What did you do to your Patrol today!

[threedogs]

Nothing showing on that link buddy , is that a brake line up against the exhaust?
Need to test on a corrigated road see if it hits the chassis

[BigRAWesty]

I just got home from the exhaust place, via a 30km 'detour'. Good news & not so good news. The not so good news is that the Genie pipe didn't fit as well as it should have, the first section of pipe after the dump pipe was, as fabricated, going to sit hard against the chassis rail. Not good & the last place I wanted it because that is where I have the extended coolant hose running. I didn't know about this until I went to pick it up & was told that they had needed to cut the pipe & rotate the lower part of it a little before re-welding it to make it fit. (see pic). Of course this was the section of pipe I had had ceramic coated. They sprayed silver over the weld & it doesn't look as though the ceramic coating has been damaged where it's needed. As it is I think they did the right thing & appear to have made a reasonably neat job of it. What else could they have done - they'd already cut the old pipe off. Suggestions were made about the possibility of the pipe having 'slipped' in the jig during manufacture. Not sure how my warranty from Genie now stands. I'd like to think that giving the dump pipe studs & nuts several soakings of CRC yesterday helped - no broken studs. All up installation cost was $294. My first impressions driving it are, unsurprisingly, like TPC's. No huge 'kick in the pants', but noticeably more power & more free revving. It is indeed like having another gear. The most noticeable 'symptoms' of improvement to me are the reduction in low rev 'transmission growl' when pulling away, simply because the revs build more quickly, and also the ability to hold top gear far more easily. At 100kph it is doing 2300rpm, which I think is about 200rpm or 300rpm less than before. Because of the weight of my Patrol I have generally tended to change down to 4th on many hills. My 'test hill' near home I took a few days ago, needing to change down to 4th to keep revs above 2000rpm. Today on the same hill I remained in 5th comfortably, backing off a bit when I found I was doing 110kph & accelerating. So, no more exhaust fumes in the cab from the old (original) flex joint, & a nicer car to drive. I'm pleased that it sounds no louder than the original set up although slightly disappointed that it actually doesn't sound any different. Now to cut the turbo heat shield to clear the pyro sensor & to fit the gauges. On that note last night I bought these on ebay. Anyone used them? I hadn't seen them before.

What a pain. All that extra money and it doesn't fit.
That weld though looks crap to mate. Huge weak spot as it's not filled correctly, not even completely welded...
That could be the ceramic coat to making it a pita to weld. But still they should have ground a bit more of and it Should be a nice full join.
If it was me mate I'd get a letter from the installers while its fresh as to what they did and why and take it to genie. Genie should replace it and get it coated for you. It is their product which failed after you forked out extra to. Anyway. Seems the upgrade is a worthy one.

[threedogs]

If thats a weld you circled I'd be taking it back .I agree with Kallen
why wouldnt it fit its,, for your model isnt it??

[Cuppa]

The link is fixed.

I know I’m not a welder like you two, & although I think Kallen is probably correct that the ceramic coating made things more difficult than they might otherwise have been, I’ve had a closer look & I think that the weld is probably better than it looks in the photo. That one small spot which looks like a hole has weld fill behind it. It’s more like a bit of ‘overlap’. I may be wrong, but my judgement here ‘on the ground’ is that the weld is likely ‘good enough’..... hopefully. That said, I agree that the pipe should have fitted properly, & by properly I mean not running along the chassis. I will contact Genie to see what their response is. TD I double-checked re that line up against the pipe. It’s a classic case of a photo not telling the truth - it’s fine, nowhere near the pipe.

[4bye4]

On that note last night I bought these on ebay. Anyone used them? I hadn’t seen them before.

Yes used one to feed my UHF and also another one to feed TomTom. Had them in for over 6mths and they seem to work fine.

Got mine from Jaycar.

[Agronaught]

Finally got the snits with the dodgy electrical setup in the patrol. I had to empty the back so the LPG tank could be removed, so took the opportunity to right a few wrongs.

I've replaced all the radio coax with LMR200 which removed a little engine noise from the hf reception.

Intstalled a ctek ds250 in place of the jaycar charger.

Mounted everything (radios, inverter, charger) to a removable board that locks in next to the drawers/fridge.

Added a small solar panel to test the setup.

Its nice that for the first time since installing a battery in the rear to see the voltage increase over a couple of days. The old charger would discharge the battery when powered off, it was a bad design where I had to add a relay to take the charger out of circuit when not in use.

I really like the ctek. I bought this unit in preference to the Redarc on recommendation from the forum. Good call gents, the ctek is precisely what I wanted. I especially like the way it will charge the main battery from solar when the auxiliary is fully charged

Next step will be a larger solar panel from eBay.

J

[Majestic]

Went shopping on Ebay for the GQ and bought a 2 inch lift kit with heavy duty springs, a bush replacement kit, a rear diff and hub rebuild kit. Now just waiting to see if the brother and law can find a cheaper price for new front and rear wheel bearings as Ebay seems a little pricey.

[Agronaught]

Replaced the rear battery with a 55AH optima, which will take the rear battery supply up to 160AH depending on the configuration as I put the 105AH in and out as needed. The optima is a permanent install.

I need to make/buy a desulphator to see if I can rejuvinate the older batteries at all. Hopefully the new ctek charger and solar panel will take better care of the batteries when I'm not using the car.

[growler2058]

Got given superior engineering swaybar disconnects

[BigRAWesty]

Got given superior engineering swaybar disconnects

Nice one. So one front and one rear I'm guessing??