-----------------
From: Jamie Austin[SMTP:jamieaustin@fsbdial.co.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 1999 7:45 AM
Subject: [D90] pintle hitch
I'm not sure if you can get these in the US,but over here Dixon Bate,(who make the military rotating pintle fitted to LR's) make an 'adjustable height' towbar assy. it is a ladder type frame that bolts onto the rear crossmember and usually hangs down about 10 inches with support bars running up to the chassis (frame) (but you could cut one of these down so it didn't hang any lower than the rear crossmember) onto this goes a 'slider plate' which is secured with a large pin and 'R' clip. to adjust the height of the hitch,you just remove the pin and insert it into another hole in the ladder frame. the sloder plates come pre-drilled with holes to accept the military 4 bolt fixing of the rotating hitch,and the 50mm round towbar. this could solve your problem of having a reciever hitch fitted.they are very neat and strong.
----------
From: Robin Craig[SMTP:therobincraig@home.com]
Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2000 11:20 AM
Subject: Nato Pintle Hitch Ball adapter
Hello all,
A long long time ago in a far off land I was engaged in Her Majesty's
Service and was privileged to see the fine handiwork of the Royal
Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME). In our outfit we had
occasion to pull some civvy recruiting trailers and other non SMP
trailers, which meant trying to sign out one of the much used Transit
Vans which as they were multi seater units was a hassle. We got talking
to the REME gods one day and broached the subject over a glass of brain
lubricator and they said that this should be a non issue as they could
knock up an adapter in a jiffy, why hadn't we asked for one before?
At the time I thought it was a neat idea and we kept ours in then unit
stores and slapped it on as required. Now in my current life I am the
owner of an ex military Land Rover 110 with the same fine rotating
pintle hitch, which if you ask me is the cats ass of all hitches ,
because it can be locked or allowed to rotate freely, unlike most other
pintle hitches that I know off. I also use my 110 as my daily driver and
want to be able to tow civvy trailers but REFUSE to hack my truck around
and remove the pintle for any other half assed unit. So my grey cells
warmed and glowed recently and after a trip to the meditation room with
a paper and pencil I sketched out my design idea and have now made two
units.
My copy of the REME Gods unit is made up of two plates sandwiching the
hitch with a spacer in-between to stop crushing and to located the ball
hitch which passes through the centre and bolts to a captive nut welded
to the lower plate, as I can't find a ball with a long enough shank to
pass right through and have space left for the nut and spring washer.
The nut is welded on the upper side of the lower plate and intrudes into
the opening. On the lower side of the same plate a flat bar, I used 1" X
3/8" bar stock, is welded and mates into the lock tab for the jaw. This
now stops the jaw from rotating, and keeps the ball upper most.
If you unlock the pintle and rotate it anti clock wise by 90 degrees you
now are presented with a vertical opening. This and the fact that the
Brit pintle locks are the key to this unit. I made up two plates of mild
steel 3" X 3" X 1/4" thick with a 1" hole dead centre in each. I am
fortunate as the hole making is done by an Amada Vipros 358 Fabricator
in one punch in a nano second, I know it is sickening for the rest of
you guys to have to buy the drill bits and all that jazz or torch it an
grind the result. Expensive and messy.
Welded to the upper plate directly under the 1" diam hole is a piece of
1 1/2" square HSS (hollow structural steel) with a 3/16" wall. The
length of this piece plus the height of the nut on top of the lower
plate should be a tad less than the total width of the hitch, to ensure
a tight fit. You will have to very carefully grind a little of one ( or
more ) of the corners of the HSS to fit your hitch real tight. I have
tried mine on two other hitches and found that they are not too NASA
tolerances so your adapter will only fit yours exactly unless by fluke
another is the same.
I have used a pair of balls from Hidden Hitch in 1 7/8" and 2" for my
adapter, both are 3 3/16" long shanks. The threads between the two are
common. Who knows they may be an industry standard but it is of no
consequence to me. I use the spring washer provided on the top plate
under the shoulder for the ball, to stop this un-screwing under
vibration.
You will notice that using this adapter will slightly mark your hitch
but this will depend on the amount of free play you build in, grind a
little at a time on the tube and you will have a real snug fit in the
opening and a tight grip between the plates.
I am a welder and fabricator by trade and MIG welded mine, but stick
welding with 7018 electrodes would be a good alternate. DO NOT USE the
60 series of rods i.e. 6011 etc. I ground the nut surface to remove the
chrome plating and laid a nice hot weld around the entire circumference
with a good tie in at the end. The same goes for the 1 1/2" HSS to the
upper plate and the locking tab on the under side. If you don't know
what your doing get a pro to do it.
Because we get alot of our work zinc plated I had mine electro plated
with aprox a 2 thou build up which is actually real good because the
thread was a little sloppy before but now is nice and snug. You could
red oxide prime and paint yours. I hate seeing rusting steel.
I am making a few of these for some very close friends but other wise I
am not going into production as I can't stand the thought of what some
idiots who have no common sense will do with such a unit and then come
back with their lawyers in tow, you get the picture.
If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them but all advice
and this article comes with the DISCLAIMER that this is for information
purposes ONLY and you make one of these on your own initiative and your
own RISK and RESPONSIBILITY.
rgds
Robin Craig
----------
From: Jamie Austin[SMTP:jamie.austin@austingroup.co.uk]
Sent: Monday, March 20, 2000 9:00 AM
Subject: Re: [D90] trailer wiring colors
Black =Earth
Green/Purple = Stop lights
Red/Orange = Tail lights
Red/Yellow = Fog lights
Green/Red = LH indicator
Green/White = RH indicator
[editor's note: The wire colors listed are the same as those on my '98 Disco. But in any case, the pin-out of the plug should be the same on all Land Rovers. See This Diagram - it is drawn as you look into the open end of the socket where the silver pins are]
There should be a bunch of connectors behind the RH screw on 'cover' that covers the back of the lights, with bullet connectors. you connect straight into this to make it easy.
Enjoy!
Jamie Austin
'96 D110 Tdi
'92 D90 Tdi
'85 D90 V8i
----------
From: Clarke Williams[SMTP:clarkewilliams@halcyon.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 1999 2:36 PM
Subject: Re: [D90] Pintle Hitch on and Ready
>From: "William Campbell"
>Ok the Pintle Hitch is on with backing plate, and it looks BEEFY. Now didn't
>someone post a website to the list about get the old military jeep trailers?
Bill,
Try http://www.owens-export.com
He's got some pretty nice trailers for sale at reasonable prices.
(Will Ferguson added: Try: http://www.colcat.com/Colemans/
under Military Vehicles.... I believe they have the ¼ ton trailers.)
Clarke
----------
From: Jamie Austin[SMTP:jamie.austin@austingroup.co.uk]
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2000 5:53 AM
Subject: [D90] trailer pics
for pictures of British spec military trailers. look at.....
http://www.roverpartsused.com/hat.html and click 'trailers'
Jamie Austin
'96 D110 Tdi
'92 D90 Tdi
'85 D90 V8i
----------
From: Doug Aitken[SMTP:jdaitken@earthlink.net]
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2000 12:19 PM
Subject: Re: [D90] Off-road Trailer
At 09:32 AM 8/30/00 -0600, Q wrote:
>I was looking for that link the other day for that off-road trailer that is
>modeled after a D-90. It has a tend built into it. Does anyone have that
>link? I wanted to add it to my links page.
One of these days, I will organize my web page lists! I had two links before
(venturecraft - http://www.venturcraft.com/pro.htm
and back country trailers - http://www.backcountrytrailers.com/)
but both the sites are down.....
But you can see back country trailers at
http://www.dirt-e-fun.com/backcountry.htm
or call them for a brochure at Back Country, Dept ORC: 1-800-558-5512
If you want a J**p trailer : http://www.rubiconcargotrailer.com/
(I think they will make you a custom LR one too!)
Here's another US outfit, but their trailers look a little weird!
http://www.letsgoaero.com/
The best place for this kind of trailer seems to be Australia. Check out
these and drool!:
http://www.kimberleykampers.com/page0.html
http://www.obrienstrailers.com.au/
Doug A
Doug and Kim Aitken
'95 Red Defender 90 5-speed
'91 Range Rover 4-dr County
----------
From: Thorsten Klein[SMTP:kleit001@mail.uni-mainz.de]
Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2000 11:18 AM
Subject: Re: [D90] Military Trailer
At 16:45 15.09.00, you wrote:
>Does anyone know the URL for the D-90 site with the military trailer painted
>to match?
It is Chris Glaves site
http://www.cs.odu.edu/~glaves/chris/
Bye, Thorsten
----------
From: Gomes, David[SMTP:david.gomes@us.gambro.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2000 8:54 AM
Subject: RE: [D90] Flat Tow
"....pulling out from a parking lot ( IE: a hard 90 degree turn ) the
steering *seems* to lock ( always ) full left ....."
Tom,
Has your rig been caster corrected after the lift required for the big
tires? This is a good time to bring up the fact that during flat towing,
caster is even more important than when driving. Normally, when driving the
full time 4wd coiler LR, the front tires are exerting a rearward force on
the ground and pulling the truck along. You'll never notice negative caster
under these circumstances.
When you're flat towing, the drive line (however much of it is connected,
even if it's just the hub bearings) is putting a drag on the tires so the
tires are exerting a slight forward force on the road (road pushing rearward
on tire contact patch according to that guy who got conked w. the apple).
If the rig has negative caster, the reaction force of the road can force the
steering off center, and if toe is neutral, as it should be, the same forces
will carry the wheels to full lock.
This doesn't usually happen at speed because the gyroscopic effect of the
spinning wheel resists turning it's axis and the tire seeks the path of
least rolling resistance, which is straight ahead. But, going slow, and
putting a heavy load on the tires, like turning, could cause the wheels to
go to full lock. Must be something in the steering geometry that causes it
to favor the left.
This thing is trying to tell you something. I have no experience flat
towing D90s, but the geometry says, have your caster setting right before
you do it. I'd like to hear Allan Dobbs' take on this, as I know he flat
tows a lot. Anyone else?
-Dave G.
----------
From: Russ Wilson[SMTP:gambrinus66@mail.earthlink.net]
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2000 10:01 AM
Subject: Re: LRO: RE: Rovers, Women, Hollidays
>Can anyone recommend a reasonable way to transport my 64IIa
>from the Boston area to Northern CA? I am not quite ready to drive it cross
>country.
Zippy Tow?? No, wait that might not work out so well so you might want
to try:
A2B Auto Transport 1-800-274-4722 ask for Rob. They have moved 3 rovers
for me and have done a great job for a fair price every time.
Russ and Leslie Wilson
