Rover 2.0

Jan 3, 2005
11,745
70
On Kennith's private island
I never did a write up on Rover 2.0. With this new Dweb section Chris has added it has motivated me to do so. Hopefully others will chime in with their detailed, quality, Rover set-ups.

I started with a 1999 Discovery 1 I found on Auto Trader. The truck was owned by a young lady attending Virginia Tech, and with the rising gasoline prices she was searching for a more gas friendly car to travel back-and-forth in.

The Rover was clean, although it needed a good bath. It also had a bit of slop in the front wheel bearings which I addressed in a parking lot before heading home in the truck.

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I went to work pretty much right away on getting the truck set-up the way I wanted it. Just prior to buying this truck I had another Discovery, 1.0, set-up for tougher trails. It was sitting on 35x13.50.15 BFG Krawlers on 10" Allied beadlocks. The truck was fun, but it had turned into a trailer queen and I wanted to be able to drive my Rover anywhere I wanted to go, near or far. With a truck the size of 1.0 there was something lost - I was not getting the Land Rover experience or something and I felt like I was driving a Jeep. So with 2.0 I wanted a much more drivable truck, yet a capable truck.

The first thing I added was a 2" Rovertym lift. I used HD springs in the rear and MD springs in the front. If I had no intentions of hauling a load, ever, I probably would have gone with MD springs all-around just for ride comfort. But that was not the case. I'm no longer familiar with Rovertym products and I do not know if their springs are what they once were. If I were in the market for new springs today, I would probably opt for the OME springs.

I also used OME shocks. These were standard +2 shocks at the time. Since then OME has changed the design a bit to offer a plastic stone shield vs the metal shields, which is nice.

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On the rear, I used the Expedition Exchange spring retainers. I probably could have gotten by with no spring retainers with a 2" lift, but I've seen some strange things happen in the past where folks would lose a spring on the trail. I hate problems, so this was an inexpensive option to keep the springs seated so I was never that asshole on the trail trying to refit a spring the hard way.

I also like the spring retainers over cones. There's a big debate over retainers vs cones and which will give you more traction off-road. I personally feel the spring retainers are a better way to go.

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When I installed the RTE springs I knew I was probably going to run into driveline vibrations. The 1999 D1 already had a u-joint rear driveshaft and not a rotoflex so I felt like I was okay out back. But up front I opted for the D2 style double cardon driveshaft. I grabbed one of these shafts from Will Tillery for something like $50, knowing it was going to need a rebuild. So I totally tore the D2 shaft apart and rebuilt it using a centering kit from Rockauto, and Spicer u-joints with the grease zirks in the end caps. I believe the Spicer joints have since been discontinued, but Neapeco USA joints seem to be just as good as the Spicer joints.

To fit a D2 shaft on a D1, the transfer case drive-flange must be replaced from one off a Discovery 2. I sourced mine from Will Tillery.

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One of the weakest links the Rover has is the trailing arms. The stock arms will fold up as soon as they encounter a tree stump or rock. They have got to be replaced in you're going off-road with your truck. There are many "HD" options available on the market. I went for the Rovertracks trailing arms. I like the RT arms because they looked like stock trailing arms, but were heavy duty enough not to bend. Of course, new rubber bushings were installed as well.

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Additionally, another weak link on the Discovery is the tie rod. One whack on a tree stump or rock and your tie rod is toast. On 1.0 I used a huge oversized tie rod that was built to take a beating and not bend. But over time I leaned that bigger is not always better. Why overbuild something when you could just move it to a position where it does not get hit? That's what the off-set tie rod does - it gets out of the way from damage. This tie road came from Rockware and it uses the stock tie rod ends and clamps. No jam nuts to fuck with and no modifications are needed so you can fit a more "beefy" tie rod end. There is just no need to.

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I also installed the Rockware Defender drag link. What this does is allow you to move the steering damper to the drag link and out of the way from damage. Stock, the drag link is attached to the tie rod. That's a piss poor design as the first thing to get hit under the truck was the damper. So if you move it to the drag link its now safe from damage. The Rockware drag link is also heaver duty than the stock Rover drag link.

In order to fit the Defender drag link you have to do two things. 1) replace the pitman arm with one off a Range Rover Classic; 2) utilize the Defender ball joint that has the damper attachment point. I got this piece from Atlantic British. The last piece of the puzzle is welding on a D2 style damper attachment point to the frame. You can buy these from Expedition Exchange, or just make one yourself.

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You can also see in the pic above that I also welded on some diff guards. I used the RTE diff guards. I really like these vs the cow bell clamp on style, or the diff thong style from vendors such as QT. The weld on guards do not protrude below the diff like the QT guards, and they do not fall off like many other clamp-on styles.

There has been discussion in the past about weld on guards ripping the diff pans or axle housings open if they get hit. I have never seen this happen or ever heard about this actually happening. I feel the weld on guards are the only way to go.

Up next was a roof rack and some additional lighting. I chose the Safety Devices roof rack and Hella 4000 lights. Aside from some of the Camel Trophy racks available, which were probably also made by Safety Devices, I felt the SD rack was the best suited for the Discovery.

The Hella lighting included two pencil beams, and two cornering beams. I really liked this set-up. I liked how the lenses matched the Discovery's headlights and I liked the quality of the lamp itself. The light these lamps produced was plentiful. I had the option of getting the Hella HID lights, but I didn't see the point after talking with others. Plus, the HID's were hideously ugly with their red cases. A few years later LED lighting became available but I didn't like those, either. I just felt like LED lighting looked like shit on a Rover at the time, and my position has not changed even today.

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With the extra lighting I felt like I should do something about the alternator. I knew I would be also adding other power driven devices such as a fridge, HAM radio, air pumps, etc... so I wanted a little more output. I sourced a 120 amp alternator from Will Tillery for this. This was a direct drop-in replacement which provided me with at least 20 more amps.

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I also added a new battery. The battery that came with the truck was old and needed to be replaced anyway. I went with the Diehard Platinum PM2. There was some talk at the time about this battery being the same as an Odyssey battery, but I don't know for sure if that's true. However, the Diehard battery came with a 3-year warranty. Not a prorated warranty, but a 3-year replacement warranty. To me that's valuable.

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Next it was bumpers. I see a lot of times people will put on a bumper and maybe even a winch before adding springs. I hate that. The bumpers are heavy and sag the front of the truck. I had been hoarding this KVT bumper until the right time.

When I got the bumper the previous owner had hit something with it. One corner was bent and it no longer fit the truck very well. So I had the bumper sandblasted and then fixed the bend. I also boxed the bumper for strength, added additional bracing for the brush guard, and added 1/4" steel plates over top of the 3/8" winch box to mount recovery points to. I wanted the recovery mounts to be thick so I could tap mounting holes on the bumper so I didn't need to use nuts and washers as fasteners.

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I ended up using the bow shackle recovery points from EE. I still think these are some of the best recovery points currently on the market.

I also fitted a Warn XD9000i winch. This winch had good speed and just simply works. Although I carried a spare solenoid as a back-up, I never had to swap them out on this winch. This winch was at least 10 years old at the time and never failed. That can't be said for a lot of cheap, shitty, winches on the market today.

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One thing worth noting in the photo above is the absents of a Factor 55 pro link.

The think I liked the most about the KVT bumper was the way the winch fit in there. The XD9000i is a big winch. This winch does not have the solenoid pack you can annex at another location - it's built in. But the way the winch mounts to the KVT bumper its very well hidden. There was some modifications to the oil cooler, but that's easy enough to figure out.

I topped off the winch with some synthetic line from Master Pull.

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The same time as I added the front bumper I installed some BFG muds, 265/75/16. I liked the 265/75's over the 235/85's. The 235's were skinner than the 265's, but I like the 265's better since they filled out the fender more. I like the looks more than anything.

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If you own a Rover and take it off-road you have got to have rock sliders. I ended up with some homemade sliders made by Jeff Bang and Steve Ware. These sliders came off Steve's D2 that I believe he either wrecked or junked. I can't remember. But they fit the D1 reasonably well and I got them for cheap.

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Jan 3, 2005
11,745
70
On Kennith's private island
My rear bumper was crap. It was dented, the lights were cracked, and it needed to be replaced.

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There are lots of rear bumpers on the market but I didn't like any of them. The only rear bumper I liked was made by TJM, but TJM was out of the Rover business in the USA. I searched high-and-low for the TJM rear bumper. I finally got in touch with a TJM executive who got a bumper to me by way of a 4x4 shop in Winchester, VA (can't remember the name). He also got it to me for one hell of a price, even after shipping, which just sweetened the deal.

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At the same time I added a Rovertym CYA gas tank skid plate.

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I had decided in ARB air lockers to go in the diffs, so of course I was going to need air. I've seen some pretty crazy air set-up in the past. In the Discovery, it's hard to mount an on-board air set-up that looks clean. This was a challenge.

I started with a RRC air tank a buddy gave me for free. I had to fab up some tabs to weld to the frame, and some tabs for the tank so it could be removed for any reason.

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Under the hood I plumbed in an ARB pump. I was going to use this pump to power my air lockers but decided not to at the last minute. This pump was going to be just for on-board air to refill tires, etc... It turned out to be a really shitty pump for refilling tires, even with the 2-gallon reserve tank.

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I had also added a second air chuck for an air hose.

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The reason I did not use the pump under the hood for the lockers was because I didn't want the solenoids to be exposed to all the dirt and grime and cold under the hood. So I installed another ARB pump in the cargo area. There was a vent hole already there that would allow me to run the air lines out of. This worked out pretty well.

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While I was in there I added a trailer wiring harness and a second switch to power the pump in case there was ever a problem with my wiring to the front of the truck. I also added a second switch to my rear work lamp for convenience.

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Additionally, I added a few more 12v outlets. You can never have too many of these, unless you're Netjaws.

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I even put on in the center console. There should have been a 12v plug here from the factory. I used this one all the time.

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My new truck came with jump seats. I don't know why. These seats sucked for just about everything. So I junked the jump seats and seat belts, but left the brackets. I used the brackets to hold up a shelf in the cargo area. Using two pieces of 1" square stock I built a frame for my shelf. Then I just simply planked the frame with shelving board and covered it with cheap carpet. Added a few tie downs and boom, done. Now I had a place to secure my cargo.

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Under the cargo shelf I added a power inverter. These things are really nice. I went with a 2500 watt and it was just powerful enough to run a blow dryer for the lady when camping. :rolleyes:

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But even more, it was super nice to have when wrenching in the dark. We could plug all sorts of powerful lights into this thing, run pumps to inflate airbeds and floats at the lake, and charge batteries in cameras and handheld radios.

I went with ARB lockers and Ashcroft 4.11:1 gears. I had a Detroit before, and there was nothing wrong with the Detroit. But I wanted ARB's this time. I'll probably never go back to a Detroit. I loved the ARB's.

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With lockers and gears came axles. Out back I used Rovertracks axles. Up front I used some super secret never seen before prototype axles and CV's that ultimately became Ashcroft's new design, in part. There were a few small changes to the design before final production. I never had an axle or CV failure.

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Jan 3, 2005
11,745
70
On Kennith's private island
I took the truck out for a few shake down runs.

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I even took the truck to Vinalhavel Island, ME, and met up with Jeff Aronson for a few days, did some scuba diving, and camping along the Maine coast.

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After months of looking I finally found a new SD rack. I started off with the highlander rack but I was never happy with the look. It was just too tall. So when a lowlander became available I jumped. I liked the look much better with the low rack.

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A little while afterward I ended up in Texas. I met up with Justin at Lucky 8 and he installed a SD snorkel and rear ladder for me. I was never a fan of the rear ladder, but after fucking up my back in a sex accident (with a female), I needed that ladder to get up to the roof rack. So I caved. Justin and Jordan from Rovertym installed my new snorkel and ladder. I drank beer to ease the pain.

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I let a buddy of mine drive the truck for a bit.

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Then this happened.

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Then I sold the truck.

Stayed turned for 3.0.
 

fishEH

Well-known member
Jan 26, 2009
6,927
201
Lake Villa, IL
Oops.
DWeb,


There are two types of posts that are not welcome in this forum:

- Low-quality hacks. No write-ups on Sawzall'ing a D2 roof or low-quality bumper builds. Muddy Oval has cornered the market on this shit, anyway.

- Start-to-finish truck build write-ups. We're going to make another section for this soon, similar to D90's Registry feature. However, if you want to do write-ups for individual projects (e.g. "installing OME springs and shocks"), that's fine.

Nice looking truck, though.
 

rovercanus

Well-known member
Apr 24, 2004
9,643
244
I gotta say Dan, I use my ladder a lot. It makes it a hell of a lot easier to throw bales of hay off my rack. It's especially nice because I can get up there quickly enough without getting a curious horse nose up the butt.
 
Jan 3, 2005
11,745
70
On Kennith's private island
One of the many not so exciting changes on the truck were the headlight housings. Stock, the headlight housings are clear. There's nothing wrong with clear headlight housings, but on the white truck I liked the D2 headlight housings.

Here the truck is with the factory clear headlight housings.

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Here is the truck with the D2 housings.

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Purely cosmetic. But I liked the look better.

What you can't see is the PIAA wiring harness on the headlights. The PIAA harness connects the headlight power directly to the battery. It's a plug-n-play harness and it makes the headlights a LOT brighter. ARB also makes a headlight harness for the D1. These harnesses are mandatory on a D1, IMO.
 
Jan 3, 2005
11,745
70
On Kennith's private island
Another mandatory item every D1 needs is a convex mirror on the drivers side. You rarely see these. A convex mirror is one of the very first modifications I did to the truck and I do not have a before photo. But here is the field-of-view with a convex mirror. There mirrors are not expensive, but it's one of the little things that make your truck better.

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Jan 3, 2005
11,745
70
On Kennith's private island
Something I do not have very good photos of are the rubber spring isolators on the front springs of the Rover. The D1 came stock with a steel shock tower securing ring. These quickly rust out and need to be replaced every so-many years. But not if you use the rubber rings from a D2. I stole some of these photos from the Expedition Exchange website.

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With the D2 rubber rings, the springs have a buffer between them and the shock towers to help reduce vibrations. Vibration equals noise. There rubber rings will not make a night-and-day difference on your Rover, but in conjunction with other noise dampers it does make a little difference. Besides, they need to be replaced anyway.
 
Jan 3, 2005
11,745
70
On Kennith's private island
Brass radiator plug. If you don't have one already order one today. The cheap plastic plugs fail regularly. If you still have a plastic radiator plug it will break. It's not an "if". It will break and it will break at the worse possible time. Do yourself a favor and order a brass radiator plug. They're cheap and they'll save you a huge headache later.

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Jan 3, 2005
11,745
70
On Kennith's private island
D2 cup holders. Some people hate these cup holders. I love them. They're a bit bulky but I have not seen a better design to date. Plus they'll hold everything from a soda can to a big gulp securely. Additionally, you can hide your weed in the bottom of these things out of site (if you live in Colorado only).

The stock D1 cup holders suck. I hate that little tray that slides out. Maybe it was neat in 1999, but it's a POS today.

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Last edited:

chris snell

Administrator
Staff member
Aug 15, 2005
3,020
152
He'll move it to where it needs to go and clean up the other posts when he has time.

I'm ok with leaving this kind of post here. It would be better if people used the new Member Trucks forum--you can reply to it like a normal forum and post follow-ups and multi-part stories--but if people just want to post a project up here, that's fine, too.
 

Rover Mac

Well-known member
Feb 7, 2006
634
1
Los Angeles
spaces.msn.com
This sort of post / write up i enjoy reading. Especially the 'driveable but capable" part.

With LR's the idiom "the devil is in the details" is especially appropriate.

on a side note.
I had an odyssey 2150 from EE in my P38 (known for their rather exacting voltage requirements ) since 2005 which lasted over 6 years, replaced with supposedly equivalent Die Hard version from Sears ( i did appreciate the extra terminals ) but only lasted 3 1/2 years, so went back to the Odyssey which was only slightly more expensive than the regular price for the Sears Die Hard.
Annoyed that I did not keep my brass Radiator plug from my old radiator when i replaced it, :mad:

I ended up installing a power inverter in my first RR for exactly the same reason (powering a hairdryer:eek:)
Additional power outlets are essential unless you enjoy juggling charging 2 or more cell phones, i pads and the ARB fridge etc through the factory LR cigarette outlets.
The outlet will only be as good as the adaptor used. Especially if charging a tablet / ipad
I recommend the Scosche reVOLT 12 W + 12 W. At 4.8 amps, it’s rated as one of the most powerful car chargers you can buy.
http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-usb-car-charger/