Builds My Budapest-Bamako build

[fvaleur]

It's a winchmax, from winchmax.co.uk. It's a chinese unit, backed by a pretty decent warranty. Very happy with it. It's just as good as the fairly expensive T-max i had on my last car. I specifically went for one with an albright style contactor, so that it would be easy to move it to the engine bay.

Moving the contactor was necessary because i made the bullbar so it really tucks the winch under the truck, leaving no room for a contactor and electronics.

 

[4x4tripping]

Nice rig!

I guess he is ready for more than just Budapest to Bamako?

 

[fvaleur]

In reality, it being an hdj i could have probably just chucked on some new brake-pads, thrown a couple of jerry cans and a shovel in the back, and off to bamako.

The truck is built with the b2 in mind, but yea, it's definitely not "just" for that. A lot of the things i have built/modified are things that i thought up years ago when i had a really great nissan patrol, but lacked the tools, skills and contacts needed to actually bring those ideas and wishes to fruition.

I'm also not very good at sitting still, and because i'm a student there's a limit to how much i'm allowed to work on the side before loosing my student benefits, i reached this limit in august, leaving me with a whole lot of time on my hands. So might as well spend it on the 80

Once we're done with the B2 i'm thinking about going to Tunisia and doing a round trip through the desert.

 

[fvaleur]

Time for some actual content.

Here is a picture of the aux tank mounted up, with skid plate:

Fill line and power for the transfer pump, power for the pump connects to a relay controlled by a switch in the center console:

As it is right now, inside the left boot compartment:

The tow point i finished installing today, it's an old tow bar, that i modified and had sand blasted and powder coated. Coupled with some 20mm stainless steel i got from a buddy of mine, it makes fore a pretty beefy recovery point.

Stainless all cut up for the recovery point:

And welded, the new gas lense kit i bought for the workshop while my boss was on vacation is amazing:

I welded a piece of plate on the back of the tow bar to make sure my 12.9 bolts had something to hold on to:

 

[fvaleur]

I decided i wanted an OBA setup, i had one before on my nissan patrol, with a small 12V compressor, and it was absolute . So i decided to try something else and went with a york 210 unit. Finding one at a scrap yard here in denmark was impossible, so i ordered a new one from china, with clutch and everything. It even came oiled up.

I helped a colleague of mine build a small compressor setup for his garage at home using 2 danfoss freezer compressors, and a steel propane tank. During the building process i relentlessly mocked him for only running the compressors at 8 bar, despite them being able to do 3 times that. So when i got my york i kinda had to put my money where my mouth was.
I ended up doing a 2 stage setup, separated by a festo filter/regulater/oiler unit. I'm using an atlas copco filter to take catch oil after the compressor. The bullbar functions as a tank, and is placed after the atlas filter, but before the festo unit. I'm using a danfoss pressure controller, designed for refrigeration applications, it should be good to 20bar. Currently i'm running the hp side at 16bar (230psi) and the low side around 6 bar.

Hoses are all festo 10x1.5mm. Except for the one for the pressure switch, which is 6x1.5mm. Fittings are mostly legris LF3600 series.

Pictures!

I cut the existing ac connectors of the "lid" and drilled and tapped 3/8" bsp, so i could use my own fittings.

Sizing up adapter plates to use with the original AC compressor mount. Simple really, some coutersunk bolts, and two pieces of stainless:

All mounted up. The brass thing is a check valve.

The compressor draws air from the filter box. You can also see the yellow atlas copco air filter. I tried to place it as far downstream of the compressor as i could, to allow the air to cool a little. This should make it easier to catch oil and water.

Geuss it's working

Pressure regulator. Had to make and adapter from 1/4" flare to 1/8" bsp.

Festo regulator

Here's the quck connect with adapter and bracket. It's a cejn 320. It's located in the bullbar, for easy access.

While was going nuts with the air hoses i decided to extend my breathers aswell. Blue is diesel tank(s), red is everything else.

I decided to try out the IPF lights that came with the car today, after receiving some new bulbs. They didn't work! After some measuring it seems like the voltage drop across the all the nasty old connectors and plugs that i had just reused was to big for the lights to function, so i made a little harness for them, with as few non-soldered connections as possible. Hope to get some new H4 plugs soon so i can the lights going.

Edit:
Almost forgot! I added a piece of angle iron to the recovery point braces. Now the outer-most bolt functions as jacking point. The rear bumper, bolt, and steel on the sides lock the hi-jack completely in place. It works very well, and was very easy to make

 

[jdayment]

Good luck on the race I lives in Bamako for 2 years from 2009-2011 a lot of great restaurants I suggest namaste and if you get the chance go to bada lodge outside of Bamako to the west about 15km owned by 2 Lebanese sisters great fondue the best night club in town is the Byblos great food and bowling and night club

 

[fvaleur]

Sadly the race won't be ending in bamako this year due to the conflicts in Mali. The race will end in The Gambia.

 

[e9999]

very nice work, well above anything I could do.
While admiring this, one question did come to mind about something (literally) superficial: Could you use button-head allen bolts through the skidplate to minimize the possibility of snagging?

I'm also always puzzled to see that there is so much inch-sized stuff still in Europe...

 

[fvaleur]

Yea, button heads would have been better, but we didn't have them in stock at work, and i didn't feel like buying a case

Are you referring to any inch stuff in specific? In industry we mostly only use inch for pipe, som hoses and pipe fittings (bsp). There are metric alternatives, but the inch stuff is widespread enough that changing over would be a massive pain. And also the metric stuff would be fine thread, which isn't very wide spread, so really we'd be back to square one.