Just wanted to pass along an invitation that I received from the nearby Finger Lakes 4x4 club, also serving western New York. They have some upcoming events planned including Off-Roading 101 at Whispering Pines in Lyons, NY. 

Here is the invite with some more details...

On the 29th February, the one millionth Land Rover Discovery rolled off the production line to embark on a 50 day, 8,000 mile Journey of Discovery from Birmingham to Beijing.

Inspired by the first 1955 remarkable Overland Journey from England to Singapore which covered 18,000 miles, taking six months and six days. Several other expeditions tried, but no other vehicle managed to get through India, over the jungle-clad mountains of Assam, across northern Burma to Thailand and Malaya.

To mark this one millionth milestone, Land Rover are again embarking on another a remarkable
Journey of Discovery and are aiming to raise £1 million for the company's Global Humanitarian Partner, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in support of a much needed water sanitation project in Uganda.

Follow us on our journey and please help us reach our target. Find out more here.Reported by Land Rover

So Four Wheeler Magazine just crowned the  2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee its coveted "Four Wheeler of the Year." No problem, right..? Jeeps are capable, right? Most Rover owners have one in their fleet or once did, right? Well the problem is that if you read on, beyond the end of the article, it goes on to mention that the Grand Cherokee lost front-wheel drive during the testing and had to be replaced with a new vehicle. How is that fair?

Per the article, the Grand broke during the Hill Climb, so,  "We immediately contacted Jeep, and...By that evening we had our Jeep swapped." Must be friggin' nice...break your brand new vehicle on the trail, phone a friend, have a team of engineers flown out, get a new rig the same day AND still win the event.  (I wonder if all Jeep owners get that level of field support?) Even Dale Jr had to start the Daytona 500 at the end of the pack because he wrecked his original qualifying vehicle.

The article goes on with Four Wheeler patting themselves on the back for identifying this flaw in the factory setting of the transfer case chain...and because of their efforts no other Jeep owner will have this happen, but I still have to cry BS on how a vehicle can win, when it breaks during the testing and needs to be REPLACED - not repaired.  They state that their policy allows for them to substitute if an identical replacement vehicle is available...though earlier they describe the replacement as a "nearly" exact replica...not sure what was different...adjusted transfer case chain maybe.

The article also noted that the Land Rover LR4, which lost to the Grand overall by less than 4 total points, showed up late to the contest and wasn't allowed to participate in the acceleration, braking or RTI portions of the competition, therefore scoring 0 points. 

I am sure that while they were waiting around for their new (and improved?) Grand Cherokee to be delivered, the authors could have given the LR4 a second chance to complete the part of the competition that they missed...easily scoring another 4 points and winning the overall comparison.

In a related story, when the air suspension failed in the LR4 while competing for bragging rights in the similar competition for sister magazine 4-Wheel and Off-Road, they didn't bring in a new one. They finished the testing with the same impaired vehicle AND IT STILL MANAGED TO BEAT THE OTHERS! 

Again, I have no issues with Jeeps and am a long-time Four Wheeler subscriber, but this just doesn't seem fair.  But I guess we know where their bread is buttered. The operation was a success but the patient died.

In case you want to let the magazine know your thoughts....
http://www.fourwheeler.com/contactus/index.html

We have recently turned on some features and content. There is now a Forum Section  (message board) section where you can go to buy and sell Land Rover parts and participate in technical discussions. This can be accessed at www.forum.erovers.com

There is also a Social Network Dashboard with real-time links to a bunch of Land Rover and other off-roading related content.

Hopefully this will increase the chatter with Land Rover enthusiasts in the area...Check them out....

I came across this posting on another message board and it seemed like it was worth cleaning up and reposting here.  On the P38A Range Rovers, there is a warning symbol that may appear on your climate control display. According to the manual, the system is constantly self-diagnosing for faults and the “handbook symbol” will appear, when one of these is found.  IF you don’t have access to a testbook or dealer and you want to diagnose this a little bit, here is a good collection of preliminary steps you can take.

Before you do anything, you should check the relays under the hood on the passenger side.  Look for brown spots on the ones that are linked to the heating/cooling/fans/etc....I had an intermittent situation with the warning symbol coming on and quirky heating/cooling problems and found that nearly all of the yellow relays had brown spots from overheating and then malfunctioning. Click here to download a PDF on where to go from there: P38A Climate Control

More Land Rover Coverage in Four Wheeler Magazine...

 

Study In Contrasts: 2011 Range Rover And Land Rover LR4

Wheeling The 2011 Land Rover Range Rover and LR4 in the Colorado high country

From the March, 2011 issue of Four Wheeler

By Ken Brubaker

Photography by Ken Brubaker, Land Rover

Follow this link to a recent article in Four Wheeler Magazine... 

Two Men and a Landy - Finding Adventure in South Africa

From the February, 2011 issue of Four Wheeler By Harry Wagner

Photography by Harry Wagner

Here are all of the OBD codes for the Range Rover P38A and Discovery II North American V8 models. These have been compiled from the Rover Workshop Manuals and should be used as a reference only when you are not able to contact an authorized Land Rover repair technician.  They may come in handy on a road trip or stuck in a ditch somewhere.  There were a number of inconsistencies and errors in the documentation that I tried to correct when putting this list together.

If you know of any changes or corrections, please provide that feedback.

Link to PDF: NAS Rover V8 OBD Codes

Four Wheeler Magazine recently ran an article about Antique Off-Road Vehicles and Land Rover was well represented. Both the Series and D-90s made the list of sought-after classic trail rigs. The Series II and III were said to "epitomize coolness" while the Defender was praised for virtually retaining all of its value after 15 years. View an excerpt of the article at the link below... Four Wheeler Sep2010