Well it has been almost a year to the day since I saw Sam's StrangeRover in action during my Australian holiday.

Well now I've got my own :D
Really bad chassis pic (http://www.red-ibex.com/unimog1s.jpg)

I went to Germany earlier in the week and came back with
Unimog 404 rear axle and torque tube
Unimog 404 front axle and torque tube
4 x 10.5R20 Michelin XCL's regroovable and in very good condition on rims
1 x 10.R20 Continetal on rim with sidewall damage for a spare
24 brand new wheel nuts
The axles were cleaned and painted like that, they were torn down and cleaned as an excercise in a German truck mechanics training school

I already had a 100" Disco chassis, complete, so I've thrown it on top.

Engine and gearbox
I'm thinking 3.9EFI and auto box out of a Rangie, mid mounted, gearbox forward
Transfer box
Milner reverse rotation (the only spendy bit of the projet) Possibly remote mount if necessary
Body
Well none really, will be cage mainly, gaps skinned with ali-sheet. Cycle guards for UK legality, lights etc to keep street legal
Interior
To keep the height below 6' (for my garage) I'm looking at mounting seats inside the chassis rails, in a semi tandem configuration, co-driver to the rear.
Wheels'n'tyres
I'm going to shake it down on what I've got (37" tall). The plan is to build it with no bling, shake it down, register it, and then have another got at it. Probably with 40's
Suspension
4-link rear to give maximum flexibility on engine placement
3-link front ?
All very much up in the air, I'm going for retained springs, so no massive articulation, just want it well balanced, to climb like a vampire at dawn, and not fall over on side slopes

So far, I've bolted in a RHD steering box I had, and swapped the steering arms on the knuckles L<->R, they'll need a heat and tweak with the oxy, but with a couple of TRE's the steering is all but done.
I'm chopping off crossmembers etc whilst weighing up suspension ideas

Next is to replace the 'Mog springs with rover ones, and get some suspsension links in place, mainly so its nice'n'safe in the garage
Getting engine/box and seats so I can mock up a very forward driving position is high on the agenda after that.

Oh the best bit is the capital expenditure so far.
What you see there has cost me £290, or $540USD :flipoff2:

Can you say low budget ? :)

Well if you want to be pedantic you can add a £70 ferry ticket and 850miles of fuel onto that, as I picked up the axles myslef.


Oh that pic was attrocious - try these
Butt Ugly Rim (http://www.red-ibex.com/Butt_ugly_rim.jpg)
Front axle - pimpin' (http://www.red-ibex.com/front_axle.jpg)
Rear axle (http://www.red-ibex.com/rear_axle.jpg)

I'm jealous.

Anybody want to haul a Rangie chassis from Chicago to Fort Wayne so I can play? :flipoff2:

You wont need the reverse rotation transfer case, because the mog axles already reverse the rotation of the axleshaft because they are a two gear portal design. with a mid mounted engine setup with the gearbox forwards, everything will work correctly.

You wont need the reverse rotation transfer case, because the mog axles already reverse the rotation of the axleshaft because they are a two gear portal design. with a mid mounted engine setup with the gearbox forwards, everything will work correctly.

Ah but Mog diffs are reverse rotation, therefore to move forwards, you must spin the pinion anti-clockwise (as viewed from the drivers seat) which is just the same as a rover.

But I had to run outside and check ;-)

Ah but Mog diffs are reverse rotation, therefore to move forwards, you must spin the pinion anti-clockwise (as viewed from the drivers seat) which is just the same as a rover.

But I had to run outside and check ;-)

my bad, i forgot that the pinion drives on the opposite side of the ring gear

looking very cool there Andy... :grinpimp: :beer: :beer:

I'll have to take a mosey down one day and see it up close.

Looks good Andy. You got a great deal on those MOG axles.

But maybe an even better deal if you wanted to drag a whole mog back to the UK with you...

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=29098&item=3827442329&rd=1

Great stuff Andy.

Mounting the motor backwards sounds a bit complicated although should work.

Just a few issues to consider -

The mog diffs have a very long pinion so you can gobble up drivetrain room easily especially with a remote mounted transfer. Id imagain that even with a normal nonremote mounted transfer the engine will have to be mounted above one of the axles so that you get a decent tailshaft length at the other end with your 100in wheelbase. (this will be a case whether you mount the engine forwards or backwards). Mog axles are very tall and long (pinion wise) and arnt easy to fit into something that you want to keep short and low.


I ended up relatively long and low by mounting the motor behind the front axle as much as I could with a 112in WB.

Sam

Sam - thanks for the thoughts on wheelbase. Yep those Mog pinions are long, and I haven't done pinion conversions yet. 100" isn't cast in stone, its just what I've got at the moment.
I've got a couple of rangie donors lined up, so I'll throw the engine/box in and see what room I've got.

In your orginal build thread, you were looking for a big master cylinder - what did you end up with ? I don't see the Disco one I've got being big enough.
Also you said you were ripping up bushes. Did you find a better solution/cause. I'm thinking LR rubber in the standard positions for a quick first pass build up.

Izuzurover - yeah lots of good stuff on eBay.de isn't there. If you spot a 404 front axle, PM me and I'll go 4WS. I'll be divorced if I bought that Mog home though !! The wife still doesn't believe I paid so little for the axles.

The master cylinder I used was from an international scout. Its about 1 1/16 bore and is about the minimum you could use.

I origionally used poly bushes and they split. Went to rover rubber bushes and havnt had to change any of them.

Sam