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My Cruiser

Some very neat welding on that exhaust rich.:thumbup:
It is isn’t it. Not me I’m afraid. The welder at one of my customers used to work in race prep welding stuff like this all the time. He is, an incredibly neat welder.
 
High quality work as usual Rich, the roof-rack corners are most impressive...

The zorst is coming along nicely, and as said, the welding is impeccable :thumbup:
 
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It’s almost as good as Ben’s welding.

I don’t think it’s me but the truck seems noticibly more eager to get going and smoother. The rough running at just above idle seems to be less. I hope I’m not imagining it.
 
I’ve had a winch ready to fit to the truck for at least 3 years now. I’d really like to fit it but haven’t yet had the chance. It’s not your usual all in line affair as it’s a Superwinch Husky 10 which is a worm drive winch. Nicely made and I like the simplicity with no brake necessary. Anyway, after watching far too many recovery videos over Christmas I decided to finally put a little plan into action to put an air operated freespool on it. I thought about a linkage of sorts onto the handle, then a rack and pinion. Then it dawned on me that I was coming at it from completely the wrong angle. Alas I didn’t take many pics but there’s very little to it. The freespool involves pulling out a splined shaft that engages with the drum. My mod therefore involved fitting the air ram on the Centre line, having a simple yoke made to hold the slotted end of the spline and simply pulling and pushing it back and forth leaving the existing handle untouched and available for manual operation.

The finished article has actually ended up very neat indeed.
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I only had to make a small cutout in the cover to make that fit and painted the cylinder black to hide it away a bit.
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I’m really rather pleased with the result.

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Must tidy my bench up. :whistle:
 
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That's looking very professional Rich, where did you source the air ram from and how come it 'fits' so well, is that all your doing?

Impressive... :thumbup: :clap:
 
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It’s a Festo compact air ram bought from RS but I’m sure there are other sources. It took a little searching but it turned out to be the perfect choice (for once). I had the case machined at my local engineering works to get it right and it only involved them making up the yoke, a spacer plate for the ram and drilling the cover. I fitted it to the case with bolts from inside, 2 of which are extra long and protrude into the housing to prevent the yoke rotating.
I’ll try and post up the drawing.
 
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Rich they are amazing winches possibly the best on the market but super slow. My mate has started fitting the bowmotor 2 or 3 to one and they then are really great.
 
Rich they are amazing winches possibly the best on the market but super slow. My mate has started fitting the bowmotor 2 or 3 to one and they then are really great.
Yes I looked into what was good and set my sights on this one, they are really solidly built and simple. I don’t mind slow, I’m not into competition :lol:. I’ve a plan to deal with the overrun too. I might even get to fit it one day, then I’ll have to uprate the front suspension to cope with the extra weight. :lol:
 
Yes I looked into what was good and set my sights on this one, they are really solidly built and simple. I don’t mind slow, I’m not into competition :lol:. I’ve a plan to deal with the overrun too. I might even get to fit it one day, then I’ll have to uprate the front suspension to cope with the extra weight. :lol:

It's 24 V...

Still, a little problem like that wouldn't cause Rich to miss a beat... :lol:

Looks the business :thumbup:
 
Good spot Clive even more reason to.change the motor.

You also know the feet are not the standard bolt pattern
 
Oh I'm one step ahead of you both there.

Yes, correct it WAS 24V but it was such a good price on eBay that a new motor and refurb kit took it to far less than a New one. I even sold the 24v motor on eBay and the spare brushes that came with it.

I never knew there was a standard bolt pattern so bargained on making a custom mount for it anyway which is probably why it’s on my shelf not on my cruiser. I’m procrastinating terribly on whether to have a winch bumper or a stealth winch mount behind the factory bumper. Call it resisting the slippery slope but failing miserably.
 
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Nice.
What cad program do you use? I really need to start using that to draw up some stuff
 
Oh I'm one step ahead of you both there.

Yes, correct it WAS 24V but it was such a good price on eBay that a new motor and refurb kit took it to far less than a New one. I even sold the 24v motor on eBay and the spare brushes that came with it.

I never knew there was a standard bolt pattern so bargained on making a custom mount for it anyway which is probably why it’s on my shelf not on my cruiser. I’m procrastinating terribly on a whether to have a winch bumper or a stealth winch mount behind the factory bumper. Call it resisting the slippery slope but failing miserably.

I wonder what made me think that perhaps you were Rich... :think: :lol:

The mounting shouldn't be too much of a problem to a drill wielding thinking man, IMO.

My standard Superwinch 9.0 gave me some headaches, fitting it to an ARB front bumper.

I had to raise the 'letterbox' and make some spacers to get the thing to line up inside the bumper to get clearance on the two extremes, but we got there in the end.
 
Nice.
What cad program do you use? I really need to start using that to draw up some stuff
It’s Sketchup and it’s free. If you want dimensionally accurate for CNC etc then you may find Fusion 360 better.

I like Sketchup as it’s very easy and intuitive and there’s loads of tutorials on Youtoob. :)

Look for the older one you can download rather than the cloud based one though.
 
I’ve been having a rather sticky handbrake for a while now so I revisited today and took the cranked arms off for a refurb. They didn’t get done last time as they seemed to be working ok. This winter saw the left hand one all but seize completely. So off came the wheels and rotors and brake shoes and they were soon off to the bench for a checkup. Alas, didn’t take any ‘before’ pics but after pressing out the hinge pin using the vice and some pieces of ally they were ready to be painted after a good wire brushing.
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Got dried off in the oven at 100c for an hour which saved the hammerite being tacky. Cleaned up the boots with some liquid soap and a kitchen scourer. In remarkable condition both of them after 25 years of being slung under a cruiser.
Popped them back together with some water proof grease and some white grease around where the rubber is held and the result looks ok.
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All fitted back up ok after following Chris’s tutorial on how to set up and adjust the handbrake and its now good as ever. :)
 
The winch looks like it might be getting a tiny bit closer to being fitted. There’s an offcut of 80x150x10 rolled steel angle going begging so I’ve been drawing up a way to use it to mount the winch.

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I’ve included holes for a standard fairlead, a full width opening and holes for a custom wide fairlead, should I get one made up.

Prior to this I took some measurements of the front frame of the 80 and placed them on the drawing in cross section to see if anything hits, … and thankfully nothing does. :dance:

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Chassis leg with angle in place…

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And with the winch in situ. There’s a whole 6mm behind at the tightest spot (the block to the top right is a body cross member which steps back) which might get used up as I’ve had to space the winch back 10mm to clear the back end of the motor. Otherwise, that’s where it sits.

This week could see a custom winch mount being made up and it could even be fitted soon… :shifty:
 
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Had a bit of an argument with a ‘fence’ yesterday. Pigging thing was pointing end on and I reversed into it, unable to notice and distinguish it from the rest of the fence.
Well, that’s my excuse anyway!

The result… not at all happy.
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All options open at the moment. Repair being the most likely option.

:crying-blue:
 
Had a bit of an argument with a ‘fence’ yesterday. Pigging thing was pointing end on and I reversed into it, unable to notice and distinguish it from the rest of the fence.
Well, that’s my excuse anyway!

The result… not at all happy.
View attachment 156246

All options open at the moment. Repair being the most likely option.

:crying-blue:

Oops, thats as sad as your lame excuses Rich :lol:... shame.

You’ll just have to pay my body-shop guys a visit, it’s the only solution :lol:
 
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