Disc brakes for Series

In a recent LROi edition I read a piece about the new disc brakes for Series Land Rovers from Rocky Mountain. Priced at around 995 euro it was a little over budget for me.
But then Aad Koene told me he was working on a project that involved the discbrakes of the Santana PS 10. He said that these superstoppers could be adapted so it would be a straight fit for series axles... hmmm I loved the idea.
During a boring lunch brake I surfed the internet and found that our own TIC had already worked this plan out. They introduce the Ventilated Front Disc Brake Conversion Kit Based on original Santana PS-10 parts for Series Land Rovers. Exactly what I want, a straight bolt on kit and only for : 660 euro (ex VAT/BTW)... when's my birthday again?

110 - 109 Land Rover camping

110 - 109 Land Rover camping, originally uploaded by billvanbreed.

In the photograph above we were camping in the mids of summer, nice warm and cosy. It was the first time that I camped with my 2 year old son. He really liked it so we repeated it on the DLRS two weeks later.

It probably won't be as warm on the "Ambuwintertreffen" that is being organised 17,18,19 februari. For "real" men only.... more info on: http://www.ambuwintertreffen.nl/

We will see..........

What does this button do?

After only 5 days I got a nice letter in my mailbox and I could get some license plates made. Yes I could drive around as much as I wanted to. Of course I took off immediatly to find the most dirty and muddy tracks in the neighboorhood of "de Wijk" (the place where I live - a small village in the south of Drenthe, near Meppel).
I was amazed where you could get with this immense machine, I bumped over rutted farm tracks, fiddling with the yellow knob and red lever. All this gearing - high / low ratio, I had to take a time out.
Luckily I found a really comprehensive manual (again on Victor Rutten's site: www.series3.nl) He spent some painstacking hours getting this whole bunch of Land Rover Ambulance manuals scanned, for which I am very greatful.
After this drive of a few hours I couldn't get this smile off my face, a thing that keeps coming back each time I get muddy in the ambu!

My trip to the RDW

After I got the car I decided to wait to get it registered till it was tax-exempt. This also gave me the opportunity to get some things fixed and have it approved as a normal person vehicle instead of a commercial vehicle.
Because I had bought an ex-military vehicle it wasn't supplied with normal license plates, therefore I had to go to a test at the RDW.
They take a look at the technical state of your car and they go through the paperwork to check the origin of the vehicle and if all looks well they will give you your registration with which you can get your license plates.
A few days before the appointment I wanted to check the cars serial number, on the Land Rover 109 this is situated on the front of the righthand chassis rail above the springretainer. I took of the big steel tow plate that covered this part and there was nothing there…. Only a lot of black army paint. I tried to scrape of some of the paint but couldn't find a number. Hmmm, I felt rather weird, had I bought a car without a serial number? I phoned the guy I bought it from and confronted him with it. He laughed and said that I take a knife and try to scrape of the paint and look for a big black sticker. And yes, the serial number was on a nice blank piece of steel covered by a big sticker that was covered by a lot of paint…pffff.

When you make an appointment at the RDW you get a one day licence plate, you can use this to drive to the RDW station. It was a nice day and it was a great feeling to make the trip from de Wijk to Groningen. The mechanics at the RDW were really nice and complemented me about the technical state of the car. Then came the other problem, the car needed a type of approval ("typegoedkeuring"). But they couldn't agree on what it should be. I had a copy of the registration card of the car of another ambulance owner (Victor Rutten - www.series3.nl who has a 109 GWT (GeWondenTransport), but they decided to make a new one, I was now the offical owner of a Land Rover 109 ambulance. So after an hour and a half I was finished and had my papers. It would take another 7 days before all the paperwork was finished and I got my license plates. Now I could really start driving around...

Welcome to the interesting world of Land Rover motoring... this will be the place to keep you all posted about the good and bad days of me and my Land Rover series III 109 ambulance.

Our ambulance has been with us since 2002, but wasn't road legal untill June 2003 (that's when she became tax exempt). It was a childhood dream of mine to own a Land Rover and when we moved to our new home, our old 2CV acadiane had to go and we started looking for a landrover.

I started building a garage with a landrover in the back of my head, all measurements were considered so one would fit. Than one fine day we drove past the small city of Zevenhuizen (Groningen) where we saw several ex-militairy series III standing outside. We went looking and almost immediatly our attention was drawn towards two ambulances. I had never seen this model before, but I totally loved it. Brigitte liked it too, especially because we could turn it into a camper, which she could decorate... (little did she know that this would take quite some time)

After a second visit we picked the best of the two. The guy we bought it from had to fix a few things (jammed clutch, new headlights, batteries etc) and he would bring it by our house the next week. Days past and then our 109 series III ambulance finally arrived on a big trailer (it had no licence and wasn't allowed on public roads). We drove it off, which was really scary and took it for a little spin around the block.

Wow, I was completly baffled, what a car. This was the real work, no powersteering, pure diesel power (well, the lack of it), way above the rest of the ordinary cars and so much fun. I felt like a kid alone in a candy store. I couldn't wait to get it registered to make it road legal...