I have been round the Richards chassis production line when I picked my chassis up. They are jig built and do have a laser cutter. Can’t comment why they might have made mistakes with certain chassis but i’m sure if you contact them they will sort you out. The service I received when buying my chassis was faultless and they said to ring if I ran into any issues.
 
exmed wayne said:
I'm a bit surprised at this post / situation.
Think it's the first negative post I've ever come across about Richard's. Every other post I remember seeing normally sings their praises for quality, if not always for price and lead time.

I'm also surprised that with a company having such a good reputation, they wouldn't be a bit more proactive to protect that reputation and get you sorted out. - did you buy direct from RC or are you having to go through a 3rd party to get it looked into?
Click to expand...


Im surprised that you have not read anything bad about RC before, it certainly comes up quite often across the various land rover forums.
I was only reading one the other day on the series 2 forum.
If you put Richards Chassis issues into the search box on this forum, you will have some good reading.


Me and a mate rechassised his 90 with a RC one and there were quite a few bits that didnt ft properly, bulkhead was a real pita.
 
Gottschalk said:
I've just read your post previous to this one and I'm gobsmacked! I thought they had a really good name, I mean the chassis is the one thing that HAS to be right. After reading this thread I'm glad I went with a Marsland one, I didn't think to check dimensions before hand, and luckily, absolutely everything fitted, I only had to remove one packing washer on one side of bulkhead bottom, every other shim was reused from the original chassis! I literally cant believe what I've just read about RC's!!
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's a bit of an eye opener.
When I mentioned it on my rebuild thread there were plenty of similar tales. As lynall says, I should image a search on LZ will highlight a few.
 
lynall said:
Im surprised that you have not read anything bad about RC before, it certainly comes up quite often across the various land rover forums.
I was only reading one the other day on the series 2 forum.
If you put Richards Chassis issues into the search box on this forum, you will have some good reading.

Me and a mate rechassised his 90 with a RC one and there were quite a few bits that didnt ft properly, bulkhead was a real pita.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that.
It'll give me something to do tomorrow, instead of working :)
Luckily, my chassis is in pretty good nick, but I am planning on doing a ground up rebuild in the next couple of years - for fun
Been randomly looking at various chassis reviews over past few months on different sites and RC & Marsland always seem to get good writeups
Oh.....Jeez why is spending money wisely, so difficult?
 
exmed wayne said:
Thanks for that.
It'll give me something to do tomorrow, instead of working :)
Luckily, my chassis is in pretty good nick, but I am planning on doing a ground up rebuild in the next couple of years - for fun
Been randomly looking at various chassis reviews over past few months on different sites and RC & Marsland always seem to get good writeups
Oh.....Jeez why is spending money wisely, so difficult?
Click to expand...
You could also try Shielder Chassis's; they're new to the market and was very impressed with the quality of them at the LRO show this year.
 
tailhook said:
You could also try Shielder Chassis's; they're new to the market and was very impressed with the quality of them at the LRO show this year.
Click to expand...

Avoid shielder. Search the forum for them. There was a thread only a few days ago about them.
 
tailhook said:
You could also try Shielder Chassis's; they're new to the market and was very impressed with the quality of them at the LRO show this year.
Click to expand...

They aren't that new to the market, they have been making them for years in Northern Ireland, and have been at the LRO show before this year as well.
No idea how long they have been selling them over here, but at least 3 years.

mick 1986 said:
Avoid shielder. Search the forum for them. There was a thread only a few days ago about them.
Click to expand...

I didn't see it, but I am a bit surprised, the several chassis that they had brought to the LRO show looked very good, and their website has a lot of testimonials from satisfied customers.
 
Turboman said:
They aren't that new to the market, they have been making them for years in Northern Ireland, and have been at the LRO show before this year as well. No idea how long they have been selling them over here, but at least 3 years.
Ah, OK; thought they were newbies.
Click to expand...
 
Al2O3 said:
Didn't have that problem, but my passenger side tubular outrigger was half an inch too close to the rear cross member, this meant the tub didn't it on that side. ie there was a half inch gap between the upright from the outrigger and the face of the tub the outrigger bolts to. Fortunately, it was out that way and so I could pack it with a half inch thick bit of steel plate. If it had been out the other way the tub just wouldn't have fitted in. I would then have been looking at removing all of the axles and and suspension components in order to strip the chassis back down to send it back :eek:
Click to expand...

I had the same problem with mine, both outriggers were too far back (15 & 20mm) Easier to make packers and get on with it than trying to return.

Picked mine up from their place, spoke to Alistair, he took me round the workshop where they were doing chassis swaps and shown me some of the projects he was up to.
 
manchestershire said:
I had the same problem with mine, both outriggers were too far back (15 & 20mm) Easier to make packers and get on with it than trying to return.

Picked mine up from their place, spoke to Alistair, he took me round the workshop where they were doing chassis swaps and shown me some of the projects he was up to.
Click to expand...
15 & 20mm That's a long way! :eek: As well as the jig work being questionable it makes you wonder about the QC procedures.
 
Al2O3 said:
15 & 20mm That's a long way! :eek: As well as the jig work being questionable it makes you wonder about the QC procedures.
Click to expand...

Landrovers aren't exactly known to be precision engineering. Even on new vehicles the paint was orange peeley, and lots of gaps were filled in with washers or sealant.

Like he says^^^^^^^^^^^, best is just to make some packing pieces and get on. They have to err on the side of caution, as you commented earlier, if they make the gap too small, the tub won't fit in, and the tubs probably have quite a variance of sizes as well.
 
Al2O3 said:
15 & 20mm That's a long way! :eek: As well as the jig work being questionable it makes you wonder about the QC procedures.
Click to expand...

They look like they're in the right position in the chassis but appear to be kind of angled backwards when you eye them up.
 
Turboman said:
Landrovers aren't exactly known to be precision engineering. Even on new vehicles the paint was orange peeley, and lots of gaps were filled in with washers or sealant.

Like he says^^^^^^^^^^^, best is just to make some packing pieces and get on. They have to err on the side of caution, as you commented earlier, if they make the gap too small, the tub won't fit in, and the tubs probably have quite a variance of sizes as well.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but even LR quality control wouldn't let 20mm adrift pass QC on an outrigger. :)
 
Al2O3 said:
Yeah, but even LR quality control wouldn't let 20mm adrift pass QC on an outrigger. :)
Click to expand...

You think they had quality control?? :confused::confused::D

Bear in mind also that the reason Rover stopped galvanising chassis in 1949 was because they were worried about the tendency of chassis to distort during hot dip galvanising.
 
Turboman said:
You think they had quality control?? :confused::confused::D

Bear in mind also that the reason Rover stopped galvanising chassis in 1949 was because they were worried about the tendency of chassis to distort during hot dip galvanising.
Click to expand...
That's interesting....
Wonder if you can buy a "new" chassis that isn't galvanised.....and then get it electroplated instead?
 
exmed wayne said:
That's interesting....
Wonder if you can buy a "new" chassis that isn't galvanised.....and then get it electroplated instead?
Click to expand...

You could buy, or make a new chassis, and get it coated with thick plastic, which is what G-Wagens did, and the chassis on them last for donkey's years.

Or just give it some well applied paint coatings outside, and a good dosing of cavity wax inside, which is what Land Rovers went to after the initial galv episode.
Trouble is, they didn't do that very well either, a conscientious owner can do a much better job.
 
I was recently talking to someone clever, about why nobody has ever made a Stainless steel chassis - apart from cost.
He reckons large areas of Stainless touching small areas of aluminium is a "bad" thing (accelerated corrosion), however stainless screws etc - small bits of stainless touching large bits of aluminium is OK.

Hence, my signature block - when I win the euromillions I'm going to get a bespoke made Titanium Chassis :D........it may be a while until you see that thread.!
 
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