I had the old Rover/Fairey overdrive fitted to my Totally refurbished S2A ...It was a good one, new and unused, regular oil changes saw it last many years .....I used it (against advice) being an old trucker, It was a n adequate splitter on the top two gears...in fact with a deft hand I could split all the way up the box in the right road conditions...it made the most of my Perkins Prima conversion (turbo not intercooled). It could surprise a few people at the lights.
I have one of the first “Roamerdrive” units, purchased when they were first imported to the UK. I would have to check my records to be 100% sure of when, but I think it was around 2000. It’s done well over 150,000 miles now, more than 100,000 of those behind a 200tdi. It still runs silently. My only criticism is that it is occasionally a bit baulky when you want to change up, however if driven with a bit of mechanical sympathy it’s never been a problem.
That chit-chat came to exactly the right time, was undecided whether to go old school Fairey or unproblematic Roamer - well, You gave the last tip to swing my towards Roamer, Geoff. Thanks for the video (and the rest of them videos, too) Cheers!
Just picked up a 65 series 2 (2a?) with an OD already installed. Thought it was a Roamer but I think it’s a Fairey. Still great. And I don’t have those heat troubles in California. Watched this video a few times before I bought it. Cheers!
A revelation! I’ve already checked out the website, if I ever get the series 1 running and it passes the test, ie I don’t feel like I’m going to die in it then that is going to be added in. Very exciting. Owning land rovers is great for weight loss as maintenance and mods tap heavily into ones food budget. The Disco is currently alongside the old one getting some expensive repairs so in addition I’m walking everywhere. Land Rovers should feature in everyone’s health and fitness regime.
Well why get a gym membership? buy a Land Rover. Well if you crash a Series Land Rover you will die, that is why men drive Land Rovers, on another note you will die a happy man with a smile on your face. The Roamerdrive and the accessories which you can buy are well worth there weight in gold. I would certainly recommend it for yourself, especially if you are looking at doing some longer trips. Since you have a highly powerful V8, you would differently be able to sit of 55mph with no problems. Merry Christmas to you and the clan. Cheers Geoff
Got a series 3 109” diesel that I’m yet to pull out the back of my shed. I know it has an overdrive unit on it but I’m not sure what kind. It’s 72’ County and I’m not sure if it’s a factory option or someone’s put it in. It has a knob like the roamadrive in this video and a oil reservoir tank where the fuel tank goes in a 88”. Also has the original yolk winch. I can’t wait to clean it up and put it all together on the road! Tempted to td5 or 300td swap it.
I owned a 1962 Series 2A with 2.25 diesel engine. Would you guys recommend to install the Roamerdrive? I'd love to have 10 extra mph, at the moment I can't go over 45mph.
Hi there. It is differently a handy piece of kit. I wouldn't go so far to say that it gives you a guaranteed extra 10 mph, that comes back to the power plant moving the Landy to begin with. Just a thought have you had your diesel tuned recently. Cheers Geoff
Hi Jeff.There is company in Western Australia called Garage Therapy which a has developed a adaption plate which fits the LT95, so I don't see why it wouldn't fit the Lt85? Kind regards, Geoff
5th gear in a 5 speed is already a little taller geared than 4th in a 4 speed. With overdrive you would get a gear another 28% on top of this, which unless empty and on the flat at around 80-90Km/h might make your engine work rather harder. Of course in a 4 speed light short wheel base it's a different cup of tea. Also, you would not win the useful 'in-between-gears' - 4th overdrive is similar to 5th gear. If you want to drop the revs, simply go a little slower, let the others rush - enjoy your drive and your Landy 😉 Cheers, Michael
Der Roamerdrive in meinem 300TDI ist seit 100.000 km (seit 2008) verbaut und völlig unauffällig. GL4 Öl ist dazu dringendst zu empfehlen. Der Roamerdrive jault dann auch weniger, hauptsächlich im Schubbetrieb. Ich hatte einmal GL5 Öl verwendet. Man hört es im Betrieb. Der Roamerdrive wird lauter. Ansonsten ist er aber offenbar unzerstörbar. Ich hatte kürzlich eine R380 und LT77 Revision nach insgesamt 300.000 km. Lediglich der 5. Gang war abgenutzt und mußte erneuert werden. Synchronringe etc. waren weitestgehend in gutem Zustand. Ebenso das Mittendierrential. Der Roamerdrive benötigte keinerlei Wartung. Und ja, im Tiefsand ist er wirklich hilfreich. Würde ihn immer wieder kaufen! Wir waren in Patagonien, Nordafrika, Sahara, Osteuropa, Nordeuropa, Island, Südeuropa unterwegs. Also SEHR viel Offroad. Nie gab es jemals auch nur das geringste Problem mit dem Getriebe.
Did you ever got your hands on a toro overdrive? I recently installed one in my series 3 and really enjoy it! Toro overdrives where made in the 80/90s by the spanish part of landrover, land rover santana. It is a much more buffy version of a overdrive because it can also be used on a 6 cilinder engine. This is because land rover santana used to produce a 6 cilinder engine for a while. If you use it on a 4 cilinder you can even use the overdrive in 1st and 2nd gear because of its overdimensioned size. Anyways a overdrive is a super nice addition to add to your land rover!
Hi Max. The Toro overdrive units don't seem to be common here in Australia. I have haven't had any experience with them myself but I have heard they are a solid bit of kit. Any overdrive does make nice additional to any Land Rover as you mentioned it is a great way to get more out f these great vehicles. Kind regards, Geoff
@@Max-nv4fb Many thanks for your kind words really glad to hear you are enjoying the content, means a lot. Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge about the Toro overdrive. I would love to have a fiddle with one sometime. All the best with your Landy. Kind regards, Geoff
@@seriouslyseriesaustralia thanks! If you want I have contact of a dutch guy who imports the torro's from spain! Im sure if you contact him he can hook you up with one!
Geoff love your Series 3 shorty. noticed you have a capstan winch and looks like an extra fuel tank and filler. have you fitted a Defender roof rack to this vehicle??? it also looks like you have fitted 16 x 7.50 tyres... we have a Series 3 shorty as well but has smaller 205 x 15's. same colour as yours. looking to repaint and fit roamerdrive. so thanks for the video. love to see more driving of the vehicle both on and offroad. do you have any other footage? rgds Westfishos
Hi West fishos. It is a Defender 90 inch roof rack that is current on it at this stage, made by front runner (we have done a review on it). The Series 3 has 235/85R Open Country MT's which are a great tyre.There is other footage of us driving the Series 3, look up Seriously Series - Road to Ruin. Best of luck with your restoration and best of luck on your adventure. Cheers Geoff
Hi Simon. Sadly not as the Stage One is fitted with the LT95 gearbox. However you can get a fairey overdrive to fit the LT95 transmission. Cheers Geoff
Provide it is not fitted with an LT-95. They make a slightly different kit for the later gearboxes. I would recommended clicking on the link in the content section below. Cheers
Hey Geoff, great informative video as always. Just wanted to pick your brains though if I may. You mentioned you had different diffs that caused the gearing to be too tall, well I am currently debating weather to put 3.54 diffs from a Discovery 1 in my SII as I have a 200tdi conversion ( apologies to the purists ) which I believe from what I have read can cope with the demand of taller gearing? It pretty much negates the need for overdrive ( Which I also have ) but I have known people still use them together. I am looking to do this to primarily reduce the noise. The tdi motor in a series is over intrusive on a longer journey, even for a series Land Rover. What are your thoughts on this set up?
Hi there Series_2_adventure_life. I don't think you should have an issue and since you have the 200TDI in it which is what the early Disco's had in them. All the best , sounds like an interesting project. Kind regards Geoff
I reckon folkes a roamerdriver and electric power steering would be tops. I heard the oils that ''corrode'' brass only discolour them and not corrode them
I will never buy anything from this company again. I bought their previous "roverdrive" new unit years ago but i had a monday morning model. All the treads were cut wrong. I think they let an appententice do the work.They drilled a way to big hole so the tread was nog complete. The whole spring retainer with the bal for locating the shifter broke completely out. It was leaking everywhere. It had a whine from the beginning that only got worse. They overheated badly even tho i bought a finned sumpplate from them. The dealer where i bougt it made a new bushing for the retainer under warranty but they drilled it at the wrong angle so it wouldn't get out of gear again so eventually i made my own modification and now it works pretty well. I use now a fully senthetic oil but still with GL4 specification which copes better with the high temperature that these units produce and i use TSL additive which really helped by reducing the temperture on my didgital thermometer. However, I had a complete silent gearbox before i put this this unit on. And I ended up soundproofing the whole vehicle so the whine became less noticable. But it's still there. And still i wouldn't want to miss the unit. The 28% drop in RPM on the motorway makes it all worth. Over 90 km/h the noise of the whining becomes less noticable because of wind noise and tyre noise. I always drive 100-110 km/h on the autobahn and that was not possible without an overdrive. I also bought new 2-leaf rocky mountain parabolic springs and procomp shocks. Terrible combination. Stiff as hell. I scrapped the procomps and use monroes now. Way better but still a hars ride. But they never break. My vehicle: 1976 88" Stawag 2.25 diesel(5 main bearing) engine. 235-85R16 tyres. Greating from the Netherlands
I am sorry you have had this experience. At the time your 'roverdrive' was manufactured and purchased over fifteen years ago the units were manufactured by a vendor company to quite a diffrent design than they are now. You probably purchased yours (and the suspension) from a Dutch Company that lost the franchise when they got into financial trouble. I cannot recall ever being notified of this incident. Your unit uses the synchromesh assembly from the Seriers 3 gearbox but the basic layout of the gears themselves is the same as modern units. The leaks can be explained as no 'O' rings were fitted to the mounting bolts the way we do now.. These pioneer models however have gained an impressive reputation for reliability. Only a few hundred were produced but in the last ten years I have not seen one ever come in for repair - it should go on running for many years to come. Ray Wood. (Roamerdrive inventor)
Decent video, however what you say about the oil and Fairey Overdrive units is arrant nonsense. Full operating temperatures of engines, gearboxes and axles is way beyond 40 degrees celcius. If what you said was true all the oils would "evaporate" and disappear. I know that if you think about this you will understand
I had the old Rover/Fairey overdrive fitted to my Totally refurbished S2A ...It was a good one, new and unused, regular oil changes saw it last many years .....I used it (against advice) being an old trucker, It was a n adequate splitter on the top two gears...in fact with a deft hand I could split all the way up the box in the right road conditions...it made the most of my Perkins Prima conversion (turbo not intercooled). It could surprise a few people at the lights.
I have one of the first “Roamerdrive” units, purchased when they were first imported to the UK. I would have to check my records to be 100% sure of when, but I think it was around 2000. It’s done well over 150,000 miles now, more than 100,000 of those behind a 200tdi. It still runs silently. My only criticism is that it is occasionally a bit baulky when you want to change up, however if driven with a bit of mechanical sympathy it’s never been a problem.
Geoff, I can feel I will be putting my name down for more overtime at work, and start saving up for one. Great review.
Well worth it Adam, though Fairey may do for now. Overtime sounds a little scary haha
Put one in my Dad’s series 2a. They are fantastic, still going strong 3 years later.
How much did it cost.
That chit-chat came to exactly the right time, was undecided whether to go old school Fairey or unproblematic Roamer - well, You gave the last tip to swing my towards Roamer, Geoff. Thanks for the video (and the rest of them videos, too) Cheers!
Thank you for watching and it is great to hear that this video was of use to you. Many thanks, Geoff
Couldn’t agree more. I put one in my 79 swb and it transformed my vehicle. I also did the plate as well.
Just picked up a 65 series 2 (2a?) with an OD already installed. Thought it was a Roamer but I think it’s a Fairey. Still great. And I don’t have those heat troubles in California. Watched this video a few times before I bought it. Cheers!
A revelation! I’ve already checked out the website, if I ever get the series 1 running and it passes the test, ie I don’t feel like I’m going to die in it then that is going to be added in. Very exciting. Owning land rovers is great for weight loss as maintenance and mods tap heavily into ones food budget. The Disco is currently alongside the old one getting some expensive repairs so in addition I’m walking everywhere. Land Rovers should feature in everyone’s health and fitness regime.
Well why get a gym membership? buy a Land Rover. Well if you crash a Series Land Rover you will die, that is why men drive Land Rovers, on another note you will die a happy man with a smile on your face.
The Roamerdrive and the accessories which you can buy are well worth there weight in gold. I would certainly recommend it for yourself, especially if you are looking at doing some longer trips. Since you have a highly powerful V8, you would differently be able to sit of 55mph with no problems. Merry Christmas to you and the clan. Cheers Geoff
Smiles per gallon; I haven't heard that one for at least 20years 😁👍👍
Best investment in my opinion. The only issue I had was a bad bolt. Roamer called me and was nice enough to send one asap.
I would agree and the team at Roamerdrive are excellent to deal with
I'm sold... time to start saving 👍
Thank you Geoff! I’m inching towards buying one of those Roamer Drives.
Hi Graem. They are worth the wait. Cheers
That looks pretty good, i might fit one in my youtube build!
Amazing my next upgrade for sure. And I live not far from Ray/Roamerdrive in Canada 👍🏼
Hi Frank. Well worth having a chat with Ray, he is a great bloke and true inventor and engineer.
Hi geoff what rims and tyres are you running on the series three bud. Thanks in advance
I have a Series 2A with a Fairey overdrive! Greetings from South Africa! 🇿🇦
Hi Ockert. I hope your having some fun adventures in your 2A, thanks for watching
Got a series 3 109” diesel that I’m yet to pull out the back of my shed. I know it has an overdrive unit on it but I’m not sure what kind. It’s 72’ County and I’m not sure if it’s a factory option or someone’s put it in. It has a knob like the roamadrive in this video and a oil reservoir tank where the fuel tank goes in a 88”. Also has the original yolk winch. I can’t wait to clean it up and put it all together on the road! Tempted to td5 or 300td swap it.
I owned a 1962 Series 2A with 2.25 diesel engine. Would you guys recommend to install the Roamerdrive? I'd love to have 10 extra mph, at the moment I can't go over 45mph.
Hi there. It is differently a handy piece of kit. I wouldn't go so far to say that it gives you a guaranteed extra 10 mph, that comes back to the power plant moving the Landy to begin with. Just a thought have you had your diesel tuned recently. Cheers Geoff
@@seriouslyseriesaustralia you are right, I should start with tuning the engine first and see what I have. thanks
@@federicocasarin3423 It might be a cheap easy fix? Cheers Geoff
Can I fit one to a Land Rover Perentie ?
Yes they do a company called Garage Therapy makes them. Cheers Geoff
Hi geoff. How tall are you. Is it possible to do a vid suggesting possible ways getting more room for driver. Cheers bud
red motor 6 cylnder holden were put in landrovers with overdrive
That is right but Roamerdrive won't honour there warranty if you put there overdrive into a Land Rover with a 6 cylinder motor. Cheers Geoff
Hi Geoff, will a roamer drive fit a land Rover county V8 with a lt85 5 speed?
Cheers Jeff
Hi Jeff.There is company in Western Australia called Garage Therapy which a has developed a adaption plate which fits the LT95, so I don't see why it wouldn't fit the Lt85? Kind regards, Geoff
5th gear in a 5 speed is already a little taller geared than 4th in a 4 speed.
With overdrive you would get a gear another 28% on top of this, which unless empty and on the flat at around 80-90Km/h might make your engine work rather harder. Of course in a 4 speed light short wheel base it's a different cup of tea.
Also, you would not win the useful 'in-between-gears' - 4th overdrive is similar to 5th gear.
If you want to drop the revs, simply go a little slower, let the others rush - enjoy your drive and your Landy 😉 Cheers, Michael
Der Roamerdrive in meinem 300TDI ist seit 100.000 km (seit 2008) verbaut und völlig unauffällig. GL4 Öl ist dazu dringendst zu empfehlen. Der Roamerdrive jault dann auch weniger, hauptsächlich im Schubbetrieb. Ich hatte einmal GL5 Öl verwendet. Man hört es im Betrieb. Der Roamerdrive wird lauter.
Ansonsten ist er aber offenbar unzerstörbar. Ich hatte kürzlich eine R380 und LT77 Revision nach insgesamt 300.000 km. Lediglich der 5. Gang war abgenutzt und mußte erneuert werden. Synchronringe etc. waren weitestgehend in gutem Zustand. Ebenso das Mittendierrential. Der Roamerdrive benötigte keinerlei Wartung. Und ja, im Tiefsand ist er wirklich hilfreich. Würde ihn immer wieder kaufen! Wir waren in Patagonien, Nordafrika, Sahara, Osteuropa, Nordeuropa, Island, Südeuropa unterwegs. Also SEHR viel Offroad. Nie gab es jemals auch nur das geringste Problem mit dem Getriebe.
Did you ever got your hands on a toro overdrive? I recently installed one in my series 3 and really enjoy it! Toro overdrives where made in the 80/90s by the spanish part of landrover, land rover santana. It is a much more buffy version of a overdrive because it can also be used on a 6 cilinder engine. This is because land rover santana used to produce a 6 cilinder engine for a while. If you use it on a 4 cilinder you can even use the overdrive in 1st and 2nd gear because of its overdimensioned size. Anyways a overdrive is a super nice addition to add to your land rover!
Hi Max. The Toro overdrive units don't seem to be common here in Australia. I have haven't had any experience with them myself but I have heard they are a solid bit of kit. Any overdrive does make nice additional to any Land Rover as you mentioned it is a great way to get more out f these great vehicles. Kind regards, Geoff
@@seriouslyseriesaustralia Thanks Geoff! Great content on your channel, keep up the great work!
@@Max-nv4fb Many thanks for your kind words really glad to hear you are enjoying the content, means a lot.
Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge about the Toro overdrive. I would love to have a fiddle with one sometime. All the best with your Landy. Kind regards, Geoff
@@seriouslyseriesaustralia thanks! If you want I have contact of a dutch guy who imports the torro's from spain! Im sure if you contact him he can hook you up with one!
@@Max-nv4fb Cheers Max. Do you know how much they generally cost? Cheers Geoff
Geoff love your Series 3 shorty. noticed you have a capstan winch and looks like an extra fuel tank and filler. have you fitted a Defender roof rack to this vehicle??? it also looks like you have fitted 16 x 7.50 tyres... we have a Series 3 shorty as well but has smaller 205 x 15's. same colour as yours. looking to repaint and fit roamerdrive. so thanks for the video. love to see more driving of the vehicle both on and offroad. do you have any other footage? rgds Westfishos
Hi West fishos. It is a Defender 90 inch roof rack that is current on it at this stage, made by front runner (we have done a review on it). The Series 3 has 235/85R Open Country MT's which are a great tyre.There is other footage of us driving the Series 3, look up Seriously Series - Road to Ruin. Best of luck with your restoration and best of luck on your adventure. Cheers Geoff
Geoff,
Can the romerdrive be fitted to the Series 3 Stage 1 Landrover (standard V8)?
Hi Simon. Sadly not as the Stage One is fitted with the LT95 gearbox. However you can get a fairey overdrive to fit the LT95 transmission. Cheers Geoff
can the roamer drive be installed in a 1987 2.5D land rover 90 ?
Provide it is not fitted with an LT-95. They make a slightly different kit for the later gearboxes. I would recommended clicking on the link in the content section below. Cheers
Hey Geoff, great informative video as always. Just wanted to pick your brains though if I may. You mentioned you had different diffs that caused the gearing to be too tall, well I am currently debating weather to put 3.54 diffs from a Discovery 1 in my SII as I have a 200tdi conversion ( apologies to the purists ) which I believe from what I have read can cope with the demand of taller gearing? It pretty much negates the need for overdrive ( Which I also have ) but I have known people still use them together.
I am looking to do this to primarily reduce the noise. The tdi motor in a series is over intrusive on a longer journey, even for a series Land Rover. What are your thoughts on this set up?
Hi there Series_2_adventure_life. I don't think you should have an issue and since you have the 200TDI in it which is what the early Disco's had in them. All the best , sounds like an interesting project. Kind regards Geoff
♥Seriously Series
Thanks for watching. Cheers
Hi Geoff,
did the fuel economy change much with the use of the overdrive?
And is there a noticeable noice difference?
Hi Rick. Yes, it made a big difference I now get around 12 liters per 100km. Cheers Geoff
@@seriouslyseriesaustralia Wow, that's pretty good.
Excellent review and advance.
Hi John. I hope you got something out of it. Many thanks
Great vid. Would have one if i hadn't sold my Series 3 :-(
Hi Sean. Well, the great thing is that they have a kit for the Defender too, sorry to hear about the Series 3. Cheers
Hello Geoff, can I ask where you can source Roamerdrives from? Thanks
Global Roamer Corporation!
I run Fiery Overdrives in my Series II and Series III s R6....Running lovely...engine working way less.
Hi Sean. Glad to hear your fleet is running sweet. Well worth checking out the Roamerdrive website for some window shopping.
I reckon folkes a roamerdriver and electric power steering would be tops.
I heard the oils that ''corrode'' brass only discolour them and not corrode them
I will never buy anything from this company again. I bought their previous "roverdrive" new unit years ago but i had a monday morning model. All the treads were cut wrong. I think they let an appententice do the work.They drilled a way to big hole so the tread was nog complete. The whole spring retainer with the bal for locating the shifter broke completely out. It was leaking everywhere. It had a whine from the beginning that only got worse. They overheated badly even tho i bought a finned sumpplate from them. The dealer where i bougt it made a new bushing for the retainer under warranty but they drilled it at the wrong angle so it wouldn't get out of gear again so eventually i made my own modification and now it works pretty well. I use now a fully senthetic oil but still with GL4 specification which copes better with the high temperature that these units produce and i use TSL additive which really helped by reducing the temperture on my didgital thermometer. However, I had a complete silent gearbox before i put this this unit on. And I ended up soundproofing the whole vehicle so the whine became less noticable. But it's still there.
And still i wouldn't want to miss the unit. The 28% drop in RPM on the motorway makes it all worth. Over 90 km/h the noise of the whining becomes less noticable because of wind noise and tyre noise. I always drive 100-110 km/h on the autobahn and that was not possible without an overdrive. I also bought new 2-leaf rocky mountain parabolic springs and procomp shocks. Terrible combination. Stiff as hell. I scrapped the procomps and use monroes now. Way better but still a hars ride. But they never break. My vehicle: 1976 88" Stawag 2.25 diesel(5 main bearing) engine. 235-85R16 tyres.
Greating from the Netherlands
I am sorry you have had this experience. At the time your 'roverdrive' was manufactured and purchased over fifteen years ago the units were manufactured by a vendor company to quite a diffrent design than they are now. You probably purchased yours (and the suspension) from a Dutch Company that lost the franchise when they got into financial trouble. I cannot recall ever being notified of this incident.
Your unit uses the synchromesh assembly from the Seriers 3 gearbox but the basic layout of the gears themselves is the same as modern units. The leaks can be explained as no 'O' rings were fitted to the mounting bolts the way we do now.. These pioneer models however have gained an impressive reputation for reliability. Only a few hundred were produced but in the last ten years I have not seen one ever come in for repair - it should go on running for many years to come. Ray Wood. (Roamerdrive inventor)
Decent video, however what you say about the oil and Fairey Overdrive units is arrant nonsense.
Full operating temperatures of engines, gearboxes and axles is way beyond 40 degrees celcius. If what you said was true all the oils would "evaporate" and disappear.
I know that if you think about this you will understand
This was just a lot of talking, it would be great to see what ur talking about. Now Ill go to another channel to actually see more about it
No worries good luck. Try looking for an installation video. Cheers Geoff