Boydie Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 Mav, you wont gain much of a weight saving. The roof rack on my Disco comes in both materials with a weight saving of only 20 kilos for the alloy unit, not much when you consider the weight it has to carry and the life span of an alloy unit compared with steel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boydie Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 Incidentally the Camel Trophy Disco I've referred to was one used in the Australia / New Guinea Challenge(s) , the guy who now owns it was employed by LR as a Service Mechanic and purchased it following the finish of the final NG test. LR sold them off cheap locally rather than having to ship them back to the UK. His stories confirms what Fridge Freezer said - the cars were, in some cases, practically re-built at every major service point, the mechanics working overnight to get the work completed for the following days filming. The problems / replacements were mainly transmissions and drive components (due he claimed to the drivers poor techniques rather than defective transmissions), there were very few suspension failures and even less 300Tdi engine problems short of some overheating due to the radiators being clogged up with mud and debris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverik Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 Watching some of the video's there was some brutal driving of the disco's, I can't remember which year it was but there's a great shot of peli cases being used as a ramp to get the truck over a tree obstacle on one of the driving challenges. I'm intrigued to hear more about your friends truck, as the CT was only around your way in 82 and 85, probably imported in after a later event. After being able to snoop around a fair few camel trucks now, I was surprised to see how rough some of the modification work actually was, in reality it only had to last the duration of the event, and considering how the vehicles where treated, you'd be silly to spend a heap modifying when for the first few weeks of there's lives they'd be thrashed to hell and back. I'm always torn with these trucks, as I pretty much agree with fridges view of them (overpriced, thrashed, yellow trucks), but there's something adictive about them that I find difficult to put down. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boydie Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Maverik, agreed Brian had to totally re-build his, the motor (300Tdi) and transmissions & axles were just about stuffed. As you said, it's only the "prestige" of owning what was, to most Landy owners, an Icon, if it was any other colour and in a car yard in that mechanical and body condition you would run a mile rather than consider buying it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miketomcat Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 I love camel vehicles but would never buy one (unless a lottery win came my way) several friends own them and have nothing but trouble. If orginal they have so many hidden problems it's frightening, if rebuilt there's either nothing original left (because it was knackerd) or there so overloaded everything just wears 5 times faster than it should. I did once have a full spec of mods made to 200tdi discos it was a surprisingly short list most the mods were bolt on. Like I said I'd love one but never buy one besides the wife hates the colour don't know what she means baby poo is a fine colour. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverik Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 Defenders aren't so bad, as they where better at taking the abuse, the Camel 110 I had from 91' was very original, I had a mass of service history for it and it hadn't had all that much done to her outwith a standard well used truck. And for such a heavy vehicle it pulled like a train, its still the best 200tdi I've ever driven. Disco's on the other hand... I was working away on the 97 one I have last night, and was finishing up some steel work around where the front role cage mount is fixed to the floor. I still find it difficult how they justified not doing any body reinforcement to be able to support the mass of role cage and roof rack combo... I found something interesting actually last night, on the build sheet I have for the 96 truck there was listed an extra set of bump stops... for the life of me I couldn't work out why... until I found that they'd stuffed them under the rear chassis to body cross-member... I can only assume to try take some of the load off the most rear two body mounts... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discomikey Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 Defenders aren't so bad, as they where better at taking the abuse, most likely true, but it doesn't make sense being that any coil land rover up to circa end of 300TDi disco were essentially the same underneath! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverik Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 most likely true, but it doesn't make sense being that any coil land rover up to circa end of 300TDi disco were essentially the same underneath!Chassis and transmission yeah.... body inc roll cage/roof racks verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyy different. The disco role cage never touched the chassis (on a standard camel disco) so the not so mighty strong rubber body bushes x10 had to take the weight of everything above them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discomikey Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 that seems rather odd! i would have thought LR special vehicles would have mounted a cage to the chassis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miketomcat Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 that seems rather odd! i would have thought LR special vehicles would have mounted a cage to the chassis.First way more work to mount to the chassis properly. They were only interested in the occupants not getting dead, longevity was never a concern as they didn't expect anyone to own one after the event.Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daan Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 The camel trophy cars were mostly build at safety devices; Land rover supplied bare vehicles in camel colour, than safety devices added cage, roofrack and winch bumpers. As mentioned, the roofrack is heavy, and I do wonder what it actually needed to carry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverik Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 that seems rather odd! i would have thought LR special vehicles would have mounted a cage to the chassis. As per the link I posted earlier, the type of role cage is this : http://www.safetydevices.com/expedition/products/roll-cage/Land+Rover+Discovery+1+-1989-1998-5-door-post+1995+dash+change/252/1111/ And it doesn't have chassis mounting brackets. As Mike said, these truck where obviously (from the work I have done on them) not built to last has long as they have, the later CT event trucks where slightly better where things like the wiring looms where specific Camel Spec ones (all the loom labels show this) where as the earlier trucks where just hacked about at LR special vehicles or safety devices. Making the role cage independent is a massive job, as the roof rack mounts have 8 fixing points, the 4 front fixing points bolt onto the role cage were the 4 rear mounts bolt directly to the roof... considering the body as a whole its actually a fairly robust role shell, in the event of a bad role you just don't expect the chassis and transmission to stay with the body... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverik Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Ehm, that looks like an upturned bumpstop stuck between the floor of the rear footwell or the rear crossmember and the chassis? Interesting 'Modification' for sure... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lewis Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Nice bodge LR. I love that they didn't even bother to fix it down, just relying on gravity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boydie Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 One "modification" that was carried out was the use of the very early timing belt cover which has a blanked moulding point at the top for the installation of a breather, you can see a photo of the cover in my photos, the breather tube was run to the firewall at the rear of the engine bay. The fittings used are the same as the front and rear axle breathers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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