4x4 Mag - Technical Tips

Technical Tips - August 1999

by John Deaville and Graham Scott

Fuel Consumption

I wish to improve the fuel consumption on my V8 SWB Land Rover. Can you tell me what is the best way to do this.

Better not to have a V8 Landie ! That being aside, take a look at the carbs, if they are Stromberg carbs get looking for a good set of SU carbs. once found fit and set up for mixture and balance and you'll notice a big difference. Next, if you are still using 4.7 diffs these need to be changed to 3.54 diffs out of a Range Rover. Not only will that improve the fuel consumption but also your top speed and cruising speeds. However, for every gain there is a drawback, and you will need to have your speedo recalibrated because you may be upto 20mph under reading, you need to keep the right side of the speed cameras. Next step is to fit an overdrive which will help a little bit more. You should be realising about 25/26 or perhaps even more on a steady run, but if you're a "lead foot" none of the above will help !

Winch

I am thinking of fitting a winch to my Suzuki SJ413, can you tell me what the best place is to fit one front or rear ?

Good question .. most off-road vehicles have the winch fitted on the front, but normally the easiest way out when you are stuck is the way you came in ! The answer, therefore, is one front and rear, however, being realistic a front mounted application is by far the most convenient and most manufacturers offer a kit specifically for your vehicle..

Extra breathing

Can I fit longer breather pipes to the axles on my LR 90 ?

Yes you can and there's a few ways of doing this. Firstly you can just extend the ones you have got with the necessary length of windscreen washer tubing. Or you can remove the existing pipe from the banjo fitting on the axles and using windscreen washer tubing fitting a plastic tie-strap on the banjo end to make sure you have a tight fit then run the tube up to the bulkhead. Make sure you check the gearbox and transfer box pipes too if you intend doing a lot of deep water wading. See July's issue for tips on air filters and snorkles.

Detroit and True trac diffs etc.,

Last year we fitted a Detroit diff for the rear and a Truetrac for the front on the Bowler Special and have had a good twelve months serious off-roading without any breakages, great, well worth the cost and time investment. Alas, last Sunday having a great play off-road we managed to lose drive via a very badly broken o/s CV joint assembly, with a badly chewed inner half shaft. As said these diffs are very strong and you need a weak point somewhere, better that to be a CV or half shaft than gearbox or transfer box.

Towing Points

We ran this item last month and are including it again in order to emphasise the importance of this issue. Although this point has not been generated by a specific enquiry we have received a lot of query into this matter and it follows on from the point raised above by the Lada Niva owner. All vehicles have "towing eyes" as we call them, at least one front and one rear depending on the mnake and size of the machine. These are designed for use when the vehicle is carried on a transported for holding them onto the deck. They can also be used for general recovery by the various breakdown organisations for road side rescue. Take note, there is a vast difference between a tarmac road and a rutted muddy field with perhaps six to eight inches of mud ! These towing eyes are not designed for recovery of a bogged down vehicle, neither is the front bumper for that matter. The physical force needed to extract a vehicle which is snagged by its body and own weight in a mud-hole are considerable and for this reason a specially fabricated front tow assembly is recommended. The rear towing hitch on your 4x4 will suffice, having said that it will be necessary to check the security of all fittings. We will be covering aspects of recovery in the AUGUST issue, however, we must state here that only rope is suitable for vehicle recovery. Stay away from chains and steel rope, and NEVER MIX ROPE with anything else ! If you want specific advice on recovery equipment please send an e-mail to :richard@4x4mag.co.uk