New Purchase, some advice please?

[Alk-3]

Hey Everyone, I'm new to Land Rovers, and have some questions regarding a series 111.
It's a 1973 in really nice condition (I think).
It's a short wheelbase
2.25L engine 4 speed

Is there anything I should look for as far as corrosion? The current owner said in order to be certified it will need to have some tabs on the chassis replaced (he said it's common for the series 111 trucks). Does this make sense to anyone? Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

I'm also wondering what the max speed is for these. I need to able to drive about 300km once in a while to get to my cottage, and would prefer to use the highways to get there. Is this doable? If it's not is there an overdrive unit that can be retrofitted (and is that a big job)?

I'm not new to older vehicles (I have a 1948 chev truck) but new to land rovers, and 4 wheel drives in general. I'm hoping to use this truck to do some land maintenance on my lake property (dragging trees from the lake each spring) as well as hauling junk to the dump up our steep hill, and getting construction materials to the job site.

[LaneRover]

Hey Everyone, I'm new to Land Rovers, and have some questions regarding a series 111.
It's a 1973 in really nice condition (I think).
It's a short wheelbase
2.25L engine 4 speed

Is there anything I should look for as far as corrosion? The current owner said in order to be certified it will need to have some tabs on the chassis replaced (he said it's common for the series 111 trucks). Does this make sense to anyone? Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

I'm also wondering what the max speed is for these. I need to able to drive about 300km once in a while to get to my cottage, and would prefer to use the highways to get there. Is this doable? If it's not is there an overdrive unit that can be retrofitted (and is that a big job)?

I'm not new to older vehicles (I have a 1948 chev truck) but new to land rovers, and 4 wheel drives in general. I'm hoping to use this truck to do some land maintenance on my lake property (dragging trees from the lake each spring) as well as hauling junk to the dump up our steep hill, and getting construction materials to the job site.

Next time you take a look at it bring a hammer and a stout screw driver to poke and prod around the chassis. If the seller doesn't want you to do that then walk away. It is the chassis and footwells that rust on these.

A comfortable speed for highway driving is about 60 MPH and it will be LOUD. There are overdrives available. The one most likely to be available is the old Fairey overdrive that a Rovers Down South bought the rights to and can rebuild them or supply you with parts/rebuilt units etc...

As for 'tabs' on the chassis. Does he mean 'outriggers' that actually support the tabs or the tabs themselves? The most visible ones are on the back and attach the frame to the body at the rear.

If it is in decent shape a SIII Rover will be able to handle dragging stuff around your site and bringing in equipment. You may want to look into a trailer as a shortwheelbase rover is a bit limited in 'volume' if you are looking to carry a large amount of stuff at any one time.

Goodluck!!

Brent

[Alk-3]

Next time you take a look at it bring a hammer and a stout screw driver to poke and prod around the chassis. If the seller doesn't want you to do that then walk away. It is the chassis and footwells that rust on these.

A comfortable speed for highway driving is about 60 MPH and it will be LOUD. There are overdrives available. The one most likely to be available is the old Fairey overdrive that a Rovers Down South bought the rights to and can rebuild them or supply you with parts/rebuilt units etc...

As for 'tabs' on the chassis. Does he mean 'outriggers' that actually support the tabs or the tabs themselves? The most visible ones are on the back and attach the frame to the body at the rear.

If it is in decent shape a SIII Rover will be able to handle dragging stuff around your site and bringing in equipment. You may want to look into a trailer as a shortwheelbase rover is a bit limited in 'volume' if you are looking to carry a large amount of stuff at any one time.

Goodluck!!

Brent

Thanks Brent, I will bring a few tools to beat around under the truck next time I see it.

By 'loud' do you mean in a bad way? like what kind of RPM's are we talking about here? can it go at that speed for several hours? will outfitting the truck with overdrive bring the RPM's down significantly?

How big of a job is the overdrive retrofitting? Is there a good source for a walkthrough sort of instructions so I know what I'm up against?

as for the tabs go, all he said was 'tabs' so i really don't know what that could mean. if we assume he means both the tabs themselves and the outriggers, how big of a job is that?

[Jim-ME]

My 64 is happiest at about 3,000 rpms. Any more than that and I think the pistons will appear thru the hood at any minute. This is with no OD and a getting tired 2.25 L engine with an 8:1 unleaded head. I usually drive by the tach and don't pay too much attention to the speedo. It isn't too bad to fit an overdrive. Rovers Down South has the instructions posted on the website. You can read thru them and see what you are up against. An overdrive will drop your rpms about 25 to 28%. IMO they were designed to be kinder to the engine not to permit a higher road speed. By loud, at least in my Rover, normal conversation is difficult. I don't find it unbearable but then again I'm deaf in one ear and can't hear out of the other. My son's Jeep soft top TJ with a flowmaster 40 series muffler is quieter but between his muffler and his sub woofers I'd rather be in my Rover. There are kits available to deaden some of the sound and I've seen dynamat used to help deaden noise too. Check out some of the Defender upgrades that East Coast Rover does to get some idea of what I'm talking about.
Jim

[LaneRover]

Thanks Brent, I will bring a few tools to beat around under the truck next time I see it.

By 'loud' do you mean in a bad way? like what kind of RPM's are we talking about here? can it go at that speed for several hours? will outfitting the truck with overdrive bring the RPM's down significantly?

How big of a job is the overdrive retrofitting? Is there a good source for a walkthrough sort of instructions so I know what I'm up against?

as for the tabs go, all he said was 'tabs' so i really don't know what that could mean. if we assume he means both the tabs themselves and the outriggers, how big of a job is that?

By 'loud' I mean lots of road,wind and drivetrain noise. Jim is right, at highway speed it makes normal conversation a bit difficult. As for the outriggers being rusty and how involved that is, it depends on the outrigger. The one holding up the bulkhead(firewall) will be much more involved than the one holding up the gas tank. But if one of the outriggers needs replacing I would think that the others wouldn't be too far behind. If you are a fair mechanic or welder it is all within your means.

Overdrive retro-fit is not bad and can easily be done in an afternoon. In mane ways the hardest part is cutting the hole in the transmission tunnel for the lever correctly.

Yes the truck can drive at 60 for several hours, I have driven Rovers across the country twice. Once with an overdrive and once without - I prefer it with. Jim is also right about the overdrive being better at reducing engine RPM's for any given speed rather than raising your top speed.

Brent

[Alk-3]

My 64 is happiest at about 3,000 rpms. Any more than that and I think the pistons will appear thru the hood at any minute. This is with no OD and a getting tired 2.25 L engine with an 8:1 unleaded head. I usually drive by the tach and don't pay too much attention to the speedo. It isn't too bad to fit an overdrive. Rovers Down South has the instructions posted on the website. You can read thru them and see what you are up against. An overdrive will drop your rpms about 25 to 28%. IMO they were designed to be kinder to the engine not to permit a higher road speed. By loud, at least in my Rover, normal conversation is difficult. I don't find it unbearable but then again I'm deaf in one ear and can't hear out of the other. My son's Jeep soft top TJ with a flowmaster 40 series muffler is quieter but between his muffler and his sub woofers I'd rather be in my Rover. There are kits available to deaden some of the sound and I've seen dynamat used to help deaden noise too. Check out some of the Defender upgrades that East Coast Rover does to get some idea of what I'm talking about.
Jim

Thanks for the info! I think I'll probably leave everything as stock for the summer, and see how I do. If I decide I need more speed (i.e. lower RPM's) I would probably go with the Ashcroft transfer case kit instead of an overdrive.
Any opinions on this kit?

[Alk-3]

By 'loud' I mean lots of road,wind and drivetrain noise. Jim is right, at highway speed it makes normal conversation a bit difficult. As for the outriggers being rusty and how involved that is, it depends on the outrigger. The one holding up the bulkhead(firewall) will be much more involved than the one holding up the gas tank. But if one of the outriggers needs replacing I would think that the others wouldn't be too far behind. If you are a fair mechanic or welder it is all within your means.

Overdrive retro-fit is not bad and can easily be done in an afternoon. In mane ways the hardest part is cutting the hole in the transmission tunnel for the lever correctly.

Yes the truck can drive at 60 for several hours, I have driven Rovers across the country twice. Once with an overdrive and once without - I prefer it with. Jim is also right about the overdrive being better at reducing engine RPM's for any given speed rather than raising your top speed.

Brent

Sounds like all good news to me. I'm pretty competant when it comes to wrenching on things, and can weld if I need to so the work on the outriggers should be time consuming more than difficult I would think (or hope)
my old chev has the 216 babbit bearing original motor, so i'm used to being somewhat gentle with the RPM's
Being able to go with highway speeds (in the slow lane) would be all I can ask for.

[BGGB]

there is also a roverdrive overdrive from rockeymountain that is suppose to be stronger. i don't have any experience with it but its on the wish list

[LaneRover]

With the Ashcroft kit you have higher hearing permanently. If the motor is tired it may not like it. Your lo-range is the same with or without and Ashcroft you just may need to use the lo-range a bit more often with the ashcroft.

There is the argument that with an overdrive you have another little gearbox that can fail.

[Momo]

Go with the overdrive. Less work and more forgiving of a tired motor. I run on the freeway at around 68 mph with no issues.

As far as noise goes, a quality set of earplugs will keep you sane and allow you to hear underlying noises that might indicate trouble in your drivetrain.
Also, ipods are ideal for series Rovers! Just get yourself a good set of earbuds,
not the crappy hard plastic ones that Apple supplies.

[scott]

i've got a fairy od. made it from 29 palms ca to albuquerque in just over 17 hrs. about 800 miles. cruised happily at about 60 mph. would have made it in under 14 but had the throttle lingage vibrate apart and later a fuel filter clogged fter running one of my tanks dry. i also had to take a couple of naps. noise wasn't to bad but i guess it's cuz i had no one to talk to.

[Tim Smith]

I've got a Roverdrive currently but did have a Fairey in an old truck. Both are pretty good but I'd have to call the Roverdrive the winner. Seems very robust and might even be geared a little faster. The Fairey is a bit weaker and needs it's own maintenance.

I think you will find people in the flats will recommend an Ashcroft transfer case more often than an overdrive, while people in the hills will recommend the overdrive more often. While both will get you similar results in high gear/top speed, the overdrive wins when you need to split gears on the hills. The Ashcroft wins in terms of simplicity and offering the ability to swap out a tired or noisy transfer case. In both cases you would need a motor that is in good running order to get the benefits of the faster gears.

I've driven the east coast FL to CT in one go and was able to maintain around 75 for most of the way. Had it over 85 a couple of times while negotiating some high speed merges but the truck definitely gave me the feeling of impending Armageddon. The motor was a bit hopped up (2.5 cam, SU carb and headers etc...) so don't expect that to be the norm. With my current motor, 65-68 seems to be the happy cruising speed.

Check the frame. Check the frame. Check the bulkhead. Check the frame. Obviously the frame is the most common point of failure if you ask me but don't rule out the bulkhead either. As has been mentioned, bring a screwdriver and hammer. Scrape and bang away at it to make sure there isn't any Swiss cheese hiding under there.

I've had the worst luck with rust!

[tmckeon88]

overdrives

I drove from Maine to Alaska to Tierra del Fuego on a standard 4-cyl engine and a Fairey overdrive- it held up pretty, although I've had to have it rebuilt since then. It must have had 75,000-100,000 miles on it. Rovers Down South can do rebuilds as can other service places around the country. The overdrive is a real help with fuel economy and just with managing any sort of highway driving. Your top end power is weak, though- you won't be able to maintain speed climbing hills, but then again I can't anyway with the standard four gears.

Tom

[Alk-3]

Thanks everyone. Unfortunately the sale fell through (the owner sold it out from under me ). I'm now desperately searching for another 88" Series to replace it before the summer begins. What a bummer.

[ML-ENGR]

http://reno.craigslist.org/cto/1068167333.html