Schaefft's Bargain Barge Extravaganza - Buick Revival & a VERY GREEN Jag!

[Schaefft]

8 minutes ago, 320touring said:

@Schaefft that bottle is for lube for the LPG system. Because the fuel is dryer.

 

I'm of the mindset it's like those little nets full of lead shot you got to put in your tank when unleaded came in. An effective way to part fool and funds.

I was wondering whether it was needed for the LPG system. I don't think it normally is though, unless this particular system or the engine has a specific need for extra valve lubrication. It clearly ran out a while ago.

[Schaefft]

I was planning to use the nice weather to move on to British banger #3 today and replace the front strut on the L322. Things started off well with the battery being flat (and my battery jumper still being dead, Black Friday can't come soon enough!).

New strut and bolts ready to be installed:

I then wanted to take the wheel off, only to not find the wheel lock key where I usually leave it. 2 hours of searching pretty much everywhere it could possibly be resulted in nothing, it simply has disappeared. If this isn't anticlimactic I don't know what is.

Fortunately I was able to figure out what key I need. There are 20 different types for this specific lock nut/bolt. A seller in ebay had photos of all of them so plenty of comparing and a bit of Photoshop later...

It's the type C key. At least it matches with the photo of the lock bolt I have taken, verified via another listing for a similar key matching the first one. 35 quid for it is pretty outragous but cheaper than what Land Rover would have charged (half an hour of labor and a new set of wheel locks...). Let's hope its here soon then...

Meanwhile, have a photo of the Lexus from today. It's still waiting for it's turn. I don't want to drive it as long as the alternator isn't sorted, especially now that I constantly have to rely on the headlights. I've managed to find all the parts I need to rebuild it based on a photo I've taken the last time I did this (in 2018). I'll order them once I have confirmed what exact alternator is in there, they should all be the same but you never know.

Also bonus E38:

[24vdiamond]

Don't think the valve master stuff has any lead as that would kill the catalytic converter, cracking looking jag, wish I was brave enough to own one 😁

[wesacosa]

Did you see this one before? He advertised it a while ago but seems to still have it and wants £450

 

[Schaefft]

17 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

Did you see this one before? He advertised it a while ago but seems to still have it and wants £450

 

Last time I talked to him he wanted 550 after someone showed up and didn't want it. The problem is that he's in Saffron Walden in Essex, which is quite far from here.

[wesacosa]

7 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

Last time I talked to him he wanted 550 after someone showed up and didn't want it. The problem is that he's in Saffron Walden in Essex, which is quite far from here.

yeah guess that does push the limits of the pre - booked MOT! Someone seems to have shown interest on Facebook (hence him saying it's still for sale) so hopefully it gets saved 

 

 

[Schaefft]

As most have seen the MG ZT-T and Jaguar XJR6 are for sale now (see the threads in the for sale section). Two reasons really, I need the space and funds. As some of you have seen in the Ebay tat thread however either reason is already being undermined by a lack of self control again😂

Nevertheless, one car did in fact leave the fleet yesterday, with the Alfa 156 Sportwagon having made it's way across the Northern borders. I hope it'll continue to be the great car it has been during my ownership. In it's place another car arrived however, in form of the Autoshite Jaguar X-Type 2.0 diesel!

It'll be interesting to dig deeper into this one. How much Mondeo is really left in Jaguar's original compact executive? I've spend a good afternoon cleaning it inside and out between yesterday and today (and more will be needed but it'll clean up well). I also took it for a quick spin up the country lanes yesterday evening. The 2.0 diesel certainly isn't a rocket when it comes to torque (it's not even remotely comparable to the 20V JTDM in the Alfa). It almost immediately blew its boost pipe off (that's how it sounded anyway) so it now has all of 20bhp. At least that should be an easy fix... The A/C compressor sounds like its about to drop right off the engine judging by the vibrations/noises I'm hearing when it kicks in at idle, plus a tensioner/idler pulley probably needs replacing rather soon. With this being a 400 quid car that's really supposed to fill the role of a winter beater I can't complain though. Depending on what the sill situation underneath is looking like it might be worth putting some money into! As every single Jag I've owned so far the fob is broken (smashed circuitboard this time) so a replacement for under 13 quid is already on it's way.

In other news, the inner right LED taillight on the E65 died because of water intrusion, just before the MOT is up. I bought a replacement on ebay which arrived the other day. Step one, disassemble half the bootlid inside and out to remove the light...

It's not easy to see here but the entire area below the lights isn't sheet metal, it's another plastic cover the inner taillights and a bunch of gaskets are sandwhiched underneath. That means there were plenty of rather brittle clips to snap if not super careful, plus a single screw BMW for whatever reason decided to hide right in the middle underneath the reg plate...

Anyway, light replaced, things work again as intended, one broken clip replaced etc. Lets hope no more water makes its way in there. No wonder nobody sells these lights, getting them out is a real pain.

[Schaefft]

Moving on to the Range Rover. We left off when one of the air struts blew after jacking it up to replace a brake hose:

I then managed to lose my wheel lock nut key and had to order a replacement. It arrived earlier in the week so I immediately set off to replace the strut in my (extended) lunch break:

The lower bolts came out surprisingly easy considering they are usually supposed to be an absolute pain. The drop link was the bigger pain of the two and eventually just snapped off...

Old vs. New, fortunately identical.

New strut installed, incl. new bolts and the worlds longest droplink (Lemforder as it should be). Probably was long overdue anyway.

Success! I reconnected the battery and it aired up just fine! I took it for a longer test drive yesterday. After several miles (and a few minutes after starting the car after parking it for 2 hours) an air suspension warning popped up again but I think it might just need to get calibrated properly at some point. No corner is deflating over night so the original error from months back might still very much be there (i.e. height sensor) and the leak was just adding to the drama.

Crossing my fingers that this really will be it for now and it'll at least get me to Germany in 3 weeks time. It can break there if its needs to, I'll have the time and tools to sort it there...

[HMC]

Well done! Looking forward to the updates with the l322 Germany road trip.

Having flashbacks here as my last trip to Germany was in 2018 in an L322. My Marriage was disintegrating, and as it turns out were the internals of the autobox on the 2005 TD6. It kept going into limp mode and we only just made it back. IIRC later ones have a different gearbox.

[Split_Pin]

How easy was the air line part of it to disconnect? That's the only unknown for me when I have seen this job covered online. I expect mine will need one at some point!

[Schaefft]

11 minutes ago, HMC said:

Well done! Looking forward to the updates with the l322 Germany road trip.

Having flashbacks here as my last trip to Germany was in 2018 in an L322. My Marriage was disintegrating, and as it turns out were the internals of the autobox on the 2005 TD6. It kept going into limp mode and we only just made it back. IIRC later ones have a different gearbox.

The good news is that I already spent £XXXX to have a rebuilt gearbox/new solenoid pack/new torque converter installed into this one. It's a bit further up the thread, probably the best garage experience I've ever had in the UK!

9 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

How easy was the air line part of it to disconnect? That's the only unknown for me when I have seen this job covered online. I expect mine will need one at some point!

It's just a compression fitting that you unbolt with a 10 or 12mm spanner, there's plenty of airline to move around with the strut halfway in as well. However getting it to seat inside the strut while scewing it back on was a right faff and probably took the longest of the entire procedure😂 Replacing the strut should take 2 hours at most.

[Schaefft]

As seen in the collection thread, a new car purchase happened yesterday, taking me down to Manchester to buy what Clarkson, Hammond and May once described as "The worst car in the world":

I mentioned it in the collection thread already but I couldn't disagree more! But what have I acquired exactly? Let's take a little tour!

The car in question is a 2002 SC430 in Twilight Amethyst Pearl with a Saddle brown interior. It's a color combination you hardly ever see but exactly the reason I thought it was worth putting a bid in for. It's a purple metallic basically, something I personally think looks stunning and makes the car feel quite a bit more special than the usual run of the mill SC430 in silver/champaign.

It's a color you can only appreciate in the right lighting conditions but you get an idea here. We need more purple cars on the roads! It's riding on the original pre-facelift SC430 alloys which are an unusual design, the center cap is huge, bolting onto the spokes, Tires are Eagle F1s, pretty much the best summer performance tire you can buy which would have cost half the money I paid for the entire car, so that's a huge win. I have them on my E38 and E39.

Someone in the UK owners group told me the car has a Tony Banks custom exhaust, which explains the different tips compared to stock. It could have come like this from the factory, while I don't like the larger pipes the sound is spot on, which very rarely is the case with custom exhausts.

As the name implies, the SC430 was only available with Lexus' 4.3l V8, in the pre-facelift cars linked to a 5-speed auto. Interestingly enough the gearbox adaptions are very similar to that of the XK8, super lazy in normal mode, with the response you'd really expect only in sport (power) mode. I guess that should give you a pretty good idea what type of customer both cars were aimed at. With 300hp the Lexus is a little quicker than the XK8 as well and pulls well once the kickdown kicks in.

Who said SC430s aren't practical cars? Granted with the top down all that space will be gone, especially with the optional spare wheel I don't have. However leave the top up and you can easily fit an entire BMW E46 exhaust system! I picked that one up on the way back for my brother's E30 M54 swap. The bootlid is massive:

The inside is very plush, the saddle brown interior really making a big difference. Everything has held up remarkably well, bolster wear is almost non-existent which is mind-boggling at 164k. The leather wore like it had half the miles of driving on it. The only thing missing is the flap for the Satnav screen and the illumination for the speedo. Great excuse for speeding at night. Someone fitted an FM transmitter I have yet to figure out.

One of the biggest criticisms of the press at the time was rear passenger space, it really is pretty much useless for real people. However, having owned both of it's main rivals, the situation is nearly identical in the R129 SL and XK8, either of them hardly have enough space for a small child, with the Mercedes offering the option to delete the rear seats altogether. The backseat in the Lexus therefore is your real cargo compartment.

Someone screwed around with the aerial so there's no radio reception, as usual with the car came a few additions to my CD collection however!

The trip back from Manchster was trouble free. In general the car has held up remarkably well, there's not a hint of a suspension clunk or wear and tear that would indicate the miles. Compare this with anything made in Italy (my Maserati, the Alfa 166 or my GF's 500) or Britain (and Germany to a lesser extent) and it once again shows what makes Lexus cars so special, they are lightyears ahead in quality. I already saw this with my GS300 before. With that said I think it got there because someone really loved the car. The last owner had it for 2 years in which things might have deteriorated slightly. A lot of simple stuff like the fob batteries or aerial weren't sorted. But there are plenty of indicators that someone did make an effort with appropriate timing belt changes, decent tires and a generally tidy appearance. The mileage therefore doesn't worry me in the slightest.

All in all a big win so far then. If you consider how much cheaper these were when new compared to the pretty but older feeling XK8 and the then brand new R230 SL (which I haven't driven yet) I think you can forgive it for it's slightly dorky looks. I'm also not a fan of the poorly integrated foglights in the back on the Euro models, GM couldn't have done worse job. However Top Gear made people think these were trash from the factory when in reality you got a top quality, solid feeling grand tourer that rides and performs well for what was a bargain price back then (£52k before dealer incentives, which Im sure were generous). People's biggest complaints were that its not the sportscar it was never meant to be. Granted I'm used to driving big barges but there's nothing wrong with the steering whatsover. And practicality concerns are somewhat out of touch considering its a convertible.

I've ordered new batteries for the keys and will start looking for the few bits of trim and an aerial once I get a chance. It's not a car I'm planning to drive through the winter (thats what the X-Type is for) but I got the feeling this one is here to stay. I'm looking forward to spending more time with it!

[Schaefft]

It's been a little while since an update. The Lexus has a working remote fob again after changing the battery, one of the keys seem to have the wrong chip though as it refuses to code to the car's immobilizer. One is better than what I started with at least!

The bigger news however is that the Range Rover has made it to Germany for the Xmas holidays/family visit! We arrived over a week ago by now, adding 1100 miles to the odometer. A good chunk of the journey here was taken by ferry, courtesy of DFDS:

Since I originally planned to buy a trailer in the UK to tow my semi-abandoned German Oldsmobile Aurora home but in the end bought one in Germany instead I had some credit left for my booking that DFDS wouldn't refund (taking a trailer isn't cheap). I got a nicer Commodore cabin and free dinner instead which was a nice change from the usual bunk beds:

The trip through the Netherlands and their ridiculous day-time speed limits meant progress was slow but at least yielded some pretty respectable fuel economy numbers:

That's 28 UK MPG, not bad for a twin turbo V8-powered brick. Naturally that didn't last long after I crossed the German border, not only because of the higher speed limits but also the constant slowdowns due to built up traffic. The car was pretty loaded with tools and stuff I wanted to get out of my garage and sold here for a little more than I'd get for it in the UK so that probably didn't help either. It's settled at around 11.1l with quite a bit of city driving.

I've started to notice a vibration coming from the back starting at around 60mph and getting worse above that, but only occasionally. I knew that the right rear caliper was slightly sticky since I bought the car but held off until now. The rotor is probably warped so I took a look at what I needed and ordered new discs, pads and a caliper from Autodoc for under 200 Euros, they even delivered them fairly quickly (it helps that they are a German company).

I'll probably throw them at the car over the next few days.

As you can tell the car has gotten quite filthy in the week it's been here, it's all road salt. Fortunately the weather's been really dry but this is the kind of crap you want to keep off your Land Rover product as much as possible:

So it got a proper wash yesterday.

So far it's holding up really well! One of the EGR solenoids is throwing a code I was aware of before, they'll get blanked off eventually but it'll be fine for now.

I just got a call from the garage that they finished the one last job I was asking them to do for me on the above Oldsmobile Aurora.

If you look a year back in this thread you'll find a few posts about me finally getting this car running after years of it remaining at the previous owner's yard. I'll try to get a few more of its issues sorted while I'm here before it gets strapped on the trailer and hopefully return with me to the UK where I can hopefully tidy it up further.

I don't want to turn this thread too much into a travel vlog but here are a few impressions from the local places we've visited, plus one of the many Lada Nivas on the road. Some will be more recognizable than others to some here.

[Heidel_Kakao]

@Schaefft Does the SC430 just feel like a convertible LS430 or is it a bit more sporty?

[Schaefft]

4 minutes ago, Heidel_Kakao said:

@Schaefft Does the SC430 just feel like a convertible LS430 or is it a bit more sporty?

I haven't driven an LS430 but I'd assume it'll feel slightly less solid and weighty due to the frameless doors and shorter wheelbase. It's a GT so very much on the wafting side still, not sporty like a BMW.

[Westbay]

17 hours ago, Schaefft said:

I don't want to turn this thread too much into a travel vlog but here are a few impressions from the local places we've visited, plus one of the many Lada Nivas on the road.

I personally do not object to a 'road trip's ' as long as there's a sprinkling of vehicles included ! ... always good to see what folks are up to and how they use their vehicles !

[Schaefft]

Great news! The semi-abandoned Oldsmobile Aurora lives, again!

Now you might remember me saying this almost exactly a year ago. While I was able to drive the car up to a local garage back then it really struggled with keeping running. I've asked the garage to clean the injectors to make sure it's running on all cylinders but somehow there must have been more shite in the tank, which since has completely clogged up the fuel system again...

Fortunately I had pretty much everything I needed in the back of the Range Rover. The 1-year old fuel pump didn't seem to build as much pressure as it should so out it came again.

I have absolutely no clue where this junk came from, it almost looks like something melted inside the tank. I'm not aware of anything falling inside there and everything used in the system is either original or rated for petrol and oil. I hooked up the pump to a battery to flush it and the filthiest soup emerged from it. I cleaned it all thoroughly and reassembled the pump to flush the fuel supply line after adding another 20l of fresh fuel. It eventually turned clean without any further debris but the original filter obviously has had it and the damage has already been done. Since the garage also said that the intake manifold had a hole in it (?) I removed the whole thing and took it home.

As you can tell I'm not having the best working conditions here, it was also -5 so plenty of fun was had.

That's the starter in the valley btw. Similar to the Lexus V8 GM decided to put it under the intake manifold on the Northstar. To be honest, it's hardly more hassle than most starters mounted underneath the car.

I even brought a replacement manifold with me but as it turned out my old one was perfectly fine. The garage must have meant the intake boot having a tear. However none of that matters since no air is metered before it goes through the throttle body. My '95 doesn't even have a MAF and instead uses the TPS and MAP sensors to regulate the air/fuel mixture (the manifold on the top is from a later model year). A strange oversight from the garage there...

Moving on I removed the fuel rail to pull the injectors. My suspicions were confirmed, all but one injector were clogged up with junk. The filter is from the fuel pressure regulator after the fuel already passed all injectors...

I flushed the fuel rail, installed the set of replacement injectors I brought with me using new o-rings and retainment clips and also swapped out the pressure regulator which had a tear inside. New manifold gaskets completed the rebuild, I had a replacement throttle position sensor as well but the old one still worked perfectly fine.

I also reseated the gasket of a flap GM only installed in the manifold in case of a backfire threatening to blow the thing to pieces. First time I've ever seen it but smart thinking, it sure came in handy before.😂

Here's where we left then. I've cleaned the mating surfaces on the heads and tried to get as much grime out of there as I could manage without a hoover. I noticed a wire to the starter missing some insulation so I cleaned it and wrapped it as well.

Rebuilt intake manifold installed. Since I won't trust the fuel supply until I get a chance to replace the old filter I added another one right at the fuel rail feed line, that should keep all larger chunks out of the rail hopefully. With everything ready I threw the battery back in the car and voila, we once again have V8 noises:

I will try to get a few more issues on it sorted over the next few days before it goes on the trailer for its journey back. The biggest problem is a lack of power steering due to a leak at a line that's integrated into the rack, not good! The ABS light is illuminated as well (probably a seized pump which I have) and it obviously needs every single fluid changed. I also have to replace the belt tensioner that's holding onto dear life. I got all the parts I need however so it's really mostly about time at this point. Fingers crossed that won't be much of a problem for much longer.

[hairnet]

most of the dutchies dont care about the limit either

when heading for osna was doing 70-75 and they were coming past in most places

weird that they decided to raise the limit in the evening but hey they smoke a lot right

 

[Schaefft]

Today was the day I could finally pick up my new car trailer! A quick recap: to get the Oldsmobile home I needed something to tow it back on. The Range Rover was always intended to be a tow vehicle, I just couldn't find a suitable car transport trailer in the UK for sensible money in time to take it to Germany. Fortunately there happens to be one of Germany's largest trailer manufacturer just around the corner from here...

Their showroom opened today, with all the paperwork already done it was time to finally take it home!

It's a  brand new Stema Atour tilt-bed trailer with a 3000kg load capacity and 4.90m usable bed length, more than enough for my purposes. It's fairly bare bones as of right now but provides anything I need to get the Aurora back to the UK. It's nice to buy something new and shiny for once, without having to worry about neglected maintenance or things just breaking. Exactly what I wanted to avoid for this fairly long journey as UK trailers don't require regular inspections and usually don't even have a registration, yet still cost close to what I paid here...

The 40min drive back went smoothly, the big benefit of this trailer is that it's no wider than the Range Rover, making city driving straight forward. Naturally it's self-braking so you can't feel much of it either while slowing down, or accelerating with the TDV8 at least.

I've loaded the Aurora without issues, I will get an electric winch eventually though as not all the stuff I'm planning to transport will be able to get on there under it's own power.

Some questions for those who tow regularly: How much tongue weight would you think is acceptable? My detachable towbar has a capacity of 140kg but I don't have a great way of measuring it without awkwardly using a body scale. In the image above it should be close to the limit.

[JakeT]

Great trip! We got a very cheap commodore upgrade on DFDS once and felt like royalty. I only wanted free Wi-Fi but the cabin was the same price. And included it!

 

Trailer looks great, as did Weinachts-Meißen/Dresden. We passed by a few years ago travelling from Czechia to Leipzig. For the money I’d buy a new trailer too. WRT tongue weight, I recall mates having a scale that goes between the tow ball and trailer? Might be worth a shot.

[DirtyDaily]

What a fabulous sight still got RR envy over this. Sounds like i need a trip to germany for a trailer too, good result and actually makes a lot of sense the way it worked out for you.

[warninglight]

Looks like a great trailer setup! My new trailer has a (knackered) electric winch which I need to rebuild. The single speed hand winch on my other trailer was a workout when dragging dead stuff onto it, but it was always there and ready to go. Not always guaranteed with a rarely used electric winch. Perhaps more reason to buy more broken chod...

It's hard to visualise the 'right' level of noseweight on an air spring tow car as they just correct it and level themselves out. My method with coil sprung towcar is just to watch for approx the right amount of squat in the rear arches.

If at 100km/h it's snaking along a bit, I would move the car forwards a little bit, and try then. You get a feel for where it's most comfortable!

[Schaefft]

30 minutes ago, DirtyDaily said:

 

 

What a fabulous sight still got RR envy over this. Sounds like i need a trip to germany for a trailer too, good result and actually makes a lot of sense the way it worked out for you.

 

I wouldn't go just for the sake of buying a trailer, used prices are similarly high to the UK if not higher. Regular inspections and owners taking a little more care of their stuff than the average UK scrap car dealer/banger racer might help though. If you happen to find a deal and got the appropriate tow car, why not? The only issue I see is the lack of a German address to register it to, that'll be mandatory here. You even need a registration document for your UK trailer once you are off the boat, that was another expense I would need to add to anything I could have bought before the trip.

I've got to say that the customer service with Stema was exemplary though. Not only did they manage to source exactly the right trailer on short notice (they transferred it from another order that could wait a little longer, can you imagine?), they also happily dealt with all the registration paperwork/appointment and stored the trailer indoors over the holidays. They even threw in a coupling lock for free since I was asking about the one on the trailer. Things couldn't have gone more smoothly. A shame they don't have a dealer in the UK anymore, the last one was in Whitby apparently.

13 minutes ago, warninglight said:

Looks like a great trailer setup! My new trailer has a (knackered) electric winch which I need to rebuild. The single speed hand winch on my other trailer was a workout when dragging dead stuff onto it, but it was always there and ready to go. Not always guaranteed with a rarely used electric winch. Perhaps more reason to buy more broken chod...

It's hard to visualise the 'right' level of noseweight on an air spring tow car as they just correct it and level themselves out. My method with coil sprung towcar is just to watch for approx the right amount of squat in the rear arches.

If at 100km/h it's snaking along a bit, I would move the car forwards a little bit, and try then. You get a feel for where it's most comfortable!

Thanks man! Yeah, it's a good question whether a manual winch would do as well but I already know that one day I will have to load that one car with stuck brakes I wish I had bought something more powerful for ha!

And yeah, I think a lot of it will hopefully become second nature fairly quickly. I'll see what things look like on level ground tomorrow and will adjust things accordingly once I'm on the road (setting off on Wednesday afternoon). I just don't want that detachable towbar to drop out the bottom, I'm only going 50 but it wouldn't end well.😂

[warninglight]

Good luck! The Deutsch equivalent of Bon Voyage escapes me...

Always important but especially so with detachable towbars, see the breakaway cable on your new trailer? Find a solid attachment point on your towbar assembly, not on the detachable part. Usually on that type there will be a thick section with a hole for the job, just by where the detachable neck clicks in. If the worst was to happen and your towbar detached, at least the trailer brakes will be pulled on immediately. Most folk in the UK either run without the cable or loop it around the neck of the towbar which will leave you with a 2000kg projectile if the towbar detached itself. 

From my days of looking on kleinanzeigen- does 50mph towing mean you don't have dampers fitted to the trailer suspension? I've never seen a trailer with them here but can see why they'd be a good idea!

[Schaefft]

1 minute ago, warninglight said:

Good luck! The Deutsch equivalent of Bon Voyage escapes me...

Always important but especially so with detachable towbars, see the breakaway cable on your new trailer? Find a solid attachment point on your towbar assembly, not on the detachable part. Usually on that type there will be a thick section with a hole for the job, just by where the detachable neck clicks in. If the worst was to happen and your towbar detached, at least the trailer brakes will be pulled on immediately. Most folk in the UK either run without the cable or loop it around the neck of the towbar which will leave you with a 2000kg projectile if the towbar detached itself. 

From my days of looking on kleinanzeigen- does 50mph towing mean you don't have dampers fitted to the trailer suspension? I've never seen a trailer with them here but can see why they'd be a good idea!

Yup, I read up on that and it's pretty much mandatory in both Germany and the Netherlands to attach it to something that isn't part of the detachable towbar, so that's what I have done. I even bought an extra long cable in case the original length wouldn't reach (which ended up missing another inch so we just added an extra metal loop). Anything else would just be careless and asking for trouble. I originally expected to need chains to keep the trailer attached to the car in case the trailer hitch pops off but apparently that's more of an American thing.

[Barry Cade]

Just use a set of bathroom scales and a bit of wood to measure your noseweight..

These are the go to guys in Scotland for trailers, Polish guy brings them over. How do prices compare?

https://fifetrailersautobil.co.uk/product-category/car-transporter-trailers-and-car-carriers/

[Schaefft]

9 minutes ago, Barry Cade said:

Just use a set of bathroom scales and a bit of wood to measure your noseweight..

These are the go to guys in Scotland for trailers, Polish guy brings them over. How do prices compare?

https://fifetrailersautobil.co.uk/product-category/car-transporter-trailers-and-car-carriers/

Yeah, I did today, guess that's the cheapest way of doing it really.

Prices on there seem comparable, I paid about £4200 for mine but got a tilting bed but no manual winch.

[Gaffer]

2 hours ago, Schaefft said:

Some questions for those who tow regularly: How much tongue weight would you think is acceptable? My detachable towbar has a capacity of 140kg but I don't have a great way of measuring it without awkwardly using a body scale. In the image above it should be close to the limit.

I usually aim for the b pillar (on a 4 door car) to line up with the middle axle on my tri, so bang on centre between the 2 axles on a tandem. Puts you slightly forward of centre on the trailer which is where you’re better having the weight. Looking at your pic, to me you’re too far back.

Airsprung stuff like the L322 will self level and handle fine even with a little too much nose weight, but will be a pig with too little. I could be way out as I’ve never measured it but done thousands of miles this way with various D3’s and my L322, good enough for 60mph+vat towing 3.5t(ish) absolutely rock steady.

[warninglight]

Agreed with @Gaffer especially as the axles look quite far forward on that one.

I've noticed that with the German tilting trailers - I suspect it's as much to allow a shallower loading angle when tilted, but also lets you push the car a bit further forward and keep it all balanced - at the expense of a bit more tail swing!

[Schaefft]

Here's an issue with the Range Rover I want to run past people here:

With the overnight minus temperatures it's really struggling to start. It cranks over perfectly and I've already attached a proper battery booster to rule out low battery voltage. I usually give the glow plugs plenty of time to heat up but cranking the engine only results in it firing for a second to then immediately die. If I'm lucky it'll stay running after a few attempts and will be perfectly fine until the next day.

I initially thought it must be water frozen in the diesel filter but there's no warning message (not sure if the 3.6 TDV8 has that feature, some do).

Any advice? Since it's so specific to Sub-Zero temperatures I'm still thinking ice but with it clearly being able to start over and over only to immediately die I'm not sure anymore.