3/25/21
Hi folks! As you may know, Lynn and I are huge Range Rover fans and we go off-road in the mountains and outer banks whenever we get the chance. We are taking delivery of a full size 2012 Range Rover to replace our aging 2008 model. It's back at the dealer now taking care of a few punch list items but we should have it back in a day or two. We will be outfitting this vehicle with several upgrades to make it more off road capable. We will be posting the progress here so you can follow along. For now, here are some photos to kick off the project.
As a reference, here is the old girl we are replacing: 2008 Range Rover HSE, 4.4L V8, Johnson Rods 2" lift, Voyager Adventure roof rack with ARB 6'x9' awning and 4" LED front mounted lights, ProSpeed rock sliders, 275/55/20 (32") Cooper Zeon LTZ all terrain tires.
Front Interior
Rear Interior
And here are pre-mod photos of our replacement truck:
Stock 2012 Range Rover HSE with a kickass 5.0L V8 and, umm, not so kickass 19" wheels, and factory side steps (that just take up space as they add no off road protection).
Front Interior
Rear Interior
- Lucky8 Offroad steel bumper
- with Terrafirma A12000 winch installed in bumper
- with Factor 55 Crosby red shackles
- with Factor 55 Ultra Hook and Fairlead
- The winch, fairlead, and Ultra Hook need to be pre-installed in the center section of the bumper prior to mounting the bumper to the sub-frame
- with Baja 4" Squadron R-Sport LED lights integrated into bumper
- Fuel 18" off road wheels with 285/65/18 (33") Nitto Ridge Grappler all terrain tires
- Proud Rhino 2.5" lift rods (so the tires will fit)
- ProSpeed Rock Sliders (these are back-ordered)
- Tow Hitch (also back-ordered)
Update 4/10/21
We finally got the new truck back yesterday (4/9/21) after the dealer had to take care of some punch list items. I immediately started on phase one upgrades so here we go!
Phase 1:
- Fuel Offroad D596 18" wheels with Nitto Ridge Grappler 33" tires
- Proud Rhino 2.5" lift rods
- Black lugs and new TPMS modules
Here are some photos of the progress, starting with the front left wheel.
This is the stock setup.
Here is the stock wheel and rod removed. You can see I have highlighted where the rod installs.
And here is the new wheel and rod after installation. The 18" wheels on this Range Rover are a tight fit, but after determining the calipers clear and all is well I moved forward. These wheels have a 35mm offset which put the larger tire further out so it clears the shock. Overall a nice fit!
Next up is the left rear wheel, same sequence.
Stock wheel and tire.
Stock rod vs. Proud Rhino rod
Now we just repeat the process on the other side, then raise and lower the suspension once so it recalibrates and we are all set with the new wheel and tire package and the 2.5" lift in place!
That being said, after a long rainy winter the fire roads were pretty rough and gave me ample opportunity to compare the new set up to the old truck even though I totally missed trail turn off. Very pleased with the increased off road traction and clearance!
Photo on the fire road:
And of course, as those of you who know Lynn and I now expect, the obligatory brewery stop on the way home:
Update 4/24/21
I just finished the Lucky8 bumper and Terrafirma winch installation, and I have to say for any of you DIY'ers this is a full on project. Being more of a shade tree mechanic, and not having much support in the way of instruction or photos from the folks at Lucky8, I struggled a bit but eventually got it done.
So the first step is removing the stock bumper cover. Once I realized how it was attached on the sides after removing all of the fastening bolts and hardware it was a snap. I probably spent half a day, however, figuring that part out without breaking anything.
Here are some photos of that:
Stock bumper
Next step - remove all bolts and hardware for the bumper cover, then remove the plastic bumper cover
Next - remove all of the molded plastic that supported the cover as well as the actual bumper, after disconnecting the parking assist and fog light wiring, and (ouch) cutting the headlight washer nozzle hose. I used a small cooler to catch the washer fluid drainage.
Note to those considering this bumper:
- Pros
- You gain approach angle for offroad obstacles
- You gain a solid mount for a winch that protects the winch from damage
- You gain protection from rock and tree damage
- Cons
- You loose your headlight washer nozzles
- You give up parking assist as there is no accommodation for the sensors
- Washer fluid reservoir becomes an issue
Picture of the bumper removed, cooler being used to catch the washer fluid, and you can see here the plastic mounting brace that needs to come off and how large the washer fluid bottle is. That washer fluid bottle becomes an issue later. It hangs about 5" down below the new Lucky8 bumper and will be a problem! The folks at Lucky8 made no mention of that when I ordered the bumper. More on that later. You can also see on the passenger side that the horn no longer has a mounting place. Just lying on the floor for now...
Ok, so now all the plastic and headlights are removed. The headlight removal makes things much easier and there are only 4 screws to remove them. As you can see, the horns are hanging by the wires and that washer fluid reservoir is huge. The steel bumper does not resolve any of this. I feel like I am on my own here and need to find the resolution.
Easy fix for the horns. There were two predrilled holes in the subframe that fit nicely for mounting the horns with the existing bolts. That wiring harness you see is the control harness for the parking assist and fog lights, both of which have been removed when the plastic bumper cover was taken off. I re-installed the headlight to make sure that was not an issue with space for the horn mounting.
Next is the wiring for the Baja Lights LEDs. I wanted to use the factory fog light wiring so that there would not be another switch (use the OEM fog light switch) and so the dashboard indicators would show correctly when the LEDs (factory fog lights) were on. I spliced into the factory harness and wired each side with the connectors.
Passenger side
Driver side
Now we start the bumper installation. Center section bolted on! This bumper is heavy and with the winch pre-installed it is even heavier. A hydraulic jack to support the weight and a second person to help guide the bumper onto the studs is a must.
Then we install the passenger side bumper section with the
Baja light. Looks like a lot of wheel well is exposed...
So at this point I'm thinking almost there. Umm, no.
I have to do something about that fender well, and we still have that washer fluid reservoir issue.
Trimming the fender wells worked well. Burned 2 dremel blades out in the process. Did not have the proper blades so kind of made a mess of it but I can clean that up with better blades later. Removed the washer fluid reservoir. Now what?
Lucky8 sent photos of the washer fluid reservoir mounted inside the bumper. The issues I see with that are 1) you have to graft the factory filler tube to the tank, 2) the tank should be painted black, and 3) you have to tap and extend the factory wiring and hoses. I took the Lucky8 relocation tank and sealed the hole for the replacement pump (not sure how that worked anyway), drilled 2 holes for the factory front and rear pumps, and mounted it under the driver side headlight using the bumper bracket and a steel bolt support going into an existing sub-frame bolt point. I can fill the tank using a regular oil funnel with no issues. This works for me as grafting a plastic extension onto the tank is not within my DIY abilities. Photos to come.
Now we are ready to roll.
So here we are at Brown Mtn off road park first time out at the park in this truck. Good times with good friends.
Stay tuned for updates! Waiting for the backordered rock sliders to come in. That will be the next installation.
8/1/2022 update. Wow, so I really dropped the ball here. Haven't updated or posted for months. I installed the rock sliders as well as a custom made half size roof rack from OutRack. They made this rack initially as a one off for me but are now offering it as an option. The web site even uses my truck in the photo ads! It is offered through Range Rover Passion of Italy, as well as 4x4Overlander of UK. I also added 4" LED lighting both front and rear mounted to the roof rack and switched via the factory fog lamp switches.
Here is the link to the UK supplier:
Also the tow package finally came in so I installed that as well. The finished package looks nice and works well!
Long overdue update 11/21/23 - I am really bad at updates but now that I am retired perhaps I can do better.
- The 2008 is long gone. Sold on day one with 135k on the odometer and true to Rover form absolutely immaculate inside.
- I love the 2012 and although it was the last of the L322s before the L405s came out, I think it is the best. The 5.0L over the previous 4.4L in the 2008 performs well and the upgrades in comfort and terrain response are subtle but also substantial.
- I have diligently pursued regular service from a Rover certified shop. Even though this truck is over 10 years old it looks like new inside and rides the same. 86k miles as of this writing so I expect a long life on this one.
Here are some more recent photos for you to enjoy. I will put this project to rest as I do not intend to build it out any more than the current state and am fully enjoying the final result.
As a final close out for this project I am providing a list below of all of the parts and the suppliers for every upgrade I performed on the truck. If you are inclined to do the same I hope you find this helpful. Total cost at the time was around $10k for everything with me providing all of the labor. Sounds steep but people drop more than that on Jeep upgrades all the time, and the labor alone would have been at least another $3k.
You will need to type in the URLs as this is not a live link:
As an anecdote, check out this little Jimny we used to travel Iceland. I was impressed with this little vehicle. See our Iceland page for more on that...
Looks nice... But did you really have to remove all of the plastic? The upper air guides behind the grill? And how is the bottom of the grill mounted now that the 4 tab holders are gone?
ReplyDeleteI know this is a really delayed response. I have not been active on the blog so let me apologize for that. Starting up again. To answer your question, yes the plastic had to be removed. The steel bumper will not mount to the frame otherwise. The grill is only held in place by the top mounting screws but I have had no issues with that. Rock sliders are excellent but no easy installation unless you have experience with that. Roof rack is awesome but I had to add an aftermarket air dam because the wind noise was excessive. The end result is a rather aggressive looking and off road performing L322, however. Not many folks use these in that way.
Delete