Build Our PanAm rig build thread

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

FlyAddiction

FlyAddiction

10 Year
Joined
Aug 11, 2015
Threads
19
Messages
234
Location
Canmore, AB
The Plan:

Completing the Pan American highway in 3 stages;

1st Home (Canmore Alberta) to Panama,

2nd Home to Prudhoe Bay Alaska

3rd Colombia to Ushuaia Chile

The goal is to leave for the first leg of this expedition by late October 2016 with my Wife Bianca, my long time friend and 4Runner owner Danny and his wife Kana. That gives me a full year and a bit to build a reliable expedition rig. During the 5 month trip(first leg only) we plan on Offroading, biking, fishing, surfing, hiking , climbing and some charity work in rural communities of central america.

The Truck:

The addiction started 4 years ago when I convinced my wife to purchase our first cruiser, a 1991 fj80 with 111’000 miles on the clock. Then I found Mud! Deflare, Desmog, rad, biff’s, Monstaliner, FPD, FPR… I loved the truck, ut the fuel consumption and the lack of power was killing me.
20150809_193912.webp
I started looking for a new truck and found exactly what I was looking for; 1992 hdj81 58’000 km OME 2.5” lift, BEB and Timing belt done at 40k, and rust. http://www.outbackimports.ca/sale/HD-1265.html 20150801_132502.webp


The mods:

We are on a super tight budget so the plan is to build everything I can I my yard(no garage);

Roof rack (Done)
Front Bumper
Rear bumper
Sliders
Drawers
On board water/shower


I also need to add a rear Arb Locker, on board air, air springs in the back, lighting, CB, inter cooler, aux battery, fridge, RTT.

And the journey begins!
 
Last edited:
Starting with the roof rack;

I wanted to make it as light as possible but strong enough to carry my RTT and a solar panel/wind deflector. I scored a whole bunch of 1" 1/4 aluminum tubing for free and ordered 6 Gamiviti gutter mount. All the work was done with an angle grinder and my miller211 mp with spool gun.
20150819_203753[1].webp

The middle bars are positioned specifically to line up withmy rtt mounting holes.
20150819_203804[1].webp

For welding I did a root pass at first and then a cover pass. Not many of them looked amazing so I ground em a bit for a cleaner look. I blame it on my lack of a tig welder and the wind(Welding outside), but it is probably because I suck!
20150819_203721[1].webp

DSC04157.webp

DSC04156.webp

Due to the size of the tubing I am using, I did not want to add a bar on each side of the tower mounting plate. So I made some brackets out of 3/8 plate to keep the weight down. For the amount of stuff I plan to put on the roof it should be plenty strong.
 
The front section will support at the very front a wind deflector that will e mounted on hinges and flip open towards the front of the truck keeping the solar panel hidden underneath when driving and allowing access to the Rtt thru the sun roof for ease of assembly / dis assembly
DSC04153.webp

DSC04154.webp
DSC04158.webp

4 Tabs were welded to the 2 center bar and line up with the holes in the RTT floor. This allows me to not use the rails that come with the tent, making it much easier to install/remove and keeping it as low as possible.
20150906_154719[1].webp

The Rack works great so far. Extremely sturdy, weighs around 35 lbs and it cost less then 300$. I also helped my buddy Danny with his rack.
the only complaint I have is the noise when the tent is off. Any suggestions on how to reduce/eliminate would be welcomed!
Still need to install the wind deflector and paint it.

20150806_204936.webp
 
Now the fun stuff! Front Bumper.
I got to say that although this is going to be built from scratch with my own design, many of the ideas come from members of this site. The craftsmanship of some of the mud members is very impressive and the quality of their final product I can only aspire to.
Starting with the base, I wanted to keep the winch as low as possible wile keeping the whole thing as low profile as possible. I boxed each frame rail for extra strength and ease of installation. I learned the hard way to keep a small gap all around the frame rails (1/16th) to allow some movement and shrinkage from welding.
20151002_175901[1].webp
20151003_165815[1].webp
20151003_170133[1].webp

20151003_165835[1].webp

20151003_170112[1].webp


I welded the 1/4" plate in 2" increments alternating between inside and outside, left and right to prevent deformation.

I better stop writing and go outside to finish the wings. They will be made out of 3/16 plate.
 
FlyAddiction said:
The Plan:

Completing the Pan American highway in 3 stages;

1st Home (Canmore Alberta) to Panama,

2nd Home to Prudhoe Bay Alaska

3rd Turbo Colombia to Ushuaia Chile

The goal is to leave for the first leg of this expedition by late October 2016 with my Wife Bianca, my long time friend and 4Runner owner Danny and his wife Kana. That gives me a full year and a bit to build a reliable expedition rig. During the 5 month trip(first leg only) we plan on Offroading, biking, fishing, surfing, hiking , climbing and some charity work in rural communities of central america.

The Truck:

The addiction started 4 years ago when I convinced my wife to purchase our first cruiser, a 1991 fj80 with 111’000 miles on the clock. Then I found Mud! Deflare, Desmog, rad, biff’s, Monstaliner, FPD, FPR… I loved the truck, ut the fuel consumption and the lack of power was killing me.View attachment 1142583 I started looking for a new truck and found exactly what I was looking for; 1992 hdj81 58’000 km OME 2.5” lift, BEB and Timing belt done at 40k, and rust. http://www.outbackimports.ca/sale/HD-1265.html View attachment 1142585


The mods:

We are on a super tight budget so the plan is to build everything I can I my yard(no garage);

Roof rack (Done)
Front Bumper
Rear bumper
Sliders
Drawers
On board water/shower


I also need to add a rear Arb Locker, on board air, air springs in the back, lighting, CB, inter cooler, aux battery, fridge, RTT.

And the journey begins!
Click to expand...
The Pan American trip sounds awesome!
 
Since the last update, I changes all fluids in all the diffs, motor with Rotella T6 5w40 and transmission. Also replaced the fuel filter, belts and greased the drive line (65'000 km)
The plan for the weekend is to pull apart my warn winch, re grease everything repaint the drum and have it all ready to slap a synthetic rope on. Then Ill start messing around to find out how to change from the 24v starting system to this 12v starter Australian spec in.
20151204_182707[1].webp
20151204_182726[1].webp
 
I'll say driver's side (left on picture). Why waste accessibility to winch tray?

By the way, how you liking the 5 speed? Is it starting to get more difficult to shift with winter coming into full swing? I find my 2nd gear is tough...
 
Ill probably end up doing the passenger side/right on picture. I took some measurements and should be able to still pull the winch out w/o removing the bumper.

gnarlynick2072, my 2nd gear is hard to get in as well when the car is cold. I taught that changing the trans oil would help (Lucas) but it did not. I remember coming across a post that mentioned a specific oil that help with syncro slipping... "Double cluching" helps when downshifting.

Does it look like this would be a wiring harness for extra lights on the hdj81 bumper? Is it factory? (see pics bellow)
20151205_132922[1].webp
20151205_132938[1].webp
20151205_132946[1].webp
 
FlyAddiction said:
Ill probably end up doing the passenger side/right on picture. I took some measurements and should be able to still pull the winch out w/o removing the bumper.

gnarlynick2072, my 2nd gear is hard to get in as well when the car is cold. I taught that changing the trans oil would help (Lucas) but it did not. I remember coming across a post that mentioned a specific oil that help with syncro slipping... "Double cluching" helps when downshifting.

Does it look like this would be a wiring harness for extra lights on the hdj81 bumper? Is it factory? (see pics bellow)View attachment 1171565 View attachment 1171568 View attachment 1171570
Click to expand...

The techs down at pro active use some kind of additive that helps with the synchro meshing but I can't remember what it is... Helps a lot actually but still sticky when cold.

Those are definitely not factory at all. Are they sliced from the headlight loom?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom