Thread: Australian Army 101's and pre production vehicles

The prototype I think no 7 which came to Aust for the army to try was fitted in England with a local falcon three litre motor in stead of the rover three litre of the earlier prototypes.
I under stand the the early prototypes had a series transmission and could only drive the trailer whisle in low range.
The Aust army liked the Falcon engined prototype,but Landrover wouldnt supply any more with the local engine.
That Aust army prototype was extensively reworked and fitted with a 350 chev motor when sold off.
I have a old 4x4 Australia mag with a article of this vehicle being used with the powered trailer set up as a off road touring bus set up.
The mag writer drive the vehicle and was impressed,but said the thing was a problem to turn around on a tight track.
The range rover and 101 was designed with each other in mind and is why the range rover can be easy converted to 6x6 as the transfercase is designed for the extra output drive ( originally for a power driven trailer) and this works in high range too unlike the early series rovers powered trailer experiments.
I would expect the very early 101 prototypes with 3 lt 6 cyl rover motor was like the FCs of the time,but with the strip down body and short lenght required by the British army.
The army found they very badly lacked the power required to tow the new gun coming into service and was going to to buy else where.
The new V8 solved the power problem and the new constant 4WD transmission spread the drive over the two axles allowing the lighter Salisbury axles to be used instead of the ENV.
The Salisbury axles still needed extensive mods to do the job .

Originally Posted by 101 Ron

...I understand the the early prototypes had a series transmission and could only drive the trailer whist in low range. ...

Ron
The Series Forward Control/1 Ton transmission only differs from regular series transmission in a couple of respects.

• Transfer box hi gear reduction 1.53:1 (instead of regular 1.3:1) S2B Lo 3.227:1 same as regular series.
• All housings apart from the rear mainshaft bearing are the same.
• The main gearbox all gears, gearsets, bearings, primary pinion and layshaft the same.
• Mainshaft unique to F/C box (longer).
• Transfer box constant gear and intermediate gear cluster resemble the LT230 with the constant gear meshing with a centre gear on the intermediate cluster.
• Later F/Cs have larger diameter reinforced drum handbrake.

The interesting thing is the series 2a "1 Ton" prototype that came to Australia with the Scottorn Bushmaster powered trailer could only drive the trailer axles when in low range. The same as the early 1 ton prototypes.

Garry, we do have the 101 ARN's now, but the numbers I have found so far only ammount to 48. So i'd love any info this bloke has. I hope he is in contact with us soon. Especially about the navy units, very interesting indeed. Same goes for his numbers. I was told one was written off in a head on smash, and that another was dropped down a hole in the outback (open cave), but no confirmation on either, although I take the smashed one to be true, not sure on the other.

For the 101 prototype, I'm not sure if that is No.7 or not. I think No.7 was the one that was at corowa a couple of weeks ago. Very similar to the regular 101's it was parked beside, but I did notice that the rear shock towers were different.

Originally Posted by Slugbait

Serial No: 96100050A
Original Engine Number: 96100169 (a new engine was dropped in around 2001)
DSN / Designations 2320-66-098-2412
ARN 29-170
1 Tonne Land Rover FUV
Unit: 110 BTY
Address: IC AD REGT Woodside
Date introduced into Service: 22 Nov 77
Distance Traveled: 16021 Km
Inital Service 4825Km MSU or MSV (can't quite tell) Broadmeadows 26 Jun 79

Cheers

Mmm, that's strange, The ARN books I have say that your rego should have been 30-238. Any chance of a photo of the books stating those details??

Originally Posted by Phoenix

For the 101 prototype, I'm not sure if that is No.7 or not.

Does anyone have the chassis number prefix for the 101 prototypes, particularly the ones with the ENV diffs?

I know that the Series 1 prototypes had a number sequence including the wheelbase then a slash then the serial number but am not familiar with the later sequences after Series 1.

Diana

P.S. Just trying to track down the weird serial number on one of my ENV axle housings.

mmm, I think that I have the details somewhere that somebody from the 101 club sent me on the 101 prototypes. All this talk has made me think abotu adding it to a short prototype page on REMLR about 101 prototypes in general.

Richard

just having a look around here, been wanting a landy for years and picked up a 2a disco two weeks ago.

Anyway, quirky things always interest me so.....

There was a 101 here in Cairns with the chain attachement on the rear for the powered trailer. I saw it a few times in the same place but havent paid any attention to that street for a while. I shall keep my eyes open and if I spot it will let you know.

I dont know about the trailer......

Hay Ewe