Hut keeping with a Land Rover

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pvelkov

New Member
Posts
2
Location
Sofia, Bulgaria
Hello from the bottom right corner of Europe :)

Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, raised here, studied for 5 years in the Netherlands and landed back home, my love to the mountains have taken me much above a normal person's limits - I rented a hut in Vitosha, the mountain next to our capital, and there I am now - living at 1450 meters above sea level, 2 kilometers away from the nearest road with winter maintenance.

More than a year ago I had to change my Subaru Outback with something more capable of carrying heavy construction materials and food supplies in heavy winter conditions. I didn't know much about any particular 4x4 model and, believe me or not, I have no idea how I ended up buying a used Discovery II Td5 from a guy who rarely used it - only to go fishing during vacations.

It was a "classic" one - light beige color, air suspension 7-seater, leaky sunroofs, chassis so rusty that it had some metal strips welded to it to make it last a bit longer... And even though I had to replace SLS sensors, air compressor and some minor engine surroundings and fit a 2.5" lift, changing every bush, link and other small parts in the suspension, I had some awesome moments with it, besides all the hut-related work:

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I was very happy with it until a young lady passed a "Stop" sign with 70-80 km/h and stopped under my Disco, throwing it sideways (nobody got hurt, we were all lucky) and converting it to a piece of scrap metal:

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Without much wondering around, I started looking for a "new" one. It turned out everything in Bulgaria was too ****ty and I had to look abroad. A few weeks ago, one Wednesday I bought a one-way flight ticket to the Netherlands, the same week Friday I flew there and on Sunday evening I was already home with it after a 2300 km ride:

IMG_5045.JPG

Then the fun started. The whole suspension was taken apart in order to lift it with the parts from the crashed Disco, the decorative external "protection" was removed, my beloved GoodYear Wrangler Duratrac's were fitted and, finally, it got the long awaited front 4 mm steel bumper (weighing 37 kg without the winch and the lights) with 12 000 lbs winch, synthetic rope and Osram LEDriving Fog 101 lights:

IMG_5197.JPG IMG_5212.JPG IMG_5217.JPG IMG_5237.JPG

I had some minor troubles with the SLS, but I still believe it's much better than coils for my usage, since I drive it a lot both empty and heavily loaded.

Anyway, I love my Disco (and the new one is even better than the old one!) and I certainly don't plan changing it with anything else any time soon :)

And btw I'm Petar, nice to meet you! :)
 
Helloooo! A warm welcome to the forum from the other end of the Stara Planina:).

M
 
So.... not a lot of time has passed since I got my second Disco, but it already has more than 20k kilometers on it and it's got some improvements:
- Wabco diesel heater has been attached to make winters more comfortable both for me and for the engine;
- EGR was blanked and the ECU was remapped to about 160 h.p. and probably about 400Nm torque (I should take it to the dyno for specific numbers);
- minor things have been added or upgraded - new front wiper arms (for D1 since they use the "normal" wiper blade mounting), new rear wiper arm for better cleaning, decent trunk mat, genuine-style buttons (replacing the clock and central locking button) for front and rear light bars, winch, onboard air supply and differential lockings...

What is currently undergoing is:
- full servicing of the transfer case of my old Disco and modifying the high/low shifter to accommodate the CDL as well;
- replacing both transfer case and gearbox with my old ones (which are in better condition);
- adding a flat roof rack with ARB 2500mm awning + deluxe room;
- fixing a lot of noises coming from the suspension.

Regarding the last one, my biggest trouble seems to be the watts linkage. For my first Disco I had bought Britpart bushes which failed terribly fast, then I got genuine ones and also made a little correction to the side arms of the linkage in order to compensate the twist, which occurs with the 2" lift - the rear axle doesn't just go down 2 inches, but it actually rotates along a circle with center at the front end of the radius arms. That didn't help much since after no more than 2000km the genuine bushes are now "knocking" too.

So I have to decide now:
- should I try replacing them with genuine ones again, eventually replacing the side arms of the watts linkage with the extended corrected ones, meant for 3+ inches of lift?
- should I try replacing the genuine bushes with Super Pro ones?
- should I throw it all away and replace the whole watts linkage with a panhard rod?
- should I try to build a modified watts linkage with externally greased Johnny Joint barrels and bolt centers?
 
Welcome and great introduction. Maybe now is ghe time to take your questions into the Discovery section. Where the Disco knowledgeable people hang out more. Good luck with thatever you decide to do with it :)
 
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