Who are your favorite LR vendors?

[TeriAnn]

You mean you were using BBS?
I'm sorry but I don't think the internet was around in 86. BBS's yes. Internet, no.

Nope. Honest to goodness internet (TCP/IP protocol) and and I was subscribed to an honest to goodness british cars email list in 1986. I was using a UNIX based terminal and a vi editor. My first email address was twakeman@hplabs.com In the mid 1980's the net was rapidly being installed in universities and computer tech companies. The government had been running on the first version of the internet called ARPANET. I spent my lunch times cruising newsgroups on USENET.

You could pretty much assume that anyone you met on the net was on a UNIX terminal, had at least one college degree in a technical field or was an upper division student, and was either at a university or a tech company. To get online, you had to at least be able to navigate your way through a UNIX shell language and use a arcane UNIX editor.

twakeman@hplabs.com 1985 - 1990
twakeman@apple.com 1990 through 1998
twakeman@cruzers.com 1997 through 2005
twakeman@razzolink.com 2005 through present

[jp-]

Well I guess us dumbasses were using BBS's until the 90's.

Maybe they ruined it when they let everybody in?

[TeriAnn]

Maybe they ruined it when they let everybody in?

The transition did take a little getting used to. Used to be you could assume a minimum of one university degree in a tech or science field from anyone you talked to. A certain minimal level for education and intelligence was a given. One could make a lot of assumptions communicating within a homogeneous group.

These days you don't know if you are chatting with a PHD research physicist or a 7 year old goat herder. Strange at first but I think it is very good because people are coming from a large verity of viewpoints and backgrounds with very valid different ideas. Its been fascinating watching the net evolve from a homogeneous techie communication toy to a near universal part of modern society. As an agent for change I think it is still in its infancy, much like phones at the dawn of the 1900's.

Just be thankful you don't need to use a UNIX line editor inside a UNIX shell. I certainly am!

[Leslie]

Just be thankful you don't need to use a UNIX line editor inside a UNIX shell. I certainly am!

I dunno.... sometimes I still go to dos-shells for commands, just to see if I can remember them anymore (it's been ages since I've argued the X-Windows-versus Open-Windows for Sparcstations)... ArcGIS and AutoCad still keep command line windows.... heck, I think I still have a copy of Seismic Unix on a CD somewhere, had to run a UNIX emulator to run it on the PC's in the computer lab...

And w/ all this fun, I've never gotten around to messin' w/ Linux.....

[alaskajosh]

Based on the feedback I've gotten here and the experience I've had with my first several orders I believe I will go first to RN for my parts needs.

I had another excellent experience with them today (Thanks Arthur).

I could see using some of the smaller non-mainstream outfits for hard-to-find or used parts on occasion.

It appears to me that RN works to be an asset to the Rover community, not just a parts store. If they are more expensive (and I don't know that they really are) it's probably worth it. I hope, for our sake, that their business thrives for years to come.

[yorker]

I've always been pleased with RN, Things may cost more but where I live I can often get the part the next day via UPS if I order early enough in the day. I've never had an order screwed up and the parts have thus far all been quality. Right now I use RN primarily when I need something right and right now. If I have time to wait I may shop around and look for a better price. So far they have been frustration free and I really appreciate that.

AB is closer but I have to pay NYS Sales tax on top of the shipping, they have sold me substandard crap, have back ordered stuff without notice and they seem to take a more lax approach to shipping. I've waited over a week for them to ship something that was supposedly in stock right when I called the order in.

Trevor at Rovah Farm has been awesome- if I need something he doesn't have he'll go well out of his way to secure it, and at a great price. Recently he got me a set of Automec brake lines for an '89 RRC- no one else had them nor was willing to get them.

DAP-Meh. I'll probably never order from them again. They used to have a nice Stainless Steel gas tank but they apparently stopped selling them. Now it is all Bearmach stuff and it can often be had cheaper elsewhere.

I've used the Land Rover Orphanage- they were great. Shipping can be a bitch but if you plan ahead you'll come out ok.

Kellog- no way I'll deal with him again.

BP- I haven't ordered from them since they dropped the print catalog.

I've started buying some used stuff off from UK forums- you can run across some neat stuff at a great price over there, sometimes the same is true for eBay.UK.

I bought some stuff from Discotech.ca- their pricing was great- their packing and service was complete crap. They shipped a head in a plastic toolbox which the shippers promptly smashed, loose bolts in the package gashed up the surface of the head and it required resurfacing. They offered no compensation or remedy...

[BackInA88]

Trevor at Rovah Farm has been awesome- if I need something he doesn't have he'll go well out of his way to secure it, and at a great price.

Kellog- no way I'll deal with him again....

Ditto in regards to Rovah Farm, Trevor has been great!!
I met him a couple weeks ago on my 3000 mile trip around New England in my 88.
He flagged me down on the highway while I was heading south thru Maine.
Even took the wife and I on a little off road excursion.
Check out his price for hood bumpers, for at the bulkhead, than the others! I bought a set.


Kellog???


Cheers,
Steve

[Leslie]

Kellog???

Charles Kellogg, British Northwest. He usually has some things that are rare as hen's teeth. However, he expects to be well compensated for such.


I tried for a week to get a price on something he had, but it was pretty much the attitude that "if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it", and I ended up doing better off elsewhere, just had to be patient to find it.


I've heard a nickname used for him a time or two, but, I won't repeat it here. (Not bad, funny actually, but, I don't like speaking ill of people, you never know when you might end up burning a bridge that you need to later cross.....).


FWIW.....

[alaskajosh]

Oh yeah, Charles. I certainly don't have anything bad to say about him at all. I had a very pleasant chat with him one afternoon.

He's catering to a different set I gathered... maybe the Ultra-Wealthy who, on a lark, get a wild hair to have an all original old Land Rover to go in their six car garage. They may drive it to the country club as a nostalgia thing or show their friends how quaint it is while sipping martinis. Price is no object.
That's not me.

And an almost religious fervor for the original. Then I'm a Land Rover heretic because, while I like staying true to the original aesthetic and spirit, I'm using this thing. Good things didn't end the year my car came off the line and "good things" certainly happened outside of Solihill. If power steering, brighter headlights, upgraded suspension, power plant, etc. enhance my experience as a user then I don't feel like I'm RUINING to car to do it.

He's a good guy, no doubt. He's got his "thing".. I've got mine. I can't (don't care to) afford his "thing".

And, for that matter, am a little turned off by the attitude.

[JimCT]

vendors

RN is always the go to place. DAP has allot of grey market RR stuff and good prices on allot of things, nice folks too. I find the way the prices are set up on the BP site difficult, I hate having to look one place for the part and another to see what the price is, makes it too difficult.

[alaskajosh]

I find the way the prices are set up on the BP site difficult, I hate having to look one place for the part and another to see what the price is, makes it too difficult.

Abso-damn-lutely.

[singingcamel]

I will have to say Rovers North.
I've been dealing with them since the mid 70's. when their catalog was a stapled flip sheet typed.i still have some of those old catalog by the way.
i've delt with dap when AL TOLCI had it,no comment here ,british pacific i think over charges for their parts and they are alot of after market parts that i feel are over priced..
alantic british, personally i could live without them..never buy from them and there catalog sucks.
rovers down south ,i think the guy has a personality defect and seems to be the most unhappy guy i've ever talked to.needs to be on a anti depressant.
rovers north has been my standbuy for years and when i need hard to find parts or defective parts they have gone above and beyond for me..
you get what you pay for!!!
the old catalogs are really good for part #'s and resource.
only complaint i have is the shpg. charges a bit on the high side...

[msggunny]

Ahh,

I just go down to Advance and order my parts.

O, wait thats impossible.

I shop around and use whom ever has the best mix of price and quailty. Since i do 90% of my ordering via the internet i dont have to deal with customer service much, but when i do i have had the following experiences:

RN: Great knowledge and help. I used them when i was in Africa and called them several times.

AB: Same, but i rarely buy from them because of their prices.

RDS: He is curt, but helpfully. I have ordered a decent amount from him, but because its mostly over the phone, i go elsewhere due to convience (internet)

BP: Never ordered from them, one time i did talk to them they were a bit on the a-hole side.

Wise Owl: Great service, shipping for me sucks though.

Pangolin: Great products, but ike still owes me a tee shirt.

RovaFarm: havent ordered, but the guy is great on the phone.

TLR: Awesome guy, good selection, good prices.

DAP: Usually my #1 due to price and customer service.

All have their pros and cons, i prefer DAP and RN due to the convience of their internet ordering service and past history i have had with them.

[greenmeanie]

I should add another British supplier for the EX-MOD crowd.

P.A. Blanchards.
He knows his stuff, the prices are fair, orders are filled accurately and in a timely fashion and they have stuff for old military Landies that you didn't even know existed. Now they have a well sorted web site so it makes ordering from another continent convenient.

For the SU or ZS carb folk Joe Curto in NY is a great source of parts.

I'm suprised about the comments about BP. To be honest I have yet to have a problem with talking to any of the suppliers other than Paddocks but I detailed that earlier.

Cheers
Gregor

[TedW]

This is Rovers North's forum so they deserve the nod.

You get what you pay for - I have always been completely satisfied with RN products. Genuine Land-Rover parts really are best, and IMO their ProLine bits are great for the money. I have a binder of RN receipts going back to 1991, along with RN catalogs dating back to the same, which I will not throw away. One for every bathroom plus the garage, workshop, desk at the office, etc.
I think that British Pacific made a mistake by dropping their printed catalog. You need to be top of mind when the customer wants to order - I always check out the RN book when I'm considering a purchase - can't do that with BP - not always easy to peruse their on-line catalog, unlike Rovers North.
I also think Al Tocci at DAP is terrific, and they have great stuff. And I think every Series Rover on the planet should have Rocky Mountain extruded aluminum door tops, plus their nifty aluminum transfer case cover with the cooling fins.
In closing: Les at Rovers North is The Man.