RRC Based 88" Buggy

[Lewis]

As above, really enjoyed reading and looking forward to seeing what's next

It's interesting to see a vehicle evolve to be better suited to it's use. Also good to see a fresh approach to common problems

[Team Idris]

Thankyou I guess it's slightly unusual because we raced it for five years and when money got tight we kept it. Put it 'on ice' for five. Then used it to go in a different direction for another seven years. That's a forty two year old car we have had for twenty years
It currently does Winch challenge, trialling and marshalling. The full 'grueller' of a thread is; http://forum.difflock.com/viewtopic.php?t=47329 which is a fairly verbose twelve page "as it happened" build thread begun in 2009. Funny thing is, that the RRC is based on the ever adaptable land rover, so here is the beast showing its utility side; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJbgQ8hB8t4

[Soren Frimodt]

Great entertainment in the cold and dark winter months, thank you!

[landroversforever]

That was a great read... only one problem with the thread, I was disappointed to reach the end

[elbekko]

Indeed, great progression of the truck! Looking forward to what you come up with next.

[wanger]

love a longterm project.

[mickeyw]

Brilliant reading, thanks for taking the time to post this.

It is so refreshing to see some original ideas. You have a truly great truck there.

[Team Idris]

Quite a bit of time in this wing, maybe 6 hours? But not on the dragon-scales paint, as that didn't take long to do with rattle cans and a serial box template
Work on it has been; remove spat, clean all the joints back to bare metal, 100% tig weld (to ally rolled into sheet in the 60's), fit a 2mm ally strip for the spat to re-attach, fit new front panel, etch paint, black paint, re-fit spat, re-align mountings and photograph ! You wouldn't believe how bad it was before I started. Fatigue cracks were nearly through the outer panel and front edge was kind of held on by the rubber. Also, the scaffold-tube wing bar was sitting too high, leaving the panel work with no back strength, so that has been dropped a couple of inches.
Also changed the rear ball joint for a Gwyn one.



Need to do the other wing to match

Plus, you know you are getting old when - You sit down to weld

[Team Idris]

The LH wing got a reduced version of the RH wing work, as it had been 'generally' welded before 2014 season. Welding a new 30 x 2mm strip into the arch was again a success and it is a lot more ridged.

I've changed both rear donut rubbers at the chassis and got in there with the welder while it was stripped. They are now stronger against rocks and less able to jam up with clay. This part was always a total pig to pressure wash, as the water comes right back at you out of the wedge shaped slot. Now there is an 18mm hole in the bottom

Now it is starting to get there I'll go back to future-proofing it. I have been very pleased with the bike gear change levers for changing winch gear, but they are under a lot of cable load. I'm planning to up the cable to 3mm and fit two of the levers below. They are quite a challenge to make, but not as bad as I had wondered.

[Sandy Landy]

Wow, simply amazing. I had a performance shop up to lately and can sure appreciate all the time, money and most importantly all the ingenuity that went into this.

Great job guys.

[Team Idris]

I started rummaging around in the rear fan cowl. It's got an unhappy bearing by the sound of it, which is fair, as the big Kenlow has an open-frame and really it is a blowing fan, not a sucker designed to run in hot air. No point using it until it fails, so it's fan cowl is going in the bin. Also the 13" pushers have come off with the intension of leaving them off. Below is how they looked and fitted;





The replacement is a 2mm ally fan cowl. It has a divider like the front set so one fan can work alone. The fans are 14" 12volt sucking Comex units from Revotec. I have put the stamping-blank file in the cad archive. The top hose has a 3 pin thermostat and I only used one of them. Now the two channels work the two fans with the LH on the lower setting. This is different to how it was, where the kenlow ran all the time on low or full speed by a switch, depending on the event.

This is the view from the back over the battery set, fuel tank and expansion tank.

[Team Idris]

It needs some panel work again, but before the trial on the 22nd March 2015 it looked like this;

It ran really well, but we couldn't get it to perform and we both drove badly, but we did have fun

[Team Idris]

I've been none too happy with the hand brake, so I have bought a new dumper truck handle and long cable. Now, I would have said the over centre type was a bit dodgy, because you can knock them free. However the new type has a single ratchet, so it is safer than the RRC one. To knock it free it looks like you would have to strike it from the front and back at the same time, which would be quite an achievement!

Also, you rotate the handle to take up the adjustment. On the whole it looks a really good off-road solution.

[Team Idris]

Craig Davis EWP115 electric water pump.

Soooo, somebody might have lost control down a steep hill and taken the sensible decision to end the trip by lining up a suitable big tree smack in the middle of the bull bar to save the chassis rails. This worked on the most part with only the slightest wrinkle in the LH leg.

Outcome;

Scaffold tube bull bar is V shaped,

6mm winch mount base plate is bent across whole width,

R-Type hydraulic winch gearbox casing smashed,

Water pump pushed through 1mm ally plate into winch rope while spinning!

Probably should fit new Dyneema Bow rope.

So two hours of extremely good fun before I broke our toy

While I'm in there 'fixing stuff' I might as well do some upgrades. I have the following issues;

I could do with a direct belt drive for the alternator to help drive it,

The water pump is very close to the winch as was,

Need a better run on the RV8 bottom hose to the rear rad as it is very close to the belt,

Moving the winch even 50m further back would help self-reeve.

So I have bought one of those new fangled electric pumps and an LCD controller!

But what does it do?

The fan is only triggered a few degrees above a set point. Between these two values the pump goes from a slow speed to it's maximum.

(Slow, Fast, Fast + Fan).

Below 'slow' the pump runs on and off just enough to pull water past the top-hose mounted sensor. Heat rises anyway, but it's still a good idea, even though there is no thermostat fitted with this setup.

The pump can be in the top or bottom hose. As a heat transfer engineer I can say that the pump should be upstream of the biggest load which is the rad. But for cooler running and to aid self bleeding the bottom hose is probably safer. It is a circulating system, so cavitation isn't going to be a risk.

Minor advantages;

It will heat up quicker,

You don't need a fan thermostat (but you probably already have one fitted anyway),

It runs for a few seconds after engine stop to stop heat soak,

It will do the right flow even at low winch and drive speeds (But that's low HP work anyway so no real engine heat).

Questions for me?

I have two fans on a double pole thermostat. Not sure how to use single LCD-controller output with the sensor I already have?

How am I butchering the ally pump housing and welding on a new inlet pipe?

Do I put the LCD display on a clear fronted box in the roof?

It worked fine until I drove into a tree! Why don't I just fix the damage and stop Bucking around with something that worked fine?

[Arjan]

Awesome tread and very inspiring !!!!!

Thanks.

Please keep it going.

Love to read this.

[discomikey]

always good to see old triallers reborn!

[Team Idris]

Thanks Arjan

Discomikey; keeps being reborn though ! There's now huge flipping space where the winch mount should be

It's back to the stage where it was in 2006 when the winch plate was a bit of wood for a jig. You can see the hyd pump ! The whole 6mm plate had to come out in around five main pieces. I sure warmed the grinders up!

[Team Idris]

So far I have the old pump blanked and re-ported.

[Team Idris]

I actually started doing pieces to camera back in the early 90's with the Triumph spitfire build, with dads video recorder. Now that the tech has become 'more' than a home movie I'm back at it with the IPad !

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H4fO692mzZs

Very pleased with my telescopic and electrical tape pointer

[Team Idris]

1972 and re-cycled, but still taking abuse

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SPFR3UJ1Go8

And the electric water pump is just brilliant! I am sure the main fan was kicking out during the day? How is that even possible with no natural air flow?

[Team Idris]

It have kept walking past it all winter, but it worked well at that last event, so it was probably best left well alone

The waffle boards are getting a new mount as I was fed up of bending/fixing the old one. Also it's getting a filter and engine oil.

There is maybe 30 to 40 hours on the engine now since the rebuild.

[Team Idris]

I have long suspected that low oil pressure is the cause of poor starting on the Rover V8.

The Beast has sat since September 2015? (Or at least six months anyway)

I put my speeder bar on the dry sump pump and gave it a turn for half a minute, then let it build fuel pressure, turned it over on the key for maybe three seconds and it ran sweet as

Not bad for points ignition and SU carbs.

[Team Idris]

SU carbs and the bypass system.

I think it's cronk? I have an 8 psi red-top pump and a pressure hold-up valve in the return at the tank. Nose up I'm at maybe 3 psi and nose down over 5psi. It's not working for me even though it is better than my old system.

I plan to fit a petrol-King regulator at the carb end and block the return. If I get any gasiation I believe the carbs will deal with it.

It's worth noting I run a carb cooling fan in the bonnet.

[Team Idris]

It seems to be doing the trick at home. Only a competition will show for sure.

Also the float valve is now leaking

And Vid link for fun

[dangerous doug]

That's cool!