Ed Poore

In comparison to all the other 6x6s shown the Sandringham is actually quite compact - @V8 Freak's 90 in the background for a rough size comparison.

Note the freewheeling hubs were fitted by the previous owner not from factory. I've almost never run them unlocked as stuff around here is too hilly so I struggle at junctions etc (although I do need to rebuild the leaves).

Right since I was called out I'll try and provide some first-hand experience (I've got a couple of 4x4s, a 6x6 and an 8x8). You say off-road and towing but what kind of off-road and what kind of towing? If it's relatively flat stuff then that simplifies matters a huge amount, if it's a camper trailer than that's one thing if it's 3.5t then that's a different ball-game. Is the towing happening off-road? What are your requirements on actual finished length? In general I'd wholeheartedly agree with @FridgeFreezer that most 6x6s are for extra payload or posing. It depends completely on the surface - if a 6x6 is an equivalent weight to a 4x4 then you've got less ground pressure so on some surfaces that might help because you don't break through the surface but on others you don't have as much traction because of the lower ground pressure. I can go into far more details if you want but if you want two closely coupled rear axles like you have drawn then either a bogey setup or what has been done on my Sandringham 6x6 is the best solution for the drivetrain. The "drop-boxes" that bolt onto the front of the middle diff mean that you get into a world of pain with propshaft angles and the like. If you put two propshafts from the rear of the transfer box you get into problems with clearance and prop angles again. There have been through-drive diffs done by having a sceond pinion on the rear of the crown wheel but I've not heard anyone who's been complementary of that design. I've given 6x6 and 8x8 drivetrains quite a lot of thought over the last few years as I've been asked to potentially build up a couple and also have some friends who've built them in the past (one did the Defenders in the Expendables film and another has done a number for clients and his forestry business). I can provide a lot more details on upsides and downsides of different drivetrains but you'll need to have a long hard think about what you actually want to achieve with it. For a basis my Sandringham 6x6 came out of a requirement by Land Rover to produce something that had greater payload and lower ground pressure but still capable off-road. They reached out to Hotspur and told them to design something but keep as many components as off-the-shelf as possible. So apart from most of them being reasonably rare there are only a handful of "custom" parts that aren't standard Land Rover ones. It started life as a Stage 1 V8 before having the chassis plated, strengthened and lengthened. Springs, brakes, wheels etc., are simply the biggest heaviest duty ones available from LR at the time. The only bespoke bit of engineering other than the chassis was the middle diff which was a modified Rover casing with a custom drop-box bolted to the front. It's plated for a 2 tonne payload on the back and 4 tonne towing capacity (no mention of coupled brakes but this was before they were really a thing) so gross train weight of 5kg under 8 tonnes. Despite being a 6x6 Land Rover it's only a foot longer than a 110 and doesn't turn anyworse than one although you do scrub some wheels because the two rear axles are permanently connected. Answer some questions and I can offer more help but this post is long enough as it is

Only recently Prior to that didn't even have an engine crane...

You think you've got problems Couldn't really turn this down for £100 - fully functioning and single phase to boot, most people use mugs for scale - since this is a Land Rover forum note the door for scale . Stamped "Made in West Germany" so that dates it reasonably well... Acquired a few years before but my wee hydraulic press on the right and a table with 3 (there's another one on the floor) Elliott Progress drills. This was in my old place and I couldn't lift the largest of the three drills onto the table. Came across a manual and realised why - the 2G (G stands for gearbox to drop it to ~40rpm) bench mount version comes in at 180kg... And the table has three drills of similar size on it. Nice solid table though. That is until I bought this little one for a general purpose work bench Now I just need the building work downstairs in the workshop to actually finish - but the roller door went on yesterday

I can attest to the fact that they're not cold garments having been asked to wear mine as the bridal chauffeur at a friends wedding. In the evening on a crisp winter evening all the men in kilts were stood outside because it was too hot inside . That is true - it's by far and away the single most expensive piece of clothing I've ever bought but given it was a bespoke order to get the clan colours it's certainly well made and will last decades. I'll decline to comment on the latter point

Mind you I can't talk - this is one of my offcuts from the 150x150 box

When I was in Surrey I used The Metal Store who weren't too bad on price at the time. In fact they were cheaper than a local steel company Pyramid Steel on most of what I wanted. But Pyramid Steel did have a nice skip of "offcuts" their offcuts were sometimes 6ft long . Mind you they mostly built buildings from what I could see so seems reasonable. I placed a reasonable sized order with Dyfed Steel (2.7 tonnes I think in total) and whilst they were good on price they arsed around with delivery no end but I'll spare that rant. I'm now lucky enough I can keep proper lengths in stock and sheet material and move them around with the JCB if required. Largely due to the delivery farces with Dyfed Steel I now get most of my stuff from Chris and Andrew at CLH Trailers who are only 10 minutes down the road. In fact just been down today to get roughly 10m of 50x50x3 box for some gates, plus they do a half day on Saturday although that's no longer an issue working for myself. They'd previously offered to order in anything they didn't keep in stock (they now have up to 25mm sheets and a CNC plasma capable of circa 50mm cuts). I inquired how long it would take to get some 150x150x5mm box (4 lengths) added to their next order, they said oh we'll probably have it in by the end of the week. I didn't realise quite how much steel they munched through - apparently they normally average two steel deliveries a week. Maybe we're just all friendlier down here in West Wales

I don't know they add up pretty quickly 4x for the headlights* 1x Glow plugs 2x Heated windscreens 1x Hazard relay Thats 8 before you start adding any extras such as an air compressor etc. For example when I eventually get around to the 1UZ swap there's two more for the igniters, at least one fuel pump, ECU main power and so on. * Or you get into the situation I did where lose one light and lose both whilst doing 60mph down on a narrow road next to a Loch in Scotland in a storm at night - not a pleasant experience I can testify to.

Like the shelf but how is the 90 still looking like a 45?

Are you familiar with or have you tried left foot / cadence braking? Before I had the lockers it was surprising how much further you could get by applying that technique. One thing I will say of full lockers over ATBs and the like. They can be used pre-emptively rather than reactively, i.e. lock them before you know you're going to lose traction that way you don't stop / lose momentum "waiting" for them to engage.

I've definitely not regretted having lockers. The big benefit I find with them is that being pre-emptive you lock them before you get into trouble and hopefully not dig yourself the hole in the first place. If you're sensible and don't dig yourself into a hole then you've got nothing to worry about . I use them quite often driving around my garden (there's some pretty serious hills in it) but by locking the diffs I can climb up stuff gently without tearing up the surface which I would otherwise do if I had open axles (already running BFG Muds and got a winch as well).

You're not trying hard enough @RedLineMike Worst I had was it took 6 vehicles (not stuck) to get me out of a hole in France. First one (Hilux) had a mechanical PTO winch, just got dragged to me. Subsequently 5 more vehicles were chained together and eventually with me reversing as well we managed to drag me out backwards.

At huge amount comes does come down to driving style if you're driving sympathetically then I'm sure that standard shafts would be fine. I can't find the results or remember them 100% correctly but didn't Ashcroft's test a load of halfshafts to destruction and the standard / genuine ones actually faired pretty well. If I recall correctly they weren't anywhere near as strong as the Ashcroft ones but they deformed first before breaking and likely sending chunks into the diff. One thing to bear in mind is the likely difference between the £15 halfshafts vs. Genuine from Land Rover. The main thing you would be paying for with genuine parts over a pattern part is tracability and "warranty". The pattern parts are almost going to come from the same factory as the genuine ones but they may be all the ones that don't meet the standards set by JLR. That's not to say that they'll all be carp but you just don't have the guarantee. It's similar in the electronics industry all the chips are manufactured in the same factory. The ones that test and perform the best are sold as automotive spec and have a huge papertrail documenting everything about them, the next best become aerospace or military, the ones after that are industrial and the dregs of the barrel are sold as general consumer grade items. So just because they're built in the same factory does not necessarily mean they all end up the same spec. I'm a pretty sympathetic driver like yourself but when I had the two lockers built for mine by Nige I opted for Ashcroft shafts - not because I was expecting to break the standard ones but stuff does happen unexpectedly. That's even more likely when I get around to swapping out the 300Tdi for a 250+hp V8 so it was forward planning on that respect.

Given the rear halfshafts are a doddle to remove would it not be simplest to pull one out, measure it and count the splines?

Does your 90 have discs or drums on the rear? The front I think is a little more complicated but since you asked about the rear I'll focus on that. You'd only need to swap out the halfshafts, diff and drive flange if you were changing to 24 spline. Whether there's a difference in half-shaft length if you're disc or drum braked I don't know. Similarly there may be half-shafts available that are 24 spline but for drums (if you do have them)? Does that make sense?

I'd echo that sentiment, I've yet to get a concrete screw to anchor properly in anything from stone to C40 concrete. At the moment the only thing they've been anchored to is the bucket they're stored in. Yeah maybe it you get perfect conditions they're great but I've always found rawl plugs, resin or expanding bolts to be easier and far more forgiving.

I must be getting old(er)... Or weld faster and get more heat into everything. Was seriously impressed by how hot some 150x150x5 box got when I was stick welding it into gateposts.

You'd be surprised - think it's stamped at something like 450kg SWL on the back actor. I know I've picked up the majority of a Bridgeport (well knee, etc - it was missing the bed and the head) and it could hold the mill but couldn't actually lift it - I was able to lift it up using the stabilisers. Front forks have been tested to at least 1.5t though which is pretty impressive for quite a small machine.

I ran out of reach on a 2.5t engine crane so had to upgrade slightly...

You can get away with "basically" screeding it to bring the whole floor up to the right height. Hopefully you can read through this thread over on mig-welding - almost this exact question was asked just a few days ago. Specifically look at Bob's response in post 8: https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/screeding-a-concrete-floor.109349/#post-1761039. I've been to Bob's yard and that floor takes some serious abuse, the man cave he's referring to has a 6 tonne two poster in it with a 101 currently resident. There's an engine dyno, more tool cabinets than you can shake a stick at, heaters, some heavy duty workbenches (aside from the general purpose ones on top of the cabinets from McLaren). So I would say that you can do the same approach if it's just going to be foot traffic.

It's why we've always tended to shy away from patents in particular because you normally have to describe them in order to patent them and at that point it's who's got the biggest coffers. One approach has been to just try and capitalise on it as quickly as possible and perhaps can sell it on if successful.

They'll almost certainly just be knobs that slide onto potentiometers mounted directly on the PCB. It looks like there are a couple of screws in holding the PCB to the front panel - can you remove those and get a picture of the front of it? I'm guessing once you've removed the screws the knobs will just slide out.

I'm sure an adult can correct me but normally if it's right at the bead the craters are normally due to it being a bit too cold. The first welds looks a tad cold to me, the one you've cut has a smoother taper where it goes into the base metal rather than bulged. Perhaps bump up the voltage or wire speed a tad or if you're holding the torch a long ways away try holding it a little closer. You might find it's OK if you weren't doing "spot" welds the whole time. When you want to tack something you usually need to bump things to give them a short-sharp zap.

@Bigj66 - sorry a bit too late but SGS have distributors in Colwyn Bay, Ruthin and Flint. I've switched from Hobbyweld to them because not only were they better value for money but also a damn sight closer now I've moved back to Wales. https://www.sgsgases.co.uk/find-a-distributor/