Hi guys,
I have only just discovered my vehicle in this thread and you have pretty much guessed correctly what I have done. The VW reduction hubs are from the late 60's Combi with 1500 cc engine, i.e. the heavy duty ones running 900x16 Michelin XZL tyres, thus increasing ground clearance to 380 mm under the diffs, which had to be turned over to correct rotation.http://www.aulro.com/afvb/C:\Users\O...hotos\SAM_5911 The engine is a 3 litre Toyota Hilux common rail diesel mated to a Ford transit 6 speed gearbox and LR Defender transfer case. The vehicle as in the photo with the camping module (removable) and fully equipped with all tanks full (200 litres of water and 200 litres of diesel) weighs 3.5 tons, so about 2 tons are on the rear axle and carried by two VW portals, a ton each! With this we have travelled 12000 km round the top of Australia from Melbourne to Perth, partly over heavily corrugated roads, with no problems. However, we carry two complete rear reduction hub sets including brakes and hubs/drums and custom made half-shafts, because if one fails the vehicle cannot be towed and has to be repaired on the spot. This is what we had to do in Durban after shipping over from Perth because the retaining nut on the inside of the main shaft holding the wheel had come off and the rear bearing collapsed. After replacing the complete unit and repairing the broken one we carried on through Lesotho, Botswana and Namibia for another 14000 kms during which time we had to remove the rear (Salisbury) axle twice and weld up some cracks in the housing because we were carrying too much weight. So on return to NZ we introduced a third driven axle (6x6) with the spare reduction hubs to be able to carry more weight, increase cab space and improve performance in sand. We also changed to parabolic springs, which has increased comfort and reduce body roll.
How can I attach photos?
