Thread: The Last Overland: Singapore to London in a Series-1

A short extract from the book:


The Impossible Journey | One Life | Land Rover UK

On arrival, an English-language newspaper heralded the expedition as: “A boat race on wheels”. Reporting on the sizeable winches on the front of each vehicle, it said that the expedition was equipped with “two very powerful wenches”.

Fairey Aviation Company - Wikipedia

Land Rover hubs and overdrives[edit]

A Fairey mechanical overdrive, as fitted to an early Range Rover.

In the post-war period, from the late 1950s onwards, Fairey acquired Mayflower Automotive Products, including their factory in Tavistock, Devon, and with it the designs of its products, including winch and free-wheeling front hubs for Land Rover vehicles. By the 1970s Fairey was manufacturing a wide range of winches, covering mechanical, hydraulic and electric drive and capstan/drum configurations. Fairey winches formed the bulk of the manufacturer-approved winch options for Land Rover throughout the 1970s and early 1980s.In 1975 Fairey designed and manufactured a mechanical overdrive unit for Land Rovers. Vehicles fitted with the unit carried a badge on the rear saying "Overdrive by Fairey", with the Fairey logo (see above).This branch of products effectively ceased in the early 1980s when new product development at Land Rover and a trend for manufacturers to build accessories in-house forced Fairey to drop out of the sector. The American company Superwinch bought the Tavistock works and continued making Fairey-designed winches for a few years. The site is now Superwinch's European base and manufacturing facility. Fairey-designed hydraulic winches are still in production, but the large majority of manufacture is of Superwinch-designed electric drum winches. The Fairey Overdrive is still in production in America.

Originally Posted by Old Farang

And why would it be necessary to check which position it is in before starting the engine? I had an overdrive on my old 2 door Range Rover, and it didn't care which gear it was in when starting the engine. In addition, I also had a Series 1 and it was all out struggling to pull itself around in 4th gear, never mind attempting an overdrive!

Sorry, zero tech knowledge of PTO driven winches and ODs.
Just commenting on what I noticed in the vid.

So at that point you see on the lever that it says Roverdrive .. from that I assume the OD made by them.
Also, at about the 49sec mark in the new video, it has a wider shot of the front of the S1, if you click the fullscreen mode for the video, you can see that the winch has no cable and no hook, which one could assume that it's probably broken/dead/seized or whatever in the years between 1955 and now.

So it's not an impossible situation that with the PTO driven winch (possibly) being out of service, a previous owner may have then fitted a Roverdrive and the winch is just for looks!

And on the topic of how or if an overloaded S1 could pull 4th in OD, I always thought that the OD worked in all gears(high and low too) .. so if it'd struggle in 4th with no OD, then having the option to use 3rd + OD may work up some hills .. and so on, 2nd +OD in some situations .. etc.
Just like RoadRangers in trucks .. you can never have too many gears!

ps, I wouldn't place too much credence on the value of the 'checking of the position of levers and stuff prior to starting(as seen in the vid) .. that's almost certainly a request from the video producer for Tim to 'do something' whilst they captured footage of him.

ie. move a lever or put the key in .. or whatever .... just to create content. Just a part of making videos.

As I pointed out above, the overdrive was very unlikely to have been fitted during the original expedition. Not really relative, but the Fairey overdrive is supposed to be only used in 3rd and 4th (I don't know about the Roverdrive), but it can, of course, be used in low range, where it is useful for "splitting" gears.

Caught up with expedition today in Bangkok. Not able to get to the bottom of the winch, except that it is made by "Koenig", a US company. It has an input shaft lined up with, but not connected to, the front of the engine. BUT, if I understood correctly it has a second input shaft which was originally connected to the center PTO. The company still produces winches and there are many different models if you search the internet.

Yes, the overdrive is a later addition, not fitted on the original expedition. The car is carrying very little weight this time, only the two petrol tanks and two people, so the overdrive can by used most of the time. The original drive for the winch was removed to fit the overdrive.

The two Defenders are carrying all the spares and equipment. 1 SWB and 1 LWB car. Didn't find out what engines they have.

10% There: Singapore–London Last Overland Journey Makes Pitstop in Bangkok

The girl doing the interview was a big help to me getting access, although it was open to the public.

Posted on their youtube channel last night:

Not wanting to take anything from the original expedition as it would still have been an adventure.

But has anyone heard of Francis Birtles? Francis Birtles - Wikipedia

London to Australia in a Bean (slightly customised) in 1927. I read, I think it was the Peter Wherrett, biography a few years back. Pretty amazing trip before any roads existed in many places through Asia.

Originally Posted by Lakey

Not wanting to take anything from the original expedition as it would still have been an adventure.

But has anyone heard of Francis Birtles? Francis Birtles - Wikipedia

London to Australia in a Bean (slightly customised) in 1927. I read, I think it was the Peter Wherrett, biography a few years back. Pretty amazing trip before any roads existed in many places through Asia.

Not heard of him, but here is another:

One Thai Man’s Epic Overland Journey from the UK to Bangkok in 1970