If you could start over again?

[Bungle]

Hi guys, I've been stalking this forum and others, and have decided that my next project is going to be an 80. Pretty much decided on the 4.5 petrol which i will convert myself to LPG with lube. Long term it will be toy and so will be a 2inch lift, winch, snorkel, rear mount wheel, etc... enough to make green laning an joy without the pain of serious lift.

if there was any one thing you would suggest, what would it be if you got to start again from the purchase phase?

 

[mettisse]

Hi guys, I've been stalking this forum and others, and have decided that my next project is going to be an 80. Pretty much decided on the 4.5 petrol which i will convert myself to LPG with lube. Long term it will be toy and so will be a 2inch lift, winch, snorkel, rear mount wheel, etc... enough to make green laning an joy without the pain of serious lift.

if there was any one thing you would suggest, what would it be if you got to start again from the purchase phase?

Hello, good choice of truck,

Hi guys, I've been stalking this forum and others, and have decided that my next project is going to be an 80. Pretty much decided on the 4.5 petrol which i will convert myself to LPG with lube. Long term it will be toy and so will be a 2inch lift, winch, snorkel, rear mount wheel, etc... enough to make green laning an joy without the pain of serious lift.

if there was any one thing you would suggest, what would it be if you got to start again from the purchase phase?

hi, I aree with your choice, to start obviously I would put a lot of effort into finding the lowest mileage, well maintained truck available, be prepared to pay a little more for something nice it will save bundles later, and the first
investment would be a quality lift ( for me Old Man Emu, ) and quality tyres ( for me BFG all terrains) then you are good to go anywhere, ( and these items last a long time) all the rest is not essential but nice, I have a snorkel but to be frank, unless you are going somewhere very dusty not really necessary , I have never had a rear mounted spare, don't see the need, ( and mine goes off road)
it's fun planning it all out eh? Others may disagree JMO
Have fun, best regards, Bill Westley

 

[clivehorridge]

Well, it seems you're not a stalker at all anymore Bungle, welcome aboard!

on all that Bill said above.

Neither me nor my 80 do overlanding or green laning, but we both enjoy going offroad, which I suppose could be compared with green laning, depending on how green (or brown) the green lane might be

The decision whether certain items are essential or good to have is a matter of judgement and somewhat arbitrary IMO.

I have a winch, do I need a winch? On occasions I have needed a winch, so my answer is yes, I need a winch. Is it essential? I think yes, because I have nobody I can call to help me in the event that I do need it. However, many would say (from their experience) that they don't consider a winch to be essential. That's their opinion.

So we come back to your own judgement, right or wrong? Only you can answer that when you're stuck on a side slope, in the gloop, and 5 m down the hill from you is a near-vertical drop-off to oblivion.

It is fun, as Bill says, and it's also expensive. But, it's so satisfying when you're done (if ever) and you have a well turned out piece of equipment, especially an 80 series, equipped with the essentials and the nice-to-have's that you chose to have, and you can go ahead either to Tesco's or the back of beyond with some confidence that you will return.

You've posted your list and with or without the rear wheel carrier, it's a reasonable list for starters.

My advice is to keep it clean. That doesn't mean don't get it dirty, heaven forbid, but keep it clean in between. It helps you to "know" your truck. Clean underneath means no wet salty mud held against already rusty body and chassis members for months on end promoting rust.

Clean underneath means you look, you see that oil weep on the transfer box starting, not when it's too late and you've dumped all your oil and the t/f is whining in agony. You see that the rear UJ on the rear prop has rust stains on one of the bearings, it allows you to squib some grease in there in the meantime while you organize a replacement, and saves you from a loud bang and no drive on one of your green lanes, and all the hassle that goes with it and the disruption to the rest of the gang having to wait for you to sort out your problems.

Keep it and the bolt-on's maintained, it's your lifeline after all, maintenance is as important as bolting the things on in the first place.

I have OME suspension, it's been on for 11 years and has never given me problems. It's not the only make, I just can't recommend anything else by experience. Peddars appear to give very good attentive service (from the experience of others that have said so) and there's many others with mixed reports.

I've never felt the need for a snorkel, in the dry weather we have dust, but I don't do convoys, so most of my dust is behind me, away from the air intake.
As for river crossings, well, I have an aversion to dunking my starter motor, alternator and other more sensitive stuff under muddy water, many do and get away with it. With near to a 6/7" lift, I haven't needed a snorkel for water crossings, the top of a 33" tyre is deep enough for me .

Carry a basic set of recovery equipment with you at all times! A good snatch block, a good strap for tree protection and other uses, use dyneema on your winch, not steel cable, carry heavy duty gloves, lengths of good rope, some chain I find useful personally, and a bunch of rated shackles, basic tools, socket set and spanners / screw driver's and with a medium hammer and big f**king hammer (at least 2-3 kilos) its all good added insurance for when things do go wrong, and that's not you necessarily, it's any number of your green laning mates, especially the green oval type, but they usually carry their own spares and tools, for the same reasons as we drive Land Cruisers.

It goes on forever and I've probably missed over half of it, enjoy, it is huge fun getting it right

 

[Michael Montgomery]

Hello & welcome,

Getting a new vehicle is kinda like getting to know yourself.

Firstly I agree with others here in getting the best vehicle based on condition & spec and really researching either here or on IH8MUD for more insight.

There are loads available some standard some modified. Decide what you want here. I bought mine with some mods like mud terrian tyres that were nosy yet new but I didn't release that choice was made for me upon purchase.

To be honest I knew very little in the beginning not asking questions nor did I have the wonderful members here to learn from.

Whether your deciding upon a winch as Clive mentions depends upon your needs and your needs most likely won't be until you have the vehicle or if your lucky enough know someone who have that's you can share the experience if that what you like.

I had a winch on mine from the previous owner took it off after 5 years and sold it. Was never used as I don't do serious off roading to justify having it.

Have a snookle when purchasing on there too kept it because the cut was made to the body but don't feel I needed this too.

The important things to consider are tyres, suspension & maintenance to start. The rest you can do & add later because everything you do adds to weight to a already heavy vehicle.

Hope this helps you

 

[Shayne]

I will never forgive myself for not having the underside of my truck sealed when i first bought it , if i could turn back the clock i would do this before doing anything else .

 

[clivehorridge]

But Shayne, what have you done to the truck that stops you doing it now?

I can understand that you have removed and replaced things, that will need removing again to do the clean & seal, but surely, the main effort of work that is needed is the cleaning and brushing and application, not the work to access the underside.

I'm guilty of the same, I often look at my surface rust on the chassis thinking it would look better nice and shiny black, but...

 

[Shayne]

It's repair work now Clive whereas if i had done it at the start i would simply be protecting the factory finish .

I have no intention of painting any fancy product over rust so its going to be an awful job but my Zinga and blast media just arrived .

 

[Shayne]

Another thing that should have been given priority over mods was brakes , mine were fine , never questioned at mot time and i had only a vague notion that their efficiency might have suffered a bit because of the additional weight and dynamics of bigger wheels and a 4" lift so the improvement brought about by a Biggred caliper rebuild and new disks all round came as a shock .

 

[Bungle]

Thanks a lot for the wealth of replies!

In the past i have had a hilux surf and land rover discovery, both of which spent a fair bit of time off road, so i'm not completely green, but it has been a few years

For me a winch is better to have and not need, than to need and not have, so for any thing more than gentle laning its pretty much a no brainer, and as for plasma rope and the appropriate snatch blocks, ive seen a few steel ropes snap and come flying back at high speed, and it's not something i ever fancy on my own truck. and i will spec the springs for a heavy front end. I've had Pro-comp shocks and HDJ80 rear springs on a surf before and was pleased with that, but on the landy the pro-comps suffered a lot with weld breaking on the mounting rings. So thanks for the tip on OME ill go and price it up.

As i'm looking for a petrol engine, i'm going to be installing a multipoint LPG system myself with the tank in the spare wheel well, and as i have been caught out off road without a spare before, i want to make sure the spare is accessible and not at risk of flying around sitting loose in the back. Am i right in thinking only the JDM spec 80's came with a rear mount as standard?

I must admit, a snorkel is a want more than a need, and is probably the last thing on the list, i just like the look on a modded truck, although saying that, i've crossed a few rivers over the years, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

also factory lockers is on my radar, but are they worth the hassle of finding? or am i better just fitting ARB's if i ever decide to do some more serious work with it?

Thanks for taking the time to reply, i really do appreciate it

 

[clivehorridge]

Thanks a lot for the wealth of replies!

In the past i have had a hilux surf and land rover discovery, both of which spent a fair bit of time off road, so i'm not completely green, but it has been a few years

For me a winch is better to have and not need, than to need and not have, so for any thing more than gentle laning its pretty much a no brainer, and as for plasma rope and the appropriate snatch blocks, ive seen a few steel ropes snap and come flying back at high speed, and it's not something i ever fancy on my own truck. and i will spec the springs for a heavy front end. I've had Pro-comp shocks and HDJ80 rear springs on a surf before and was pleased with that, but on the landy the pro-comps suffered a lot with weld breaking on the mounting rings. So thanks for the tip on OME ill go and price it up.

As i'm looking for a petrol engine, i'm going to be installing a multipoint LPG system myself with the tank in the spare wheel well, and as i have been caught out off road without a spare before, i want to make sure the spare is accessible and not at risk of flying around sitting loose in the back. Am i right in thinking only the JDM spec 80's came with a rear mount as standard?

I must admit, a snorkel is a want more than a need, and is probably the last thing on the list, i just like the look on a modded truck, although saying that, i've crossed a few rivers over the years, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

also factory lockers is on my radar, but are they worth the hassle of finding? or am i better just fitting ARB's if i ever decide to do some more serious work with it?

Thanks for taking the time to reply, i really do appreciate it

The above is a common sense approach, it shows you've already been there..

I'm not able to confirm the questions that you've asked, but AFAIK factory 80 lockers can't be retrofitted, unless you change the axle casings, whereas air lockers can.

There may be other types available too, a search (top right) might bring up a suitable post in Ben's never-ending LJ 70 saga that might give you pointers, albeit he's talking 70 series, but the principles may be similar.

I'll stand corrected by anyone else's comments on this, I'm used to being wrong.

Maybe the petrol 4.5 80 came with factory lockers on some models/markets , it's worth some research first.

My motive for slinging the spare off the back was because I like wider profiles and 305/70/16s were too tight a fit to sit neatly under the rear, and, when I had 275s on the truck, I managed to pop a bead at the same time as the rear end sank into about 1/2 m of super-soft soft stuff that was softer than the softest stuff I've ever sank into.

Ask me how delighted I was spending about 2 hours removing the spare under those conditions...

3 nuts on a swing-out would have been a much preferred option.

Loose in the back is not a viable option, anchored is OK, but loose it will trash your interior, and maybe kill you if you do a nosedive without a substantial dog-guard separating you from the rear storage space.

JMHO, of course.

 

[mettisse]

Have fun

 

[Bungle]

How do the 305's handle on the road? does it tend to tramline? Sorry, i will have a million questions

 

[mettisse]

Thanks Clive, your description of Changing a wheel and getting the spare out is the best reason I've heard for having the wheel on the back, Never saw that coming! Time to rethink.
Winch? For the price they are now, it's hard to resist, I've stayed with a steel rope on the bruiser because as I understand it the nylon ropes degrade in the sunlight, ( is this true?) I keep mine clean and wiped with a greasy rag to prevent corrosion ( dirty engine oil actually) and regularly spray with Balistol oil, used to use wd 40, around the winch itself, keeps the moisture at bay, the reason is because it is very rarely used.
Bungle you sound like you well know the ropes, I hope you've been out in a cruiser off road, I hope you love it, I do.

 

[Lorin]

I will never forgive myself for not having the underside of my truck sealed when i first bought it , if i could turn back the clock i would do this before doing anything else .

I have started again and this is the second thing I did. The first was to plan as much as possible before starting anything.

 

[white90]

Bungle? that name rings a bell, had you used to go off-roading on Cannock chase with bofa? had some cracking days off-roading there in me lr 90 shame it's not on anymore , you will love the 80 wouldn't part with mine for all the tea in China.

 

[Bungle]

Bloody hell, small world and all that, yep i used to go to Bofa, and we did some laning with you as well mate. How the hell are ya?

 

[clivehorridge]

How do the 305's handle on the road? does it tend to tramline? Sorry, i will have a million questions

Beautifully, IMO.

I run them at quite a high pressure, say 3 bar or about 40 psi. At lower pressures, you will feel them drag a little.

There's always a down side, they have higher rolling resistance so mpg and top speed will suffer to an extent. Hence the higher pressure to mitigate this a bit.

The grip on asphalt is superb, but the offroad wide or narrow debate rages on.

 

[white90]

Bloody hell, small world and all that, yep i used to go to Bofa, and we did some laning with you as well mate. How the hell are ya?

I'm good thanks mate, especially now I've got an 80 , the days of lying under me 90 fixing it every 5 minutes are long gone, having said that I had some great fun in it, hope you're all keeping well.

 

[clivehorridge]

Thanks Clive, your description of Changing a wheel and getting the spare out is the best reason I've heard for having the wheel on the back, Never saw that coming! Time to rethink.
Winch? For the price they are now, it's hard to resist, I've stayed with a steel rope on the bruiser because as I understand it the nylon ropes degrade in the sunlight, ( is this true?) I keep mine clean and wiped with a greasy rag to prevent corrosion ( dirty engine oil actually) and regularly spray with Balistol oil, used to use wd 40, around the winch itself, keeps the moisture at bay, the reason is because it is very rarely used.
Bungle you sound like you well know the ropes, I hope you've been out in a cruiser off road, I hope you love it, I do.

It does degrade, but a good quality line will last quite well if you look after it. Mine has suffered 11 years so far, but truth be known, I should have changed it at least 3 years ago.

Washing them well after muddy use helps, the grit in mud is very abrasive so leaving it dirty means next time you load it, the crushing effect with the grit, tends to speed up fraying.

I'd say they're good for 5 years, depending on how often you'll use it, but they're not cheap, at circa €100 a pop, in this neck of the woods, anyway.

 

[white90]

Beautifully, IMO.

I run them at quite a high pressure, say 3 bar or about 40 psi. At lower pressures, you will feel them drag a little.

There's always a down side, they have higher rolling resistance so mpg and top speed will suffer to an extent. Hence the higher pressure to mitigate this a bit.

The grip on asphalt is superb, but the offroad wide or narrow debate rages on.

The wide narrow debate will go on forever Clive, there isn't one tyre that will do everything, always depends on what surface your driving on.