Creator III
I can only apologise, but I owe a long, long overdue BIG public thank you to El-Dracho, Beoverland and Robert OB 33/48 and in the background a couple others, whose names I didn't get, for help and support during our trip out to Greece and back from the UK last year.
The clutch in our LR 130 failed while we were in Liechtenstein, 3 days into a 6 week trip, and now under a bit of pressure to catch a booked ferry from Italy to Greece.
After a panic "help" message, we eventually back tracked to Overlandtechnics in Tuggen, Switzerland at the suggestion of El-Draco and Robert and were sorted and back on the road a couple days later and with time to get to Venice to catch the Ferry to Igoumenitsa in Greece.
The clutch that failed was virtually brand new and at the time of failure had only done around 1000 miles. It turned out to be a faulty pressure plate, which, with hindsight, was actually faulty from the beginning. In the rush to get the truck on the road for the trip, I ignored the warning signs of a rattle it gave and put it down to the "normal" release bearing rattle. It turned out the springs retaining ring wasn't fitted correctly.
We arrived at Overlandtechnics mid morning and were lucky they weren't massively busy. Ruedi and his boys understand the overland community spirit and just couldn't do enough to help us, they literally downed tools on the truck they were working on, rolled it out of the workshop, and in went ours. Working together, a couple of hours later and we had the gearbox and clutch out and the fault diagnosed.
Then came the fun. A Land Rover, with a 300tdi engine, in Switzerland: just about the rarest combination possible in the country, and in the most expensive country in Europe ......... But after numerous 'phone calls, they came through, a clutch was sourced and dispatched overnight to us.
This is where we truly found out about Swiss hospitality. They fed us, let us camp in the workshop for the night and even offered to let us use one of their cars if we wanted to got out that evening.
Camping in the workshop was no hardship, by any means, a fully fitted kitchen, dining room, toilets and shower - all immaculately kept. The work shop is one of the best kept, cleanest and organised I have ever seen, puts mine to shame.
The new clutch turned up around lunchtime the next day. Once fitted and a test driven, we were back on the road late in the afternoon and heading back to the campsite we were at two days previously.
As said, a BIG thank you to Bjoern, Robert and Marco for the instant support, help and advice about finding somewhere to go to get the clutch sorted. A testament to what OB is about in times of need.
The clutch in our LR 130 failed while we were in Liechtenstein, 3 days into a 6 week trip, and now under a bit of pressure to catch a booked ferry from Italy to Greece.
After a panic "help" message, we eventually back tracked to Overlandtechnics in Tuggen, Switzerland at the suggestion of El-Draco and Robert and were sorted and back on the road a couple days later and with time to get to Venice to catch the Ferry to Igoumenitsa in Greece.
The clutch that failed was virtually brand new and at the time of failure had only done around 1000 miles. It turned out to be a faulty pressure plate, which, with hindsight, was actually faulty from the beginning. In the rush to get the truck on the road for the trip, I ignored the warning signs of a rattle it gave and put it down to the "normal" release bearing rattle. It turned out the springs retaining ring wasn't fitted correctly.
We arrived at Overlandtechnics mid morning and were lucky they weren't massively busy. Ruedi and his boys understand the overland community spirit and just couldn't do enough to help us, they literally downed tools on the truck they were working on, rolled it out of the workshop, and in went ours. Working together, a couple of hours later and we had the gearbox and clutch out and the fault diagnosed.
Then came the fun. A Land Rover, with a 300tdi engine, in Switzerland: just about the rarest combination possible in the country, and in the most expensive country in Europe ......... But after numerous 'phone calls, they came through, a clutch was sourced and dispatched overnight to us.
This is where we truly found out about Swiss hospitality. They fed us, let us camp in the workshop for the night and even offered to let us use one of their cars if we wanted to got out that evening.
Camping in the workshop was no hardship, by any means, a fully fitted kitchen, dining room, toilets and shower - all immaculately kept. The work shop is one of the best kept, cleanest and organised I have ever seen, puts mine to shame.
The new clutch turned up around lunchtime the next day. Once fitted and a test driven, we were back on the road late in the afternoon and heading back to the campsite we were at two days previously.
As said, a BIG thank you to Bjoern, Robert and Marco for the instant support, help and advice about finding somewhere to go to get the clutch sorted. A testament to what OB is about in times of need.
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