Snow in West Sussex 12th March 2013, freak snow storm and cars stuck in snow YAY!!!

The UK winter in West Sussex, travel disruption

Well I must admit coming off the back of the wettest year in UK recorded history in 2012, no one has much hope for 2013.  In fact most people I know have been planning sunny escapes for some time now, and I have even been diagnosed with a vitamin D deficiency.  Which apparently has to do with not getting enough sun, or beer, not sure which one so I have been trying to remedy both.

UK Dealing with weather?

Anyway, yesterday the 11^th March we had quite a nice forecast for the weather “some snow showers which would continue overnight” and we would get “an accumulation of snow of approx. 5-10cm”.  Even for us in the UK this is manageable, unless you use public transport, or drive, the trains obviously do not work and by foot can be slippy, but we cope.

Oh boy from a driving perspective, what as usual our government agencies forgot to do was to a) grit the roads in time and b) not take into account the wind, which was if I’m honest was pretty bad given the 5 days warning they had.

So, after a 2 hour journey 22 miles from Crawley to Littleworth West Sussex on the Monday evening, travelling on icy and snowy roads, on a route which at best is 35 minutes I found the whole experience exciting!  I went to bed later that night after a quick vitamin D fix in the local (yes Americans I live near an English pub in England which is not Irish and no not a sun bed in sight, that’s for my buddies in Florida who are always taking me to Irish pubs in Florida?), knowing the next day I was likely to need more Larry miles to get me to work I got excited.

Some people must have been really excited about their journey home from Crawley to Brighton that night, so exciting that quite a few people decided to spend all night on the A23 south to Brighton taking 11 hours to do a 40 minute journey.  This must have been a super really exciting media hip special thing to do, even minor celebrities like Cheryl Baker from Bucks Fizz joined in/got stuck in her car, shame (insert sympathy here if you can).  This even made the national news. I can see the headline “Bucks Fizz on Ice”.

My trip to work.

So my trip to work today was always going to be special.  I woke up at 6am, I’m using woke up loosely.  Looked out the window and was quite disappointed that we did not have 2 foot of snow everywhere I was hoping for; but cunningly Mother Nature did use the 5-10cm wisely.  Do you like how interchangeable Metric and Imperial measurements are?  What she had done is to take the little amount we had, and by using the power of wind deposit it in nice playful banks everywhere.

Excited Larry

So, I went to the car, now this is where it gets sad.  Larry to me is a car with a personality and I like to think he is a playful thing furry and fun.  I also have a Labradoodle who is a playful thing, furry and fun, so I like to think that this morning Larry was looking around the same way Frodo does when we play chucky stick a complex game of finding a stick and chucking it away, Frodo then gets it and brings it back.  Some would consider this as retrieving, he is not a Retriever and I don’t want to call it Doodling, this does feel right and implies some form of artistic skill.  A dog is not an artist.

This is where my specific metaphor works, Larry was as happy as a Labradoodle playing chucky stick.  There, done, in my little mind that describes it perfectly; I will now wait for the men in white coats......................................................................... 

Ok they are not here, that was just how exciting the drive was going to be.

So I set off to work, nothing really special 2-8ft drifts on the roads, my route was to be the A272 – A281 – Devils Dyke and to the office.  Now parts of the A272 – A281 were shut, not going to discuss the Devils Dyke, but let’s say it was worse.

Local roads

I did take all the precautions you need to on this type of trip in such snow.  I went to the Petrol station shoved some Diesel in Larry and bought some extra strong mints.  I did however forget to get a rope, spade and sleeping bag, snow chains, flashing yellow light, CB radio and food, sweets and anything that could have even possibly been useful if I got stuck.  I even wore cotton summer trousers, beat that Ray Mears.

Minor Drifts

All was well; I had fun driving on icy snowy roads and then the 180 meter climb (sounds more in feet) to the top of the dyke.

Now a bit about the dyke I nicked this from the visitor’s website.

“A legendary beauty spot on the South Downs

Devil’s Dyke, just five miles north of Brighton, offers stunning panoramas, a record breaking valley, a curious history and England’s most colourful habitat.

At nearly a mile long, the Dyke valley is the longest, deepest and widest 'dry valley' in the UK. Legend has it that the Devil dug this chasm to drown the parishioners of the Weald. On the other hand, scientists believe it was formed naturally just over 10,000 years ago in the last ice age.”

Not today it wasn’t, a beauty spot that is; I pulled into the layby to take a couple of pictures of the snow, yes white on white, no polar bears.  I started talking to another guy with his 4x4, I’m going to call him Bob, that was not his name, but I did not ask him his name either, so he may or may not be Bob.

View form the layby

He asked me if I “was going up there” and let me know that a couple of Polish guys in a van were trying to get to Brighton heading south, not normal for Polish guys they normally head north in the UK.  Apparently Bob had turned around when his car, an inferior make of 4x4, could not go any further and he even had to use low ratio to go off road.   

Anyway, we chatted for a few minutes giggling about the snow, and wondering if the Polish guys were by now stuck and guess what!  The Polish guys appeared waved and headed north towards Crawley.  That reassured me not because they were ok, but because Polish people in white vans going north in the UK feels like the norm now.  No doubt they will be picking veg, whenever.  I’m sorry, that was stereotypical.

The Range Rover

Off we go, snow getting worse, drifts getting deeper, cars abandoned, and would you Adam and Eve it, a RANGE ROVER stuck in the snow.   

Stuck but smiling, grrrr

I did the honourable thing wound down my window asked quietly if he was ok, assumed he said yes, I parked the car and then took pictures of him digging his RANGE ROVER 2011 out where my Land Rover 1998 had driven past.   

 Ha ha ha ha ha ha, oh yes, I high fived Larry I did (he even lifted his front tyre to do this), yes.  Ok enough of Yoda.

So, was it a good drive today, yes, was I being sensible, no.  Did the Rage Rover and his mate who turned up in a Disco 4 get out?  Who cares, but they should have both had winter rated tyres like me.

More pictures.

Cold sheep at Littleworth	Approaching the A272	South Downs
Stuck cars	Range Rover stuck on Saddlescombe Road	Discovery 4 pulling out Range Rover
The Dyke Golf Club, well no play today :-)	South downs snow	Entering Brighton

Fitting a Safari Snorkel to a Land Rover Discovery 1 300TDI

Fitting a Snorkel

This is a description of how to fit a Safari Snorkel to a Land Rover Discovery 300TDI with ABS.  Considering I’m not planning in doing anything too wet i.e. wading in very deep rivers, you may ask why I want one?   

Well simply put the plan is to head down to Morocco in my 4x4 and I want to keep the air inlet up high to avoid sand clogging the air box with sand.  The original intake for the air box is in the front passenger side wing exactly where sand ad dust will be blown up by the tyre, someone at Land Rover had thought that through had they?

So after reading all the online shops I found out that snorkels cost from approx. £140 to £400, all seemed to do the same thing so I ordered a cheap one.  It was a Bearmach snorkel and was listed as compatible with a 300tdi ABS.  I got the snorkel and all excited I unboxed it went out to Larry and aligned the parts.  Bugger, the snorkel if fitted would need to go through, not around, the ABS modulator to fit?  Er?  

A quick chat with the supplier as well as a few pictures sent (they really did not believe it was wrong) and I got a refund and then went for a Safari Snorkel at a cost of £276.  When it arrived it said "Safari Snorkel Discovery 1 300TDI – ABS" on he box, yay, this looked a lot better.  I checked out the alignment and it all seemed fine. 

Then it rained continuously for 3 months, except for our trip to Yorkshire for the off road weekend which was lucky.  So the fitting job was put on hold.  Think about it, how ironic, I could not fit a snorkel because of the rain.

The right tools for the job 

Anyway March 2013, I had a couple of days off work and decided I would fit the snorkel, I read the instructions  watched a you tube video on “how to fit a Safari Snorkel” check the required kit list and popped off the local tool shop to buy what I thought I needed to do the job, which was;

86mm hole cutter to cut through the wing

Step drill to make the holes needed for the bolts

Riveter to rivet the snorkel to the a pillar

Tiger seal to seal everything up

So the job itself is quite simple and the instructions say it will take 2 hours, this is of course absolute nonsense for a part time mechanic like me.  More on that later.

At this point I would like to warn you about Tiger Seal.  It's an amazing product, glues really well and makes a complete mess of anything it touches.  Wear gloves, also as soon as you open it, use the whole tube.  You cannot save it for later. After I used some of it on the Landy airbox I went around the house sealing and glueing anything I could.  My gutters on the house ain't moving, like ever.  

I even started thinking about what it would actually glue, lets just say it has its limits.  Also note it takes 3 hours to dry ish but a full day to cure properly.  

Tip, put the Tiger Seal into some hot water and warm it up, its then a lot easier to use.

Fitting the snorkel

The process is as follows.  

Apply the template to the outside of the car aligning the cutting template along the top of the wing.  Drill pilot holes 2mm for the bolts and snorkel hole.  

Snorkel template aligned

Then drill the actual holes for the snorkel to bolt through, these are 16mm using the step drill and the big one use the hole cutter.  Trim and sharp edges from the cuts and prime.

Large holes cut into wing

You then drill a hole on the inside of the wing.

Inner wing hole also drilled

You have to remove the wheel and the wheel arch liner.  This allows you to get your pandies to the bolts on the back of the snorkel, do not tighten it up till everything is in place.  Liner hanging down.

Trim inside the wing pulled down

View inside the wing.

View inside wing where the snokel will be bolted

The snorkel itself has studs which you to put into the recesses on the main snorkel tube.  You do this by putting two nuts on the studs after they have been tightened in buy hand.  Tighten the two nuts together and screw the stud in using a spanner and the locked nots, then take the nuts off.  Sorry forgot to take a picture of this.

You can then put the snorkel on the car and loosely do up the nylock nuts, as below.

Nut in place ready to be tightened up

Now fix the A-Pillar plate, drill 4mm hole in it for the rivets.

Rivet holes drilled in A pillar

 

Fit rivets and rivet the thing, I have not used the rivet tool thing in the picture below, but you get the hint.

Ready to  rivet snorkel tube to A pillar

Go pet you dog, by now mine was pissed off, gwumpy doodle.

Grumpy Labradoodle

You now have to re-work the airbox by sealing the original air inlet; you cut a new inlet in the side, then fix a new locator plate which moves the airbox into the engine bay a little.  

Fill the old inlet, this is what it looks like when you start, I have also cut off the old locating pins and drilled 4 rivet holes.

Holed drilled in air box

Fix the front bracket, plug & seal.

Plug fitted/glued and spacer riveted to air box

Drill and cut new inlet.

Large hole cut by drilling many small 2mm holes

Done, then edges cleaned up using a file

Fit new tube plate.

New snokel inlet fitted

Fill all the holes, then in theory you pop outside and fit the snorkel to the car loosely, fit the tube provided between the inner wing and the engine bay, and reconnect to the airbox, then lastly airbox to air intake on the engine.

Bingo, its done, NOT!

Jappy Larry

However, the process above, whilst correct, does not take into account Larry is a Discovery 1 300tdi Japanese import, this means that the actual re-fitting of the airbox has some issues because my car is a late Discover 1 with the electronics for the Air Flow Meter and ABS, these are.

EGR is water cooled, this means the airbox bumps smack up against the EGR input cooler pipe, in fact the box should go where the pipe splits in the picture below.  This is pretty much makes it impossible to re-fit the airbox.  I bent the cooler tubes out of the way which no doubt restricts coolant (just as well these cars run cold).  I will be replacing the pipe.

Grr pipe in the way

Also the cables on the inside of the engine go around the second battery holder, again argh these need re-routing a little, the cable going to the left goes to the Air Flow Regulator.

Cabled need to be pushed down to fit airbox

Then the air inlet for the AFM system does not align with the output from the airbox and the original airbox rubber is too long, the AFM has to be moved left.

Miss aligned AFM system

So how to actually fit a Safari Snorkel to a late Japanese 300tdi.

Do everything up to the point of putting the airbox back in.

Move the cables out of the way and push out the way, preferable replace the EGR cooling piped and remove the EGR (de-EGR mod).  I had to put the airbox in with them in place till I replace the lower radiator pipe.  This is a complete pain.

Then undo the 3 bolts holding in the AFM and move it to the left one bolt, this aligns the airpox (I was getting annoyed by now) to the AFM.

Air flow meter, moving it to the left

Trim the old rubber pipe 10mm ish and refit.  I trimmed the bottom end in the picture below to move the jubilee clip over to the second ridge.

Pipe to trim

That little bit of info above took me and extra 4 hours to work out, what a pain.  Thanks to the people at Landyzone for the AFM fix.

One tool I wished I had was a trim removal took this would have saved another hour and the cost £2.

All in all I think it’s realistic to spend 4-5 hours on this knowing what I know now, not the 8 it took me.  I hope this blog entry helps you out.

The finished Landy with his new nose….

Discovery 1 300TDI ABS Safari Snorkel fitted

I have added all the pictures I took of the job here.

Green laning, in Yorkshire

Our 1st 4x4 green laning trip

When I bought Larry, I decided I would go out on some UK green lanes before we did anything serious overseas.  I would like to say we did this to test the car’s capabilities for our future overland adventures, but in reality it was for a bit of fun and a weekend away.

So the plan was hatched as follows, do the basics of under body protection on the car and then go green laning and find out what I need to do next to improve the car by seeing what happens when away.

Anyway having never done any extensive green lanes before I thought it would be good to go on a 4x4 guided tour.  I contacted a number of companies and talked to them and they generally seemed to come into the following groups.

Guided, but with no support, with camping

Guided, with nothing not even camping

Guided, with support and camping arranged

Also, I wanted to ensure if when off road something broke on my Discovery 1 I would be in safe hands to either fix it, or tow me out.

From a location point of view it seemed to be Wales, Yorkshire or Sailsbury Plain.  I thought about Wales a bit (or not a lot), but after working there for two years I did not want to risk the weather.  It really does rain a lot in Wales, I know I lived there for a short while, during that time and I can count the number of dry days on one foot.

So in short, after mucking about for about a year I finally booked a 4x4 Yorkshire Explorer weekend with One Life Adventure.

What about Sailsbury plain?well in all the videos I have seen is looks like there was a lot of water there and I have not fitted my snorkel at the moment, so that was off.  We will go though its a lot closer than Yorkshire.

What camping kit to take?

Now I have done a lot of camping mostly on motorcycles, travelling by that is not on, it’s not easy to pitch a tent on a motorcycle, but you get my drift I'm sure.  So going camping in a Land Rover is unreal, I have never owned a vehicle with the load carrying capacity of Larry.

There were only two of us as well, therefore the roof rack was not needed, but because of the weather forecast “a lot of wind and -2c”, we decided to take a small ground tent, a Millet Avon 3 man tent was selected from our collection.  Not the big pop up tent we normally weekend in, these just blow away in high winds.  The Avon tent is really well built, has a porch so you can cook inside if needed.  Although this can be dangerous to do.  Why a small tent, simple they keep the heat in and have flexibility, handy in high winds, providing you get one with fibreglass poles that is.  Remember this folks aluminum poles are for low temperature and weight not overall flexibility.

The bed was to be made from two 50mm thick medium density foam mats placed side by side, which make a perfect bed and is very warm.  We also took some kiddies play mats to keep the floor porch warm and insulated.  The mattress was topped with A double sleeping bag with two individual bags, you basically put one in the other and it super warm.  All the bags cost less than £100 which is a dam sight cheaper than one decent three season bag which would typically set you back £200 for a good one.  The disadvantage of this sleeping arrangement is a lot of room is needed to cart it about, no problem with Larry.

Other camping kit;

      A single hob gas cooker

      Radio for the football, cricket in the summer

      Gobbling rods, or Spork 

      Kettle

      Camping food

      Water canister

      Food

      Pillows

All of our camping gear fitted in the boot, we also carried spare auxiliary belt, oil, water, wheel bearing and not a lot of tools, oops.

Lastly a CB Radio and magnetic mount 5/8th wave aerial, of yes there is your key to say "19 Rubber Duck!"

The trip to Garsdale Cumbria

We meet up in a campsite (that word campsite is interchangeable for field) in Garsdale in Cumbria, that’s 340 miles from my house. We also had to do a detour on route to drop of the kiddie to aunties for the weekend.  So the total trip to the meeting place was 365 miles, so that’s 730 miles round trip without the off road part.

However, just two weeks before we headed of Larry developed a drive belt squeak which I had to fix, he also had bad starting in cold weather and the battery was jumping about a lot due to the battery holder not actually being in the car.  I’ll blog some of these basic fixes later, but in short a couple of hours cured all the problems (new battery, the "300TDI penny fix" to fix the tensioner and new glow plugs) and we headed off the next day with a full tank of Diesel.  Just to make it fun I pulled into the service station on route to fill up and the number plate fell off, see the pictures below.  That was not the only thing that fell off that weekend either.

Our route up was M23 – M25  - M11 – A1 – A1M all the way to Yorkshire (via Boston Lincolnshire).  As per usual there was traffic works on the M25, and the M11 was closed due to a lorry turning over, arse.  So the 3.5 hour trip to Boston Lincs became 5.5 hours.  With a further 3 hours to go to our overnight destination. 

Anyway kiddy dropped off, quick comfort break and we went onto stay at the Days Inn at Wetherby that night.  This is a new hotel; it was a comfortable crash overnight till the next day in the morning we grabbed two large coffee’s and Panini’s from Costa.  Then the remaining 90 minute trip to Garsdale.

Now this trip gave me the perfect opportunity to measure the Miles Per Gallon (MPG) on my Discovery 1 Automatic…

I filled up just before leaving and when we got close and calculated 31mpg for the trip to a petrol station approx. 20 miles short of Garsdale.  Whilst I took the opportunity to fill up Larry with Diesel before heading up hill and dales for the weekend, Rachel took the opportunity to fill up the fuel stations toilet with something equally smelly, probably due to the strong coffee.

One hour later and we arrived at the campsite.  There were a number of vehicles there, two Land Cruiser Amazons, a Freelander, Disco 1 & 2, Defender 110 van and station wagon and a 110 pickup.  Everyone who had camped that night looked cold, except for Paul.

Wild camping Garsdale

Apparently it was -7c that night so when we arrived everyone was sitting in their vehicles warming up.  The weather was fantastic, crisp clear and cold and the drive down to the campsite was wonderful. 

I must admit I’m not a fan of the North of England (past Watford for me), but I can now say its North of Watford and South of Skipton is what lacks a certain I don’t know what… 


Yorkshire however is lovely; we passed through loads of small towns on the A684 which were out of a picture book.  I must remember to go back in the summer for a longer look, if we ever have one again in the UK that is.

North Yorkshire Lanes, beautiful

Anyway after 30 minutes waiting for everyone to get together, we topped up our water carrier for the weekends tea and coffee.  I pee’d up the wall (this is mandatory when camping) Then we were ready for the briefing.

Paul let us know that we would be heading off for approx. 6 hours driving that day, mainly on rough rock or limestone roads some of which would be challenging for the Freelander, one of which the Freelander would not be able to make.  We would stop for two breaks and end up camping for the night.

The overall route planning for the two days was described by Paul as;

Garsdale - Hawes - Bainbridge - Reeth - Merick - Holgate - Fremington - Redmire - Leyburn - Middleham - Lofthouse - Pately Bridge

We checked our CB Radio’s and PBR’s and headed off to the 1^st lane.

The route on the 1^st day was quite easy except for a rock climb created by the forestry.



Also there was a great washout, both were great fun though.  We did a couple of small river crossings and also some tarmac sections between off road sections.  I must admit I was worried if Larry would be ok, because as I said earlier apart form a steering and diff guards I have done nothing to the car, it even had road bias tyres on it, these are Dueller HT 689’s.

Driving a washout

A couple of things I did notice thought the Discovery 2 did not like wet grass; I guess the traction control was having a fit because it kept sliding about, nothing to do with the driver.  The thing which really stopped the Freelander was also, wet grass.  Ok it was on a slope but the Freelander needed a tow?

Anyway Larry plodded on and the only time I needed to engage diff lock once on the stone steps.

I have put some pictures here of the day…

Day 1 camping

Ok, I can spot people who have not camped a lot from a mile off; we had a few with us.  The guys in the Freelander negotiated a warm bed in a static van on their 2^nd night camping, can’t blame them really, it was getting cold and windy.  There was the Defender which had a lot of kit on it.  The D2 had a brand new tent which was being tried in anger for the 1^st time.  All had booked breakfast in the farm house, except Paul us and a couple of others.

The people who obviously had camped before did exactly what we did, get your home up and running ASAP, get the cooker on and the kettle hot.  We put our tent behind a wall with Larry to the left where to give us as much protection from the wind as possible, it was getting quite bad.

Wild camping in a Yorkshire farm

You will need to substitute kettle for Cote Du Rhone for us that night, we decided to have some red before bed.  I think we were setup a whole 30-60 minutes before the new campers and we were eating our grub.

It was early, but the tent was warm, so we did not get out into the cold around the camp fire, it was getting windy and we decided to crash, so I put the radio on and snoozed. 

Rachel stuffed her spare clothes at the end of her sleeping bag to ensure in the morning they were not damp a good idea if you’re not 6’ 1”.  Mine however were in a bag.

The wind

There are only two types of wind in camping, natural wind and food powered.  This night it was proper windy, the weather forecast of -2c and 50mph winds were for once bang on.

Now any hardened camper will tell you the very 1^st time you camp out in bad weather you think you are going to die or the tent is going to take of and fly away with you in it.  The more experienced you get the less weather worries you as long as you have pinned the tent down right.  I did actually pin our down before getting in it, 1^st time in ages, but just as well I did.

However, waking up a 1am with a tent pole smacking you in the face as the tent flexes a lot is not really funny, but I turned off the radio and went back  to sleep.  I guess it must have been 2-3am a whole 7 hours after I started to sleep that I heard movements in the campsite.  It was some of our fellow travelers packing up or retrieving parts of their camping kit.  I was very sympathetic to what they were going through, so I turned over and went back to sleep because there was little I could do for them, especially with no trousers on.

3:30am, various other noises.

5:00am a couple of cars started, I guess the occupants were warming up again, I went back to sleep again.

7:30am, of time to get up, I chucked on my trousers and coat and get out of the tent to see what had gone on.  Rachel put on the kettle and started breakfast.

The night had apparently torn an awning part away from one vehicle.  Also one of the roof tent kitchens had come lose and was packed and the occupants decided to pack the tent away and get in the car.  Everyone else seemed cold, except Paul, Rachel and me.  I guess next time everyone else will ensure they are kitted out appropriately.  I don’t think it was the tents but probably clothing and sleeping kit and when you get cold it’s not easy to get warm.

This whole night had me thinking about the value of a roof tent v’s ground tent.  We had setup very quickly, were warm, didn’t crap ourselves due to the wind, Paul a Disco and Amazon had a roof tent and no issues, the other roof tent was an issue.  Also our ground tent packed up a lot quicker than the roof tents.

I think the real advantage of a roof tent is where you just need the room in the car, when you have less kit to carry a small tent in the boot it easy.  One of the guys did make a comment to me about needing a roof tent for Africa, I did say that that would be hard one on a motorcycle when touring there, but the point seemed wasted.

Anyway, I might end up with a roof tent, but at 16-22x the price of a reasonable ground tent it’s going to be a hard sell at the moment.

So, was it fun, hell yea, have a look at some of the pictures!

Yorkshire dales

Defender in Yorkshire

 

Is this a Pony, or the JABBERWOCKY

Hill crossing

Convoy of Land Rovers

Small river crissing

There goes my exhaust

Rock steps

Defender v's Land Cruiser

Discovery 2 and Defender in a washout

Oh and the cost £150 for the guided tour all in, and for us another £210 on fuel and hotels etc.