'SWAMPY' MY 02 LWB 3.0 D4D GX Colorado

[Ben]

OH now I know which lane that is!

I've got quite a story about that lane but not really sure I can post it up on here publicly!

 

[stumog]

thats what pms are for ben (copy me in need a good laugh)
stu

 

[sae70]

OH now I know which lane that is!

I've got quite a story about that lane but not really sure I can post it up on here publicly!

Lol I will do a thread in the green lane section at some point if that helps

 

[sae70]

What lane is the story about? The 'V' gully one or the one with the car in?

 

[jbecks]

Thats what puts me of green lanes, is the angry farmers! it was bad enough the way the ramblers were giving me evil looks and shaking their heads in disgust as I slowly drove up a private lane to my parents house on Wednesday

 

[Ben]

The lane with the car in the stream.

This forum needs a private members section which only members with say 50 posts can see.

I've got an interesting project starting at work soon (for a world record attempt) that I'd love to post up the build but I cant have it being publicly viewable.

 

[Gary820]

We never made it up that lane last time (one with the car) lead vehicles' winch packed up and kept sliding sideways, had to winch it back slowly and keep the front end attached to the trees along the side. There was a lot if trees down and that was a good 3 years ago!! It was wet and covered in leaves so not much traction. We didn't turn round just reversed back out, looks a lot more washed out nowadays!

 

[sae70]

It's a legal drivable lane, but you'd need a good part of a day to drive it. A chain saw and all of ones recovery toys. When we did our lane moping up weekend in South Wales a couple of months back we hit 40 lanes and made notes on each. There is a very worrying trend down south toward the adjacent land owners obstructing access with all sorts including giant water troughs, round bails, fallen trees, fencing and even in some cases just plain and simple locking the gates with a padlock and chain!!! Some have even put up their own 'Road Closed' signs to deter the less knowledgable. I even had the Powys county council hang up on me when calling them to try to ascertain the status of particular lane! It's a worrying trend and if these slightly harder to drive lanes are not driven they will disappear into the distant memory's of just a few.

 

[Ben]

I don't think that lanes drivable apart from in the middle of a hot summer!

With the side slope and the slippery terrain its not possible to drive without slipping off into the fence/trees.

I had my 37's and both diff lockers in and still ended up having to use 2 snatch blocks to winch myself forwards and sideways away from the fence/trees.

I'm also sure there should/maybe once was a bridge where the car is in the stream. When we drove it it was a challenge just crossing the stream as it had all been dug out and was an almost vertical 5-6ft drop down into it and out of it.

I will write up my story when I get chance and send it via PM. After the trip where I rolled LJ, the trip to that lane was easily my second most eventful!

 

[Gary820]

I've got some pics somewhere and I'm sure it was much easier to cross then it looks now.
Supposed to be mainly south Wales in April but might have a plan b and c if lanes are getting obstructed more!

 

[sae70]

Time for an update me thinks

So the Saturday before the trip up to Wales I went to pick up Swampy's front axle from Jon following a complete rebuild with new bearings and seals.

Sunday I set about refitting the axle






Built myself a tent, just on the off chance that it may rain






Fitted the seals






And the mount



I bought myself a couple of meters of 8mm bore fuel hose to use as the new breather and glued this to the front axle breather spigot with some RTV












In this photo you can see the OE breather set up for a front axle and on the far right the one that was fitted to Swampy, but not connected hence all of the damage to the front axle!!!






I gave both the drive shafts a good clean in some Gunk






And sorted out some new retaining 'C' clips






Straightened the dust covers















Removed some nasty burrs









I took apart the slip joint on the front prop shaft to give it a clean and a re-grease, but found it to be in very good service with a blue/green grease so just put it back together






I then set about cleaning the front hub seals






Then fitted it all back together












This is the location of the top of the new breather pipe



I also slotted together the two holes where the retro fitted gearbox oil cooler pipes passed through, edged the slot and sleeved the pipes with some convoluted split flexible conduit






I was going to refit the Asfir under body plates, but it started to really really really rain so I called Giles and he let me shoot over to use his garage



If you remember when I removed the plates one was very much more banana shaped than it should have been so I'd reshaped it with a large sledge hammer. Well it turned out the the cross member that it was attached to had also been damaged where the spacers that you can see in the above photo had tried to push their way through. Giles removed the cross member for me and strengthend it with a couple of small plates welded on top.

 

[sae70]

Whilst she was all jacked up I removed the front bumper and set about finishing off the winch installation



I removed the headlight and indicator to give me better access to the area around the solenoid






I extended the power and control wiring on the winch remote control unit and the fitted it to the passenger side inner wing with some Velcro






I then ran the extended wiring along the existing loom picking up an earth connection en-route






I then started to have a play around at getting the winch cables up and connected to the solenoid









In the end I had to cut a lump out of the side of the headlamp aperture the same as I had done on Fiery






I then fitted a toggle switch that will allow me to isolate the Winch Remote control when the winch is not in use

Everything associated with the solenoid, toggle switch and the remote receiver is either covered in Vaseline or ignition sealer









I changed my mind about the red heat shrink that I'd put on the wiring and removed it

 

[AndyCook]

very neat wiring

not sure - but did you fit new hub seals? whilst everything was in bits ?

 

[Chris]

Totally tidy as always Steven. Love where you put the toggle switch. Genius.

So how'd it drive? Front locker working?

 

[sae70]

Thank you guys The toggle switch position was an inspired moment even for me I didn't replace the inner seals Andy as after cleaning them up and giving them a bit of lube they looked brand new. The previous owner had said that he'd had the front wheel bearings done in the year before I bought her and you would have had to have replace the seals to do them. Chris the front locker really is an awesome tool and I loved it You could really really tell the difference it's just such a shame that they cost so much to buy and fit! When I spoke to the chap that had originally built Swampy he told me that the front locker had cost the best part of £1400

 

[sae70]

I'm not all done yet! It's only about Tuesday up to now and I'm off to Wales at 10am on Friday!!! I have to say I became an Essex based version of Ben for a couple of days and just kept going on project after project till she was done and ready. I worked in the dark under flood light til 2 & 3 in the morning and in the wind and the rain mostly with wet pants and socks! It really was a horrific week of pain and sleep deprivation

So, I still had to get the ARB compressor re-installed and all of my voltmeters, USB power supply for the phone and navigation the CB the list didn't feel as though it was getting any smaller and I had not even considered camping gear, food and beer at this point!


I think that I've already posted some of these photos up, but just to re-cap. I relocated the ARB compressor switches from up on the center console to tucked more discretely under the steering column. They are big, bright in your face ugly things that just IMHO look awful so I'm alot happier they are now tucked out of sight





I also removed the compressor from where it had been fitted and considered relocating it else where, but after much pondering decided that it was not actually such a bad spot for it under the bonnet. I had to do something about all of the pressure switches, solenoids and wiring that seemed to be just hanging from off of the side of it though, with absolutely no thought the aesthetics! So I bought a whole pile of pneumatic fittings, pipes and adapters with a cunning plan in mind









I also replaced the Nito ARB quick connector with a PCL Vertex one that would fit my own tyre inflation set up and found an armored cable gland shroud that made a good dust cover for it






Back to a bit of wiring

I shortened all of the compressors control wiring as I was planning on mounting all of the pressure switches, solenoids and relay in a box mounted on top of the brake servo









Test fitting everything in the box









I mucked about for an age trying to get it looking good on top of the brake servo, but it just had to concede that it was not a good place for it






In the end I stuck it on top of the main fuse box lid with some Velcro pads






This is the 5mm Nylon pipe that feeds air into the front locker. I've covered it with some 6mm ID PVC pipe to give it a little extra protection






I also replaced the right angled pneumatic fittings with some straight ones to give a neater look












This is the connection to the front axle



Finished off all of the wiring under the dash






Popped it all back together and the jobs a good'un

You can also see in this photo that I've made a start on the volt meter and USB supply panel






While I had the trim off under the steering column I took the opportunity to re-route the charger lead to my iPhone and clip it to the holder



Popped a little lanyard on the dust cap



And had a play The ARB pump is no where close to the performance of my T-Max one, but it'll be fine

I'm happy to report that there are no leaks at all



It was then time to get on with the volt meter and USB panel. I made up a couple of fused leads to come away from each of the batteries. One is fused at 3 Amps as it will only feed voltage to the volt meter for that battery and the other fused at 20 Amps as it's not only going to provide the voltage to the volt meter for that battery, but give me a permanent supply for the USB outlet and the CB radio.



I drilled some holes in the back of the cubby pocket where I'm going to mount the panel so I could get all of the cabling in. The two relays are for switching the supply to the volt meters on and off with the engine and are switched by a feeb taken from the cigarette lighter that only comes on with the ignition. The in-line fuse is to protect the relay control circuit and the switch on the front panel is to allow me to turn off the feed to the USB socket if I should so wish to.



The larger wires in the next sequence of photos are the feed to the compressor motor and the smaller ones are the 20 Amp feed to the volt meter panel









In this photo you can see the Maxi fuse holder for the feed to the compressor motor (40 Amp)






These two photos show the connection of the 3 Amp feed to one of the volt meters






These photos show the installation of the volt meter panel

I brace myself for your comments

 

[Chris]

Don't want to put the cat amongst the pigwins Matey, but you know, it's better to mount solenoids vertically. OK these TGT units are very good, but the fact is that the springs and contacts all work best when assisted by gravity. If they are on their side there is the smallish potential for them to close and then your winch fires up. I have had this happen. OK my solenoid was underneath the chassis and sustained a direct hit, but the winch wound in until it nearly tore itself apart. I had no idea it was running til someone heard it. I was off road so the isolator was in. It's so neat there but just couldn't say nothing.

Hmm you mentioned the £1400 before. Half of that is the unit the rest is fitting. As I said, I didn't pay that because they screwed up the quote and honoured it. Cost me £70.

 

[Chris]

Love the panel! Like a bought one.

 

[sae70]

Don't want to put the cat amongst the pigwins Matey, but you know, it's better to mount solenoids vertically. OK these TGT units are very good, but the fact is that the springs and contacts all work best when assisted by gravity. If they are on their side there is the smallish potential for them to close and then your winch fires up. I have had this happen. OK my solenoid was underneath the chassis and sustained a direct hit, but the winch wound in until it nearly tore itself apart. I had no idea it was running til someone heard it. I was off road so the isolator was in. It's so neat there but just couldn't say nothing.

Hmm you mentioned the £1400 before. Half of that is the unit the rest is fitting. As I said, I didn't pay that because they screwed up the quote and honoured it. Cost me £70.

It's an odd thing is that what happened to you there Chris. It would make sense to mount them vertically so they work in line with gravity I guess. The way that both the Durite and TG Thompson solenoids are supplied leaves no option to mount them on their side when inside a winch motor mounted solenoid box unless one got involved in making a new mounting bracket the same happens when out of the box.

This is the Durite solenoid in the lower half of a winch mounted box


And this is the TG Thompson in the same box, both on their sides



I did take the TG Thompson solenoid completely apart before fitting it to Fiery and although it's a far tougher construction with much thicker and heavier bus-bars and better water proofing the contact surfaces are the same area and construction as the Durite ones!



















The new style RD90 ARB locker for the front axle on the Collie comes in at £880 and I believe that you then need to buy the compressor as an addition and then get it installed. I may be wrong about the compressor, but the chap that did Swampy's went for the higher output one at an additional cost.

 

[sae70]

Love the panel! Like a bought one.

Thank you It was surprisingly cheap to make. The volt meters are only about £7 each and the panel that they are fitted in is just a bit of old roof felt edge support that I had in the shed from making extended arches for my last Vitara