LANDIE WITH THE LOT
John McMaster doesn’t do things by halves. You only have to look at his much-modified ex-British Army Land Rover 110 – now for sale - to see that
FEATURES John McMaster doesn’t do things by halves. You only have to look at his muchmodified ex-British Army Land Rover 110 – now for sale – to see that.
All good things come to an end, and for John McMaster his 22-year affair with his Land Rover 110 has reached that point. When he set up this incredible vehicle it was for life but life throws the odd curve ball. It all started back in the UK in 1993 when John purchased this 1986 Land Rover 110 when it was retired early from active service with its original owner the British Army due to a damaged rear cross member. It was a left-hand-drive 12V/ 24V ‘ fitted for radio’ hard top and John got it minus engine and gearbox and all the radio equipment. At the time John had been using a heavily modified 88” Land Rover that had a 3.9-litre Perkins diesel engine that had been stolen and recovered. He purchased the remains of the 88” and set to swapping the engine and LT95 gearbox to the 110. It was then that he found that the engine wouldn’t fit due to the LHD steering box so it was converted to RHD and got its first civilian registration in the UK. John didn’t like the army camouflage paint scheme with its many layers of paint including desert sand so he covered the black bits with some paint he had as a temporary measure in 1994; hence its unusual colour scheme. Over the next couple of years the original 750x16 tyres were changed for 33x12.5x15 General Grabber MTs and the suspension was given a 50mm lif t using OME springs and shock absorbers. Eventually even the 33-inch tyres weren’t big enough and he went to 35s on custom Mach5 8.5-inch steel rims with 4.5-inch back spacing.
Out there
While we don’t blink at fitting 35-inch tyres these days you have to remember this was the 1990s when 33s were considered large and too big especially for a Land Rover so fitting 35s was “way out there” according to John. All this time the 110 was John’s daily vehicle covering 1,000kms a week driving to and from work. Around the millennium the old diesel Perkins was getting a bit tired and John found its acceleration – or rather the lack of – a bit of a liability in South East UK so looked at other options. He liked the power of the P76 V8 in his competition vehicle but nothing would match the 203 Nm (150lbft) of torque at idle from the Perkins.
After looking at options including a custom-built Rover V8 and a GM 6.5 V8 diesel, he settled on a Chevy 350. This was fitted with a Marks 4WD adapter kit to a LT85 five-speed gearbox with a LT230 transfer case with a 1.1003 ratio. Despite being a cast iron block, the Chevy engine was lighter than the Perkins diesel, so that allowed him to add more weight to the front in the form of a Warn 12,000lb industrial winch. The winch was not fast but it was rated for lif ting and could pull 7,500lbs on the top layer of the 38m of 23,500lb synthetic rope.
Military-spec
At the same time John managed to get his hands on a very rare Salisbury front axle with vented disc brakes which he understands were only fitted to SAS and armoured Land Rovers. The rear drums were also converted to disc brakes using RR callipers. John continued to use the Land Rover until he moved to Wellington in 2004 where he met up with Carl Furness at Wellington 4WD Specialists who got the job of getting the 110 through the strict import regulations and registration in NZ and it continued to be in daily use. Carl has carried out all work on the vehicle since. When the Chevy 350 was first fitted there was no room for the engine-driven fan so electric fans were mounted in front of the radiator. These eventually proved insufficient and the engine overheated so it was sent off to Rossco’s Engine Services Ltd in Feilding for a custom rebuild. John was after more torque rather than horsepower with the rebuild and the engine was also fitted with TPI fuel injection and a Link G2 ECU ( mounted inside behind the driver’s seat).
When the engine was refitted, it – along with the gearbox – was moved back 80mm allowing the fitment of an engine-driven fan which solved the cooling issue, along with re-coring the radiator so that the water goes side to side three times. With the electric fans removed the winch mounting was altered and a sturdy front bar fitted. The V8 needs a lot of air so a large truck air filter was fitted in the rear, with 100mm inner diameter hose to the engine through cab.
Helping hand
A hydraulic steering assistor, plumbed into
the power steering box, takes some of the pressure off the steering box. It eventually stopped being the everyday vehicle and was proving a “bit of a handful” in the Wellington terrain and in 2008 after fitting an ARB air locker to the rear the vehicle barrel rolled in the Akatarawas damaging the roof which proved “difficult to replace leading to issues with the insurance underwriter” according to John. It was the value that the insurers placed on the vehicle with its modifications that was the issue but eventually a compromise was reached and lesson learnt. As John states, “Since then it has been insured as a base vehicle with lots of accessories, like axles, tyres, engine, etc…” A canvas truck cab hood with frame came under the threshold value but it now needed a roll cage. Carl Furness once again fabricated this with strong side rails mounted to the chassis in multiple places. With all the bar work the standard Land Rover mirrors could not be door mounted so tabs were welded to the roll cage making them easy to remove for off-road. The front chassis was shortened as much as possible and the winch moved back with the front guards trimmed as much as possible to a nearly 90 degree approach angle. This was all completed in 2009 and it was now a 110 well side with roll cage.
Custom rims
Next up were new tyres and John opted for the Maxxis Creepy Crawler increasing the size to 37x12.5x15 fitted to custom 10-inch beadlocked rims from Howat Engineering which had only 75mm of back spacing.
This made the 110 track width 100mm wider which improved steering lock but were a liability on narrow rutted tracks. Because of the additional weight and the power of the engine a front ARB air locker was also fitted. There was still room for improvement so John began “collecting various bits from around the world, though mostly UK and USA.” From the UK came the X-Springs from X-Engineering which had a small spring inside the main coil that when fully stretched pushed the axle down to keep the wheels in contact with the ground. Other additions at this time were Bilstein 7100 series 14-inch remote reservoir shocks fitted with caster-corrected front radius arms, and at the rear 300mm longer rear trailing arms with Johnny Joints and rose-jointed panhard rod at the front along with a rose joint for the rear A-frame. There was so much articulation with this setup that the gearbox cross member had to be modified and plated as it was fouling the drive shaft. A driveshaft hoop was also required on the rear for certification. The often ineffective transfer case drum handbrake was changed to a disc brake, again from X-Engineering.
All the Jaz
In 2010 the biggest change was removing the rear overhang and cutting the tray and chassis back to the rear wheels giving a 90 degree departure angle. A 120-litre Jaz fuel cell was fitted in the back along with a rear mounted 10,000lb Husky winch mid-mounted and the hand control was changed to same as the Warn, with both winches having in-cab switches and wireless remote controllers. Power for the vehicle and winches is via two heavy-duty batteries under the passenger’s seat with a smart charging sensor which goes to a marine switch which allows the driver to use one or other or even both of the batteries. There is also an isolator switch to isolate the winches from the batteries. While all the suspension work was being done independent wheel brakes were also fitted to the rear using two-pot front Discovery callipers. Two brake cylinders are mounted in the cab via the rear bulkhead and plumbed to the main brake lines. A lock out plate is fitted to prohibit the use of them on road and a larger master cylinder fitted and because of all the extra brake fluid required to operate them, a larger reservoir is fitted along with an additional remote booster to the front brake circuit, a requirement for certification. Once the rear was shortened there was nowhere for the spare wheel, especially a heavy 37- inch one, as lying on top of the fuel cell wasn’t practical for filling and the truck air filter top up space on the left hand side.
The answer?
Carl cut out part of the side panel behind the driver and added strengthening through to the roll cage for the wheel to be mounted vertically. Being an ex-military vehicle there are storage compartments either side in the body which holds tools, jack, recovery equipment and even a chainsaw and fuel. Inside, all gauges have been replaced with VDO items, except the rev counter. The speedo is a calibrated unit that can be programmed to an accurate speed and once set can be changed with a simple code to be accurate for the different sized
tyres. There are idiot lights for ignition, water temperature, water level ( sensor at top of radiator) and hitting 6,000 revs.
Purpose-built
There is a purpose- built air compressor mounted on the engine, with t wo old fire extinguishers mounted on the chassis either side as reservoirs which feed out into the cab for pumping up t yres; i t takes a lot of air to pump up a 35- inch t yre from five psi. The final change was in 2013 when John got another set of beadlock rims from Howat Engineering, this time 15x8 which were fit ted with 35x11.5x15 Simex Extreme Trekkers. Despite been supposedly narrower and shorter by two-inches they were almost the same size as the 37-inch Creepy Crawlers. John had been hesitant about going the Simex way because on lighter vehicles they seemed to lack stability but he was pleasantly surprised and happy with them on the 110. John was very happy with the end result stating “the 110 can drive up most hills at 1000rpm, has surprising acceleration when required, is comfortable ( albeit noisy) to drive on and off road and surprisingly economical on fuel despite having nearly 223kWs ( 300hp) at the wheels.” Off road it is very balanced and has articulation most only dream of and can turn tighter than a Suzuki due to the independent brakes. The roll cage has even seen some use although John didn’t elaborate. Sadly for John, however, he has had to put the 110 up for sale, complete with all the spare parts and equipment as he is heading back to Europe, to the south of France, an area where he will not need the extreme capabilities of the 110 and that also does not have an LVVTA system like our own which will allow it to be registered and road legal. It is an end of an era for John but the start of new adventures for the 110 V8 under new ownership. Wonder if it will receive that new colour scheme that John never managed to give it?