Builds BUILD Thread - My Diesel 80 - Building for Overland Touring and High Country Adventure (1 Viewer)

[joe80]

G'day All...

Thought I might make a thread to get me moving!


I got my cruiser a touch under 6 months ago. My 7 year old daughter decided she wanted to go to Alice Springs this year, so I got the perfect car to do it in (slowly...).

It's in great condition for its age, I don't think it's seen too much time at the beach, rust is a big issue with secondhand 4wd's in Australia.

I got it off a young guy who'd had it for a couple of years, but couldn't afford the fuel for his 80km return commute to work. He got a Honda integra.... He must be bored now.

It had done around 320,000km's, which for the 1HZ just starting to run in.

As it stood it had the following when I got it;
33" KO2's on 16" alloys
2" lift, Monroe gas shocks in front, not sure what in the back. Unsure of brand of spring.
Extractors, high flow cat and slightly larger than stock exhaust... It sounds strong.
Dual fuel tanks
It's got a swing away wheel carrier (home made) that actually works pretty well
Barn doors
Alloy side steps
Little screw on rubber flares
dual batteries with a cheap isolator
9" LED Spotlights
Oricom 80ch UHF radio with GME antenna
Roof console with interior lights
AM CB and antenna mount central in roof
120W solar panel
Wiring to rear for cig plugs, engel specific plug and rear internal lighting
Pioneer double din bluetooth head unit
Upgraded speakers in front
6" speakers in barn doors
10" Pioneer Sub and Amp
Plastic bull bar "Smart Bar" - Meant to be a bit kinder to wildlife when you hit it... The birds I've accidentally collected haven't stopped to thank me though!

I've got some planned... some more exciting than others, I'll update on here what I've already done over the next few days

Happy for comments, ideas, thoughts and tips guys...


Cheers,

Joe

 

[joe80]

Hey All,

Been investigating what's limiting my front suspension from dropping as much as the rear.

I'm putting it out there that it's my shocks that are the first point, so I may spend an arvo soon with them disconnected to find out how far the rest of the components will let the wheel drop and source a longer shock.

What I have noticed is my front sway bar binding with the tie rod on the rear of the front diff (centre of pic). with about 30mm before compressed all the way to the bumpstops. I have spacers in the sway bar (left of pic) to stop it from hitting the front drive shaft, but not sure if there's something common I can do to fix this? removing sway bar seems obvious, but I use this as a daily driver for the time being and want keep some form of handling on the bendy highways.

Suggestions?

 

[ALX4X4]

Looks like you need caster correction. I've gone away from offset bushes to aftermarket arms to roll the diff back and have heaps of room but its not cheap have a look on Superiors web site.

 

[joe80]

Cheers @ALX4X4, I have been looking at those, but didn't think I need that with under 3" of lift.

Can I ask why you went away from offset bushes... obviously the cheaper option, there must be a downside I'm not aware of?

 

[cruiserindo]

Cheers @ALX4X4, I have been looking at those, but didn't think I need that with under 3" of lift.

Can I ask why you went away from offset bushes... obviously the cheaper option, there must be a downside I'm not aware of?

Not so reliable

 

[joe80]

Not so reliable

I'm assuming this is an issue with having too much material on one side of the centre pin and not enough on the other? Causing failure??

Thanks either way.

 

[mudgudgeon]

Caster correction bushes can give you a change of 2 degrees maximum.
With 2" of lift, you need at least 3.5 degrees of caster correction to bring you back to what it was before the lift.

Caster correction bushes fail very quickly if used off-road because they have very little rubber on one side of the bolt. Also, aftermarket rubber bushes just aren't the same quality as Toyota. And poly bushes are just a total gimmick.


Has the sway bar got extended brackets on it where it mounts to the frame?

the front suspension will never flex as much as the rear. It cannot. Is a different system, and the arms bind in the brackets on the front diff. You can modify things here a bit, but it will always be limited by design.

running a sway bar disconnect at the front can help, but keep the rear sway bar connected so it makes the front end do more work

 

[joe80]

Thanks heaps @mudgudgeon.

I am running spacers on the sway bar, measured them at 50mm from memory. I don't have the budget for radius arms at the moment, so will look around at castor correction plates for now.

Also had a good read on the sway bar disconnects on this thread... Here

I should be able to make a similar kit at home and test the theory!


Cheers

 

[ALX4X4]

Cheers @ALX4X4, I have been looking at those, but didn't think I need that with under 3" of lift.

Can I ask why you went away from offset bushes... obviously the cheaper option, there must be a downside I'm not aware of?

I had the offset bushes but when the lighter LS went in the front came up just under an inch and it handled like poo. Just didnt have enough caster with 4" lift and a lighter engine so went the after market arms. And dont consider caster plates they are illegal. And yes, my engineers cert has 100mm lift on it

 

[joe80]

So I got sick of catching my tow(n)bar on everything that needed more than 5 degrees departure angle.... Hello angle grinder, goodbye weekend!

I started playing with a design for a mountain bike rack that has some decent departure still on it, and realised this is the point where I need to be attaching it to the finished rear bumper. Off with the old on Saturday. Spent a lot of time on Saturday night on here looking at different setups and threads of rear bumpers and have come up with something that ticks my boxes.

I need a tow bar.
I need rear quarter protection... without cutting the quarters up.
I need improved departure angle.
I want the spare to be on a swing-away.
I want the bike rack to attach/detach from the spare swing-away
I want a jerry holder on the opposite swingaway.


1st pic - standard bumper with tow bar hanging below
2nd pic - chassis rails hanging out
3rd pic - after chassis rails cut to length, box section in place

 

[joe80]

I couldn't get a the grinder into a few spots, so I got inventive with a big disc on a small grinder. It didn't really have the torque to spin it properly, but I only needed it for a couple of small cuts, so I took my time and got it done

I chopped a couple inches off my exhaust, but will get the last section remade to be tucked up nice and tight out of the way once I'm done.

I was going to have all the cuts straight, but decided last minute to put some compound cuts and am very happy I did.

 

[joe80]

I made the quarter rail pretty tight, can just fit a finger between it and the body.

I have a rough plan in my head on how I'm going to protect the underside and brace it all back without cutting the quarter off. Hard to explain, so gimme a couple of days!!

By pack up time yesty, I have one side capped and cleaned it up to give me some job satisfaction. stoked with the progression.

Please note, I'm a carpenter, not a welder... so gimme a break on the welds

 

[joe80]

Oh yeah, I'm going to rhino line the bottom section black, so I'm not too concerned about a little grind or weld splatter, as I'll be sanding it back and coating before final fitting

 

[MrMikeyG]

There's a member on here I think @Corbet maybe? that used the 4x4labs bumper kit and then made his own bike rack that mounted to 1 half of the swingout.
I like where you are headed, and I dig the simple materials solution. I wonder how hard it would be to simply invert a tow bar so that it mounted higher and essentially replaced the rear crossmember?

 

[joe80]

Cheers @MrMikeyG

Simple is good in my book.

I have the rated towbar still and plan to cut the mounts off the side and re-weld it to the chassis, hard up underneath the new crossmember. No departure angle lost, and heaps of strength to the rear end.

 

[Corbet]

There's a member on here I think @Corbet maybe? that used the 4x4labs bumper kit and then made his own bike rack that mounted to 1 half of the swingout.

 

[joe80]

Thanks @Corbet, very helpful!!

Nice bike too!

NT plates but you live in colorado??

 

[MrMikeyG]

@joe80 I think some states here will let you register any plate to your classic vehicle. If you get your hands on some outback plates, put them on the Mud classifieds.
Thanks @Corbet as well. your picture of the rear-end with the factory bumper removed gave me some ideas. I wish I had shop space.

 

[Corbet]

My truck has CO plates. It was removed to fab up the bike mount. Spare tire hides my souvenir AU plate when driving.

The rack works really well but is a pain to open when parallel parked or in most parking lots. I deal with it as the roof sucks, and I want to be able to open my tailgate with the bikes on the truck. So overall I feel this is the best compromise for our vehicles.

 

[joe80]

My truck has CO plates. It was removed to fab up the bike mount. Spare tire hides my souvenir AU plate when driving.

The rack works really well but is a pain to open when parallel parked or in most parking lots. I deal with it as the roof sucks, and I want to be able to open my tailgate with the bikes on the truck. So overall I feel this is the best compromise for our vehicles.

A local guy and his wife have a really successful manufacturing startup, making these ones... they are all over the back of cars around the high country here, and every other mtb mecca in Oz. They're designed with bike families and downhill shuttle riders in mind. Can get up to 6 bikes on them, and the have a swingaway too. I just want mine up a bit higher, which has me wanting the bikes on their wheels rather than vertical - so they don't catch on low trees when getting to camp... or in the drive through! The Shingleback's are so quick and easy though. Good problem solving engineering!