Morocco March 2016

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It was decided that the kid would go nuts without that all precious wifi, swimming pools and other girly stuff, so the kid is going on a skiing trip and we've booked a couple of hoildays, however I get bored pretty quickly so I have suggested that I and a mate go back to Morocco next year to the Home Office, and she agreed.

I get 27 days holiday where I work so I might be able to scrape in. My wife is up for Morocco, but doesn't think the kid will like it and probably make our lives hell, so she will come along another year.
 
Rachel, I was looking at your map, and we did the Erg Cheb thing on day two and off road bar the last 20 miles to Zagora, then ran along the border of Algeria underneath Mhamid to a camp site in Tata, that was an awesome stretch. The coast we hit was south of Tiznit, I think the nearest town was Guelmim, the beach is OK, but the dried river bed run through the gorges was the best bit for me.

I marked the route on an actual map every day when I was there, Ill bring it to LRO and wave it around like a child at you.

As the price of hotels/ campsites was so low, I'd like to use one or two and just wild camp in places down near the border etc, as I want the truck to be lighter next time, and not carrying over a 100 cans of food would be a start.
 
Ok, so I said I might come along and the whole thread dies..... Hmmm, just an
Ken and I again, lol
 
MrNasty said:
Rachel, I was looking at your map, and we did the Erg Cheb thing on day two and off road bar the last 20 miles to Zagora, then ran along the border of Algeria underneath Mhamid to a camp site in Tata, that was an awesome stretch. The coast we hit was south of Tiznit, I think the nearest town was Guelmim, the beach is OK, but the dried river bed run through the gorges was the best bit for me.

I marked the route on an actual map every day when I was there, Ill bring it to LRO and wave it around like a child at you.

As the price of hotels/ campsites was so low, I'd like to use one or two and just wild camp in places down near the border etc, as I want the truck to be lighter next time, and not carrying over a 100 cans of food would be a start.
Click to expand...

Hmm, lighten your truck. I had 109 bottles of beer, 15 liters of wine, 60 X 2.5 liters of water. plus 2 X 30 liters water in jerry cans, 4 X 20 liter jerry cans of diesel plus food for the whole trip. Three course lunch and dinners plus breakfast. And we stayed in hotels a few nights. With our navigation we needed a good supply of provisions in case we got lost, which we did. I suppose I could leave a few spares behind next time.
Next time I want to take a load of old children's cloths to trade. plus a large supply of pens. Looks like we are going to be running heavy again.
 
I think we had 100 cans of some Spanish beer, but that went really quickly, I remember being in Zagora and thinking we were running low, by Tata, all gone.

I was giving nuts and bolts away to the endless begging kids in the end, whisky was asked for a few times, the camping stove instruction manual was gratefully received also! Laminated pages, no rubbish!

I'm not running with two spares next time, and definitely not on the roof if I can help it, too heavy, made the truck which is usually quite tight feel top heavy, had 4 jerry cans of fuel, never needed them as my truck was doing 26mpg on the road and then over 35 off road due to the 1.4 transfer box which I have now swapped for a recon 1.2 so getting through Europe wont be so awful. So two 20L cans will do, ok, maybe 3!

The prep has already begun, new rear diff fitted a week ago, didn't need one as it turned out, the whirring noise was coming from the near side rear brake pads, lesson learnt there, its not always something serious.

Unlike last Oct, when I bought the 110, I haven't got all that much prep to do,


H/D Land Rover rear springs, as I fitted medium duty ones and sag a little under load

Rear radius arm bushes

Put the unused spare tires on and buy a couple of new ones, and run the spare as used

Go through the brakes again, new pads before I left, came back 75% worn, rears, metal on metal

Change the coolant, oil and both filters, check wheel bearings ect, usual servicing stuff

Fit fuel tank guard, after removing the tow bar, Land Rover tank guard looked flimsy and rather vulnerable, I thought anyway.

After my ECU died on me without warning I'm going to get a spare pre-coded to take with, as I've learnt, nothing you can do to fix one if it dies.

Oh and buy a tire deflater, standing about in 38c letting air out with a little wooden stick sucked.

As you know, Ken eats nothing, maybe a bit of fish paste on a cracker once a week:D, so we really did not stop and eat until the evening some days, and we both started eating less and less each day anyway, so I hauled most of the food back to the UK.
I think the longest duration without any means of getting water or fuel was two, so we would stop at a petrol station or one of those dodgy little shops and buy bread, coke and water, oh and laughing cow cheese, whenever really.

Depends on who comes with me in 2016 that will determine how much clutter I have to haul.
 
Last edited:
The weather has cooled down a bit so I can now start to get on with some jobs on mine. It was 41 C yesterday. I still have to sort out a vibration problem I have which is beginning to **** me off.
I am also trying to decide if I should change the shocks. I fitted a set of ProComp which seem fine but have been on the Defender for three years now and done one trip to Morocco.
I only took one spare last time which I did need. I had a serious blow out on the way back on the motorway in Morocco. The tire was totally destroyed. The guys in a 90 were running on tires with inner tubes and suffered several flats which they repaired on route. I could take two spares, one on the bonnet and one on the back door so they would both be out of the way but I don't think I will bother. Having been there once before I will probably cut down on some of the gear we took. I will wait till nearer the time to see who is taking what regarding Jerry cans of diesel etc. We didn't really need them other than getting cheep diesel in Morocco for the trip back.
I had thought of changing the transfer box for a Discovery one but I wandered if when going through the soft sand if I would loose some of the pulling power. Mine will cruise at 70 mph on the road which isn't too bad.
I have replaced the rad and heater matrix. Put the Viscous fan back on and removed the Kenlowe electric fan. New Timkin wheel bearings and ball joints all round.
 
The 1.2 discovery transfer box is exactly the same gear ratios of a 1.4 when in low range, so in the sand it should not make any difference. Some people don't like the 1.2 box as they find it too tall geared, but I wish I had done it earlier, drives completely different now over long distances, sit all day at 80 mph at 2800 rpm instead of nearly 4000. 4000 rpm across France and Spain and back got a little boring.
 
MrNasty said:
The 1.2 discovery transfer box is exactly the same gear ratios of a 1.4 when in low range, so in the sand it should not make any difference. Some people don't like the 1.2 box as they find it too tall geared, but I wish I had done it earlier, drives completely different now over long distances, sit all day at 80 mph at 2800 rpm instead of nearly 4000. 4000 rpm across France and Spain and back got a little boring.
Click to expand...

What is it like up long hills and going through soft sand? I hardly used low ratio in Morocco. Only once I recall when going through very soft sand and I came to a halt on top of a sand dune when we lost sight of the leader who was Chris. We couldn't see if he made a left or right turn in all the dust. Had to use low ratio to get going again. Its a bit of a dilemma. I suppose the Discoveries seem to get through OK?
 
MrNasty said:
I think we had 100 cans of some Spanish beer, but that went really quickly, I remember being in Zagora and thinking we were running low, by Tata, all gone.

I was giving nuts and bolts away to the endless begging kids in the end, whisky was asked for a few times, the camping stove instruction manual was gratefully received also! Laminated pages, no rubbish!

I'm not running with two spares next time, and definitely not on the roof if I can help it, too heavy, made the truck which is usually quite tight feel top heavy, had 4 jerry cans of fuel, never needed them as my truck was doing 26mpg on the road and then over 35 off road due to the 1.4 transfer box which I have now swapped for a recon 1.2 so getting through Europe wont be so awful. So two 20L cans will do, ok, maybe 3!

The prep has already begun, new rear diff fitted a week ago, didn't need one as it turned out, the whirring noise was coming from the near side rear brake pads, lesson learnt there, its not always something serious.

Unlike last Oct, when I bought the 110, I haven't got all that much prep to do,


H/D Land Rover rear springs, as I fitted medium duty ones and sag a little under load

Rear radius arm bushes

Put the unused spare tires on and buy a couple of new ones, and run the spare as used

Go through the brakes again, new pads before I left, came back 75% worn, rears, metal on metal

Change the coolant, oil and both filters, check wheel bearings ect, usual servicing stuff

Fit fuel tank guard, after removing the tow bar, Land Rover tank guard looked flimsy and rather vulnerable, I thought anyway.

After my ECU died on me without warning I'm going to get a spare pre-coded to take with, as I've learnt, nothing you can do to fix one if it dies.

Oh and buy a tire deflater, standing about in 38c letting air out with a little wooden stick sucked.

As you know, Ken eats nothing, maybe a bit of fish paste on a cracker once a week:D, so we really did not stop and eat until the evening some days, and we both started eating less and less each day anyway, so I hauled most of the food back to the UK.
I think the longest duration without any means of getting water or fuel was two, so we would stop at a petrol station or one of those dodgy little shops and buy bread, coke and water, oh and laughing cow cheese, whenever really.

Depends on who comes with me in 2016 that will determine how much clutter I have to haul.
Click to expand...

Well as far as I know we are still in, although Sarah isn't too sure after the nightmare of our expedition to Portugal! I was toying with swapping my 90 for something else, but have decided to give it one last go and then decide after that.

Though I also kind of fancy a trip to Australia, so it depends what happens with that.

Jobs that I need to do:

- Check status of rear diff and change seal as it is weeping around the bolts. Fit an LSD if funds allow.
- New tyres, I'm thinking Cooper STT MAXX at the moment.
- Build some solid racking at head level to make better use of the limited space
- Move rear tank filler somewhere else, as it really didn't work being joined to the front one. Maybe somewhere in the back, is that legal?
- Work out what is making the clicking noise when accelerating

We are also going to try to cut down on some clutter, we took loads of stuff to Portugal that we didn't use. It wasn't too heavy though, so that was good.

mikescuba said:
The weather has cooled down a bit so I can now start to get on with some jobs on mine. It was 41 C yesterday. I still have to sort out a vibration problem I have which is beginning to **** me off.
I am also trying to decide if I should change the shocks. I fitted a set of ProComp which seem fine but have been on the Defender for three years now and done one trip to Morocco.
I only took one spare last time which I did need. I had a serious blow out on the way back on the motorway in Morocco. The tire was totally destroyed. The guys in a 90 were running on tires with inner tubes and suffered several flats which they repaired on route. I could take two spares, one on the bonnet and one on the back door so they would both be out of the way but I don't think I will bother. Having been there once before I will probably cut down on some of the gear we took. I will wait till nearer the time to see who is taking what regarding Jerry cans of diesel etc. We didn't really need them other than getting cheep diesel in Morocco for the trip back.
I had thought of changing the transfer box for a Discovery one but I wandered if when going through the soft sand if I would loose some of the pulling power. Mine will cruise at 70 mph on the road which isn't too bad.
I have replaced the rad and heater matrix. Put the Viscous fan back on and removed the Kenlowe electric fan. New Timkin wheel bearings and ball joints all round.
Click to expand...

I'm only taking one spare and the repair kit thingy. I guess you could always just take spare shocks just incase.

I think I will take one jerry can. Not sure where it will go yet.

Could it be the tyres causing the vibration? Apparently if they are getting old they can mishape. Changing my swivels, bearings and rebuilding everything seems to have fixed my vibration problem, fingers crossed. I also swapped my wheels around, so it could also have been that.

Don't go for a disco T/box. My 300 struggles going up hills now, though I think that isn't helped by the roof tent.
 
MrNasty said:
I think we had 100 cans of some Spanish beer, but that went really quickly, I remember being in Zagora and thinking we were running low, by Tata, all gone.

I was giving nuts and bolts away to the endless begging kids in the end, whisky was asked for a few times, the camping stove instruction manual was gratefully received also! Laminated pages, no rubbish!

I'm not running with two spares next time, and definitely not on the roof if I can help it, too heavy, made the truck which is usually quite tight feel top heavy, had 4 jerry cans of fuel, never needed them as my truck was doing 26mpg on the road and then over 35 off road due to the 1.4 transfer box which I have now swapped for a recon 1.2 so getting through Europe wont be so awful. So two 20L cans will do, ok, maybe 3!

The prep has already begun, new rear diff fitted a week ago, didn't need one as it turned out, the whirring noise was coming from the near side rear brake pads, lesson learnt there, its not always something serious.

Unlike last Oct, when I bought the 110, I haven't got all that much prep to do,


H/D Land Rover rear springs, as I fitted medium duty ones and sag a little under load

Rear radius arm bushes

Put the unused spare tires on and buy a couple of new ones, and run the spare as used

Go through the brakes again, new pads before I left, came back 75% worn, rears, metal on metal

Change the coolant, oil and both filters, check wheel bearings ect, usual servicing stuff

Fit fuel tank guard, after removing the tow bar, Land Rover tank guard looked flimsy and rather vulnerable, I thought anyway.

After my ECU died on me without warning I'm going to get a spare pre-coded to take with, as I've learnt, nothing you can do to fix one if it dies.

Oh and buy a tire deflater, standing about in 38c letting air out with a little wooden stick sucked.

As you know, Ken eats nothing, maybe a bit of fish paste on a cracker once a week:D, so we really did not stop and eat until the evening some days, and we both started eating less and less each day anyway, so I hauled most of the food back to the UK.
I think the longest duration without any means of getting water or fuel was two, so we would stop at a petrol station or one of those dodgy little shops and buy bread, coke and water, oh and laughing cow cheese, whenever really.

Depends on who comes with me in 2016 that will determine how much clutter I have to haul.
Click to expand...

Do you remember the soldier working on the Algerian border who was so impressed with the results of my eating habits and the fact that I could walk without shade or a hunched back or wobbly legs.

Been cleared by CBSA and Transport Canada and the Visa application is in together with an EPA approval request for the USA - a six month trip around many of the National Parks - but don't expect too many pictures!!.

Sorry to hear your about your ECU - looks like we could both have been stranded if we had put a few more miles on the clock.

My 110 is now running but the night heater and LED headlights still to fit together with an overhaul of the electrical system.
 
Last edited:
james6546 said:
Well as far as I know we are still in, although Sarah isn't too sure after the nightmare of our expedition to Portugal! I was toying with swapping my 90 for something else, but have decided to give it one last go and then decide after that.

Though I also kind of fancy a trip to Australia, so it depends what happens with that.

Jobs that I need to do:

- Check status of rear diff and change seal as it is weeping around the bolts. Fit an LSD if funds allow.
- New tyres, I'm thinking Cooper STT MAXX at the moment.
- Build some solid racking at head level to make better use of the limited space
- Move rear tank filler somewhere else, as it really didn't work being joined to the front one. Maybe somewhere in the back, is that legal?
- Work out what is making the clicking noise when accelerating

We are also going to try to cut down on some clutter, we took loads of stuff to Portugal that we didn't use. It wasn't too heavy though, so that was good.



I'm only taking one spare and the repair kit thingy. I guess you could always just take spare shocks just incase.

I think I will take one jerry can. Not sure where it will go yet.

Could it be the tyres causing the vibration? Apparently if they are getting old they can mishape. Changing my swivels, bearings and rebuilding everything seems to have fixed my vibration problem, fingers crossed. I also swapped my wheels around, so it could also have been that.

Don't go for a disco T/box. My 300 struggles going up hills now, though I think that isn't helped by the roof tent.
Click to expand...

Both I and my Landy guy who does the major repairs can't work out what is causing the vibration. It comes in around 50 to 60 mph then goes. It feels like a UJ type of vibration. It happen after I had the clutch fixed but not sure if its related. We have had the transfer box out and checked. All seemed fine. I have changed the front prop shaft. Changed front wheel bearings and ball joints. Tried running it with a different set of wheels on. Jacked up each wheel at a time and ran it to see if I could see any vibration or if the wheel was buckled, but all seemed OK.Stripped the front Diff all seemed fine. I tried running it with the rear prop shaft off and tried it with the front prop shaft off Vibration still there. I think it is coming from the front axle somewhere. I'm going to try removing the front shafts then running it to see if that makes any difference. I suggest to my guy it might be the CV but he didn't think so. I don't know if you can bend a drive shaft or CV joint.
I don't think I would go for a Disco transfer box. Mine will cruise at 70 mph quiet comfortably, not sure I would like to be in it cruising at anything more than that. They are a bit like driving a brick against the wind. I use mine as my daily here around the country lanes. I think giving it longer legs between gear changes would be a pain.
One is always wiser after a trip. I think we all learned something and came away thinking we will take less equipment next time.
I would be interested to see some pic's of your Portugal trip to get some idea of what the terrain was like.
 
mikescuba said:
Both I and my Landy guy who does the major repairs can't work out what is causing the vibration. It comes in around 50 to 60 mph then goes. It feels like a UJ type of vibration. It happen after I had the clutch fixed but not sure if its related. We have had the transfer box out and checked. All seemed fine. I have changed the front prop shaft. Changed front wheel bearings and ball joints. Tried running it with a different set of wheels on. Jacked up each wheel at a time and ran it to see if I could see any vibration or if the wheel was buckled, but all seemed OK.Stripped the front Diff all seemed fine. I tried running it with the rear prop shaft off and tried it with the front prop shaft off Vibration still there. I think it is coming from the front axle somewhere. I'm going to try removing the front shafts then running it to see if that makes any difference. I suggest to my guy it might be the CV but he didn't think so. I don't know if you can bend a drive shaft or CV joint.
I don't think I would go for a Disco transfer box. Mine will cruise at 70 mph quiet comfortably, not sure I would like to be in it cruising at anything more than that. They are a bit like driving a brick against the wind. I use mine as my daily here around the country lanes. I think giving it longer legs between gear changes would be a pain.
One is always wiser after a trip. I think we all learned something and came away thinking we will take less equipment next time.
I would be interested to see some pic's of your Portugal trip to get some idea of what the terrain was like.
Click to expand...

You'll have to see if any of the other guys reply, I obviously didn't go on the off road segment, I think my Opel Zafira would have struggled! I think from what I could see it was a lot of dusty redish sand.

I think next years trip might be the Pyrenees, I am going to see if I can drum more interest up closer to the time.

That sounds like a nightmare, it would have driven me mad. the only thing I guess it could be that you haven't checked is the flywheel. Between 50 and 60 would suggest the UJ's, but you have changed all of that. I think the CV would be a clicking when you turn if it was on its way out, but an easy way to test would be to take the front prop off and the drive members off and see if it still does it. That would rule out CVs and half shafts.
 
OLDUN said:
Do you remember the soldier working on the Algerian border who was so impressed with the results of my eating habits and the fact that I could walk without shade or a hunched back or wobbly legs.

I forgot about that, yeah, that was funny, kept pointing for you to stand under the shade

Been cleared by CBSA and Transport Canada and the Visa application is in together with an EPA approval request for the USA - a six month trip around many of the National Parks - but don't expect too many pictures!!.

Thats going to be a great trip

Sorry to hear your about your ECU - looks like we could both have been stranded if we had put a few more miles on the clock.

Well it seems the ECU's can just die at any point without warning, some do 100K miles some others 200k+ others never die, pot luck really, so I'm going to take a spare to Morocco next time

My 110 is now running but the night heater and LED headlights still to fit together with an overhaul of the electrical system.
Click to expand...

I'll be interested to see how those led headlights work out
 
mikescuba said:
What is it like up long hills and going through soft sand? I hardly used low ratio in Morocco. Only once I recall when going through very soft sand and I came to a halt on top of a sand dune when we lost sight of the leader who was Chris. We couldn't see if he made a left or right turn in all the dust. Had to use low ratio to get going again. Its a bit of a dilemma. I suppose the Discoveries seem to get through OK?
Click to expand...

The couple of days between Yasmine Kasbar Hotel in the Erg and Zagora we came across loads of soft deep sand, one stretch the locals said we could not get through, I guess they have no idea what low range and diff lock can do, but I used low range quite a bit on Kens last route. Plenty of climbing and steep descents near the border kept the low range busy. On the normal stuff I usually had it in High no diff lock, only got stuck once.
 
MrNasty said:
I may join you guys going to Morocco
Click to expand...

Good you have a winch.

Right so some of us are at LRO, we will be there in the 90 not the Disco which is what we will take to Morocco. Should be fun.

Mike, get your tyres balanced.

We don't have to much to do to the Disco other than a bloody good service and I'll probably take the seats out this time, we bought some army interlocking kit boxes for storage which will be strapped down this time, 1 spare tyre, 2 jerry cans, 1 spare inner tube, tools and spares. I'll bring circlip pliers this time and a better hub spanner.

I'll remember to bring the radio kit this time to sort out the CB's, and we will actually bring the nav stuff we have at home which we did not bring last time doh!

I'm looking forward to it.

So it seems at the moment we have 5 vehicles, 3 of which went before.
 
MrNasty said:
Rachel, I was looking at your map, and we did the Erg Cheb thing on day two and off road bar the last 20 miles to Zagora, then ran along the border of Algeria underneath Mhamid to a camp site in Tata, that was an awesome stretch. The coast we hit was south of Tiznit, I think the nearest town was Guelmim, the beach is OK, but the dried river bed run through the gorges was the best bit for me.

I marked the route on an actual map every day when I was there, Ill bring it to LRO and wave it around like a child at you.

As the price of hotels/ campsites was so low, I'd like to use one or two and just wild camp in places down near the border etc, as I want the truck to be lighter next time, and not carrying over a 100 cans of food would be a start.
Click to expand...

I'm Chris, Rachel is my better half and car killing partner. The bit between Erg Chebbi, north of Mhamid then to Tata was where we hit the really sandy parts when the other guys were off having beer.

The tricky rocky area and dry river beds was the parts I really enjoyed although driving in the sand storm on night was a right laugh, Ken and I liked it, not sure anyone else did.

See you at the LRO show we will both be there. We are arriving on Friday, about lunch time.
 
SpaceDawg said:
I'm Chris, Rachel is my better half and car killing partner. The bit between Erg Chebbi, north of Mhamid then to Tata was where we hit the really sandy parts when the other guys were off having beer.

The tricky rocky area and dry river beds was the parts I really enjoyed although driving in the sand storm on night was a right laugh, Ken and I liked it, not sure anyone else did.

See you at the LRO show we will both be there. We are arriving on Friday, about lunch time.
Click to expand...

I'm working on being at the LRS I will have to see how it works out jobwise. Wheels have been balanced, I also swapped wheels with my landy guys Range Rover. Vibration still there. It's not a wheel type of vibration, feels more like a Uj or bearing. I'm going to remove the front drive shafts to see if that does anything.
 
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