I really need them. I would love to be able to drive into stuff with my foot off the clutch at about 1000rpm and be able to turn my tyres if I get a bit stuck. At the moment I have to ride the clutch to get any decent torque to the wheels.

At the moment I got a 4:1 first gear 3.3 in the transfer and 4.09 in the diffs. This makes 54:1 overall. This with any size tyre is too tall let alone with the 42s.

Now I could regear the dana 44s to 5.38s or 5.89s (I think) which would help (gets me to 71 or 78) but I still think that it would still not be low enough with the 42s and I would still have to ride the clutch. I could then swap out the LT95 for a manual (or auto) and an LT230 then throw in some maxi 4.3 gears and I would probably be there (92 or 101). To do this would cost me a lot of dollars (remember in oz, land rovers are a poor mans rig) say $1500aus for the transfer gears and say $1200aus for the diff gears installed which is more than I could justify on my POS. And if I did this then a would break shiat all over the place cause the strength of the d44s driving the 42s is marginal at best (although they are coping at the moment which has really surprised me)

Now I got a front d60 with 4.56 gears and I can get a rear 14 bolt for $800aus. I could then do the lt230 and the 4.3 gears and I would be at 78 with decent axles which would be sort of OK. But the killer here is my 42s are on 15in rims and they need to be 16.5s to fit on the d60 and 14bolt so I would have to do a brake mod which is a real PITA. ???

Another thought is to try to swap out the manual box for something with a 7:1 first gear (like whats in my f250 and I think all f trucks) This would get me to 95 with my current diff gears which would be great. Adapting the box to the motor would be easy but I dont know how I would go adapting the box to the transfer. I would have to do something to the box output shaft of something. Anyone done this????? Any ideas??????? I think that would be a great mod cause I can get one of these boxes for about $400aus and then a bit of mucking around to adapt it but the finished result would be great.

Last option (this is what I probably will do eventually) is to run the rockwells with the 6.72 gears. This gets me to 89 with my current box and transfer. This would be a major job to do but it solve the gearing problems and the strenght all in one go and it would give me rear steer as well.


I would love to do the manual box (with the 7:1 first gear) swap in the short term and the rockwells in the future.

Anyone got any other oddball ideas that might work. Dual gearboxes?? Dual transfers?? anything that will make me go slower (and is cheap!!!)

Doug - you mentioned you will probably need lower gears what are your thoughts (I would imagine the maxi gears for only $750US would be hard to go past)

:beer:

And what the heck heres another picture I got a million of them.

Sam

Another idea, although slightly out there, but not too far from your rockwells, is a set of unimog axles. you really can't beat 7.56 gears, or the 17+inches of ground clearance. I would imagine they might be a bit easier to find in OZ than they are here. There are companies that make the gear to remove the torque tubes, and 42's are no problem with 20" rims.

probably out of the budget but:
Ashcroft crawler box:D
Not sure if it will work with the lt95
They are made for the lt230. bolts on to the rear of the lt230 and adds another low range of 2.6 which would bring you to approx.

145:1!!!!!!

Another option that is not yet available from the man Timm C is and over/under drive that has the crawler low range and also an overdrive.
So when you're running the Timm C setup with a granny 4-spd with ~6:1, 3.32 t-case, 5.38 axle gears and ~2.5 in the crawler you got

267:1!!!

your not getting out of this without spending some $$$

some money yes....but there is no reason to spend gobs. I got my whole unimog frame and driveline for $800 Everything except the engine, and body. You should be able to find some good axles in OZ for small$$$

Originally posted by unissamog
Another idea, although slightly out there, but not too far from your rockwells, is a set of unimog axles. you really can't beat 7.56 gears, or the 17+inches of ground clearance. I would imagine they might be a bit easier to find in OZ than they are here. There are companies that make the gear to remove the torque tubes, and 42's are no problem with 20" rims.

I never really thought of chasing up some mog axles. There must be heaps of them around here somewhere. Our army has got heaps of mogs and has been using them for ages (as long as I can remember). I might chase that up. I actually know a guy.....

Although I still want to run my 42s on 15in rims so I would have to do something with the brakes I guess??

Sam

Originally posted by roverhybrids
probably out of the budget but:
Ashcroft crawler box:D
Not sure if it will work with the lt95
They are made for the lt230. bolts on to the rear of the lt230 and adds another low range of 2.6 which would bring you to approx.

145:1!!!!!!

Another option that is not yet available from the man Timm C is and over/under drive that has the crawler low range and also an overdrive.
So when you're running the Timm C setup with a granny 4-spd with ~6:1, 3.32 t-case, 5.38 axle gears and ~2.5 in the crawler you got

267:1!!!

Ashcroft crawler box sounds like the a really good option. That would fix everything. Ive got a TF727 auto and lt230 sitting in the shed so I could run them. Any idea of the price?? Anybody run these??? Suppose I would get them from ashcroft direct??

I think they have got an internet site. Il do a bit of a hunt around.

Sam

Another option that is not yet available from the man Timm C is and over/under drive that has the crawler low range and also an overdrive.

So what is Timm C making that is different from the ashcroft crawler gears???? Is he using ashcroft gears in this proposal or is it something different?

Sam

Originally posted by aaronlosey
your not getting out of this without spending some $$$

Your right. I dont mind spending some dollars if I can justify it. At the moment the biggest expense I got in my rig is the wheels and tyres about $5000aus in a place where I can buy a maxi drive locker and axles for $1800aus. I wouldnt spend the $1500aus for the maxi 4.3 gears cause this wont fix the gearing problem (nor my axle strength problem). The ashcroft gears will fix my problem and if I could get them for the same $1500aus I would buy them today but I think they will be a lot more than that so it will still depend.

I can buy two steering rockwells for $2500aus and then I got to do the brake mod and put different centers into my rims. This will fix the gearing and strengh probs.

So the $2500aus is the sort of dollars I want to spend.

If I can get the ashcroft gears for reasonable money then this is a very good option cause no matter what axles I end up with I will always have the crawler box.

Sam

Originally posted by Strange Rover


So what is Timm C making that is different from the ashcroft crawler gears???? Is he using ashcroft gears in this proposal or is it something different?

Sam

Don't take this word for word but;

Timm is making his own unit. Not only will it be an underdrive but also an overdrive. So it will have three gears; 2.5:1, 1:1 and .70:1. target price is about $2,000 US. Production is a few months away.
He is not using any Ascroft parts. All his own design and compatable with high horsepower engines.(~400)
here's some details on the Ashcroft unit sold through the US distributor:
http://www.eastcoastrover.com/Underdrive.html

I believe it would be cheaper through another distributor.

I would not put any money into the 44s, especially if you are getting rockwells

Since the Lt230 is a 10 spline input (like the output on a lot of trannies I bet YOU could make something work)

Ron

Yup, seriously thinking of getting an early f100 manual gearbox (anyone know what sort of gearbox this is - I think its got a 6.7 to 1 first gear) and adapting this to the transfer part of the LT95.

Have seen this done before adapting the lt95 transfer to a gearbox. Just cut the lt95 housing in a band saw at the correct length and weld on an end plate. Mill the end plate flat and drill the mounting holes to bolt directly up the the gearbox that im getting (the f truck one) if the splines dont match (which I would imagine) either respline the lt95 gear if possible (I would doubt this) or get the input drive gear out of the f truck transfer (the gear out of the np205 i think) which matches up to the f truck box output spline and machine all the outer part of the gear away (or just make up this part from scratch). Get the lt95 input drive gear and machine the centre out of it. Press the correct spline piece into the centre of the lt95 gear and weld it also and presto the job is done. A place in brisbane will do the machining and welding to get the correct gear spline to match the new gearbox. Last time a mate got something like this done was about $200aus. Can get the box for $500aus. This will give me 6.7x3.3x4.09 = 90:1 crawl and I dont spend a cent on the d44s :D

Instead of adapting the f truck gearbox to the rover motor I am thinking of just getting a ford windsor 302 motor as this will bolt straight to the new box and should have a heap more grunt than my very tired 3.5L rover which needs rebuilding anyway.

Any one know how much heavier the 302 windsor is compared with the rover v8???

I think this is the best plan in the short term and then I could do the rockwells or even the d60, 14bolt combo. (although I really like the twin steer rockwells idea)

:beer:

Sam

Earth to Sam! Earth to Sam! Come-in Sam!

Okay my friend...You've already bought a D60...You need to run it with 15" rims right? Then simply grind off the caliper...I'll find the site that shows all the pretty pictures of it on Monday...Till' then rest assured that you can grind the calipers down to fit up to approx. 3.5" back-spaced rims...I'm sure you could even squeaze on a 4" bs...Don't worry about strength of the caliper after shaving either...As you know the calipers are HUGE compared to 1/2 ton stuff (kinda' wish I would have known about that option prior to buying my 16.5's...Would have been easier to sell when I step up to 44's!

Get the 14 bolt, shave it, weld it.

Then buy yourself some 7.17 gears and an ARB for the front.

(actually I don't know the gearing choices for the 14 bolt...Hmmmmm).

If all that doesn't wet your wistle, then do the maxi gears in your already had LT230...

Done..

And to answer your question I don't think I'm going to be geared to high...I've got 5.89 gears in the pig's now, which with the 42's is about 10% lower than when I was runing 35's and 4.7's. I think it's gonna' be perfect with an auto box...If I had a manual trans I'd go lower for sure...But I'll never run a standard trans on a rock-crawler again anyway!

And the manual trans your thinking about is the NV4500.


-D

sorry doug but im going to have to pick on you for spreading inaccurate information... hell it rarely happens so its a big deal when it does!

the lowest gear ratio for the 14 bolt is 5.13.

and the manual trans he is thinking of is almost surely a NP435, a very strong granny 4 speed. NOT an NV4500.

44s eh? why not 48s :smokin:

OK the 15in wheels on the d60 will go. Theres a thread over in general on it now. And like Dougs saying 3.5in BS and everythings sweet.

With the 4.56 gears in the d60 now I would just get a 14bolt with the same gears and leave it a that. Not really worth spending $$ to get to 5.13 I wouldnt think. Even at 5.13 I would have 4x3.3x5.13 = 67.7 which isnt low really low enough anyway

So I think I would do the 302windsor and the granny gear box initially cause my rover motor is stuffed anyway and I can set up the motor, box and transfer up on the ground and then pull the body of my series and throw the whole thing in. Should be fairly easy to do and my rig wont be off the road for long at all. And with a 5l motor instead of a 3.5l I should be way ahead. And then at least I will be able to give those d44s a hurry up cause at the moment the 3.5 at 55:1 carnt hurt them. Although not having a front locker is probably the real reason cause when everythng gets bound up and nothing will turn and Im riding the clutch in first at 2000rpm and really loading everything up then I only got half the torque going to the front unis compared to if the front was locked.

Although Im still keen on the rockwells but at least I got more options now with running 15in wheels on the d60 (I guess I would do a disk brake conversion on a 14 bolt to run 15s) The reason I didnt think it was a good idea was that I did a search initially and found a thread on it and some guy who did it and he was driving along and both front calipers fell in half and I thought mmmmm thats not good.

But anyway.

Damn theres good info in this BB. Thanks guys it really makes it so much easier (and fun) talking about this shiat.

:beer:

Sam

Like I said, YOU could make it work. Chop an LT95 and mount a ford NP435 on it! Woo HOO.

I would just buy more parts and stare at them.

Though I would be willing to wager that you could mount something to the input of an LT230. Lots of trannies had 10spline outputs like the LT230 input. That would be easier than chopping the LT95. (in theory)
Ron

Sam,

Another thing you could try is get a fairey overdrive for the LT95 and convert it into an underdrive.
I know one guy done here in Melbourne that has done it but the overdrives seem rare these days.

John D

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=54075

Check out the output shaft on this SM420, is that 10 spline?

Ron :smokin:

Yep Im keen on a crawler gearbox and if the output spline of one of these boxes matches the 10 spline input of the LT230 then I do the LT230 for sure. If I got to adapt the shaft then Ill do the LT95 cause ive got hundreds of these (well two spares plus the one in my rig.

Im going to go to a f truck wrecker tomorrow and have a look at some of his gearboxes. He reckons the early ('79 say) f100 had a New process (I would guess the NP 435) and the f250 had something different. Found a guy also that selling a BWT18 for $75 which is out of a 76 model F350. Says its got a granny first gear also so I might just go buy it for the hell of it and see if it will do the job.

Anyone heard of an BWT18 ????

Anyway Im going to learn some tomorrow.

Sam

T18 is a jeep tranny I think thats what he means by BWT18.

I dunno I am just guessing. Perhaps a post in general: What trannies use 1in (I think thats it) 10spline output shafts would be appropriate.

Ron

Yep I might do that. But I will have a look at these boxes first.

:beer:

Sam

http://www.cruzers.com/~twakeman/LR/V8Conversion.htm

I knew I saw something that explained it!

There you go. $75 for the BWT18 you saw and some welding and you can have a granny gear.

Ron

Thanks for the link Ron. Very interesting article. Cutting the gearbox output shaft and welding on the rover output is an interesting way to do the adaption. Dont know that I will do it this way. I like the idea of either resplining the rover transfer drive gear or maching the centre out and welding in another splined section. But I can work this out with the engineering shop that will do the machining and welding as to the best way.

I bought a motor, a gearbox and a rear axle today that should do the job nicely. So now its a matter of how to get everything to work. I will start a new thread.

:beer:

Sam