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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.