January - March 2012 - Quiet times......

Not a lot to report for the first few months of 2012, apart from finally fitting and wiring up the roof light bar with my work lamps

they are 3w twin LED worklamps, which produce enough light to be useful, but not too much to produce the infamous illuminated dash problem. Wired up through a relay (even though they don't really need one) and independantly switched from main beam so i can isolate them if needed.

I also got round to removing the steering bars (with the help of Landrover tool number 1 and my trusty angle grinder) and fitting the HD steering bars. These were a direct bolt on replacement for the old ones. In order to set the tracking, i find it easiest to measure and mark the two lengths required - 924mm centre to centre for the drag link (from steering box to n/s swivel) and 1230mm for the track rod - onto the floor of the shed, then set the bars accordingly. Much easier than trying to measure and set them on the Disco. Whist i was at it, i reset the swivel preloads, to try and stop some of the "death wobble" that was starting to appear.

The insurance expired at the end of March, and so the hunt started for an alternative. With quotes ranging from £300 upto nearly £1500 (I'm late 30's, with no claims stretching back for nearly 20 years) I gave Sureterm (who also give a discount for Discovery Owners Club members) a call (www.sureterm.com) and they came back with a brilliant quote of £260 fully comp, based on no more than 5000 miles per year, and to be fair, since taking out the policy, i haven't even done 1000 miles, so i may adjust that down even further yet.

It's something i would advise any owner of an older Discovery to do, get a cheap runabout for day to day use, then keep the Disco for weekends/playing/special occasions, that way it makes it a lot cheaper to run (especially at 28mpg), and you still get to carry out important maintenance without having to worry about it being ready to use for work on Monday morning.