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[stevie8]

Good morning,
besides the obvious rear crossmember and removable gearbox crossmember, has the military version of the chassis any more differences compared to the civilian one?
Are for example the spring mounts different to accomondate the longer spring shackles?

thanks!
Stevie

[Craig T]

The military chassis does usually have stronger looking front spring hangers but not sure if they place the spring in a different position. Sure I have seen some military chassis with two sets of holes at the front of the leaf springs so they could be raised up a bit if required. Not sure what they did about prop lengths or damper lengths though?

In the title of this thread, you say station wagon so are you thinking of using a Military chassis under a 109" station wagon? If you are, there are a number of differences between a SW chassis and the standard utility 109" chassis.

Craig.

[stevie8]

Thanks Craig!
The reason for my question is, I have a civilian Series 2a 109 Station Wagon with a rotten chassis. I have now the opportunity to buy a military Series 2(a?) 109 Station Wagon Chassis.
If I only need to replace the rear box crossmember with a civilian one I am fine, otherwise I will search on for a correct chassis.

Stevie

[nathanglasgow]

Never knew there were any military station wagons. General service 109 lwb maybe?

[22900013A]

I think we would really need photos to be able to tell. Generally speaking, utility and station wagon chassis are not interchangeable, so it depends if your donor vehicle is a civvy spec station wagon used by the military, or a vehicle built up on a GS spec chassis. So far as I know there were no station wagons built with the GS type chassis.
The differences mainly relate to the mounting outrigger for the rear floor, rear cross member, twin under seat petrol tank mounts, oil cooler mounts, longer spring mounts and cut out for prop shaft clearance.

[GHOBHW]

I think the british army in germany had a few "military" station wagon land rovers, 88 and 109, usually with civilian chassis still, but the military style wings, sometimes not even that. never actually seen one with the military rear crossmember

[Craig T]

As mentioned, some photos of the replacement military chassis would be great. I can spot a station wagon chassis a mile away now.... 

As mentioned above, there are quite a few differences between a SW and a utility chassis so if they did make a military 109" SW chassis, it would have been a very low production run and probably hand made for the few they needed. It would make more sense to just use the civilian version chassis to be honest, but you never know, Land Rover did some odd things in the past to please the military.

Craig.

[Craig T]

Wonder what year that bottom photo is GHOBHW, the one with the 22 FG 78 number on it.

It looks like the window wipers are in the bulkhead rather than through the screen so post April 67 but how do you get the wipers in that position with the coupled system unless someone assembled the arms onto the spindles with no clue of what they were doing?

Craig.

[GHOBHW]

Wonder what year that bottom photo is GHOBHW, the one with the 22 FG 78 number on it.

It looks like the window wipers are in the bulkhead rather than through the screen so post April 67 but how do you get the wipers in that position with the coupled system unless someone assembled the arms onto the spindles with no clue of what they were doing?

Craig.

not too sure of year, on the window i do see something that looks to say xx.11.67 though and yes never actually noticed the wipers, maybe a friday job?

[Matt Reeves]

There were certainly a few military 109" Station Wagons, in fact the first 12 2a Station Wagons went to the army as Thunderbird missile control vehicles and the Royal Navy had a few as well, mainly for Bomb Disposal and diving units (my mum's old 109" SW was one of the latter).

That being said they were essentially civilian spec vehicles so the chassis would be the standard 109" SW chassis. I've yet to see a picture or any reference to a military SW on a so called "combat" chassis with military rear crossmember, extended dumbirons etc.

Regarding the removable gearbox crossmember, this was something which came along with the military Series Three and was certainly not a feature of the military Mk8 and 9, though I can't speak with certainty for the Mk10 and 11 (later 2a's).

Bottom line is if you rebuild onto the other chassis you must then adopt the identity of that vehicle (assuming it has one) to stay within the law, and if it is a military chassis it's going to be pretty obvious the vehicle didn't start life like that! 

[22900013A]

Pretty sure the bolt off gearbox cross member was a later IIA feature.

[nathanglasgow]

My 1967 mk10 has a removable Cross member.

[stevie8]

thanks everyone!
I haven''t seen the military chassis yet 
I hope to see it next week, taking lots of photos and let you guys know 

[Matt Reeves]

My 1967 mk10 has a removable Cross member.

Thanks Nathan that's good to know! There are few enough Mk10's around compared to Mk8's.

[Genem]

thanks everyone!
I haven''t seen the military chassis yet 
I hope to see it next week, taking lots of photos and let you guys know 

Read up on the legalities... DVLA will not be happy with a chassis that has a different number stamped in than the one under your existing vehicle.
The "clean" way to re-chassis a vehicle is a new, unused replacement, stamped with your existing vehicles chassis number.