Puzzled by 4x4's?

[dirtydiesel]

How about this,

940kg

Makes the opposition look like there driving hgv's

I believe that starting afresh on the above car i could get it down to 800kg

[istruggle2gate11]

How about this,

940kg

Makes the opposition look like there driving hgv's

Trial winner time and time again,.

This was the only car able to contend with the Rock Rod at trials. I truely believe if it had rear wheel steer than it would have always won.

[dirtydiesel]

Honitton Hobbit, what does the vehicle you describe, look like?

Hang your head in shame that you don't know what an auverland is.

Shock horror look what i found on goggle

Daves motor

[V8CAMEL]

My last Auverland weighs 1100kg with one winch, 2x Dana 44's, 17 gallons of fuel, all the bits and bobs etc in 2x trutracs. Pug 105bhp 1.9XUD Dturbo makes it novel to drive. Chuck in the lowest set of R&P available for a D44 and it would happily pull 33's

but adding the driver and navigator made it weigh about 1500KGS

but then trimming facial hair would have bought the weight down quite a lot

i always find it funny when poeple spend ages saving a kilo here and a kilo there specially on motorbikes then put an overweight 18st middle age bloke in/on the drivers seat

[Corrode Finger]

Thanks DD, never heard of an Auverland before.

Yeah can see the comment about putting a fat bloke on a bike is pointless, however a bike is alot less in the first instance. We are discussing trucks in the high hundreds of kilos or more category?

[FridgeFreezer]

Got to be some mileage in this sort of thing - and you can offend two sets of anoraks at the same time

I'm still trying to persuade Jan that this is what to do with the mini once George is built

[najw]

Peter Phillpotts at Off Road Design has spent nearly 30 years trying to convince All Wheel Drive Club members that lighter is the way forward!

He has built buggies, triallers, comp safari racers, always with lightness as the number one priority in the belief that a lighter vehicle can be more competitive,

faster, more economical, easier to transport etc etc

I believe that he managed to get the weight down to around 800kgs for a spaceframed, fully stripped SJ.

He is a great innovator who has found some very clever ways to use alternative parts and products to achieve his aims

Sadly he appears to have shut down his website as there were some excellent case studies on there

[najw]

Found these pics of Pete's mini trialer built in 2004

400kgs anyone :blink: :blink:

[Turbocharger]

I have some sketch drawings for a superlight trialler, a ladder chassis (literally, using a ladder), a small generator and four bicycle wheels with electric wheel motors and pushbike chain drive. The axles can then be tiny poxy box section with leaf springs - the lightest way to suspend and locate the axles. Chuck a seat on top and a little steering box (handlebars?) on the front and put a young whelp in the seat to hang on. 200kgs?

[najw]

I have some sketch drawings for a superlight trialler, a ladder chassis (literally, using a ladder), a small generator and four bicycle wheels with electric wheel motors and pushbike chain drive. The axles can then be tiny poxy box section with leaf springs - the lightest way to suspend and locate the axles. Chuck a seat on top and a little steering box (handlebars?) on the front and put a young whelp in the seat to hang on. 200kgs?

You forgot your ROPS

[sheeppimp]

My Vapour build recipe:

motorcycle engine, super light weight and complete with gearbox. Admittedly reverse could be an issue but solvable.

zook trans box

zook jimny axles

spaceframe

plastic bodywork

max 265/75 tyres on the lightest wheels i can find to fit

Mid mount engine for better weight distribution 2 seats up front and minimal lighting. twin winches

I'd be looking at a weight target of 750kgs incl driver.

If things get desparate on the weight front i'd even consider a fabric skin like a biplane

Mind you i do like that little trialer

[sheeppimp]

Peter Phillpotts at Off Road Design has spent nearly 30 years trying to convince All Wheel Drive Club members that lighter is the way forward!

He has built buggies, triallers, comp safari racers, always with lightness as the number one priority in the belief that a lighter vehicle can be more competitive,

faster, more economical, easier to transport etc etc

I believe that he managed to get the weight down to around 800kgs for a spaceframed, fully stripped SJ.

He is a great innovator who has found some very clever ways to use alternative parts and products to achieve his aims

Sadly he appears to have shut down his website as there were some excellent case studies on there

Is this he? off road design

[western]

Is this he? off road design

I should think so, his name is in the left margin

[XtremeMarineInc]

I have some sketch drawings for a superlight trialler, a ladder chassis (literally, using a ladder), a small generator and four bicycle wheels with electric wheel motors and pushbike chain drive. The axles can then be tiny poxy box section with leaf springs - the lightest way to suspend and locate the axles. Chuck a seat on top and a little steering box (handlebars?) on the front and put a young whelp in the seat to hang on. 200kgs?

This is a GREAT idea for an off-road vehicle. Depending on the trials section, you'd be able to adjust the wheelbase simply by extending and retracting the ladder frame. If you kept the generator central and behind the driver's seat. You just need coiled style extension cords to the motors at the corners. It would work, by George, it would work!

Lord; I really do have too much time on my hands.

[Daan]

I dont think it has to be so much vapour talking. A landrover has got loads of potential, if you try hard enough. A series 3 weighs 1500 kg (officially), and what more is there than a defender? that was what I had in mind when i build mine. It was 1550 on the road, with winch, offroad tyres (not simex yet) but without cage. I built it from the ground up and every part has been looked at and considered what it really needs to be. The chassis was a big weight saving, the weight after galvanizing was 150 kg, 30 kg lighter than the 90 chassis it was based on. For teh rest, a lot of fabrication work> the panhard mount, cast iron, plain ridiculous. I fabricated my own, losing about 1.5 kg. It might not seem a lot, but continue this on everything and your car is much lighter.

Daan

[Corrode Finger]

Daan, thats a very interesting post, especially regarding the chassis weight.

I accept your point about being able to reduce the weight on a LR product, but in this diet conscious thread the idea of starting with a lighter 'donor' brings benefits?

What weight are axles likely to be, also what about cage etc?

[FridgeFreezer]

Paul - are you after a list of weights of components? Not being rude but we could list out all sorts of things and what they weigh but would it actually be of any benefit? Like the engine bunfight thread and the axle/diff threads there is no one answer or magic bullet - Most things weigh as much as they do because that's the "best" way to make them without resorting to expensive lightweight materials or machining processes.

Since most things are in proportion, start with a vehicle that's already decent off-road and "add lightness". Whether you start with a RR or an SJ the end result should be similar, which one would be better is open to argument - horses for courses, again there is no "right" answer.

You've already saved a load of weight hybriding your RR, you could take it to the Nth degree by stripping it down and rebuilding but at what point are you gaining enough to make it worthwhile?

Wide tyres (or just airing down) increases your footprint and so reduces your ground pressure - Petal may be 2000kg but she can drive wherever you can walk, if you built something half the weight would you see enough of an increase in performance to justify the extra effort?

[bill van snorkle]

S'pose it's different strokes and all that, but from my angle I need/want the maximum allround cross country ability in a roadworthy vehicle that can carry and accomodate 3 people in basic comfort in all weather conditions for periods of 2/3 days duration. This vehicle must offer

a good degree of protection to the occupants in the event of a mishap on or offroad.Furthermore it needs to be capable of developing sufficient tractive effort to drag heavy trailers and other objects such as fallen trees around my hilly property. It must have an easy and cheap to maintain low tech engine that will run all day in low gear if necessary with the radiator half clogged with mud and grass seeds without raising a sweat, and have a strong abusable transmission system with a wide choice of gear ratios for most applications.

All the above criterea describes the attributes of''Wild Fing'' my current Landy that now weighs in at 2300 Kgs. I doubt that I could build a vehicle with all the above abilities and keep the weight much below that figure.

Bill

[Daan]

All the above criterea describes the attributes of''Wild Fing'' my current Landy that now weighs in at 2300 Kgs. I doubt that I could build a vehicle with all the above abilities and keep the weight much below that figure.

Bill

I have to say, my requirements are similar, but I think you easily can stay under 2000 kgs if you try. It would be interesting to weigh my vehicle in its current state. I believe a landrover is a great starting point with an aluminium body. The panels weigh nothing compared to most other off road vehicles. This is important, especially because I want to keep it full body for practical reasons. You can try going glass fibre or even carbon, but you must do something really special to beat the weight of 18 swg aluminium.

Homebase does a good deal on acrylic windows 2.5mm thick, all the windows in my hardtop are made of this.

Daan

[Lewis]

Hang your head in shame that you don't know what an auverland is.

Shock horror look what i found on goggle

Daves motor

I didnt realise Mr. Loveloy was such a commedian, I found this jem in the above link

However as with all vehicles (apart from the Pinzgauer) there are drawbacks

[Mark90]

I didnt realise Mr. Loveloy was such a commedian

You must have been the only one

[honitonhobbit]

That article was written in 1999 and 'refreshed' for Difflock in 2000. The picture of a young carefree and very hungover me was taken in 1997 after we had been course opening car for the Ebble Valley Trail.

H304TKU finished the Baja Aragon twice. Both times with podium places in it's class. Okay so the NA Diesel sup 2.0ltr was a very small class but 1000k of gravel and Spaggetti western sets is quite tough. She also did two Trophee Cevenols and one Mille Riviers as well as press car on a fair few jaunts to Carpathia. She won her class three times in the Trial Limosine as well and did the Riad Saintiago. Good Old Bus.

As for the article, I was young, a single parent and under a lot of stress!

[Corrode Finger]

Fridge, take your point about weighing everything, and turning the thread into a 'pointless' bunfight, some might argue it already is, but , if you dont ask you are none the wiser?

Only logic behind the axles and cage question, was that these are relatively significant weights in a truck. Never really seen anything on how much they are, if i am honest i was surprised how light the chassis was!

As i pointed out earlier, the vehicle would not have to be 'practical', my hybrid has been built with that in mind.

This is a project idea that explores what can be done by going light, or more to the point, if you start with a SJ or jimny, for arguments sake, how low could you get?

No rocket science materials or anything like that, just some sensible changes to try to achieve something away from the norm, and familiar trucks.

No magic bullet required, just some open minded ideas, about what could be done and where it could end up?

[dollythelw]

if you want to go ultra light start looking at karakats

[bill van snorkle]

The weight would climb considerably once you fitted 6 tyres over those inner tubes Jez.

Bill.