Vehicle & Technical > Discovery

Getting the Disco how I like it

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thermidorthelobster:
I've been having a bit of a fiddle with the Disco to get it just how I want it.

I've refitted my CB (see elsewhere for details).

I've also fitted a set of spotlights, and a worklight.  The spotlights were from Brookwells, but one has the cover on, because unfortunately it arrived with a crack across the lens, so it's only there temporarily while they ship a replacement.  These Ring spotlights have an up/down direction, and naturally, I wanted them to hang down, making the lenses upside down, so I had to remove all the lenses from the reflectors, turn them upside down and silicone them back again.

The wiring for the spotlights and the worklight comes from a relay & fuse box in the engine bay, and I ran the cable up the A-post next to the windscreen, underneath the plastic surround.  This is a really neat solution, or at least it will be once I figure out how to get the windscreen surround back on;  currently one of the clips isn't engaging, and the wind howls through it like a banshee.

I wired 3 relays under the bonnet.  One is for the horn I just fitted (see below), one is for the work light, and the third for the spotlights.  They're all separately fused on a dedicated circuit that runs straight from the battery.

The horn isn't really in a totally ideal place, but you try fitting a horn that length anywhere it's not going to fill up with water!  I just managed to shoehorn it in where the ACE gear would be if I had ACE.  I patched in to the existing horn wiring in the engine bay fuse box, and used a live feed from the OEM horn relay to trigger a separate relay.  It works fine;  the OEM horn is still fully functional and I can disable my train horn very easily by pulling a fuse if I need to.

thermidorthelobster:
Inside the cab, I've properly wired in my 400W pure sine wave inverter, under the passenger seat (no picture).  I've also fitted a 4-way cigarette lighter adapter, and a USB hub, which runs off a constant voltage circuit I built myself.  To power these and a couple of other things, I fitted an additional fuse box next to the main one underneath the steering wheel (see picture).  This now has spare fuses for other things, plus another decent dedicated feed straight from the battery.  I've also put in an earthing block which runs straight to the battery (right of the picture).  The relay shown uses a feed from the cigarette lighter socket to energise, and switches the supply to the cigarette adapter and USB hub, so they only run when the ignition is on.  The spare spades on the relay are for when I run a bypass switch to constantly energise the relay, so I'll be able to leave them running when the ignition's on, on the few occasions I need to.

I've fitted an iPod adapter, which replaces the CD autochanger.  The cradle is on the top of the dash and you can drop an iPod / iPhone straight in and play / charge it simultaneously.  The cradle is a universal Apple dock, so it will work with any iPod, and it has a separate remote control.  Because it feeds directly into the head unit (instead of through an FM modulator), the sound quality is awesome.

To switch the spotlights and work light, I didn't want to fit clumsy-looking generic switches, so I've adapted 2 cruise control switches and mounted them upside-down on the left side of the binnacle.  The LED telltales work when the spots / worklight are on, and they're independent of the ignition, so you can leave the worklight on if you want.  They're also illuminated when the headlamps are on, which keeps the whole thing looking nice.  You can see some of the cabling from this next to the new fuse box, and yes, that is Cat 6 network cable I'm using!

The only thing left to do is replace that relay, as it was supplied U/S;  for the moment it's just a way of keeping those cables tidy.  Then I just need to fit my winch, and job's a good un.

thermidorthelobster:
Reattaching the CB picture as for some reason it won't fit into the above post.

lee celtic:
Looks very neat...

I have the same sort of box under the bonet with the lamp wiring in it but I ran a three way switch to the dash so the exiter wire on the relay for the roof lamps can have feed from the high beam wires to the head lights or take a direct feed from the battery so you can switch them on independantly or center the switch and take them out of the lighting system for road use...

I had my lights hanging down but I changed the light bar to put them up wish I haddn't broke two already :roll:

Keep up the good work (always looking for ideas) ;)

thermidorthelobster:

--- Quote from: lee celtic on May 04, 2008, 21:13:30 ---but I ran a three way switch to the dash so the exiter wire on the relay for the roof lamps can have feed from the high beam wires to the head lights or take a direct feed from the battery so you can switch them on independantly or center the switch and take them out of the lighting system for road use...
--- End quote ---

That was Plan A, but in the end I couldn't quite be bothered;  however I've left some spare strands of Cat 6 cable going through the bulkhead, so it would be dead easy to add in.  In fact I could do it with two bits of wire and a switch.  Shame I've run out of spare binnacle switch sockets, I could have done it really neatly!

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