Land Rover
Forward Controls
Brought to you
By DasLandRoverMan
PXC 422
E – Jeremy Jacksons IIA/IIB Hybrid
This
truck is a very interesting vehicle. Externally it looks fairly standard, apart
from the square edged filler panels under the doors, the interestingly placed
sidelights/indicators, and the wolf wheels (Jeremys own addition)
Being
on a 66/67 E plate one would assume this vehicle to be a IIB vehicle, it is
however fitted with an earlier style windscreen, and a series II bulkhead.
Nothing
terribly strange there you might think, but a closer look reveals it’s been
fitted with a single wiper motor, whilst the holes for the dual wiper motors
mounted to the windscreen have been blanked off.
Inside
there is a Series II instrument panel, and screw type vents, and looking
closely, it’s had a rather nice job made of it.
Lifting
the engine cover reveals a BMC diesel engine, with some sort of hydraulic pump
arrangement driven from the crankshaft pulley. Looking closely at the left hand
picture, the seatbox has been very neatly modified to clear the top of the BMC
engine. The right hand picture clearly illustrates the fact that the vehicle
has a IIA style selector linkage for the main gearbox. This is a little strange
in a IIB era vehicle, but I do wonder if this was fitted as the IIB style
linkage would have fouled the top of the engine?
The filler
panels under the doors are, quite obviously, square versions of the much more
shapely ones fitted to production vehicles, they are however beautifully made,
with the seams nearly invisible. They were clearly made with considerable care,
and skill.
The
rear axle is also of interest, Despite being a heavy duty ENV unit it has been
strengthened yet further with the addition of some fairly serious U section
steel. The eagle eyed amongst you may also have noticed that unlike the
production IIB of the time the axle is mounted above the spring.
Also,
as you can just about make out in this picture, the rear crossmember is missing
from the chassis, replaced by a large 4-5mm thick steel plate over the rear of
the chassis rails, and also welded to the top chassis.
There
are many questions surrounding the vehicle, but with the evidence presented the
following has been speculated;
The
quality of the modifications to the cab, coupled with the XC (factory) number
plate suggest this may be a late IIA vehicle modified with IIB parts, or indeed
a bitsa, perhaps built to test the viability of fitting a BMC diesel engine
into the IIB as an alternative to the 2.25 Land Rover Diesel?
The
chassis and axle modifications, along with the hydraulic pump lend themselves to
the theory that perhaps the vehicle was being modified for use as a hydraulic
lifting platform, or as some form of tipper, or tilt bed recovery vehicle. I
would think that this was carried out by someone who took less care than those
who did the cab, as the quality of the welding is much lower than any of the
metalwork up front.
Any
information about this interesting vehicle would be greatfully received, by
both Jeremy and Myself.
One
final point of interest on this vehicle is the rear body. The truck was bought
as a chassis/cab, and the rear body fell upon it by chance when discovered on
the roof of a workshop which Jeremy was visiting.
The
body came off one of two vehicles which were used by the Rootes Group as
support vehicles for their works rally team. Unfortunately it seems that both
of these were broken up, whilst the rear body, now residing on this interesting
vehicle adds just that little bit more interest to the base truck.