NAS LR3 build with an overseas twist
- Thread starter Ray_G
- Start date
Lono
Adventurer
Ray, this continues to be my favorite Expo thread by a country mile. It's everything I love about the Expo forums in one neat package: practical real world knowledge about make and model speciific mods alongside exotic trip reports in said vehicle. Having picked up an '05 LR3 as a daily driver while keeping my '02 DII for hardcore wheeling duty, this thread has become my primary resource for practical advice and mods for the LR. Thanks for the time and effort.
On that note, my first question is rather pedestrian: how's the reliability been on the interior LED upgrade from Precision LED? More substantive questions to follow for sure.
Thanks and looking forward to wheeling with you again here in the northeast in 2017.
Steve
On that note, my first question is rather pedestrian: how's the reliability been on the interior LED upgrade from Precision LED? More substantive questions to follow for sure.
Thanks and looking forward to wheeling with you again here in the northeast in 2017.
Steve
Ray_G
Explorer
Steve-
Def looking forward to getting up to VT and such!
As far as the LED's, no issues at all with the reliability. In fact I've forgotten I put them in. Light is still adequate, albeit a bit soft (it isn't harsh and bright like Coyote's dome lamp replacement LEDs that are blinding). All told I have no complaints about it and-at least in theory-it reduces some small draw on the battery in this electricity intense platform so it has a purpose for sure.
r-
Ray
Ray_G
Explorer
Land Rovef mud flaps & bleed 'T' PSA
Took the D1 down to the Rover Owner's Association of Virginia (ROAV) Mid Atlantic Rally this past weekend so much of my time leading into that and since has been spent preparing for, executing, and recovering. More on that in the Coyote thread. I will say that running into folks from the board there was a great deal of fun-I'm still shocked people read this thread so getting face to face feedback on it was all the more entertaining, particularly with beer!
One thing I have noticed since being back is that my driveway has puddles in it (I'm living a bit further out in the VA countryside than the past few times in the area) and thus every time it rains the truck gets mud sprayed up the sides as I go to/from work. Now the mud is a nice shade that works well on the green exterior but I figured maybe it would be worth it to try out some mud flaps to cut back on unnecessary washings. The LR OE mud flaps seem ok but given that I wasn't sure about them, and am less sure they'll survive any wheeling or even winter, I wasn't spending a lot of $$$ on them. So I tried these fantastic Chinese copies off Amazon: Mud flaps. Feedback from D3.uk and such indicated that they seemed to be old molds that someone grabbed and started stamping out on their own so expectations were low. I acknowledge that in some form or fashion I am sidestepping LR's 'intellectual property' but when it comes to mud flaps I say the more competition, the better...
So they showed up:
Quality is adequate, as expected they show a lot of flashing likely from worn molds. The LAND ROVEF is a nice touch.
The wife comes in and looks at the initial installation and says "did you really just wash the area right around where they were mounted and leave the rest?" "Yes, it's going to rain..."
She walks back out.
As they sit now. A couple of reflections; you can see clearly in the back where I've now enabled the truck to only throw mud further back
:clapping:...brilliant.
Whatever. The front's couldn't go on since the tube step/slider blocks their mounting. I contemplated drilling a big hole in the mud flap to see if I could make it work but that would be some trigonometry to get it all to line up so I'm calling the rear's alone as good enough. Truth be told if these rip off, break off, or I get tired enough of them I'll probably pull them off and either go with the rubber style that many on d3.uk advocate or just do without again.
*******break/break**********
A good time to highlight the public service announcement we all 'know' but may not resonate; while at MAR we were wheeling with a good mix of trucks including some LR3s, LR4s, and even a RRS that all did very well. While stopped in the middle of the ride to check out an old school house I started talking to an LR3 owner about his BFG KO2's and as we were looking at the tires an audible pop under the hood happened and white coolant smoke billowed out from under the bonnet...before it was even opened the question was "have you replaced your coolant tee?" The owner hadn't, and with an 08 that was at 100k...well, it is self evident that is what happened. Center of the picture is my buddy John, i.e. Twin Mountain Offroad from my sig line, jumping in with others to get the truck trail fixed by using a deep 1/4 socket after carefully removing all the plastic from both sides of the rubber tubing and then widening it a little. I need to remember to grab a couple of the brass barbed units from a hardware store since I think we'll see this quite often on the trail. If you haven't changed it...you will, somewhere!
Took the D1 down to the Rover Owner's Association of Virginia (ROAV) Mid Atlantic Rally this past weekend so much of my time leading into that and since has been spent preparing for, executing, and recovering. More on that in the Coyote thread. I will say that running into folks from the board there was a great deal of fun-I'm still shocked people read this thread so getting face to face feedback on it was all the more entertaining, particularly with beer!
One thing I have noticed since being back is that my driveway has puddles in it (I'm living a bit further out in the VA countryside than the past few times in the area) and thus every time it rains the truck gets mud sprayed up the sides as I go to/from work. Now the mud is a nice shade that works well on the green exterior but I figured maybe it would be worth it to try out some mud flaps to cut back on unnecessary washings. The LR OE mud flaps seem ok but given that I wasn't sure about them, and am less sure they'll survive any wheeling or even winter, I wasn't spending a lot of $$$ on them. So I tried these fantastic Chinese copies off Amazon: Mud flaps. Feedback from D3.uk and such indicated that they seemed to be old molds that someone grabbed and started stamping out on their own so expectations were low. I acknowledge that in some form or fashion I am sidestepping LR's 'intellectual property' but when it comes to mud flaps I say the more competition, the better...
So they showed up:
Quality is adequate, as expected they show a lot of flashing likely from worn molds. The LAND ROVEF is a nice touch.
The wife comes in and looks at the initial installation and says "did you really just wash the area right around where they were mounted and leave the rest?" "Yes, it's going to rain..."
She walks back out.
As they sit now. A couple of reflections; you can see clearly in the back where I've now enabled the truck to only throw mud further back
:clapping:...brilliant.
Whatever. The front's couldn't go on since the tube step/slider blocks their mounting. I contemplated drilling a big hole in the mud flap to see if I could make it work but that would be some trigonometry to get it all to line up so I'm calling the rear's alone as good enough. Truth be told if these rip off, break off, or I get tired enough of them I'll probably pull them off and either go with the rubber style that many on d3.uk advocate or just do without again.
*******break/break**********
A good time to highlight the public service announcement we all 'know' but may not resonate; while at MAR we were wheeling with a good mix of trucks including some LR3s, LR4s, and even a RRS that all did very well. While stopped in the middle of the ride to check out an old school house I started talking to an LR3 owner about his BFG KO2's and as we were looking at the tires an audible pop under the hood happened and white coolant smoke billowed out from under the bonnet...before it was even opened the question was "have you replaced your coolant tee?" The owner hadn't, and with an 08 that was at 100k...well, it is self evident that is what happened. Center of the picture is my buddy John, i.e. Twin Mountain Offroad from my sig line, jumping in with others to get the truck trail fixed by using a deep 1/4 socket after carefully removing all the plastic from both sides of the rubber tubing and then widening it a little. I need to remember to grab a couple of the brass barbed units from a hardware store since I think we'll see this quite often on the trail. If you haven't changed it...you will, somewhere!
griffin2018
New member
Funnily enough my dad was there in the black LR3, he told me about it over the phone on sunday.
Ray,
It was a real pleasure getting to share a beer with you and John (and others) over the weekend. I forgot to mention that there's a $60 coolant tee replacement from Falconworks if you'd like to spend the most money on solving this value engineering issue.
Cheers,
Ian
It was a real pleasure getting to share a beer with you and John (and others) over the weekend. I forgot to mention that there's a $60 coolant tee replacement from Falconworks if you'd like to spend the most money on solving this value engineering issue.
Cheers,
Ian
Ray_G
Explorer
Ian-
Was fantastic to meet you, and you are a gentlemen and scholar for going to grab more Fat Tire! The Falconworks tee is actually what I have on my truck, was the easy solution as I was heading out the door to the UAE back in the day and had it put on shortly after arrival. By all means over-engineered, something like this may be worth grabbing to have as a trail spare: 3/8" barb fitting.
Look forward to seeing you again.
r-
R
DiscoDavis
Explorer
Now that I know the D3 coolant loop can be bled without that T, I see no issue using a straight (<->) barbed fitting. I think I still have what you have (3/8" barbed fitting) sitting in my glovebox somewhere for when I break the plastic T. Found it at Home Depot one day for a dollar or two.
Time for me to read back a few pages here to see what went wrong
Ray_G
Explorer
Now that I know the D3 coolant loop can be bled without that T, I see no issue using a straight (<->) barbed fitting. I think I still have what you have (3/8" barbed fitting) sitting in my glovebox somewhere for when I break the plastic T. Found it at Home Depot one day for a dollar or two.
Time for me to read back a few pages here to see what went wrong
Ha, wasn't me! Previous page, last weekend we did Rover Owners Association of Virginia's Mid Atlantic Rally and I did a trail ride with a lot of LR3 & 4's, one of whom suffered the plastic tee break and the field repair was a small 1/4 deep socket since nobody had a suitable alternative. Thus my last update included the PSA to change it-and in my mind I'll probably grab a few barb fittings and throw them in both my rovers since it will get us back on the move faster to have a cheap spare for a fellow owner.
r-
Ray
Victory_Overland
Explorer
John grabbed several of these, will throw one in each of my rovers for trail repairs.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Note to self, add to parts in under seat! Thanks for the info.
Ray_G
Explorer
Sneak peak: EAS vs Coils, semi-scientific observations
Mid-stride update from the weekend up in WV; we decided to take both the Twin Mountain EAS LR3 and my coil sprung LR3 onto the test track on the property to-in a controlled environment-play with the suspensions of each to see what the differences were. Quasi-scientific and anecdotal observations to follow!
For now, a shot of both trucks...and my daughter, in pink bunny pajamas, being worn as a cape...(it's a long story).
Mid-stride update from the weekend up in WV; we decided to take both the Twin Mountain EAS LR3 and my coil sprung LR3 onto the test track on the property to-in a controlled environment-play with the suspensions of each to see what the differences were. Quasi-scientific and anecdotal observations to follow!
For now, a shot of both trucks...and my daughter, in pink bunny pajamas, being worn as a cape...(it's a long story).