Build OL'BETSY ZX: 1991 HZJ77

[JDM Journeys]

Lol. It's everybody's cruiser!

I've read 8000 pounds and I've read less. Really depends on your shear pin. Factory shear pin goes above 8000 lbs before it breaks in my experience. But it eventually does. And then you get out the snatch block and do a double line...

 

[coldtaco]

Couple of guys in Australia are working on a house 48V system for campers/overlanding

 

[svsisu]

Couple of guys in Australia are working on a house 48V system for campers/overlanding

 

[mjw4]

Couple of guys in Australia are working on a house 48V system for campers/overlanding

Yea that's ultimate efficiency. Wiring would be cheap as hell and easy to handle. Going from 4-6 gauge to maybe 10-12 gauge for long runs.

However, going 48v makes the whole system a bit larger, all appliance or things you would use off the system are either 12v or 24v, so that's extra step-down converters you have to wire in and make room for. As for solar, you would need to make sure you could get a high enough voltage to actually charge the system, which may be issues in a mobile vehicle setup with room constraints.

Can be done though, interest to see more tinkering like that.

 

[JDM Journeys]

Public service announcement:
Check your air conditioner's harmonic balancer sometimes called pulley B.

Just before a 2k km trip I happened to find quite by accident that it had separated and the heavy steel pulley was a fingers width from flying off and doing who knows what to my engine compartment.

This is a rubber insulated pulley like the main harmonic balancer. And also like the main balancer, it wears over time.

This was mine after I unbolted the balancer and reunited it with its pulley:

Apparently the cruiser gods were smiling. Except when my trip saw temps of 38°c lol. But after I got back the new part arrived and is now in. Cold A/C again... And some sense of relief that that was the only casualty.

PN 13407-17010 (crankshaft pulley B)

 

[JDM Journeys]

In my quest to never leave good enough alone, I thought it might be fun to try a Tridon hi flow thermostat for a change. Typical published results seem to be a pretty consistent 8 to 10° F drop in water temperature as a result of the 30% larger bore and thus less restriction/friction.

I had to get it from AUS so it took a while to get here. While I was at it, I figured 5 years was long enough on the upper and lower rad hoses, and got a new thermostat gasket too.

12L of premixed red HOAT antifreeze/coolant, and I was good to go.

I did a little camping trip after install but results were inconclusive since I was still getting the bubbles out. The drive home seemed to bear fruit, and a spot where I consistently top out at 210°F at the top of a hill, I stayed around 200F. And that was with A/C running and my trailer behind me. More testing is needed but even a few degrees is a few degrees when it comes to thermal headroom right?

And in the theme of cooling I think I FINALLY cracked the intercooler duct sealing issue. Over the last year I've tried all manner of foam and rubber around the duct (on the underside of the hood) in an attempt to maximize the passage of air over my TMIC. Today I thought maybe I'd reverse my install and put the seal (two rows of medium density foam tape) around the edge of the intercooler itself so the hood could come down to meet it instead.

So far it seems like it might be the best iteration yet. More testing needed obviously.

 

[AVL KZJ78]

Might be interesting to tape some tufts of yarn to the hood in front of your intercooler scoop. Intuitively, you could imagine high pressure linear flow into the scoop because it faces forward, but on many vehicles, especially those styled as bricks, there is turbulent, even forward, flow.