Chris Abel

How do you manage to loose a Lorry door!!? My Trucks almost ready, just a few little bits i needed to sort out, nothing major. Ive still got cr4p drum brakes, Portal Tek forgot to send the calipers with the disc conversion However I do have a handbrake that works

After seeing some of the places you managed to get to using the center winch at the euro thats one thing that ive definitly got todo. Alan ive got to agree with you that hydraulics are certainly the way forward, But im all up for trying something a little diffrent

I’ve got a Johnny Joint on my A frame mounted horizontally instead of vertically and I’ve not found any problems with it binding or c-clips popping out etc. The only problems I’ve had with the joints were on the front 3 link when I did not have enough separation for the portals .

Ive used johnny joints on my truck and they work really well, they allow for so much more free movement than a standard bush. However i di managed to destroy the poly centers on 3 joints due to amount of pressure my 3 link on the front was exererting when i did not have enough seperation between the top and bottom links on the axle (portals) .

Thanks for all your help, I’ve spent most of the weekend looking at pumps, motors, spool valves etc, looking through all the technical data trying to find a suitable combination. I’ve has a good look at the Rexroth A2F5 bent axis motor but it requires over 4500 psi to run at the optimum speed, there are pumps available that will produce those pressure but the cost rises significantly. Then there is the issue of adapting the output shaft on the motor so that it will take the 17mm 20 spline shaft as used on the electric motor. I’m sure it's possible to use the A2F5 motor but i think i could be an expensive route for me to convert the 8274 to hydro. Maybe i should ditch the 8274 and fit a Husky Just found something else though ill let you know if it works

Hmm cant see how it could be that expensive, I was thinking a a few hundred quid for a motor and a few evenings in a workshop making a conversion plate But i guess someone's got to give it a try What would the speed (RPM) be of an 8274's XP motor when not under load 5000 rpm or more?

I’ve been thinking about whether it would be possible to convert an 8274's electric motor to a hydraulic motor, I’m sure it could be done and it could save a few ££ I’ve been looking at hydraulic motors that are available and I have yet to find anything that has more than 1200 rpm, obviously an electric motor spins allot faster so there would have to some changes to the gearing to get a good line speed. The conversion would still enable me to swap the top housing back to an electric motor if I ever had a problem with the hydraulic system. I could also get rid of the annoying motor overrun that’s associated with electric motors when not under load. The ability to winch all day at 100ft min, without burning out motors, draining batteries and killing alternators has got to be an advantage! Any thoughts on this?

We had a great time at Tong, got a bit carried away and forgot to keep an eye on the time and spent an extra 10 min's playing in the mud Neil’s Description of tong "Slindon on Acid" was definitely right!! The Truck is looking a little sorry for itself after yesterdays antics, the front wing bars, rock sliders, front bumper, doors, and bonnet have now got a few extra curves

Looks like you had a good weekend offroading, maybe i should get my rangie over there for that next year, do many people still use electric winches over there or is it all Hydro monsters?

I only managed to get one right shaft from the yellow website, he's got some second hand CV's But he might get some more in again soon. My front axle only had a tiny bit of water get in, I put a grease nipple on the of pipe were the locker actuator passes through, that seemed to keep the water out 33 Dave Stokes Simon Wilkinson Land Rover 90 2 I thought Dave sold his truck?

Ill be there, Jez is bringing back some new HD front shafts from finland tonight so i wont bother trying to weld up a broken half shaft Still got to change all the oils after the 5ft deep watery hole at Kirton swallowed my truck Dont think much got in but its better to be on the safe side.

My volvo rims that i cut the centre's out of and rewelded have a 5 1/2 inch backspace (back of rim to face of hub), ive welded beadlock rings on so my rims are 9" wide, my truck is 7ft wide with the 37/14.5/16 iroks. Are you sure that you want to make yor truck 7' 4" wide?

It was like driving with a wheel made of lead, with no drive to one of the front right wheel the waffle boards got loads of use on sunday. Atleast ive found a spare part in time for Round 7

The weekends damage

Some really good photo's Simon Mr Turner whats going on here?

What diffrence has it made having a 10inch rim over an 8inch rim? Does the tyre roll less on the rim? greater width? i just want to make sure before calling devon and changing my order Ive been using standard volvo rims with beadlock rings welded to the outside im guessing they add on another 1 inch, they have been ok with the iroks so far. cant rember how wide a standard volvo 303 rim is, anyone know? Thanks Chris

How the Futt can Volvo charge £4500 + vat Jez i think i might go for some of those Bling cromo bits, depending on what i find when i take a look in the axle

Its the short side i think, Ill have a look tonight and see what the damage is Is Cromo alot stronger and by using stronger shafts that will obviously put more strain on the portal gears & CV, is it not best to use a stock shaft using them as the weak link? whats the cost of the two types of shaft? Thanks Chris

Euro challenge pics And some more!

Ive got a set of 16 x 8 mach 5 beadlocks on order but im wondering if having a narrow rim with 37x14.5.16 Iroks could cause the tyre to roll excessively sideways when using low pressures, should i change them for a 10 inch rim? Just tried volvo truck and bus in Thetford for the front half shaft, I quoted the part number 644069.. I was told that was not a volvo part number?! which Truck and bus dealer should i go to with such obscure axle part requests? Im not even sure yet if it is a shaft...... Ill pull the portal box off tonight after ive cleaned it.

It was the best weekends offroading ive ever had!! The Sections were very well layed out, you could see that there was a huge amount of work put in by the AWDC crew and marchals to organise such an awsome event Saturday went well for us, I managed to put the truck into some water 5ft deep at the very start of the day, all was fine though (just happy i had a 200tdi at that point!) Jim and his TD5 were not so lucky Sunday morning we pushed a tyre off the bead climbing the rock crawl, it was an easy fix but unfortunitly when exiting the rock crawl i managed to brake a front axle shaft We continued with 3 wheel drive for the rest of the day and still managed 20 punches. Its a great feeling to get up on the podium, all those hudreds of hours spent working on the Rangie were all worth it Looking forward to seeing the photo's..

No sorry not this time, he's away on holiday. It would have been nice to get some Photos of the underside of Adrian's truck from the air!

Will your works van be coming too? welder and gas axe may come in handy

Got back from holiday yesterday so im a little behind with getting things done again! Today I pulled the 7.8hp motor off the rear winch that has been playing up and changed it for the trust worth XP motor. tapped a breather in whilst i was at it. Then i rebuilt two johnny Joints and got one gigglepin rear arm fitted. Ive still got to sort out a second alternator, got the crank pully and tensioner i just need to make up some brackets and fit the thing. Must remember the tent poles this time See you all friday....

Yeah yeah, heard that one before ! I was hoping to get the Disc conversion on before the euro and also need to find some 8x16 landrover stud pattern 5.5 inch back spaced rims but there is no way thats going to happen, im off to greese for a week next weekend B) Ill just have to manage with dodgy brakes again