I’m running 305/65/18 - on paper, it says There 34” but there bfg’s.. stock axles, with 4.43 gearing. And I can Highway 2hrs plus without any problem at 75/80 all day long. It’s sweet spot is 65/70 at that gearing . Motor has about 140k on it.
low is now so low that off-roading is excellent at a leisure pace. Just about the amount of room I have for articulation.

Ive seen No problem with stock axels.


thats said, I don’t think I wheel as hard as someone looking to do a full axel swap.
a guy in the Chicago Land Rover club had done Toyota swaps, corrected castor & ran 37’s with 4.70 or 5.19 gears. I remember him saying they’re wider..

 

yea the LC axles will be a little wider but should be way less than true tons. I'm surprised he didn't trim his rear door and quarterpanel, I'd imagine with those tires he's losing a ton of up travel and had to bump stops to keep from destroying the body. I plan on trimming the rear to match the front, name of the game is up travel on these things to keep CG as low as possible when articulating. Though the rear of the D2 is tough to increase the up travel without modifying the rear tub to raise the rear shock mount as it's already pretty well tucked up there.

Edit: Sunday, do you know if he kept the rover suspension? Front suspension looks like the same mounting for the radius arms as a rover axle

 

I’d have to ask him. That was a few years ago.

ive been told stock rover axles have a reasonable torsion rate - neighborhood of 3000lbs failure rate.
They put up with a lot of off roading & stamina right from factory floor.. (camel cup) I was under impression that even at full lock; say arb or detroit- the axle can withstand quite a bit before it slowly wont twist back 100% each time. that’s with a loaded, lifted d2 - say close to 6000 lbs?
my truck is a little heavier. Locked front/rear and no problems yet. I did explode my carrier which led to said locking diffs - so fatigued axels are still climbing and being used.

GBR claims His HD shafts, made in USA, are nearly 10,000lbs torsion failure rate. Per individual axle shaft.
So Correcting castor angle in front & leaving stock equipment sans a fabricated swap.. that there is all I will ever need. I would even scalp some extra shafts of a junk d2 for spare while I decided to round up 2k for HD axles?

 

Yea I think my reasoning behind swapping will be more for the custom suspension. All the welding on the axle for 3/4 link brackets would do better on a beefier housing. I've had no issues with my stock axles thus far either with a locked rear. I don't need to link my vehicle but if I have the space and time it's a project I'd enjoy doing. And rather than upgrade to HD axles on the stock ones and regear and lock my front I'd go with stronger stock LC axles and lock/regear those and give me a stronger housing to weld to. The amount of jeepers in CO is insane so it's always fun to see their faces when a nicely put together rover walks past them on an obstacle they are all stuck at.

 

Oh damn I didn’t know about this show! I subbed

and btw, I’m running 33’s on stock axles & diffs. No problems but I don’t hit the trail at 50mph either.

i am going to upgrade to Ashcroft’s and 35’s after I get my diffs built

 

Looks like episode No.2 is out...

 

I’m glad to see someone finally feature the Discovery. Overkill or not, shows what mods can be done.

 

Good watch, I Will say.

 

I finally watched the 2 videos yesterday and I agree, lot of good information in there. I still can't imagine that thing moving at highway speeds with a rover motor and all that extra weight and 37s...but that's a different story lol.

 

There are also some other good videos of him making a custom roof rack & some rear compartments for overlanding storage. It will be interesting to watch this rig transform over the next few months. Overall a good watch .