relaxedcruiser

Hi guys,

I just want to introduce myself to this famous forum as I have purchased a lovely 60 series a couple of months ago and have been searching and reading this platform quite regularly since then.
originally I am from Germany where I used to run a highly modified series 3 109 Landrover.
She was at the end fast, quiet, reliable and very capable offroad. An 2.5 Peugeot Turbodiesel a LT85/LT230 gearbox, 3.54 diffs, front disc brakes, long rear springs at the front end, pto hydraulic winch....ARB Lockers...too much to list. very good machine at the end of the development...
But always I had an eye on the leaf sprung cruisers as well, and now I am more than happy to own one.
She is an Jap. spec. ´86 HJ60 GX with factory twin cable lockers,pto winch and high roof.The previous owner added a sweet 12HT to the package to make it even tastier..
Dont know about the mileage ....it reads 200 k but I think that is is actually more, probably double...
Anyway, the whole setup is mecanically and rustwise still in pretty good nick for the age.
I run 265/75 on 8" steelies with 25mm offset at the moment but would like to change for the original 6" rims and 235/85 in the future as I do not like the handling of the negative offset and wide ish tyres.
I know that many of you will say "that is not wide at all and way to small too...." but I do like the neutral drinving manners and stock look and as long as I dont get stuck all the time the roughly 32" of the 235s are high enough.
I really would like the 255/85 size as they have the perfect shape in my opinion, but the gearing with the 3.70 diffs is already quite tall with the 32" tyres.
These tyres are very rare over here...and absolutely common in Europe...strange.
In the meantime I got a set of 5 Cooper S/T Maxx in 255/85R16 as a ident order from the states....this is the only set in this size here in NZ...
Rear springs are quite low and on the future shopping list, Probably also add one leaf which I got from a local manufacturer and re arch the entire pack...
I had very good experiences with prabolic springs on my LR... they seemed to be quite rare on cruisers which I do not understand at all.
What i did right away was modifiing the unaccepable touchy accelerator of the 12HT.
I have read the various ways of approaching the issue but in the end ended up with a setup which worked right away absolutely satisfying.
I added a small shock absorber directly to the steering lever of the ip and a bounded spring to the accelerator cable where it connects to the very same lever. Bingo .... no more pressing the feet to the side to stop it moving aroung on rough tracks...it just behaves as it should do... it increased the pleasure of driving on bumpy terrain enormously.
The shock absorber itself is found on Mercedes OM 602/603 engines of the 80s and 90s on the very same spot and I built the bounded spring assy out of scrap aluminium tube. I had to play a while with the spring preload to get the right balance between the two factory springs and the shock retarded movement of the steering lever. The setup takes out the unneccesary fast movements of the accelerator pedal without taking away the reponse and feeling of this great engine.

Well...I better have something to eat and a beer know...I´ll add some pictures asap.
Cheers.
Tilmann

'86 HJ60,12HT,CT20b,FMIC,H55F,pto winch/modified bumper,high roof,rear retracting belts,OME heavy, 255/85R16 or 265/75R16,16x7 -15, PT Cruiser seats, turbo back 3" ex, swing away, drawer system, sleeping platform, start smoke limiter.