Thread: Freelander Mods

I have seen Freelanders with winches on them before but I am a bit perplexed. I have had the whole front of my Freelander off and I cannot see anywhere that is strong enough to bolt up a winch or rated recovery points for that matter.

There is a huge aluminium bar that runs across the car behind the plastic and this is only bolted onto sheet metal and the chassis which is relatively weak ends before the front of the car. Without substantial X bracing of this aluminium bar back to the chassis I do not see how they have done this - under bad conditions I could see this being ripped out of the front.

Also would you use a 3000ib winch on a car that weighs in at 1700kg (fighting weight)

Garry

The winch was fitted professionally and I never saw how it was mounted.

Also my mistake, it was a 6000lb winch, not 3000lb. it was used many times in anger and worked well, especially with a snatch block.

I also had in writing from my Landrover dealer at the time a letter stating that the standard front and rear eyes (one front, one rear and not the tie-downs) were rated for snatching and we never had a problem using the front one many many times for snatching. The rear one was removed for some reason I cannot remember and we used the tow bar (not tow ball) for rear snatches.

We no longer own the Freelander as we could not afford to keep it due to the repair costs - it was totally un-reliable and once the warrenty ran out, it was gone and has replaced by a Rangie which has proved to be cheaper to keep..

Stevesub

As i was going to make mention of armour in another thread, i figure its best to add it here and link it.

Sump armour.



Sliders.



VC Slider.


I have other pics if you want details...

Cheers!

Do you have any pics of those items bolted on on in place. To me those are probably 2 of the most impostant mods I should be considering.

Also do you have any extra recovery points attached to your frame?

Because the sump armour is welded onto the existing alloy frame, it uses the stock 10 HT bolts holding the original on.

The sliders are a lot more complicated, a fair bit of steel work was done in order to make them fit snugly under the sills.

metal work.




mounting positions.


If you look under your car you will see the 3 large rails these mount to. I drilled holes right through and bolted them in (blue lines). The red lines are M5x25 and go through the folded steel under the sill. You need to remove the factory plastic cover.

On recovery points, I should add higher rated ones, but LR suggest that the stock ones are ok. I dont consider them very heavy, but static loads and light dynamic loads are probably ok. Don't take my word, if your club doesn't like them, I'd find something bigger. I have never really considered the options, the rear towbar is heaps, and from the front there are very few options for extras. The alloy bar behind the bumper is for compression only, so dont use that.

Cheers!

What are you sacrificing in ground clearance?
Looks like about 20mm.

Do you carry a bottle jack now?

Wondering if it would be worth bonding the sliders to the sills with a decent epoxy. A bit of work, plus difficult to remove, but it would make the whole assembly pretty tough

Originally Posted by SuperMono

What are you sacrificing in ground clearance?
Looks like about 20mm.

Do you carry a bottle jack now?

Wondering if it would be worth bonding the sliders to the sills with a decent epoxy. A bit of work, plus difficult to remove, but it would make the whole assembly pretty tough

Yeah i lose an inch, id prefer to slide over something than come within 25mm of damage. Its already so strong its not funny. You can jack from them, pivot on trees, etc. its nice to get them off sometimes for cleaning tho.

The point about the jack is amusing tho, i still carry the stock one.... a high lift is in order...

Cheers!