200 Tdi Budget off-road alterations - advice please

[Dr Strangeglove]

I have just purchased a 200 Tdi (J Reg) Disco.  It needs serious welding and has been off the road for the last three years but I only want it as an off-road toy.

I need to keep the cost of the alterations to a minimum, as it wont get that much use to start with, so any parts that can be fabricated I will probably do myself.

I have access to sheet metal, steel angles/flatbar/plate/box section etc so anything I can fab up myself I will do.  I may even be able to get some items plasma cut as I could do the dxf drawings myself and know an old colleague that may help me out.  If anyone has any drawings for steering guards, tank guards, rock sliders etc. etc I would appreciate them.  I may put some onto drawings and if I do any as a dxf file (so they can be plasma cut) I will make them available to you all.

I have a set of 235/75/15 Colway A/T's that I can use.

Your help is appreciated

Regards

Mick

[andyb]

There are a few threads on here regarding replaceing your door sills with box section to make rock sliders. I think that would be worth considering.

I think you'll get bored quickly if you fit those tyres. If it's just an occasional play thing then a set of Colway MT remounds or similar would be a good purchase.

Look for some drain pipe to sort yourself a snorkel and extend your axle breather with some windscreen washer pipe. As it's a Tdi there is also one on the timing cover that is worth doing as well. Cam belts and muddy water don't mix too well too often :)

Assuming that you are not carring any passengers in the back and it's just you, a co-driver and some recovery kit; then remove the back seats and use the seat belt anchor brakets as tie downs points for you recovery kit box/tool box.

Just a few ideas to get you started.

HTH

[Dr Strangeglove]

I will look for the threads on replacing the sills as it will be good experience as I would like to do that on my Rangie.

I forgot about the breathers - I have access to some pneumatic fittings etc so I will start getting them together.  I will look for some threads on here for the fitting sizes.

Thanks for the advice Andy b, its appreciated mate!

[Chris Putt]

Budget trayback??? lol!

Cut the front bumper valance off, pull the carpets out, loose the rear wheel and any interior you dont particularly need- reduce the weight a bit. two scaff bars welded together make quite effective rockslides (mates rangie had them done like that).

As has been said a snorkel can be done dead cheap, some fat flexi hose and some drainpipe is spot on- i have the intake hose off a john deere and a pice of drainpipe for mine!!


Oh yes- Cut the towbar dropplate as close to the tank as you can and then re-weld the supports.

You could make some packers up for the top of your springs to give it a bit of a lift too!!

Chris

[mentalmoshio sophs V8i]

cheap bumper mods did me the trick for a while

[Range Rover Blues]

Loose as much weight high up as you can.  Don't go for a lift straight away but try dropping the shock mounts for better articulation.  A body lift might be cheaper than a proper suspension lift in time anyway and it will be more stable.

Check to see if the pump is tweaked already on the engine.

As suggested shorten the towbar but don't remove it, remove the front skirt if still fitted and sort out the breathers if you intend to dunk it.  In which case you must check all the bearing seals and swivel seals, it's not my V8 i worry about in deep water it's how many wheel bearings I'd better have in stock.

[andyb]

I removed all the trim from the front bumper and ran the Discovery like this for a while.

[mentalmoshio sophs V8i]

i was gonna trim the end cap section right off and have like a defender style bumper. if it had been full of rust on the end  :doh:

[mentalmoshio sophs V8i]

rear overhang cut off and rear bumper removed and towbar removed gives a great departure angle improvement

[Dr Strangeglove]

What about guards, steering, diff, etc.  Can these be fabricated and what from.  Are any drawings available anywhere?

[Range Rover Blues]

Of course they can be made, someone is doing it somewhere after all, but you can buy copies of the QWT guards on flea bay so cheap it's not worth the time to cut them out by hand and bend them.

[Ja1983]

angry grinder.... ebay..... "steves site".....car boots/auto jumble.......

[Disco Matt]

Bear in mind that the standard rover diff guards won't fit on the back of a Disco - the fuel tank is too close to the axle.

[clbarclay]

Cheapest diff guards I've come across provided you can weld are my own, £10 got me a couple of new pressure vessel end caps. 6mm thick and the right material for weld to.

A cheap and quite often seen on tiralers variation on the steering gurad is a simple tube design which consists of a couple of tubes coming vertically down from the chassis to a horivontal tube. a couple of diagonal tubes between the vertivle tubes and the chassis help spread the loads more evenly to the chassis.

Personanlly I'm not a big fan of steering guards so I just sleeved the track rod and drag link with tube. Not as strong as some of the Heavy duty rods on the market, but strong enough and I already had some box section the right size to hand. By the sound of it this disco will not see the public highway againg, except for on a trailer, so the steering damper can just be removed and the bracket on the track rod cut off. Mine is still a road car so I welded the track rod braket onto the drag link box section sleeve and made a simple braket that bolted to the chassis to relocate the damper to a defender esque position.

Again if this is an out and out off roader then why not lose most of the body that is superfluace front and rear. Have a look on LR4x4 forum for rogue vogue made by Nick Watt. basically he just cut away the body leaving just the bulkhead, windscreen and floorpan under the driver from a RRC, replacing the rest with an 8 point roll cage. Its a little drafty to look at but it depends what your priorities are.


If you are goign to lose a lot of weight then leave the springs standard, at least to start with. Certainly if you fit the typical heavy duty lift springs you may find them far too stiff for a lightened vehicle.

If you are goint to make a heavy duty or winch bumper then I have some CAD models for the plates for bolting to the chassis for 6 bolt mouning.