Stage 1 V8

Time I said hello!

Photo below of my Stage 1. 1 previous owner, handbook, tools all present etc!

Just had new Richards chassis fitted. Running a 3.9 (on carbs etc) and RR transfer gears. Few little niggles to sort (temp wheels on her in photo!) but she's awesome.

Welcome along! I am new here too having satisfied an age old itch, however mine unfortunately is nowhere near the condition of yours!! I have to say that is one lovely Stage 1! Can't believe how clean that is under the bonnet. That Limestone does look fantastic. What a find!!

Snap!

My new Land-Rover by Geoff172, on Flickr

Untitled by Geoff172, on Flickr

Well, almost - yours looks in awesome original condition!

Lovely looking machine. The 3.9 is a good upgrade but how does it go with the Rangie gears?

Thanks all!

Drives beautifully, 1st is still low enough for towing (had about 1 ton of soil behind it the other day) and cruises happily at 70mph with a little more left to go.

We had an overdrive to go on but I didn't want to cut the trim. To be honest it doesn't need it.

Nice

Nice vehicle in the best color ever
The Range Rover gear ist perfekt with an engine upgrade to 3.9 or more. I often have a caravan behind my 4.6. No problem to start on steep hills and a far better fuel consumption.

I only bought it because I've always wanted a limestone one!

LRO magazine briefly had one (or a contributor did, can't remember exactly) in the early '90s with a roof rack on it and that image has stuck!

nice

nice truck... I love seeing them with the Land Rover V8 stickers on the rear shoulders.

I assume you are in England / UK?

Did you fit the Richards Chassis? My Stage One is just about done with its chassis and I am considering pulling the trigger and buying a new one. It would cost serious coin to get it shipped to me in the USA. Before I even start to consider this - I want to fill my head with stories of folks who had good experiences with fit of the new chassis.

Also - I am not sure I get what you mean by Range Rover gears? Did you put a Range Rover LT95 in it or swap in a 5 speed? The differentials were already the same gearing as a Range Rover / Defender (3.54:1).

Yes, it's aRichards Chassis. Very nice, took a while but pretty close to their estimate of time frame.

The company that fitted it (Alex Engineering) lifted the body as a whole (I'll put some photos up), apparently the chassis needed a few little tweaks but no real issues.

I would completely recommend the chassis, very happy with it!

She's still got the LT95 she had originally but has the transfer gears from a Range Rover fitted, makes it very nice to drive!

I have seen instances where the Richards chassis' were not square and other times when you had to ream out the threaded holes from the galvanising. However of those that are available, Richards seems to have the best reputation.

Usually the hi ratio output shaft is replaced with the RR one (IIRC). This gives you a higher fourth gear speed without affecting low range gearing.

Ok on the transfer gears. I placed a "how-to" guide on this forum a few years back on how to swap the xfer gears yourself so I am familiar with that.

There are lots of different ratios available. Do you know what ratio you have?

I put the .9:1 in my truck and it is great until I start pulling my camper trailer to Rover rallies. There is a 1.1:1 (If I remember correctly) that would probably be better for me. The original Stage One 1.4:1 is a workhorse ratio but just too low for me on American highways driving long distances to events.

Er, firemanshort, that's my truck with the V8 stickers on the rear wings, not Jeremy's (sorry if I confused anyone putting those pics there)

Apparently there's something waiting for it that I'm really excited about! Hopefully collecting/ fitting on Thursday!