Seasonal Greetings

Christmas 2024 and the year 2025 are nearly upon us.

Time to wish you all a Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!

Let’s see what the New Year will bring!

2025 Calendar Bèrke

The cover:

A few pictures of the car during various tours for work or abroad over the past 10 years.

Clockwise from the top left;

1. Sunset during the repairs of a sewage pipeline on the eastern bank of the river Meuse.

Ebberstraat Velden (16-08-2016 NL);

2. On top of the Timmelsjoch in the early evening (02-09-2023 I);

3. Waiting with my camera gear for a lunar eclipse that turned out to be obscured by clouds.

Schoor Neer (27-07-2018 NL);

4. A sewage pipeline relocation project in the context of a flood protection program.

Beekstraat Beesel (11-05-2022 NL);

5. Timmelsbrücke Moos in Passeier (23-09-2016 I);

6. In front of the Hotel Pfandleralm. Jaufenstraße Sankt Martin in Passeier (04-09-2023 I)

Another year over and time for my traditional calendar post. 2024 was again a rather poor year for my TR7’s. Life and work again intervened. Though there was some progress on the ’76 car! But problems with the water pump of ‘t Kreng meant a fair amount of my spare time was aimed at getting the various leaks sorted. And that still is a work in progress as winter’s come!

As 2025 will be the 10th anniversary since I bought my current daily driver, I decided to use that car as the subject for the coming year’s calendar. So this year I’ll bore you with some pictures of my 2008 Land Rover Defender 110 Station Wagon, called Bèrke, taken over the past 10 years.

January:

In front of a closed potato wholesaler.

ZLSM railway emplacement Simpelveld (21-11-2018 NL)

February:

Patiently enduring the heavy downpour.

Silberhüttstraße Stulz (13-09-2023 I)

March:

On a local green-laning tour. Hoverheideweg Belfeld (03-11-2018 NL)

April:

Another sewage pipeline relocation project in the context of a flood protection program.

Sunrise over the valley of the river Meuse, Hagendoorn Neer (28-10-2021 NL)

May:

On top of the Timmelsjoch in the late afternoon.

Just across the border with Austria (10-09-2021 I)

June:

The final stage of replacing a sewage pipeline using the proven HDD technology,

pulling a more than 900m¹ long HDPE630 pipeline in one piece through the prepared bore hole.

Daniken Geleen (21-06-2022 NL)

July:

Another sewer line relocation. This time for the widening of the A2 motorway.

Ophoven Echt (06-05-2020 NL)

August:

Near the toll booth of the Timmelsjoch near Hochgurgl (19-09-2023 A)

September:

In front of the Hotel Pfandleralm.

Jaufenstraße Sankt Martin in Passeier (16-09-2024 I)

October:

At the start of the 34th edition of the LTV Nachtrit, after the final check of the road book.

Rolduc Abbey Kerkrade (28-10-2023 NL)

November:

During a local green-laning tour.

Bosheideweg Belfeld (03-11-2018 NL)

December:

Back home after a wintery green-laning tour. (07-02-2021 NL)

FHC resto nr. 165; Restarting on the interior

It has been well over 6 months ago that I last reported any progress on this project. But with a two week break from the office scheduled around the Christmas and New Year period, it’s about time to restart work on this '76 car. First task being to make an inventory of the parts and fasteners needed to finish the interior.

And to trial fit the carpet that is going to cover the transmission tunnel. I had planned to fit it over the weekend but found out it needed a bit of trimming, but also (and more importantly) that I really need an extra pair of hands to get a decent fit of this carpet. Definitely something for the Christmas break! Though having the carpet in position gave me an opportunity to get a glimpse of the car’s future interior. Especially combined with the rear bulkhead trim panel in position!

And because I wasn’t able to finish the tunnel carpet, I decided to fit some parts that I have had in my hands far to often: The various brackets and supports for the dashboard. I was glad I had a car in the shed to use as reference, especially for the three support tubes for the steering column rail.

35th edition of the LTV Nachtrit

It’s that time of year again; Autumn, Halloween, All Souls, Saint Martin's Day. But most importantly the “LTV Nachtrit” of course. And yesterday evening (Saturday the 26th of October) saw the already 35th edition of this night time navigational rally.

Last year we had a pretty strong field of participants, with 39 teams heading into the night. Sadly this year we were down on entries, but there were still 26 teams that set off into the night for a very nice selection of roads through Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and The Netherlands. It was a rather international entry list, with entrants coming from the UK, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands!

Contrary to previous editions there was no official halfway stop. Though the 264 kilometre long route could be split up for a meal and a rest wherever the teams wanted. And as in the previous editions, the navigation was with the help of a roadbook that used tulip diagrams.

But first there was the final check of the route for any last minute road works or diversions. Which meant an early start of the day for my navigator and me. Luckily there were no real problems there. Also no signs pointing in that direction. Though it later turned out that, due to a Halloween procession, traffic was held up for a while in the village of Theux. But that was still a few hours in the future. In the meantime we were able to enjoy the fine weather and the beautiful autumn scenery!

And the participants were lucky with the weather too, clear skies and dry. So no slippery roads to catch them out! And of course being dark they missed out on the views. But that should give them a good excuse to return and drive the route in day time! A few pictures of the varied field of participants at the start at the Abbey of Rolduc;

1954 Triumph TR2

1959 Triumph TR3A

1960 Sunbeam Alpine

1967 Porsche 9121

1978 Renault 5 Alpine

Two original Dutch 1982 Triumph TR7 Coupés

1993 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS U9

And few pictures of some of the other entrants in the parking area on the grounds of the Rolduc Abbey:

Daily duties for ‘t Kreng

Decided to try to use ‘t Kreng as much as possible to see if the water pump’s seal will finally “run in”. And as the weather forecast was rather nice for today I decided to use the car for my daily commute to work. And sure enough only a few kilometres from home the low coolant level light came on. Though it switched off within a kilometre or so, after which it came on every time I had to stop at traffic lights. Switching of when I pulled away from the traffic light. As the temperature gauge behaved normally I decided to enjoy the run to the office. And it was rather enjoyable, certainly helped by the glorious weather and autumn colours. And because it is the autumn holidays, there was enough space on the parking lot.

Spoorlaan Noord Roermond

The plan was to take the long way home after work. Sadly a project meeting scheduled for the afternoon lasted considerably longer than expected! As a result the journey home was limited to a 45 minute blast over some local country lanes. It again was rather enjoyable, and this time the coolant level light didn’t come on at all. Instead the temperature gauge rose to the halfway mark where it remained for the entire trip. I have a gut feeling that this subject will be continued here in the near future!

Eind Swalmen

Eikenbroeklaan Beesel

Bakheide Beesel

686 Kilometres

686 Kilometres is the distance ‘t Kreng covered since the refurbished water pump was fitted to that car a few months ago. So far the water pump has gradually started leaking less and less. Though it kept leaking noticeably, with the level in the header tank dropping by as much as 50mm after an almost 200 kilometre round trip. Also the coolant level light looks like it has a mind of its own. Often coming on when the engine is idling.

And during a short tour last weekend the low coolant light came on less than 5 kilometres from home. Not good! First thought was to return home and give the car a Viking burial, but I managed to resist the urge!

Instead of returning home, I stopped a little further down the road at a safe spot to check under the bonnet. And sure enough there was a noticeable trace of coolant from the slot underneath the pump. But removing the pressure cap, from the still fairly cold header tank, revealed a perfectly normal coolant level. So I decided to ignore the light and carry on!

Fast forward and I returned home over an hour and well over 60 kilometres later with the temperature gauge constantly sitting between the quarter and halfway mark. And the paper tissue I put in the slot underneath the water pump was soaked with coolant.

Time to let everything cool down properly and check the coolant level in the header tank the next day. Turned out the level had only dropped by 1 or 2 millimetres. So it looks like the new after market seal is starting to work at last. Though I am still not impressed by its design and build quality.

Remains the coolant level warning light to sort!. Which means looking into the way this works and why it comes on with the coolant in the header tank at a normal level. In short there is a steel probe sticking into the coolant. It uses the coolants conductivity to close the low level warning light’s circuit. When the level in the header tank drops below the probe, the resistance will increase, the circuit will be cut and the low coolant level light will come on. Inspecting the connectors from the wire running to the header tank’s coolant level probe, clearly showed some oxidation and dirt that had accumulated there over the many years the car’s been used. This was tackled with a few squirts of contact spray. Maybe I need to do the same with the wiring from the alternator. But that is for after the next drive, though that might be a few weeks away.

And to conclude this inspection, I had a look at the coolant level. It was still the same as last week. Also the tissue paper I put in the wheep hole underneath the water pump was completely dry. Compare this with the picture of the completely soaked tissue paper after last weekend’s drive when the coolant level dropped only marginal.

So it looks promising. Though I still don’t trust the car enough to take her on long runs. So the final control of the route and roadbook for next weekend’s “Nachtrit” will be done with the Land Rover again. So no pictures of a lovely dirty TR7 in my report next week!

After the final control of the route and the roadbook for the 2021 edition of the “Nachtrit”.

The Land Rover during the reconnaissance of the route for this year’s edition,

near Gouvy-Rogery, just north of the border with Luxemburg.