Eurosonic's Montero 2.5Gen Build Thread

[eurosonic]

Ok, so once again gota love craigslist. Picked up nearly new set of Light Force 240 Blitz for a fair price. The guy who I bought it from was building a baja buggy in his garage and bought the lights new. Was gona use it on his bug but the lights ended up being way over proportional to his VW, he had they mounted on the sides and got hated on for having his bug having Mickey Mouse ears. They kit was pretty much new, he never wired them up. Came with relay and a switch, the wires and fuse I had to source out myself.







Wiring diagram was pretty straight forward



ARB bumper already had pre-drlilled holes on the sides that I assume were for additional lights. So went on to mount them there





IMO they tend to stick out too much so most likely with drill new holes and possibly try to fit them back further.







Switch



Ran the wires through the wire access boot which is located on the right (passenger) side of the firewall.

Mounted the relay on the metal coolant expansion tank bracket.




Also over the week got the manual locking hubs installed with my buddies help at his shop.






So far they work great. Will finally solve the fuel economy mystery for myself.

[eurosonic]

Will do some night driving tonight and see the results

[scrubber3]

Lucky..... New light force lights, new hubs, friends.......
Seriously though, good on ya. Post up the lighting results if you can. I've been looking at the potential for brighter lights on my rig. Those look like they were made for that bumper.

[eurosonic]

Yeah, i try to be patient with mods, unless its a deal. Always always on a look out for deal on craiglist, ebay, etc. This hobby can get expensive if you impulse buy everything. Dont see a reason to buy new when you can get used for the fraction of the price with the same results. Couldn't imagine blowing $400 for these lights new.


Im going to hit up some trails today, will post some pics of the lighting results

[LaOutbackTrail]

Yep, I feel ya brother, I only buy the deals too. I picked up my set of 4 darn near new Duratracs for $400 and the ARB roof rack for $150 and an ARB bumper for $125. Thinking of having some tubing bent up to build a Mantec style snorkel for the monty.

Yours is looking good. Keep it up!

[eurosonic]

Arb bumper for $125, roof rack for $150!!! Wowzers

[LaOutbackTrail]

Granted the bumper was for an XJ and was used on a rock crawler.... has some decent trail rash... and I'll have to make my own frame mounts. But thats OK.

[nwoods]

Really enjoying this build thread, and the associated links and commentary. I have a few naive questions, hope you don't mind:

1. Did you ever disconnect the sway bars? If so, was there a notable increase in articulation?

2. Besides the BL, did you do anything to the suspension to lift it or increase articulation yet? If not, Do you have anything planned?

3. Why did you install the locking hubs? Does that engage the axle to the front diff? Isn't the front diff open anyway? I don't understand what locking hubs do.

4. What are you doing for a rear bumper? Last photos I saw it was off and not yet replaced/modified.

5. What mpg are you getting on the 33's?

6. When you search online (Craigslist), are you searching using any kind of meta search tool? Or are all these amazing finds of yours local?

Thanks for your responses and great work in this thread!

[vgreen]

I'll go ahead and answer the question about locking hubs.

The Montero have solid front hubs (can't remember the term for these), basically a flange bolted to the hub with a splined hole in the center that the front axle goes through. The front axles splines engage the flange, powering the front wheels. The problem is that you can't disconnect it. That means the entire front drive assembly is ALWAYS turning, even in 2wd. The CVs, the diff, everything. That causes a lot of extra drag on the vehicle. The upside is your never have to get out of your vehicle to engage 4wd, and they are reliable. It is literally just a solid piece of steel, bolted to the hub.

A manual locking hub is useful because you can UNLOCK it. When locked, it acts just like the factory drive flange, but when unlocked, it allows the front wheels to freewheel, and the axles, cv's, diff, etc, to remain still.

If the truck doesn't have to move all the extra parts, it should get better gas mileage. I've heard somewhere between 1-3mpg difference. It also means less wear on the cv's and diff, especially helpful on a lifted truck, since that cause more stress on the cv's. The downside of the locking hubs is that you have to get out and lock them before you can use 4wd. Also, they occasionally fail. My friend had a superwinch hub explode on his trooper, but he was being stupid, trying 4 rated trail in a nearly stock trooper. 33" front tire spinning in the air llike crazy and suddenly getting traction is tough on things. He broke more than just the hub.

Im not sure if that was helpful or not. Hopefully it wasn't too confusing. If it wasn't 3am, I'd go take photos of my hubs to show the difference.

[nwoods]

I'll go ahead and answer the question about locking hubs... Im not sure if that was helpful or not. Hopefully it wasn't too confusing. If it wasn't 3am, I'd go take photos of my hubs to show the difference.

Very helpful! I thought that was the explanation, but wasn't sure. Nice description. Thanks!