ON THE ROAD
Trevor has been busy clocking up the miles now his Discovery 2 is finally finished
My Land Rover Discovery 2 Td5 has undergone a major rebuild and is thankfully on the road again. Although the series of features covering the rebuild and all of the various jobs carried out is still running in LRM, I have already clocked up over 3000 miles in the Discovery.
I missed the truck terribly while it was on #2 ramp in my workshop for an extended period of time – I was not working on it full time, as my everyday work had to continue on #1 ramp (to pay the bills and pay for all of the stuff going in to my Discovery).
During the period of the rebuild, I was on a number of long trips in my Defender 90 and the 130 Tipper. They did the job admirably, but being able to use the Discovery again on a long run to Richards Chassis’ factory in Doncaster was an absolute joy – it was great to be doing some armchair motoring again. I will report in detail on the performance of my D2 towards the end of the tech feature series; suffice to say at this stage I am very pleased with the upgrades to the truck. Two of my friends – Robert Kiss and Colin Cairns – had cause to make use of my Discovery, on separate occasions, and they too were very impressed.
When my Discovery reversed out of the workshop earlier this year, it was the first of three (so far) to do so – following a rebuild. The Discovery formerly owned by LRM Editor, Patrick Cruywagen, is now in the hands of another friend – the illustrious builder-joiner, Matt Spoerri – and the two of us carried out a fairly extensive (and part-time) rebuild over a period of seven weeks.
The third Discovery to be the subject of a drive-in, reverse-out rebuild was the polar opposite of a part-time rebuild; Robert Kiss and I fitted a brand-new chassis to his Discovery 2 in double-quick time. Halfway through the third day, we had the body down, bolted up and the engine running again. At the end of the third day, the job was finished and Robert drove the truck home to Co Armagh.
While one should never say never again – it will be a long time before I do a project like that again; it took me a long weekend to recover from the exertions. However, it was a very satisfying exercise and, like Matthew (and me), Robert is very pleased and proud of his truck. All three will go on now, for many years to come.
As well as my long-ish business trip in my Discovery 2, I have been playing in it as well. Just recently I took it on a run up to Co Donegal for the weekend and I could not resist a drive on some of my favourite lanes up there. I am more used to driving the lanes in my trusty V8 Land Rover, but the D2 was more than capable of tackling the job – helped by my taller 235/85/R16 tryres, my recently-fitted centre differential lock (CDL) and the easily removable towing bracket (thanks to the receiver hitch I fitted).
Having driven a popular lane from the back of Muckish Mountain across to Falcarragh, we then toured the scenic coastal road to Burtonport. We finished the day off with a drive on the beautiful and deserted Falcarragh beach on the way home to Portnablagh.
It was another one of those very memorable and magical days that we all clock up in our Land Rovers – a family day out in a very fine truck. You just can’t beat them.