Not much Land Rover left in the Land Rover

[Star27buck]

http://mint2me.com/2015/04/14/armageddon-machine-71-land-rover-series-iia-109-lwb/

[rwollschlager]

it's a very well built example that has been kicking around for sale for the last few years. The current seller has certainly exaggerated a lot of points (i.e. "custom bumper" was just one from DAP). If I recall correctly, after all the work that was put into this, it's cruising speed is still only 55-60mph. I am also surprised that not one of the previous owners sourced a pair of late IIA or III wings to get rid of the bastardized front end.

[TravelinLight]

I would agree the first order of business would get some proper wings.

If you took a bunch of the garbage off it would be interesting to have a 4BT engine in there. That would be a solid platform if done correctly.

[TeriAnn]

If I recall correctly, after all the work that was put into this, it's cruising speed is still only 55-60mph.

That would surprise me unless that diesel is limited to really low RPMs. It would be interesting to know what the RPM governor is set to. The high range fourth gear ratio is the same is mine and with 33 inch dia tyres my tach reads 2650 RPM at 65 MPH and about 3000 RPM at 70 MPH. A 1:1 top gear connected to an Ashcroft gives a 4.09:1 ratio at the axle. If the diesel is governed below those RPMs I could understand it. Maybe all it needs is 4.1:1 ring and pinion gears to get the RPMs down at highway speed.

What I find really interesting is that someone put a LOT of time, money and energy building a dream truck and it has very few miles on it. I also noticed a LOT of louvers, holes and an air scoop to help cool the engine off. Could be the engine tends to overheat under off road conditions.

The drive train is solid and well engineered. I'm confident that it would work well with a petrol V6 or V8 power plant. The BT4 is about 150 lbs heavier than the stock petrol four which is why he has the one ton springs underneath. The drive train is well engineered if the engine can cruise at 3000 RPM.

After all that work something prompted the sale and we can all guess as to what it might be. But someone put a lot of good engineering into it and spent bucket loads of money to build it.

[rwollschlager]

I believe this thread is the first I ever saw of this truck. I stand corrected, the PO states "65mph at 1900 rpms" http://forums.roversnorth.com/showthread.php?7121-Cummins-Turbo-Diesel-in-a-109-5-door&highlight=cummins

[Star27buck]

This truck showed up at Caffeine and Carburetors in New Canaan Connecticut on Sunday morning (along with about 700 other cars, and four or five other Series trucks). It looks good in person but I didn't get to find out too much about it. I wish I had asked about cruising speed.