I goofed off this evening and drove around the property in 4 low just kinda testing everything. It all works: low range, CDL, HDC, the winch, etc. No pics as I couldn’t find anything of consequence to mess around on, but it does pretty well.

I adjusted the steering box a bit more and think I have it now, but I have to say, the castor is off with the radius arms in there as the steering is a bit lazy. This will come in time as I decide on probably a very slightly more moderate suspension setup. It apparently has small lifting springs and some spacers in there, which I’m not a fan of, but it sure rides nice- better than any of my other D2s ever did. I also adjusted the street tire pressures and it definitely is driving a good bit nicer. Ironically I still very much prefer how the Alveston drives, but the ride is significantly more Cush in the silver one.

Of course the temps bordering too low at times…

As all systems are working great, now I can get down to brass tacks for the rally and what prep will entail. I’m thinking I’ll do a transmission service and certainly oil as well at a minimum, and might see about just swapping out power steering fluid too.

The tick is still there as it gets up to temp, but seems less pronounced as it’s running I suspect 30+ degrees cooler now. I’ve driven it a bit hard just to test (certainly harder than I normally drive my Discos) and it’s just fine. The oil change will a good baseline for stuff and go from there.

Where this is going to really be fun as it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, is start to work on the engine on the stand. With how few miles I’m putting on, I suspect this engine will last until I get the other one built, so I’m looking forward to it.

This weekend we’ll head out and do a mild trail run with a few little bits and see how it does in the wild and then I’ll really have a baseline for what I want to do. In terms of modifications there is very minimal I’m looking at as xrad really did a great job with this thing and there is very little more it could possibly need. I’ll probably go back to silly little things like a snorkel, change out the rack lights, and I guess a hood blackout. Beyond that, there is very little I could even think of wanting unless I decided to get it to the level of the Jeep.

A couple good Rover days are always good for the soul.

 

They are definitely all different haha can attest to that. We took the classic on it's first full family outing this weekend in almost 6 years of ownership as both discos are sidelined...it is just so comfy and the perfect cruiser when you can avoid 60+mph (have solution for that but you know time and well time haha). OEM is great if you can get a good t-stat but over time that has proven time and time again to be more difficult than it should be. What tires/size are on it? Spring spacers on these are not that bad. I have a set of small ones to level out my white disco and the classic has some huge 2" blocks on massive lift springs and they all perform just fine. I found that tire width has quite a bit to say on wandering on these cars more than lift, maybe that's just me but have had various sizes and lift amounts between my 2 discos.

 

The tires on there right now are 265 60 18. If I can find the time, I’d like to swap the ones from the Alveston (265 65 18) and see what those feel like. I’ve traditionally not been a fan of the BFGs (as we’ve talked about) but they are way better in the particular application.of the Alveston for whatever reason. Based on the very slightly smaller sidewall on the ones on the silver one now, I was expecting it to handle a bit better than it is. They are kinda no name brand, but so new I don’t want to ditch them until I’ve driven them a while longer. But I do want to see what the BFGs feel like.

I ran an errand today and I’ve got the steering box dialed really well, but again a bit lazy and can only think that is due to castor. I will say, the Alveston has tracked the best of any of my D2s, so the bar is pretty high there. But the plush nature of the spring/shock setup in the silver one is definitely a benchmark, it just doesn’t handle as well as I’d like. I took it on a dirt road at decent speeds (call it 50-60 mph) and with the roll as well as lazy steering, it wasn’t real confidence inspiring. Nothing is wrong at all, it’s just not as precise as I’d like. No bump steer or anything, just slower to react than I’d like.

But back on the T stat, the whole thing really revolves around simplicity. I don’t think the in line setup breaks or harms anything, and based on that simplicity and the obvious bleeding and quality of parts issue with the OEM T stat design, it makes the whole thing fun and I no longer have to dread cooling system service.

 

Does it have a front sway bar on it? that kind of sounds like it's been removed. K02s are yeah...haha but I'd still take them over an offbrand offering everytime. I don't notice too much wandering on my 3" lift and almost zero on 2" on the green one, I have some steering box adjusting to do on the white one with the 3" that should cut the wandering down some more, it's also loaded very heavy with RTT, bumpers, armor, and various tools and what not that live in the vehicle.