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posted 27 Jul 2009 15:55 by Ryan Carroll [ updated 27 Jul 2009 15:57 ]

We're now on the road and are no longer updating this site. Go to our Blog on a Map page to see where we are now.

H -14 hours

posted 24 Jul 2009 16:22 by Ajay Kalhan [ updated 24 Jul 2009 16:49 ]

Must second Ryan's tip-of-the-hat for his dad Mike, and i want to add one for his mum Carol. Both of them put in so much consideration and effort into the project. Add to that their hospitality. It was like being home.

H -14 hours.

The army chaps had already put in the inverter and today we installed the aux connector set so we can plug in general appliances. Adam Shanley at Truma had to courier us the parts. After some drilling and cursing we got it installed. Ryan tested it by charging his mobile.

Meantime we also got rid of the roof rack because it was adding a lot of weight to a generally top-heavy vehicle. Seems to handle much better now. The final test will be on the highway to Dover, tomorrow. Linda's dad Bob has been a key asset in these projects. Handy with suggestions and a helping hand.

We start for Dover @ 2pm tomorrow.

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Big win

posted 11 Jul 2009 14:17 by Ryan Carroll

My dad's been doing it again. I just spoke to him and found out that today he got us sponsored by Motaman in Salisbury who have donated the European driving kit and a tow rope. He also told me that the vehicle is going to be resprayed white on Thursday and Friday of this coming week. He wouldn't tell me how he swung that one, but I think I owe him - big time!

Insurance problem

posted 10 Jul 2009 12:31 by Ryan Carroll

I insured the vehicle a while ago straight after we got the civilian plates for it. At the time I asked if I could add Ajay later and was told that I could. However, when I phoned up recently to do this I was told he couldn't be added because he wasn't a UK resident. I then spent about four hours ringing around other insurers and couldn't actually find any that would insure the combination of the unusual vehicle and the non-UK driver. This is now a real problem for us as without Ajay on the insurance I will have to drive all the way to Russia myself. We buy insurance for Russia at the border, so we should be OK from that point on.

I've decided not to worry about this for a little while. I'm off to China on business on Monday and will just sort this out when I get back (I hope)!

Second battery

posted 9 Jul 2009 11:11 by Ryan Carroll

Chris (a.k.a. "Sparks", the REME electrical engineer) was planning out the installation of the inverter today and decided that in addition to the high-output alternator we should also install a second battery. Now here's the amazing bit: my dad, on hearing this, promptly drives over to Halfords in Salisbury and catches the manager just before he's leaving. My dad explains the situation and, thanks to the manager's extreme generosity, walks away with a second £100 battery courtesy of the company! Halfords have been absolutely brilliant in backing us. We got the first battery from the Uxbridge branch, and now the Salisbury branch has donated the reserve battery. I'd been down a bit over the last few days due to a number of issues cropping up (like not being able to add Ajay to the insurance for the vehicle), but this has restored my faith that we'll pull this thing together no matter what.

New alternator on the way

posted 8 Jul 2009 04:28 by Ryan Carroll [ updated 8 Jul 2009 04:38 ]

This morning I managed to find a dealer that specialised in ex-military Land Rovers and he had a 65 Amp alternator in stock which he has put in the post to me today. I'd spoken to the army electrical engineer earlier and he gave me some back-of-the-envelope figures to work from:

Firstly, the original military alternator was 48 Amps, not 60. However, the civilian one I got to replace it was indeed a 35 Amp one, so wouldn't suffice.

Now, we 've added various electrical components which he provided the rating for:

Heated windscreen - 20 Amps
Spotlights, for night driving - 16 Amps
Rear worklights for lighting an incident scene - 10 Amps
Fridge - 5 Amps

If we assume the basic electrical system requires up to 30 Amps to operate, then the 65 Amp alternator adds 35 Amps of capacity which will give us enough to run all of the components we've added, but obviously not all at once.

Bottom line: it will suffice so long as the operators are sensible about what they run and when. The nice thing is that the Truma inverter is an intelligent system which will stop supplying 240 Volts if the battery charge gets too low, so it will literally be impossible to discharge the battery by over-use of any of the 240 Volt appliances.

Thanks Mum and Dad!

posted 7 Jul 2009 12:22 by Ryan Carroll

I´d just like to publicly thank my parents for all the support they´ve been giving me. Firstly, my dad has been doing so much crazy running around to help out with the preps that I´m sure he´s put more time and effort into this than I have, and he doesn´t even get the reward of going on the drive at the end of it all. And secondly, my mum has been an absolute hero for letting my dad do all this running around, leaving her on her own for much of the time over the last several months. If I can be as good a parent to my children as my mum and dad have been to theirs, then I´ll really have something to be proud of.

Bit of a pickle

posted 7 Jul 2009 12:04 by Ryan Carroll

Hmm, a while back when Matt, the Staff Sergeant in charge of the overhaul project, was first assessing the vehicle he suggested I get an alternator for the spares pack as this is a component which might fail over the next 4-5 years. So I ordered a Land Rover Series 3 alternator and thought nothing of it.

When this subsequently showed up in the workshop while Matt was away on a sponsored Lands End to John O´Groats bike ride, Jay (Too Tall) immediately hopped on it and got the thing installed in his usual super-efficient style. However, I´ve now learned that the original alternator was a special one fitted to military vehicles and rated at 60 amps so it could power more electrical equipment, where as the replacement I ordered was for a standard civilian vehicle and only rated at 35 amps. This gives us a problem as we need the higher-rated alternator to power all the medical kit, and the original one has now been disposed of. So tomorrow I need to start ringing around to see if I can lay my hands on a military-spec alternator. Fingers crossed. I just wish Ajay (or someone) was here to help. I´m really busy at work at the moment and fitting this in before I leave for China on Monday is going to be tight. Ideally I´d like to contact a bunch of alternator specialists and see if they´ll provide one for us free of charge, or perhaps upgrade our existing one (which I´ve learned is possible by increasing the amount of coils internally). But given the timing I think that just isn´t going to happen´.

We´ll get through it, but we could have done without the complication at this late stage.

Broke the £5000 barrier

posted 6 Jul 2009 13:35 by Ryan Carroll

Thanks to a couple of recent donations we have now received over £5000 in direct cash donations. All funds raised through this website go towards purchasing, equipping and preparing the vehicle. We still have a few more expenses to cover, such as painting the vehicle, but thanks to everyone's tremendous support it looks like we will have raised enough to cover the vast majority of the cost of all this preparatory work.

Please follow along with us via this blog as we complete our journey so you can see where your money is going - literally!

Jerry can holder

posted 6 Jul 2009 13:34 by Ryan Carroll

I got a great deal on a military twin jerry can holder which I found on ebay last week. £10.51! Thanks to Greg for picking it up from the seller for me, as postage would have cost a whopping £45. Yeah, it's not light.

The cool thing is that the holder also acts as a ladder for accessing the roof, so although the holder will add weight, we will lose all the weight from the current roof-mounted ladder, so overall I think the vehicle will be lighter. And as the jerry can holder will mount on the rear door, it'll also lower the centre of gravity slightly.

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