Converting to an ex Telstra POD

[jono82]

Hi all,

as some of you may have noticed I put a post up the other day looking for a solution to protruding tyres on a newly installed Obieco ex-Telstra body and there were some great ideas and feedback given which made me want to go back to the beginning to share some photos for anyone looking to do the same. My 12/2006 TD42Ti ST ute started with a steel tray/timber floor/ally canopy with timber draws etc. that all combined brought the total weight of the ute to a not insignificant 3.9T, and this is on a coil sprung ute (can anyone see the problem here?). So the desicion was made to change to the Obieco unit given their light weight and great blank canvas (plus my father has had 5 of them while working for telstra). More pics of other things I have completed on this vehicle, the build up frome here and my other GQ TD42Ti will be shown in other threads, this is purely for the canopy.

Here is where it all began
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The removal of the old tray (once stripped out) was increadibly easy, just a block and tackle to hold the front off the chassis and 3 blokes at the rear to lift as I drove out from underneath
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(Limit of post)

[jono82]

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Putting the new one on presented all sorts of issues with the coil cab having a narrower chassis with shorter tray brackets which meant the tray fouled on the hard lines etc. so steel blocks were made up to lift the tray 50mm and attach to the chassis
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Since the new tray is a lot lower than the old one I couldn't put my 85ltr poly tank back under the tray so I used the empty space to install my air tanks
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Then for the final product (18 hrs in total for the change over)
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[threedogs]

Very nice ..did you think about lifting the whole lot up 50mm,
from memory there is a stack of room to be used under neath.
There is an off the shelf drawer system that sits between the
chassis rails at the back and long enough to hold a hi-lift Jack.
Gotta love a full size ute, Im turning mine into a dual cab when
funds allow

[jono82]

Hi threedogs, I was actually forced to lift it 50mm above the standard mounts just to clear the hard lines (brake) and give enough room for the toolbox to clear the side steps. I would love to know more about the underbody draw that you mentioned, there is a huge amount of space crying out for me to fit something in! Dual cab would be handy as there's not much in the way of in cab storage, allthough after loosing so much weight and loving the way it goes now (has 160whp) I'm reluctant to start adding weight again.

[NissanGQ4.2]

I'm reluctant to start adding weight again.

Depends on what you want 2 carry in the under-body draw as 2 the weight it will be our normal under-body draws have a bit of weight 2 them but we just done one for our electrician who wont be putting heavy things in the draw so made the draw out of lighter gauge material and is heaps lighter then our standard draws

[threedogs]

Other than an air tank and some water, like you said there is a heap of room
I'll send a few emails around and see what I come up with.