The Defender thread

Hey guys,

Just wanted to say great thread so far. Nice to see and feel the love on here.

Although I am yet to own a landy as an adult, I grew up in the 70's and 80's in the back of plenty. My fathers job took us overseas, and into the deserts of Africa and jungles of Asia. He would always put down thick plywood boards on the fold down lateral seats in the back, then foam mattresses and bedding, and me and my younger sister and brother would "live" there as we drove for days into the desert with other families for our "holidays". All our gear would fit underneath and on the roof racks. The adults would sling a tarpaulin between the vehicles and they'd sleep there at nights.

They were all friends and they were all put through a lot. I remember numerous occasions of holding on for dear life as we drove down steep dry river banks, or repeatedly bouncing and banging my head on the roof as we steamed along "roads" that consisted of many other vehicle rutts, half a mile wide, wailing at my Dad in anger. I remember getting stuck and breakdowns in the *rsehole of nowhere and my dad elbow deep in the engine, and I remember my mum having to crank the front to start on one model. I also remember sitting on the roofs with my siblings and the other kids, from the other families, looking for miles and miles as the sun set on a far away horizon.
My first driving lesson, aged 5, I drove the thing at a type of bush that grows for hundreds of years in the soft desert sand, and the menfolk spending hours trying to dig us out, and various approaches with sand ladders. They were not very happy I recall

My father was an avid photographer, he liked his cameras like his cars, fully manual and reliable, OM1's. He always had 2 ready to go, one black and white and one colour, and as a result there are many, many pics of us in and around our Landrovers, always looking dusty or sticky, and relaxed and content.

Anyway, I have long wanted a Defender and so I periodically have a look. I bumped into this very recent thread and enjoyed the read, particularly some great pics guys, nice work. I'd love a 110 Diesel with a fixable engine, the 300 sounds good.

Anyways, hope you don't mind me indulging in a bit of reminiscence of a Sunday afternoon. Thought yous might appreciate it.

Mental Note.......must get myself and defender to Salisbury plain.
The more i see of it the more i want to go.
Is there any decent wild camping to be had on the plain?

101sean wrote: »

That's odd, shouldn't start with that light on! Did you have to use the EKA code routine to get it to work or just use the Nanocom to get Alarm to talk to the fob?

I've saved myself and my brother in law a heap of money with the Nanocom but it can be tempremental and the manual translation from Italian to English isn't great :rolleyes: There are alternatives but are more expensive and locked to one vehicle type or even to a chassis number.

Found the manual a complete waste of time.
Just connected the nanocom to laptop and paired the key fob tghrough this.
Done a good bit of routing around with nanocom before i figured out how to pair these, maybe i turned something on ?