The Trouble With Portal Axles and a Flexible Suspension Is.

[agrover]

Have had Portals n my SWB series 2a LandRover for around 9 years and have mostly been very happy with the greatly increased allround cross country performance.I also have a very flexible suspension system that affords around 5 ft of interwheel articulation However today i have discovered their Archiles Heel of this combination.
I was happily crawling down a narrow twisting water course on my property getting lots of lovely articulation happening when the right hand front wheel found an underground spring and proceeded very quickly to dig down to China. A normal non portal axled truck would dig down until either the diff or axle tube touches the ground, so that at least half the diameter of the tyre is above the surface.Winching out in that instance is reasonably straightforward.
However in my case when the wheel dug down until the axle tube touched the ground, due to the portal offset about 60% of the tyres diameter was below the track surface and the spinning wheel formed an undecut in front of and behind . I have a powerful PTO winch that doesn't give in, but when I attempted to winch forward the truck would not budge.due to the undercut the wheel wanted to plow in deeper rather than roll up out of the hole. If I kept trying I think the front axle would have got ripped off the chassis. Winching and driving together only made matters worse with the wheel borrowing even deeper,I can barely see the top of the tyre anymore, there is a 3ft gap between it and the top of the wheel opening and now the truck is well stuck. I've broken my 1/2 inch winch rope twice from trying to lift the truck out of the hole with the aid of a nearby tree.Attempts to pull the truck out backwards with a Tirfor hand winch has been just as fruitless A much larger top and side rollers for the winch fairlead is the next mod to prevent future rope failures.
Anyway the only way I will be able to free the truck from this predicament
is with lots of pick and shovel work to excavate above 5 tons of clay and top soil. I'm fortunate that this happened on my own land so I can recover it at my leisure.
This is one instance where I feel the portals and suspension have worked together to get the truck into more trouble than I would be in with the standard stiffly sprung straight axled LandRover.
Fun and games.

[Let Luce]

you do realise we need pictures now don't you.

Could you not attach teh tirfor to the diagonally oposite rear quarter tension and use a ratchet strap or similar between the axle and chassis to lift the wheel out of the hole, then pull it backwards

[normalbloke]

Strap from the axle to the body/chassis to elimiate droop.Jack the truck out.Winch away.

[agrover]

Rear axle is fully articulated in the opposite direction to front axle. Had heavy rain overnight and now vehicle is leaning over to the right at a 40degree angle and forward around 15 degrees. My ratchet puller isn't powerful enough to pull the sunken wheel back up. Not enough leverage off the rear towbar to Tirfor the vehicle level again. Need a towing/lifting ring bolted through the roof to the internal rollcage to give the leverage required (another mod to the list)
In spite of tihe PTO winch,Snatch blocks, Tirfor, High lift jack, ratchet puller and a mile of steel cable I realise that the truck is still not adequately equipped for this kind of scenario. But that's ok I've been trying to think of any further improvements I could make to the truck. The roller fairlead, roof mounted towing ring and a properly designed ratchet system for lifting the axle and limiting suspension droop when required will keep me entertained for a while once I've retreived the vehicle.
Will take photos, but on wireless internet and not sure how to post photos to forum yet.

[agrover]

brought a winch equipped twin difflocked deisel powered LandRover hybrid with a dodgy starter motor down to try to assist in recovering .my truck by winchingbackwards..
Unfortunately it got stuck and whilst attempting to reverse out I stalled the engine and could not restart.
To gain access to the upper part of the rollcage middle hoop I removed the window glass from the left handside of the hardtop I could then attach the Tirfor rope to it and pull the suspension over to the left, after having to crawl under the truck with an axe to cut a couple of 4'' diameter tree roots that had snagged on te chassis and axle assemblies. I still had to remove about a ton of mud from in front of the bullbar and right front wheel, but an inch at a time, having to get out several times to retension the tirfor I was able to drive out of the bog. I was worried that the front R/H lower control arm or its chassis was going to be badly bent but a quick visual inspection after driving the truck through my dam a couple of time to flush the mud off revealed no damage. another thing that surprised me is that I didn't blow a CV joint. When in the hole the
wheels were at full right hand lock up against the steering stops. I have a cv joint on one side that Ipreviously bodged up to get me home from a tough offroad trip. It broke the star and cage and split open the bell like the petals of a flower. I squeezed it all back together again fitted an old RangeRover star and cage and welded it shut . I was certain this would fail today but it held just fine.
Anyway I'm happy but the wife isn't as she had a few important chores planned for me to do today. Took some photos. On a very limited 3 gig internet plan. will try to get some assistance in posting them up at a future date.

[normalbloke]

When you hit reply there is a button marked "upload picture"
It doesn't get any simpler...

[agrover]

[normalbloke]

[agrover]

[normalbloke]

Lots of normalblokes about....We are a dying breed.

[paul_c]

Whereabouts are you, my boss has one of these:



Could a telehandler get to it and get a strap onto the front or rear enough to release it from the predicament?

If you were to drive that path again, would a waffle board get you through?

[agrover]