canter rims

[alan]

Fair enough,

The back i could live with, but the front something has to be done,as you suggest maybe longer leaves at the front.

[engineer]

You could possibly leave as little as 3 leaves in with the coil over-rider above.
Try something with a long travel like a defender coil, I think the ute rear end on the defender had dual coil if i'm not mistaken.
The main thing is to eliminate the shorter springs to decrease the rebound rate, and it did work well for us on an Arkana 6X4, made her very comfortable.

[alan]

I thought of leaving just 3 leafs, we have plenty of coils kicking around at work, mainly Nissan patrol coils, there is a huge range available for patrols, I am still trying to track down some 16" x 8" rims hopefully this week, cooper tyres have the load rating needed.

[whatcharterboat]

I am still trying to track down some 16" x 8" rims hopefully this week, cooper tyres have the load rating needed.
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Please keep us posted on that, eh. BTW Which Coopers are you looking at?

The back i could live with, but the front something has to be done,as you suggest maybe longer leaves at the front.

Yeah I know. The backs are the easiest to fit longer springs but. And you will probably have to something at the back anyway to raise the rear to meet the new height of the fronts. There is the cost of the springs to consider here too remember. If you are after improved articulation (and ride) offroad, look at longer rear springs. If you are just after an improved ride > yeah you can get away with only doing the fronts . We often do this at work and do a simple rear suspension lift to suit.

Seeing as how we were talking about SWB's being a good platform truck for a camper I included some pics of a short wheel base we did at the start of this year. It runs outback tours from Broken Hill. And just by chance this one has the long spring packs in the front and the standard springs with a lift in the rear.

Alan I wasn't sure > is your FG a SWB too?? Like I said I hardly ever see em.

[engineer]

How much for something like that but with 14 pax + driver and your high roof cab conversion on the front?

[alan]

Very nice truck!

The rims I can get made in alloy or steel 16" x 8" but it could take a while, the tyre size was 35" 10.5 x 16" my truck is a SWB, yes l agree with you the front longer leaves would be the go! and raise the rear to suit.

Please keep us posted on that, eh. BTW Which Coopers are you looking at?



Yeah I know. The backs are the easiest to fit longer springs but. And you will probably have to something at the back anyway to raise the rear to meet the new height of the fronts. There is the cost of the springs to consider here too remember. If you are after improved articulation (and ride) offroad, look at longer rear springs. If you are just after an improved ride > yeah you can get away with only doing the fronts . We often do this at work and do a simple rear suspension lift to suit.

Seeing as how we were talking about SWB's being a good platform truck for a camper I included some pics of a short wheel base we did at the start of this year. It runs outback tours from Broken Hill. And just by chance this one has the long spring packs in the front and the standard springs with a lift in the rear.

Alan I wasn't sure > is your FG a SWB too?? Like I said I hardly ever see em.

[whatcharterboat]

Very nice truck!

Alan thanks. This is the "tough looking one" I mentioned, but as you see it here, was how it looked when we finished it. I will still post the pics of it as it looks now. We have it back in the workshop for some more body mods. The owners have since fitted a winch, bullbar, cab roof rack, radios, compressor, spotlights and the biggest side mounted fuel tank I've seen on an FG. Also it has a full body computer generated "outback" mural instead of the normal sign writing which looks really good too.

The rims I can get made in alloy or steel 16" x 8" but it could take a while, the tyre size was 35" 10.5 x 16"

Awesome about the rims. I wasn't aware that Cooper did anything that had a suitable load rating. Maybe your state laws are different to ours. Double check with the authorities to be safe before you outlay the bucks, heh. You'd never get away with that on a standard wheelbase.

[whatcharterboat]

How much for something like that but with 14 pax + driver and your high roof cab conversion on the front

Engineer. Sales ain't my thing. Just give em a call. Also I don't want to end up with a full blown hijack either or it'll have to go in another thread again.

That one above was a 12 seater with the rear boot so a 15 seater with a rear boot would end up on a standard wheelbase chassis. We do mainly wide bodies now which means you can get 2 seats on either side of the aisle instead of 2 and 1. So they keep the length down.

But if you really want the narrower body you end up with something like this one below but with a boot. This has the wind deflector (WD) but not the roof cut out in the cab (only the back). So you can still see out that little window at the front of the cab (like on the white SWB). BTW As a tour operator ask about seasonal hire rather than buying your own truck out right.

This is one of my favorite trucks (about 7 or 8 years old now). I'd love a camper something like this.



Guys I could keep throwing these pics up forever. I've got 100's of 'em but please tell me to pull my head in if you're getting sick of it.

John

[whatcharterboat]

Hey Dave . How are ya going?

Speaking of spring modifications … now humour me here …

Can this FG platform can be made into a suitable long distance highway cruiser. Made comfortable enough so that a co-driver could “sleep” between shifts. Assuming of course, one could recline the seat more than a few centimetres. I’m thinking here of trips that require a solid days’ driving; say 800km or more each way. I have only “test drive” experience; not enough seat time to know.
Any comments appreciated …. sorry if this is too off topic, if that's possible !

Dave I drove a 2WD FG SWB for years regularly doing long runs. They are great on the highway but top out out about 110 k's. The taller wheels fitted when you do a SRW conversion make a huge difference to highway cruising and sure the springs, shocks and suspension seats all go towards creating a comfy long distance cruiser.

On the flipside. The seats don't recline as you say for sleeping and the new 2WD's are usually better setup for the road. Low CoG, anti-roll bars, traction control, auto transmission (our 4x4 Jap trucks are all manual boxes), disc brakes with ABS etc, However, maybe you want a dual purpose setup. Then sure, the simple answer is IMO "Yes an FG 4x4 can be made into a suitable long distance highway cruiser."

John,
I don’t know if the current NA FG is euro 4 spec. I stopped in at a dealer yesterday and asked a mechanic who didn’t know either. (“You’re a what?”.. )
For ’08 a DPF was added and there was a small (compensating ?) bump in engine output, but still not as high as the FE line with the “same” 4.9L 4M50 (115kw/470NM vs 138/530). I wonder if this is a driveline consideration … TC ?

Dave I'm not sure either. I still haven't seen our new model and have been too busy to check it out online. There is obviously a couple of demos running around at the dealers but I don't believe FUSO have the go ahead to sell any here yet. Probably not until early next year (Engineer > this is true isn't it??).

It's a shame cause Isuzu has really got the jump on Fuso Australia by releasing their totally new "Euro IV" model NPS 300 5.2L 4x4 a few months back. An awesome dual purpose machine. Isuzu truck sales in all categories (not just 4x4) have exploded here in the last few years.

We don't have a current NA FG either. All our FG's have been 3.9L turbos for the last couple of years but with the old style cab and the 5 stud wheels.

Dave. Good to talk again. Take care John.

[whatcharterboat]

Thanks Dave. Well done.