my new 6 wheel land rover defender

[daz_247]

hi there to all this should be intresting i want to try somthing new i am having a new 4 birth 6x4 landrover defender motorhome built or me it will have eveything from sky tv, solar, toilet, shower, long raing water tanks & a winch so i can go off road i want to go for a long drive to some where in europe i want to go where you cant take a motorhome
i am not shore where to go and for how long as time dont matter

i have been offroading landrovers for years now and done 2 x 1 week in north france over the years but stoped in camp sites that is why the new 6x4 camper i should be able to go a week without needing to stop for water and the fuel tanks will do 600 miles so i should be able to go anywhere

if you have done this before let me no

and i hopr to have this finished with in the next 6 weeks so i want to start planning a trip any one got any idears???

 

[Connie]

:drool: Can't wait to see it!

 

[auboneinc]

Sounds like an awesome project.
Where are you located?

 

[daz_247]

hampshire uk

 

[Antichrist]

I'm curious why you've chosen 6x4 rather than 6x6. Some guys did a 6x4 back in the 60's and decided, after off-road testing it, that 6x6 was really the way to go and added power to the 3rd axle.

 

[daz_247]

Wellit is costing over £20,000 already and i cant find a 6x6 axel for under £6000 so will keep looking and when one cumes up for the riht money i will get it and fit it

 

[Wander]

Is this based on the 110 or 120 or something else? Looking forward to pics!

 

[daz_247]

Is this based on the 110 or 120 or something else? Looking forward to pics!

130 Defender

 

[Antichrist]

Wellit is costing over £20,000 already and i cant find a 6x6 axel for under £6000 so will keep looking and when one cumes up for the riht money i will get it and fit it

How times change. As I recall, their Land Rover cost them 600 quid, 1/10 of the axle you've priced. :Wow1:
Of course, they did have some free help from Land Rover and Girling.

Ah, as I thought there might be, information on the net.
http://www.birminghammail.net/news/...man-s-reunion-with-land-rover-97319-20388615/

Be sure to keep us up-to-date on how your fare.

 

[engineer]

On a quick note, diff locks front and rear and your machine should go everywhere you want it to.

I did do extended trips with 13 people for 2 weeks in Cape York Australia, with a 6x4 toyota. Sorry it wasn't a Rover, but i did drive 6x6 rovers on Fraser island.

 

[evilfij]

Are you having Foley build it?

They are the 6x6 people in the UK.

If it were me, a 130 with the normal two axles is more than sufficient.

 

[daz_247]

Are you having Foley build it?

They are the 6x6 people in the UK.

If it were me, a 130 with the normal two axles is more than sufficient.

no J M C IS THE BUILDER

 

[daz_247]

that pic as taken last night

 

[daz_247]

i was thinking of putting a ARB diff locker in the front so this would help me when it got stuck
is it best to have one in the front??
is ARB the best locker to get??

 

[michaelgroves]

6x4 will give you the advantages of a hugely increased load capacity, but it will be barely adequate in most off-road situations.

A 6 wheeler will lift wheels as soon as you get onto any very uneven terrain. A 4-wheeler will generally have only one wheel in the air at a time (although it may teeter between diagonally opposite wheels). A 6-wheeler, on the other hand, can easily have 3 wheels in the air, and may even teeter a fourth.

For example, assuming Axle #2 (the middle axle) is driven, imagine approaching a steep slope head on. As Axle #1 starts to climb the slope, the vehicle tilts back, until Axle #2 is completely hanging in the air, and the truck is entirely supported on Axles #1 and #3. Your centre diff lock will ensure that you still have drive via Axle #1, but using the front axle only, to drag a big heavy vehicle up a steep slope, is a bad idea.

It gets worse when negotiating ditches and mounds at an angle - it's MUCH easier to get cross-axled when some of the weight is being carried by a non-driven axle. At the very least, you will need lockers in both driven axles (and yes, I think ARB is a great choice). But with a very heavy truck and the extra drag and the fact that some of the driven wheel are being robbed of weight (and therefore traction), you have the additional problem that all the torque is often being supplied by just one or two half-shafts...

£6K??? What is Foley's asking for their 6x6 drive unit these days? I bought mine when the design belonged to Ashcroft. I know it's pricey, but I thought you'd get away with well under £3K! Then all you need is a standard Land Rover axle for Axle #3, and a short propshaft.

If it's not a possibility at the moment, I'd do the 6x4 design in such a way that makes an upgrade to 6x6 really simple - I suspect you'll want to do it eventually.