Medical Issues (Post #718) 10/10/2025

Well…I’ve been away. Maybe you noticed. I’ve had some medical issues this September. I’ve had some issues that first looked like a back injury. I thought I was getting better but then I took an overland trip. Mr. Fisher and Mr. Obermiller and I took in a couple of sections of the Oklahoma Adventure Trail. The goal was to overland toward the Northeast part of the state to attend the Overland Expo in Jay, Oklahoma.

The trip was good. Lots of gravel roads. One section was pretty rough and was more like rock crawling. We slowed down to 5mph to keep from rattling the body panels off. We had a plan to get to Mr. Fisher’s friend’s lake house. It was real nice of him to offer us his house.

The heat was a little extreme for September in Oklahoma. Sleeping in air conditioning was far better than sweating it out in a tent. The temps on Friday hit 100°F (37°C), needless to say it was toasty. We slept well and headed to the expo on Friday. We saw some cool gear, shot some silenced weapons and had a food truck lunch.

It was about lunch time that the pain I was experiencing started ramping up. It migrated into my abdomen and was quite painful. Think 5 or 6 on the pain scale. Very unpleasant.

I tried several things and in the end I decided it was best for me to try and make it home before it got any worse. I spent the weekend and Monday on a heating pad living my best life through chemistry.

My concern was I was not getting any better. So a few doctor visits and we still don’t know exactly what’s going on. As of this post I’m about 90% sure I have a hernia of some kind or other. We’ll know more after the radiologist gets back to me.

May the winds take your troubles away, thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

https://youtu.be/GFUQVd7KY20

Random Next Jobs on my Range Rover Classic Overland Rig Part 3 (Post #717) 9/7/2025

This week I continued the “odd jobs” on the Classic. These have been piling up as I moved through the truck cutting out rust and welding new patches, grinding away rust, killing spiders, painting, and planning. Would it have been prudent to have written these tasks down, absolutely. Did I write any of them down, not a one.

I’m sure I’ll be encountering them more and more as I start running wiring for the interior. As I start installing the trim and the other interior bits I’m sure there will be dozens of these jobs.

I got the rear seat belt mounts reinstalled. That took a little clever thought to run a string up through the holes and pulling the bracket into place. This required a few trips back and forth under the truck. That will wear an old man out quickly. I installed the rivets so I’ll be able to use those points for a seat belt AND to lock down racks or gear and the bed/tray mechanism that I’ve been planning.

I also tackled the rust on the front differential. It is really crusty. There is no risk of if rusting through. The bloody thing is 1/2 an inch thick.

I got a sprayer and applied some rust converter liberally. I’ll check it this week after work to see how it did.

I also bought a spray attachment to assist in cleaning the bottom of the truck off. You’ll see a LOT of oil covered surfaces and I’ll have to start chasing down where that is coming from. I have some ideas but it will need to be CLEAN before I start finding the leaks and weeps.

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May the wind take your troubles away and Happy Rovering.

https://youtu.be/6fJd5ANY9vU

Random Next Jobs on my Range Rover Classic Overland Rig Part 2 (Post #716) 8/31/2025

The first thing we did this weekend was drive up and surprise Lucas by taking him to his first pro football game. It was my first too, but we made it all about him. He had a great time.

In this post I worked on the footwell and the rust issues that may come up from melting off the stone chip/bedliner material with my welding. I got underneath and scraped off as much as I could reach with all the exhaust and drive shafts in the way. I also now realize there is a fair amount of leaking oil on this beast.

I found some transmission fluid, obviously engine oil, and I saw some antifreeze too. These are all leaks I can list along with my power steering which is weeping from the lower seal. All very annoying. Some we can fix. Some we will probably not fix. Engine oil could be coming from the valve covers which I think need sorting. Antifreeze is likely coming from one of the heater hoses on top the engine. All of those should probably be replaced based on age alone.

I also used some of the fancy zip ties to lock some stuff down. That was very satisfying. There is actually only one size in the bag and they were too small for some of the holes.

I also found some rust. “NO, how is this possible!!!” you might say. The front differential is really rusty. Flakey rusty. So that will need to be cleaned up and coated in rust converter. Then painted. The other rust I found was on the tube that houses the bonnet release (hood release to my fellow Americans). It looked terrible. I got the wire wheel out and got it knocked down to bare metal. I was pretty proud of myself for not wire wheeling my fingers.

I got it coated in rust converter and will get it painted next weekend. I still have several additional jobs to do. It’s labor day weekend so I plan to spend some quality time out there.

That’s about it for this week. No video last week because I had trouble getting the video to build and by the time it was built it was the middle of the week. So I slotted it for later.

Thanks for reading, like and subscribe, and may the wind take your troubles away.

Happy Rovering.

https://youtu.be/ERO8ZXFW5Q4

Installing Shocks on my Range Rover Classic Overland Rig (Post #710) 7/14/2025

In this episode I install some shocks on the old Range Rover Classic. I went for the basic shocks this time. Ordering these from Atlantic British resulted in Boge brand shocks for the front and Girling for the back. The item should have been four from Boge, but I guess they didn’t have the stock and swap the parts for what they did have.

I went about installing them and guess what I found??? RUST. I know, you are shocked, but it’s true. The cups that hold the rubber bushings were very rusty. I cleaned them up the best I could and painted them with Rust Inhibitor paint.

I have no fantasy in my mind that this will stop the rust, but it did FEEL good to try. Also the nuts were VERY corroded and were quite a chore to remove. In order for me to not go through that again, I added some anti-seize goo to the thread parts of the shock. It won’t affect the nuts staying in place because they are nylocs.

The install went about as I expected. I did one front and one back for the video. I’ll do the other half next week and start looking at all the parts that have to come off to replace the bushings.

Thanks for reading, like and subscribe if you watch the attached video, and Happy Rovering.

Planning the Suspension Repairs for my Range Rover Classic Overland Rig (Post #708) 6/29/2025

Camp Mimi 10 is in full swing. Part of Camp Mimi this year is Mrs. Okierover taking the grands to a “cabin” in Medicine Park, Oklahoma. Its a house, but if she wants to call it a cabin, whatever.

With that she needed to take the Honda Pilot to the dealer for a check of the air conditioning. We had a lively debate as to whether or not it was actually cooling when we went to get a Fro-Yo from Braums last weekend. My assertion was it was NOT cooling. She insisted it was and I said, “whatever you think dear…”. So she didn’t get it looked at and drove it to Kansas to pick up Lucas and Logan.

When she got back she said it was NOT cooling. So off to the dealer for investigation. No leaks just 6 year old coolant. So they swapped it out. Yay cooling!

They also told us that our brake pads wore dangerously worn. She told them I would take care of it. I stopped by O’Reilly’s on the way home picked up a set of pads $92.00(US) or there abouts.

I swapped them first thing Saturday. They were NOT dangerous if anything they were about half way. The pads wear pretty unevenly. The inside pads wear less than the outside pads. I need to get over to the Piloteer Message Board and see what that is all about. While I was swapping them, I managed to do one stupid thing and put my back out.

It doesn’t take much, and I’ve been REALLY careful for nearly a year, so it was pretty unexpected that I cut my weekend short by screwing that up.

I’ve started my steroids and am popping Ibuprofen like an over-zealous Corpsman was handing Chicklets to me. I see the doc on Tuesday, and I bet she’ll give me a steroid shot if I ask for one. I’ll be right as rain by the time the campers return.

With all that going on, I took Lucas for a ride. He enjoyed it. The ride just reinforced to me that I need to swap all the bushings and get the shocks replaced. I ordered them Saturday night and expect them this week. They will go in either late on Sunday or early Monday so look for another video then.

That’s about it, like and subscribe to the channel, and Happy Rovering.

https://youtu.be/jEocqJyciC0

Planning the Exterior Lights for my Range Rover Classic Overland Rig (Post #707) 6/22/2025

I have a plan to light the exterior of the Range Rover Classic. I want to be able to turn on the exterior lights while I lay on my mattress inside. This is mostly to have a tactical advantage if something or someone is on the outside of my vehicle.

I want to be able to turn on a single light or with one switch turn on ALL THE LIGHTS. In order to do this I needed to come up with a circuit drawing for this task. I tried my hand but had little to no confidence that I had done it correctly.

So I consulted my best friend Mike to get a circuit drawn and to get a source for the parts. I drove up last weekend and had lunch with he and Paul and then went back to Mike’s shop. We sat and had a beer in his RV while we talked about lots of stuff and got caught up since we saw each other at my birthday part in October last year.

He scribbled a circuit for me. We talked about where to get the parts and he gave me the details. He buys parts that are for automotive use. He buys from them to build the trailer wiring conversions from military to civilian / civilian to military. He sells them on XM381.com if that is something you are looking for.

xm381.com image of a cable conversion.

I took the graphic and re-drew it. Then from the parts I ordered after we met I cobbled together a loose circuit and tested it. Using the battery from the Range Rover Classic and some wires and two lights from my stock of lights I’ve salvaged from breaker’s yards.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Next thing I need to do is order some switches and 16 gauge wire and decide on the lights I want to install. I have some picked out, I’ll need to make a decision one way or another.

I took my time and puzzled this out and I’m so happy I got it to work. My drawing was “close” but would not have worked. Mike was so gracious to help me with this.

Thanks for reading, like and subscribe, and Happy Rovering.