Jeff's Patrol

Well we recently changed over from an old toyota surf (diesel powered 4 runner) to a 2002 GU III Patrol.

Our Patrol is powered by a 185kw 420nm 4.8L Straight 6 Petrol (gasoline) powered engine that has been converted to run on LPG (basically BBQ gas). It has a 5 apeed semi automatic gear box. We have removed the main 95L unleaded tank and replaced it with a 115L LPG gas tank that can hold 95L (can only be filled to 80% capacity). The engine can still run on unleaded fuel at the push of a button off the factory 35L sub tank, this way we can still carry Jerry's for extended or remote trips. :smiley_drive: :camping:

This is how she looked when we picked her up. She had 123,000kms on the clock, a Steel ARB winch bar (no winch), a safari snorkel and a reece hitch 3500kg rated tow bar.
Because it's the ST model it came with all the nice comfort hoozie watchits like cloth seats, electric windows, leather steering wheel etc etc etc.

The gas conversion was done locally and was a neat job considering the lack of space in the engine bay, especially after I fitted my custom dual battery setup.

Here is the gas tank looking from the rear:


This is the tank and re-routed exahust (rear resonator removed).


This is the flash lube setup to stop the valves overheating from running gas.


The gas mixer is tucked in neatly under the air intake.



The computer that runs the gas mixer is located above the glovebox behind the dash.

I bought the dual battery tray from Supercheap Autos for $19. It's plastic coated steel. I then made up some brackets from ally flatbar so that they don't rust. I've fitted a Supercharge 100amphour hybrid as my aux battery and have an AC Delco 80amphour as my starter.

I have 4g cable running between them isolated by two 100amp circut breaks and use a Redarc automatic solinoid to switch the batterys on and off.




Redarc mounted to the firewall and the battery tray in place with no battery fitted yet.


100amp Circut breaker before 4g goes through the firewall.


Battery in place. Only JUST clears the bonnet arms!

The 4g Cable then goes through the firewall to just under the glove box where I have a 6way marine fuse box fitted for all the accessories up front.



The 4g then doubles off the positive terminal on this fuse box and runs down the car to the rear where there is a second fuse box for all the gear up back.



The front fuse box runs the the remote head UHF Radio for car to car comms.


The Garmin UHF and Nokie Bluetooth car kit and LG NextG Mobil phone kit.

Just above the Phone kit I also have an overide switch that switch accessories to run off the aux battery even if the keys our not in the ignition so that you can listen to music or use the two way when at camp without requiring keys for the car.



I also have a switch fitted to overide the automatic battery cutout if I choose.



It also feeds two cigarette lighter plugs that I fitted to the rear for the kids DVD players.




And a volt meter that I fitted to the dash so I can see whats going on with the aux battery at all times.



I also have an overide switch that switch accessories to run off the aux battery even if the keys our not in the ignition so that you can listen to music or use the two way when at camp without requiring keys for the car.

In the back I have a black widow Half height cargo barrier that we made custom bracket for. This has a 100L water tank fitted behind it with a guage that I fitted from a caravan shop to let us know how our water is going when out bush. :REOutCampFire03:



We also have a 480w Pure sine wave inverter mounted to the cargo barrier.



We made a customer storage unit out of 12mm Plywood to house our 60L Waeco fridge and give us some good storage options for our camping gear. We have not had a chance to carpet it yet but it will come in time!

240v comes out in the rear storage from a front bullbar mounted 240v input. This way if we are at a caravan park, camped up with a Genset or the car is sat at home for long periods the fridge can be plugged in with normal household power and the Waeco automatically switches from 240v to 12v when both leads are plugged in.

The water tank is plumbed through a 12v self priming pressure activated pump which gives us pressured water on demand.

Up front we have fitted a Helton hot shower heat exchanger so that we can have hot showers while out bush.




It is all located under the bullbar for protection but is still easily accessable.

We also fitted an endless air air compressor for unflating our tyres. This unit is a belt driven modified airconditioning compressor that will pump out 8CFM and 100psi @ 2000rpms. It is F A S T!

Here is the air outlets with the covers on them.


Covers off and hose in.


Looking down through the engine bay.


Check out this bracket!



Tapped into the engine's air box so the endless breathes through the snorkel.


Tapped into wiper motor feed because it was the easiest place to access ignition 'on' power.


Put a switch on the console. (hmmm, room for two locker switches...)

On the outside we've fitted a full length powder coated alliminium Tracklander roofrack.

We have an opensky awning fitted to one side and shovel holder on the other side with a permantly mounted long handled shovel.




We installed 50mm (2") rock crawler coil spacers all around for a mild lift and put 285/75R16 Micky Thompson MTZ tyres on her. We also installed 4 Bluemax foam cell shocks and a Toughdog RTC steering stabaliser and rear quick disconnect sway bar releases.

Now becuase of the endless air and hot water shower I fitted a hand throttle to it using a choke cable from Recpo auto parts and some steel cable and electrical crimps.

The GU 4.2L diesel must still use a hand throttle as I had a nice blank spot for it to go. Just had to use a big washer to make the hole smaller for my little choke doova and it looks rather neat.

The hand throttle works but you have to use the accelerator to set it as it doesn't have quite enough leverage to pull the highly sprung throttle body by itself. So you rev it and pull the hand throttle out and then adjust it from there.

Serves the purpose, the showers hot!



Under the bonnet I cut the cable to length, then used a bit of steel cable that is almost exactly the same as the throttle cable looped around and crimped with two yellow electrical connector. It's hooked around the throttle adjustor and siliconed in place so that when you rev the car normally it doesn't unhook itself. The steel cable allows enough flex so that when you are normally driving the cable can bend out of the way (kinda like an aftermarket cruise control).

So I think that's all we've done so far, only had it 3 months! Still lots to do! :yikes:

So here she is out and about anyway!









(Some of these last photos were taken by a friend of mine, you can view his other photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrbishi/ )

All of that in 3 months? WOW. You've done a lot of work.

She's a beaut.

That is a really sweet rig. I wish we could get them in the U.S.

Very nice. I love the Oz pics.

articulate said:

All of that in 3 months? WOW. You've done a lot of work.

She's a beaut.

Click to expand...

A lot of late nights! :ylsmoke: :beer: A lot of help from mates. I had a trip I really wanted to go on with some mates and the change of vehicle was a last minute decision so it was all pretty rush, rush!

I'm still waiting for my coil rite firestone airbags to be delivered and I've still got to carpet the rear storage... I also am going to run some hose from the rear (off the water pump/water tank) to the shower' heat exchanger so that we don't need to have a bucket for hot showers, but can still use a bucket if we want to use river water or other people want to use it with their own water.

Once the wife recovers from the money I've burnt on it so far (prob be a while) the patrol will ultimatley have:

Air tank
Twin ARB air lockers
Winch
Long travel tough dog shocks
Front sway bar disconnect
Possibly 4" lift with 35" Tyres
Either upgraded radius drop arms or caster correction bushes
Some lightforce 240 Blitz spotlights for the bullbar
HF Radio or Sat phone
Possibly upgraded sub tank to 65L (Depending on how much remote work we do).
I still have to permantly mount my computer for navigation and upgrade the factory stereo to something Mp3 compatable
And I need a reverse camera hooked up to whatever screen system I use for my laptop nav setup/radio or whatever. At the moment possibly a lilput 7" or 8" but I'm not sure just yet.

At the moment navigation is done via my Toshiba Tablet PC on my wife's lap via a USB cable that sits under the floor mat on the passenger side from the Garmin. This is a bit awkward though, especially because we are used to having it permantly mounted in the old rig.

Great looking rig. Looks extremely well setup. Good onya.

Niiiiccceeee