I've been annoying the neighbours again....

[86mud]

Well...back on the grinder and welder today. This time to replace the lousy/flimsy Landrover Defender 130 tub mounts.

The existing tub mounts are made from pressed 1.6mm steel and had obviously cracked at some stage before I purchased the vehicle from the previous owner. I have been worried about them for a while so today I did something about it.

Rear tub mounts were the worst and unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the original mount, just the finished product.

I did take a picture of the RH front tub mount and it's replacement. Just need to do the LH side now. The front mount was originally attached to the tub via one bolt into a rivnut. I changed this and now the front mount is attached to the tub via two bolts right through the aluminium channel.

Cheers
Andrew

[Ranga]

very nice ;)

[Hymie]

Yep, looks good. My front ones cracked right where yours had too. I just welded them up to get by but I like the idea of making stronger ones.

[scanfor]

Nice job, very well done.

[fox]

I've just bought a second-hand tub to fit to my 130 and have to replace the brackets.

My 130 had a custom body on it so there are no original tub mounts there.

How many brackets did you use on the rear crossmember ?

My tub had 5 at one stage, all were bolted into a captive steel nut which had corroded the aluminium due to intermetallic corrosion, all for a little smear of copper grease !!

also the brackets that go behind the cab what do they bolt to as the spacing is wider than the chassis rail ?

Many thanks Thomas

[greenhornet]

Very nice!

[SimonM]

Great idea mate. My left front mount had cracked and it was welded up but stronger plates is a much better idea.

[86mud]

Thomas

On the rear cross member there are the original mounting vertical tabs (5 of) just like on a 110 wagon. Attached to 3 of these are little brackets which then attach to the underside of the tub using rivnuts. The two outer corners at the rear (where I made new brackets as well) also attach via rivnuts to the underside of the tub. I was lucky with all the rivnuts at the rear of the tub - they were all ok and could be re-used again. I just used new bolts.

As for the front mounts the rivnuts were cactus, so I just drilled out the rivnuts and bolted the brackets right through the tub and used some plates on the inside.

Make sense?

Cheers
Andrew

[fox]

Thanks for your reply Andrew.

Yeas what you said makes sense, I can see the original bracket in the background of one of your pictures.

As I said 4 out 5 of the rivnut parts have corroded right through he channel section leacing a piece about 75mm missing. Are they actually rivnuts ore a captive nut held on apiece of steel plate which is pop-riveted inside the channel ? The ones on the 2 front brackets were held in this way on mine ?

Also the tabs found on a standard crossmember are all mising on mine so I think I will make up some brackets similar to yours, they look very strong.

Many thanks, Thomas