new to forum

[Amesz00]

Hi all,

New to this forum so i thought id better introduce meself.
Been looking at this forum for a little while now so i figured i'd better join up today.

i'm Andrew, and I live in Perth, West Australia.
im only 18 but my families been into these vehicles for many years now. my dad used to run a safari tour company for around 35 years, using everything from cruisers and land rovers to a pinzgauer 6x6,bedford 4x4, merc 911s, a custom carrier 6x6 and many canters.

of recent ive bought my own vehicle.
she's an 03 model crew-cab, the first of the EFI 3.9 TDI.
ill try to post some pics for yous to see...

[1leglance]

welcome and yeah we want pics :)

[able]

Hi Amesz00
Is that Amesz as in 'Amesz Designs' the verrrry cool offroad vehicle builders?

[whatcharterboat]

Hi Andrew, Good on ya for joining. Are you Hans's son then?

Regards John.

[haven]

Welcome Andrew!

"using everything from cruisers and land rovers to a pinzgauer 6x6,bedford 4x4, merc 911s, a custom carrier 6x6 and many canters."

So which vehicle worked out best for safari-style trips?

Chip Haven

[Amesz00]

yeah sorry the pics dont seem to have worked- ill try a little later when i have some time.
i bet none of you thought that 39" michelins would fit on a fuso with stock suspension! :D

Yeah im Hans's son, of Amesz Design. didnt really want to say anything at first, as im here on personal interest. but if anyone has questions regarding our campers or coaches then ill be happy to fill them in.

as far as which vehicles worked best for safari type tours- he always found that the simpler trucks worked best. ie the 911s, cruisers, and canters.

he once bought a pinz (for $17,000! but thats when a landcruiser was 4k...), and to this day thinks it was the most awesome offroad machine on wheels.
however the problems he had with it were all engine-related (the air-cooled motor kept buring valves).
however the only vehicle hes owned that is able to drive flat out in 5th across spinifex plains in the great sandy desert!

911LA is possibly some of the simplest trucks around, and he had hardly any trouble with them, same with canters.

the custom carrier, however was always breaking down, cracking axles, etc, etc.

[Amesz00]

hope these pics work....

[engineer]

G'day mate,
Welcome to the circus ha ha ha!!! Love the truck, spoke with your old man today, great bloke with "truck" loads of experience on both sides of the fence. I gotta lot of respect for Hans. I'd love to own a beast like that, i bet she turns heads where ever you go.
Chocko

[whatcharterboat]

Yeah im Hans's son, of Amesz Design. didnt really want to say anything at first, as im here on personal interest. but if anyone has questions regarding our campers or coaches then ill be happy to fill them in.


Andrew, awesome. You'll fit right in here. Plenty of good guys with no nonsense ideas and useful information.

BTW how many RF guys at work. ;) Caught up with Peter Cooper and Kevin Quirk earlier. I used to share a house with Frank (Digger) too. They all speak very highly of you guys and your grandpa.

[Amesz00]

Yeah cheers. like i say, shes an 03 model, we bought her at an auction in Feb, as a cab/chassis, used to be a CALM (conservation and land management- they look after natoinal parks, etc.) tipper.
21K for the truck, 102k on the clock, full service history. then 1k for sandblasting and repainting chassis and driveline.
blokes at work didnt have much to do at the time, so dad got one of em to weld up the tray. got a good deal on the painting, so the cab got done in green at the same time.
guy around the corner always does us a good deal with bullbars, so i just had some extra spotty mounts put in.

tyres are michelin 11.00R16 XL tread. initially i wanted the XMLs, but at $1285 each, they're a little over the top. these 1100s were imoprted from europe as military surplus (but brand new) for around 700 a tyre (still not cheap i guess...).

lets just say that i owe plenty on it, even with the 12 that i saved up.

John, i did not realise that you were in TRF. how long have you been spirit filled? ATM we have dad, Alister Strachen, Kevin Huynh (?) and me from RF.

not sure if youv heard or not, but unfortunetly my opa (grampa in dutch...) passed away in march this year from cancer. but its all good, hes asleep in the lord. :)

[whatcharterboat]

Yeah cheers. like i say, shes an 03 model, we bought her at an auction in Feb, as a cab/chassis, used to be a CALM (conservation and land management- they look after natoinal parks, etc.) tipper.
21K for the truck, 102k on the clock, full service history.

Andrew, that's a score alright. Well done.

BTW October '87 and there is only a couple of us at ATW too.
And yeah, heard about old John. Wayne Cooper told me when he was over earlier this year. Like you say , it's all good. Wayne's brother Pedro (peter) is a close friend of mine here. Hey, say gidday to Frank (Digger) for us too.


tyres are michelin 11.00R16 XL tread. initially i wanted the XMLs, but at $1285 each, they're a little over the top. these 1100s were imoprted from europe as military surplus (but brand new) for around 700 a tyre (still not cheap i guess...).

There was some surplus XML's going at the auctions in Brisbane a couple of months back but after looking at how they wear and the troubles we've seen with extra wide 16"rims to suit them, on the heavier trucks we didn't bother following it up. Your 11.00R16XL's will be much better in the long run >>> Especially if you have to do any running up and down the highway before you head offroad.

[Amesz00]

Yeah i was talking to Wayne yesterday at the meeting, said he couldnt quite remember you but must be pretty close mates with peter as most only know him as pedro.
ill try to remember to say gday to frank when i see him next, hes in the south meeting so i dont see most of them very often.

interesting what you have to say RE the XMLs, as i was going all-out to get those surplus ones, but the day before the auction, the army pulled everything they had out, some government audit....:mad:

When the 1100s came in off the ship, my first thoughts were how good theyd be offroad, but that they wouldnt last too long onroad.

i would have thought that the XMLs, being 2" wider, would wear better. they also appear to have closer block spacing than their predecesor. (the XL)

ive taken them out once so far, a 4wd trip to the powerlines- they went pretty awesome- simply walked up and over or through anything- in 1st or 2nd low- no momentum required!

depending on how these do wear, in future i may look for the XZL version instead, as we have one here and it is much less extreme than my XLs.

[haven]

Looks like green is a popular cab color amongst the Amesz clan

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z241/expeditioncampers/fuso-111.jpg

[Amesz00]

Ahahahaha yeah Haven thats about it!
Unfortunetly though my dad broke the chain with his MAN, which is dark blue (similar i think to charlie's unimog)...

gee that pic of the old shorty musta been floating around for a while, pretty sure that pic was in 2004, after that it got built up into (slightly) more of a motorhome- was an awesome beast, went absolutely everywhere!

Anyways just got back from a little photo shoot, the ones above are a couple of months old.
now has new rims and tyres (and works to make tyres fit...), and aux. fuel tank on left side (done quite well on the bugo with 2 90lt fuso tanks welded together! :sombrero:)

only thing externally now is the toolboxes at the back, just have to get around to painting and fitting them. after that its (well the plan is...LOL) mostly internal, suspension, turbo work, chip, etc, etc.

Andrew

[whatcharterboat]

Yeah i was talking to Wayne yesterday at the meeting, said he couldnt quite remember you but must be pretty close mates with peter as most only know him as pedro.


Yeah, he knows me. Tell him John from the Sunshine Coast Assembly. You wouldn't think those guys were brothers heh?

Thanks for posting the new pics too. It really looks the part. Wish I'd had something like that when I was 18. Wow!! Imagine taking that surfing up to Gnarloo or Red Bluff.

[Amesz00]

Righto, ill tell him this, ill see him either tonight (we go witnessing in the city), or tomorow night at the meeting.
no you wouldnt think they were brothers, ive only met pedro once (when he visited last year), but he seemed much different to wayne. both of them are definetly characters, though!

yeah it is really starting to look nice, if i may say so myself...
although i realise (with the help of my car-loving mates) that for the money i could have had a stupidly nice and scarily fast car, it wouldnt have helped me at all, as offroad and camping is where my heart lies...(well kinda..)

going for my MR (medium rigid) truck license on friday, havent been able to get it sooner as you need a car license for a year (which ill have on thursday...). ive driven it around a little, but not game to go too far- the cops here just had a massive blitz on unlicensed drivers....

but yeah, and i realise that if i was in any even slightly different circumstances then there is no way that i would be able to do what i did with this truck at my age- i try not to brag too much about it because i know what conclusions people will draw from it. but yes, i am definetly VERY blessed and i thank God for this every day.

And whats this i keep hearing, that there'll be an air locker available for the fuso at the end of this year?? thatd be cool... :drool:

[whatcharterboat]

And whats this i keep hearing, that there'll be an air locker available for the fuso at the end of this year?? thatd be cool...


Like I said >> Don't hold your breath!!

I've got a FG 84 LSD in bits on my work bench now. Keep thinking how hard could it be ....... Well it is .

[Amesz00]

righto then. how much of an upgrade is the 'nospin' rear diff? as you say, we've also found the factory LSD to be very tight. so youv got one on the bench? whats inside it? ie is it different to an LSD out of a criuser/patrol?
in the spec sheet it says "thornton type power-lock LSD". even google holds no conclusions as to what this might be.
because with a normal LSD if you lift a wheel, the LSD doesnt help.
when we went last month 4wding with a few mates, one was following me in his 80 series and said that even when one wheel was a foot off the ground, the LSD kept spinning both wheels as if it was locked.

[whatcharterboat]

righto then. how much of an upgrade is the 'nospin' rear diff? as you say, we've also found the factory LSD to be very tight. so youv got one on the bench? whats inside it? ie is it different to an LSD out of a criuser/patrol?
in the spec sheet it says "thornton type power-lock LSD". even google holds no conclusions as to what this might be.


Hey, lots of extra money too. I'll post some pics tomorrow of the standard LSD./ BTW the rumoured airlocker will be for the front I believe.

[Amesz00]

Hey, lots of extra money too. I'll post some pics tomorrow of the standard LSD./ BTW the rumoured airlocker will be for the front I believe.

yeah i figured it wouldnt be cheap. air locker for the front is what ive also read/heard. makes sense i guess because the LSD is so good.

i just took mine down this morning to get a wheel alignment/balancing. not sure if its because of this or/and because of the knobbly tyres but she was wandering and pulling all over the place. hopefully the pulling (to the right) will stop, as im pretty sure that comes from the camber on the front end (front left is negative, right is positive...)

other thing i noticed is the suspension (or lack therof...). the ride seems to be particularly rough. the big tyres probly dont help, as thier rated to 4500kg per axle. but something definetly needs to be done about this, preferably soon. although that coily setup would be awesome, its a bit outside my price range. the longer leaves i would defintetly like to do.
theres only about 1 inch between the bumpstops, so my thinking partially is that the springs are bottoming at the slightest bump. even just getting the original springs reset an inch or 2 higher with better shocks seems to make a fair difference (on our previous trucks).

[whatcharterboat]

air locker for the front is what ive also read/heard. makes sense i guess because the LSD is so good.

I'd have one on the rear too if I could. The rear LSD tends to tear up knobby tyres pretty quick compared to the front especially if the truck is a heavy camper. Surely an open diff for normal running with the ability to lock on demand would be a lot more forgiving on the drive train.


i just took mine down this morning to get a wheel alignment/balancing. not sure if its because of this or/and because of the knobbly tyres but she was wandering and pulling all over the place. hopefully the pulling (to the right) will stop, as im pretty sure that comes from the camber on the front end (front left is negative, right is positive...)

The camber should be setup for driving on the lefthand side of the road. This normally gets done at the dealer during the pre delivery, so I'm told anyway. We've got a really switched on mobile guy who comes down and laser aligns all our trucks after we do any suspension work. He specializes in the outback road trains so he's very good value.

Also I haven't driven on the 11.00R16's but I bet if the height of the sidewall is 110% of the width then they will move around on the road. The 100R16 's are bad enough.


other thing i noticed is the suspension (or lack therof...). the ride seems to be particularly rough. the big tyres probly dont help, as thier rated to 4500kg per axle. but something definetly needs to be done about this, preferably soon. although that coily setup would be awesome, its a bit outside my price range. the longer leaves i would defintetly like to do.
theres only about 1 inch between the bumpstops, so my thinking partially is that the springs are bottoming at the slightest bump. even just getting the original springs reset an inch or 2 higher with better shocks seems to make a fair difference (on our previous trucks).

Yep. The standard setup just plain sucks. I just drove a standard one back from Cairns on the weekend. 1600 klms door to door. Glad that's over. I will say that it had 175000 klms on the clock and does the Bloomfied track up to Cooktown 4 times a week. So it surprised me that the suspension had lasted this long.

Standard LSD diff pics tomorrow hopefully. I also heard today that the airlocker won't be here this year either.

[Amesz00]

hmm, yeah thats a good point about front VS rear. even taking off quickly around a corner on bitumen the inside spins.
admittedly with dad's MAN (front + rear lockers) you only use the front locker very seldom- ie if something is very soft/slippery/steep/undulating then you might flick both on. but for 98% of offroading the rear suffices. sometimes its even better to use the rear locker than 4wd (the old trucks have seperate buttons, the new TGMs only can go 4wd, then rear locker, front.)

having said this, for those times when you do need the front locker, you really need it.

as for the wheel alignment and camber, well i am just about to go pick it up, so ill be able to say whether or not its much better this arfternoon.
as for the pulling to the right, i believe it was far too much, even on a left cambered road it would still go slightly to the right. also the front left camber was bad enough that you could obviously see it from the front of the vehicle.

11.00R16 metric equiv would be (if it existed) 285/100R16. so it is a very big sidewall.

at the start i was contemplating going all out and attempting to fit 12.5R20 tyres (335/80R20). these are much bigger even than 1100s or XMLs at 41.5" tall and 13.5" wide. i now realise the major works required to fit this size of tyre, even the 1100s were alot of modification.

however if one could fit this size, the rewards would be a few. for starters, selection of tyres. youv got michelin with the XZL and XL, and continental with MPT 80 and 81, and even the AC70G if you were keen. the XZL and MPT81 in this size i believe would wear quite nicely, being so big, wide, and higher rated. of course there would be other things to consider, like the gearing. on mine with 39s it is probly just sightly too high- the 255s, or around 37", are about perfect. so 42s would obviously require regearing (at a large cost).

Just some of my thinkings on the seemingly endless world of tyres...

[whatcharterboat]

at the start i was contemplating going all out and attempting to fit 12.5R20 tyres (335/80R20). these are much bigger even than 1100s or XMLs at 41.5" tall and 13.5" wide. i now realise the major works required to fit this size of tyre, even the 1100s were alot of modification.

however if one could fit this size, the rewards would be a few. for starters, selection of tyres. youv got michelin with the XZL and XL, and continental with MPT 80 and 81, and even the AC70G if you were keen. the XZL and MPT81 in this size i believe would wear quite nicely, being so big, wide, and higher rated. of course there would be other things to consider, like the gearing. on mine with 39s it is probly just sightly too high- the 255s, or around 37", are about perfect. so 42s would obviously require regearing (at a large cost).

Just some of my thinkings on the seemingly endless world of tyres...

Having driven a couple we've done with 16"XML's I'd have to say that would be about as big / high in the tyres as you could go. Fullstop. Even if you could gear it low enough I don't think the driveline would like it.

[Amesz00]

hmm yeah i guess thatd probly be the stoppers on it. itd look pretty tough though...:smiley_drive:

got her back from the wheel alignment today.
very interesting. they said that it had a little too much negative camber on the front left, right was about correct. apparently (as you also said) they are suppose to have 0.5 degree negative left and positive right, to counter the left road camber. it also had some pretty major toe-in, which was also corrected.

but come test drive time, she was still pulling right. so they got the boss to have a go (he's been in this game for 25 years, real respectable bloke). when i came in he got me to come with him for a drive. it responds differently to different roads; ie one minute you'll be driving along a normal cambered road in the left lane, he'd let go of the wheel and it would instantly climb up the camber into the right lane!
then do a u turn, go back the opposite direction, and it would track perfectly straight!
on another road, it would pull slightly left! all these roads had similar normal cambers.
one thing that they put it down to was the big knobbly balloon tyres creating a deflection with the road surface. also they noticed that the rear suspension bushes are worn; you can get a crowbar between the spring and shackle and move the spring- this would contribute to the pulling under torque (oh yeah it also pulls different if its under power or not), as the drive tries to turn the axle effectively steering the truck from the rear.

so, she goes better (straighter) than before, but only a little. still pulls right a bit. got the front wheels balanced also so theres no more shaking.

[Scott Brady]

Nice truck and welcome!

[whatcharterboat]

itd look pretty tough though...

Andrew, couldn't resist posting this. Just saw it today. Hope the pic isn't too small. 80Series on XML's from BBMotorsport.

http://www.bbmmotorsports.com.au/thumbnailsmall/80action003.jpg

[Amesz00]

thanks scott!

yeah john ive seen (heard of) that 80 before, sure looks the part! then i havent seen anything on XMLs that didnt... definetly something different though.

well i went for my MR license this morning and passed! (likely due to much praying before hand...;) )
not by that much though...but who cares, pass is a pass!
so this afternoon im going to give my mate (josh embury, not sure if you know the embury's or not, john) a little surprise when i rock up at his house with the truck!

[bobDog]

welcome and yeah we want pics :)Yes .... drool ....pics....lots .....looking forward to it.:wings: Ok I read further and saw some pics. That can't be your truck! no one should have a truck that nice! i'm getting the shakes from envy!!
Show me more and I might go comatose.:costumed-smiley-007:coffeedrink:

[whatcharterboat]

Andrew, The pics of the LSD you asked about.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2652/4157877382_a1a2e1643d.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2692/4157883884_c5f0e31357.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4038/4157130457_426365995d.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2490/4157137079_e46b0719a1.jpg

[Amesz00]

Thanks for the compliments bobdog!

And cheers for the pics John. would i be right in saying that this looks to be qiute a substantial setup, if compared to say a patrol diff? any obvious reasons why they are so much tighter than most LSDs?

[whatcharterboat]

Hey Andrew,


ould i be right in saying that this looks to be qiute a substantial setup, if compared to say a patrol diff? any obvious reasons why they are so much tighter than most LSDs?

Anyone? NTSQD? I'm guessing there is a spring applying tension to the clutch pack that 's really tight. They even seem tighter on the NPS's . We've had the Isuzu's clicking loudly as you turn sharply on the bitumen and the dealer's answer has been to put a special oil additive in to free them up a little which I must say seems successful.

Haven't had time yet to have a close look at this one yet from an FG84. They are the same as the FG649 but the FG637 is definitely different. IIRC it's smaller. A friend has a couple of those on his bench and one 649 diff centre as well. Seem to remember there being quite a difference when I saw them all together. I never saw the optional NoSpin.

John.

[whatcharterboat]

I wonder of the front axle is simular to the montero?

Then the montero air locker could be adapted.

I heard that modifcation has possibly been done before? John?
Reply With Quote

Montero??? That's a Pajero right? Well anyway the FG front diff is supposed to be the same as the rear Pajero but the axles are different. Number of splines I think so it's not that simple. Never is , is it?

[Amesz00]

Montero??? That's a Pajero right? Well anyway the FG front diff is supposed to be the same as the rear Pajero but the axles are different. Number of splines I think so it's not that simple. Never is , is it?

hmm, could it be overly expensive to have custom axle shafts machined up? i mean, i know it would be expensive, but these guys are doing coil spring conversions on fusos... or would there be a strength difference between number of splines? and would a paj rear air locker be strong enough for the front of a fuso? i guess if mitsubishi uses it then it must be...

[Amesz00]

okay well after finally passing for my truck license i ended up driving it around all weekend. Initial thoughts of it still pulling excessivelly to the right may have been a bit unrealistic, as after said weekend driving it, including about 120km worth of freeway driving, i can now say that im quite happy with the way she drives. still wanders a little, but i think that can mostly be attributted to the aggresive tyres, and i understand that they will never track or drive as nicely as say a 285 with a mostly road-oriented tread.

the power output, however, will definetly have to be addressed. it cruises very nicely at around 100km/h, at 2600rpm. the max speed is now dictated by power, not rpm! Max's at 118km/h at 2850 (i think- it was about 98 on the speedo). so cruising is good, but acceleration is tiringly slow. ie to go from 100 to 118 took about 4km of foot flat down. admittedly there was a SLIGHT incline.
so, i am still waiting on my boost guage and controller, when they get here we will see what it puts out (boost pressure), then hopefully wind it up a bit. hopefully a side-affect of this will be actually being able to hear the turbo, as it sounds pretty raw with no muffler...
it will likely be next year when i do DPchip, also looking at dieselgas...

on suspension, i see there is a company that does parabolic leaf kits for leaf sprung cruisers (primarily the 60 and 75). i was wondering if there was a possibility of adapting these springs for a canter? obviously with an extra leaf or two, but they are a 'modular' kit...