Comp Safari Racing – 110 Defender Chassis Strengthening and Reinforcin

[Tom.H]

I’m thinking of doing the odd comp safari event next year in my Defender 110

I’ve spent much of the Christmas period trying to work out what more I’d need to do to get my 110 to survive an event.

The piece of information I’ve not be able to find is regarding the chassis strengthening involved. Obviously on vehicles like a Tomcat the space frame welded onto the LR chassis gives a huge strength increase.

Being a 110 the chassis is deeper than a 90 and the full external roll cage will also help. I’ve noticed a few vehicles have a bracing going between the front the rear suspension arm brackets on the chassis. A few other vehicles I’ve seen have plating to the sides of the chassis, where it drops down at the front and back to the middle.

My 110 uses Devon4x4's King Racing suspension (remote reservoir damper/ hydraulic bump stops) which should deal with comp safari racing. However I’m slightly concerned about the chassis/spring mount brackets; has anyone seen these with added bracing?

Is there any other chassis areas that should be reinforced?

Axle trussing also seems pretty common, the end flanges of a Salisbury axle seem extreme;y thin, has anyone seen any sort of axle failure on a Salisbury

I’ve really struggled to find answers to my questions over the internet; the world of comp safari racing seems very hush-hush.

Many Thanks

[Team Idris]

You can pull the chassis ears off no problem and a good side impact will narrow the chassis. We polished the edges of the big steel washers on the front radius arm rubbers. It's hard on the front axel. The back does kind of follow.

A good big belly plate that is well bolted to the chassis rails sorts most of it. (M12 or bigger). Add some metal to the rear chassis mounts. I think you can pull the A frame mounts off as well?

If it looks like it can bend and fatigue, it probably will.

Worth pointing out that stress raisers are a problem that you add in the build. Most coilers like to gimp the chassis where it rises to the rear if it lands hard on the cage. But I don't think 110 chassis will do that? 6mm to 2mm is going to weld stress it. If I was going again I would try to get a structural ring welded in around that bell housing. It has a lot of load going all directions in that area.

You can build to spread the stress or to keep as much as possible all in one area. I have a lot going on around the A frame cross member of; roll bar, roll bar braces, winches, belt points, skid mount, arm mounts and a big old bit of flat to stop chassis twist. Its about deciding where to use which philosophy?

Hopefully that helps a bit

[Tom Fall]

I've come from a Winch Challenge background, mainly in an a tray back 90 and my own daily driver Series III, but have now started doing Comp Safari in our new truck.

Main things we've found are:

• Diff protectors - Worthless. We had a full wrap around Qt guard on our front diff. Never damaged in 4 years of winch challenges. Hit a stump at 20mph at our second Comp and it deformed, smashed into the diff housing and ripped it open around the crown wheel. We now have a 6mm Gwyn Lewis weld on diff pan instead (you'll notice all the other Comp Safari guys do similar).
• Shock absorber mounts - These can take a real bashing, especially if you land heavily. We've done some big damage to ours, including ripping them off the bottom mounts!
• Rear axle drop arm - I struggle to explain this any other way. The welded brace you have seen on the rear axle of some Comp racers really does make a massive difference. The back end follows much better. Ok, you loose a smidgen of rear travel but it's still very useable.

One last thing....bear in mind that body damage is quite normal. It IS however extremely good fun. Come and compete with Southern Counties Off Road. Great bunch of guys, brilliant sites and I'll get to meet you at some point. I'm the co-driver in Purple Pig 3, which as the name suggests is a tiny purple buggy

Tom