A Treatise on Bad Decisions: My XD

[Dave P]

That is an awesome find! Funny enough I bent my XD rack this September in exactly the same place. I did it in a trail in VT, Calvin Coolidge forest. It mostly straightened out. But who really cares, it shouldn’t be a mall Queen.
These trucks are great on western trails with no overhead trees but in the East, I should have built up a D90.
I also resolved my V8 issues by swapping in a 300Tdi/R380.
Good luck with the truck! I enjoyed your write up.

 

[overlanxd]

Love it. Great write up and amazing to see the transformation. By the way, no vehicle is ever "too far gone". Read @Tugela 's write up of Chuck's TReK XD. Chuck bought it from Mass. where it was, by all accounts, beyond repair. And yet, he did. Restored it, using a '98 LSE frame and a TON of elbow grease.

Start thinking about the GARR in Moab, Sept 2021. I'm working on a reunion of TReK, XD, and ECO-Challenge rigs. Would love to see your XD there!

Oh for sure, nothing so drastic that I'm putting it out to pasture or anything. Simply that it's never going to be a mint representation of an XD again. It's going to be a go-er, not a show-er.

I would love to get out to Moab in September in the XD, but that's probably not in the cards next year. 2200 miles one way with a what will be two year old? Ooof.

If anything ever happens in the northeast though, I'd be interested.

 

[pdXDisco97]

These trucks are great on western trails with no overhead trees but in the East, I should have built up a D90.

Surely you mean "SOUTHwestern trails". In the PNW, we routinely have club runs that specifically call out "NO roof racks or RTTs" as a pre-requisite. LOL!

 

[pdXDisco97]

Are you thinking about a swap meet at that reunion? That's something we need to start doing. I bet for every part I'm looking for right now at least 3 of you guys have one.

I'm not the organizer of the event, so I don't know the status of a swap meet, I just asked to have a space dedicated to TReK/XD's. I'm sure there will be some parts swapping while we're there. There's a lot of desire to source rare XD parts, but the group is pretty spread out...

 

[Tugela]

Surely you mean "SOUTHwestern trails". In the PNW, we routinely have club runs that specifically call out "NO roof racks or RTTs" as a pre-requisite. LOL!

Agreed, many of the forested trails in Washington State are so narrow that I occasionally end up using my Safety Devices rack as a tree slider for the roof on off-camber sections.

 

[ERover82]

Agreed, many of the forested trails in Washington State are so narrow that I occasionally end up using my Safety Devices rack as a tree slider for the roof on off-camber sections.

Most mountain trails around here involve one or more of these.

 

[pdXDisco97]

Most mountain trails around here involve one or more of these.
View attachment 60225

Chevy Malibus?

 

[ERover82]

Chevy Malibus?

For many LRs, it's like coercing a giraffe to limbo.

 

[Lake_Bueller]

Fast forward a few weeks and look what found it's way into my possesion (mostly by mistake)



She's a little rusty and a lot crusty (parked in a barn for the most of the past 3 years). Needs an electrical gremlin solved, tires are roached, and the brakes are super spongy. But it will look nice parked along with my G4 and TReK.

 

[Dave P]

Fast forward a few weeks and look what found it's way into my possesion (mostly by mistake)

View attachment 60302

She's a little rusty and a lot crusty (parked in a barn for the most of the past 3 years). Needs an electrical gremlin solved, tires are roached, and the brakes are super spongy. But it will look nice parked along with my G4 and TReK.

I’d love to see more of both of these trucks! What are the dates stamped on the plates? Compare it to the build date on the door. I’d be interested to know. My XD is a late January ‘97 truck but I have seen December and all the way to March stamped on them. Keep in mind it’s stamped as Day-Month-Year Euro style.

 

[Lake_Bueller]

I'll have to look at the plaque again for the date. I want to say it was Dec. 1996,

I have a non-running XD that was part of the package deal. I have it for sale but it's rough. The build date on that one is 12/14/96

 

[Dave P]

I'll have to look at the plaque again for the date. I want to say it was Dec. 1996,

I have a non-running XD that was part of the package deal. I have it for sale but it's rough. The build date on that one is 12/14/96
[/QUOTE
PM me about the non-runner.where is it?

 

[ukoffroad]

Agreed, many of the forested trails in Washington State are so narrow that I occasionally end up using my Safety Devices rack as a tree slider for the roof on off-camber sections.

Same here, rack can be a tree rail. Just do not mount a hi lift or anything on the sides.

 

[ptschram]

First off, in the world of Land Rover-involved poor decisions, this barely scratches the surface! ;-)

Nice truck.

I'm curious about the original block. I overheated my '95 DI so badly that a valve guide came loose jamming a valve open. The truck went another 115,000 miles before the body rot got too bad and it still lives on as the shop Yard Mule.

For the love of all that is holy, WHY do folks remove the torque converter when removing the engine? Putting the torque converter back in its home can be as much of a bear of a job as the rest of the engine swap! Just leave the damn thing where it is!