Land Rover Dormobile

[messerschmitt owner]

Some of you may know I once owned a Land Rover Dormobile - it served my desire for another Dormobile (after two CA's) plus my long time ambition to own a proper old school Land Rover. Albert ROss's comments on fuel consumption made me write this - so apologies to all of you, blame AR for this boring ol' thread.

 

Back in 2004, I started looking for a Land Rover, had to be a pre-72, had to be a lwb, and I was after a Safari 109 ideally. Then I thought, why not get a camper version - useful for car shows, I thought!

 

Anyway, I goes searching - wasn't in a huge rush, the Merc W123 estate was a lovely car after all and my plans were that I'd keep it and the Landie, when I found one.

 

So, searching all over the net, the CLassic Camper CLub and the Dormobile Club saw me looking at a couple of Landies. The first was a grey Dormie with a Perkins conversion in Ashbourne. Drove into the wilds of Derbyshire to find a Dormobile badly needing a restoration - paint peeling, inside needing overhauled totally, seats losing trim, etc. It was T&T'd so would have been rude not to test drive it - it almost put me off Land Rovers for life - its Perkins (a 3.246 IIRC) was heavy, powered the Landie to 50 in an eternity, and steering was the preserve of Lou Ferigno or Arnie. It would have seen me with new muscles I never knew I had, so, considering the work, the agriculturalness of the engine, lack of free wheeling hubs or overdrive, I declined to buy it (was about £1250). Next was a trip to Gosport to see another blue dormobile. It was a petrol 2.25 with fwb and o/d and first sight of it, I was in love - hand painted, paintwork a bit dull, needing door tops all round and with the starts of major rust in the bulkhead, I did a deal and it was mine - t&t'd for nine months, I arranged to collect it the following week. Off on the train to collect it, it came with a new set of tyres plus a few spares, I had it insured and off we went, back to GLoucester. Did my normal, filled it up at the petrol station, checked the oil, etc. and it was time to drive back home.

 

As we all know, LR's are noisy and uncomfortable, but pleasurable too, in a masochistic way. Overdrive would see it push 70 too, but I could see the fuel gauge drop rapidly. First thing I discovered, though, was the long range tanks - 110 litres of tanks - one under driver's seat and the other at the rear. Driving it home was uneventful - it wandered a little on the motorway, but drove well and the engine had a decent amount of poke.

 

Filled back up when I got home to discover it did about 18mpg - not bad - but I discovered that the hilly commute to work would see it drop to perhaps 14mpg (lots of hills) so it wasn't going to be an everyday car ...

 

Decided to take it to the national microcar rally in Scotland, towing the schmitt there, so tanked it for the trip - got 250 miles before refilling again close to the Scottish border (yep, 85 litres in 250 miles towing - thankfully, I was doing some work so work was paying the mileage too).

 

In my ownership, I had to fit a new dynamo, which was £44, a new exhaust £40, a new driveshaft, some bulbs and about four services - passed every MoT first time but in 2005, it was time for a change and I acquired a smart roadster, selling both the Merc and Land Rover to help fund it - my excuse was the average fuel consumption was 22mpg and the smart would do the best part of fifty - dropping my fuel bill from £220 a month to £100 - finance was £145 a month, so the new car was costing £25 a month to own.

 

I still miss BBY 6G, but sold it to a German and the venerable old beast is now in Switzerland, getting a restoration.

 

Everytime I see a 2a 109, I hark back and know I'll have another - won't be a dormobile next time - but it will be another 109.

 

The fuel consumption is hefty but spares and maintenance are cheap as chips, and SWMBO even liked it.

 

landrover dormobile 3 by messerschmitt owner, on Flickr

 

landrover dormobile 2 by messerschmitt owner, on Flickr

[warren t claim]

I dread to think how uneconomical a 6 cylinder Landy would be.

[morris_ital_lover]

I dread to think how uneconomical a 6 cylinder Landy would be.

 

 

Probably no worse than your average eurozone nation.

 

The Landy is a thing of true loveliness .

 

m0rris

[Albert Ross]

The 6 cylinder IOEV unit is probably the more economical one for touring. More torque, spread over a more usable range, means less gearchanges, and if that means staying in overdrive at 60-65, then brilliant. They weren't built for economy, they were built to work, with an assigned budget per mile.

My comments on the other thread weren't intended to mislead anyone, but I will add that mine has a timing issue, as in a worn timing chain, with the resultant retarded camshaft, and a tweaked pump drive, to restore injection timing. Coupled with worn bores and iffy injectors, I could improve on the economy IF I spent money. Which I don't have.

I like that Station Wagon lots. Reminds me of one I used for year when I worked in Lincoln, for the YMCA. FDC 126V. It got sold to a bloke near the prison, who now seems to have a 110. I often wonder what happened to it.

[fotorabia]

standard conversion here in NZ is 186-202 /6cyl Holdens...pretty common in the IIs..

[warren t claim]

standard conversion here in NZ is 186-202 /6cyl Holdens...pretty common in the IIs..

 

I always thought that the Nissan 2.7 taxi engine would be an ace conversion for a tired Landy. Don't know if it's ever been done before.

[Albert Ross]

I know of a seriously good 1971 1 ton 109 with a Nissan 6 pot diesel in it. It rocks. It's called Dougal. It REALLY rocks. The man that owns it, knows it.