muddy

Yes I had a pair of jacking beams that I made some adaptors to jack level around the diff. The ones I have used had both beams sliding so you could put both to one side to get them out the way if needed, I can see how a fixed beam would/could be a pain.

I really like Pits, they are cheap (especialy if already installed) IMHO all pits should have a sump and a pump anyway and this takes care of any water ingress issues. Despite what many people say unless you spill a gallon of thinners down it and start welding or do a 45 minute engine warm up with the garage doors shut you are highly unlikely to have any issues. As for getting trapped down them i'd put that into the same catagory of people who use a jack without an Axle stand and then complain that its crushed their leg a little for thought goes a long way. I used a workshop with limited headroom and that had a full size 4 poster over a shallow pit, you could have a defender at a comfortable height to work on the breaks but go into the pit and stand underneath. You can also hoard store wheels and tyres down them. Just my 2p, if I had the choice of anything a full height 4 poster with wheels free is as good as it gets for land rovers I think.

Yes I mean somewhere near to standard like ross says infant of the axle however stuck up into the wheebox area, much easier to box in in the tub and still leaves the middle open to use (assuming the rear cage stays also go through the wheelboxs.) Its also watching the shocker body doesn't clash with the chassis side on full droop this is why the bottom needs to be fairly outboard.

Hard to judge from the pictures but can a shock not fit where the white line is in the picture? The bottom mounts would need to be inline or outboard of the trailing arm mounts in would say. Please excuse the horrendous picture.

I can’t see how the hole in the spring seat allows enough deflection movement of the shock body side to side with 14” of travel and plus you need to re think the re location cones. perhaps take the shocks off, cycle the suspension until the wheels/tyres touch or the arms max out and then offer up the shock/brush shaft cut to length in various places to see how it fits. If you arnt changing your wheel offset (and this is what is the binding point) I think tipping the top of the shocks in slightly is going to be the best compromise. If the build criteria is ‘lightweight silhouette’ and ‘fits through a field gate’ you might have to compramise with 12” of travel. Just my 2p as an opinion to stop this turning too ‘WillWarne’ like

@Stellaghost these drops are far better than the cream, I complained about the cream when I went back for the last bits removing and the guy agreed it was carp and prescribed this. Made a big difference I would highly recommend. Now have some ski mask style safety goggles for when I think the safety squint might not be enough.

I think we are trying to reinvent the wheel here, from this preliminary cycling travel looks ample and if this vehicle can't deform/deflect bushes there's no hope for the rest of us! Feel for you with the eye I did nearly a week with bits of paint in last year and I was climbing the walls.

Whilst the risk of solder fracturing is there I would say in practise the risk is minimal and the benefits far outweigh the negatives, what I would say is buy some 3:1 ratio adesive lined heat shrink this will make a big difference to the longevity of the joint. Not sure which way you were pulling but the loom goes in at the back and out the front when installing opposite for removal. Its usually best to cut the back as there's enough spare to pull out and make up a new rear loom or at least up to the RH tail lights.

Quite the achievement to have a back window that small and still obscure it. Nice filler work on the rear quarters too.

I think Britpart is pretty good to be honest if you don't just buy the cheapest thing then id say the quality is far better than it used to be. You want to try some of the stuff for normal vehicles the motor factors send out its just like the old days of Britpart.

Milwaukee Packout. Look up bigredpowertools.co.uk

I may be talking absolute rubbish so I would cycle the suspension asap before doing anything rash, it just seems a shame to make brackets if they are wrong. I think if the top of the rear shock is inline with the outside of the chassis rail it should be about right.

I think your shocks need to be well inboard at the top? Found these old pictures of my 90 and as Daan pointed out at the time I had/have negative shock clearance (or some other fancy phrase!) The front tyres would actually rotate the shock body as you moved in that situation and as you can see the back is even worse although due to the top of the rear shocks being more inboard this wasn't an issue. You can see how offset the wheels are from the disc position, I could change the pads without taking the wheel off. Could you bolt your brackets as they are but to the inside of the chassis rail?

Looks good, check the tyre doesn't rub the resovoir area when the other side is full droop and full left lock.

There are only two sizes of HCPU tub 110 and 127/130 (both actually 127' wheelbase) Both tubs are the same size from the wheel arch backwards just 110 ones have an extra 9" in the front IIRC.

Id say 3-6mm depending how rocky your terrain is. I had to weld my chassis bottoms up at least once a year do to peeling them open on rocks or replacing bits of trailing arm ears where they had bent up badly, it doesn't need to survive a landmine and it doesn't matter if it dents its just to stop you smashing the bottom to bits by catching it on stuff, @miketomcat didnt you once smash a PTO drop box off? Two plain hinges at the front (20mm? bar?) and a M16 on each side just infront of the rear arms would make it hinge down to wash out. This all depends entirely on how rough you intend to be I completely understand but I think Sid is likely to see more abuse than Mikes ibex or Eds 110 for example?

Might I suggest a belly plate from the new x member covering the bottom of the chassis rails and the trailing arm ears.

A welder can solve both issues should to be needed.

could you get a chunk of 20mm ish plate, drill and tap for a grease nipple and bolt that over the hole? I would also waft a plumbers blowtorch around the outer circumference as presser is applied, that way if the brass slug misses you you still get a burning shower or hot grease 😃

I would make the axle fit around the engine by using extended bump stops. This will keep everything lining up otherwise you open a can of many worms with gear-levers, engine hoses, seatbox, bonnet height etc etc the list goes on and on. the only time your axle sees that position is when you land very heavily or hit a ditchish type washout at speed, for the relatively few times an off roader in the uk experiencences this id just accept your gonna have a harsh bang from the bump stops. looking at those pictures your front springs would nearly be coil bound anyway. I think you want it to end up roughly like a lightweight monster truck rather than a dune buggy where your peering through the shock towers? the former is far better to trial than the latter. ( I had a tomcat for a brief period and tried one trial, couldn't see any passenger side flags for the dam bonnet bulges)

Have you changed the engine? discovery temp gauge works the other way iirc.

Good to see you've already fitted the traveling salesman's shirt hook in the rear, a nice touch. Its the little things that really make a vehicle like this usable.

If/when I ever build one for my 90 my plan was to heat and bend some hockey sticks inwards and then fab a top triangle joint with threaded boss' so you could just screw a new arm on should you need to (best laid plans of thread cutting start points and shank lengths etc etc....) The issue with the build above was similar to yours in that it was starting from nearly scratch with a pile of components so bending bits of toob was quick and easy to try and package everything. Perhaps a full skid plate on the underside of the link would add sufficient strength.

14' or 16' Ifor Williams flat bed with a box on would work well, you could even make it demount so you have a trailer aswell. Not to mention that they match in PCD....

These are the best pictures I can offer of a one link setup I am/was building, this was just over 7 years ago and I unfortunately still cannot tell you if it works or not, you can't rush these things 🥸 It uses a standard rear trailing arm mount as the bush with I don't think would be unto the mog axles but you get the idea.