 | Home > Maintenance & Modifications > Rear tank guard with recovery points? |
 
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| jimbo55 Member Since: 15 Jul 2020 Location: Midlands Posts: 399  
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I have a Southdown one for my td5 90, haven’t got round to fitting it yet though but haven’t found anything similar
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2nd Jul 2021 11:51am |
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| Pacha Member Since: 23 Feb 2020 Location: North Yorkshire Posts: 772 
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The tank guard fitment on a TDCi is probably not sufficiently well mounted to use with any form of 'eye' on it TBH. Rgds.
Chris |
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2nd Jul 2021 6:32pm |
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| Gasket Member Since: 30 May 2020 Location: Manchester Posts: 629 |
Thanks both. I was hoping for something like I'd seen on front guards whereby there are steel sidep-lates that engage with strong points on the chassis and incorporate a recovery point and have an aluminium skidplate spannign the two of them. No worries, I'll keep looking at plans B, C and D.
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2nd Jul 2021 6:34pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11324
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If you're looking for a bolt on solution, have you considered a receiver hitch? Easy to fit and an excellent recovery point:
 Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Darren 110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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3rd Jul 2021 9:53am |
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| CharlieDonuts Member Since: 16 Jun 2019 Location: Illiers Combray Posts: 133  
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I did mine not so long ago. I had to cut the mud guard bolts off with a grinder otherwise it was relatively straight forwards. I didn`t put them back on as I thought it would be easier to clean the mud out of the cross member. Charlie Donuts  |
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3rd Jul 2021 10:39am |
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| Gasket Member Since: 30 May 2020 Location: Manchester Posts: 629 |
Thanks both, it is a very neat system and I haven't ruled it out. Your vehicles look superb!
I'm looking at a few options at the moment, as the factory chassis is about to be galvanised I have an opportunity to reinforce the back crossmember a little. So, option 1 (the one I'm leaning towards): remove top 4 captive nuts (access through removal of back plate), fit 4x crush tubes and reweld panel. Separately I'd have a full-width 15mm thick spreader plate laser cut, countoured around the tank guard to slip between the fuel tank and the crossmember, with 4x tapped holes (had the calcs done and 4x tapped holes in 15mm high-strength steel with or without helicoils should be a stronger fixing than a normal M14 8.8 hex nut (approx 10mm thick) so no risk of pull-out. With a second, thin, spreader plate on the outside of the crossmember to spread the load on that face too, this should let me fit a 5t Dixon bate hitch to the crossmember. This is a look I adore, basically the same as a Camel 110 and would be very practical while still leaving plenty (approx 7mm) of clearance between the fuel tank and the spreader plate behind the rear crossmember and by tapping the spreader plate, the contact to the fuel tank (in the event of a rear collision) would be with a wide flat plate with no projections as the tip of the M14 bolts wouldn't protrude through. Noting that I will never do any true 'snatch' recoveries. Option 2 and 3 are to fit either a Safari Equip or NAS step receiver. The problem I have is that while they look very neat indeed, as mine is a 2010 SW its classed as a car and so I can't use a receiver to tow due to lack of type approval (though could obviously still use it to just fit a recovery billet). I'm never going to tow, so its irrelevant, but there's something about fitting a step I don't really want or a complete towing setup I can't fully use just to get a recovery point - I can't get it to sit right in my mind. The one in your pictures is definitely a strong contender though, with my sensible head on. I'd hoped a tank guard with eyes would give me the best of everything: strong recovery points with no impact on departure angle and a tank guard for free. If I had access to a safari equip hitch, I could modify it or refabricate it to delete the hitch and incorporate a fixed recovery eye I suppose. |
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7th Jul 2021 5:06pm |
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| Gasket Member Since: 30 May 2020 Location: Manchester Posts: 629 |
Think I'll call Safari Equip tomorrow to see if their receiver will fit with one of their (or a Mantec) tank guards
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7th Jul 2021 5:21pm |
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| markb110 Member Since: 22 May 2010 Location: Guildford Posts: 2633  
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Gasket
These guys do the tank guard for the Discovery 1 in the style that you are looking for. It might be worth calling them to see if they could fabricate a version for your needs, there’s not one on their website but that does not mean that they have not tried. Hope this helps you. https://dixonfabrication.co.uk/index.php?r...duct_id=83 |
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7th Jul 2021 5:31pm |
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| Gasket Member Since: 30 May 2020 Location: Manchester Posts: 629 |
Thanks buddy!
I'll definitely give them a call tomorrow. Normally not a fan of welded recovery eyes, but they look to be about 10mm thick! |
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7th Jul 2021 5:39pm |
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| Gasket Member Since: 30 May 2020 Location: Manchester Posts: 629 |
I'll confess - I had one more idea. Happy to throw it out there in case anyone else is interested in working on it (if I could access Fusion360 I would model it).
Assuming I'm not the only one that wants a pair of easily accessible, very strong recovery eyes on the back of a TD5/Puma and doesn't have the need for a towbar... and doesn't want to impact the departure angle that is. Basically this could be laser cut from a piece of very heavy steel plate and CNC bent. If nested, you'd get a fair few from a big sheet. There are 9x 90-degree bends needed (excluding the rear stays which have a dog-leg in them and are made from even thicker steel. The little butterfly bits are there largely for aesthetics to box the rear tabs and to extend the bracing for these forwards and under the plate slightly. These are bent separately and welded onto the finished recovery plate. The whole thing can be galvanised. The whole thing engages with every captive nut on the crossmember as well as the OEM trailer hitch brace mounting points. Click image to enlarge Crude doesn't come close to describing the picture - not remotely to scale and done in MS Visio. |
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7th Jul 2021 7:36pm |
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| blackwolf Member Since: 03 Nov 2009 Location: South West England Posts: 17372 
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Just wanted to point out that the larger crossmember bolts are M16 (not 14), the smaller are M12.
M14 is a non-preferred size. |
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7th Jul 2021 8:01pm |
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| markb110 Member Since: 22 May 2010 Location: Guildford Posts: 2633
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Its about time some UK companies started to make the recovery eyes elliptical to accept a soft shackle and not the normal round for metal shackle pins.
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7th Jul 2021 8:17pm |
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| Gasket Member Since: 30 May 2020 Location: Manchester Posts: 629 |
Ah - thank you, apologies: brain not engaged. |
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7th Jul 2021 8:33pm |
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| Gasket Member Since: 30 May 2020 Location: Manchester Posts: 629 |
had a go at Fusion360. Nice thing to play with - not quite to scale yet and has some impossible bends. No idea if I'll actually make it though so sticking with finding an alternative for now.
Click image to enlarge |
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8th Jul 2021 1:54am |
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