Defender on a Diet

[smo]

As we all know LR's are ment to be bulletproof, and to a point they are, but they also carry a LOT of extra weight as a side effect. From an engineering point of view strong doesnt have to mean heavy and from an economics point of view heavy = more fuel = more cost to me!

So, where and how can i slim down my defender (itll be a truck cab when i get this one)??

[Thrasher]

<cough>

The bulletproof they refer to (and the one I hope you are refering to!) is the reliability and easy to work on engine (this harks back to series days). I'm pretty sure I could shoot a hole in a standard defender with an air rifle......

The body panels themselves are very light in comparison to anything made of steel. The best weight saving you could do would be to throw away the heavy engine and fit a nice light V8 .... this will solve both problems at once :-)

[AbyssDJ]

The best weight saving you could do would be to throw away the heavy engine and fit a nice light V8 .... this will solve both problems at once :-)

until you get 20 miles down the road and need to fill up again................ ;)

[Xtremeteam]

easy weight saving on a 90 would be truck cab it & then if you need it drill a hole in it,if its excess cut it off  

[Guardian.]

take engine gearbox etc out, make up some pedals and pedal around, save a fortune in veg oil.

[littlepow]

Just make it into an Ibex, space frame chassis and grp body wieght less than a cast iron(ok  it's just steel box section, but weights the same.) chassis and aluminium body. That and it would look a bit different.

[Magnum335]

What mpg are  you actually getting?

[Litch]

LR did the same exercise for the MOD many years ago and came up with the LWT.
The problem is that there is not a lot you can do to save weight on a road going vehicle and the best LR could come up with was making the vehicle as basic as possible and making it quick & easy to strip down to get down to the target weight for air transportation.

The best advice I can come up with is don't carry a lot of unnecessary equipment, make sure the tyres are road biased & correctly inflated and drive with a light right foot.

[smo]

Currently i get 25ish local, 28combined and about 32-35 motorway...but this isnt about saving on my MPG, this is about making the (new) truck lighter because heavy doesnt always = good, in fact in most cases lichter is better.

Light vehicles manover better, dont sink so much in mud, and give better power to weight ratios which is good both on and off road.

I'm thinking i might have to do some analysis of box section chassis to see how big and how many holes i can cut in it without loosing too much strength, i think it might be a supprising ammount :)

As for IBEX's, i'm not overly keen on the "look" to be honest, so shant be doing that. Also fibreglass by its nature is quite heavy, either that or really weak, aluminium panel is probably just as light for this kind of application and as such might as well stick with almost standard body panels for ease as much as anything.

[AbyssDJ]

i dont like ibex's either. buy a wildcat? :D

[Xtremeteam]

Currently i get 25ish local, 28combined and about 32-35 motorway...but this isnt about saving on my MPG, this is about making the (new) truck lighter because heavy doesnt always = good, in fact in most cases lichter is better.

Light vehicles manover better, dont sink so much in mud, and give better power to weight ratios which is good both on and off road.

I'm thinking i might have to do some analysis of box section chassis to see how big and how many holes i can cut in it without loosing too much strength, i think it might be a supprising ammount :)

As for IBEX's, i'm not overly keen on the "look" to be honest, so shant be doing that. Also fibreglass by its nature is quite heavy, either that or really weak, aluminium panel is probably just as light for this kind of application and as such might as well stick with almost standard body panels for ease as much as anything.

Regarding the analaysis o  the chassis,take a tape measure to a disco chassis & then measure your defender chassis (depth wise) & you will then see why folk are building racers out disco chassis rather than defender ones  

[smo]

Currently i get 25ish local, 28combined and about 32-35 motorway...but this isnt about saving on my MPG, this is about making the (new) truck lighter because heavy doesnt always = good, in fact in most cases lichter is better.

Light vehicles manover better, dont sink so much in mud, and give better power to weight ratios which is good both on and off road.

I'm thinking i might have to do some analysis of box section chassis to see how big and how many holes i can cut in it without loosing too much strength, i think it might be a supprising ammount :)

As for IBEX's, i'm not overly keen on the "look" to be honest, so shant be doing that. Also fibreglass by its nature is quite heavy, either that or really weak, aluminium panel is probably just as light for this kind of application and as such might as well stick with almost standard body panels for ease as much as anything.

Regarding the analaysis o  the chassis,take a tape measure to a disco chassis & then measure your defender chassis (depth wise) & you will then see why folk are building racers out disco chassis rather than defender ones  

I dont have a disco chassis to hand but i take it the box seciton is much smaller...??

Anyone know what the weights of a 90 chassis compared to a disco one is?

[SteveG]

I'm thinking i might have to do some analysis of box section chassis to see how big and how many holes i can cut in it without loosing too much strength, i think it might be a supprising ammount :)

If you want to keep it on the road then you can forget this. Start altering the structural integrity of the chassis and you'll need an SVA. Also explanation to insurance company of this kind of mod would be interesting.

If you really want lightweight off road truck then I'm afraid you'll have to forget Landrovers and buy a suzuki. Even tray backed truck cabs come in at 2000-2100kg

Rich, Dlander, on lr4x4.com has just bought the first disco chassis freelander carbon fibre bodied special that North Off-road built. He's going to weigh it soon, so it will be interesting to see what he gets.

Cheers

Steve

[Thrasher]

Find a Ford Explorer chassis. They use C-section ;-) Easy to clean too!