Freelander 1 Alloy sump guard/ undertray

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Alibro said:
If you can get heavier ally than 2mm it would make sense, mine is around 2mm and will probably end up being remade if I do any more off roading. Might as well future proof it by making it strong enough from the start.
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You're probably right - but for £15, this should at least make the basis of a decent prototype. And then, much like yourself, depending on experience, look to replace with something a little more sturdy :)

Talking of more sturdy - is the thickness of the alloy needed just a bit of guess work? I've seen various thicknesses of material being used - all likely in various grades of aluminium alloy. My impossible question is "what's best"?
 
rob_bell said:
You're probably right - but for £15, this should at least make the basis of a decent prototype. And then, much like yourself, depending on experience, look to replace with something a little more sturdy :)

Talking of more sturdy - is the thickness of the alloy needed just a bit of guess work? I've seen various thicknesses of material being used - all likely in various grades of aluminium alloy. My impossible question is "what's best"?
Click to expand...

To put things into perspective.
The sump guard on a works Sunbeam rally car from the late 70s and early 80s was 10mm thick alumuinium and had turned up front and sides for stiffness. This was obviously designed to take hard impacts and shrug them off. It might appear overkill for the FL1 to use something that sturdy. But remember the Freelander weighs almost twice as much as a works Sunbeam of 40 years ago.
 
Somewhere between plastic-fantastic and 10mm alloy armour plate then ;) LOL

Thanks Nodge - that is a useful bookend. I am not going to use the car for motorsport (although I am sorely tempted by the Freelander Challenge series!), so impacts will be low velocity. In fact, for Greenlaning, there should be relatively few impacts, and most of the weight of the vehicle would be on the underside of the cross member and the sump guard perimeter frame. However I haven't driven over rocks before, and I can imagine that this would represent quite another challenge to both driver and vehicle.

So I'll start with the material I have and see how this works. Or not.

Looking at previous write ups, although the material specification and thickness is often not mentioned, a thickness of around 6mm seems most common where it is described. Which would seem reasonable from the Rally car experience. :)
 
image.jpeg
Here are some of the tough sketches and measurements I've made. I should be able to cut the metal this weekend. :)

Probably more rewarding than trying to remove an old abs sensor eh? ;)
 
They looked to have been really well made! No longer available, and when available, cost three times what I bought my car for... Sign of the times I guess.
 
rob_bell said:
They looked to have been really well made! No longer available, and when available, cost three times what I bought my car for... Sign of the times I guess.
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There were plenty of owners prepared to pay for the Mantec stuff. It was very expensive, but also very good.
 
The FL1 mantec sump guard I had was 8mm aluminimuimin. Last time I spoke to them was nearly 2 years ago. At the time they would still make them as a batch but wanted to either sell all, or have separate orders to sell the batch. I think minimum batch size was 5. Price was the same as before. I don't know what volumes per year they made but going by the number of peeps trying to buy one I would have thought it was viable to list them on their web site for sale again.
 
Even with fairly 'light' greenlanifng you will locate interesting lumps to scramble over. I'd recommend you aim for a thicker plate if using alloy or 3mm steel [cheaper] could also work. Here are some pic's of mine and it's 6mm alloy plate and yes it's taken a few knocks!

SAM_1093.JPG
SAM_1092.JPG
 
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Hippo said:
The FL1 mantec sump guard I had was 8mm aluminimuimin. Last time I spoke to them was nearly 2 years ago. At the time they would still make them as a batch but wanted to either sell all, or have separate orders to sell the batch. I think minimum batch size was 5. Price was the same as before. I don't know what volumes per year they made but going by the number of peeps trying to buy one I would have thought it was viable to list them on their web site for sale again.
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If I were to develop the car for more serious off-road duties, the Mantec guard is something I would seriously consider buying. For now, I'll see how I get on with the thin sheet I have and seek to go thicker once the inevitable evidence that I've under-specified the material appears! LOL

htr said:
Even with fairly 'light' greenlanifng you will locate interesting lumps to scramble over. I'd recommend you aim for a thicker plate if using alloy or 3mm steel [cheaper] could also work. Here are some pic's of mine and it's 6mm alloy plate and yes it's taken a few knocks!
Click to expand...
What I have in mind will be very similar to this - just not with quite so many drainage holes.

One of the problems that I encountered when the under tray fell off, and after fording some puddles, was that muddy water got absolutely everywhere. The whole engine bay was plastered in light brown mud. Worse, some of that muddy water found its way down under the HT lead cover on the cam cover, and flooded spark plug hole #1. The mis-fire as I joined the A303 was cataclysmic - I thought the Hippo was going to come to a juddering halt - but fortunately, as the water dried, the engine returned to normal service (tough little engines these K-series).

mud everywhere (small).png


So the plan is to have some drain holes - just not that many! :)
 
rob_bell said:
Somewhere between plastic-fantastic and 10mm alloy armour plate then ;) LOL

Thanks Nodge - that is a useful bookend. I am not going to use the car for motorsport (although I am sorely tempted by the Freelander Challenge series!), so impacts will be low velocity. In fact, for Greenlaning, there should be relatively few impacts, and most of the weight of the vehicle would be on the underside of the cross member and the sump guard perimeter frame. However I haven't driven over rocks before, and I can imagine that this would represent quite another challenge to both driver and vehicle.

So I'll start with the material I have and see how this works. Or not.

Looking at previous write ups, although the material specification and thickness is often not mentioned, a thickness of around 6mm seems most common where it is described. Which would seem reasonable from the Rally car experience. :)
Click to expand...
I found with the lift kit I had enough ground clearance I didn't hit the ground once. I have only used it off road once mind, so don't take too much from that but some of the ruts were pretty deep.
Go on, you know you want one. :p
 
Cut out the basic shape today. Here just slotted into alloy perimeter frame. Will take it to a local sheet metal company to get the edges bent - and will see whether they can roll some swages into it to add a little rigidity and reduces the chance of it reverberating with the engine vibrations! :)
image.jpeg
 
Nice on mate, That's the way I jammed the front of mine in too and it makes it for a really nice fit. I just beat merry hell out of it to get the shape right and so far so good. :D
 
Thanks! Yes, it should be almost invisible when finished, and hopefully look almost OEM when complete. The tabs on the outside will be bent up and fixed on the inside of the frame. I just need to decide whether to fix in place with rivets, or use some rivnuts and screws... :)
 
Side mounting tabs now bent up and things are starting to take shape: fits snugly within the perimeter frame :)

image.jpeg
 
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