ldv twin v single wheel debate...

[rodney]

hi fellow vehicle touchers ,

heres my drama , I'm converting my ldv convoy recovery to diesel , its a twin wheel etc and was a petrol , ive bought a single wheel banana engine convoy van for a doner , both have about 70k , I will need to change the diff either way etc , but my question is whats the ratio difference from the twin wheel chassis cabs compared to the single wheel convoy vans?

reason I ask is I'm thinking of fitting the single wheel axle to my truck to save a little weight and also the van sat at 80mph without screaming its nuts off , yet it seams the twin wheelers struggle at 60 ,

I used to have a old Renault master rwd single wheel and it done well with no dramas due to single wheels etc , plus ive got the single axle on the doner van,.

[colnerov]

Hi, personally I would stick with the twin wheel axle they are more robustly built and has fully floating hubs which is commercial vehicle practice. Any weight saving maybe offset by extra maintenance. You are going to need a balance of gearing for top speed against moving a heavy load. there are a choice of ratios, a quick google found this -

www.ldv.cz/LDV-techinfo

Colin

[rodney]

cheers mate , I got a bit confused looking at that , I'm not the sharpest tool in the box lol,.

[optimusprime]

Don't forget the axle loading weight capacity between single and dual axles .... And of course a van shouldn't be doing 80 anyway

[igor]

I'd be inclined to stick with the dual wheel rear end for strength and play around with diff ratios to get an appropriate compromise between stump pulling low end grunt and decent speed on the road. I know nothing at all about LDV vehicles but a similar example that comes to mind is the difference between the TK Bedford I had and my mate's J1. Both flat decks. Both with the 214 cubic inch petrol engine but the TK would take off smoothly in second gear fully laden and top out at 35mph while the J1 sits happily on 50. I wonder also whether the gearbox ratios are different between your two vehicles as well as the diff ratio. A classmate from high school put a Bedford gearbox into a 3.3 litre PB Velox and found that it wouldn't go fast anymore so even though they bolt straight in the ratios must be different.

[rodney]

ive used the matching gearbox with it , its in ive just got top plumb it up , ill have a look at see what the van ratio is and see what the closest twin wheel ratio is to that , just want it to not end up revving its nuts off on the motorway

[dodgerover]

Can't you swap the diff centre out of the single wheel into the twin wheeler - I'm not up on LDV's that much so don't know if thats possible or if the axles are transit?

The single wheel axle is going to have a lower loading weight as well compared to the twin wheel, as a recovery there's going to be a fair bit of weight sat on the back?

[rodney]

i thought about swapping diffs , but I get the impression the half shaft splines will be different

[igor]

Have you considered swapping the whole rear end assembly?

[rodney]

as in whole axle ? yes , or diff? I don't think the half shaft splines will be the same , could be wrong

[igor]

Yes, the whole thing from one wheel to the other. That would be my first option. Don't even take the wheels off. Just drop the whole assembly out and roll it away then roll in the other one, bolt it up, and you're racing.

[PHUQ]

Single wheelers are 3.1t (or 2.8t, but I imagine the axles are the same), twin wheel 3.5t- not sure what the weight capacities of the axles themselves are but the single wheel is obviously lower- given that you want to be dragging cars around on the back of it I'd be out for every bit of capacity I could get?

Not sure I've ever seen a beavertail with singles on the back, although I must admit I've not looked too closely.

[dodgerover]

I've seen a single rear wheel ldv spec lift, it looked fine although they didn't have anything loaded at the time

[slater]

Single wheel transporters do exist but I can't imagine why you would go that route.