Goals are pretty simple honestly - competent daily driver year round, run moderate trail runner equipped for Idaho rock trail and fire road alike. I have no problem cruising at 55, I want to run a 32 sized tire at a minimum, will do armor all around as time and money permits.
Reading this, I would suggest a bone stock 88 would fit your needs perfectly. 32 inch diameter tyres were standard fitment for a 109 and a dealer option for the 88.
The key to Series tyre size is the width vs height. The taller a tyre is the narrower it should be not to cause interference problems with the stock Series wheel wells. A 265/75R16 is about as wide as you can go on a 32 inch tyre. When I had a set on the rear inner wheel well surface got polished a little at full upward articulation when the other side was at rear downward articulation. I'm currently running 255/85R16s with are 33.3 inches dia. and do not have wing clearance issues. Its spec'ed to be a half inch narrower than the 265/75R16. I really would not go any taller in tyre size without doing some suspension and prop shaft reengineering.
If you insist on playing with the suspension I suggest 2 areas that should be attended to first thing.
1. Shocks: The shocks do not have enough travel for the front suspension. Unless you have rusted up leaf springs. Slapping in longer travel shocks just steals from the shock's compressed length to give to the shock's extended length. I would suggest fabricating longer shock mounts front and rear and installing longer shocks before putting much effort into playing with springs.
2. Propshafts: For some reason, likely to save a pence or two, Rover uses a U joint that binds up with much shaft bending and a short slip joint. If you play games to increase articulation you can run into U joint binding and slip joint end travel if you are successful with your games. I would suggest contacting Great Basin Rovers or other custom LR propshaft company and ordering a set of custom made propshafts with high angle U joints and long slip joints. Ideally this should be done after you make any spring and spring mount modifications which affect the distance between the propshaft mounting flange location so you can order a propshaft with the correct static length.
These are good ideas even if all you are doing is mounting parabolic springs.
If I had an 88, your goals and wanted to add stuff, I would:
- Install a Pertronix system into a very good condition or new distributor because the points currently available are junk that do not hold up very long and a worn out distributor can make a good engine run poorly.
- Install 255/85R16s on D110 or Wolf or Discovery I steel wheels
- Add a New Roverdrive or one of the new Santana overdrives
And just drive it otherwise bone stock. It should more than meet your stated goals.
One step farther:
- Longer shocks and new springs leaf or parabolics
- long slip joint, high angle U joint propshafts
If you just gotta spend money on your truck and you want to take it into rougher places than you mentioned:
- Hardened 24 spline rear axles
- ARB rear diff
- Trutrac front diff
- Longer front springs
- Second fuel tank
- Winch
Just remember this goes well beyond your stated goals, costs a lot more and you will break more things more often if you actually need this stuff.
You mention body armor. Over the years I've gone back and fourth over that. Body armor adds to the vehicle weight. Anything mounted below something to protect it decreases the free space at that point. And you might make driving decisions based upon a belief that armor will protect a part.
For me, I decided that it was more important to know where my tuck's hangy down parts were and how to drive my truck in such a way as not to damage those hangy down parts. I believe that driving skill is more important that armor. For me learning what path to take trough an obstacle and driving it in such as way as to get through it without damage is a lot more satisfying than bullying my way through something. Granted there are places that you can not drive through without needing armor but they are a lot more likely to break parts even with body armor. I just prefer finesse to brute force and bypass anything I can not drive through without damage.
I do have one piece of body armor. Since my rear visibility is very limited I have a diff guard on my rear diff in case I back into a rock I can't see.
I almost forgot. "Idaho", "Year around daily driver".
I suggest adding the optional heated windscreens, Defender door seals, Kodiak heater if you have a IIA, interior body insulation, block heater that can be used as a timed pre-heater, grill muff.