Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I was reading a thread on difflock.com the other day about portal axle conversions ( Volvo's, Mogs etc) and somebody mentioned that LandRover themselves made a whole batch of portal hub conversion kits for their Defender series and then discovered that the market for them was non existant, so they put the kits in dry storage somewhere either in Britain or over here. This is not the first time or the only source where I have heard/ read this rumor. Anyone know if it is based on wishful thinking or fact ?
Bill.

are these the same ones fitted to the " Ag Rover". now i won't trust my memory, was the Ag Rover built by LR or LR special vehicles or by a private company. i do remeber that the portals fitted to the Ag's were chain driven.
serg

Was looking through an old mag and MD appear to do a portal ???

Mudzuki wrote:Was looking through an old mag and MD appear to do a portal ???

Maxi Drive do have bolt on portals but its $12000 approx fitted they also have bolt on rear steer and alot of other mega mega cool shit

MD portals

daddylonglegs wrote:I was reading a thread on difflock.com the other day about portal axle conversions ( Volvo's, Mogs etc) and somebody mentioned that LandRover themselves made a whole batch of portal hub conversion kits for their Defender series and then discovered that the market for them was non existant, so they put the kits in dry storage somewhere either in Britain or over here. This is not the first time or the only source where I have heard/ read this rumor. Anyone know if it is based on wishful thinking or fact ?
Bill.

As serg mentioned I have seen pics in LRO (or one of the other clone mags) of the "AgRover" - A Ninety/D90 fitted with portals, big ag tyres, and tractor-type rear drive/fittings. AFAIK it was built by a subsidiary company under licence (much like the forest rover) but the idea wasn't especially popular (pity). I would think it is unlikely there are any portals still in dry storage now.

Edit, managed to find a reference... Seems it was LRW March 1999. Anyone have a copy?

G.A.B. Edwards, (1999) The History of Land Rovers and Their Agricultural Applications Alongside the Agrover and the Trantor tractor. Issue 61, Land Rover World, Link House Magazines, March.

Yea, I knew about the AG Rover, Front portals bolted on before the swivel housings,6'' drop, no hub reduction, chain drive etc. I don't think it was an approved LandRover conversion. The ones that were refered to on the difflock.com forum didn't sound like those.
Bill.

only a handful were built by A.T Vehicles of Rossendale,Lancashire.using 110's that is.offered a minimum of 14" of ground clearance.didn't change any steering or suspension geometry which means the swivel pin housings stayed low on the wheel center line.the whole machine was designed and produced by Stephen Castenallani and Roger Stephenson.

just looking at "Feb 1998 LRO International" basicly what every one has said re "Ag Rover". at the time of writing there were about twelve left. yes from the photo's the portals bolt on before the swivel balls/cv's, they are chain drive and the drag link and track bar look great, not! has a three point linkage with pto at the rear. so bill what are the details of the other poratls, re tech.
serg

Serge,I will search the OL archives tonight to find where someone commented that there were Rover portals stored at the company's facilities in Australia,The one comment on Difflock.com, a British forum, was that Rover intended to make them available as optional extras for Forest services etc. No one seems to have any tech on these phantom portals and the more I look at a Defender front axle the less likely I think that even the engineers at Rover would consider bolting portal boxes onto those weak swivel balls. Yes I know that Maxidrive with their portals has got around this problem by adding a third kingpin, but Mal Story is a real engineer.
I have not seen any evidence of competence at Rover for 20 years.
Bill.

daddylonglegs wrote:I was reading a thread on difflock.com the other day about portal axle conversions ( Volvo's, Mogs etc) and somebody mentioned that LandRover themselves made a whole batch of portal hub conversion kits for their Defender series and then discovered that the market for them was non existant, so they put the kits in dry storage somewhere either in Britain or over here. This is not the first time or the only source where I have heard/ read this rumor. Anyone know if it is based on wishful thinking or fact ?
Bill.

this isnt like the april fools joke that was going around the bmw forums last year about all these unique parts for 2002's just sitting in a warehouse in germany is it?

I have chatted with a guy who owns an AgRover (he's a farmer, natch) from what I gather it was a genuine Land Rover conversion for farmers to take advantage of the fact it was an "agricultural vehicle" for tax purposes. In the UK that means they run it on tax-free diesel and presumably can claim other tax breaks that farmers get, too.

Has a proper tractor PTO / plough linkage on the back body and a limited top speed due to the portals & transfer box raio.

He reckoned even now (it's got to be over 10yrs old) it's worth at least £20k to a farmer, not countng the off-road boys who'd love to get their hands on it.

[quote="fridgefreezer"]I have chatted with a guy who owns an AgRover (he's a farmer, natch) from what I gather it was a genuine Land Rover conversion.

Has a proper tractor PTO / plough linkage on the back body and a limited top speed due to the portals & transfer box ratios .

The Ag Rover people when they were trying to sell them claimed that road speed was unnaffected because the portal ratios were still 1:1. I suspect the safe speed was only limited by virtue of the truck being fitted with tractor tyres .
Bill.

why the f.....k would they make it 1:1 if larger tyres were to be an option, same bloody reason they put it before the swivel balls etc i guess. these guys just can't exicute a good idea.
serg

For anyone interested in what these things look like.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... %3AIT&rd=1

Even though the front is a bit of a dogs breakfast, the rear would still be a useful portal axle, without the problems associated with the swivels and steering links. You might even be able to adapt the portal boxes to fit on the outside of series swivel housings if you had the skills - solve all the drawbacks that way.


Seamus

Nice and compact looking units, pity there are not a lot around.