Thread: What happened to your D3/D4 today?

To offset the parasitic battery drain on the D3 when parked up for extended periods, I added a 10W solar panel which sits against the windscreen on the passenger side.

To protect the panel, I hard wired it up through a normally closed relay that opens when the ignition is turned on.

Initial test results last week look promising with the battery voltage slowly increasing after sunny day’s.

I found the Rhino Rack awning brackets a bit light weight for the Ostrich Wing awning... so arranged for some new brackets with a local engineering firm... G&M Engineering in Thomastown. I may have over spec'd them a bit... but they are certainly beefed up and have solved the problem of some awning flex that the RR ones were prone to.

The new brackets... uplifted to 10mm steel.
Awning Mounts 01.jpg

The before...
Awning Mounts 02.jpg

... and after:
Awning Mounts 04.jpg

Thanks to Mark at G&M...Happy with the result. Spanning the two rails provides the stability I was looking for.

Cheers
Naps

Not today, but yesterday, went from this



To this:



Only took two hours, plus a a short break due to the rain.

Originally Posted by Naps

I found the Rhino Rack awning brackets a bit light weight for the Ostrich Wing awning... so arranged for some new brackets with a local engineering firm... G&M Engineering in Thomastown. I may have over spec'd them a bit... but they are certainly beefed up and have solved the problem of some awning flex that the RR ones were prone to.

The new brackets... uplifted to 10mm steel.
Awning Mounts 01.jpg

The before...
Awning Mounts 02.jpg

... and after:
Awning Mounts 04.jpg

Thanks to Mark at G&M...Happy with the result. Spanning the two rails provides the stability I was looking for.

Cheers
Naps

Very Nice. Did you add some rubber between the steel and aluminum? You might like to do that if not to stop possible Galvanic Corrosion.

Regards ND

Originally Posted by Naps

I found the Rhino Rack awning brackets a bit light weight for the Ostrich Wing awning... so arranged for some new brackets with a local engineering firm... G&M Engineering in Thomastown. I may have over spec'd them a bit... but they are certainly beefed up and have solved the problem of some awning flex that the RR ones were prone to.

The new brackets... uplifted to 10mm steel.
Awning Mounts 01.jpg

The before...
Awning Mounts 02.jpg

... and after:
Awning Mounts 04.jpg

Thanks to Mark at G&M...Happy with the result. Spanning the two rails provides the stability I was looking for.

Cheers
Naps

I would mount them underneath if you can.

Took my 2006 D3 TDV6 in for it's 530,000+km service and to fix some issues starting to crop up. The problem I was having with the engine occasionally going into limp mode was found to be the original turbo starting to give out so is getting replaced, as is the original power steering pump. Will also be changing the timing belts and tensioners as a precaution. Gee, these Land Rovers are pretty crappy when the turbo and power steering pumps fail after more than half a million kilometers. Might have to buy myself a Toyota...

I’d probably scrap mine at that point, but respect!

Originally Posted by Naps

I may have over spec'd them a bit...

You think? After the next nuclear attack the only things left will be Volvo's, cockroaches and those brackets.....

Seriously though, good job and you won't need to worry about them failing.