"Bill Coombs 73 Land Rover/Toyota Mini-Truck" info help...

[4Rescue]

So, as the title suggestys, I'm looking for info on this AWESOME looking 73 Rover I saw a brief shot of in a Petersens 4wd a few years ago (aug 08 "April Fools DayToyota Crawl" )

All I can say about it as of right now is ME LIKEY!!!!!!!! :wings: :wings: :wings: :wings: :wings: :wings:

Apparently it's a Series Rover(has Mid-Late SII/SIII front wings/Lights and is an 88 but who knows what it started out life as eh) with a full Toyota Mini-truck (22RE I'm guessing???) drivetrain. I've searched and searched, but I figured maybe some of our great Roverphiles here on the Portal could point me in the right dirrection for more info??? All I've found is a litteral direct copy of the article I alredy have but no further info or links for the truck. The Blurb reads: "Bill Coombs brought out this clean 73 Land Rover that has been converted to Toyota Mini-truck power-train and driveline parts. In fact the only thing Land Rover on it is the Frame and Body"

With the way things are in the Rover world in respect to documentation and overall enthusiasm, I suspect that SOMEONE has taken a further look into this beautiful rig and I find it hard to belive that there's no build thread or mention of it anywhere else. It's too amazing a truck to have been overlooked (although some purists may see it as a blasphemous combination of Toyota and Rover parts...) I've seen another like it, but I think it's a different truck (and feel free to point me at any others like this truck if you know of them)

I'm really intreagued to read more about this because to me this would make an amazing mariage of a stout and somewhat more powerfull drivetrain with the awesome good looks of a Series Rover... TO me that's a great combo. I've been dreaming lately of a 109 or 110 with jsut such a drivetrain.

So any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers and thanks in advance

Dave :safari-rig:

 

[Toy-Roverlander]

Can't help with this one. But I'm interested to see it too! I wanna know all about it now actually :sombrero:..

But yeah, why go the mini-truck route? At least I used the Cruiser drivetrain:bike_rider:.

Someone must know about this one, so speak up!!

 

[Yorker]

Matt Stoffregen did essentially the same thing:
http://www.4wdandsportutility.com/features/rover/0611_4wd_1957_range_rover/index.html

 

[Alaska Mike]

The 4WDSU Series I was the first one that came to my mind as well. Didn't see the other one.

What I recall from that article was how short the rear driveshaft was and how he had to modify the frame for the centered rear diff. Not an easy swap, for sure.

 

[lake_bueller]

I've been out wheeling with a guy that took a 69 Series III body and mounted it on a 74(?) FJ40 frame. He's running a 305 Chevy motor through a Toyota drivetrain. There was a lot of fabrication needed for various mounts (body, motor, etc). But for the most part, the SIII body was nearly perfect fit for the FJ frame.

 

[4Rescue]

Matt Stoffregen did essentially the same thing:
http://www.4wdandsportutility.com/features/rover/0611_4wd_1957_range_rover/index.html

Yeah that's the other one I was thinking of, thanks for that link. I LOVE THAT TRUCK. To me it's the perfect combo. As for the rear DS, an 88 wouldn't be my choice anyway, I think a 109 or 110's added W/B would solve the problem quite nicely eh. Hell the guy in the above link could've stood to stretch the W/B a in the name of climbing ability and a real rear DS. That rear axle sure is at an EXTREME angle eh. Seems like the rear suspension cycleing would sure put alot of strain on the pinyon oke and CV joints.

Course for all the work I might as well just cough up the dough and import a 70ser Troupy or find my dream BJ43... Oh if only I could win that pesky lottery. THose magic numbers just aint workin'. Hopefully someone will know what the hell I'm talking about...

I know it's alot of work to do what these guy's did, but hey that's what this hoby is all about right... building, experimenting etc... Plus I think if I did it, I'd just end up using a bobed mini-truck frame and all... just the Rover body. IMO you'd end up with a burlier frame/axles and a stronger motor (unless were talking TD5 or 200/300TDi diesel's) with the Oh so gorgeous Series body atop it....YUMMY.

Allright, now come on someone, let's uncover the rig I'm looking for...................NOW.............................Ok now.......................no?................................ok.......................NOW!.... dammit not working

Cheers

Dave

 

[JSBriggs]

Its not what you are looking for, but this one has some toyota parts as well. http://timbercrawler.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=35176

-Jeff

 

[4Rescue]

Its not what you are looking for, but this one has some toyota parts as well. http://timbercrawler.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=35176

-Jeff

Wow, thanks for the link, that one is only a few miles away from me in LO, I wonder if I've seen it and didn't even know what it was... Supose I wouldn't know untill I looked underneath. I'll have to keep my eye out for it. again thanks for the link.

Cheers

Dave

 

[JSBriggs]

Are you in PDX? A couple years ago there was a guy at 55th and SW Wilbard that had an 88" / Toyota minitruck project. Im not sure if it (or he) is still there.

-Jeff

 

[Yorker]

I've been out wheeling with a guy that took a 69 Series III body and mounted it on a 74(?) FJ40 frame. He's running a 305 Chevy motor through a Toyota drivetrain. There was a lot of fabrication needed for various mounts (body, motor, etc). But for the most part, the SIII body was nearly perfect fit for the FJ frame.

Where are you located? there used to be another 88" on an FJ40 chassis up in British Columbia or showehere around there.

I emailed with a fellow who did the same thing once and we discussed how the FJ40 chassis flexes a lot more than a Land Rover one- an FJ40 body copes with it better than a Series LR one does and he had some issues with that... If you fully boxed the FJ40 chassis it might work better.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

4 rescue-
Easiest solution would be to take a LR chassis and body and swap in a set of TLC axles. Then use whatever passenger drop t-case floats your boat. T18, NP200, Land Cruiser, Orion, LT230, Series land Rover, BW 1305/1339, RRC BW or whatever- Use whatever engines.trannys (h55f?) were native with those T cases or adapt what you want to them.

Then at least you have some 1/2 way decent axles, easy disc brakes, cheaper ring and pinions etc and the Rover really wouldn't look too different. Kind of like a sleeper hotrod (Q-car).

 

[Toy-Roverlander]

Its not what you are looking for, but this one has some toyota parts as well. http://timbercrawler.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=35176

-Jeff

Incredible fab skills here!

Too bad you can't see the finished product, they stopt posting.

I have just 2 concerns with that build. First one is the notching of the frame they did for the shackle end of the front spring. Looks like that weakens the frame at a point where it probably sees a fair bit of stress.
And secondly the lack of crossmembers in the frame. There's the one between the spring mounts at the far front, the rear crossmember obviously, and besides that there's only 1 other that sits very far back.

I bet those motor mounts will see ****loads of stress when the frame flexes and the motor mounts will try to bend away from the motor..

Could be a non-issue on both of them, I'm no engineer, but I don't think it can be good..

 

[lstrvr]

I originally bought my truck to do just this with before I knew anything about series LR's. I wanted the body only and couldn't care less about the drivetrain. After getting my truck and stripping it down, I was surprised to see how much more stout the truck was than I gave credit for. The frame on a series (if in good shape obviously) is way stronger than any Toyota frame and is already the perfect set-up to mod off-of. I'm not a purist as my truck is running a Mazda/Perkins 3.0L TD, and has been modified from original almost everywhere, but the thing I found was that I ended up more impressed by a lot of the original stuff than I found most people giving credit for. I personally think it would be way less work to swap in whatever drivetrain/engine-trans combo, you want, but work off of the existing framework. It all depends on your wishlist and what you plan on doing with the truck, but series LR's are an extremely under-appreciated vehicle both in capability, and reliability. After owning a ton of different 4x4's over the years, none have impressed me as much as this truck.

 

[Toy-Roverlander]

It all depends on your wishlist and what you plan on doing with the truck

That's exactly right!

The thing I love about the Series are the body and the chassis. The chassis is easily adaptable to whatever you want to put on or in.
I reckon Toy chassis are just as good, just a different construction. Certainly you don't hear of many of them cracking/buckling whatever (when in good shape obviously) just like the Rovers chassis.

What I dislike about the Series is the drivetrain. The engines are underpowered (I've got a 109" stationwagon, an 88" is more lively), the axles are weak and it hasn't got a lot of articulation. But, a good driver will get further in a Series than a novice will in an highly modified offroad weapon.

Mine is modified in all these categories. BJ42 3.4 diesel, BJ40 4speed gearbox (H41) with T/case and I've already got some 80series axles to put under as soon as I get back from holiday.
Front springs are replaced by rear springs and it's got huge shocks for a lot of extra wheeltravel.

Basically you can do whatever you want.
I like the fact that a mini-truck front axle just bolts up to the LR springs, how awesome is that. So easy then to go Spring Over.

 

[4Rescue]

Well, if the Rover frames are that stout then I guess I'd still rather stuff Mini-truck axles(with Longfields) underneath it run the frame since as was pointed out the frnt axle bolts right up (awesome)...Then maybe a 1KZ-t 3.0L I4 Diesel :drool: R151 with a MArlin Dual set-up 2.28/4.7 mix... All that in a 109 with an OME suspension, some nice tall skinny 34-35x10.50 either LTB's or SSR's I think would be near perfect.

I'm completely daydreaming at this point, but when I was thumbing through a Petersens in the reading room the other morningI saw this Elusie "Bill Coombs" and his Rover/Toy Hybrid and I just really couldn't stop looking at every little bit of it (and it was a small picture so I was SQUINTING...) Sure wish someone could add some info about Bill's rig, but there are some pretty awsome trucks already here. I guess I never realized just how many Toy/Rover Hybrids we had on this board. All in all I think it's a mariage of two beautiful pieces of equiptment that yields one fantastic vehicle.

Would the Rovers more 'bulbus' bonnet make it easier to swap in say a 4BT then it would be in alot of the Toyotas??? Or am I just seeing an optical illusion in pics that make me thionk that the front clip has more room then say a Mini-truck or even a 60Series. Part of it is the height of the bonnet sheet metal that makes ne think that it could maybe handle the very tall 4bt... Just thinking out loud here foks.

Cheers

Dave

 

[toyrover]

I am the one that is building up the toyota/rover from the timbercrawler post. I have been bad about updating, but I switched forums to where I kept track of what I was doing. Most of the fabrication is being done by my younger brother graeme who owns his own fab shop in bend oregon. He is almost done with the rover, and we now only wait the final wiring. here is a little more for you to follow http://www.pnwcrawlers.com/viewtopic.php?t=12&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0