Perentie Land Rover Buyers Guide

Grays had one ambulance 6x6 up for auction in Victoria and I was lucky enough to win it. When I flew down from Sydney to pick it up, on inspection there was no jack, no garden tools, no log books, no blue slip, no operation manual for the winch and surprisingly enough no compliance plate or compliance certificate to go with the vehicle. I was handed over a pink copy of the receipt and was shown where the vehicle was. Started first go, checked all the fluids, filled both tanks and drove straight back to Sydney. What a great piece of machinery to drive, very load and hot and kept searching for the 5th gear, but what a magnificent piece of machinery. Don't regret it one bit. Great buy :D

Your Ambo has the same "Marvin the Martian" stencil on the rear step as my 6x6 Assault Pioneer. Shame you didn't get the Service Record Book, it would have been good to cross reference to see what units they had in common to ID who "Marvin" was.


I would also raise the Compliance issue with AFM at Minto. They will be able to put you in contact with someone at Land Rover who can issue a Letter of Compliance. Unfortunately, they cannot re-issue the plate. I had the same issue, and the letter has proved sufficient for all needs when required.

You are correct 303gunner. I do have a picture of Marvin the Martian on the back drop down step. Unfortunately he will be removed soon as I need to cut a hole in the drop down step so I can fit up a pintle hook tow hitch. It is a shame no log books were supplied
I spoke to Brad from KLR Automotive who managed to track down the cert. from AFM for me as well as setting up a blue slip inspection next week. Brad was a breath of fresh air as he was helpful and very informative. He also asked AFM to look around for the log books (won't hold my breath) and if found I'll share its history on a post.

Can't wait to play with my toy:D

Hi I am new to this but I am thinking of buying a ex military land rover and I am looking for advice should I go with the Isuzu motor and the 4 speed or the TD5 motor with the 5 speed? I don't suppose you can put the 5 speed behind the Isuzu?
any advice welcome

A 5 speed gearbox can go with an Isuzu but no production 110s for the military (Perenties) were manufactured that way.

Civvy LRs made at the same time as the Perentie had a choice of Isuzus and V8s engine with LT85 (Santana) 5 speed gearboxes.

If you want an ex-mil coil spring 110 LR they will mostly be Isuzus with the 4 speed LT95 box, there were about 50 Td5s with the 5 speed R380 box and a limited number of 130s with the 4 cyl 300tdi again with R380.

An ex-mil LR110 (Perentie) will have been assembled with the 4 speed and while options do exist to change it (which will co$t) - why would you want to? The 4sp LT95 is a robust gearbox.

Some would consider the ex-mil Td5s that you mention to be a little more civilised.

Take a look at:

buymilitaryvehicles.com
and post #6 on p1 of this thread

I will take a guess, you have got a Perentie and you want it to go faster :) I would suggest you fit an overdrive,I know that there is a "Rocky Mountain" overdrive that is quite good, BUT, with the torque vibrations put out by the 4BD1 you may have a shortened life of the overdrive,it may be worth while to look into 4 spd +Overdrive 5th in a Izusu truck box ;)

cheers

thanks just trying to decode whether I chase a 5 speed TDR5 vehicle to buy or go with the Isuzu with the 4 speed. Never thought of an overdrive option. Might look into the truck box option a bit.

Hi Sadcase, I used to have an Isuzu powered 110 County with the LT95 four speed and it could certainly have benefitted from a five speed transmission or over drive. Fabulous in the bush but it ran out of revs on the highway. Definitely worth doing. I understand the Santana 5 speed worked well but have no personal experience to go on. Cheers, 130man.

I have a County Isuzu with the LT85 five speed o/d box. The o/d gear really makes it as a touring car. 2000 rpm @ 100 k's, 220 rpm @ 110 k's. I don't use o/d under 80 k's.

Gee wiz, if only I knew about the pain of registering a 6x6 I would have perhaps considered a 4x4 instead. I went and got a weigh bridge ticket for my 6x6 ambulance and it came in at a Tare mass of 4.56 tonnes. That's 1.68t for the front axle and 2.88t for the back two. This means I will need a light truck engineers modification compliance plate to be fitted by an approved engineer. Just conversing with this engineer I'm already looking at $1000+ just to get that done. Then I need to do some internal mods to the rear facing seat in the cabin and get padding done to all the bed frames inside the cabin. Then I still need a blue slip. Then finally a light truck rego if everything is smooth sailing. Not sure of the total cost to get it registered, but it surely isn't cheap and jeez it's slow as everything takes time, like for the plates to get stamped and then documents to be approved and sent back. Oh well, the price you pay to own a 6x6 Perentie I guess.
Has anyone else gone through the same issues I have been facing in NSW.......?