MPS4X4 Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 SPI used to make the best quality rear crossmembers but sadly they closed in December. They supplied chassis manufacturers with chassis components and seemed to be the best quality available. I never had a complaint from any SPI parts I supplied, but local customers are not too keen on the Britpart crossmembers. I have two SPI 110 rear crossmembers with extensions left in stock. Simon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike4444244 Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 I just put a britpart one on the 109, was utter cr@p and i had to modify it to fit, I only fitted it cos its not going to tow or be used for recovery, only for camping or I would have sent it back, one thing that winds me up about them is the complete lack of crush tubes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon White Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 I bought one from Craddocks as Nige says and it was cr@p! Les have you bolted the towing hitch on it yet? On mine when i did the bolts up the towing hitch crushed the box section as the re-inforcing inside it was too short and did meet both sides of the crossmember. I complained on many occasions to Craddocks about it, and I have to say the cr@p quality part was only bettered by JC unbelievably cr@p customer service!!!!! I never did get anywhere with it and in the end gave up on it and now simply dont deal with them any more. I similarly gave up with paddocks years ago after a number of episodes of cr@p courier syndrome. i pretty much exclusively use Keith Gotts these days. Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Henson Posted March 27, 2008 Author Share Posted March 27, 2008 It has a drop plate on it (the standard item), so the front has it's own spreader plate of sorts. The rear is a plate with two 24mm nuts welded to it. There are crush tubes of sorts inside the crossmember, but theses are just pieces of angle iron, rather than a tube. Les. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denviks Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 that just looks horrible.....how can they supply that and keep a straight face ... im no welder.....infact i practice at trying to make it look half decent and stick ...if i had produced that i would of cut it up and started again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BogMonster Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Oh dear - a pigeon suffered greatly in the production of that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest diesel_jim Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Oh dear - a pigeon suffered greatly in the production of that... Hey Les.... i hope it was one of your neighbours pigeons!! (Stephen.... Les's neighbour is a pigeon fancier, and we both really like the chap, he's a great bloke... ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve King Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Well I just spoke to Paddocks and they reckon that "they have not had any complaints". They also said that they would have exchanged it and saved Les the 3 hours he spent remanufacturing it. Somehow though I doubt if a replacement would have been any better. I also sent an email with a link to this thread, lets hope that they have the decency to reply or even post a message on the forum. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin90 Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 I had terrible fit and quality issues with my s**part rear crossmember for my 90. It came with the vehicle when I got it so didn't have any means of complaint but it would have gone back otherwise! martin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OilIT Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Just checked the crossmember i received about 3 months ago from them but have yet to fit... Yep that pigeon s*** is all over mine - looks like they dragged it aross the beach when the paint was wet ! I must say that the welding on mine looks more complete and consistent (they must have made this one before they lost the clamps) than those pictured by les, but I am yet to try and fit it so cant speak for alignments etc. That one for sale above looks great though ! Jerry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mo Murphy Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 My 90 rear cross member was from Paddocks. The welding was OK but the fit onto the longitudinals was diabolical and took some major reworking to get it lined up to the longitudinal and the rear body at the same time. The thing is that it is such a big job that you put time aside to do it, get all your tools sorted and repair the welder again, you cut the rear crossmember off, then you find the new crossmember is garbage. What do you do ? You rework it and finish the job! So it doesn't go back to Paddocks and so they never get to hear about the **** that they sell although I suspect they know a bit more than they let on. Bad monkeys. Mo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithjh Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Yep looks like the same piece of carp i had to fit to a friends 110 last year, welding was even worse than that one and was so out of line it was a joke, Like Les spent more time sorting the bloody thing out that fiting it, i have come to the conclusion that : The welder was many things but not a welder clamps are what they dont have square and tape measure as above Fitted a new crossmember to my 110, like a dream fitted perfectly, no pissing about at all, the only downside was the cost(origonal part) but it was worth it. Regards Keith Regards Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Henson Posted March 27, 2008 Author Share Posted March 27, 2008 Well the crossmember is on, spray undersealed, and finally looks very good, tank fitted, wiring/pipes reconnected - the usual bits. Last thing to go on is the towing bracket, and there surfaces another problem and I'm not quite sure how to remedy it to be honest. The two angled lower arms that come off the bottom of the drop plate are secured by 2 x 24mm bolts, and they then go at an angle to the same bolts that also have the tie-down eyes on. The problem is this - the tie-down bolt holes are in the wrong position, so the lower supports fall well short of the holes for the drop plate bolts. In order to get the drop plate holes to line-up, I would have to remove the tank again, drill new holes-along with crush tubes, then put it all back together again. The misalignment at the drop plate end is so great that I can't even get away with drilling new holes as it would seriously weaken the join. I was wondering if it would be safe to weld the arms to the bottom of the drop plate? I could puddle weld through both holes as well as around the edges, and apart from doing this the towing assembly will still be removeable if needed. Those of you that know about welding/stress, and similar related expertise - would it be safe to weld it (assuming that the welds would be good quality) ? Some more pictures to show the problem. Les. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Humphreys Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 I had the same problem when I did the cross member on mine Les. What I did was undo the two/four big bolts, put the bolts in for the arms in and tighten them them redo the top bolts, all fitted fine then. Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRecklessEngineer Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 LR tool number 1 'till it fits? I'm now very glad I didn't go down the 1/4 chassis route for fixing my 88"... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotian Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 How important are the arms at the bottom? I've seen a few TD5s without the arms and when I went to pick up a car from the other side of the Transilvanian mountains I had to take the drop plate from my mates TD5 that didnt have the arms and put it on mine. If there was ever alot of stress on a drop plate it was the 500 miles I did that weekend!! Seriously steep mountain roads with and without a car on the trailer and it was all fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G_Cam Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 I bought a Paddocks one a couple of years back and it was not too bad. ( I also had it Hot Galv dipped) I guess theymust have changed their supplier? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godlykepower Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Personally, I dont know how to weld, but even I can tell that that looks like shoody, cheap workmanship. I would be quite peeved if I bought something that looked like that from a reputable supplier. Looks like a cheap bit of kit knocked up by a pikey for a tenner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrissyboy Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Just goes to show that you get what you pay for! How much was it? Its going to be made to a price. How much would one cost if it was made to Les's standard and would you buy it at that price? Or would you go for the cheaper but not so good one. I suspect at least 95% would go for the cheaper option. Cheers Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Henson Posted March 28, 2008 Author Share Posted March 28, 2008 You have a good point Chris. But it's a trade-off between the cost of buying a decent one or possibly paying extra for the alterations to get it to fit. You do however expect to buy something and it'll do it's job, so whether it's £100 or £200 is not necessarily a consideration. Just because something is cheap doesn't mean it's carp. Threads like this are usefull - solely because someone else thinking of buying the same thing from the same manufacturer might well reconsider. I don't think you could think that cheap means rubbish. Les. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybrid_From_Hell Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Popped in and saw a mate of mine who runs a Genuine LR Parts Outlet. He sells BRAND NEW GENUINE rear crossmembers with exts, and for not I think a huge amount of £33s, the qulaity is beautiful, as you would expect these are genuine. He seels loads of them, this guy was buying it to replace the Paddocks one put on less the 3 months ago as towing a 2 axle trailer with kit on has see it deform I think from memory it was around £250 As Dougal says........ you do pay your money and take your choice / get what you pay for, however I wouldn't go through the time and effort to even bother to fit the total sh*te pictured from Paddocsk or as Jon W says Craddocks too, pay the extra and get something worth fitting nige Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrissyboy Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Popped in and saw a mate of mine who runs a Genuine LR Parts Outlet.He sells BRAND NEW GENUINE rear crossmembers with exts, and for not I think a huge amount of £33s, the qulaity is beautiful, as you would expect these are genuine. Well Land Rover chassis's are beautifully made in my opinion. But there is always a fair amount of weld splatter and one or two bits of welding wire in my experience. No-one ever notices because no-one ever looks. But it if you put the original LR chassis under a microscope there are plenty of cosmetic imperfections. Cheers Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgnas Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 Popped in and saw a mate of mine who runs a Genuine LR Parts Outlet.He sells BRAND NEW GENUINE rear crossmembers with exts, and for not I think a huge amount of £33s, the qulaity is beautiful, as you would expect these are genuine. He seels loads of them, this guy was buying it to replace the Paddocks one put on less the 3 months ago as towing a 2 axle trailer with kit on has see it deform I think from memory it was around £250 As Dougal says........ you do pay your money and take your choice / get what you pay for, however I wouldn't go through the time and effort to even bother to fit the total sh*te pictured from Paddocsk or as Jon W says Craddocks too, pay the extra and get something worth fitting nige When I got mine the "genuine parts" price was >£1000. We all remarked that you could get a complete galv chassis for the same price Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
will_warne Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 Oh dear, a whole thread about bad welding and my name wasn't mentioned once Seriously, that's horrific fabrication to the point of being dangerous. The quality of the material looks poor, you can see some of the body mounts are clearly not even on straight, obviously the tolerances it’s built to are horrific. If anyone else experiences a similar quality item you should demand a replacement under the Sale of Goods act 1979. You'd certainly have a claim under s.14(2), good must be of satisfactory quality, but you might also get somewhere under s.14(3), goods must be fit for purpose, given the quality of the towing / body mounts. IMHO offering a replacement this late on isn't acceptable. You should certainly push for a partial refund due to the extra labour charges incurred and additional time without the vehicle etc. BTW, I'd also agree with Nige about getting genuine ones. My dad's 110 had one a couple of years ago and you couldn't compare the quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landroversforever Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 Simon how about creating an X-member Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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