Is it worth it?

[Essex Nige]

Off to france for a 9 day tour, not going off road,

is it worth dropping the prop?

how easy is it to drop?

[axeman]

have had nine off for the past couple of weeks, dose make it a different van to drive, parking and low speed driving are a bit easyer (lighter). only takes a few mins well 20min 8 nuts and bolts. to drop it, cant see me puting it back on untill syncropendence.

neil

[toomanytoys]

depends on how tight the VC is really.. if it gets a bit tight, then worth doing to save straining the rest of the drivetrain..

Mine is normally off, my VC is stiff, wont be going back on until next offroading/Syncropendance....

eight bolts and nuts. easy enough to do... but need to get a front a rear wheel off the ground if prop bars are still on as access can be limited.. need 2x good quality open end 13mm spanners, 1 preff a stubby/short as that helps access too..

To get the prop out once bolts undone, lever the front diff forwards a few mm, prop drops out... dont let it hit the floor though... (or your head)

[Mudlark]

Wont make your MPG any different though.

[silverbullet]

Neil said to me that he is getting an extra 30-40 miles from a tank with his prop off
Goes against common sense I know. I always thought that "pushing" an idle front diff was just as inefficient as driving one, but it would seem not. Or is this a symptom of drivetrain wind-up due to a tight VC?
Fwiw, we had a Suzuki SJ years ago and it was much easier to drive and a damn sight perkier in 2WD than 4.
Here we go again...

[Mudlark]

I can only speak from my own experience of two trips to Corsica in consecutive years first with the prop out and the second with the prop in with a new VC and getting a .01mpg improvement in mpg over 3000 miles with the prop in. Was done brim to brim and on similar routes. It was not what i was expecting to see but that was what I got. Think the data was put in the WIKi somewhere.