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Car Forum / UK Car Forums / 4x4 Cars (UK group) / April 2005Santana
Does anyone know anything about the Santana? How does it compare with a Defender, can you get it serviced, reliability etc. > Does anyone know anything about the Santana? > > How does it compare with a Defender, can you get it serviced, reliability > etc. It's an improved Defender with a Fiat diesel. It drives more comfortably than the Land Rover. http://www.brucehopkins.co.uk/santana_4x4.htm Service? for an unbreakable vehicle? Frank > It's an improved Defender with a Fiat diesel. It drives more comfortably > than the Land Rover. > http://www.brucehopkins.co.uk/santana_4x4.htm > Service? for an unbreakable vehicle? I though they were more an improved series 3. They run on leaf springs and use selectable 4 wheel drive don't they? Supposedly quite good.  Signaturesimon at sbarr dot demon dot co dot uk Simon Barr. '97 110 300Tdi. On Tuesday, in article <425c1347$0$773$3a628fcd@reader10.nntp.hccnet.nl> > > Does anyone know anything about the Santana? > > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > http://www.brucehopkins.co.uk/santana_4x4.htm > Service? for an unbreakable vehicle? I think that, strictly, it's a parallel development from earlier Land Rover tech, which Santana started by assembling for the Spanish market. Santana and Land Rover have shared gearbox designs in the past. But certainly comparable to the Defender. SignatureDavid G. Bell -- SF Fan, Filker, and Punslinger. "I am Number Two," said Penfold. "You are Number Six." > Does anyone know anything about the Santana? > > How does it compare with a Defender, can you get it serviced, reliability > etc. By coincidence I spent the Saturday before last at a demo day for these things, having a test drive. They are surprisingly capable units despite having leaf springs. The axle articulation is particularly impressive for a leaf sprung vehicle and the ride is also better than I expected. This is probably down to the spring design which allows a very small contact area between the leafs. In fact the articulation was so good that I found little difference between the unladen Santana and my LR110. The LT85 gearbox, as used in V8 Defender vehicles, is good and strong but rather notchy, needing a good whack into the reverse plane. The wheels have the same stud pattern as Defender although these long wheelbase vehicles do not use the Dana/Salisbury type rear axle even though they are part time 4x4 and put a lot of load through the rear drivetrain. The body is steel rather than aluminium but is quite heavy gauge and appears well protected from rust. A weak point for corrosion might be the top inner edge of the new pick-up body where the steel is folded back on itself. There is a huge gap between the body and tailgate when it is open. The pick-up has a big roll bar behind the cab for roll-over protection. The roof is a fibre type material. The dash is rather poorly finished by today's standards but has all that is needed for an utility vehicle. Two front seats are standard and there is more length in the cab than a truck-cab Defender. The engine is a superb common-rail Iveco 2.8 unit which is adequately powerful though never refined in this application. The steering is nothing special and rather less satisfactory than a Defender's but surely no less durable, not that this is any recommendation. The front axle is similar to a series111 unit in that the swivel pins do not contain CV joints but only single UJ's it seems. The assembly quality is below par and I found loose bolts holding the swivel pin housing oil seals on one vehicle. That concludes the verdict of the West Wales jury. Huw Huw You wrote on Mon, 18 Apr 2005 20:54:38 +0100:. H> They are surprisingly capable units despite having leaf springs. The H> axle articulation is particularly impressive for a leaf sprung vehicle H> and the ride is also better than I expected. This is probably down to H> the spring design which allows a very small contact area between the H> leafs. In fact the articulation was so good that I found little H> difference between the unladen Santana and my LR110. I think you'll find a leaf spring vehicle can be made to out articulate a coil sprung one, if you look at some of the merkin websites, where they take articulation very seriously, you'll find some very impressive figures for leaf sprung Jeeps and Suzuki's. -- Cheers, Nobby. > I think you'll find a leaf spring vehicle can be made to out articulate a > coil sprung one, if you look at some of the merkin websites, where they take > articulation very seriously, you'll find some very impressive figures for > leaf sprung Jeeps and Suzuki's. I can't see how leaves could be made to emulate what Scorpions extreme setup does! You can have one wheel on the ground and the other 3 feet or more in the air, they acheive this by dislocating the coils. Can that be done with leafs? Signaturesimon at sbarr dot demon dot co dot uk Simon Barr. '97 110 300Tdi. Simon Barr schrieb: > I can't see how leaves could be made to emulate what Scorpions extreme > setup does! > You can have one wheel on the ground and the other 3 feet or more in the > air, they acheive this by dislocating the coils. > > Can that be done with leafs? Dislocate the leafs ;-) Axel On Wednesday, in article <42667AB1.109DBBC8@dt-intra.de> > Simon Barr schrieb: > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Dislocate the leafs ;-) It almost feels like cheating, whatever springs you use. SignatureDavid G. Bell -- SF Fan, Filker, and Punslinger. "I am Number Two," said Penfold. "You are Number Six." > You can have one wheel on the ground and the other 3 feet or more in the > air, they acheive this by dislocating the coils. > > Can that be done with leafs? Kinda http://www.gon2far.co.uk SignaturePete Foster - www.xmob.co.uk >> You can have one wheel on the ground and the other 3 feet or more in the >> air, they acheive this by dislocating the coils. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > http://www.gon2far.co.uk Very impressive. Out laning a few months back I followed a series III all morning, articulation on that was virtually non-existant! Signaturesimon at sbarr dot demon dot co dot uk Simon Barr. '97 110 300Tdi. In uk.rec.cars.4x4 Simon Barr wrote on 20 Apr 2005 13:30:45 GMT: SB> I can't see how leaves could be made to emulate what Scorpions extreme SB> setup does! I think you'll find Scorpion Extreme do nothing new. SB> You can have one wheel on the ground and the other 3 feet or more in SB> the air, they acheive this by dislocating the coils. SB> Can that be done with leafs? Clearly not, have a look at http://www.spidertrax.com/suspension_qte.htm -- Nobby. > In uk.rec.cars.4x4 Simon Barr wrote on 20 Apr 2005 13:30:45 GMT: > > SB> I can't see how leaves could be made to emulate what Scorpions extreme > SB> setup does! > > I think you'll find Scorpion Extreme do nothing new. I don't remember saying it did, it is just a system that I have seen. Signaturesimon at sbarr dot demon dot co dot uk Simon Barr. '97 110 300Tdi. > Huw > You wrote on Mon, 18 Apr 2005 20:54:38 +0100:. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > I think you'll find a leaf spring vehicle can be made to out articulate a > coil sprung one, All I can say is that it is in a different league to any traditional leaf sprung Land Rover and possibly as good as a coil sprung Defender as far as I could tell. This capability surprised me somewhat. Huw |
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