24 Hours of the new toy.

I'm pushing back the pangs of envy, love the name.

Washed my "new" Rangie this afternoon and felt all goo-ey over it again once it was looking pristine. I should really hoover it out and get it completely spick and span!

I seem to remember from the ol' bosses 3rd generation Rangie that when you selected low ratio you could select a moving picture on the display which showed what the suspension and steering was doing, that was groovy. With regards to the TV, i believe that you can buy a little add on so you can use the TV on the move. I know you shouldnt but handy for the passenger, and even better in a traffic jam!

The boss had his Range Rover from new, and at the time I worked for a sportsboat importer. Due to a mix up with the shipping company at the time the boat got transported to Bremerhaven in Germany as opposed to Southampton. There was only one option open to us, as the customer wanted his boat asap, and that was to drive to Germany, from Pembrokeshire, with an empty trailer, and get it.

Me, the boss, and my oppo from work left with the bosses RR, and 25ft boat trailer on the back at 9pm on a Wednesday night. 300 miles to Dover. crossing on the cheap ferry, and arrived in France just as it was getting light. Then through France, through Belgium, through Holland, through Germany, stopping only for food and to refuel the RR. We finally arrived at about 4pm on the Thursday, We had to wait on the docks for a while and then we on our way again by 6pm. All up weight of the trailer was just over 3 tonnes.

We were all knackered by now, having been up since 9am on the Wednesday, and having missed a nights sleep and the added stress of driving on the wrong side had really taken it out of us. The only mishap on the return journey was getting lost in antwerp.

We arrived back in Pembs at about 3pm on Friday, being the most tired i have ever been. The point of this story is that i believe that if we had been in any other vehicle than the 3rd generation RR, we wouldnt have made it. You could get yourself completely comfortable, set the seat and temperature just as you wanted it, the sat nav didnt make a single mistake (getting lost in Antwerp was due to roadworks). It towed a 21ft boat, which was 8'6" wide with disdain and the driving position was perfect. The combination of the pokey engine and decent gearbox reduced the stresses of towing as much as possible.

You, my friend, have purchased one of the best vehicles ever made.

Dave R uttered summat worrerz funny about:

Yup indeed - though I think I may have an earlier on board computer as yet I've not found the screen that shows the transmission and suspension setup. Was his touch screen? This one is the earlier Navi knob but it's fine so far.

Only thing I'll tweak is the screen so that my rear view cam on the caravan can be hooked up if I can get it to do that.

Lee D

Can i have a ride in it? I want to see how the other side live ;)

Bet you don't do the peddars way in this!!!!

Tom Woods uttered summat worrerz funny about:

I'll pop around once I get chance :-)

Lee D

yes indeedy it was touchscreen. There was also some bizarre adventurecam thing in the glove box which had a power source of its own so you could put in anywhere. Must have been useful in horse boxes etc etc.

dave

Nige uttered summat worrerz funny about:

Despite Neils assurance that the Silver will polish up a treat I'm sure Nige that you're right here. Somewhat like the last Disco though for completely different reasons the RR will be purely a tug for the caravan. Disco had LPG tanks underslung. RR is tbh too expensive / Nice / costly to repair to drag down greenlanes (for us). None scratchy green lanes is no issue mind... though both times I've been led along a "None scratchy" route they have been very scratchy.

One of the main reasons we stayed with LR and dumped the New Mondeo estate plan was that we need a good tow vehicle for the next caravan. Just got back from looking at an Equery - same as yours but different in detail, We're in No hurry though so I've asked the dealers to look out for a 2nd had one for us. Bump aint due to Feb and we could easily last 12 months with the van we have but if one comes up at the right price we'll be swapping. We looked at

2 single axle vans but the compromise in the bathroom and layout made it a no-brainer.

That said I'd love to put the traction control and hill decent through it's paces if only to become familiar with the limits of the vehicle.

Lee D

If you are up for something local ish between us, we could sort a day out somewhere for you to 'test'!

Milton Keynes is ment to be good, and it will be well established tracks so no scratches!

Is there anywhere to go near Birmingham?

yes indeedy it was touchscreen. There was also some bizarre adventurecam thing in the glove box which had a power source of its own so you could put in anywhere. Must have been useful in horse boxes etc etc.

dave

Dave,

I use my Venturecam for reversing the caravan, shove it on the blind side - very useful :) However, with it working on standard wireless signal, much more fun can be had by driving slowly down the road with the camera off, but the receiver on (it has 4 wireless channels apparantly so you can hook into your own CCTV systems at home) - the number of people beaming sky around their homes (and .. out of it!) is quite high. Evenings are best if you want to watch specialist TV

I would have to agree about being the best vehicle ever too :) I was going to get an Aston after this RR, but I'm sorely tempted to buy my 3rd 3rd Gen now :)

Neil Brownlee uttered summat worrerz funny about:

I use a wireless cam mounted on a bracket and viewing through a mirror (to provide the mirror image) which hooks on the rear window frame of the caravan.

Though this one isn't digital so to speak you have a receiver in the car and pump the image in to a old portable dvd screen with AV in. All very basic but very good. Of course now I'm tempted to hardwire the cam in the caravan and use the cars screen.

Lee D

Doesn't it have over-rides that turn it off when it thinks the vehicle is in use?

Not that you'd bypass them of course...

The newer ones like mine have a diagnostic mode you can trigger ..... driving along with the rear parking camera on is odd .... but the venture cam is allowed to be used at any speed oddly (without diag mode)

Yes

They are hackable and this is fine provided the visual display is being used for the purpose I intend and not watching say Top gear.

Lee D

As the two rear screens in mine can pick up TV while on the move I decided to try an experiment. The kids were asked to watch TV - they lasted maybe 15 minutes before cruel Daddy was driving so fast that the poor local transmitters were having trouble beaming too us (that's what I told 'em anyway!!). In other words, while mobile TV is great when parked, it's not ideal when you are moving, turning etc etc.

Now the DVD on the other hand.....

On or around Sat, 1 Sep 2007 17:41:30 +0100, "Lee_D" enlightened us thusly:

some people's idea of non-scratchy is "no rocks sticking out at body-height".

Anything that's foliage and less than 1" diameter isn't scratchy :-)