Topic: 96 XJ - A little help (Read 28917 times)

LairdScooby · « **Reply #50 on:** February 02, 2016, 05:25:34 PM »

Quote from: YT on February 02, 2016, 04:03:35 PM

If you use ally, you've nothing to spot weld the bolt heads to. LED bars are like shinny shit to magpies ! One of the nicked bars was gone inside an hour and a half ! (30m of synthetic rope disappeared from his winch at the same time)

Good point. Why can't people leave stuff alone?

bgbazz · « **Reply #51 on:** February 02, 2016, 05:35:16 PM »

What a nice world we could live in...if only!!!

MrBrown · « **Reply #52 on:** February 04, 2016, 07:37:49 PM »

So drivers side light that was dimmer went out yesterday, I went to replace bulb and it came back on. Looks like someone has had 100w bulb in and it has melted/corroded the plug. Are these easily available?

YT · « **Reply #53 on:** February 04, 2016, 08:08:01 PM »

You can get a pair of H4 ceramic plugs in eBay for around a fiver.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/H4-3-PIN-HEADLIGHT-REPLACEMENT-REPAIR-BULB-HOLDER-CONNECTOR-PLUG-WIRE-/252244523276?hash=item3abaf1f90c:g:FmYAAOSw5dNWkamE

MrBrown · « **Reply #54 on:** February 04, 2016, 09:08:15 PM »

Yup should have searched there first. Was just coming back to say I found them.

LairdScooby · « **Reply #55 on:** February 14, 2016, 11:28:10 AM »

I was going to order a pair of these as recommended by Phil/YT yesterday but as i clicked on the listing to buy it, it sold out!

Typical!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321895792749?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I'll have to wait a couple of days now.....

YT · « **Reply #56 on:** February 14, 2016, 12:39:49 PM »

Quote from: LairdScooby on February 14, 2016, 11:28:10 AM

I was going to order a pair of these as recommended by Phil/YT yesterday but as i clicked on the listing to buy it, it sold out! Typical!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321895792749?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I'll have to wait a couple of days now.....

These would be a close 2nd.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/H4-HID-36W-High-Power-CREE-LED-Hi-Lo-Car-Headlight-Fog-Light-Bulb-Ballasts-6500K-/181977278052?hash=item2a5eb0e664:g:oaQAAOSwHaBWhPHb

LairdScooby · « **Reply #57 on:** February 14, 2016, 12:51:43 PM »

Funny you should mention them - i have those in my watch list too. A bit dubious that they're not on UK soil, i've had some bad experiences recently buying small quantities of things like LED bulbs from "abroad" - down to the increased handling by shipping staff i'm sure but it's made me reluctant to order anything even remotely delicate from anywhere but the mainland.

I'll give it a couple of days and see if the others are restocked.

YT · « **Reply #58 on:** February 14, 2016, 04:01:32 PM »

All my LEDs came from China with no issues, and I've had a couple of breakable items from Greece with no issues either. The H4 LEDs are pretty rugged, and they're well packed from the factory.

LairdScooby · « **Reply #59 on:** February 14, 2016, 05:03:06 PM »

That's it - rub it in lol!

I've had many LEDs from China before but recently we errrrr....... "gained" a Polish postie.

He seems to have very little respect for property of any kind (he regularly walks from my neighbours front door, straight to mine, trampling over the gardens in the process) and since he has been delivering the post i've had numerous breakages and failed LEDS. He even managed to completely break an H3 LED that i bought to use in my DRLs in a pair of el-cheapo frog lamps. He did this by bending the Jiffy bag in half to stuff it through the letter box!

He's probably a perfectly nice bloke

but you can't ask/tell him anything as he blatantly doesn't understand English.

Or at least he makes out he doesn't anyway.

bgbazz · « **Reply #60 on:** February 14, 2016, 06:31:18 PM »

I think you would enjoy a visit to my home town (2nd biggest city in BG)...I know my postman fairly well and the way he describes his job would have you choking on your bacon buttie!

Example....front up to work at 7.30am, collect empty mail bag from back room, sort through letters, parcels etc. stacked on the floor in the mail room and take those which are yours...fill bag. When bag is about the right weight, pick up and depart to coffee shop across the street. When he is suitably refreshed, he begins his round...about an hour later (remember he's on foot) he arrives in my street...and has about 30 addresses to pass before he gets to my door. Sadly, just opposite my place is a bar, and if he has timed it right...time for another break! Many times have I gone downstairs and found his mailbag sitting on my front step...and him across the street, enjoying a few brandies. That's actually how I got to meet him, but that's a story for another day.

Let's continue....if he meets up with his mates at the bar and the company is pleasant, he will stay for a couple of hours...the mail bag stays sat on my doorstep. When it's about time, he picks up the bag and heads back to the Post Office, empties the bag onto the mail room floor and goes home!! Take into account that a postman in Bulgaria earns about GBP8.50 per day and it starts to become clear why this happens...it also explains why that in more than 10 years living over here, I've had TWO letters from family and friends. The rest (and there have been many) have been returned to sender...undelivered!!

Sounds unbelievable?...Post me a letter and I'll post the result!!

LairdScooby · « **Reply #61 on:** February 14, 2016, 06:44:10 PM »

Hmmmmm, many similarities! Except the Post Office here is also a tea room/coffee shop! I can't remember the number of times i've been to the doctors and he's moaned at me for not going to this apppointment or that appointment and i've sat there with a blank look on my face because i've known nothing about it! That's just in 3 years!
The wages for posties here aren't great either, not sure what they are these days but back in 2000 it was about £150 a week after tax. If the Bulgarian Posties earn about £8.50/day, the brandy must be bloody cheap!

Thinking on those lines, would buying him a brandy or three each week get your mail delivered correctly? Thinking a bit of bribery might work well with him!

bgbazz · « **Reply #62 on:** February 14, 2016, 07:09:28 PM »

You're right on the money mate...that's exactly what I do to keep him onside.

Poor bugger earns 8.50 per day...deduct the 20% tax PLUS his social insurance payment and the actual take home money is quite a bit lower...more like a fiver per day. He has to pay rent, utilities, food etc for his wife and five kids with all that.

Brandy over here will cost you between 50p and a quid for three fingers in a pint glass...unless you live in a village where the going price is usually about a fiver.......for a gallon!

We went out for dinner last week...six of us...three courses plus beers, wines, soft drinks (for me) and brandies all round at the end of the evening...total bill, including tip....45 quid!!!

You really must come over and see for yourself.

LairdScooby · « **Reply #63 on:** February 14, 2016, 08:50:36 PM »

No wonder they go elsewhere in Europe to find work!

bgbazz · « **Reply #64 on:** February 15, 2016, 06:58:12 AM »

When you consider that the average wage here is around 180 quid PER MONTH, it's easy to figure. Official figures suggest that more than 30% of workers earn about half that amount....don't get me started on the age pension.

LairdScooby · « **Reply #65 on:** February 15, 2016, 11:18:22 AM »

Just seen the rest of your post about the cost of brandy, meal etc (internet was playing up here yesterday) and to put that in perspective, about 10 days ago i went out with a friend and her mum as it was my friends birthday. Her mum paid for the meal but it came to £55 - two poppodoms each with dips to start, main course, coffee (for me) and 3 pints of soft drinks. The tip was on top.
That is about par for the course round here in the average eatery and makes it at least twice as expensive here - factor in the 3 courses you had, brandies etc and it's more like 4 times the cost here.
That said the official average wage here is about £25k/year but most are on or slightly above the National Minimum Wage which is due to change to £7.20/hr in April. Might sound a lot by comparison but the cost of living here is hat much higher as well - back to those swings and roundabouts i guess!

bgbazz · « **Reply #66 on:** February 15, 2016, 02:14:31 PM »

Swings etc etc...you're quite right. The older folk have become quite adept at living cheaply, especially in the villages where almost everybody has a large vege garden, a few chickens and the odd pig (usually fattened and eaten at Xmas.) There is always someone with a still, so cheap brandy is readily available and a lot of folk, like me, make their own wine...if you don't mind a diet which doesn't include much meat, you can live reasonably well. A village is also the place where you can buy yourself a large house on an acre or so for around a quarter of your average salary! I have a 9 room, 3 level house on roughly 3/4 of an acre, large vege garden, heaps of fruit trees, 25 chickens and six bee hives (Peter H has stayed there). The local dairy is a 5 minute walk away and the very small local shop is 5 minutes in the other direction...smokes, beer and bread are all we ever need to purchase when we stay there for 7 months, during the warmer weather. The barter system works really well there too!

The average persons annual income in that village would be less than 250 quid although I suspect it would be much lower!!

LairdScooby · « **Reply #67 on:** February 15, 2016, 03:44:31 PM »

In some respects that sounds a little like an off-grid Utopia. A few years ago i might have gone for a life like that but lifes events have changed a lot of that for me.

wildwood · « **Reply #68 on:** February 15, 2016, 04:11:14 PM »

Sounds like a 'Mad Max' off grid existence would be very possible hidden away in the forests and tracks......

And I mean that in a positive ......quite envious way....... Monster trucks and post apocalyptic motorcycles.......

(Puts down bong and steps away from keyboard smartly)

bgbazz · « **Reply #69 on:** February 15, 2016, 05:44:29 PM »

It probably all sounds a bit strange to many of you, but both of you have hit the nail right on the head!! It's a great place to live...stunning scenery, peace and quiet and very few rules and regs to p1*s you off. You can find trouble and strife...if you go looking for it, but it rarely, if ever, will come looking for you. Living 'off the grid' is easy to achieve...I know of a couple of expat Brits who do exactly that...shady past or whatever reason brought them here, but they live (separately) just outside of two different villages and have done for more than 10 years...no fuss, no bother. I live a similar lifestyle, but in full view of everyone. Live and let live is the overbearing motto over here. A stranger knocks on your door...invite him in, give him a bite to eat and a drink, ask no questions and expect no answers...he'll be gone in an hour, but you will have made a friend. You can go and do the same thing with someone you don't know...their culture and traditions dictate this practice. This rule does not apply to most people with a Roma background..

If you're thinking like Jez, with his dreams of monster machines and heaps of space to play with them to your hearts content...this is the place. Don't go tearing up someones crop or garden, don't chase his cow, goat or sheep and don't use his water supply as a toilet..........never EVER pay his wife and daughters any attention and you will live a long and healthy life. You will be hard pressed to find a fence or hedgerow anywhere in BG, except around the owners house and garden and that's only there to stop wildlife eating his veges. All domestic livestock are looked after by shepherds etc..and brought home and housed every night...no need for fences as they are never unattended...ever!! Peter Henry may remember driving through a quite mountainous forest area with me and coming across a timber workers camp, perched on the side of a very steep slope...their toilet (bog) was built out over the edge of this drop and I can imagine that the user would spend a very short time in residence! Anyway, we stopped and had a look around...the lady showed us the horses which they used to recover logs from the mountainside...she seemed to be quite friendly, but in reality would have been terrified to be in such close company of three strange men...I've wondered since, how many sets of eyes were watching us over their rifle sights that day! That was my big stuff up and one which has never been repeated.

Mr Henry...can you post up the pic of that epic crapper?

LairdScooby · « **Reply #70 on:** February 15, 2016, 07:37:59 PM »

I was thinking add a herd of cows into the mix - not only meat and dairy products and leather of course but save the cow-pats, let them decompose and recover the gas. Compress it and use it to power your Jeep! Oh yeah, and your electricity generator!

LairdScooby · « **Reply #71 on:** February 17, 2016, 12:48:43 AM »

Getting back on topic (although it was great to talk about another sort of life!) i was going to order a pair of these :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321895792749?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

but they sold out at the weekend.

While trawling fleabay i found these :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172085313008?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Call me cynical if you like but both sellers are in Portsmouth, both Chinese and both items are the same pictures, same specification and only the words vary a bit in the description! In other words i think it's the same seller with 2 (or maybe more) different accounts.
The good thing (for me anyway) is the second lot i found were £7 cheaper. Ordered a set for the Jeep, i'll see how they go and maybe order a set for my other beasts too.

Once i've got them fitted in the XJ, i'll report back on their performance, hopefully with pics as well.

bgbazz · « **Reply #72 on:** February 17, 2016, 06:58:09 AM »

You might have to get used to wearing sunglasses at night....

LairdScooby · « **Reply #73 on:** February 17, 2016, 11:09:09 AM »

I hope so!

MrBrown · « **Reply #74 on:** February 27, 2016, 02:04:11 PM »

Author Topic: 96 XJ - A little help (Read 28917 times)

LairdScooby

MrBrown

YT

MrBrown

LairdScooby

YT

LairdScooby

YT

LairdScooby

LairdScooby

LairdScooby

LairdScooby

LairdScooby

LairdScooby

LairdScooby

LairdScooby

MrBrown