G

Grendel

New Member
Took my standard 1.8 Freelander off road and managed to keep up with the others who all had Defenders with 4" lifts Mud tyres and off road kit. Managed 25 miles of the Ox Drove and Shaftesbury Drove with a fair amount of grounding out to start with but had to give in when every 20M I was dragging along on the anti-roll bar. But only thing that stopped me was lack of ground clearance. Only damage done was scratches and a stone stuck in the brake calliper all easy to fix.

Most amusing thing was they all laughed saying how unreliable and crap off road mine would be and it was the only car that didn't have any mechanical faults on route:D
 
Grendel said:
Took my standard 1.8 Freelander off road and managed to keep up with the others who all had Defenders with 4" lifts Mud tyres and off road kit. Managed 25 miles of the Ox Drove and Shaftesbury Drove with a fair amount of grounding out to start with but had to give in when every 20M I was dragging along on the anti-roll bar. But only thing that stopped me was lack of ground clearance. Only damage done was scratches and a stone stuck in the brake calliper all easy to fix.

Most amusing thing was they all laughed saying how unreliable and crap off road mine would be and it was the only car that didn't have any mechanical faults on route:D
Click to expand...

Great stuff. they are surprisingly good off-road.

Lack of ground clearance can be sorted easily-get a lift kit from SES88 and larger tyres. I have roughly the same ground clearance as a standard Defender.
 
Currently looking into tyre options with a lift on 16" rims. Would be interested to know your thoughts? Ox Drove is on my list once I get the Freely kitted out :)
 
Grendel, you PM'd me the other day regarding the sump guard... You've got PM's turned off so I can't reply to you...!!

Lift kit will sort you out, apart from I'm sold out, although a trade buyer of mine might have one left.

As for tyres, 225/75 or 235/70 are biggest you can go with a lift and modulars/spacers
 
My rims are 17", so went with 225/65R17 General Grabber AT. They are ok, but a compromise. Not as efficient on road, but acceptable off-road compared to a more road biased tyre.
 
It's basically nonsense from people that have never driven a freelander when you hear they can't go off road! I have had many LRs and the freelander keeps up with the best of them! Ok ground clearance could be better but good tyres and good driving wins the day :)
 
Last edited:
Just a silly question but would I need to get bigger wheels as well as tyres or would just bigger tyres on standard wheel with lift kit work?

Although think I'll just opt for under body protection at present before I start lifting it since the current Geolander AT tires are near new.
 

Attachments

  • Dirty 002.JPG
    Dirty 002.JPG
    95.5 KB · Views: 723
  • Dirty 001.JPG
    Dirty 001.JPG
    99.2 KB · Views: 638
  • Dirty 003.JPG
    Dirty 003.JPG
    83.9 KB · Views: 430
Grendel said:
Just a silly question but would I need to get bigger wheels as well as tyres or would just bigger tyres on standard wheel with lift kit work?

Although think I'll just opt for under body protection at present before I start lifting it since the current Geolander AT tires are near new.
Click to expand...

Bigger (i.e. higher profile) tires on standard rims will work - for eg replacing 215 65s with 215 75's will give you a 43mm or just shy of 2 inches increase in rolling diameter, which means 21.5mm / 1 inch lift, but I wouldn't think you'd want to go above 75 profile, otherwise you can pick up issues with tyre deformation - not good onroad.

If you up the tyre profile without lift kit, you will improve ground clearance, but may run into issues with fouling inside wheel arches, etc - not sure what the tolerances on this would be on the Freely.

Handy calculator to work out lift of different wheel size / tyre profile combos TYRESAVE: Tyre Size Calculator

Just remember to halve the diameter difference to get the lift. :)
 
Last edited:
TigerHunter said:
replacing 215 65s with 215 75's will give you a 43mm or just shy of 2 inches lift
Click to expand...

No it won't, it'll give you a diameter increase of 43mm, so a lift of 21.5mm, 225/75 will give you about 58mm diameter increase or 29mm lift.
 
ive just fitted 80 195 16s to mine and its transformed it. much more comfy on the road (due to give in the tyre wall) and its geared it better.

offroad wise, the traction control used to be coming on all the time blasting up our drive. Now its very rare (unless im being a complete idiot)
 
Just spotted this on E-Bay. That's one Freelander without ground clearance issues LOL
 

Attachments

  • $_57.jpg
    $_57.jpg
    278.2 KB · Views: 17,040
Grendel said:
Just spotted this on E-Bay. That's one Freelander without ground clearance issues LOL
Click to expand...


That will be on a disc chassis I expect with the Freelander body bolted on top, or possibly a custom job with fibreglass panels. Not seen the spec.
 
Leave my front gate three Mtrs and your on the beach and we are forever having tourists in there 4X4s knocking for a tow + ordinary cars at least one a day during the season
I have given up counting the shoguns/paquero suzukis I have pulled of + the occasional range rover and more than one land cruiser.

The hippo takes care of most and only have to use the Terrano when there sitting on there floor pan. you should hear the excuses and see there faces when the wife or son pops out with a 12 year old Hippo and pulls a brand new mitsi suzuki or kia of the beach what a picture.
My son decided to put a price list on the gate 10 euros a tow he reckons he will have enough for a cheap TD4 soft back by the end of the season.
 
fredi250 said:
Leave my front gate three Mtrs and your on the beach and we are forever having tourists in there 4X4s knocking for a tow + ordinary cars at least one a day during the season
I have given up counting the shoguns/paquero suzukis I have pulled of + the occasional range rover and more than one land cruiser.

The hippo takes care of most and only have to use the Terrano when there sitting on there floor pan. you should hear the excuses and see there faces when the wife or son pops out with a 12 year old Hippo and pulls a brand new mitsi suzuki or kia of the beach what a picture.
My son decided to put a price list on the gate 10 euros a tow he reckons he will have enough for a cheap TD4 soft back by the end of the season.
Click to expand...

lol, that's got to be proof that the Freelander is decent off road - what wheels/tyres do you run? Is it a sandy or gravel beach?

This video was put up by a bloke at 1 of our local beaches. He uses an old Hilux Surf to pull cars out and has even sign written it that he'll pull you out for a fee! I've ridden along the beach with him going fishing and he's a real nutter - scared me ****less. Interesting bloke though. Not a fantastic vid, he has some nice ones of the beach though...

towjobs - YouTube
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
Freelander 2 (LR2) Freelander 2 2007 P042e EGR
Replies
6
Views
1K
Nodge68
Nodge68
xDParis64
VCU Longevity when used mainly off-road
Replies
7
Views
831
Hippo
Hippo
D
Freelander 2 wobble/judder
Replies
19
Views
2K
Danger Steve
D
PaulN
Freelander TD4 Juddering at 60mph and 2500rpm?
Replies
7
Views
459
PaulN
PaulN
C
Freelander 2 shuddering when turned off
Replies
2
Views
747
Arctic2
Arctic2