No Neutral in the transfer case

[skippy down under]

I am looking at this because I Aframe the Skippy behind the Unimog.
When you select transfer case neutral, this engages the front drive shaft.
I have my theory's.
Lets see what comes up.

To over come the complaint, I fitted free wheeling hubs on the rear. Yes they bolt straight on.
Stephen

[skippy down under]

Hi Diana,
Thats what I thought, but no.
You go try it. With your free wheel huds in 4X2, the front drive shaft is free to turn by hand. Now engage transfer case neutral, now you can not turn the front drive shaft.
My theory goes back to when Land Rovers where a frame implement, had the belt drive on the back.
To engage the PTO you have to select transfer case neutral & a gear for the speed of the PTO in the gear box right.
Now to stop the vehicle moveing you engage the hand brake. This is now connected to all four wheels for firm anchorage. Not just the rear wheels. They just sew no need to change the design.
The down side is when TOWEING a Land Rover. I know we don't have to do this very often?
Anyway all the transfer case & gearbox parts are spining over. Wearing already old, damaged gears & bearings, making noise & sucking horse power of the towing vehicle. Inless it's another Land Rover.
Thats my theory.
Stephen

[zulu delta 534]

I believe that this automatic selection occurred, as you stated earlier, to "up" the efficiency of the handbrake system when the vehicle was used as an implement.
The golden rule states; If and when towing a Series landy anywhere, the correct procedure is to select neutral in the GEARBOX and select HIGH RANGE in the TRANSFER CASE. The reason for this is to stop any wind up occurring in the transfer case caused through the reasons you mentioned earlier, i.e. the automatic selection of selecting 4WD in neutral.
NEVER tow the vehicle when Low range is engaged.
In your particular case of sustained towing on an A Frame, apart from removing the propshafts, your solution of fitting freewheel hubs all round is a good solution, second only to floating on a  trailer.
Regards
Glen

[zulu delta 534]

Probably so as the animal was never initially designed to do the amount of 'paved road tasks' that are asked of a modern day four wheel drive.
I remember from early field days that the Land Rover was pushed primarily as a farm implement with the added sideline being the ability to take Mum into town on a Saturday morning.
It could happily run a circular saw,  power a hay thresher, pull a mower, tow and power a hay baler or whatever machinery the farmer of the day owned. Remember back in those days not many civvies had the money to operate modern machinery on farms. Horses were still big time.
Nearly everything about the vehicle was implement minded, PTOs, winches, removable parts, off centre towing devices suitable for three point linkages etc., and the list goes on, so with that in mind I would assume (well aware of the danger of that word) that one of the design benchmarks would have been safe to use as a stationary power source. The other great workhorse of the day had only just beaten Rover to the market but not yet gained its present day cult following, that is the Fergy tractor. These two implements competed in a similar market.
Of course the question will always arise, was the transfer case designed this way on purpose, or was this the cheapest and easiest solution at the time and the so called advantages of a more stable hand braking system simply written in to the handbook to cover the fact.
The general history of the vehicle tells us that it was a copy of the wartime Jeep that was seeing widespread use on farms post war as general workhorses, so it only goes to follow that the farming requirements of the day would have had a fair influence in its development in England, just as the SMA had influence on its road-wise development out here. But all this is heresay. Perhaps Arthur Goddard can throw some light on the subject.
Regards
Glen