disco diff lock

hellspawn,
i get the impression you may have missed my point. i was pointing out that too many people put too much trust in technology. sure, it's great when it's working but not much good to you if it claggs out in the middle of nowhere.
i was just informed today of 2 of our lroc club members who are doing a trip up cape york that have come to grief on the wenlock.
water was apparently 1m deep and both td5's got stuck in the soft sand, the water came in and drowned the computers. they have been stuck up there for 5 days now with no help in sight. landrover assist wont help because they have got themselves into it by exceeding the fording depth.
now having mechanical know-how may not be any good to these guys at the moment, but by the same token, they should've been prepared for this type of catastrophic failure, by either taking steps to waterproof the computer enclosure or maybe taking a spare (cost inhibitive).
if the computer is just wet, there is achance that when it is completely dry, it may get them home. but more likely the water has sent power to spots it shouldn't be and done irrepairable damage.
and yes, people servicing their own cars without the proper know-how can be very dangerous, but then again, so can trusting a well known, land rover "specialist" to do your repairs and then finding out after you've paid for it and gone back to pick it up to find that they have snapped the brake adjuster on the rear drums while adsjusting them (not requested as part of service, only engine tune up )leaving me with nearly no pedal and adjusting the idle too low so that to keep the engine running, one must keep the go pedal down.
this became very awkward getting the vehicle home, pumping the brakes to stop while keeping the revs up so as not to stall. the company in question would not pay for the replacement backplate for my rear brakes and it took me a month of fiddling to get the thing running right again.
as a footnote to this, when changing my gear, transfer and diff oils 20000k's later, i found that they put the wrong oil in my transfer.

this is why i service my vehicle my self and i'm confident that in the event of a breakdown anywhere, that providing nothing is totally knackered, i'd have a good chance of getting mobile again. but in a remote area, you can't rely on your own skill and should always have communication backup (hf or satphone) just in case.

Nope, didn't miss you're point about technology but what you go on to say is a dig at people who really don't worry about whether they have (including me) traction control, freewheeling hubs or central diff lock engine management or some other optional accessory will allow the vehicle to be parked on a wall in the event of no gound parking spaces. It is both a blessing and a concern that we live in such a world full of automation and computers but I'd guess that if we didn't support it then we'd probably not buy it.
As for the troop at the Cape, I suppose there could be worse places to be than there. You're right, they should have prepared for something like that, same as driving in the scrub without a spare tyre or tube. In hindsight they could have in water proofing the ECU mounted in on the roof before they left or precrossing wrapped it in cling wrap then put it a plastic bag tying the end around the loom. My figuring is stick to the basics, points ignition, carby and standard size wheels. Most can be found or at least fixed which is better than sitting for days with a multimeter of which most of those parts aren't repairable anyhow.
Sounds like you had a bit of bad luck with that particular dealer. I could say the same for spare parts outlets but haven't yet resorted to manufacturing my own brake shoes or oil filters.
Quite right, no shame in asking for help than wander further into trouble on half done mechanicals. Yet that's just another funny thing about people who fix their own as opposed to take it to someone types, the later will normally be the first to stick their hand up for help. Fix their owns from whom I've met in wanderings generally dig their heels in about some other touching their car, whether it be cost or embarrassment or as was your case with the dealer just bad service I could never get it out of them. Weird really.

no, again , hellspawn. quite the opposite. i'm a carby/points man myself, i'd much prefer a difflock than traction control etc, etc.
im' more concerned about the people that go bush, unprepared, blindly trusting the technology that they've bought or been promised by the dealer with out any preparation or chance of saving themselves.
that's it ......subject closed. i thuoght my point was pretty clear in the first place.. explaining a comment 3 times is too much.