Land Rover Sandtrekker
- Details
- Category: Series II
- Last Updated on Saturday, 10 September 2011 14:56
- Written by Site Admin
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Information and pictures shown here have been gleaned from the interweb and loosely reconstructed.
May contain some inaccuracies!
The Sandtrekker, a modified ex-War Department 88 inch Land Rover is believed to be the world's first 6 wheel drive Land Rover, the modification having been completed in 1966.
The vehicle, registered EOM 306 C when cast from the military, is a short wheelbase Series II model of around 1960 - 1962 manufacture. It cost £200 to purchase and was soon under the knife for it's new role as an expedition vehicle, which the team - Graham Trueman, John Baker, Roy Wheale and Tony Brown, all in their early twenties at the time, took to Africa in 1967, covering 12,000 miles through 14 countries.
They gave up their jobs and left their families with the intention of escaping a nine-to-five existence and seeing the world. They went through rain forests, picked their way around 5ft deep holes filled with mud and covered 75 miles on a road laced with mines.
The vehicle cost another £600 on top of the purchase price to modify, even with some companies providing technical help. After a bit of trial and error, and with some help from Land Rover, the third axle was eventually powered from a specially modified transfer case with a second output shaft complete with high range gear and low range slider gear that meshed with the intermediate gear at about the 7 o'clock position. Girling provided support for the new braking setup.
It is still around and is believed to be under restoration by enthusiasts on Jersey.
Any further information on the Sandtrekker would be gratefully received.
Maxwell Morris Wrote:
Hi, re the above vehicle. I was a policeman stationed in Langley, Bucks back in 1969. Being a Land-Rover owner/enthusiast even then, I saw this vehicle on the A4 at Colnbrook , where I stopped it for a "routine" check. During the conversation the driver a man of Asian (indian?) origin said he had built the vehicle and had all the copyrights etc.
The vehicle was a very faded greyish purple and had sandtrekker on the side. I remember advising the driver about very worn bushings on the rear springs etc, he said he had driven it overland from Uganda. He further said in conversation that he was looking to sell it together with the "copyrights" etc, he said he was an engineer and had done the conversion himself with mods to transfer box etc, he did seem to know what he was talking about re landrovers! but he looks like he may have been telling a few porkys, with a view to me being a potential customer. If I remember correctly it had freewheel hubs on 1st and 3rd axles.
Max.
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