Is your number plate held on with cable ties James?

We're following your blog already. Well Belinda is, I don't really know what a blog is, a clog with a spelling mistake was my first thought, or a bog with a rogue 'L'. Weather at Le Mans looks ok.

Ok, we'll keep an eye out for a frantically waving Englishman. We are a tatty silver D1, followed by D4 towing a posh trailer tent, followed by a 90 on its bump stops due to the amount of tools and spares he's carrying! (A response from James is anticipated)

We arrive in Portugal on the 20th, spending two nights near 'Coja'. We then head south arriving at Lagos on the 27th. By all means keep an eye out for us but we will be mostly avoiding the tourist areas so it will be a miracle if you spot us.

You have the answer in front of you. The non charging one will almost certainly be due to worn brushes. So simply replace them with the ones from the other one, and save a fortune. And it's a dead easy job.

What's wrong with yours?

Replacing the rear shocks is a piece of cake, just two 19mm bolts to undo although the bottom of the shock will require holding using a pair of stillsons. I have given my heap a 2 inch lift using cheepo spring spacers. The front shocks move with the spacer so don't need changing. The rear...

For an easy lane that you could do by yourself if necessary, go to the race course at Salisbury where you can pick up a byway heading west. It runs parallel with the A30 and almost reaches Shaftsbury. If you're with another vehicle, do the return journey using the Ox drove. Or for one a bit...

Yes, we used it for our trip to Portugal last year. It's a similar size to the Khyam we used with you, but it has an inner tent with a built in ground sheet. It takes a little longer to put up as it uses the thin bendy poles rather than the Khyam's click together aluminium poles. It's also...

Welcome. And if you would like to get your tyres a little muddy, feel free to join us in the 'Solent and district (SAD) landrover club.

James, I have been asked in the past,what breakdown cover do I use for our frequent trips through Europe? My reply is to wave my hands and say that I have all the breakdown cover I need right here. This maybe stupid or brave but as yet I have got away with it. So your cover to me seems a bit...

There's a nice campsite at Satillana del mar (the spelling may be slightly wrong) which is about 15 minutes from Santander. But that will give you an 8 hour drive the following day - but it is an easy drive. A new pair of shock absorbers were ordered yesterday. Glad it broke now and not half...

Oops.

Cheers.

Gentlemen, Have just had a new timing belt (dayco) and pulleys (britpart) fitted to my Disco 300tdi and I've noticed that the performance has dropped a little. I guess by about 10%. Has anyone else experienced this? Or do you thing my mechanic got something one notch out?

Gentlemen, your opinions please. A mechanic friend of mine has just replaced the timing belt on my Disco 300tdi with a dayco belt and britpart pulleys. However, now the engine seems to have a little less oomph. I realise that a new belt could potentially give slightly different timing to an...

If yoy're not increasing the ride height then standard shocks will be fine

We meet at a campsite just south of Le Mans. I get there on Tuesday 16th June and James & Sarah join us on the 17th. Then on the 18th we head south stopping at Contis plage. Tordesillas in Spain for the night of the 19th. Then into Portugal, stopping for two nights stopping in my farmhouse...

What's a deflator? Is it just the compressor running backwards? And what's a propshaft tool? Is it a spanner that fits properly as I always get away with ill-fitting metric scanners. The fluids that I'm taking will be red, white and pale brown.............. Other less essential fluids...

Have just had my timing belt done and I had the crankshaft front seals (two of them) changed at the same time. Also worth cleaning the inlet manifold and blocking off the EGR.