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New Zealand Army Land-Rover. Series 3, 3.5 V8 'Stage One', 109in WB, 1986.
Welcome to Phill's Shed (REMLR Member 163):
Hi all. I purchased my Land-Rover from a local car sales yard in Christchurch NZ. I believe some one bought it at tender in Auckland and traded it in at Christchurch. It is a NZ Army Radio Truck. It has 24v electrics, and a 24v 100-amp generator. The engine is the Rover/Buick 3.5 litre V8 and it has 103,000km on the clock.
After a few modifications it was just what I wanted for hunting. We go varmint hunting with spotlights. Most of the farms to which we have access have a big problem with rabbits. It is quite normal for us to shoot up to 200 rabbits a night and it has often been higher. Our typical hunting trip involves driving into the middle of large fenced paddocks and spotlighting around, shooting what we see, then driving to the next paddock. We can shoot out roughly a 5000-acre farm in a night. I hunt with a Bruno Fox in 22 Hornet, and not surprisingly use a lot of reloaded ammunition. | |
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When I test drove the Land-Rover Series 3 Stage One I realised that I was not going to drive it far because it downed fuel like it was free, and with the overall final reduction it was revving hard at 90km/hr. The first thing I did was modify the final drive, and have the final drive ratio changed from 1.366 to 1.116. My local Land-Rover parts shop supplied me with a new set of transfer gears at a reduced price. The second thing I did was have a LPG kit fitted, but more about that later.
The recovery tools did not come with it. |
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I have left the Nato ring in place, and I pity the first person that back ends me.
The Army Landy came with an enormous roof rack. It was noisy at high speed and was not helping the fuel economy so off it came. It has been put I storage in case I ever need it. |
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I mounted a second hand 80 litre LPG tank in the back behind the seats. It is partially hidden by a section of DPM, my old high lift jack and the jerry can that came from my Series 2 Landy. The NZ Army Land-Rover came with two petrol tanks. The side tank is approximately 50 litres and the rear is 60 litres. Currently it costs $125 to fill up the petrol tanks and this gives only 600km range or $21 per 100km. On LPG the running cost has dropped to $10 per 100km, which is the same as my long suffering and very understanding wife’s four cylinder car. |
| I left both petrol tanks in place because I did not want to limit the range of the vehicle (a 900km range is quiet useful), but also because the second hand LPG tank only cost me the price of the inspection and was essentially free. The LPG tank I had was too large to fit under the vehicle. | |
| Nobody ever said Series Land-Rovers were luxurious, but they do the job. Tough.
Note that I have modified the hood irons above the windscreen so the windscreen can be removed while still leaving the roof up. |
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| The large extra instrument in the centre of the dash is a multi-purpose battery condition, low oil and low water indicator. Under it is an hour meter and 100A amp meter. The vehicle has Army convoy lighting, which I left in place. The LPG-Off-Petrol switch is installed on the RHS of the centre console.
Note the gun rack, the bottom butt plate and the clip that holds the barrel. |
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The LPG regulator is now where the washer bottle was and the washer bottle has been replaced with a second hand bag type from a Honda Accord.
This Land-Rover has an Army RF shielded distributor. Because I could not buy parts for it, I replaced it with one from a Range Rover. I was lucky to find a points distributor in good condition. |
| I am a mechanical engineer by profession and have a pathological distrust of electronics. I bought a new distributor cap and lead set, and my local Land-Rover guru fitted a 'O' ring under the cap and ventilated it from the manifold to insure it is water proof.
Many of the people I know with recreational four-wheel-drives will lead me across rivers with little regard to what damage water can do, so I also extended all the breathers to the top of the air cleaner. I believe that by the time the water gets half way up the side of my motor, my loony mates with lower four-wheel-drives will be looking for a tow home. When the bank balance recovers I will fit a stereo set up and a CB radio, but that’ll be another story. PD. March 2003.
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