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Defender 110 crawler/camper

ash

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 7, 2022
Member Number
5034
Messages
55
Loc
FL
Been a while since I've done a full build thread -- this one isn't nearly as wild as some of the stuff in this section but the LR subforum is dead and I'm sure I'll need some outside input along the way. I'm actually quite a ways into this one, but being accountable to a build thread should keep me from stalling out. The aim is to do a big trip in September, so I'll need to be pretty consistent here.

THE GOAL:
Build reasonably comfortable and moderately capable rig that I can make long distance trips with, sleep in, and take on some semi challenging trails. This ain't no overland build, but there may be hints of it here and there.

-Diesel
-Tons
-Linked
-Coilover(s)?
-37's

Shall we begin?
 
THE DONOR

Defenders come in a variety of body styles, and despite maybe not looking as cool as the classic 5-door everyone wants (that's what the white truck is), the 3-door is where it's at. I don't need a back seat, so freeing that space up makes for a shitload of room for storage, of which I'll be utilizing.

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I do a lot of LS and LT swaps on these trucks, but the heat they put off and fuel economy really don't suit the way I intend to use this one, so diesel has been the choice from the beginning. These trucks came with diesels factory, but they're total turds if you want to go over 60, and just don't fit the bill here. I went down the Mercedes OM606 road first, but then stumbled upon a take-out Cummins R2.8 with low miles from a guy who was ditching it in favor of an LS. I'm trying to build this thing on a moderate budget and really couldn't justify one of these engines new, so I had to leap on the opportunity.

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My original plan was to keep the truck manual, since that was the cheapest route and I could retain a Land Rover gearbox and transfer case with a simple bellhousing adapter....but I quickly came to my senses and realized there was no way a box rated for 280 lb-ft would survive, so I ditched it.

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And opened a giant can of worms with this thing....a brand new GM 10L90. Now I've got a beefy drivetrain that I don't have to worry about breaking, a couple of highway gears, and a package that should play really nicely with the turbo diesel.
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The real weak link on these trucks is the axles themselves. The aftermarket has stepped up to with chromo parts but at the end of the day you're kind of stuck with a small shaft diameter due to the spindles themselves. With the goal of having a truck I can use without constant fear of breaking things, I looked elsewhere. Somehow I stumbled into a set of gutted Dynatrac housings, and set off to build them.

Front is a ProRock 44 housing. I thought a 44/60 hybrid would be an interesting build, so I started with a 35 spline ARB carrier, then fit all 1 ton stuff at the wheel ends. Solid inner/outer knuckles, some generic 1 ton brake package from ECGS. I can't remember offhand where I landed on WMS measurement, but I want to say like 67.5.

Rear is a ProRock 60 housing. 35 spline ARB, full float wheel ends and brakes.

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Right or left hand drive?

Cool build, will be watching.

Jack
 
Axle seals were a big challenge on the front. I don't know what the hell inner seals these housings were set up for originally, but I scoured every damn parts book I could find and couldn't come up with a seal that would fit the tube and a 35 spline shaft. The guys at Dynatrac even sent me the seals they use in their 3" tube housings, but they were too small for how these were machined. I ended up sketching up a little seal adapter, even gave it a cute little ramp to guide the axle shaft, and sent it off to a buddy who has a machine shop who whipped a couple up for me.

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ash said:
Left. The RHD trucks are cheaper but the novelty wears off fast in my opinion.
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Awesome and I agree. Drove a 110 RHD in Scotland. Cool at first, but that faded fast.

Jack
 
The rear suspension geometry isn't all that bad on these trucks, and in the name of not going even further overboard than I already have, I chose to keep it mostly stock. I'll end up reworking the lower links, lengthening them and doing a jointed setup, but for now I just wanted the axle bolted under the truck, so everything is stock.

I've always liked the look of AEV wheels and scored a set for cheap from a guy who had them sitting, then got lucky twice and found a guy with a brand new set of 37 Toyos who wanted 35's instead, so I bought a set and traded them straight.

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Somewhere along the way I moved into a new shop, and then got rolling on the front end. These trucks use a radius arm that rides and handles pretty well, but has shit for travel. I'm not going crazy long travel with this setup, but wanted something more balanced since the rear end does like 80% of the work when everything is stock.

I came up with a parallel 3 link that seems to fit pretty well. Still fine tuning a couple of things about it, but I think it's nearly done. For the sake of ease I've tried my best to use off the shelf brackets, mostly from TMR and Ruffstuff, which have all done the trick so far. The frame side brackets for my lowers I ended up hanging halfway off the frame to try and keep antisquat low, then made some brackets to wrap them around the bottom of the frame. Thinking maybe I should go back and plate the frame as well, but still unsure on that. Any thoughts? I also need to sleeve the frame and make the upper link bolt removable without having to lift the transmission out of the way.

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Had the AEV wheels machined to clear the bore of the locking hubs. Trying to keep this thing low and overall I'm really happy with the stance so far.

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Interesting build. So it was a 200tdi 110 originally? Have you driven the cummins 2.8 before?

Where did you get adapters for the GM box to the 2.8 and LT230?
 
Dougal said:
Interesting build. So it was a 200tdi 110 originally? Have you driven the cummins 2.8 before?

Where did you get adapters for the GM box to the 2.8 and LT230?
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Yeah, 200/LT77 originally. I haven't even heard a 2.8 idle and have gone into this completely blind lol. I've heard positive things from guys who I trust, and there seems to be some solid options on the table to turn the power up which I fully intend to do. The only knock I've really heard is that it's laggy, but I think the automatic will help with that.

The trans adapter is from Chad over at Quickdraw, and the LT230 adapter is from RW Engineering.
 
ash said:
Yeah, 200/LT77 originally. I haven't even heard a 2.8 idle and have gone into this completely blind lol. I've heard positive things from guys who I trust, and there seems to be some solid options on the table to turn the power up which I fully intend to do. The only knock I've really heard is that it's laggy, but I think the automatic will help with that.

The trans adapter is from Chad over at Quickdraw, and the LT230 adapter is from RW Engineering.
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Laggy can be fixed with programming.
 
ash said:
Is this an engine you're familiar with, or are you just speaking broadly?
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Not that specific engine but work on Cummins engines everyday for a living. Today I had a Cummins field engineer out for an odd ECM calibration on an airport refueler job that I started Friday. You should be able to program the lag out of it with the right programming, you will probably have to get Cummins involved and hopefully the whole "we can't do it for emissions reasons" doesn't rear its ugly head. I wonder if one of those get rid of the pedal delay things would work, you see them for Dodge Cummins.
 
shortbus4x4 said:
Not that specific engine but work on Cummins engines everyday for a living. Today I had a Cummins field engineer out for an odd ECM calibration on an airport refueler job that I started Friday. You should be able to program the lag out of it with the right programming, you will probably have to get Cummins involved and hopefully the whole "we can't do it for emissions reasons" doesn't rear its ugly head. I wonder if one of those get rid of the pedal delay things would work, you see them for Dodge Cummins.
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Definitely interested to see what the process is like once I'm to that point. Apparently this uses the same CM2200 ECM that the 6.7 RAM's use, so there's probably a few options for aftermarket hardware that can be used to read, modify and write.
 
Sweet build :smokin:

That engine should suit a 110 pretty well I think. At some point the Land Rover 300TDi was further developed into the International HS 2.8, which a lot of people in the LR community loved as a retrofit while it was still available. Specs-wise it looks like the Cummins is a step above that still:

Happy to see you keeping the LT230 and offset rear, it really is part of what makes these trucks work so well. Did you put an ATB in the LT230, or just the upgraded cross shaft?
 
elbekko said:
Sweet build :smokin:

That engine should suit a 110 pretty well I think. At some point the Land Rover 300TDi was further developed into the International HS 2.8, which a lot of people in the LR community loved as a retrofit while it was still available. Specs-wise it looks like the Cummins is a step above that still:

Happy to see you keeping the LT230 and offset rear, it really is part of what makes these trucks work so well. Did you put an ATB in the LT230, or just the upgraded cross shaft?
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Thanks!

I did one of the HS2.8's in a 90 a long time ago, it was a great improvement over a standard 300 while retaining all of the simplicity that made those motors great.

LT230 got the full Ashcroft treatment with a sleeved case, ATB, extended sump and 300M shafts.
 
Doing a little design work on the steering today. With the added length of the auto transmission and transfer case adapter, there wasn't any clearance for the original steering box off the front of the motor as it's mounted inboard of the frame rail. The stock box is a little weak and always leaks, so getting rid of it was never really a concern. The P38 model Range Rovers ran a pretty beefy box mounted outboard of the frame, so I picked one up and started playing around with it.
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I was really hoping to keep the draglink and panhard flat, but after a few different iterations there really just wasn't enough clearance between the panhard and the diff cover when stuffing everything. I finally found a setup that worked and cleared with 6" of uptravel, but now the draglink angle is all fucky and needs to be reworked.

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Needed to gain a little clearance off the top of the pitman arm so I could flip the joint, but fortunately that's just a frame weldment that really serves no purpose, so it was just as simple as cutting it off.

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Just ordered a 1 ton tapered cup, so I'll need to drill the arm out, add that, and then probably come up with some reinforcement since I don't think there will be much left after a 1" hole gets drilled in it. But the new angle looks like it's right on the money.

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And just for shits....1 ton TRE compared to the stock Rover TRE...

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shortbus4x4 said:
Boxes? You can go dumpster diving and get boxes all day long without waiting for Fedex.:flipoff2:
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Shit, the way they handled these things it’s a wonder there was actually anything inside the boxes lol.

12” 2.5’s for the front with piston upgrades and DSC’s. Same setup for the back, but 14”. Pretty sure I’m going to keep the original coil spring setup in the rear and run the 14’s as shocks, but figured I’d order threaded bodies just in case I wanted to revisit that a little later on.

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Got the passenger side coil bucket cut off and test fit the tower and CO, things couldn't have fit better. Unmodified TMR tower, off the shelf shock tabs @ 2.5" off the tube had things sitting at 6" of bump which is exactly where I wanted to be. Belly height is 21". I was a little nervous about packaging but it looks like everything should work well. Definitely going to need to come up with a new hose arrangement for the reservoirs though, those fuckers are way too long.

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Beautiful! I've always loved these things. I think the 2dr is a little more unique. :beer:
 
Had a productive afternoon!

Got the lower mounts done for the coilovers and was able to cycle it and check clearances. There were a few places I was a little worried about but everything cleared great and nothing needs tweaking. I’m almost afraid to say it but I think I can final weld everything on the axle.

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Got all set up to flip the joint on the pitman arm and my $20 amazon end mill gave up early, so I’ll have to come back to that another day. I guess 340 RPM and tons of lube was still asking too much.

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And the nice little block off plate I drew came from sendcutsend so I can get rid of that pesky device mounted to the exhaust manifold.

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ash said:
And the nice little block off plate I drew came from sendcutsend so I can get rid of that pesky device mounted to the exhaust manifold.

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Oh noes the chilens and clean air.:stirthepot:

Are you going to be running fender flares on it?
 
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