ProteuS

I'm not overly familiar with the shogun. But as far as I was aware they just had a centre diff lock and sometimes a rear diff lock. Two wheels turning sounds just like the vehicle is in 4wd with the centre diff locked. If you could lock the rear diff you'd have three turning at the same speed but not four. A simple test for the rear locker is to get the back axle on stands with the tyres in the air. Rotate one wheel in a direction and see if the other side moves in the opposite direction. Then engage the locker and they should move in the same direction. Four wheel drive with the centre diff open should send all the power to one wheel if it spins. The rear lockers I think are electrically engaged and the solenoids can fail from lack of use. It is quite common on the landcruisers.

Just looking from the pictures you've put up, modifications to J235 SRU from original seem to include: NAS spec front lights, Spotlights, A-frame Winch Winch bumper Snorkel Checkerplate Rock / Tree sliders on side sills Tree slider on Rear tub Swing away wheel carrier NAS rear lights Wheels You mention changing to TD5 Boost alloys, again this would be considered a modification and should be noted. I run the old 3 spoke range rover alloys on my 90 and my insurance company knows exactly what I've done. All of these including the roofrack should be noted to your insurer, as has been mentioned you are NOT INSURED if you haven't stated any modifications to your insurer. Saying it was like that when I got it is not valid. As has been said, J@mes has it on the head. Insurance is not something to be messed around with these days, and it is infurating that ****s who run around not properly insured affect all of our premiums. If you don't want to pay the premium for a modified car then don't modify it / don't buy one. I understand that insurance is difficult when young, I have paid a small fortune in insurance having my own car in my own name from 17, I was aware of what it would cost though and had been saving up for years to cover it. In my original point about the named driver I didn't even mention the modifications as I assumed that you'd informed the insurance company of them. The fact that you are saying the insurance company is taking over a grand from you just a few posts above seems to suggest you are paying the entire policy, yet you are a named driver? Surely the owner and policy holder should be paying the premium. There is no point in trying to play internet hard man when you're being offered some useful advice. It is up to you if you wish to heed it or not, you may get off scott free, or it may come back to haunt you.

Good quality tyres are usually held in better regard because of the better blended compounds, and higher and more consistent weight / balancing. As has been mentioned the BFG ATs have a reputation for fantastic longevity with 50-70k not uncommon. If you're not doing many miles then a little extra noise / faster wear isn't really a problem. Particularly as it only takes a sharp bit of slate / rock to damage the sidewall to the point of needing a new tyre.

Looks like a nice clean Land rover. One thing though, I'd be extremely careful if this is your car and you are the primary driver. Insurance companies are increasingly wise to this. And as we know will sometimes go to pretty long lengths to avoid payouts.

for a 110 you probably want to go 235/85 r16 or if you like a wider tyre 265/75 r16. Offhand I think both should be fine on a 7" rim.

Here's the sort of small winch I was talking about, http://www.dborc.co.uk/goodwinch/pdf/winch%20in%20a%20box.pdf Though this has a mount for a tow ball. I find a winch on the truck very useful, but 90% of the time it not being used to move a stuck land rover, rather, it is being used to move items or help with taking down trees. The last use it got was to help extract a partially buried boat from the beach. It also depends on the terrain around you. If it is flat as the proverbial then you're less likley to run into trouble. If you have to climb up slate rock steps then things become a little trickier.

Quite a few people have put winches on freelanders and they are a soft roader. There are plenty of small 4x4s with winch set ups, jimnys , sport tracks etc. They are a handy precaution. If it isn't going to be used much, have you considered one of the smaller lightweight types which you could put on a removeable mount? (ie 2" receiver hitch)

It should be possible, it just depends how much effort you want to put into it. With winch pulling power you really want to give yourself a comfortable margin of power. As a vehicle stuck in mud can require well over its weight in pulling force to get it out. If you have plenty of line and a good anchor point though doubling the line back will help. I'm afraid that I'm not familiar with the Terios so you'll have to have a good look and see if it looks like there is space and where you would want to mount it. The mount is the most important part. It must be fixed strongly onto the chassis (assuming you have one). Generally the method for fitting them is to look for existing holes to bolt to, and build up a tray to fit between. 6mm is a good solid choice to go for. A good functional tray could be as simple as the sheet, with a fold on the front for the fairlead, gusseted for strength with a suitable mounting arrangement. But if you have lots of sensors or vehicle parts right up at the front it may be more tricky.

the bfg's have a much harder compound which tends to show in the cold weather. Although I agree, it's nice to have the ability in the bad weather it really shouldn't factor much into your decision. If you're worried about the snow and ice just get a set of decent chains. They'll take you a whole lot further. When people talk about the bfg muds now, do they mean the old mt pattern or the km2 pattern which has replaced it. The km2 to my eyes looks much more like the krawlers which are very much a rock tyre. There are plenty of off road tyre manufacturers that don't copy the bfgs, simex, maxxis, Mickey T, kumho, boggers, swampers etc. The bfgs although tend to be a good compromise for a lot of road work and not so much off road. As it's quite a small size you're going for, you'll probably be limited by what's available. I'd reccomend just going for a fairly aggressive pattern with large enough gaps to self clean reasonably and something that's cheap. The benefit of the expensive tyres in ease of balancing and road noise is really only a factor if you're doing a lot of road miles. Off road, most tyres will do a reasonable job, and it's not quite so painful if they pick up some damage.

I've heard conflicting reports about mt vs at in the snow, I currently run greenway mt's on the 90 and vredestein wintrac snow tyres on the landcruiser (the vreds are also ok on soft ground, I'd say around the AT tyre performance mark) I didn't really have any problems with either on the snow and ice, but I will say that the vredesteins were far far better. They seemed to give fantastic amounts of grip. I'd avoid the simex style tread patterns, they can really tear up the ground and dig big holes. As has been mentioned your best bet is probably to go for some MT type, bfg's have always been the marker for them. but for the majority of off road use there are some very good alternatives. The mickey thompson type directional treads are supposed to be fantastic in the mud. The only thing with them is that they work better going forwards than back, so if you do get stuck and can't move on, you may find it difficult to go backwards. The fedima diamond pattern type will be excellent off road, but on road you will notice the hum because of the extremely regular tread pattern. you can also try camskill they are often pretty good with 4x4 tyres.

the 5 litre v10 Tdi would be a lot of fun. You have to go with whatever you enjoy the most within financial constraints. Having said that if you don't need any off road performance, some of the midsize / larger german estates are fantastic machines.

There was a point a couple of years ago where xc90's hit rock bottom. I remember reading an article of a two or three year old xc90 with the 4.4 litre v8, most of the extras selling for 8k. Because the demand for them second hand just wasn't there. Things may have changed now, but you may be able to get a bargain on a very young second hand one. If it was me, out of the three I'd pick the Toureg. The new RRs although perfectly adequate are nothing special. There's always the landcruiser too, but that's not in the three.

Sounds like it is coming along now, good stuff! I've got some Greenway MTs on my defender at the moment, they've got a very tough sidewall but seem to be a handy little tyre.

The 3.9 is just a bored out 3.5 really, Good unit, shouldn't be a problem if well maintained. Some claim the lpg burns a bit hotter so the cooling system has to be upto scratch. Being a big v8 it will probably be ES trim or the likes, very pleasant inside and comfortable, but lots of electrics to keep fiddling with if you want it all to work. Sequential injection gas systems are the best and will give you the best performance and economy when well set up. Depending whereabouts you are, sometimes it can be difficult to find an lpg station, particularly if it is late or you're somewhere reasonably remote. If the tank is in the back (better if you're going to be venturing off road) then it does take up a bit of space. Discoveries main problems tend to be rot. Check the boot, seatbelt mounts etc. Otherwise they make a very tempting buy at a good price, and have the bonus of sounding terrific.

Are you thinking of the santana ps-10? Licenced from the series land rovers, and still on leaf springs I believe ? Iveco bought them out and resold it for a while as the Iveco mastif. But I think they've recently closed the factory completely. Cab chassis landcruiser 70? ( http://www.toyota.com.au/landcruiser-70-series/specifications/cab-chassis-workmate ) Still being made, tremendously reliable, excellent off road, parts available at toyota dealers?