I sold the 109 ambulance

Yes, it's true, after a lot of thinking and debating I let her go... I think she really found a good home.
She went to some really nice people in Enschede who will be giving her a lot of TLC and some paint. And they have plans to take her to Africa in the summer.

Meanwhile the Range is standing still with some ignition problems, will fix that this week. The 110 300tdi is doing fine with a new battery. And the 90 is beautifully pimped with a new winch

I bought a new Land Rover!!! a 1984 110 with a 300tdi

So I caved in, I finally put the Land Rover ambulance up for sale (if you are interested, mail me (widtdesign at gmail dot com) and bought a very good 110 (and with that got rid of the old 110 ex-marines that was still standing without an engine)


It is a 110 hardtop from 1984, originally a petrol, but converted to a 300tdi with a new modified td5 gearbox and disco 1.2 transferbox giving it really nice cruising speeds (up to 135 km/h!!!)
I will put some windows in the hardtop or even look for options to convert it to a station wagon, but first I will try and fit some seats in the back and get the small things sorted out..

Pictures will follow!

I'm not that good a blogging I guess.

Life has kept me quite busy and so have our Land Rovers.
The Range Rover is still doing fine, although we had some problems this summer.

First the alternator packed up, creating huge amount of smoke burning the belt and squiling like a pig. Luckily my friend Bowy came to the rescue and towed me off to his workshop where we replaced it. So I was back on the road within the hour.

A few weeks later I stood in a traffic jam when I suddenly saw the temperature gauge dive into the red zone...big alert. I managed to pull over and saw that the newly installed belt had broken. I put a new belt on it just after the packed alternator thing, but had been in the back of the car for ages. So I think it was not that good. I already lost more than 5 liters of coolant. The "wegenwacht" (dutch road assistance) came to help me, put on a really small belt (without using the alternator) and loads of water. I was really concerned that my V8 would have it's head gasket blown up, but the engine ran as sweet as ever. No problems!!!

The 90 got a new exhaust, 3 new alternators (those damn things kept breaking bearings), new steering pump and brake pads... and a pair of shiny big 70w lights.

Land Rover update

Ouch, it's pretty cold here in the Netherlands (-10 C). That usually means starting problems for our Landrovers, but to my surprise, the 90 still starts on the first turn, even without glowing for ever (I love that 200tdi engine !!!)

The ambulance was fired up to move it a few inches so I could open both the doors of the garage and she even started after 4 months of doing nothing (great Exide batteries are worth their money)

But the Range Rover is another story, the alternator is acting pretty strange lately and it doesn't really do a great job at recharging the battery, so the RR is a slow a starter. But with a little help of a portable startpack I bought I even get it fired up at -11 C!

Last thing, we bought a replacement engine for the 110. I really wanted a 200tdi to replace the f*cked up 2,5 n/a diesel, but it was to much work. So we opted for another 2,5 n/a from a friend of ours. Now we only need a little warmth so our hands wont freeze to the car (and a engine jack to get the big lump out).

Helping out

When I went out for groceries with my kids yesterday, I saw a beautiful LandRover 90 (50th anniversary edition with 35" tires!) with it's hood open.
I saw this car driving around our neighborhood quite regularly and it has such a great sound from it's 4.0l V*. But right now it didn't do anything.

So I went over and took a look, like every land rover owner would do. After a few bangs on the starter, still nothing. But a bit of power from another battery did the trick. The cold and wetness did the old battery no good and it was probably drained by the alarm and extra lights that they used lot.

After we exchanged some stories I told him that if he would ever sell his car, he should give me a ring. I really love that 90! Even though it broke down...

Well it's been a while, nothing quite new here. Just after my last post I got an accident with my mountainbike. That kept me in my site and off my Land Rover for quite a while....
In the meanwhile the ambulance is still sitting still with the messed up Mercedes brakes.
The Range Rover got a new LT95 gearbox (no oil in the transferbox doesn't do any good).
The 110 is waiting for a replacement head and the 90.... yes, it's still running with no problems what so ever (not mentioning a little leak from the power steering).

I'll try to post some news soon about rebuilding the ambulance.

200tdi conversion for our LandRover 110

We are thinking about converting our broken and horrible slow 2.5 n/a diesel engine from our Land Rover 110 to an upgraded 200tdi from a discovery (or better from a defender). But where to start?

Our new 1984 Landrover 90 has had an engine swap, the 2,5 was converted to a 200tdi from a discovery and it is a great change! It drives fantastic, it's much easier to keep up with traffic and great off-road. The only thing we have to get used to is the Right Hand Drive... but that's quite easy and a lot of fun too when overhauling on motorways

With this experience we are looking for a 200tdi engine and a lot of other parts because our old 110 is an ex-militairy (navy) vehicle and therefor 24 volts...

By the way I found this great link on 200tdi conversion

(http://www.llawnroc.f2s.com/200tdi_conversion.htm)

Range Rover broke down

Transferbox ran dry...

3 weeks ago my Range Rover started jumping out of high gear on the way back home from work. Halfway I even stood without any gearing at all and could eventually move on again in low gear and a little later in high again.

What happened? I already had some slack on the transferbox since I bought the Range and the last few weeks it leaked a little oil. The lack of oil probably caused the nylon cups of the bearings to melt away and cause movement on the axle.
I opened her up last week and this is what I found...

Quasimodo - the serious yellow 110 land rover - made it

but can they make it back?

Bowy Odink and his co-driver Tijn Leussink made it to Dakar in their 110 Landrover. They entered the Amsterdam Dakar challenge and gotten in to some great adventures. Like replacing their gearbox (which was brand new) in Spain and driving to some heavy terrain. But they also have to come back. They will start there journey on monday and we wish them all the luck they need.

More info on:www.yellowlandrovers.com/

Another Landrover 109 ambulance, from Dresden, Germany

Just gotten around to clean up my mailbox, when I saw this mail from Sören from Dresden in Germany. He mailed me a picture of his 109 Ambulance. He is planning a trip to Africa in it, but it needs some work before he can go he told me. If anyone has some good tips on going there, leave a reply.

Welding course

Today my dad and I went to a welding course in the North of Holland (Zuidbroek) which was organised by a prikker Henk Kruims (thanx Henk!).

Now I do already have a MIG welder and I did some welding before, but I was never sure if it was good enough. Today was the day to find out. I learned a lot more than I knew. Push and pull welding, welding thin plates (like your bulkhead), welding outriggers to a chassis, welding exhausts and snorkels... great!

I can recommend it to you all. If you want to know more about the place where we went visit www.lasinstituut-tvdm.nl.

New member of the Land Rover family

We have a new member to our Land Rover family. We bought a 1984 Landrover 90 with a 200tdi engine. This one will be replacing the 110 that broke down again. Not quite sure what we will do with the 110, we'll decide after we fix the damn 2,5 n/a diesel again...

The car looks very promising, fast compared to the 110 (and the 109 ambulance, which is still awaiting new brakes). Chassis is solid, bulkhead great, engine and gearbox sound good. Steering box makes a little noise and the windscreen wipers don't work.

Can't wait to start pimping it with some checkerplate and some nice lights...

All quiet on the western front....

The ambulance has been standing still for quite some time now. After the halfshaft incedent I decided to give the front axle a good overhaul. I installed new swiffels, sealings, changed the halfshafts, fitted new freewheelhubs and try to get the front brakes going again.

That's where the revision got to a halt. The brakepistons of my disc brakes were seized and after good inspection the appeared to be worn pretty bad by sand and mud. Probably because the rubber gaiter protecting the pistons was ripped ("always look after your rubber.." My dad used to told me, guess I should have listened better....)

So I started searching for a new set of calipers, apparently they are the same as an Mercedes MB100. I finally found a set rather cheap at a local Mercedes scrapheap (www.vlente.nl).

So next week I'll install these things after giving them a good clean and then it's off to my loyal and local garage for a new APK (dutch MOT). Hope it will pass the first time!

Halfshaft problems...

As stated below I ripped my halfshaft to pieces while offroading in Havelte... so I thought. But it turned out that the splines of a part of the strengthened TIC halfshafts had come off.
I got a new one and decided to do a complete rebuild of the front axle, revise the disc brakes (also TIC, with mercedes MB100 calipers) and new swivels.
Hope to get it finished soon, so I can get a new MOT which is very much needed if winter decided to start and I want to leave the Range Rover at home....

I completely forgot to mention the addition of a new LR to the family, a 1974 Range Rover 3.5l V8. It came from Switserland where it had only one owner from new, he drove 160.000km in it, serviced it every year, rust free and drives like a charm!

hmmmm....it's been quite a while and I've been very busy, of course! And I totally neglected this webpage. But that will change soon, I hope.

The ambulance is getting some more TLC at the moment. I've done some welding on the bulkhead, painting on the chassis, improvements on the heater, new defender chairs and ripped out all the unusefull stuff in order to get started with the camper conversion.



And I had some great fun in Havelte (http://www.shikari.nl/havelte2006), but drove all day with only rear-drive, because I broke a halfshaft in the front axle!


I will post some new pics and stories soon.



For the time being.

defender chairs, really nice, what a comfort change!



New 24V truck alternator:



Off-road in Havelte together with the 110 from dad.

Disc brake conversion aka axle swap
Yesterday I went to Groningen to fit disc-brakes from Serious onto my ambulance.
I have always had braking problems with the old drums and you really need good brakes on this 2300kg+ Land Rover!

Bowy offered me to swap the whole axle instead of the discs only. Sounded great, he told me this could easily be done in a few hours, I really doubted that! We started at 9:00 and by 11:00 the new axle was fitted and mounted!!!! Bowy called it "turbo-sleutelen, it's a groningen thing" he said.

After a few minor tweaks I was ready to hit the road and what a difference. I have to make sure everything is tied down in the back, otherwise things start flying thourgh the car, with this much braking power.

Thanks Bowy for fitting Toyata axles on your car and therefor selling the TIC discs to me! And for the great turbo-sleutelen demo.

Read more here: http://www.prikpagina.nl/read.php?f=1003&i=199731&t=199731

great post on disco 200tdi conversion for a defender

A really nice "howto" on converting your old slow 2,5 defender with a spicy 200tdi from a discovery. I know some people who did it and they all have problems with the exhaust, see here how its done:

http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=2394

Prikkersdag

On sunday 26 march 2006 this great social event will be held again in Duiven. Time to meet all those people who you only know from their nicknames on the famous "land rover prikbord".

More info: http://www.prikpagina.nl/read.php?f=1003&i=188735&t=188735

See you there!

new rims installed

Saterday I went to my favorite garage (Jan Timmerman) and fitted my BF GOODRICH Mud Terrains (255/85 r16) on the new modulair rims I bought (see previous post).
With the great help of Ronny on his free afternoon, the tires were of the old 5,5j rims and on the new ones in no time. It certainly helpt that the new rimes are tubeless (fitting tubes in these tires is a real pain in the ass!).

I'm really satisfied with the result, I can take sharp corners again and the looks are also great.
These big wheels feel like they can take you anywhere, gotta be carefull with that thought!

SNOW FUN!!!!

Last week I had a great time driving the ambulance to work. When I woke at 6:20 am it hardly snowed in de Wijk, but I heard that last night there was some heavy snowfall in Zwolle where I work (30km from my home). So I decided to take the Land Rover to work. On the highway there was no snow at all, even the sun came through the clouds, untill I was half way when suddenly it started snowing like crazy. You could barely see 35 meters in front of the car. The windscreen wipers had a hard time keeping the snow off but I had so much fun. I felt like I couldn't be stopped. In Zwolle I drove past the traffic jam through 15 cm of fresh snow on a lane that wasn't cleaned.

For the first time ever I was the fastest to get away from the trafficlights. I helped a big truck to get up a small hill over the railway, such a great feeling!!!
When I arrived at work the girl at the desked asked if she could call me if there were any problems. Well of course! I spent half that morning getting people on and off the parkingplace (BMW 7-series with rearwheel drive!!! Big TNT van)

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

New set of rims

I bought a new set of rims, a set of 5 grey modulairs (7j - 16") from my good friend Anton M.
He and his brother got a whole crate of them from Craddock from the UK and he had 5 left which I bought for a really good price!

They will be fitted with my BF Goodrich Mud Terrains (255/85-r16) and the wider rim with more offset will help me get through those sharp corners again!

I will spray them black this weekend and try to fit them without tubes....

Pictures will follow!

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....

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...