D.B's Defender 110

[DieselBoy]

After a long wait, the alloy header tank showed up from Alli Sport in the UK

Man its a nice piece of kit for 75 pounds!!!

Its a perfect fit, and takes the factory cap, so it retains the 15psi pressure relief valve.

Recommend this if your worried about the age of your plastic header tank

[DieselBoy]

The only other exciting thing that's been done,is i substituted the old KampKook petrol stove for a slightly more modern (debatable ) Coleman petrol stove.

I finally managed to get my hands on a Canadian made Coleman, which are supposedly the "ones you want" if your into that sort of thing

I had trouble getting replacement burner rings for the KampKook stove, so the Coleman won as all the parts a readily available for it.

Mounted up just the same:

Works just the same:

The stove itself is a whole lot lighter than the old stove, and its got a funky "Easy Lite" valve on it, which cranks the air fuel ratio just right for cold starts. No need for playing with knobs and leavers untill you get it right, just turn the knob to Lite, and boom off i goes

[werc1]

Amazing truck - may steal a few ideas for my 110

[Disco-Gibbo]

Looking real sharp Peter

[BadCo]

Skimmed through this whole thread the other day, what an adventure haha

Shame about the accident with the first defender though.

PS. By the way I sent you a PM.

[DieselBoy]

Kitchen upgrade time!!!!

First up I made Betsie a water tank

Not happy that the material would hold water for two long, I outsourced that minor technical aspect to FPS Engineering.

It fits (quite snugly ) up under the left rear guard.

Fills from here

It goes with the new kitchen including sink and tap

[DieselBoy]

[wopass]

[wjw]

He doesnt need a house anymore

[DieselBoy]

After 3 solid weekends and a couple of hours after work each day it's finally finished!!!!!

It's really hard to take photos inside a vehicle and get the lighting right!!! The photos seem to correct their orientation if you click on them and open them up fully.

Finished product:

Cupboard doors double as tables/benches:

Sarah's only request was that she got a cutlary draw as the click clack lunch box she was currently using left a lot to be desired:

[DieselBoy]

To protect the back of the fridge from the sun, 5% tint and a hacked up sunvisor thingy that you use on your front windscreen. Also hides the wiring birds nest

All the plumbing tucks away nicely not talking up to much space

On the panel left to right is the master switch for everything in the back running on the house battery, house battery voltage gauge, twin USB socket, 12v Socket, switch for rear outside flood/camping lights.

Still plenty of room for sleeping in the back with the roof down, although this Alex's bed normally

And finally, I get to ditch the jerry holder over the left rear window, no idea how pleased I am to be rid of that monstrosity!!!!!

[lax2wlg]

Epic use of space! Is there an upper sleeping platform too?

[DieselBoy]

Epic use of space! Is there an upper sleeping platform too?

Yeah there is, its really hard to show though. This is a Troopy, but its exactly the same system on the Defender:

Bed in the Up position:

Bed in the sleeping position:

[lax2wlg]

That is such an awesome expo landy. The Mach 5 spare is such a sweet touch.

I'm totally into this sort of shit, to me cross country exploration is what 4x4 is all about.

[DieselBoy]

Found a random clip on my Laptop



One of the many climbs up over some of the headlands from Ahipara to Herekino

[UBZ]

Looks like you did a bit of digging there too

[DieselBoy]

Seeing as it's been quiet round here, and I can't remember the last time I got something this bling, I thought I might resurrect the thread!!!

It's time for a front end overhaul as the swivel hub seals are weeping more than usual and the inner axles seals must be knackered as the diff oil keeps turning to grey sludge. I keep bottoming out the front suspension, so pretty sure the shocks compression damping is starting to fail (same EFS shocks that did the whole Aus tour), it pulls to the right under braking randomly and it's a bit like steering a conga line from the back too. Ya get my drift???

Overhaul time!!!!

Catch is, when you have ya front axle almost completely apart, it's rude not to inspect the diff head........

So seeing as the diff heads out, it's rude not to feed it some new bearings and set it all up nice and tight.........

But why press new bearings onto the old carrier when you could do something else??

Right?????

Well, that's how I justified it to the wife anyway haha

I've been day dreaming about a automatic torque biasing diff for the front for a few years, so it was now or never!!!!

I was going for the Detroit Tru Trac, as I have had a really good run from the Detroit full Locker in the rear. There were rumours on the Landrover forums about some recent quality issues with the Detroit, and it was a bit scaled down from the real deal Quaife Diff, only using 3 sets of worm gears instead of 6.

The UBZ pointed me at the Ashcroft Tranmissions ATB diff. Hmmmm, Ashcroft Transmissions. The makers of the bolt on Underdrive unit that gives ya Landy bolt on crawler gears.........

A bit of research later and I was sold. Their Diff used 6 worm gears like the Quaife diff, and incorporated some spring loading to help get the diff working in a cross axle situation. Lots of good feed back on the web about the diff, and Ashcroft Transmissions have a huge reputation around the Land Rover world.

Ashcroft ATB sales pitch:

The Ashcroft Automatic Torque Biasing Limited Slip Differential

The key features are: -


Fully automatic, needs no driver input

Totally transparent on road, i.e, no unwanted adverse effects

Only comes into play when one wheel looses traction, i.e, a difference in wheel speed

Enhances the traction control as it multiplies the bias load created by the braking effect of the traction control

Needs no special oils

Needs no adjustment as the gears compensate for any wear that takes place

Only with 24 spline side gears


The ATB, our latest addition, is a 'Helical Gear' type LSD with six gear pockets.
There are a number of other LSD available including the 'plate type' and the Torsen T1, we believe the ATB is superior to the Plate type LSD principally because of the high preload necessary to make the plate type effective, this high pre load leads to 'harshness and vibration effects' and causes high premature wear. The Torsen T1 was the forerunner ATB and relied on a different principle to generate cross torque, effectively using coupled worm and wheel gears, being driven backwards, to create the necessary friction loads. These often failed due to this high loading destroying the worm gears.
The helical gear type ATB has many advantages that overcome the objections to other designs. There is a minimal pre-load necessary to engage the gears but this does not cause excessive wear or harshness, the helical gear type is virtually invisible to the driver on normal road use as the gear/pocket friction simply does not occur.
So how does this 'helical gear' ATB work, as stated earlier there are six sets of helical gears, mounted parallel to the axle, each side 'sun' gear drives six helical gears, these mesh with six corresponding helical gears which in turn drive the opposite side 'sun' gear. The important factor is the fact that these helical gears are mounted in 'pockets' in the center carrier, so any radial load on the helical gears causes them the press against the side of the pocket creating friction. This is why we use six pockets as opposed to three in another well known brand, more pockets more friction and better ATB effect.
One of the drawbacks of the ATB is that it is always necessary to have some load on one wheel per axle. if there a no load situation eg cross axle the wheel with traction would only see approx three times the load on the wheel with no traction ie nothing!!. To overcome this, as stated earlier, the ATB is fitted with some preload springs to provide some loading to the side with no traction in the event of a cross axle, where this pre-load is not providing sufficient traction to the other side then one favourite trick is to apply a small amount of left foot brake whilst applying more throttle. This manouver fools the diff by providing load to the non-traction side which is multiplied by the ATB (approx 3:1) to the other side, the loss of drive attributed to the brakes which are acting equally on both wheels is overcome by the additional throttle. In a car fitted with Automatic Traction Control this braking all takes effect automatically and the ATB provides additional traction by multiplying the ATC effect.
The ATB diff can be fitted in the front or the rear, in the rear you will not notice its there during normal road driving, in the front it will make the steering self centre a little more than normal when coming out of a corner but this is only very slight and will lessen within the first few hundred miles and also you will find you automatically adjust to this feeling very quickly.
So why use an ATB instead of a locker?? basically when driving on a low traction surface. for example sand, snow, or even wet grass rather than have a locked diff which can 'cause' loss of traction for example when cornering as both wheel are forced to travel at the same speed, one wheel typically breaks traction allowing all the drive to the other wheel which will also break traction. the ATB will allow wheel speed difference but at the same time will always try to equalise the torque to each wheel, this reduces the possibility of a spin out situation.

Vid of a the similar Detroit true trac in action:



This was a bling, open in the living room affair!!!!

An extremely sexy and well manufactured looking piece of kit. Gives you a sense of hopefullness about build quality and longevity!!!!

Betsie currently has a Detroit locker in the rear with Hi Tough chromoly axle shafts, the ATB is going in the front with the stock 24spline axles and CVs. See how it goes

[Crawlerer79]

Ooh very nice... been having a nosey at the Ashcroft ATBs myself... Ya mind if I ask how much it set you back? And where did you get it... imported yourself? Cheers

[BadCo]

They look like good kit and I have heard good things about them. You weren't tempted to get the ATB center diff while you were browsing Ashcrofts site?

[DieselBoy]

They look like good kit and I have heard good things about them. You weren't tempted to get the ATB center diff while you were browsing Ashcrofts site?

Dunno, I didn't quite understand the point of the ATB centre diff??

Ya want it to unlocked on the road and locked off the road??

[UBZ]

They look like good kit and I have heard good things about them. You weren't tempted to get the ATB center diff while you were browsing Ashcrofts site?

Dunno, I didn't quite understand the point of the ATB centre diff??

Ya want it to unlocked on the road and locked off the road??

It makes sense to me if you were driving on snow and ice a lot . When there is the chance for a wheel to spin up unexpectedly, and therefore loading up the centre diff spiders .

Whould make the vechile act more like a true AWD with smoother for/aft bias transitions .

Expensive piece of kit though considering the centre diff lock is just a lever flick away even when moving at low speed .

[BadCo]

They look like good kit and I have heard good things about them. You weren't tempted to get the ATB center diff while you were browsing Ashcrofts site?

Dunno, I didn't quite understand the point of the ATB centre diff??

Ya want it to unlocked on the road and locked off the road??

UBZ explained it well. Basically means you don't have to engage the CDL as soon as you leave the tarmac.

Also gives more traction on wet roads etc, no more one wheeler peelers!

What would be even cooler is if the front diff ATB was lockable

[DieselBoy]

Yeah, that's my point, even at high speed you can slap the CDL in if it looks like it might get slippery. All that matters is your wheels are straight and you don't have any wheel spin already happening.

Each to their own. With a lockable centre diff I don't see the point in a torque biasing one.

On another note, if you've wheeled with a front selectable locker, you know how cunty they can be.

Hoping the ATB has all of the benefits of a locker in the front, with out the down sides such as it being either in or out, can't turn with it in, but can't get it to come out as the trans is wound up, leave it out so you can make the turn but get stuck instead bla bla bla

The ATB should bias the torque to where it's needed, so it doesn't need to lock, it's already putting the drive to where it needs to.

Don't get it confused with a Limited Slip Diff, it's not a LSD, it's a completely different animal.

Kool to see how it goes, should be awesome in the front with the locker in the rear

[Cameron]

Def keen to know your thoughts once it's in and you have some miles on it!