The return of Dave F.

I don't think there's anything that doesn't!

In the case of my pinz, it's about half a tonne heavier than a 110, but there's a greater concentration of weight at the front due to the cab location although the engine would weight a lot less especially with no water cooling. Behind the cab, which ends about where a 110 steering wheel is, there's just drivetrain, bodywork and chassis, all supported by twice as many wheels as the 110 has. The front wheels in such a situation would give a fair amount of additional grip as the rear wheels have less downwards pressure on them so spin much more readily. I can wheelspin the rears on gravel without trouble even with a weedy 87BHP and about 133ft/lb (I think).

One of the situations where the front got me out was in a gloop-filled trench that I wanted to get out of, one front wheel on the side of the trench was enough to lift the truck up the side, whereas without the diff lock, the other wheel ate the torque. The rears were just pushing me forwards and backwards, I couldn't steer out without the diff lock. There have been a few times when I reckon steering would have been hard without both fronts playing a part in it, this is particularly useful when you've got four wheels at the rear in a rut, making steering harder than it might otherwise be. Climbing out of ruts is much easier when both fronts are scrabbling for grip rather than just one.

The other time was when climbing a hill through trees with big potholes in the path on crumbly ground, the rears spun when the front reached a big pothole as the wheel just waved in the air and soaked up all the drive to the front axle.

If I was making an expedition vehicle that had already cost me a reasonable amount, then yes, even if weight distribution wasn't so nose-heavy as it is in an unladen pinz. I'd see if I could get a discount for bulk from the supplier ;-)

JD uttered summat worrerz funny about:

101's are one off's using Sailsbury Diffs with a lower ratio.

The swivels are welded to the axle and not bolted on too

There will sadly come a time when axles have to be replaced with summat else due to supply.... portals sound very tempting.

Lee D

Volvo C303 axles are a good bet, they have drum brakes but disc brake conversions are easy and cheap, unlike for mine :-(

Also mog 404s.

On or around Sun, 25 Jun 2006 13:39:42 +0100, Ian Rawlings enlightened us thusly:

there again, a fully-loaded expedition truck would have a LOT more weight on the arse-end.

On Sun, 25 Jun 2006 15:11:51 +0100, "Lee_D" scribbled the following nonsense:

really LR slipped up in the design of the 101, as portal axles were available at the time the 101 was developed.

On or around Sun, 25 Jun 2006 15:29:04 +0100, Ian Rawlings enlightened us thusly:

AIUI the volvo ones are low ratio or very low ratio. even lower then a 101.

I expect they're getting rare, too - mog 404s haven't been built for a while.

110 salisbury looks the best bet. dunno about the front ones, though - I imagine they carry more weight on a 101 than on a 110.

On or around Sun, 25 Jun 2006 15:11:51 +0100, "Lee_D" enlightened us thusly:

what's the rationale behind that? is it to make it stronger?

On or around Sun, 25 Jun 2006 13:08:26 +0100, Ian Rawlings enlightened us thusly:

yeah, that's the one I meant when I mentioned it previously. although it looks to me that it uses 90 transmission - the axle spacing is about right for that. Very cunning system, about the only non-standard bit in the transmission is a shaft linking the back ends of 2 transfer boxes.

Mind, I reckon they missed a trick by not giving it a 5F/5R main box and putting another cab on the back.

On or around Sat, 24 Jun 2006 17:50:43 +0100, Simon Isaacs enlightened us thusly:

yeah, but it'd be pushing the limits for a carb-fed 3.5 V8 as well - Martyn's cheating by having a 4.6 in his.

The 200 or 300 TDi ought easily to be able to match the performance of the standard 3.5 V8 - HBOL lists pre-79 V8 as 130 BHP and 185 ft-lb.

No but there's a fair few of them around, and they get well looked after on the military vehicle circuit so they'd be a good bet for the longer term.