Thread: Making a 2WD drive DEFENDER

Do you know kind of race buggies? Thats what I do for a living and its maybe 10% (if that much) of vehicles in our type of racing that use 4 wheel drive. If I dont use the tcase at least I know where to peddle my wares! I know desert racing has become big in Au in the last few years...

Originally Posted by cj7mexicodefender

Do you know kind of race buggies? Thats what I do for a living and its maybe 10% (if that much) of vehicles in our type of racing that use 4 wheel drive. If I dont use the tcase at least I know where to peddle my wares! I know desert racing has become big in Au in the last few years...

I think rock crawlers and rock racers like KOH - rather than desert racing. Though there is a desert racer on here who runs a rover based rig (and may run an LT230?).
Have a search around on pirate4x4 for more info. User Buckon37s is running one and competed in the last 2 KOH events.

[QUOTE=isuzurover;2331839]I think rock crawlers and rock racers like KOH - rather than desert racing. Though there is a desert racer on here who runs a rover based rig (and may run an LT230?).
Have a search around on pirate4x4 for more info. User Buckon37s is running one and competed in the last 2 KOH events.[/QUThat makes sense, they need the full time 4 wd system.... Seems that as long as you dont use big tires this t-case will hold up. thx again!!

Originally Posted by cj7mexicodefender

...Seems that as long as you dont use big tires this t-case will hold up. thx again!!

The LT230 T-case is by far the strongest part of a landrover drivetrain.
Stronger than most other t-cases out there. Including dana/toyota, etc...

It doesn't make any difference in economy or power.
My brother recently drove his d2 around in 2wd.
However it is a ball of fun on a wet road

Sent from my GT-I9305T using AULRO mobile app

Originally Posted by benji

It doesn't make any difference in economy or power.
My brother recently drove his d2 around in 2wd.
However it is a ball of fun on a wet road

Sent from my GT-I9305T using AULRO mobile app

ii I guess my question would be, was the front diff turning? If so, its gotta use some kind of energy. My plan is to use lockable-(Unlockable) hubbed front differential with a part time 4 wd Transfer case.

Originally Posted by cj7mexicodefender

ii I guess my question would be, was the front diff turning? If so, its gotta use some kind of energy. My plan is to use lockable-(Unlockable) hubbed front differential with a part time 4 wd Transfer case.

This has been debated at length and there is absolutely no perceptible change in economy or available power with a Defender in permanent 4WD or "emergency" 2WD.

People (read supporters of other brands and marques) have over the years claimed increased fuel consumption, excessive tyre wear, loss of available power etc etc when Land Rover opted for permanent or full time 4WD on the Range Rover and Defender. This has obviously been disproved many times over, hence no Land Rover from the late 70's onward have had lockable hubs as they are a complete waste of time when used with the very efficient LT230 transfer case.

To prove this point, almost all manufacturers are now heading towards permanent 4WD or All-wheeldrive, only about 35 years behind the time.

Cheers,

Lou

As stated, Rover started using full time four wheel drive with the first Rangerover in 1970 (actually it was used with a somewhat different system in 1948-50 on the first Landrovers). Originally it was used on the Rangerover to enable the driveline to handle more power (without upgrading diffs) by spreading it between front and rear, but even before the model was released Rover had found that the setup transformed handling and had no significant effect on either performance or fuel economy (not that this was much of an issue with the Rangerover in 1970!).

When the Landrover went to coil springs in 1983, the standard setup was full time four wheel drive the same as the Rangerover, but part time four wheel drive was optional (except on the V8). Effectively, they allowed the market to decide. Despite the fact that by then fuel consumption was far more important, and that the four cylinder petrol and diesel engined models were looking pretty underpowered, the part time option was so rarely specified that it was dropped within a couple of years.

Yes, in theory turning the diff and front prop shaft absorb energy, but when turning them without load, this figure must be pretty small. Balanced against this is that the energy absorbed by the rear drive train is at least partly proportional to the power applied, increasing as the increased torque increases tooth contact pressure and bearing load. If this loss was linear with pressure, then you could assume the loss would be the same whether the power was handled by one or two axles, but it seems very unlikely that it is linear. Almost certainly, there will be additional losses with a single axle driving compared to two axles simply because of increased tyre slippage, although this will be driver dependent. None of these losses are very great, but neither is the loss from the driven front axle.

Quite simply, Landrover and Rangerover users have demonstrated clearly over the last 45 years that there are good reasons for using full time four wheel drive and no significant disadvantages.

What made the change practical is that for full time four wheel drive you really need to have CV joints in the front axle swivels - and by the 1980s, the cost of these had dropped (because front drive cars were becoming the norm) to where the cost of these was no longer a significant concern.

John