Lovely gardens

[LadyArowana]

dont old land rovers make exceptionally good garden ornaments?

I have just realised how incredibly lucky I am to have a husband who thinks "lovely statue" not "old landrover" when he contemplates something to put in the garden. Makes the difficulties of unpacking the crate pale into insignificance :lol:

 

[worms]

we decided a swb landy was not the best vehicle for the job

Yes and the jerry cans on the roof are a dead give-away. I was shocked when I bought my first (petrol) 90 in Glasgow and found it needed refueling just to get as far as Aviemore! Safaris with it in Africa necessitated more than its fair share of load space to be taken up with fuel until its role was usurped by an aged 110 V8 with twin tanks.

The answer to the garage question is of course to let some air out the tyres then pack it full of heavy people. You can then get it into the garage but find it impossible to get back out without mustering the same "rugby team" of helpers.

 

[robgil]

Its not so much a case of thinking 'something to put in the garden' , more a case of 'not being able to remove something from the garden' .

 

[LadyArowana]

The answer to the garage question is of course to let some air out the tyres then pack it full of heavy people. You can then get it into the garage but find it impossible to get back out without mustering the same "rugby team" of helpers.

A couple of Americans would probably do just as well as a Rugby team.

 

[worms]

which is probably why the humvee has such wide doors... :roll:

 

[robgil]

we decided a swb landy was not the best vehicle for the job

Yes and the jerry cans on the roof are a dead give-away. I was shocked when I bought my first (petrol) 90 in Glasgow and found it needed refueling just to get as far as Aviemore! Safaris with it in Africa necessitated more than its fair share of load space to be taken up with fuel until its role was usurped by an aged 110 V8 with twin tanks.

The answer to the garage question is of course to let some air out the tyres then pack it full of heavy people. You can then get it into the garage but find it impossible to get back out without mustering the same "rugby team" of helpers.

i ran it on 50% veg oil for most of the journey , and of course diesel 'was' really cheap in Greece and in Luxembourg at the time so tanking up in both country's would give us enough fuel to get through the more expensive countries like Switzerland. Diesel in Africa is supposed to be quite cheap isn't it? Although i wouldn't consider taking a petrol landy as far as tescos. :shock: My 90 had a 2 1/4 petrol in it for months ,it was a terribly horrid, unreliable , crappy , gutless engine.

you could always ratchet strap the landy down on its springs , so long as the straps didnt break.
ive never seen a 2.5 ton vehicle bunny hop through a garage roof before but id say it would be quite funny.

 

[LadyArowana]

Its not so much a case of thinking 'something to put in the garden' , more a case of 'not being able to remove something from the garden' .

I had already taken the precaution of choosing a house that has a completely enclosed garden, so no large bits of anything would be sneaking in and fossilising. Short of an airlift it only gets in if it fits through the front door.

 

[robgil]

it only gets in if it fits through the front door.

thats how i got mine in , bit by bit. took me 8 months.

 

[worms]

My 90 had a 2 1/4 petrol in it for months ,it was a terribly horrid, unreliable , crappy , gutless engine.

It wasn't great, but at the time I bought that one, the choice was the 2 1/4 petrol or the 2.5 Turbo diesel (not the TDi) which had a reputation of eating engines every few hundred miles, and the petrol 90 was such an advance on the non turbo 2 1/4 diesel Series 3 that I had been used to before, that it felt really good.

And another typical PPUK thread that has gone from lovely gardens to Land Rover engines in a page and a half!

 

[LadyArowana]

it only gets in if it fits through the front door.

thats how i got mine in , bit by bit. took me 8 months.

Thanks for the warning I shall be extra vigilant :lol:

 

[robgil]

ive got the old 19j turbo diesel , i think its a pretty good engine so long as you look after it. i think part of the problem was back then turbo's were still pretty exotic additions to any engine so anything with a turbo was still considered 'sporty' , now , the average landy owner will sooner bodge an engine fault than fix it so mix these two together (a botched 19j engine being driven like a Ferrari) and you will quite probably end up with a blown engine. granted they do breath a lot but mine has been blowing oil into the filter for 4 or more years now. those petrols do run like sowing machines though when they run right , the weber dmtl carb was a nice addition on the 2.3 petrol over the old zenith but even so , mine just didnt like hills, it would start to slow down before it even reached the hill.

 

[Feltwell]

mine just didnt like hills

Sounds like a good reason to move to Suffolk!

I have a hankering for another Series 2A - having had a very tired one in my youth - but this time I'm on the lookout for one where someone else has already spent a fortune on new chassis, bulkhead etc. It's easy to end up spending more on a Landy than the finished vehicle is worth. I know a coil-sprung Defender would be more comfortable and practical, but as a second vehicle for playing with I'm quite happy pootling and bouncing around in an old leaf-sprung Series Landy. There's a very nice early 2A on Ebay at the moment with a V8 conversion, just not quite got the cash at the moment........

A friend got some smaller car wheels and bodged them up for his Series III to fit just for when he wanted to put it in his garage to work on it! Bit of a pain havign to jack it up and change all 4 wheels - twice - every time you want to fix something though.

 

[worms]

There's a very nice early 2A on Ebay at the moment with a V8 conversion

:shock:
Do they also upgrade the hubs and brakes? I wouldn't want a V8 on drum brakes!
I also wouldn't want a V8 with petrol at £1.19/litre!

 

[robgil]

ive always fancied a lwb 2a truck cab for some reason. the problem with buying one that has already been done is sometimes it can be hard to see what it was done with , at least if you do it your self you can be sure about the quality of the parts used etc etc. you also have to ask your self why would someone go through all that agro and hard work then sell the vehicle?

 

[Feltwell]

There's a very nice early 2A on Ebay at the moment with a V8 conversion

:shock:
Do they also upgrade the hubs and brakes? I wouldn't want a V8 on drum brakes!
I also wouldn't want a V8 with petrol at £1.19/litre!

The Rover V8 isn't exactly fire-breathing by modern standards, but then a Landy isn't exactly light either so decent brakes are still a benefit! Get in any vehicle that is 40-50 years old though and braking won't be up to modern standards. The popular mod I believe is to fit LWB brakes and upgrade to be servo assisted. I've got a feeling that the factory six-cylinder models had better brakes as well - but I'm not 100%. Land Rover did do a "factory" V8 model, the "stage 1" v8.

Fuel economy will be pretty horrific, but if it's only as a second vehicle to play with then it's bearable. An LPG conversion is another option.

As well as Rover V8's another popular engine swop was to use the Ford v6. At one time they were cheap and plentiful as they used them in ambulances, they could be picked up cheaply from scrap yards. However that was a good few years ago and I reckon they'd be much harder to come by now.

 

[Feltwell]

ive always fancied a lwb 2a truck cab for some reason. the problem with buying one that has already been done is sometimes it can be hard to see what it was done with , at least if you do it your self you can be sure about the quality of the parts used etc etc. you also have to ask your self why would someone go through all that agro and hard work then sell the vehicle?

True, but then why do we go through all the agro and hard work to get a house how we want it and then move house? Circumstances change - and let's be honest, these are big boy's toys and sometimes you just want a new toy! Any 40-50 year old vehicle is going to need careful checking over.

I have a definite soft spot for early 2A's and 2's, where the lights were in the grille. A soft top would do me nicely, even if it has only got the 2 1/4 petrol. LWB's are nice but have the turning circle of a oil tanker!

 

[robgil]

this is true , i suppose it all depends on how you want to play with it also , i used to do a lot of off roading in mine so it has taken quite a battering in the past 4 years,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X38Hrnug7w

i would never go back from a soft top now , much lighter , quieter and way more fun in the summer.
and warmer in the winter to.

i think ive seen the v8 2a on e bay , is it up noorf? i see it has a stereo in it. :lol: nice looking landy though.

 

[worms]

The Rover V8 isn't exactly fire-breathing by modern standards, but then a Landy isn't exactly light either so decent brakes are still a benefit!

For a while Land Rover had front discs and rear drums on their export model 110s, an appalling set-up which gave a really poor braking performance compared to the European spec discs-all-round. Poorly suited to mud or water and much less safe on the road. Nothing would convince me to go back to that!

The Rover V8 could be bored and stroked as far as 5.0L if you were really daft enough and was a widely used racing engine for a long time. It really was the most flexible engine for off-road, utterly dependable (as long as you fitted electronic ignition and K&N filters) and with the original air filter out of the way the engine provides the best platform for cooking bacon for a bush breakfast!

 

[Feltwell]

i think ive seen the v8 2a on e bay , is it up noorf? i see it has a stereo in it. :lol: nice looking landy though.

This one was darn saarf - it's disappeared from Ebay now so I guess it's been sold.

The Rover V8 isn't exactly fire-breathing by modern standards, but then a Landy isn't exactly light either so decent brakes are still a benefit!

The Rover V8 could be bored and stroked as far as 5.0L if you were really daft enough and was a widely used racing engine for a long time. It really was the most flexible engine for off-road, utterly dependable (as long as you fitted electronic ignition and K&N filters) and with the original air filter out of the way the engine provides the best platform for cooking bacon for a bush breakfast!

Yes, it's a great engine, and used in so many different vehicles. What I meant was the standard V8 doesn't put out masses of power for it's size by modern standards - about 150bhp from 3.5l (as used back on cars like the P5B) isn't that much - my 2.5l car puts out 220bhp for example. I seem to remember that Land Rover detuned the V8 from that when they put it in the "stage 1" Series 3 vehicles, because of concerns over the brakes! Lots of torque with the V8 though and masses of tuning potential as you say.

Anyway, this thread has been hijacked terribly - away from the roar of engines and back to the peace & tranquility of lovely gardens!

 

[MdB]

I thought that I would post this as my mate put this up on Flickr this morning.

He has adapted his camera to take pictures in IR which is why the colours are a bit weird. The picture has also been HDR'ed so it is likely made up of 5 or so pictures taken at different exposures.