The Land-Rover Series II 109" Forward Control FAQ

Introduction

This FAQ attempts to cover the Series II Forward Control Land-Rovers produced between 1962 and 1972. A lot of this information was taken from other Land-Rover web pages and FAQs, with an attempt to give credit where it is due.

This FAQ will have a strong South African bias, since South Africa is where I live.

The general order of the FAQ was stolen from the Land-Rover FAQ, (I did toy with the idea of basing it on the Interactive Fiction FAQ but sanity prevailed :-).

Editor & Contributions

Editor: Wouter de Waal ( wrm -at- this domain, which is retro.co.za).

Contributors:

If you want to know where a particular bit of information came from, I tried to put that information in the comments in the HTML source of this FAQ.

The following people contributed to this FAQ:

• The authors of the web pages cited.
• Jeremy Jackson
• Paul Oxley
• Hilton Ralphs
• Felix Slier
• Neil Lawson
• Ketil Oftedahl

History of this FAQ

I started this FAQ in 2003 after buying a Series IIA Forward Control, and noticing that the Land-Rover FAQ did not have any information on the 109 Forward Control, only on the more popular 101FC.

Major Versions

General Information

What is a Forward Control?

In general, the term "Forward Control" refers to a Land-Rover where the driving position is above and in front of the engine, giving a much larger load area for the same wheelbase. The Forward Control Land-Rovers are the 109", the 101" and the Llama (which exists in prototype form only).

After the introduction of the Forward Control Land-Rover, the standard Land-Rovers were referred to as the "Normal Control" (Rover) and "Bonneted Control" (British Leyland) to distinguish the two.

What is a 109" Forward Control?

The first Land-Rover Forward Control was based on the Land-Rover of the day: the Series IIA long wheel base, which has a wheel base of 109 inches. Ergo, the Series IIA 109" Forward Control.

The reason why we need the distinction is that Land-Rover later built the 101" Forward Control, which is the "Land-Rover Forward Control" that most people know (except in South Africa, where we have quite a number of ex-Army Series IIB Forward Controls, while 101's are way scarce).

109" Forward Controls come in two flavours, namely the Series IIA and the Series IIB (which actually has a 109.75" wheelbase, and as such is sometimes called the 110" Forward Control -- confused yet?) The slightly longer wheelbase of the Series IIB is a result of moving the front axle forward to clear the six cylinder sump when the ENV axles were used.

In general, I will refer to the "IIA", "IIB" and "101" to clarify which Forward Control I'm talking about.

Identification

	The easy way to see whether it's a IIA or a IIB is to check the headlights -- If it's in the middle of the panel it's a IIA, if it's lower down (closer to the front bumper) it's a IIB.
	The easy way to tell the difference between a 109 and a 101 (except for the obvious, which is that they don't look the same at all...) is to count the number of nuts holding the wheels on -- all Land-Rovers except the 101 has five studs, the 101 has six (because it matches the Howitzer gun that it was designed to tow, which in turn matches the Unimog 404 -- thanks Neil).

Specifications

Production

The following production figures come from the Land-Rover FAQ:

In comparison, a total of 2669 101" Forward Control Land-Rovers were built.

Chassis Numbers

Compiled from the Land-Rover FAQ and miscellaneous articles :

South African Military Production and Chassis Numbers

The above figures are the "official" figures, but...

	In South Africa, SIIBs were made until 1976 under special military contract. (These were fitted with full syncromesh "one tonne" gearboxes, BTW). Chassis numbers were 33200xxx (i.e. CKD RHD 6 cyl, official production figure = none). Paul Oxley has #466.
	2013-04-28 : I saw this Forward Control, chassis number 32700100 A (CKD RHD 4 cyl, official production figure = none), for sale in Sedgefield. It now has a Nissan RD28 6 cylinder diesel engine. Click on the pic for more / bigger pics.

Timeline

Engines and Gearboxes

Engines

When it comes to the engine specs, all sources differ. These figures are from the SIIB advertising brochure, and are probably as close to "Factory Spec" as you will get. (example: SIIA FC workshop manual gives 77bhp@4250rpm, brochure gives 77bhp@4000rpm for the 4 cyl petrol)

2 1/4 Petrol.

Engine number starting from 28600001
Gearbox number starting from 28600001
Front Axle number starting from 28600001 (RHD), 28900001 (LHD)
Rear Axle number starting from 28600001

2 1/4 Diesel

4 Cylinder, 90.49 x 88.9mm, 2286cc 23:1 CR
CAV fuel injection
50 kW @ 4000 rpm, 142 Nm @ 1750 rpm (67 bhp "gross", 105 lb.ft)

2.6 6 cylinder Petrol.

Engine number starting from 30000001
Gearbox number starting from 30000001
Front Axle number starting from 28600001 (RHD), 28900001 (LHD)
Rear Axle number starting from 28600001

All three of the engine options for the SII Forward Control Land Rovers were extremely underwhelming. You probably want to fit something with more power. See my page on choosing an engine for a Series Land-Rover.

Gearing

The SII Forward Control Land-Rovers used a different transfer box than standard Land-Rovers, to compensate for the 9.00 x 16 tyres used. The main gearbox ratios were the same as that of other Land-Rovers of the time, but the gearbox itself is not 100% compatible -- a longer mainshaft was used to interface to the Forward Control transfer box, which is an "Easy Drive" box -- you can change from high to low range while moving.

The very first Forward Controls used the late model SI/SII main gearbox ratios, but this was changed to the SIIA ratios fairly early in production (This is strange, since the SIIA predates the Forward Control by a year).

The following table gives the gear ratios of the different Land-Rovers of the era:

Gear Lever and linkages

The Series IIA gear lever was located on the floor, between the tunnel and the handbrake lever. The Series IIB lever was located between the seats.

Chassis and Drivetrain

The 109" Forward Control chassis consists of a normal 109" Land-Rover chassis with a subframe welded on top of it.

The first Forward Controls used the standard Land-Rover axles. Later models (From February 1965) used the ENV differentials, which are stronger than the Land-Rover axles.

The ENV front differential hit the sump of the 6 cylinder engine, so all Series IIA 6 cylinder models had Rover front diffs. To fix the problem, the front axle was moved 3/4" forwards, resulting in the "110" Series IIB.

The Series IIB also had a wider track (100mm / 4"), because of:

• Axles that were 3" wider, and
• Rims with 0.5" more outset than the SIIA. (Calling it "more offset" is technically incorrect, since more offset moves the wheel centreline closer to the car). SIIB rims have no offset, i.e. the mounting face is on the centreline of the rim. SIIA rims have 0.5" offset, and the standard 109" LR used 1.5" offset rims.

All the SIIBs that I have seen, here in South Africa, had Salisbury front and rear axles. As far as I know these are all ex-army. Of course the halfshafts for the wider ENV and Salisbury axles would be quite difficult to find.

Steering

The very first (Chassis suffix A) Forward Controls used the standard 109" steering box. Later models used a unique steering box which is apparently impossible to get hold of.

Suspension

Series IIB Forward Controls have an anti-roll bar in front, and the rear springs are on top of the axles. The front springs are under the axles, just like other Land-Rovers.

Brakes

The 109" 6 cylinder brakes were used. Drums are 11", front brake shoes are 3" wide, rear brake shoes are 2 1/4" wide.

Even though a brake booster was standard, the brakes on a Forward Control is apparently, erm, interesting...

I've heard that the hand brake drum is larger than the standard equivalent.

Rims and Tyres

The Forward Control Land-Rovers use 6.5" wide rims (Standard Land-Rovers use 5.5" rims) with 9.00 x 16 tyres. The closest metric equivalent is (TTBOMK) 305/85R16.

• 543384: Early IIA FC, 72mm (V1), 68mm (V2)
• 569204: One Ton, 78mm
• 569203: Late IIB FC, 93mm

• Mabor in Mozambique makes "Super HCT" 10 ply tyres in 9.00 x 16. The local (Cape Town) agents are MaxiPrest in La Belle Road, Bellville (021 949 7920). March 2003 price is R1100 each.

• You can get 34" x 10.5" x 16 Simex Jungle Trekkers from CA Sport in Pretoria (012 329 4515). March 2003 price is R2200 each.

• Michelin makes their XL and XZL tyres in 9.00 x 16.  April 2003 price is R4100 each.

The rims used for the Series IIA FC gives a 2" increase in track width over the standard 109 (1" per side, of course). Series IIB rims (LR part number 569203) give an additional 1", i.e. 1.5" per side.

Body and trim

The rear wheel arches were rounded on the SIIA, and squared off on the SIIB Forward Control. Hilton Ralphs reports that there were 11 different cab and body configurations available from the factory for the SIIB, namely:

• Fixed Side Lorry
• Dropside Lorry
• Fixed Side Lorry, 3/4 canvas hood
• Dropside Lorry, 3/4 canvas hood
• Fixed Side Lorry, 3/4 canvas hood with side windows
• Dropside Lorry, 3/4 canvas hood with side windows
• Flatbed (platform) Lorry
• Chassis & Cab with subframe
• Chassis & Cab without subframe
• Chassis with wings, dash, seat base & subframe
• Chassis with wings, dash, seat base, no subframe

I would guess that all of these options were also available for the SIIA, since the examples on page 2 (187k jpg) of the SIIB brochure use illustrations of SIIAs.

The radio body Forward Controls were custom-built on one of these, probably the chassis with subframe and no cab.

The Series IIA was available in the stock Land-Rover colours of the time, namely bronze green, light green, mid-grey, marine blue and sand (export only). The Series IIB was only available in mid-grey.

The Series IIA had the two wiper motor arrangement with the wiper shaft through the windscreen frame. The Series IIB had the later arrangement where the wiper motor is located on the left hand side of the dashboard, and the wiper shafts go through the firewall.

Winch

Some Forward Controls were fitted with a hydraulic winch driven from the power takeoff on the rear of the gearbox. The hydraulic fluid reservoir holds 30 litres.

Advertising Brochures

	This is the Series IIA Forward Control brochure from 1961. Note: Everything I have is posted here. If you have more, and want to scan it in and email it to me, it will magically appear here for everyone to marvel at :-)
	Ketil Oftedahl scanned the 1966 Series IIB brochure (Publication 707) for the FAQ. I put it on its own page.

Oddities

Metalurgica de Santa Ana, S.A. has been building "Santana" Land-Rovers under licence since 1956. This is, according to the June 2002 Land Rover Owner magazine, a Santana 1300 Forward Control.

Carmichael made an SIII based Forward Control. This vehicle was first used on the Forth Road Bridge as a personnel carrier. A similar vehicle was the base for one model of the Carmichael Redwing Fire Tender

Rover built one 88" Forward Control prototype, but pitching was a major problem.

The FC82 was based on the Stage 1 V8 converted to 6x6 by Sandringham.

Factory Manuals

• Part No. 4611, Technical Publication No. TP/344/A, Series II and IIA Workshop Manual, 'Regular', 'Long' and Forward Control, 88 and 109, 1st Edition December 1963.
  
  Contains two supplements covering the IIA Forward Control, the first for the 2 1/4 and the second for the 6 cyl. The 6 cylinder supplement concentrates on the engine, since that's not covered in the basic manual. If you promise to buy a copy of this manual if and when it's available, you can download the 2 1/4 supplement here (4.7 meg pdf).

• Part No.4517, Series IIA Forward Control Parts Catalogue, September 1963, 233 pages.

• Part No. 608218, Land Rover Forward Control Series IIA & IIB Parts Catalogue, August 1972, 383 pages.

Acknowledgements

• www.landyonline.co.za was the only place where I could find technical specifications when I started this FAQ.
• The Land-Rover FAQ provided some input to this FAQ.
• Land-Rover Series I, II & III Guide to Purchase & DIY Restoration, Lindsay Porter, 1992 (ISBN 0 85429 681 6).

Clubs and Registers

Forward Control Register IIA and IIB

C. B. Heron
28 Front Street
Daisy Hill
Sacriston
Co. Durham DH7 6BL
Tel: 0191 371 2527

Links

• The Forward Control Register.
• A Buyer's Guide for Series IIA and IIB Forward Controls from Land Rover Monthly.
• 109" FC list on Yahoo! Groups.
• Forward Control Enthusiasts.
• Lloyd Allison's Land-Rover FAQ.