LJ70 Build Thread!

[Paddler Ed]

Great pics from what I could see on my phone.... I'm away from my internet as well at the moment so just using my phone.

 

[Trevor]

Trev, I vote Cookie Monster for that one.

Like your logic

 

[Ben]

Thanks guys.

I've had some shocking luck with getting internet setup in the new place but finally I'm back on line!

Need to finish the Tuff Truck update and then theres loads of pics of the projects I've been building since then, oh and the new house.

Your welcome Andy, I'm always happy to help mate.

No hydro steer isnt legal for road use Clive, nor is rear steer.

 

[Maverick]

Erin has a Dongle??

 

[Chas]

Erin has a Dongle??

I'm sure she has.

 

[Ben]

Update coming.

 

[Ben]

The Saturday at Tuff Truck

Saturday morning we were awake bright and early.















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I found my stage which I would be filming for the day. The All Terrain course which is one of the original Tuff Truck stages from the original event!






















First team lining up on the start line.

















It was amazing being so close to the action!









The Proclaimer was next! Based on a 40 series cruiser and running 54" tyres with front and rear hydro steering this thing was un stoppable!















The next car got a bit tippy!













The only landrover I would see all weekend!









I found this interesting.............................. The pinion in the front diff went right through and they had a brake disk mounted on the front with a caliper. Not something I've ever seen before.













Most of the cars were running front and rear winches attached to the diffs so that they could pull the diff up/compress the suspension. So to make the car more stable they would winch the front diff up when climbing a steep hill and when coming down a steep hill they would winch the rear diff up. This effectively shifted the center of gravity of the car. Another thing they could do is if they got stuck they could winch the diffs up which would bring the wheels off the ground and then the navi could put rocks under the tyres and then let the winches out and drop the tyres back onto the rocks and drive forwards.









The next team DNF'd (did not finish in the allotted time) so the recovery crew were called in.

































Suzuki Vitara next.











I got some great footage of my first roll over of the weekend.







P3290338 by CruiserBen, on Flickr







70 series!

They DNF'd so the recovery crew were caled in.



















Rear hydro steer!































The next team had engine problems and DNF'd.
























Another 40.

Lots of tyre smoke as they forced their way over the rocks.





By this point I had been filming on my stage for most of the day and a lot of it on my own. One of the other camera guys said he would film the last few teams if I wanted to go and have a look at some of the other stages. So I went over to the Rocky Horror stage which had a huge crowd around it.





Being camera crew meant I was able to get through the crowd and onto the stage for some close up action.







The course was tough! Huge rock steps that teams had to try and get up.



































The last team finished on the stage and I headed back to camp.







We had dinner and then headed over to the night stage.



The atmosphere was incredible and being in the center of thousands of cheering people, as close to the action as possible was amazing!







Lots of water for teams to drive through.

















































They had a huge screen setup and were also broadcasting all the action live on the internet.

































They had a spectacular firework display.

P3290541 by CruiserBen, on Flickr







The huge concrete block staircase caught a few teams out.

P3290565 by CruiserBen, on Flickr













80 series!































It had been an amazing day but by 10.30pm I was pretty tired so headed back to camp and had a nice hot shower!

 

[Ben]

Sunday at Tuff Truck

Sunday we were awake bright and early again.

The pit area/competitors camping was right next to ours and was a hum of activity with one team busy welding a gearbox mount back on to the chassis!





All the film crew filmed different stages on each day and my stage for the day was Mini Wiraba.



It was a much smaller course than the one I filmed the day before, meaning I would be doing a lot less running around!





Before the stage opened I got to have a look at the Vitara with the cut headlights.









The owner was telling me he broke a few headlights trying to cut them and did it using a diamond disc in an angle grinder.







The stage opened and this was the first team of the day.





From my stage I could see 5 of the other stages which was nice! The stage behind me saw a lot of roll overs and one of the first teams of the day rolled!









Meanwhile my stage saw plenty of action!

















































US competitor and man behind Ultra 4 (king of the hammers) Dave Cole demonstrated some great driving!

Sadly he didnt manage to get up the last section through the 100 point gate but no other teams had by that point in the day and only a couple of teams would manage that all day!





















I loved the custom beadlocks on the next truck, a women dropping her knickers!









The next team managed to wedge one of their tyres under a boulder and DNF'd.























The truck with the tyre stuck under the rock got recovered.























I took lots of pics of different suspension setups as it will be useful to look at what other people have done when it comes time for me to build the truck that I'm going to enter and hopefully win Tuff Truck in!





























































The next team went on to win Tuff Truck 2014 and they did especially well on this stage and were one of only a few to get through the 100 point gate and complete the course!















More roll overs on the other stage.





























Husband and wife team next with the wife driving!







More custom beadlocks.

The next roll over was spectacular and I caught it all on camera!

The team had successfully driven all of the stage up to the 100 point gate but were struggling to get up the huge boulder.

So they sat there and with the clutch in they held their foot to the floor on the throttle for a good 10 seconds and then just dumped the clutch!

They shot up the rock face/boulder and went straight off the side!

I filmed my 3rd roll over of the day and got a really good side on shot of it while one of the other camera guys got some good footage of it from the front. Those 2 shots together will look awesome on the TV show and DVD.

My stage finished so I wondered over to one of the other stages that was still going. I got there just in time to see an awesome run by Dave Cole. In hindsight I wish I had stayed further down the hill and kept recording. The video below shows him put the car completely on its side with 2 wheels in the air and manage to drive it back on to its wheels and keep going.

Shortly after that he had the most spectacular end to a stage when his throttle jammed fully open and he exited the course, hit 2 trees and ended up with it on its side!

We headed back to camp and had dinner. Then we went to the awards ceremony.

The event owner had asked us for a copy of the video showing Dave Cole exiting the stage with his throttle stuck open, in his truck that he lent him so he could put it on the big screen. This had a lot of people laughing everytime it got played on the video loop on the big screen.

The team from Victoria won it in the white truck pictured further up on this page and Dave Cole came second!

After the awards I asked the winners to come for an interview and we did a 5 minute interview with the 3 top teams.

With the event officialy over all the competitors, marshals, recovery crews and everyone else who was there working could relax and let their hair down.

Things got pretty crazy but it was all good fun!

And that was my weekend at Tuff Truck 2014!

It was hard work constantly running up and down filming the trucks on the stages but I loved every minute of it! It was easily one of the best weekends of my life!!!

I hope to be back in a few years time on the other side of the camera!

 

[Trevor]

Just brilliant Ben, such an amazing weekend and event for you. Great to be right in the midst of the action.

 

[Gary820]

Great photos and vids. Those trucks look awesome. Thanks for the effort posting them all.

 

[stumog]

thanks for the pictures ben very interesting. I like the idea of the perspex front wings on the 40 and the way the rear end of the yellow and black worked.

time to start thinking ...
stu

 

[Chas]

Wow Ben, great stuff, you must have been like a dog with two tails stuck in the middle of all that action, very jealous. You'll be there with your own truck soon.

 

[Ben]

Thanks guys.

It really was such an amazing weekend, I loved every second of it and I got some good footage for the TV show and DVD!

The last few weeks having been pretty busy at work.

I got the roll cage I built back from the powder coaters and fitted it in the little Suzuki.









I then carried on with the tube doors I've designed.



My boss wanted slam latches on the doors, and the company in the US that sells latches for tube doors didnt reply to our email asking them how much to ship to OZ.

So we got a load of sample latches from a hardware supplier and I selected which one I thought would work best.



I cut a plate and tack welded it in the corner of the door.



I welded it int he center of the door as I want the doors to be universal so they will work as a passenger or a drivers side as it will just make producing and selling them easier.

So the latch gets spaced out using some little plastic spacers.







I cut, folded and drilled a plate to bolt onto the existing pillar.









Once I was happy with this system I cut some more plates for the other doors.



And got them welded on.







I then sent the doors to be powder coated.

And made the other plates for the slam latches.



And sent them to be electroplated silver.

I got the doors back.





















I parked it out the front of work on Thursday and I hadnt even got around to putting a for sale sign on it when a guy came in and said it was just what he was looking for for his farm and gave the full asking price for it in cash!

Its been a nice little project and its great to be saving a Suzuki rather than stripping them for parts all the time.





My boss wanted me to design and build a trailer for him to mount an 800 litre water tank and fire fighting pump on.

The new parts I was given.



We wanted to make use of some of the Suzuki spares weve got so we used Sierra leaf springs which I added extra leaves to for the weight.



And Vitara wheels.



I drew out the shape and size of the trailer on the floor using chalk and then cut the steel to size and welded it all together.







To ensure I got really good root penetration on all my welds I ground the edges of all the joints.



I drilled some 25mm holes in some 6mm steel.



And then cut it up.







This would be my leaf spring mounts.











I needed to weld the stub axles in next.





I cut and drilled some steel to bolt the axle to the leaf springs.











I assembled the hubs.



And got the hubs and wheels mounted.





We needed to test the trailer to make sure it would carry 800kg+. So I weighed a bag of snow chains and then put 800kg worth on the trailer.







We needed a frame to help hold the water tank in place and to give us something to attach ratchet straps to.











Mud guards next.







I added some tubes to go from the corers of the trailer to the mud guard to prevent the mud guard getting damaged should some one clip a gate post/tree etc. The idea is it will hit the tube and slide out away from the post/tree.









I then stripped it all back down and got every thing fully welded.





I painted the axle, springs, and wheels and got them all assembled.









All new bushes.



The spring plates I sent to be electro plated.





Everything was assembled using nyloc nuts.



We picked the trailer up from the powder coaters.







I got it all assembled.













Cut some ply.



And screwed it on.







Thats the first trailer I've ever designed and built and I'm really pleased with it, as is my boss. It took a couple of days and I really enjoyed making it.

Another little project I did on Thursday was designing and making some castor correcting drop mounts for Suzuki Jimny's.

So these drop the rear chassis mount for the radius arms, I also moved the mounting hole 5mm further forward to stretch the wheel base very slightly to improve the approach angle and to give a bit more clearance for bigger tyres.

















I'm also designing a new product which I'm really excited about that I think will be a big seller!

Cant say too much just yet but will get some pics once its finished and goes into mass production.

Last Sunday I went on a 4wd trip with my work colleagues.



















































We stopped next to a reservoir for lunch.



































































I was following my boss in his Jimny and he came ridiculously close to rolling it! We were traveling at about 20kmh when his rear drivers side wheel shot really high into the air, luckily it came back down and stopped at this point.







One of the landrovers had a flat tyre on the way back to Melbourne but we soon had it changed.





The bottle jack wouldnt go high enough so we used a spade to dig out some of the dirt to get the spare on.



I've settled into the new house now and I totally love it!

LJ got called into service last week to get me a new mattress.







I cant afford a bed at the moment as theres much more important things to spend money on like holidays and 4wd stuff!

So I got inventive...........................






I tested it the other night when a friend stayed over and the boxes didnt move at all!

We had our first house party last night and one of our friends brought his lasers and decks round.

It got pretty messy hence why I've been able to spend so much time today up dating this thread. Was a great night though!


















Anyway................................

Back to the house............

The new garage/workshop is awesome!

I took a few pics as I moved in and started to set it all up.



















I added some more shelves.



Its great to finally have all my stuff out of storage and on hand for when I'm making and fixing stuff.











Its amazing having my own garage/workshop again, something I've not had for over 12 months. Its also amazing that LJ fits inside with plenty of room to spare! I've never had a garage LJ fits into before.





I've decided I'm going to pull LJ off the road for a few months and get the huge list of jobs I need to do done! I've got my big Simpson trip coming up in September that I'm very excited about, but I want LJ to be 100% reliable so its very important to get all the little issues sorted out!

I also want to get all the bodywork fixed and LJ resprayed.

Build a roof rack for my OZ Tent and mount awnings to 2 sides.

Build and fit my auxiliary fuel tank.

Rip all the aftermarket wiring and electrics out and start again and do it all properly.

Get a new set of 35" BFG KM2's.

Add a boost, EGT, and aux fuel tank gauges.

And get the radiator fixed as its leaking again.

So I should be busy for a while.

One crazy picture to end on..............................

A significant moment that we jokingly thought was worth photographing.

Putting the bins out for the first time at the new place.

 

[AndyCook]

fantastic update!

loved the truck photos and videos

and workshop looking good - his and hers spades too

trailer is looking great too, must have been really satisfying to design and build that

 

[Chas]

Your garage looks ace Ben It looks about as big as mine on floor space, my 80 wouldn't fit in until I had the roof raised so I can now drive in with the roof tent on. Congrats on the trailer and Suzy roll cage, nice piece of work.
Works in progress on my garage extension too, first job will be paint the walls white then seal the concrete floor and lay insulating tiles then install this 6' really solid work bench I've bought.
Looking forward to all your mods. Hope to see you when you come to the UK.

 

[Ben]

Thanks guys.

Will your garage be finished by July Chas?

Could call in for a cuppa and a look on my way back to the airport.

Hope to see you at Lincomb anyway.

 

[Chas]

Thanks guys.

Will your garage be finished by July Chas?

Could call in for a cuppa and a look on my way back to the airport.

Hope to see you at Lincomb anyway.

I'll be at Lincomb, I hope the garage will be 95% finished but pop in anyway you can help with the final 5% if you need a lift to the airport I'm your man.

 

[Ben]

Awesome! See you there.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Will that trailer take an IBC? If so they're worth making and producing now, ready for fire season; a lot of the guys I know like to have a mobile fire fighter, and IBC's are the most popular tank to use. Only mod would be to do it with Ford/Holden/Toyota stud pattern options rather than Zook as most people have rims with that stud pattern lying around.

 

[Ben]

I think it would need stiffer springs to take an IBC weighing a ton + the pump.

The chassis would take it but the springs wouldn't!

Most people have the pump and tank mounted on a pallet and then just forklift it onto the back of a ute when they need it, but I think having it all mounted on a trailer is easier.