Just got back from the Ambulance Winter Treffen 2006 in Otterlo. I had a great time, very nice people, lot's of fun, a nice ride thourgh the Veluwe and a really good sleep!

Thanx to Gilbert en GertJan for organising it!

Some pictures: http://www.widt.nl/landrover/ambuwintertreffen

Spot the Land Rover

I took the Ambulance to my work and it's always such a funny sight on the parking place... it kind of stands out in the crowd...can you spot it?

Basic rules for off-roading

Because I was so happy with my new alternator, I went for a little spin on some local farm tracks, it was getting quite late in the evening, so I didn’t ask anybody to come with me ( Here I already broke rule nr 1.) It was pretty muddy and I switched to low gear within 300 meters, great fun until I got almost stuck in some really deep ruts! I don’t have a winch (* yet…) so it was a rather scary moment.

I heard from a friend that I could return to my house on a small track though the forest, I soon found the track and I was a great drive. But at the end of the track the road was closed, I drove back in reverse with no backing lights (there was no way I could turn, with a deep ditch on the right and huge trees on the left) and tried another track. Same story again.

After taking a few turns that resulted in the same road blocks, I decided to go back on my tracks… After almost an hour of searching I found my way back out of the dark forest. So lesson nr.2… (note: it turned out that these roads are open in the summer, because there’s a campsite in the forest, which is closed in the winter)

What have we learned:

1. Never go off-roading alone if you plan to get stuck without a winch

2. Don’t take any roads you don’t know where they will end

3. It’s easy to get lost in a dark forest

4. Driving in reverse without backing lights is very difficult

5. Cell phones don’t work in remote places (even in the Netherlands)

6. A navigation system is useless when the maps are not accurate (when does TOMTOM incorporate farm tracks and by-roads on their maps?)

7. Leaving your toolbox open in the back of your ambulance gives a great mess

New alternator

Yes it works, I mounted it yesterday and ofcourse it didn't do anything at all the first time, but then I remembered that somebody told me to also connect the control-light (laadstroomcontrolelampje). I hooked it up and it worked straight away, giving a nice 27 volts reading thourgh the batteries when I turned up the revs.
The only thing I'm afraid of is that it can get really dirty while offroading, especially with mud and water... Maybe I should make some sort of shield to cover it from dirt coming from the fan?

Well we will see!

Also see this thread on the land rover prikbord

Another Land Rover

Well actually it's was a Range Rover that I've been looking after. Being bitten by the RR bug a year ago, I almost bought one yesterday. I saw a right hand drive 1971 model for sale, it was relatively cheap because the owner wanted to get rif of it, because he had bought another car.
It was just registrated here in the Netherlands on the 6th of January, with a complete new LPG-installation (GPL - gas conversion). The car had the most awfull interieur I've ever seen, it had checkerplate-styled-vinyl all over the place, the headlining was spraypainted silver, the doorcovers were silver and the seats were sloppy. The outside was handpainted with a roller and brush, which made it easier for me to paint it again...

But on a more serious note, the inner wheelarches were extremely rusted, also the rear part of the chassis had some rustholes and the biggest problem of all...the V8. It started really easy, but didn't run smooth at all. It stuttered and when pressing the gaspedal, it didn't pick up at all. The worst thing was that the oilfiller cap was filled with smudge (the mayonaise kind) which usually means a blown gasket. There were also a lot of coolant christals around the head. So it probably needed some work to get it fixed.
That was the reason for me not to buy it, although I really wanted it. I really really like the V8 and it would mean a great swap for my daily driver the damn Renault Megane...

So if you know a good Range for a good price, let me know ( bas-atsign-widt.nl )

Fitting a new alternator.

This weekend I started working on replacing my faulty alternator. The old army lump had an external voltage regulator and it was a pain in the ass to find the faults in the system. The batteries kept running flat, especially on the cold days and they were only slightly charged when the enigine was high in revs.
Because this was my second alternator I decided to look around for another option. I heard that it would be possible to fit a 24 volt system from a Toyota Landcruiser. This device had an extra feature on the backside, a vacuumpump, from which I could feed my brakeservo and enhance my (poor) braking capacity…
The only problem with it was that it needed an external oil supply. So that wouldn't be anygood after all.

Then Arnoud (bluetop 109) on the landrover prikbord showed me how he solved his problem. He took an alternator from a truck and adapted the mounting on the enigine and that worked like a charm!

See how he has solved it.


So yesterday I got out the old mounting and went to my Land Rover Comrad Renée and he welded a new bracket to the mounting. I finished it with a nice black finish and I can mount it tommorrow. I'm really anxious to see it work, more on that later....