hey all, so i recently had my crawler stolen,trailer n all! a friend of mine sold me a 2000 Discovery 2 for $350, i live in Lake Tahoe on the west shore, and the East trail head of the Rubicon in literally in my backyard, ive been guiding on the rubicon and the rim trail for 21 years and the only vehicle that i have never ever had to pull out,pull up or down,flip back over, or had to work on on the trail has been Rovers!! so with a broken heart from having my $75k crawler and Guide vehicle stolen, im building this discovery 2 and have to have it ready by the time the trail opens............id say mid may at the latest, i am a fabricator, and automotive mathematician(meaning i can blue print you anything from cages,to full crawlers,desert racers,sand rails, anything at all,and build it) im new to rovers, this one i have has solid axles,allwheel drive,low range,is an auto trans, V8, it has every single option that was offered, i am looking for anything off-road for it at a reasonable price, before i start fabricating, i have money,or if your in need of someone with my skill set we can do that too, so if ya got off road parts,mainly lift kit, or any long travel stuff you wanna sell, please hit me back


on a side note, its pretty cool to have a forum like this that is dedicated strictly to rovers!!

 

welcome

 

If money is no object and you're wanting to build a heavy duty crawler, get a big RTE Fab lift. Google RTE Fab and you'll find them. They've got quite a few goodies and really friendly to talk to on the phone.

For bumpers, there are options out the ears, but they're all expensive and I don't like the look of any of them. I'm going to fab my own, but you can check with RTE, Lucky 8, and Rovers North.

You're also going to want true-trac lockers, I recommend Detroit for reliability, and some 4.11 or lower gears. Lucky 8 will hook you up there.

Finally, with a 2000 model you're one of the lucky ones with factory CDL. All you need to activate it is a CDL shifter linkage from a Discovery 1, or one from an 04 D2, but they're more expensive. Check with Paul Grant and Abran here on the forums.

Finally, of course, do a full run through of the 60k maintenance. I'd recommend an electric fan since you'll be doing lots of low speed stuff. Remove the rear sway bar, make disconnects for the front sway bar, and make sure you have the greaseable front driveshaft. And be sure to grease it at every oil change. Check out the link in my description. I've done write UPS on the electric fan as well as the sway bar disconnects a long with quite a few other things and you can find an index of them there. Some of them may work well for your rig.

 

Oh! And do the inline thermostat mod for sure.

 

Maybe because it's rare for them to get past the gatekeepers.

 

I have experience on the Rubicon trail with my Rover, but I am not the only one here. I know some others on here have also been. I did it in a Discovery 1 which has some significant advantages (shorter body, less rear overhang, and triangulated four-link in the rear instead of radius arms). Based on my experience, the RTE fab three inch lift with “cranked” radius arms is the best “bolt-on” kit available. I don’t have any personal experience with their rear setup for a DII that includes a watts link, since the D1 uses trailing links and an A-arm.

RTE fab is not the only way to go, and not even the way I would recommend, especially if you can fabricate anything. You can get +6-degree radius arms from Terrafirma (available from Atlantic British, Lucky8, etc.). For the rear, get a 4-link kit from Ruff Stuff Specialties and work it out. You can do links on the front end as well, but the radius arms will save you a lot of time and get you on the trail sooner.

There are no crawler springs for Rovers. Everything available off the shelf is so short it will dislocate. You can sit around pontificating whether cones or retainers are better, or you can just put coilovers on. Fabricating some hoops or towers in the front is straightforward. In the rear, you’ll probably have to come through the floor pan to do it right. 14” is about the right shock length. Even that might be past the limits of the radius arms and the panhard rod.

The Rover is obviously a full-bodied vehicle. You’ll want to protect the sills with sliders. The doors will be vulnerable. You’ll need diff guards, and a gas tank skid. Tactical 4x4 makes nice diff guards. Columbia Roving had a good deal on aluminum gas tank skids. I’m not sure if they’re still available.

You can stuff 33's on a Discovery. I think on a Discovery II you can stuff 35's. A few have gone bigger but you'd have to swap axles and you'd probably lose up-travel. You'll also probably be cutting rear doors. 33's will soon break fatigued axles. Fresh stock axles are a good way to go unless you have the budget for 4340. With 33's, ~4.14 gears are still good on the highway, or you can get more if you won't be on the highway much. A Detroit locker in the rear and a selectable in the front would be the best option for the Rubicon. You'll want to change the carrier and not just weld it because it's weak. If you have budget for selectable, check out the Ashcroft locker or ARB.