Advice wanted from Series owners

[AAXD]

Hey guys. I'm at a point where I need to make a decision and I need some advice. I recently bought a 98VW golf and it is a superb car. My 97 Discovery XD is sitting at home, and only being used when I come home on weekends. I have wanted a series rover that I can use every day for a long time and I'm not sure I need the Discovery anymore. My last Series rover project turned out too nice to use it for what I want to use them for, so it's become dad's baby.(my avatar pic) My other 88 is saveable but I'm not prepared to do another full on project just yet. I have had 2 88's and a 109 and loved them all, but never really got to use them as daily drivers. I commute a lot(why I bought the VW) If I were to buy, lets say a late 2A 109, what kinds of things could I expect on a regular basis? I'll probably keep it close to stock but am not sure what kinds of mods I'd like to do to make it better. I guess that comes with experience. I know there are useful mods out there like high ratio xfer cases and electronic ignitions but are they really necessary? I've found a few 109's I really like but I'm not sure I'm ready to take the plunge and buy one yet. If I do my XD will be up for sale (see my post in the D1 forums)
Any of you who use Series trucks regularly have any advice to give? Thanks.

[SimonWolfe]

Hello,
I drove a ’60 Series II 88 for several years as my everyday car and now I use my ’62 IIA 109 as the everyday car.

When I was driving the 88 my commute would change daily from just a few miles to close to 100 miles each way. Now I have a pretty good 5, or so, miles drive which is nice.

The big thing I recommend is getting the over drive unit. That will help with freeway speed and fuel consumption. With that you will also want more of a street tyre. The big mudslinger off-road tyres are nice if you are off road but are no fun at all on the highway.

Along with the equipment and such I’d like to point out that even with the over drive unit you are still not going to go fast, thus you will need extra time to get anywhere. This may not be as bad as it sounds. My Rover forces me to take a slow leisurely ride to work instead of the old days of driving like a lunatic and getting to work stressed out before the actual work started. The other thing is that you will need to keep up on your maintenance schedule and make that an almost weekly task. Also remember Rovers just don’t lock well so you will need to find ways to secure your stuff in the car or have stuff that if some thug nicks it you won’t mind.

The biggest suggestion I can make since it sounds like you have a couple of Rovers you can use is to try it for a week or two. See how you like having a Rover as a daily driver for a while before investing time and money into something that looked like a fun idea at the time.

Well that is my two cents worth. Most of what I said I’m assuming you already know, I’m sure that you will enjoy having a Rover as a daily driver. I know I do.

[p76rangie]

As already mentioned. As an every day commuter, they are slow, noisy, drink fuel like its water, and allow plenty of room to stop.

Ian

[Kevin]

A common mod in South Africa is to drop in a Chevrolet 4100 engine from the early seventies. This is a 250 cubic inch straight six with plenty of torque (300Nm at as low as 1500 rpm). Some left the gear ratios as is but I don't recommend this as a bigger engine now revs far too high. A friend of mine has a Nissan 2.8l petrol conversion with no overdrive or diff changes. Long distnces are painfully noisy. An overdrive will help, but for good cruising ability changing the diffs to the RR 3.54 ratios is really a help. The engine is quiet at speed and I seldom drive above 2500rpm. On a previous thread one of the guys who has done this diff conversion reckons that 2300rpm equals 55mph on his GPS. So if you can afford the consumption then higher speeds are attainable, but as mentioned previously remember the stopping distance .

What I like about driving my series is the respect I get from other motorists. I think they are very wary of clashing with it.

Long uphills do knock the speed quite a bit. But the downhills are GREAT!

[pickuprover]

I use my series III 109 as my daily driver. However being self employeed if the thing does not start in the morning I can shift my schedule and repair it. The biggest mod I would suggest is a second car, for those mornings that the thing just won't start. The other mod I would suggest is the parts store in the garage. They don't run too bad as daily ddrivers but as above you have to keep up on the maintence and fix things at the first sign of anything being wrong. The overdrive is a great idea (would love that on mine,) however don;t use a fairley. They are incredible noisy and if you have any length of drive on the freeway everyday you will have no hearing left by the end of the first year. Oh and buy yourself a good set of ear plugs (ones that are not too visible for the cops, but have a high decible rating) The final thing is to enjoy. There truely is nothing like arriving at work calm and relaxed because you enjoy the drive, also helps with the wind down after work on the the way home.

[Bogatyr]

AAXD,
I know what you mean by having a project turn out too nice to use the way you initially intended. I feel that my series truck is like that sometimes, even with the driveway paint job etc.

What I've done, in the interest of saving money, is to use my 10 year old Civic as my daily driver. Repair/maintenance wise, it costs me about $400 a year to keep on the road, and it averages 40mpg.

I drive the series truck when it's nice out, or when I have to carry things that won't fit in the Civic. She sees the occasional trail jaunt, but nothing strenuous.

An overdrive would certainly be a good thing. I don't have one yet and I could really see myself using the truck more if it had one. I also put a Pertronix in the other year and I'm quite happy with it. I'm in the middle of swapping out the Zenith for a Rochester. I'm not looking for more power or fuel economy (well, maybe the latter), but the main reason is that I ran a used oil analysis and found 2.5% fuel contamination in the oil.

Bogatyr

[onslow]

Originally Posted by AAXD

Hey guys. I'm at a point where I need to make a decision and I need some advice. I recently bought a 98VW golf and it is a superb car. My 97 Discovery XD is sitting at home, and only being used when I come home on weekends. I have wanted a series rover that I can use every day for a long time and I'm not sure I need the Discovery anymore. My last Series rover project turned out too nice to use it for what I want to use them for, so it's become dad's baby.(my avatar pic) My other 88 is saveable but I'm not prepared to do another full on project just yet. I have had 2 88's and a 109 and loved them all, but never really got to use them as daily drivers. I commute a lot(why I bought the VW) If I were to buy, lets say a late 2A 109, what kinds of things could I expect on a regular basis? I'll probably keep it close to stock but am not sure what kinds of mods I'd like to do to make it better. I guess that comes with experience. I know there are useful mods out there like high ratio xfer cases and electronic ignitions but are they really necessary? I've found a few 109's I really like but I'm not sure I'm ready to take the plunge and buy one yet. If I do my XD will be up for sale (see my post in the D1 forums)
Any of you who use Series trucks regularly have any advice to give? Thanks.

The main cause of failure on series machines is lack of use they were built and designed to be used and abused,every day use is what these vehicles thrive on as long as they are well serviced with quality items they will keep going and going.
as for improvements I stick with simplicity overdrives are just something else to break high ratio transfer gears put strain on other components someone at solihull put a lot of time designing a solid reliable machine is it really worth the expense to put the reliability at risk,
Electronic ignition is a good purchase on all LR machines,a weber 42 is a good carb for the 2.25 petrol simple reliable and cheap around $100.
An electric fan is a good Idea to supplement the engine driven one the amount of good landrover engines sent to the scrap yard by thermostatic fan replacements is alarming.

[Muddy Oval]

Series trucks can be great daily drivers for those willing to accept that when it's winter, you get cold. When it's summer, you get hot. When it rains, you get wet. I know several people who commute in Series trucks- one guy I know has been doing it for 33 years in the same 88.
All that being said- I want an XD!

[Jayce]

I drove my series 109 everyday for over a year, only 20kms a day though. I can vouch for having road tyres as opposed to mud tyres on the tar. people can actually hear you on your mobile phone. What I found was that the steering needed a tightening up every now and again, as well as the handbrake.

Useful conversions, is to fit forward control brake drums on. They are larger and boy do you stop. I actually achieved lockup a couple of times. I agree with the fairey overdrive, made a huge difference in terms of driveability, especially if you are facing some hilly terrain.

I had electronic ignition, and the old girl would fire up everytime. Never let me down. What also worked for me was the following mods to the engine. my 2.25l petrol had compression changed to somewhere near 8:5:1. Reworked cam was fitted, similar to what was used on the 2.5 petrol. Next was a 36 dcd weber carb. To increase power, I fitted a free flow exhaust and the oil air filter was swopped out for the V8 version's.

Overall she ran real well. Could get her up to 120km/hr in overdrive, and hardly consumed oil.

Hope this helps

[Grumbleweed]

I have used my S3 109 for a few months now as daily car. Have done 4000 miles since i got it in august!
Mine is a diesel so is a bit more noisy though i have found a few ways of helping this.
First thing to do is fit a carpet set- all you need is a load of carpet underlay- the thick stuff works great- and stick it to everything- floor, bulkhead, doors, boot area, and then put some rubber mats over the top. Mine has the added bonus of being a county spec car so it has the roof lining, and the double skinned roof which helps with noise reduction.
When you get the vehicle, see if you can get one with parabolic springs- it really helps with the bumps and is better off road. My 109 has an early 2.5 defender diesel fitted (started life as a petrol 6cyl) and i get 35-40 mpg out of it when not using motorways. I have measured this carefully- much better than the 2.25!!
Avoid a petrol unless you really want 12-19 mpg. Better power but you might as well get a v8 for the extra power and no more consumption.
If you can find a good one, maybe try and get a stage one V8- this has the range rover axels already fitted as standard and therefore is better on motorways. LPG would be a bonus though!!!!!

Hope my random ramblings help

[AAXD]

Originally Posted by Muddy Oval

Series trucks can be great daily drivers for those willing to accept that when it's winter, you get cold. When it's summer, you get hot. When it rains, you get wet. I know several people who commute in Series trucks- one guy I know has been doing it for 33 years in the same 88.
All that being said- I want an XD!

Are you refering to a defender XD or discovery XD? If it is the latter, you may be in luck. If I can find the right series rover for the right price my XD will be coming up for sale. Unfortunately finding a series rover that can suitably replace my XD is pretty difficult. They are all either out of my price range, or need tons of work to become reliable. I toyed around with the idea of getting a 109 ambulance but I realized it would be kind of tricky getting through some trails in. I'm now back to looking for a nice 109 or early 110. If you want to know more about my XD pm me.