Expedition 70 build on a budget...

[canman]

Nice. Just came across this thread. A while back, a buddy and I were discussing options for an expedition vehicle, and I came up with a BJ74 with trailer as one, but he was not big on towing a trailer. He just recently purchased an HDJ81. V How does the BJ do in the comfort department after an 8 hr drive?

 

[MrMoMo]

Spares? What are those ;cD

Probably a dumb move on my part, but generally - I don't. That said - most trips are not super long distance or technical- so the ability to "limp home" or call for help are not that extreme. On the longer trips I do take a tool kit, wrenches, some wire and crimps, electrical tape and of course zip ties, and I usually have a ratchet strap or two.

What will I add at some point? Fuel filter, spare relays and fuses, maybe a belt, some lug nuts, odd bits of hose and hose clamps, spare oil and coolant.... But nothing major. These trucks are built to run forever, and then some - even when they are half broken.

 

[MrMoMo]

Nice. Just came across this thread. A while back, a buddy and I were discussing options for an expedition vehicle, and I came up with a BJ74 with trailer as one, but he was not big on towing a trailer. He just recently purchased an HDJ81. V How does the BJ do in the comfort department after an 8 hr drive?

View attachment 1308724

I'd say that the suspension seats in the 70 are key with the short wheelbase, and when set properly do a great job - but the 80 can get uncomfortable just as easily on long drives. Luckily for me my wife seems to have to pee every two minutes, so we make plenty of stops...

The trailer will make a massive difference for storage space. My concern with a trailer is always manuverability in tight spaces, and things going south really quickly of you become stuck (very hard to back and fourth to get over an obstacle or out of a stuck hole with a trailer on vs not). The pic in the woods a few posts up would not have been accessible with a trailer attached. That said, for longer distances - the added storage would be great - and if a RTT was mounted on a trailer, it gives you the ability to leave camp set up and drive off, if you are returning to the same spot the next night - something you can't do with a RTT on the roof of the truck.

I did just recently add a receiver style hitch to the 70, with plans to be able to place a pickup truck style aluminum toolbox into it. Obviously this could only be used if the destination/route was not hampered by departure angles - and would likely only be used to re-gain the space lost when the 3rd seat is installed. I expect to use this setup next month, so there should be pics to help explain these poorly descriptive words!

 

[MrMoMo]

Well, little by little we are getting closer! Went off on another "test night" at the cottage - this time with our son (12) for his first try sleeping on an air mattress in the annex. Zero complaints!

Today I fabricated an aluminum battery tray for the aux battery, to fit over the rear wheel well - beside the fridge. This will give us much better use of the space ahead of the fridge. As I'm sure anyone with a 70 could guess - space is extremely limited!

Tray is pretty simple, just needs a few holes for a bungee cord or two over top of the battery. I'll end up with a plastic lid going over the whole thing to protect the terminals when it's all said and done - but for now it's an improvement.

TIG is not something I would say I am well practiced in... I can do it - but definitely not on par with the pro's yet. I like little projects like this that get me some practice. I cut the plate in my stomp shear - works great! Welded up using my Eastwood 200A AC/DC TIG. Love that machine for stuff like this!

Like I said, not perfect - but not horrible. I need to reduce the heat a little and slow down - smaller steps between the puddles....

Some spots are better than others...

But the bottom line is it fits, so it will work!! May add a lip front and rear, and extend the lip below for a 12V/USB port in the future...

In other good news, I picked up a used hood, rear door bottoms, and a snorkel - soon the front end will be complete!

Camping again next weekend - this time in a real campsite!

 

[cruiserpilot]

If I ever made welds that good I'd be smiling!! Well done. Following along, inspiration for me as I
try to get my BJ74 going.

 

[MrMoMo]

Thanks cruiserpilot - it gets the job done!

So - we managed to squeak in a night this weekend - weather was a little nuts, but we had pre-booked a site here and it's hard to get sites - so we were not backing down...

I literally finished the last peg in our "make do awning" (until we get the foxwing) and it started DUMPING rain... Had we arrived 5 minutes later it would have been a much wetter weekend! That said - there were massive storms - thankfully just to the north of us, however - it's never good to check the weather and see "tornado warning" show up...

The first of the rain...

The site we got was tiny - but luckily the 70 is pretty tiny as well... The down side was, we were the down side, and all the water running down the road came into our site. I grabbed my "Chinese Military Shovel" and within a few minutes I had trenched across the site and successfully diverted all the road runoff - slick piece of kit (I'll post a pic or two later)

Wet site - but not as wet as the first flooding! The site had a high water line!!!

The "awning" is a simple tarp with one pole and some ropes - takes up almost no room, was dirt cheap - and did the job, but oh one day there will be a proper awning!

I did manage to make a simple drawer "platform" slide before we left - just some left over wood from IKEA cut to fit. It's 19" wide and 24" deep which makes a nice workspace once out. Not slid out all the way in the pic below. Tub on top is on another piece, so I can actually slide the board out with all the gear loaded.


Note on the left of the fridge the blue tarp bundled up - and black bag with solar panel tripod mentioned below... (Also, never forget your lime green level!)

Also rigged up some LED lights in the annex room - perfect since the days are shorter now and we hung out playing cards in the annex, in the dark, in the rain... No good pics of that setup, but it all hangs from the underside of the RTT. Basically 3 sticks of wood with 3 LED's fully sunk into the wood. I think my total cost on them was about $12, and they light up the room perfectly.

Also picked up a $14 tripod for the solar panel - worked perfectly! I removed the camera bolt, and plastic nub on the mounting plate and just glued the mounting plate to the back of the panel. Needed a pair of bungee cords to stabilize it, but worked like a champ! Tripod stows in an included bag, about 14" long by 3" around so takes up almost no space.

Weather on Saturday was hot, so swimming was a must. Even with the rain. Sunday was a totally different story, north wind blowing like crazy. Still warm in the sun - but a little too cold for "regular" people to go swimming. That said - our 12yr old spent about 2 hours playing in the storm waves (normally the water at this beach is very, very flat)

Somewhere around here (finger) is a 12yr old having way more fun than we thought he would...

Kite boarders were loving it too!

Not sure if we will get another use this year or not - wood cutting season is here and that will occupy most of my weekends until the end of October.... But we shall see...

 

[mattv94]

With the roof tent how much of a difference in handling and braking have you noticed?

 

[MrMoMo]

Haven't noticed a difference for the most part, other than fuel economy has gone down, and with the stock 3B - it's a little harder to maintain highway speeds. One item I am going to fabricate at some point is a roof wedge, to try to improve the aerodynamics between the top of the windshield and the front of the tent - it's a pretty nasty flow right now.

 

[DOM335]

Thanks for posting pics and giving me some ideas. I'm currently living in El Salvador and own a 1989 rj70. We are from Seattle originally . We daily drive the 70 here and I love it for this region ...I often get caught in traffic and just jump the curbs and make u turns to find alternate routes ...people just stare with envy in their cars.
The roads down here are just horrid too , I would never own a car here. We also frequent the beaches and occasionally take her to the mountains .

Finding expedition prep parts i.e. fridges , awnings , lifts, etc are nil and expensive when you do.There is a ARB dealer ,my it they are a total ripoff and scammers...that's another story . I did have a local shop build me a nice roof rack for $300 . I had them make the rear upper and front upper cross bars removable for a RTT, if I can ever find one down here. They powder coated it too. I have been fixing all the mechanical problems as they arise , mostly just maint and one repair to the transfer case. There is a shop called Raptor 4x4 here in San Salvador I am going to have fabricate my bumpers for me , they are quite capable guys, and extremely affordable . I have also made friends with the owner of the local land cruiser salvage yard....I'm actually headed there today to get some manual crank window regulators to swap out for my power window system.


I am considering doing a diesel swap on her some time in the future ...the 22r is gutless but runs like a champ . I've been quioted $1500 for a rebuilt 3b installed. Not sure if it is even bolt in yet...there is not a lot of info on 70 series swaps to be found.

We eventually want to take it to South America for a expedition. Camping in this country is not recommended alone ...that goes for Hondo and some areas of Guatemala too...but Nica to Panama is considered safe. I was almost carjacked and robed in San Salvador awhile back . I had drove down the wrong street in a bad area that turned into a dead end...I had to back out a half mile to find a place to turn around and that's when they jumped on my running boards and tried to open my doors to pull me out...I nailed the gas and they jumped off 20' down the road. I was lucky that day.

Here are a couple pics of her.

 

[MrMoMo]

¡Hola DOM335, lo siento por mi muy despacio respuesta!

$1500 por 3B instalado es barato (por aquí). Un 3B con H55F sin repara o instalado es $1500.

Nice rig, disfrútalo!

 

[MrMoMo]

Well - it's winter again and that can only mean one thing... It's gear buying time!! (Too much internet surfing and not enough camping syndrome)

So, here is a rundown of my latest "budget" scores...

Last weekend I was poking around in Princess Auto (assume that's Harbor Freight for you south of the border folk) and found a bunch of fresh "kit"...

1/2 price on a beefy suction cup iPad mount. At $12 just call it done. Time will tell how good the suction cup is, but the gripper arms, pivot, and clamping action all see great. Here it is:

I have TopoMaps+ loaded on the iPad - seems decent - now that it's mounted we can see how good it really is. (Downloaded maps, so works offline)

Next cool little score (not quite as good a discount but only $14) was this mini tool roll of screwdrivers... One handle, lots of sizes of driver that slot into the handle - and a little "cap" that turns the drivers into mini handled screwdrivers. Mostly nice as a compact non rattling tool roll. Seems well made, and saves me from robbing my tool box, or forgetting screwdrivers.

And I had to save the best for last... Picked up two wide mouth Scepter 10L water jugs, regular $36 on for $16each!!! Had to get two! These will go perfect with the 12V shower that should be arriving shortly!!

Plenty of activity going on this winter in the shop - I finally have a little heat in there - radiant in the floor, but pretty low temps to keep the $$ down! Details on the truck work (new front end bodywork, snorkel and turbo all going on in my "saving the silver 70 thread (link in sig)

More to come soon - stay tuned!

 

[MrMoMo]

So, on my usual weekly wander through Princess Auto this week, I found some interesting slides. 11-3/4" flat slides for $6 a pair. Decided that I could do something with them for the stove, but that 11-3/4" wasn't goIng to be enough. Bought two pairs and riveted them together back to back.

Screwed them down to the back end of the current wood slide, and it gives me about 23-1/2" of slide in a nice compact base size.

These slides lock in the out position, so no chance of a "slidey stove". Next I'll make a base that the stove mounts to, that mounts to the slider pads. Thinking I'll hack apart a swivel caster and have the stove be able to turn 90 degrees once it is out.

Not bad for under $15 so far!

 

[arnott1t]

way cool

 

[MrMoMo]

Got the stove slide built - well -mostly. Still needs a few tweaks, gussets, and pins...

Did a bunch of stuff to the 80 as well - made a video of all of it for your enjoyment... (hopefully)

Check it out - and subscribe for more!

 

[MrMoMo]

Oh boy, I've been seriously neglecting this thread!

- Gear updates;

3x compact chairs, I'll have to grab a "packed" pic at some point, but these puppies take up about 1/3 of the space of our previous chairs, at no loss of comfort... Roughly 5" diameter by 10" long packed

3x inflatable pillows - HUUUUUUge space saver! Pack into a ball about 5" around.

2x compact hammock - slightly more space than the pillows!

Compacting this stuff has allowed us to throw an 11'x11' pop up awning in the back for massive space when set up!! It's actually exactly the width of the truck and tent when the tent is opened (when set up properly, not like the pic below!) . Also now carry a tent for our son, which he loves (previously slept in the tent annex)

I've added some $20 Amazon RGB LED's - and I can say the lights are awesome, the 90 degree connectors suck though. Need to do something with them but they serve the purpose.

Next projects on the cheap mods list are;
-attic rack, to give even more space
-improved 3rd battery charging setup, and electrical panel
-storage in the rear doors
-storage above where the large awning is stowed

Hopefully lots of outfit stuff in the next few weeks as we are heading on a big East Coast trip in mid July!

 

[MrMoMo]

NEED MORE SPACE!

Decided that we needed a little swing out bumper to store some water jugs. Found a nice tall Ammo can that was the same size as our jugs and set to work.

Piece of channel for the base..

Bolted through the face and top of the frame:

Made up a basket frame for the jugs

Mounted to an old 1/8" piece of shelving, with a piece of 5/8" round bar for the hinge.

Painted it up with crinkle paint and put an over center latch to keep it closed. Also has some rubber bumpers inside to get compressed by the latch.

Need to test it, but I think it will suffice for now!

 

[MrMoMo]

Also added an onboard air tank. Exhaust comes out the side now, so I removed the heat shield and mounted the tank where the muffler would have been.

This tank was "scrap" as one of the threaded ports was stripped. I just TIG welded a cap over that hole.

Ran an air line to the front where the compressor will be, and a line to the back where there will be an air quick connect.

 

[MrMoMo]

Also built a new slide "tray" for the stove. Having it mounted on the rotator wasn't really efficient as we don't use it when it's in the truck anyway. Now we can slide the drawer out, lift the stove out, and use it where we want.

I wanted to keep the drawer as low profile as possible as it sits directly over top of the table slide, so the structure sticks up into the bottom. All this steel is recycled from outboard engine crates.

Here it is mounted to the slides (16" slides, mounted above the table slides) in the stowed position.

And in the extended position;

Finished it up with some krinkle paint, and built a wooden shelf over it for our black "kitchen" storage tubs. Also drilled 2 holes in the top to the door, and this rack just drops in place.

 

[Burbot]

I enjoyed the story line. Being a PA shopper I've looked at their winches. Price point is good how is the rewind speed loaded and free return. Re building an86 bj70. Silver one for wilderness camping etcetera. Lots of rust repairs. Familiar I'm sure. Winterpeg is tuff on bodies.

 

[MrMoMo]

I enjoyed the story line. Being a PA shopper I've looked at their winches. Price point is good how is the rewind speed loaded and free return. Re building an86 bj70. Silver one for wilderness camping etcetera. Lots of rust repairs. Familiar I'm sure. Winterpeg is tuff on bodies.

Haven't actually had to use the winch yet! Yep, rust repairs sound very familiar, and ongoing!

Why do we live in the land of salt and winter anyway?