Just Bought a 2005 KDSS GX470...and Joined IH8Mud. :)

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Riflman

Riflman

10 Year
Joined
May 5, 2013
Threads
7
Messages
49
Hey everyone. Looking forward to reading all about your builds and sharing mine with you. I've built two D2's, and after seling my last one in Vancouver and moving to Cali, I was desperate to get another beast. Never even heard of the GX470 a week ago, and was looking at LR3's and maybe LC's, but after finding some info on the GX, and reading some of your builds, I pulled the pin on one Friday.

It's has 100,625 Miles, but is super minty, black and is loaded with KDSS. Spent more than I planned on the truck, so mods will come slowly, but I'm anxious to get started. First step is to try and level the front and get some bigger tires on there. See y'all around and thanks for contributing. All the info here is fantastic.
 
I thought about moving to Vancouver before moving to Austin (from San Diego)... still never got to visit...

Curious why you left the rovers?

Good luck on the new build!
 
PICS or it didnt happen!
 
SouthernSS said:
PICS or it didnt happen!
Click to expand...

Which do you want, my bad a$$ disco that I sold in September, the one I built before that, or the current stock GX?

I sold the truck because it was a pain to import into the US from Canada, and I would have had to deal with smog, and other crap, as well as pay state and federal taxes, and duty for importing a british truck. It didn't seem worth it at the time, and I thought I could buy a Cali D4 that would be rust free, for pretty cheap and build it. Then when I started looking for one, they weren't as cheap as I thought they would be, and with further research of motors and such, didn't seem like a wise investment to build another. I think I was just depressed about my truck. Decided to start with something brand new. Almost, bought an LR3, but after reading your threads, was inspired. Time will tell if I'll stay with the Lexus.
 
Like I said, importing from Canada to the US was big $$, but it was also getting pretty rusty under the frame, and although I kept painting the undercarriage, I figured it was better to start with a new CA Disco. The truck had almost 120k miles on the truck, but I had replaced the motor back in 2008 and only had about 40k miles on the motor. The SSR tires were getting towards needing to be replaced, and there was a lot of little maintenance things that were creeping up.

Moving everything from Manitoba to Vancouver, then to LA was a big hassle. I had my Rover and Ducati in Vancouver, a porsche and a sailboat in LA, and because my truck sat so long in Vancouver, I killed both of my Odyssey batteries, and had to get new ones. I was really worried about the fuel, and managed to get it started and burn it off, and even pass smog in Van, but to be honest, I also needed the money, and it made more sense to sell the truck and bike in Vancouver and fly home to LA.

I was under a lot of duress I guess, and I wish I had both the bike and truck back. I already contacted him, but he hasn't called back. He's a heavy offroader though, and by the looks of his old D1, my truck is probably pretty trashed and bashed. His dogs chewed apart his truck too. My poor damn Disco.

The last camping trip in Squamish, BC before I sold her.

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The rear bumper is made by Greg Davis, and is very solid and very slim to maximize approach and departure angles. The hitch is integrated and there are integral sliders behind the rear wheels, as well as solid steel mud/stone guards up high behind the wheels to close off the wheel well a bit. The bumper is shipped in 3 pieces. You have to weld the sliders with wheel well/wings onto the main rear bumper. It's completely boxed construction so no water can get in and rust it out.

I would drop the rear onto huge boulders and barely scrape the paint. I'd touch up with flat black once in a while. The one thing I don't like about the stock ARB's or some of the homemade bumpers I've seen is how much of it hangs down and how many nooks, crannies and hard edges there are. My truck was all tires in the front, and if the tires could hit rock, it would climb and slide right over, with no real hard edges to hang up on. The bumper in the rear only came down a few inches below the rear door opening.

I haven't had the rear bumpers off the GX's yet, or seen any trucks with it removed, but most of the aftermarket bumpers I've seen don't seem to increase your departure angle much. I'd like to see the rear slimmer and the sides angle down more dramatically if possible.
 
You're really limited by the body of the truck and the rear section of the frame to make a drastically better departure angle. Sure, I could have made mine rise another inch at each corner, but then you have your body seams exposed if you do come down hard on a rock. It was a delicate balance of form and function

I ended up compromising so that I could get maximum protection and and some semblance of design consistency with the front.

For me, it comes down to just picking another line if my rear bumper happens to be the stoppage. I've wheeled our rig down 4 and 5 star trails with pretty large 2.5-3 foot dropoffs and have yet to even touch the rocks with my bumper.
 
My bumper increased my departure angle quite a bit (and armored the rear quarters quite a ways up).

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Love it!
 
heres a shot of mine for reference. Looks like Dan has a little more lift in the rear than me.

I bet though, that if we measured at the back corner, that the length of each of our bumpers is nearly the same. Dan cut it closer to the body nearer the tire, but he was forced to bring the line back down. I chose to keep it a relatively straight deal.

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I'd be interested to see a view of both from underneath if possible.

Dan: What is that piece hanging down under the bumper? Is it a recovery point?

Southern: Your pic is a bit dark. Can you explain the body seam issue? On my Disco II, I cut the body panel horizontally and then left a good 1/4-3/8" gap between it and the rear sliders that run to the bumper. The wings bolt up behind the tires and then I used a piece of L-bracket to keep the body panel from flapping, although it didn't much anyway. I think I would prefer to keep the side protection a bit thinner. If I had to choose, I think I like the way Dan's looks better on the side, although it seems to have a reverse angle front to back.

Can you also explain why your side protection comes out so far to the rear? Is this to protect your rear quarters? I would think the bumper would keep trees and such away.

As for dropping onto stuff. Sometimes when you descend a rock shelf, you can't pick another line. You drop the nose down carefully, then roll down, and try to carefully drop the rear, but it's not abnormal to have the rear bumper, or one side of it to come crashing down onto that ledge, and if your bumper and rear sliders aren't strong enough, you will buckle sheet metal. I don't see the point to adding a rear bumper if you have to worry about that.
 
Oh man. Just looked at the pictures of my truck. <sniffle> Just look at the damn approach angle on that thing. All tires. Gonna try to find a pic from the front.
 
Its very difficult to explain this to someone who has never seen the rear of the truck with the bumper cover off.

Ok, so the bottom of mine near the wheels is about 3/4" away from the body of the truck itself. I left this gap for the chance that I slam down on a ridge. I didnt want the bumper already up against the truck so it would transfer energy. The "seam" that I call it, is on the body itself and hangs a little lower, so it's about 1/4 inch away from the bumper. I agree to there not being a point to having a bumper that can't handle abuse. Thats why we used 3/16" and 1/4" plate with reinforcing back plating throughout.

The reason my design appears to come out further to the rear AND the reason why Dans has a "reverse" angle is because the frame where the bumper actually mounts is slightly lower than the body of the truck near the wheel. So in Dans case, they decided to get every bit of clearance they could and then taper it back down so that it meets up with plate metal coming off the rear frame. I decided to just sacrifice a very miniscule amount of clearance near the wheel to keep a straighter approach.

Dan please correct me if I'm wrong too.

Anyway, I can pretty much guarantee that dans bumper is flush against the rear frame both back and bottom. Mine is too, so there can be no difference in clearance at the very back. And because there can be no additional clearance had in the back short of chopping the frame, both side designs are constrained to meet at that central point on each side. Hence why mine looks like it protrudes further and his looks "reversed angle". Also I think mine looks like it sticks out further is because Dans design breaks up that section with a step lip. I bet if we measured from center of the hub to rear most section of each bumper that they'll be so close, it'll be funny.

Oh yeah, also the big difference between the two bumpers is that I designed it for use with the factory fender flares and Dan's was designed without them. Thats probably the biggest difference in how each design evolved.

Basically what I'm saying is that I took great care to get the absolute most amount of clearance from my designs and that to gain even more would require EXTENSIVE modification to the body and frame of the truck. I also had to stay within some design constraints. If a person doesnt care for the styling of the bumper I can understand that, but they shouldnt be dissuaded from purchasing one of mine because they think it wasnt designed specifically for trail use.

It's been a little while since I've looked under there so I hope Im telling you correctly, but I will upload some pictures later.
 
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Thanks SS. I think I understand better now. The frame wasn't cut. In the pics from the Trailex truck, the chopped the rear frame. On my disco, the rear sliders were welded to the rear bumper and were basically free-floating below the quarter panels. Large plate steel wings acted as rear wheel-well splash guards that were bolted on, but I can't recall where. I'll check my old drive with all the build pics from the install. I don't think the wings were bolted in such a way to take all the impact. If you came down on a corner, which I did several times, the impact was distributed throughout the rear. I really liked the design.

When I do my rear bumper, I will most definitely chop the frame, then run as slim as I can with a lip and integrated trailer hitch, and enough of a platform to mount a swing out spare if possible. Hopefully there is an option out there that is prefabed. If not, I guess I'll commission one.
 
Here's a shot of the current setup. I was a little inaccurate in my previous explanation, but you can still see the thin seam that is just above the bracing on the bumper.

So I suppose you could get uber close to the body with just a steel plate, but in my experience the strength necessary to hold the weight of the truck wouldnt be sufficient without some sort of additonal bracing like I've got. I ran this extra bracing on the entire back side of the bumper so it can be lifted from any point and makes darn sure it can tow whatever you throw at it. It's always a series of compromises.

That thing you were asking about on Dan's truck hanging low is a bracket the OEM bumper used. Its part of the body so it doesnt come off unless you cut it.




 
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Also keep in mind SouthernSS has the only production bumper. I don't think ACC can be convinced to make another one for anywhere near a reasonable price. There was a ton of R&D and I don't believe they are going to market them (or the sliders).
 
Thanks for the pics guys. I'm not sure why there is that hard lip all the way around the back and sides. I would prefer the bottom edges to be flat. Is the bumper boxed (sealed) or is it open?
 
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