibrations are probably due to the tire construction. - We should though remember these are 90/10 tires (90% offroad/10% onroad)