Military with Bob Morrison
Why the Tithonous model is the best of the pre-wolf era
The military Land Rover model we are focussing on this month has the accolade of having close to the longest, but in some aspects also the shortest, of in-service lives with the British Army and Royal Air Force. Mostly originating between 1985 and 1987 as pre-defender One Ten models, or prior to 1993 if from top-up contracts, the Project Tithonous batch was spruced up between 2007 and 2009 to extend its life span by a theoretical 15 more years. This could have meant some vehicles spending almost four decades in service to Queen and Country, though most actually seem to have been cast by the end of the 2012 fiscal year.
In theory the mid-1980s coil-sprung, 2.5-litre naturallyaspirated diesel, One Ten and Ninety fleet, which only partially replaced the earlier leaf-sprung Series III Land Rover fleet in UK military service, should have been replaced and relegated to reserve stocks around 2002 at the end of its projected 15-year life span. However, as only approximately 8000 Tdi-powered Defender Wolf models were procured to replace the last of the SIII fleet in the late 90s and no funding was made available to replace the remaining One Tens as they neared their Out of Service Date (OSD), the life span of many had to be extended to maintain overall numbers.
In 2003 the OUVS (Operational Utility Vehicle System) project was instigated with the aim of replacing a quantity of Land Rover and Pinzgauer, plus Reynolds-boughton RB44, utility vehicles with an armoured solution for frontline and forward area service. This project however, was put on the back burner as Urgent Operational Requirement (UOR) purchases had to be made in the light of evolving threats in Iraq and Afghanistan. By 2006, with much of the remaining and now roughly 20-year-old One Ten fleet in need of some tender loving care Project Tithonous was launched.
In simple terms, it was decided that the best 3700 of the pre-wolf fleet would be cosmetically refurbished, with bulkheads and footwells being the primary focus. An improved Roll- Over Protection System or ROPS, designed by Ricardo and based on that developed for the Wolf fleet, would also be added along with soundproofing to meet current H&S legislation. It was publicly stated, however, that no major powertrain refurbishments would be undertaken by the Army Base Repair Organisation (ABRO, later Defence Support Group or DSG) workshops during this mostly superficial upgrade.
The two Tithonous One Ten Land Rovers featured this month are now in private hands and were photographed at the War & Peace Revival in Kent last summer. Soft top 29KL46, which is a late model dating from 1992, is owned by Jake Smith and hard top 92KF73, which is from the original mid-80s contract, is owned by Alan Walsh.
Jake told me he has owned his former Royal Air Force soft top since October 2016 and from paperwork released by the MOD believes its last few years were spent at RAF Lossiemouth with 603 Squadron. From MERLIN records he believes the vehicle was refurbished in 2002 under a Life Extension Programme, which included a new chassis, rebuilt engine and gearbox. In 2009 it was refurbished at DSG Stirling to bring it up to Tithonous standard.
As such, while in Jake’s hands the car has been fairly lowmaintenance. “I’ve not needed to do anything mechanically, in fact, apart from repainting it, I’ve not had to do anything at all really. There is just one bit on it that is non-original, and I’m gutted about it, and that’s because I sheared off one of
the bolts on the candlestick for the antenna mount.”
Although very smart, the soft top Tithonous is no trailer queen. Jake says: “I use my Land Rover every day, to drive to and from work, to my girlfriend’s and that. When I bought it, it had done 127,000 km and it’s now [late July 2017] on 142,000 km, which is just over 88,000 miles.”
Asked for his impression of the car, Jake tells me: “the Tithonous is a nice, usable, affordable Land Rover that can do everything I want it to do, whether that’s hobbies at the weekend, including driving off-road, or just pottering around town. They are fairly comfortable for a Land Rover and having had SIIS, IIAS and IIIS, I can also say better than a Series. Moreover, it’s nice and simple mechanically to look after, parts are cheap, it’s a nice all-round daily runabout.”
Bought through Crouch Military Sales, of Kibworth in Leicestershire, the Tithonous cost Jake just £5000 and he’s apparently only spent a few hundred quid on it since he’s had it. “It’s as good as gold,” he adds.
Both soft top and hard top pre-wolf Land Rovers were refurbished under by ABRO/DSG, mainly at Donnington and Stirling it would appear, under Project Tithonous which at the time some cynics claimed was little more than a job creation scheme for base workshops. Whether this was the case or not, and the subsequently short period of time that elapsed between the facelifts being completed and the first of the batch being cast seems to suggest it may indeed have been, as when new canopies or Wolf-style hard tops were fitted they externally looked more modern.
What could not be seen from the outside was that under their new tops the facelifted vehicles also sported new Wolftype canopy frames that gave rollover protection to troops travelling in the rear compartment.
In addition, the body tub was stiffened Wolf-style with bolt-on panels behind the bench seats. Externally, the front cab was protected by an inverted tubular U-frame from wing tops over the windscreen and tubular stiffening struts ran back from this over the front doors to be bolted through to the internal frame with a single bolt. Having originally trained as an engineer I could never understand why just a single bolt was used here.
Other external modifications seen on Tithonous included external aluminium chequered plate strips beneath the doors, on the wing tops and along the bonnet side edges plus pierced steel wheels like those seen on the Wolf being fitted. The bonnet-mounted spare wheel, however, was retained in its original position and it was not side-mounted as per the Wolf model.
Talking about his Tithonous hard top, Alan tells me: “I’ve had it two years now. I do my own servicing on it, but apart from that all I’ve done is fit a new exhaust and door bolts to get it back on the road. Oh, plus door locks and a new set of keys. It’s been fine ever since.
“If she can survive the Army life she can survive civvy life, as I always say. Mind you, I don’t work her hard, she’s more of a weekend toy for shows and she does a bit of greenlaning. I love her and I always get pleasure out of driving her.”
While the Tithonous face-lifted pre-wolf Land Rovers may not have lasted particularly long in service, partly as a result of defence cutbacks and Army downsizing following the October 2010 Strategic Defence & Security Review by the then Coalition government, the type is highly sought after by ex-military Land Rover owners as it is considerably cheaper than the Wolf and in the main represents the best of the preWolf era fleet. The only downside to Tithonous is that none of the Ninety fleet, at least that I am aware of, received the same treatment.
One word of warning, however. A fair bit of misinformation on these vehicles has been posted on internet forums and subsequently repeated. In particular, these vehicles are not the same as the asset-managed ex-military Land Rovers produced by Hobson Industries in close cooperation with Jaguar Land Rover.
“The Tithonous represents the best of the pre-wolf era fleet”