Fuel tank cradle on Fleabay

Anyone got any first hand experience of this guy's cradles? Land Rover Freelander 1 Tank Cradle Tank Strap *New Part | eBay

His ebay name is freelanderpartscompany and he would appear to have sold 5 so far - only one dodgy feedback and could well be innocent on that one - wasn't a cradle anyway.
If your input is sensitive PM me to avoid any problems.
His price might be realistic if the quality is there.

I need a new one too, and was curious on these ones. How much is a Land Rover one new?

I haven't bought a cradle from him but I have just bought some front fogs and other various bits. Very friendly and well priced. Don't know if this helps but can't hurt.

the landrover ones are about £400 plus vat I brought a good second hand one but I have yet to fit it as soon as the son in law is available but I am going to repaint it first.

Looks like he got caught out by some dick not paying up. Happens a lot on ebay. All the feedback for the cradles is good and someone has bought two of them and left good feedback so sounds safe enough.
Ebay always sides with the buyer so if it is not a good product you'll get your money back.

Glad mines done , got a good one off ebay not before time as it was broken both sides

I sent an email to this guy to try to ascertain the source, quality, finish etc and he has given me permission to publish his reply - I was happy with what he told me and pleased that he is using a paint finish (I hate powder coating to pieces) - I have already ordered through ebay and will report back my experience - I think this sounds like a better option than paying £50 to £100 for a 10 year old part or buying another crappy new one from Land Rover.
Here is his reply.

Hi John

We had exactly the same problem with sourcing 1 for our own truck like yourself not wanting to pay dealer prices or wanting a second hand 1. I myself was also in the engineering trade, time served welder, fabricator and my friend has a fabrication firm so we got together and started making a few until we got the materials and specification spot on. Now we have, we have started to sell them on.

To be completely honest the genuine parts are not a patch on ours quality wise, ours are a little heavier but I guarantee will last at least twice as long. We primer them first obviously and then we finished them off with a zinc based paint as we wanted more protection than from a normal gloss or matt finish paint.

We have sold quite a few of these now and have only had positive feedback about them, now we are in the swing of things with them and have jigs to make in and can supply high demand the next step was to try the forums, I'm on a few on Facebook buts that's it so any help would be much appreciated.

Hope this answers all your questions and look forward to hear from you soon.

Many thanks
Andrew Starling

Sounds like an honest bloke, good that he took the time to send a decent response!

Genuine reason for building them too, wonder if he'd take a group buy from the forums?

Group buy

Sister in law needs one for her car...

What do you mean by group buy??

A group of like minded individuals approach the seller to get a discount price if they guarantee x amount of items will be bought in one hit.

Usually organised at a time when I can't afford to join in...

(that rule is optional but it is universally accepted).

Yeah I'd be happy to do that for you all, what sort of numbers would we be looking at?

To start the ball rolling. I would be in on a discounted group buy.

In the past on other forums its normally say 5 or 10 to start with a certain price. If it went as much as 20 or more the discount becomes more generous.

I'd knock £10 off each for an order of 10 and then £20 of each for an order of 20 or over. I hope people think this is fair?

An interesting development

It would seem a few parts suppliers are looking at releasing their own fuel tank cradles. Just checked with Bearmach, who's own cradle is currently "under development", and will be available for less than £80...

Right - I received my cradle (quickly) from freelanderpartsuk and like another customer of his on ebay was slightly surprised to find it a bit more basic than his current ebay picture - just two simple plates - no ribbing but a bit thicker - 16wg instead of about 1mm but on two solid rails - not tubes - all finished in a decent looking silver coloured zinc-rich paint. A simple but good workmanlike cradle. I gave mine a couple of brush coats of Wickes Rust resistant black and then greased it with an Admiralty grease that they used to use to mothball battleships (unlike waxoil it never dries out and cracks) Encouraged by Gilbertian's post of 12th July about how he managed by just backing off the subframe bolts to get clearance I got started - I had the back up on ramps but before I wedged the fuel tank I took the precaution of lifting the car a bit and putting axle stands under the jacking points to ensure that when I lowered the subframe nothing moved and either dropped the tank or punched holes in it with my props. Prop off at rear diff only. Exhaust just off the rear rubbers and resting on the subframe. Actually I did not manage to get the old cradle out without completely removing the four subframe bolts but with a jack under the diff it all behaved very well and was no problem fitting back up. The new cradle was a little tight under the back right hand side and rather than squeeze the tank too much I just packed under that corner bolt about 1/4" Job done!

make sure you have tightened those sub frame bolts properly or you will suffer later

Yup - 1/2" drive socket bar plus 18" lump of waterpipe

Forgot to put up a picture of the cradle as delivered - see below:-