another ultimate LR

[uninformed]

sorry i don't have any pics, i will try and sort something out. i was reading LRO April 1992 p50-51, and came across this:
so it was the engineers associated with the land rover decided to draw up a second new vehicle which rover might produce, "should the land rover not be successful in holding sales," as Tom Barton put it recently. The exact start date of this project is impossible to establish, but all evidence points to late 1952. the new vehicle was a farm tractor, although it was sufficiently different from the tractors then in production to be of considerable interest. The inspiration had probably come from two sources: firstly, from the land rover itself, which had of course been designed primarily as an agricultural vehicle, and secondly, from the discussions which senior members of the rover company had conducted in autum 1952 with Harry Ferguson, whose lightweight "grey fergie" tractor had been enormously successful in the immediate post-war years. The talks, which involved some sort of collaboration between ferguson and rover, eventually foundered; but they must have left their mark.
The new tractor was drawn up by John Cullen and Tom Barton, who were then the two most senior land rover engineers. The single prototype had a very simple rectangular frame with a land rover petrol tank at the rear, a 1595cc engine (probably P3 car engine if the air cleaner arrangements in surviving pictures are anything to go by) and four wheel drive. For manouevrability, Cullen and Barton also provided FOUR WHEEL STEERING, in order to give it maximum rough-terrain ability, they developed a system of gears IN the wheel assemblies by means of which the vehicle could be raised an extra 10 or 12 inches.
now from the one pictue in the mag it looks impressive, it must be running approx the same size tractor wheels/tyres as the forest rover, if not bigger. the first thing i noticed is the axle center line is about 5-6 inches LOWER than the center line of the wheel it self. so it looks like it has a reverse portal that must be able to turn in the wheel.
any thoughts?

cheers, serg

[daddylonglegs]

That is a very interesting concept but being designed by Rover all the portal gears and axles would have been undersize and very fragile.
Before Roadless Traction took over developement of the Forest Rover landRovers own answer to the Forest departments requirements was to fit 10.00 x 28 tyres and wheels onto standard LandRover axles and hubs without giving any thought to strength or gearing.
Bill.

[uninformed]

hey bill, i'm not sure what the hub set up was but the idea is pretty cool. its hard to tell from the one picture i have, but it looks like the axles(front at least) may be rovers, buy the size of the shadow, and the swivel balls look about landy size. do you have any theories on how the hub mech would have worked.NB John Cullen left land rover in 1954,to become director of engineering at David Brown Industries, themselves manufactures of farm vehicles.
serg

[daddylonglegs]

Serg, I would imagine that if I unbolted my portal boxes from my swivel housings and bolted the input side on to the hubs where the drive flanges attach, this is probably similar to what they did. I would need additional hubs or a short semi floating axle on the output side of the box to attach the brake assemblies and wheels to and would then need some means of holding the portal boxes steady in both the raised and lowered positions. Maybe a worm and wheel fixed to the inner hub would work, but it all sounds complex and messy and very expensive to make.
Was a working prototype of the tractor actually produced ?

[uninformed]

bill, yes a working prototype was made, going from the pic in lro. i will try and post it this week.
serg