Build Prado on a diet, bob / double cab

[cicak]

Fail to see why you not put radiator and air cond in rear.

 

[yotahed]

He hasnt even started the rear frame work yet, and youre already wondering why he didnt do something? Lol
Id be pretty apprehensive about putting the radiator in the back anyway.

 

[kbushnz]

I am seriously thinking about throwing a rad in the rear... Common mod to do here for serious trucks... Saves getting all hot when the mud fills the front. Only issue faced is making sure there is enough airflow during on road driving as off road you are moving slowly and for my truck it runs colder....
Our ambient temps are pretty moderate during summer... so should be sweet... Anyhow thats for consideration when I get to start the rear bar work. Watch this space !

 

[maat]

im keen to see the bar work, id love a full exo cage on my 61.. Im sick of replacing doors and fenders

 

[cicak]

im keen to see the bar work, id love a full exo cage on my 61.. Im sick of replacing doors and fenders

I just leave mine all dented till the windows no longer work then get them pulled out yet again.

 

[kbushnz]

Ok so its been a while..
The new glass has been fitted and I painted in inside.. Same colour as the original outside...
Also made up a new head lining which covers up the remains of the sun roof I welded up. It had some nasty edges and I didn't want to chop them off as they were offering a bit of stiffness to the roof.
Also doubles as an excellent place to mount my new switch panel.. Its illuminated so I can see what is what at night...

 

[crushers]

looking good ...

 

[cicak]

He hasnt even started the rear frame work yet, and youre already wondering why he didnt do something? Lol
Id be pretty apprehensive about putting the radiator in the back anyway.

Why it's a logical place for it for a vehicle which has been chopped to play in mud. Next is a waterproof/sealed alternator.

`

 

[yotahed]

Thats what I love about this site. Instead of giving helpful advice and support, half of what is said is useless banter that helps nobody.

I was referring to the rad in the back as a less than ideal airflow location for daily use, and would interfere with storage, but hey, if its a dedicated mud rig, sure, giv'er.
youre post before mine indicated you "failed to see" something that had not been done yet, and tried to make yourself look more intelligent than the OP.
Instead perhaps phrase your post a little more encouraging, and gives reasons why it may be a good idea to perform the actions you suggest, otherwise you just take up space as a completely useless post.
Apologies to the OP for posting a rant in a great thread. But "I fail to see" why cicak even posted here twice with nothing to say with any positive or informative content.
Maybe you should just stick to wrecking trucks and blowing up 1kz's bud.

 

[crushers]

my take on the rad in the back ...
i have seen some work decently but most suck. the idea the water pump has to move a large volume of coolant much further seems to be one of the issues. air flow is another concern.
if mud is the concern than a "fly screen" mounted in front of the rad works quite well at keeping mud, leaves, skag slop out of the rad. mount it in such a way it is easy to remove and shake or rinse out and reinstall.

just my uneducated 5 pennies.

 

[cicak]

Thats what I love about this site. Instead of giving helpful advice and support, half of what is said is useless banter that helps nobody.

I was referring to the rad in the back as a less than ideal airflow location for daily use, and would interfere with storage, but hey, if its a dedicated mud rig, sure, giv'er.
youre post before mine indicated you "failed to see" something that had not been done yet, and tried to make yourself look more intelligent than the OP.
Instead perhaps phrase your post a little more encouraging, and gives reasons why it may be a good idea to perform the actions you suggest, otherwise you just take up space as a completely useless post.
Apologies to the OP for posting a rant in a great thread. But "I fail to see" why cicak even posted here twice with nothing to say with any positive or informative content.
Maybe you should just stick to wrecking trucks and blowing up 1kz's bud.

There are several reasons for putting the Radiator in the rear and up high.
1. YEs its out of the mud. A screen will only stop the slop getting into the fins etc but a long stop in sloppy mud or repeat mud holes will fill the radiator shroud from the rear even a canvas over the front will not save it.
2. On the long run home after a trip you do not have to worry about mud sitting in the bottom of the rear of the radiator blocking it completely where it sat and then dried causing no air flow through the radiator.
3. Saves having to remove the shroud and washing the radiator at a river if you know there is not a car wash available as soon as you leave the jungle to prevent overheating on the trip home.
4. The same applies to the intercooler if it is a front mount. A lot of 1KZ intercoolers are mounted on top of the engine so rear mount not usually needed and its too far away if you put in the rear.
5. Yes pushing the coolant up is most important - some use two pumps to do this the normal one out of the engine and another electric one nearer the radiator.
6. Cooling is important with a rear mount as is having reliable FANS that are temp controlled. The plumbing has to be spot on to also to prevent radiator hoses bursting open or off - I have seen both occur in incidents neither pleasant.
7. Putting the radiator in the rear also allows such items as WARN 8274 winches and god winches to be mounted further back in the chassis assisting in handling at speed and frontal protusion.
8. His next issue if he goes rear mount radiator is the alternator they hate sloopy deep mud it wears the brushes out in a matter of hours or minutes. Carrying a spare is needed. Roadside strip/rebuild sometimes works sometimes does not .
9. And yes the 1KZ is very sensative with cooling and after MUD especially when it travels up the slightest slope.
10. looking forward to see the endresult of this project as bobbed vehicles here are rare except for comp trucks they get whacked at inspection.

 

[kbushnz]

Hey look guys and gals. I have no issues with what's said to date and how the thread is going... There is some good feedback / info coming thru. Although there is a bit of reading between the lines.... I like the feedback re extra pump... So keep it all coming !

 

[cicak]

Hey look guys and gals. I have no issues with what's said to date and how the thread is going... There is some good feedback / info coming thru. Although there is a bit of reading between the lines.... I like the feedback re extra pump... So keep it all coming !

The pump I will update you with as we have a 4ft cooling pipe to radiator lift for the volvo to figure out. Workshop ses 14B-T standard water pump will push it up. I say we need electric pump to assist when it's started and driven we will find out.

Airflow will need to be sources probably from the roof top with a scoop to force the fresh air in and decent electric fans and somewhere for the exit air to flow. The angle of the radiator also appears to impact the success or failure. Recently we had a V8 Nissan engine in KIA ROCSTAR with the radiator in the very back (outside the rear cabin) of the ROCSTAR. It overheated easily until they made a custom scoop to pull the air from the roof.

 

[kbushnz]

The Bob is on hold while I save up for bar work....
So started playing with the rear brakes.
Totally sick of the drums filling up and losing the handbrake....
So I am retro fitting some Subaru Leone calipers which have the integral hand brake mechanism.
Matched with Nissan GU rear disc's to get the most pad contact and also fit inside 15 inch rims.
Have cut off the old backing plates and caliper mount.
Made a up a new plate using Solidworks and cut a prototype. Need a bit of adjustment here and there but its looking good.
The Subaru pad comes past the disc a few mm but this will be trimmed off to pass our local cert rules (we are allowed to trim the pad)
The trimmed pad will still have a larger surface area on the disc than the original factory pad...
Note: Photo's are of my first cut at the mount plate.. New one to be made to get the caliper in closer and also rotate it down a bit so the original handbrake cables are inline....
So all good.

 

[sadam_husain]

If you haven't already drilled the mounting holes in the new brackets your fabricating you can grind a bit of the calliper bracket back where the red arrows are and get full pad contact on the rotor calvin, its not an easy place to get into I did mine on a bench grinder with an 8" wheel, brian howatt machines them back like that and they pass through certification ok.

 

[kbushnz]

Thanks for the heads up !
New bracket is just a mock up made from alloy... Yes was going to move it in a bit and grind it out as you suggested. But a little unsure how deep to go...Any close ups of yours?
What dia brake disc are you running?
The Nissan one is just a tad bigger than the std prado one...but the inner hub is smaller in dia so I can get the caliper in deeper. And still fit over the axle flange.
I haven't gone down the track of grinding down my axle flange.. And use a front disc .
And don't want to mod the Nissan disc so if anything happens or wears out I can get it off the shelf...
I think even if I get the caliper closer to the center it will still not allow full pad contact... But I am happy with that....
At this stage it trial and error... hahaha Once I sort this bit out it will be getting the original handbrake cables to work.
Have heard that others have had issues.....

 

[sadam_husain]

I'm using standard 70 series front rotors on the rear, dunno what diameter they are without measuring them but 305mm rings a bell, pretty sure they'll be the same rotor that's on the front of your truck? haven't got any photos on hand of how much I ground the brackets back it was probably a few mm from memory and I think it was a tapered sort of grind I don't think I needed the same amount all the way through, I couldn't move the calliper to far in or the inside part of the bracket would touch the hub in the centre of the rotor but it was just enough to get full pad contact and have nothing touching anywhere.

If the handbrake cables are a going to give you problems you can use the 2 Subaru cables and equaliser to join them up to the cruiser cable, its easy to do on a LWB there's plenty of room but pretty tight and fiddly on a SWB, the handbrakes on both my trucks came out really good they clamp up real tight

 

[NZCruisers]

Mods are coming along great Calvin

If the handbrake cables are a going to give you problems you can use the 2 Subaru cables and equaliser to join them up to the cruiser cable, its easy to do on a LWB there's plenty of room but pretty tight and fiddly on a SWB, the handbrakes on both my trucks came out really good they clamp up real tight

I copied your set up and it does work well. Does look pretty fiddly on ya 40 . Tho on my SWB 70 I didn't have any trouble , and thats with a anti-wrap bar and a drivehshaft hoop in the way .....although the driveshaft hoop has since been lost while "Four wheel driving...."

 

[kbushnz]

Been awhile since I have posted anything on my build. So heres a bit of an update.
I have started working on the replacement chassis...
Original one is bent in a few places, long story short, it was imported into NZ as a damaged vehicle and wasn't really straightened very well.. And I found this all out after owning it for a few years.... Now move on 12 years and its starting to annoy me... What with bushes flogging out and other things....
I digress....
Re mounted my mid PTO setup into the new chassis.. Have swapped the previous hydraulic actuated freespool for an air ram.. Got a mini ARB compressor given to me...perfect for this application.
Scored a Warn 8074 winch... Model before the 8274. Exactly the same except no free spool mechanism. So the old low mount is out the window and the high mount is going in...... in the rear !. Setting it up to pull forward and also rearward....
At this stage I have tacked up the mount and blown some holes thru various parts to run the rope...
Basically mirror image of the PTO setup but just goes back another few more cross members.
I have also shortened the chassis down a few hundred mm's and stitched in the rear frame.
Here are some photo's of the chassis and winches...
Enjoy...

 

[crushers]

the air actuator, excellent idea but curious does it build up the pressure and wait, then when the 2 big cogs are aligned it pops out or does it try and force the arm as soon as the pressure is applied like hydrolic?
sorry if this is a stupid questions but i know nothing about air cylinders