Land Rover series 3

Thinking about buying one, any opinions good or bad from previous owners. Thanks.

look for rust in the chassis ,firewall ,foor under pedals,and the out riggers welded to chassis behind front wheels and the fuel tank mount front side they will never break the land speed record and long wheel base models are pretty useless in the mud

Yes, rust is an issue so have a good look under the mud etc, slow as a slow thing on the road, 100kph is acheivable on the flat, but once the road slopes up they really slow down.

Off road is a different matter and they really can go places in the right hands. Worth practising off road work somewhere to really get the hang of it (if you haven't driven these old tarts off road much before)

The best bit is how easy they are to unditch with a high lift jack, unlike most of the modern veh, the straight sides and front bumper/rear cross member mean you can put a hi-lift almost anywhere, lift the veh, kick it off the jack or put something under the wheel and away you go again.

Great wagons but probably not for everyone!

Bought a one owner (complete with log book and a few new parts) 87000km79 s3 109 2.25 petrol about a 15 months ago.Large deck and cage fitted so any time im at the beach fishing or over at the river i always come home with something, fire wood or seaweed or abit of sand for the garden.Its slow noisy but cool.Not the sort on thing for a daily driver or long trips but so dam handy for where i live.

That's lovely.

Glad to hear.

the steel in the body is the door tops fire wall and radiater surround so that is where it will rust
the chassiss outriggers are a common problem
i have had a s1 s2 and s3 landy all different but have had heaps of fun in them
went to a landcruiser 15 years ago still have it as a daily driver
its so much nicer having power steering,hearing the radio at 100kph and not having water drip on you in the winter from the condesation lights ,electtrics that are not lucas
if you want something that use 4x4 sometimes ,a trailer on wheels ,not going to far from homegrab a landroverbut be aware they can get quite addictive

Want something to go shooting in, take offroad on Scout camps etc. Won't be a daily driver, I have plenty of other cars for that. Was looking at a Jeep or Cruiser of same vintage also but was leaning towards the Landy as I have a 70's V8 Rover already. Thanks.

I have a Series IIA that's a daily work truck and we get on reasonably well.

They can be solid, dependable trucks IF they have been looked after.That's not too hard as they are really simple and new parts are readily obtained.A poorly maintained or dicked around one can be a PIA, and take a lot of getting right.Often that's why they are being sold.

But, they are a child of the 50's (40's really) so don't expect too much in going or stopping performance.The Series IIIs are "better" with dual circuit boosted brakes and full syncro gearboxes, and an alternator, but this just just makes them a 30 year old truck, rather than a 50 year old truck.There's no power steering (well there is, it's an Armstrong model) and the steering lock is just adequate in a SWB but a 109 need plenty of space.Backing trailers can be interesting too, but a front tow ball sorts that.

They are of the crank handle era, and low compression (7 or 8 to1) which has saved my ass on more occasions than I care to think about.

They tend to keep going though, there's a lot of Series Landrovers around, which you don't see in many other vehicles of their age.

Have a look at this site, it's a UK one but they the same over there, and he has some good observations about getting on with old Landrovers.

http://www.glencoyne.co.uk/info.htm

If you do go with one remember that they are not modern vehicle, and don't expect them to do what they can't do.Best of luck, Graeme.

Thanks for the insight Graeme, I don't mind the old cars, I grew up fixing them with my father.
As long as they can be repaired is the main thing.
Cheers.

I used a S11swbcab topforyears as my onlymeans of transport .no bloody heater was the worst partbutsolid & dependableinrough stuff, used to go upriver to hutoften in winterplenty oflatex rubber poured over thedizy & plugskept itwater proofMake sure therailicofront hubball seals are good as expensive to fix.