Shortening a Range Rover chassis to '88?

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Streaky

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I've had a search but can't seem to find any information.

I'm looking into building a hybrid. Range Rover chassis with S2 body. Not certain of which engine though.

What is involved in shortening the chassis?From what I can work out its,chop a section out the middle,put a series rear crossmember on and put some bulkhead outriggers on. Any other things to be aware of?Has anyone done this on here before?Also is it even a good idea?

Any information would be really helpful.

Thanks.
 
its been done that many times that there's even a tv series on it! if you can put up with the bad jokes mark evans did "a 4x4 is born" where he shorted a range rover chasis and put a v8 and defender body work on it.

he's just got really really bad jokes......

i've seen a few shortened range rover chassis on ebay as well, must be loads going about.
 
Not everyone cares about this ... but do watch out for vehicle identity issues (assuming you are in the UK ...)

Using a RR chassis (and axles, steering, transmission etc) means the vehicle should keep the RR identity, assuming you can do it without chopping the chasssis about. Chopping the chassis means that you should get it SVA'd afterwards. It is illegal to build a hybrid like this and claim the (tax exempt?) S2's identity on it. The body counts for absolutely nothing towards the identity of the vehicle.

Read more about it here.
Registering a radically altered vehicle : Directgov - Motoring

However, what you claim as the ID of the vehicle and what you tell your insurance company are two separate things. You can be totally honest with your insurer, but just hope that you never get pulled up for a VOSA vehicle identity check!

I'd be more tempted just to buy a 90 or 110, even if it means you don't have something tax exempt.
 
The whole point of doing this was in the god old days there was the coil sprung rangie and the old leaf sprung series landy. So if you wanted the improved ride and handling of a coiler but stlll a proper landy you had to build a hybrid. The Land Rover came up with the absolutely wizzard idea of building the coil sprung 90/110 thus rendering building the aforementioned hybrid a total waste of time.
 
hughesy said:
thus rendering building the aforementioned hybrid a total waste of time.
Click to expand...

Unless, of course, you have a Range Rover, want a 90/shorter Rangey, but don't want to sell/buy one ... ;)
 
I'm a confirmed Leafer, but I just made my first foray in to the wonderful world of coil-sprung Landy utilities yesterday ... picked up an ex-military 90 for £200! They're getting proper cheap nowadays.
 
Thanks for the replys.

Yeah in a sense I feel the same. The idea only really came about as I found a project 2A but the chassis is dead. A friend of mine then offered me a VERY cheap RR chassis.

You do loose something when doing it but I think at the same if its going to bring an old beast back to life and improve performance it can't be all bad.

As for the loss of ID. I wasn't aware of this. It is tax exempt, but to be fair I don't want it to be on a q plate or anything else,is there any way round this?

Also, and this is totally off topic, if I was to stay with the leaf chassis, how much should I look to pay for a descent secondhand one and also is marslands the best for new ones.

Thanks again.
 
Would personally steer clear of a 2nd hand chassis, as there are ID issues with that too, ie ... the chassis will have a number on it that differs from your S2a logbook. You can pick them up for £50 upwards, but most need work.

The only really clear route to stay the right side of the law is to use a brand new like-for-like chassis. Although the cheaper new Series 3 chassis will fit most of your components, it's not exactly a like-for-like replacement. Both Marslands and Richards will make you a chassis to order that is an exact replica of your 2a one, you'll probably pay around £100+ more than the cheapo Series 3 ones. You will need to keep the receipt with your service history in case you have to submit for a Vehicle Identity Check.

Are you sure you can't save the chassis you've got? I've just done a really rusted one, replaced 5 outriggers, the rear crossmember and a front dumbiron ... as long as the main rails are mostly OK they can usually be saved.
 
TheSmiths88 said:
Would personally steer clear of a 2nd hand chassis, as there are ID issues with that too, ie ... the chassis will have a number on it that differs from your S2a logbook. You can pick them up for £50 upwards, but most need work.

The only really clear route to stay the right side of the law is to use a brand new like-for-like chassis. Although the cheaper new Series 3 chassis will fit most of your components, it's not exactly a like-for-like replacement. Both Marslands and Richards will make you a chassis to order that is an exact replica of your 2a one, you'll probably pay around £100+ more than the cheapo Series 3 ones. You will need to keep the receipt with your service history in case you have to submit for a Vehicle Identity Check.

Are you sure you can't save the chassis you've got? I've just done a really rusted one, replaced 5 outriggers, the rear crossmember and a front dumbiron ... as long as the main rails are mostly OK they can usually be saved.
Click to expand...

I didn't know this.

I think that the new route prob is the way, its just a hell of alot to fork out, but I guess you get what you pay for!

Well with the landy concerned, it has had serious welding done in the past,both main rails are plated all the way down,plates on plates, rust coming from inside and rusting inside out...its a bit of a horrer to be honest.
 
Fortunate enough to live next door to the local scrapman. He had been offered it (heaven knows what he paid for it, substantially less than £200 I'd imagine!!), and dropped by to see if I was interested. (believe me, scrapmen seem to get first refusal on some amazing bargains!)

The rest is history ... I didn't actually want it myself but knew a mate who would. So I bought it, and he took it off me this afternoon ... everyone is happy.

It wasn't too bad either, needed a rear X-member, nearside bulkhead outrigger, pair of footwells. Had only done 36000km. Cracking project. Quite an early one, C-reg (1985?).
 
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