avslash
Full Access Member
Posting this in response to the inquiries in the LR4 for Highway Travel thread.
First off, if you are faint of heart, or faint of wallet, this is not the mod for you.
My LR4 was so highly modified, with so much money dumped into it, that I finally woke up one day and said "I can drive 700+ miles in my diesel truck, I want to be able to do that in my Rover, and I don't care what it costs". Turns out, it cost quite a bit to get there.
There is some hope though. I have heard mention that a company is currently working out a distribution agreement for these tanks in the U.S., and searching for shops willing to install them.
There are also several other individuals who have made this work with one of the three or four various options available from Australia or South Africa. Kudos to them and however they accomplished it, so this thread only applies to my experience.
My tank is the Long Range Automotive (LRA) tank from Australia. The kit they sell is designed to work with basically every iteration of LR4, except those that are sold in North America. The difference, obviously, is our particular emissions requirements. I contacted them directly, and they were willing to ship one directly to the Port of Houston, Texas for me. This necessitated hiring a customs management firm that they recommended, paying duties, fees, etc. and eventually resulted in my driving to bonded warehouse at the port and picking up the tank/kit myself. They were several hundred dollars of taxes/fees/whatever added to the cost of the tank/kit from this. Plan on additional expense if you do not live close enough to a port to take possession of it yourself.
The tank itself will bolt directly into the space previously occupied by your spare tire, so make sure you have a plan to carry your spare elsewhere, as well.
Once the tank is in place, the science project starts. From my research before I did this I saw a few different ways people have accomplished this; from professional looking jobs to bits that looked like they were cobbled together from the irrigation section at the hardware store, it ran the gamut.
I wanted a finished product that I could trust to work on the side of a mountain in Colorado, so again, I broke out my wallet to the tune of aprox. $2,000.00 more.
I am fortunate to have a racing shop near me that can fabricate most anything, so I took it to them and spent an hour or so discussing what I wanted and how I thought it should be done. Essentially, what I wanted was a reliable install with all of the factory emissions equipment remaining in place so I could avoid any check engine light or smog testing issues. The technician who did the install drives an LR3, so he was both interested in the project, and somewhat familiar with the LR4. It was a good fit, and we set a date for the install.
Prior to dropping it off, I ran all the wiring for the install myself. This was straightforward, and able to be done from the instructions included with the tank/kit.
The shop did the rest of the fab/install. All of the other installs that I have personally seen or seen documented on the web appeared to basically discard most of the pieces of the installation kit included with the tank, as they do not match with the connections on the NAS LR4. On my install, we used virtually everything, but made modifications as necessary. The biggest win for mine versus the others I have seen is the usage of the dual filler pipe assembly that is included with the kit. We cut it as needed, swaged it out to match the factory fill pipe to the main tank, and welded it together. We also ended up welding over one or two bungs that were not needed as we matched the existing emissions components connections to the new fill pipe assembly. The use of the fill pipe from the kit also allows me to fill either tank as I wish, and not have to pump fuel into the system until both tanks are full, as I have seen in at least one other install.
See my next post for pictures, and I will try to answer any questions as I am able.
First off, if you are faint of heart, or faint of wallet, this is not the mod for you.
My LR4 was so highly modified, with so much money dumped into it, that I finally woke up one day and said "I can drive 700+ miles in my diesel truck, I want to be able to do that in my Rover, and I don't care what it costs". Turns out, it cost quite a bit to get there.
There is some hope though. I have heard mention that a company is currently working out a distribution agreement for these tanks in the U.S., and searching for shops willing to install them.
There are also several other individuals who have made this work with one of the three or four various options available from Australia or South Africa. Kudos to them and however they accomplished it, so this thread only applies to my experience.
My tank is the Long Range Automotive (LRA) tank from Australia. The kit they sell is designed to work with basically every iteration of LR4, except those that are sold in North America. The difference, obviously, is our particular emissions requirements. I contacted them directly, and they were willing to ship one directly to the Port of Houston, Texas for me. This necessitated hiring a customs management firm that they recommended, paying duties, fees, etc. and eventually resulted in my driving to bonded warehouse at the port and picking up the tank/kit myself. They were several hundred dollars of taxes/fees/whatever added to the cost of the tank/kit from this. Plan on additional expense if you do not live close enough to a port to take possession of it yourself.
The tank itself will bolt directly into the space previously occupied by your spare tire, so make sure you have a plan to carry your spare elsewhere, as well.
Once the tank is in place, the science project starts. From my research before I did this I saw a few different ways people have accomplished this; from professional looking jobs to bits that looked like they were cobbled together from the irrigation section at the hardware store, it ran the gamut.
I wanted a finished product that I could trust to work on the side of a mountain in Colorado, so again, I broke out my wallet to the tune of aprox. $2,000.00 more.
I am fortunate to have a racing shop near me that can fabricate most anything, so I took it to them and spent an hour or so discussing what I wanted and how I thought it should be done. Essentially, what I wanted was a reliable install with all of the factory emissions equipment remaining in place so I could avoid any check engine light or smog testing issues. The technician who did the install drives an LR3, so he was both interested in the project, and somewhat familiar with the LR4. It was a good fit, and we set a date for the install.
Prior to dropping it off, I ran all the wiring for the install myself. This was straightforward, and able to be done from the instructions included with the tank/kit.
The shop did the rest of the fab/install. All of the other installs that I have personally seen or seen documented on the web appeared to basically discard most of the pieces of the installation kit included with the tank, as they do not match with the connections on the NAS LR4. On my install, we used virtually everything, but made modifications as necessary. The biggest win for mine versus the others I have seen is the usage of the dual filler pipe assembly that is included with the kit. We cut it as needed, swaged it out to match the factory fill pipe to the main tank, and welded it together. We also ended up welding over one or two bungs that were not needed as we matched the existing emissions components connections to the new fill pipe assembly. The use of the fill pipe from the kit also allows me to fill either tank as I wish, and not have to pump fuel into the system until both tanks are full, as I have seen in at least one other install.
See my next post for pictures, and I will try to answer any questions as I am able.