By Popular Demand...maybe.
Hello world of patrolers
So I'm JC, yet also respond to Oi, Bloke, Mate, Cobba, Fella and Guy and since working underground have also learnt to respond (in some way, shape or form) to just about every profanity known to man, in both English and Russian.
I am a mechanical engineer, yet have never worked specifically as an engineer, as there's about 60 million of us in Australia. Always been on tools, so that was a bit of a waste of three and a half years and a bucket load of borrowed coin, but apprenticeships were hard to come by back in them not to distant days.
Anyrate, flash forward a few years and now days I am kept busy with a 8,500 hectare cattle property in the Central Queensland area, bet you didn't see that one coming! Me either at the time, mostly good times though.
So as I can't really be assed having a thread in the members rides section yet i'll go into a bit of detail here, some of for your benifit, but mostly for mine as it get's stuff going around in my head, down somewhere, gives me a list I can work to so prepare for a probably long assed story. Anyway it's a GQ coil cab, has been mine for the past 2558 days and counting, love her dearly, say grace every time I fuel her up...haha almost.
The making of:
Have been through some stupid stages with her. Started out TD42, then came the +t and rebuilt pump, then came the 175mm lift (yes one hundred and seventy five mm dumb i know) and 35" tyres because apparently I use to think body roll was cool as. But wait, it gets worse! Not satisfied with that level of young'n'dumbness out came the td42 and in went a "built" (I use that term loosely; rods, rings, valve springs, nothing much else) TB45 with a bunch of other electrical wizardry and a large package that arrived from turbonetics in the USA.
Supprise supprise as wild as the pony-power was it didn't really last long until i wrapped it around a tree while wheeling very early one xmas eve, wheeling...haha i'm not sure many of them where touching the ground at the time, was pretty suicidal.
Anyrate, flash forward again to skip a few years of neglect of sitting in a shed and a year or so ago I decided it would be nice to see a bit more of Australia, starting with just trips around QLD and hopefully fixing bugs, and traveling/camping setup fault finding ect. This of course meant I had to undo a lot of the above paragraph's wrong doings, and that, in turn meant the TD42 went back in and a nice OME 2" lift with whatever the new LTR shocks are called (i've now forgotten, something sport?). A lot of hammering, welding, pulling stuff straight, a few new non-genuine guards and a nice big pile of money to QLD transport later she's back lurking on the roads. Happy Days!
So where we're at at the moment;
TD42, 265 Hankook Dynapro's on 16x8's (and love the tyres) 4.11 diffs, rear LSD front open still. Safari tuff clutch. Homemade LS1 airbox drawing air from cab, Highmount turbo, 75mm exhaust and one itty bitty muffler, Homemade aux fuel tank (total fuel capacity is at about 240L) 2 x fuel flow 020 fuel pumps, 1 x 6-port Pollak Valve (or selector valve if you will) single CAV fuel filter. Superior Engineering steering, draglink, 2 x panhard and adjustable lower control arms, Nissan upper arms. Homemade tray approx 1865w x 2000l & 900ish high headboard, material is 75x50 box section with timber floor. The floor of the tray is just a rectangle with the back two corners having a chamfer about 455 long or so. Have a 15NB SHD-40 tie down rail 40mm high up off the tray all the way around, LED strip interior light (freaking awesome and cheap). Narva + 30% H4 bulbs and headlight re-wired with replays and heaver wire.
Short-ish term to-do list:
Finish side steps/sill bump protectors sitting half done in the shed.
Finish Intake manifold sitting half done in the shed.
Fit Wagon tow bar
Mount FMIC that's been sitting in the shed for the last 6 months
Refit Air compressor and modified fire extinguisher air tanks
Trim front guards to refit 35's and adjust 80 series bumpstops to suit
Port exhaust manifold
Start & finish new front bar & bush bars (scrub rails, whatever they're called)
Mount 24V Runva slowmount 9500lb EVO winch in bar
Front Auto Locker (probably Detroit)
TD27 boost compensator onto pump
Ditch the Nissan seats for 2 nice bucketies, maybe Falcoon XR's or something
Make alloy drinking water tank to mount within the headboard of the tray (75mm deep) with a hopeful goal of about 60odd Liters.
Make 4 off 800 long x 625 wide x 300 deep draws to go on tray under the roof top tent mounting frame
Make 2 off Lockable fridge drop slides to go between the draws and headboard, that slide and drop out either side
Mount roof top tent mounting frame that positions RTT approx 300mm up off the tray floor (above draws but further back then fridge slides) should put the top of RTT (when packed) level with top of headboard and level with top of cab and yet not hang the end of the RTT over the end of the tray.
Single 250w solar pannel mounted on roof
Two Aux batteries mounted under tray
Mount Awning, or maybe one off either side.
Make lockable kitchen draw and separate tabletop that slides out from under the back of the tray (between the tray supports, above the fuel tank)
Make two rear swing away spare tyre hangers that will hopefully bolt off some kind of bracket off the end of a chassie somehow (still working on that one)
Long term ideas:
GU cab conversion...maybe.
GU front diff or 300M Front Axels & CV's from DJ's
Rear mount winch...somewhere in there.
I don't really have big plans, just lot's of little ones.
Anyrate, that's about all I can remember at the moment, I'm aiming to come back and edit this if I can think of anything much else.
Any questions ask away but I do get a bit casual about remembering to check threads so a reply may take a while.
Otherwise see yous around the pages.
JC
