100 ifs "touring turtle" project build

[ats4x4dotcom]

Vehicle
brand new 100 ifs TD 4.2 5 speed auto pewter color GXL.



Finished project requirements
Vehicle to allow the owners to travel months at a time, remote area's, and be self sufficient, and have an extremely capable vehicle to do so for weekend, to week, to months at a time, so as close to an all round vehicle as we can build.

On the drawing board
Cut the vehicle down into an extra cab with aprox 12" floor space behind the front seats, and make a easily detachable camper body to go on the rear [hence "touring turtle" will have its home in a hard shell carried around with it] and a tray unit to go on when the camper is removed.

Upgrade GVM of vehicle of an extra 750lb aprox

Cut rear section of chassis behind suspension, and turn 180 deg to lift rear and improve departure angle, and lift long range tank.

300 lt fuel, and 120 lt of water under the vehicle, not hanging below chassis, and protected.

Extend wheelbase by aprox 7 inches to centre camper weight with extra cab.

18 x 8 Lexus alloy rims and 35 x 12.5/18 Pro Comp Tri Ply Mud Terrains x 6

Safari power upgrade with larger intercooler, snorkel, 3" mandrel exhaust, and tuned dtronic to suit.

manual V8 crownwheels and pinions to change from 3.9's to 4.3 to 1 to bring gearing back to standard with 35's.

ARB lockers, with diff mods to strengthen.

DBA slotted rotors all round and Bendix 4wd pads and braided lines to replace all rubber lines.

ARB deluxe winch bar with Warn powerlant fitted to front.

Strengthened front A arms to prevent cracking.

60-70mm [2.5"] lift with uprated torsion bars, Fox 2.0 shox, remote canister, extended sway bar mounts.

Rear Variable rate extra free height coil spring to stay captive with extra long Fox 2.0 remote reservoir, extended sway bar links, uprated sway bar, heavy duty lower control arms. [may end up coil over rear with bypass adjustable shocks, to suit loaded/unloaded]

Side slidersteps to replace existing drilled to be air storage tanks for compressor.

Interior
ICOM UHF, interior roof console, fold out dvd/tv/ rear camera screen, rear extra cab section to have parcel shelf just below top of front seat height.

Camper body
Fold over top shell section containing large double bed which will fold out over cab supported by bullbar when fully 180 degree, rear steps and landing to fold down from back of camper, to get "upstairs" access. Seating, and chemical toilet in upper section with fold out bed. kitchen on passenger side, stove, roll out and tilt fridge slide, 60 lt engel, and storage for food/cooking gear. other side of camper storage, small "desk" area to set up battery chargers, camera gear, and work on laptop to save pics, do emails etc.

Twin swing away wheel carriers on rear which become side rails for drop down landing with stairs affixed, when wheels are swung open.

This set up allows eat stops on the run without unpacking, and only unfold camper when camping.

Vehicle was delivered to us this week, so far we have started to strip it down, with the vehicle having all the bolt ons done before I head off onto the Cannign Stock route and Simpson desert for 5 weeks, shortly, but keeping it drivable, with the body chopping commencing when I return.

Completion date
Xmas 07.

Pics to start this week.

Looking forward to getting into this one


Darren McRae

[Colicious]

sounds like a fun build. is the camper going to be completely custom?

[EL_3grab]

Great project, cant wait

[Snook]

Originally Posted by ats4x4dotcom

300 lt fuel, and 120 lt of water under the vehicle, not hanging below chassis, and protected.

There are few of us dying to put our hands on this combo gas/water tank.....

[ats4x4dotcom]

Originally Posted by Colicious

sounds like a fun build. is the camper going to be completely custom?

Completely custom, alloy side skins, and fibreglass top section to fold over, a bit like one of these.

[Greg B]

Wow, great build thread, can't wait to see more details. The removable camper is an awesome idea. Will it be like a pickup truck when the camper is removed?

[CoveredInRedMud]

How much ground clearance are you thinking about with the 300/100 fuel/water tanks?

[madams557]

This is want I'm talking about. I can't wait to see how it develops.

[ats4x4dotcom]

Originally Posted by CoveredInRedMud

How much ground clearance are you thinking about with the 300/100 fuel/water tanks?

They will fit inside the chassis, and not hang below it.

on 35's with 2.5" of lift, loaded, ground clearnace should be acceptable.

[CameraCruiser]

Have you or the client drawn a sketch to go by? I'd love to see that.

I look forward to watching the progress.

Good luck.

[CoveredInRedMud]

Originally Posted by ats4x4dotcom

on 35's with 2.5" of lift, loaded, ground clearnace should be acceptable.

Sounds great! I wanted to go big on the tires on my 100, but have been told it's difficult to get the ABS/ATRAC and related systems to work well with the big tire radius. Is this true?

[Snook]

Originally Posted by CoveredInRedMud

Sounds great! I wanted to go big on the tires on my 100, but have been told it's difficult to get the ABS/ATRAC and related systems to work well with the big tire radius. Is this true?

No issue with ABS/ATRAC as long all tires are the same size, thus same RPMs. Be sure to have a spare tire the same size, too.

Cheers,

[hoser]

When I was running stock gears and 35's, my ABS would ocassionally act a bit funny. Like the pedal would get stiff and then more force would cause the ABS to activate though the stop was not a hard stop. But since I installed the 4.88's (8 months ago), which also corrected the speedo, it has not happened.

A speedo correction box could have worked just as well but I did not have a chance to test it. Whether the tire size/speedo was exactly THE problem, I don't know but the ABS problem seems to be gone now.

[ShottsUZJ100]

Originally Posted by Snook

No issue with ABS/ATRAC as long all tires are the same size, thus same RPMs. Be sure to have a spare tire the same size, too.

Cheers,

X2

No issues with larger tires.

[ats4x4dotcom]

Originally Posted by CoveredInRedMud

Sounds great! I wanted to go big on the tires on my 100, but have been told it's difficult to get the ABS/ATRAC and related systems to work well with the big tire radius. Is this true?

We have changed the diff ratio's so that the vehicle thinks its standard with the 35" tyres.

This vehicle doesnt have all the electronic driver aids.

[ats4x4dotcom]

Originally Posted by CameraCruiser

Have you or the client drawn a sketch to go by? I'd love to see that.

I look forward to watching the progress.

Good luck.

No pics or drawings, except full size.

[hoser]

Originally Posted by ats4x4dotcom

Pics to start this week.

It's been 7 weeks. Where are the pics, mate? Any updates?

[ats4x4dotcom]

Sorry,

went away on a 5 week expedition myself, doing one of the most remote trips you can do in a vehicle, and 2 weeks after returning, wrote off one of my other 4wd's after going end for end off a mountain rd, and I have been pretty much out of action from that, but getting better now.

Now, I will stop hijacking my own thread,

The 100 has had the power upgrade done, brakes done, 35's on, rims on, and has been cut into a 2 door cab, and is in the panel shop being painted at the moment, so it is progressing, but I havent got the pics back as yet, but will get this thread under way shortly.

[Dandon]

Man, it hurts just looking at the pictures. Hope you get well soon.

[e9999]

ouch! glad you're fine. Hope you'll recover quickly.
(Don't spend too much time online...! )

[ats4x4dotcom]

pics of up to date today, as far as ute conversion goes, will have some more photo's for rest of detail in each section as we go.

Fitted so far, brake upgrade, power upgrade inc intercooler, 3" exhaust and dtronic to suit, uhf, tv, dvd player, lockers, diff ratio change, long range tank, 18" rims, 35" tyres, sway bar extension links, upgraded t bars.

The conversion itself has the original stop light in the roof section, the original rear window demister still works, interior looks factory, roof console still fitted, and the vehicle is engineered as a tray.

The extra cab section is as long as it can be, to the top of the flat floor section under what was the rear seat, giving aprox 350mm from back of cab to back of seat base.

And man is the thing quick, for a diesel, with some kg removed, and the APS power upgrade fitted, Julies LS1 Adventra only really pulled away today on the extra rpm it had before each gear change, with power button in.

[siglo]

Nice!

should have painted it green just like the rig in your avatar

[dclee]

That tray back/ute conversion looks a lot better than I thought it would. Very nice so far. Can't wait to see the final product! Hope you're feeling better Darren!

[macneill]

Jesus, thankfully you're alive.

[macneill]

Interesting build. I think it's growing on me!

Why didn't you just get a Hi-Lux...

[ats4x4dotcom]

Originally Posted by macneill

Interesting build. I think it's growing on me!

Why didn't you just get a Hi-Lux...

Hilux doesnt have coil rear, disc brake rear, or alot of the 100 features for cabin comfort, or performance.

[FirstToy]

that's an awesome build! I really like the way you incorporated the rear hatch glass/hatch. Do you have a pic of the corner, not hidden by the chrome tube? curious how you resolved it there.

no need to justify using a 100; that's like asking why Christo didn't just buy a Tacoma instead of building the Vlakvark or buy an 80 instead of SAS the 100... (uh Christo why didn't you just buy a 80? )

that's prob the most luxurious trayback in existence!