Wider tracks on Series axel
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Wheel spacers accomplish the same thing as a wheel with less backspace. The advantage of spacers is you can have a different offset on one axle compared to the other while still keeping all your wheels and spare interchangeable.
Increasing the offset by either reducing backspacing with a wheel or spacer or significantly increasing the wheel width will put a greater load on the wheel bearings. When the weight and forces of the vehicle work farther outboard the bearings, there is that much more leverage on them.
On the front axle, steering is also affected. Although the wider track width can allow greater steering angles and smaller turning radius, excessive offset can also increase steering effort. See scrub radius: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrub_radius
With a small increase in offset, the effect may be neglible. A little more and you may see premature bearing wear. Anything extreme is ill-advised.
The best solution is to lengthen the axle. This requires a complete axle swap or the lengthening of the axle housing and half-shafts. It's been done both ways. I understand that Ashcroft's Force 9 axle is lengthened compared to a stock Rover axle. I also read that Keith at Rovertracks has extended some axles, I assume Rover housings with Toyota internals. I'm sure others have shortened portals and tons to something a little wider than stock. With a wider axle, you can have the track width while keeping the load more or less centered on the bearings and a negative scrub radius.
Increasing the offset by either reducing backspacing with a wheel or spacer or significantly increasing the wheel width will put a greater load on the wheel bearings. When the weight and forces of the vehicle work farther outboard the bearings, there is that much more leverage on them.
On the front axle, steering is also affected. Although the wider track width can allow greater steering angles and smaller turning radius, excessive offset can also increase steering effort. See scrub radius: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrub_radius
With a small increase in offset, the effect may be neglible. A little more and you may see premature bearing wear. Anything extreme is ill-advised.
The best solution is to lengthen the axle. This requires a complete axle swap or the lengthening of the axle housing and half-shafts. It's been done both ways. I understand that Ashcroft's Force 9 axle is lengthened compared to a stock Rover axle. I also read that Keith at Rovertracks has extended some axles, I assume Rover housings with Toyota internals. I'm sure others have shortened portals and tons to something a little wider than stock. With a wider axle, you can have the track width while keeping the load more or less centered on the bearings and a negative scrub radius.
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Fitting wider axles :flipoff2:
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^ what he said.
Get coiler axles.
Get coiler axles.
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I don't know about that... the front axle, with the trackrod wanting to occupy the same space as the springs and sitting below the axletube is just a bitch... I would rather opt for 40/60/70series LandCruiser axles.. Same steering arrangement as a Series, close to or wider, disc brakes, stronger, offset rear diff..
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Why? Just because it CAN be done... doesn't always make it a great idea.. Get yourself a set of Wolf rims or 1-Ton rims and call it good.
The OP doesn't state where he is from.Wheel spacers are illegal in Australia and may be in some other countries.
Some, mainly in the UK it seems, have fitted coiler axles to leaf springers, but they are obviously not too concerned about losing an inch or so of ground clearance under the springs, a result of having thicker spring saddles in order for the steering trackrod to clear the top of the spring.
AG.
Some, mainly in the UK it seems, have fitted coiler axles to leaf springers, but they are obviously not too concerned about losing an inch or so of ground clearance under the springs, a result of having thicker spring saddles in order for the steering trackrod to clear the top of the spring.
AG.
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He did say it was a series III leafer axle he was dealing with.. if you want to go just a bit wider without having it explode into a full blown case of ship fitters disease, the only way to go is to switch to the wider rover rims. If $$ and time are no object... then the world is your oyster.
Wheel spacers is a option, and no Ben, you won't experience premature bearing failure, I know of several D90's that have been running them for 5 plus years without a issue. Wolf rims are a option, as are custom backspaced rims, contact Justin at Lucky8llc.com, he was doing custom LR rims...
then you can play the axle swap game...
then you can play the axle swap game...
That ain't necessarily so.The wheel bearings themselves won't fail, but series vehicles have different spindles to D90s.The hub seal ring on the spindle of a series is replaceable.which makes the spindle weaker. D90s etc have seal rings that are an integral part of the spindle and therefore stronger.I've seen a few series spindles shear off at the flange on vehicles with wide offset rims and a bit of front end weight such as a winch and bull bar.I have also seen a few swivel balls split at the flange, mainly on forward control Rovers, but also on wide wheel heavy fronted conventional vehicles to
f course we do have some long distance heavily corrugated outback roads, which are the main cause of these failures, but whether or not the OP has issues after fitting spacers or offset rims depends on a few factors.AG.
I made the spacers and ran IFS hubs on a 60 axle (about 61.5 width) and ran an FZJ80 rear with an e-locker, that worked great but the front axle was a little on the weak side for bending with a 6BT as an engine. Another thing you may want to look at is the Toyota diffs actually fit in the Rover housings with some work, there are a couple of threads on here.
I figure you guys at OTT will come up with something cool
I saw that the Rovertracks folks were fitting V6 diffs in series housings but that still leaves LR drums ( unless you swap discs ) etc..... you can only put so much lipstick on those pigs , to have so many custom parts on a expo/picnic wagon doesn't make sense to me , my plan is simple , reliable , available in that order
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I got 80series axles and 255/85 tires on a 16x7 rim with 3.5"BS.
Here you can see how far the wheels stick out, about an 1inch past the eyebrows.
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google will fix that...:homer:
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