Builds 1985 BJ70 Story and Modifications (2 Viewers)

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Cruisers, water falls and airplanes ........ You can't go wrong. Thanks for sharing...... :)
 
Awesome video Alberto...thanks for putting it together, I can only appreciate how arderous a task it is to edit videos. That trip looked like it had everything. Hope another trip is done so we can see more pics.

Just one thing: no mention of the bugs. How big and bad are those mosquitos!?
 
After two years in the making, we have a DRAFT version of the Angel Falls video that I wanted to share with you guys:



The link will probably change once they complete the final editing, but I will update or provide the new one if/when it happens.

Hope you guys enjoy it!

-Alberto


3 FZJ70s and a ??FJ40?
 
Cruisers, water falls and airplanes ........ You can't go wrong. Thanks for sharing...... :)

Totally agreed!!!

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Awesome video Alberto...thanks for putting it together, I can only appreciate how arderous a task it is to edit videos. That trip looked like it had everything. Hope another trip is done so we can see more pics.

Just one thing: no mention of the bugs. How big and bad are those mosquitos!?

That has been the best trip I've done yet...hands down.

Regarding the bugs and mosquitos, there were a million spiders that will walk through your arms while you are just "driving" through the trail. Sometimes you just smack them before they have a chance to bite you. The mosquitos, there are plenty of those. I used liberal amounts of OFF! and I came out fairly unharmed. Some of the other guys didn't use any OFF! and they regret their decision (hahaha).

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We saw quite a few scorpions, and one of the guys got stung by one while pulling out the starter of the Blue FZJ71 to clean the contacts (they get hammered with the mud and water). I personally counted 2 snakes, not sure if the other group members saw more that I didn't see.

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And we saw the footprints of a tiger when we slept at the Indian Reservation in Night 3 (where we repaired the rear axle of the Silver FZJ71). The locals said they have been spotting the tiger for quite a few days then.

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3 FZJ70s and a ??FJ40?

Correct. Three (3) FZJ71's (gasoline powered 1FZ, fuel injected with distributor-less ignition) and one FJ40 (gasoline powered 2F, carbureted)

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And we saw the footprints of a tiger when we slept at the Indian Reservation in Night 3 (where we repaired the rear axle of the Silver FZJ71). The locals said they have been spotting the tiger for quite a few days then.
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In South Georgia you would be at the top of the food chain if you don't count the gators. :)
 
yes...thanks for sharing everyting. finally read through everything and the pics from the Falls trip are incredible.

did the group carry everyting for 10 days? food, clothing, vehicle supplies, water?

Those first 2 barges that you used...do the operators just hang out and wait for people to show up? how did the group know that the barges and/or operators would even be there?
 
Three (3) FZJ71's (gasoline powered 1FZ, fuel injected with distributor-less ignition) and one FJ40 (gasoline powered 2F, carbureted)

Do, what?

C'mon....there's no way you can expect me or anyone else to believe THAT trip was completed with those inferior petrol engines, ESPECIALLY the vulnerable 1FZ-FE.

There's no sense in continuing the charade, as we all know the 1FZ's blow head gaskets at the mere sight of the muddy road.
 
:flipoff2:
 
yes...thanks for sharing everyting. finally read through everything and the pics from the Falls trip are incredible.

did the group carry everyting for 10 days? food, clothing, vehicle supplies, water?

Those first 2 barges that you used...do the operators just hang out and wait for people to show up? how did the group know that the barges and/or operators would even be there?

Glad you enjoyed the trip report.

We did carry all the needed supplies, and many more things that you cannot imagine. Overall, the whole trip took almost 2 weeks (14 days). All trucks had a spare winch (inside the cabin), an Engel or ARB fridge, between the 4 trucks there were two (2) rear 3rd members and one (1) high pinion front 3rd member, driveshafts, axle shafts, a complete engine oil change (per truck), and enough gear oil to change it on both axles, transmission, and transfercase. Water, clothing, food, beer, tools, spare parts, and about 55 gallons of fuel (dual fuel tanks on all trucks plus two or three Jerry Can's each). All trucks traveled heavy. Most door panels were removed and you can see quarts of oil taped to the space between the outer fenders and where the rear panels would go inside (left on photo), you can also see the spare winch and extra driveshaft in the same photo.

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The first barge is on a little rural town called "La Paragua". The barge operator lives there and one of my friends called him a few days ahead to let him know that we were coming (Fernando has done this trip multiple times).

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The guy that runs the first barge knows the people that runs the second barge and they normally talk when a group of people are going into the trail.

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I have always wanted to add a table (or horizontal workspace) to the rear doors of the 70. Here is a photo of the table set-up on Omar's @omarluis FZJ71 in Venezuela:

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Despite the fact that you could buy one ready to use, and that it has openings to store additional items on the unused cavities of the door, I wasn't completely sold with the style or construction of the ones offered in Venezuela. They seem to be made with plywood wrapped with door panel fabric. It is functional, and it works, just not what I had in mind for mine.

I started looking at different options and I came across the build that Expeditions 7 @cruiseroutfit on a couple of VDJ78 to drive the vehicles through several countries around the world:

http://expeditionportal.com/expeditions-7-modifying-a-vehicle-to-drive-around-the-world/

I noted a very nice an clean table set-up that seemed to be made of stainless steel with some sort of cutting board, too. After reading a little bit on the Expedition Portal site, I saw that some of the work was done at Adventure Trailers and browsed their website for more photos:

http://adventuretrailers.com/e7/

Some photos from Expedition Portal and Adventure Trailer's website:

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From what I could tell, they have built aluminum or Stainless Steel door panels to replace the factory cardboard panels, and then attached the table set-up to this metal panel. I was not sure if the table was sourced locally (in the U.S.) or outside of the country.

I then stumbled over this thread on Expedition Portal Forum that talks (with some level of detail) about the different tables offered in the U.S.:

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/77277-JK-Tailgate-Tables-The-lowdown

The thread was very informative and it talked about the price and surface space on the different available options. I then noticed that the one used on the Expeditions 7 vehicle was the Adventure Trailers Trailgater Table for a Jeep JK. I started looking at where to buy such table and the cheapest place I found was a store called Rebel Off-Road and it had free shipping, too. The guys at Rebel Off-Road were great to deal with (there is also a small YouTube video on their website on how simple and useful this table set-up is):

http://www.rebeloffroad.com/product-p/jktrailgater.htm

I also called Adventure Trailers (AT) to see if, by any chance, they had made a template of the door panels that they used on the Expeditions 7 (E7) VDJ78 vehicles. I talked to Martyn Davies over AT about what I wanted and he mentioned that the panels of the E7 vehicles were made of Aluminum, but sadly, they didn't make a template out of them. However, he said that if I sent him my original door panels, they could easily replicate them and sell me a set. Martyn was great to deal with and very responsive to all my questions. I sent Martyn my door panels and a few days later I got aluminum panels made from AT. Martyn kept my original door panels in case they were asked by other 70 series owners to build more of these. Get in touch with Martyn if you want some of these panels made.
 
Since Greg has returned the E7 trucks to Utah at the conclusion of the trip and they are museun pieces now, perhaps I couild get my hands on one of the tables......:hmm:

















Who am I kidding?
 
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I claim no intellectual ownership of this, but I wanted to document what they used as I think it is very nice, clean, and very useful (in case anybody else wants to use the same set-up).

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First, remove the factory door panels:

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Then, install the nutserts provided by Adventure Trailers:

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There was some additional trimming to the corners of the panels and increasing the fastener hole size to make them fit, but nothing major to be honest:

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6mm nutserts?
 
And then prepare for the table install. I measured (with the door panel off), about 2" from the top of the panel to the top of the table. These located the two center holes on a little ridge that the door has on it. The two top center fasteners have nutserts that go into the door itself, the others, have nutserts attached directly to the aluminum panel, as the holes lined up with open spaces of the door structure (hope this makes sense).

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6mm nutserts?

Hi Dan,

Sadly, the bolts and nutserts used were not metric :confused:.

Adventure Trailers provided Stainless Steel (SS) hardware and the nutserts to go with them, but they were 1/4-20 (non-metric). I bought a nutsert tool, extra nutserts, and extra SS bolts as I wanted to use the same bolts and nutserts for the table and door panels. The table comes with some plastic inserts and self-tapping stainless steel screws that would work for a 5-minute install on a Jeep JK. I didn't use any of the hardware provided with the table as it is a "custom" work :)
 

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