Builds Peter's Ultimate Expo Land Cruiser Build Thread

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naaaa nothing really important .. ;)

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Let me know if you want in on our 70 series fender order when I get around to doing it.
 
You fellas have a line on 70 series fenders ?
 
Let me know if you see any ridonculous oversights and interferences.
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I actually had to lookup the word "ridonculous" ...... : )
Not a word I heard often in my rural upbringing.
 
<---You never went wheeling with TippyR, did you?

The thing that is haunting me, though is, that for the past 8 years of rolling on 40's, I've never said to myself "Self, I need bigger tires." The 40's are a fantastic all-round size, you were with me in 2009 when we spent 2 weeks putting 10,000kms on the a set. They are definately expo-able.

The Tire decision is made... I'll stick wiht the Michelin's 12.50R20's as the primary summer expo tire, and just have to get something suitable as a winter tire.

I see there are a few of these for sale on Ebay (the 12.5R20s I mean). Expensive as hell, but they look new in case you needed some in reserve
 
I see there are a few of these for sale on Ebay (the 12.5R20s I mean). Expensive as hell, but they look new in case you needed some in reserve

I just took a look, and indeed, there is a set of 5 for sale in N.C. right now. Yes, expensive! I've not seen any for sale in a long time though.
 
So, how about some updates, I understand you've come to some resolution regarding your Altas woes.
Hi Cody,
No major updates... I have been spending my free time working on Ziplock to keep it alive another season to do this and that.

I did buy a 31 spline input from NorthWest Fabworks. But... it's not quite perfect, but I can make it work with some machining of the atlas main-shaft. In the end, it will work, and will save me the hassle of trying to sell the old Atlas, and buying a new one. And be cheaper. Full update to follow.

Speaking of Ziplock, I am doing an experiment on that truck that I've been planning on implementing for the expo truck... An isolated deep cycle battery for auxillary power, and capacitors for primary starting power. So, this weekend, I set-up Ziplock with ultracapacitors...

I rigged up twelve Maxwell 2.5V, 2600F, model BCAP0010 ultra-capacitors to replace the primary batteries on Ziplock.
I also have an isolatoted auxillary battery that I use to run fridges overnight, and I wired up the isolator so I could over-ride so the aux. battery isolator and back-feed the caps through they battery equilizer (Model 66-80) , but it seemed like the equilizer wasn't outputting 2x the 12V aux battery voltage. Perhaps it was cutting out because the caps were drawing more than the 80 amps it could handle? not sure. I will have to read the manual and do some more experitmenting.
I will experiment with this set-up, specifically the new-to-me 24V Aisin winch I have on Ziplock, and do some winching, and see how the capicitors function in the real world on an expo rig as the primary electrical storage and starting power.
First experiment was charging the capacitors with my 24V battery booster box. It pinned the 'Amps' Gauge for about 30 seconds, and in no time I had gobs of power stored up in the capacitors. Impressive.
Second experiment was to test a spin of the factory 24V starter. It seems to LOVE having 29.5Volts of unlimited amps to spin. Fastest I've ever heard a starter spin.
Third experiment is letting is sit 24 hours with any and all parasitic draws, and seeing if there's any power left to start. When I unplugged the charger at about 8PM last night, it was sittng with 29.5V in the caps.
Note, since this is an experiment, I will carry actual batteries along (probably in the tow rig)... just in case the experiment fails!
 
Any update on the capacitors sitting over night? Have you tried disconnecting the battery to see how long they'll let you crank for?
 
Any update on the capacitors sitting over night? Have you tried disconnecting the battery to see how long they'll let you crank for?

Yes,

After sitting overnight, the capacitors were as dead as dead could be. 3.5 Volts. I know that I have a pretty big parasitic draw coming from... MY wiring! THere is a decent spark when I connect my 'Auxillary Main' at the terminal, so that's my hint that the draw is happening there. the Factory leads don't spark. Likely why the old Lead Acid batteries could never sit for more than a week.

I have further identified that the Vanner battery equilizer does not work as an effective DC to DC converter. It's designed to equilize 24V batteries when 12V loads are center tapped off them. It's not designed to use the 12V battery to charge the 24 capacitors. Something internal to the equilizer seem to just turn it off - perhaps it thinks it's in an error situation. So, that doesn't work. A proper DC to DC converter might help. BUT... my expo rig will be all 12V, so, that won't be a problem.

The good news is, though, that it took me exactly 30 seconds on the battery booster to put 22.5Volts back into the capacitors, and that was plenty to crank the starter as long as it needed to start the 13BT without any pre-heat.

After a 30 second recharge, then starting the engine, I immediately powered up the ARB twin 24V air compressor to fill a low tire... a 41" tire, so it took a while. It drew down the capacitors, but within a minute of letting it rest, the alternator had it back up. The recovery time is satisfies my instant gratification lifestyle.

I will chase the heavy parasitic draw, as that needs to be fixed anyway, but my sense is that the internet is right... the capacitors will not be suitable as stand alone eletrical reserve.. they just dont' have the capacitor capactity for long periods of high load. I think they will be brilliant when coupled with a deep cylce battery... like one of those telecom batteries, lots of reserve, but low amperage + capacitors with low reserve but high amerage, and I think one would have a fantastic recipe for electrical power.

In fact, that's what Shaker has done in his JDM 80 series which has the 12/24 series parallel switch for the starter. He has replaced one of the two batteries with a 6 pack of those same capacitors (we went in on an e-bay auction on a bunch of them taken out from a transit bus), and the combination is fantastic, he says. After 8 months of that set-up, he says it starts like a dream and never a shortage of power for all his accesories or Aisin winch.
 
A little bird told me you were working on this again, what's the update?

Wait... I told you that I was working on this again!

I've started tinkering on it, yes. Last weekend, dusted it off, stripped it down a bit more, repositioned the engine, and checked clearances.
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Got a half a day of work into the project on Saturday.

First objective was to install the starter and test clearances. The Destroked Adapter plate moves the starter to the right hand side of the engine… factory location for the Cummins is on the Left. This requires grinding a bit of the casting off the back of the block.

Once the starter was installed and bolted in, I checked clearances to the Flywheel to check starter engagement. They ring gear on the flywheel was far to close to the starter, some 13mm to close, in fact.

I called Destroked, the maker of the adapter plate, they diagnosed that I had the flywheel for the ZF6 transmission, and needed the flywheel for the ZF5 transmission. In fact the previous owner indeed had a ZF6 attached to this engine, and I was re-using the flywheel that came on the engine. According to Destroked, things should work out if I get the right flywheel. They gave me the name of the guy at South Bend Clutch to talk to, and apparently if I tell him that I am using a destroked adapter, he will sort me out with exactly the flywheel/clutch I need. So now I wait for those parts.

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Still :popcorn:
 
New Flywheel and clutch arrive from South Bend. Installed, started installed, and starter engagement tested A-OK. Hurray! I like it when you can just spend a lot of money to make things work.
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If you've been following along, you will recall that the used Atlas Case I acquired had the wrong input, and upon dissassembly to replace input, a crack in the case was found, and the new input with thte correct splines required that the main shaft be shortened. Well, that is all done now... case welded and shaft machined by local welding/machine shop.
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And the Atlas case is now mounted in the driveline. Three of the mounting holes on the back of ZF5 needed to be elongated to match up to the Atlas studs. Seems these round 6 bolt mounting flanges are not entirely standard... this was not unexpected... NorthWest Fabworks who provided me with the new 31 spline input gear I needed warned me that this would be the case.

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Next round of issues...
It fits between the frame rails, but it's REALLY tight. I acquired factory Ram engine mount brackets and engine mounts, and there is maybe 2-4mm of clearance between the frame rails.
Issue #2. ZF5 clutch slave cannot be installed/removed because the mounting is too close to the frame rail.

Solution... widen the frame. I can widen it by up to 180mm. More width will allow some room for the engine to flex without touching the frame, installing the clutch slave, and possibly retaining the facorty power steering pump mounting location, and possibly even allow the exhaust to be inboard of the frame rails. And, I can fit a wider radiator too.
THe down side... the extra width begins to limit steering angle, especially when articulated. The RCV Shafts I am planning say they allow 45 degrees of turn, but I measured my bone stock BJ74 at 27 degrees. I think 30-35 degrees of turn might be the right compromise. Next up... cut the frame and start mocking up for final width.
 
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