Diving in Head First!

[yabanja]

Hello All!

My name is Allan, I reside in Salt Lake City, Utah and I have just purchase a 2000 FG4x4 with the intent of building a DIY global expedition vehicle. We have named it FIDO. Here is a pic:



I intend to build a sprung platform as documented on the canter4x4 site and build a hard sided pop up similar to the build here:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/tow-rigs-trailers/1064414-off-road-hard-sided-popup-trailer.html

I will probably start by getting the vehicle bumpers, fuel system, exhaust, suspension, and single wheel conversion sorted out, and do some vehicle trials locally prior to commencing with the camper build. Will try to post updates as I have them. Hope to have the project completed in the next two years(have to work for a living after all!)

Take care!

 

[yabanja]

As you can see, it has amazing hill descent abilities! Not sure how that happened!

 

[whatcharterboat]

As you can see, it has amazing hill descent abilities! Not sure how that happened!

Hahahaha....just sprayed coffee on my iPad.

 

[KK6POV]

must have good tires and brakes...

 

[graynomad]

Yeah I put that slope at about 95 degrees, Canters are good but I wouldn't have the guts to go over 40 I reckon.

must have good tires and brakes...

He may be on the winch

 

[Overland Hadley]

Congrats on FIDO!

Keep us posted on the progress.

 

[yabanja]

I just took the vehicle to the scales and found it weighed 8900 lbs empty (including current flat bed, lift gate, a full tank of fuel, and me!) Looking forward to making headway on the removal of some weight in preparation for the camper conversion!

The car has 49k light use miles (I don't know that it was driven off road more than once!). The front shocks are crap! The car throws me from my seat and my head bounces off the ceiling when I hit bumps I can't even see in the road! To correct this I have ordered a pair of Bilstein 5100 shocks for the front as my first modification.
Part Number 24-185523. Looking forward to seeing if they transform the ride as much as I expect. I am holding off on the rears as I have not found a viable solution yet.

I want to do a single wheel conversion and am resigned to having custom wheels built. I don't want the rough ride associated with the 19.5 rims as I will be spending a lot of time in rough terrain. However, they have just increased the speed limits in Utah on the freeway to 80 MPH! It is a real safety issue to be able to travel at least 70 mph here so you don't get run down and the military spec tires are not adequate. My vehicle is a 2000 short wheel base FG 4x4 (I measure 110"). It has a rear axle rating of 8600 pounds. The only tire I have found with a high enough rating that is not a 19.5" is the Toyo Open Country M/T http://toyotires.com/tire/pattern/op...traction-tires in a 37x13.5R17LT. These tires have a 131Q rating which meets my load requirements for single wheel. So the questions are: does anyone have experience with this tire? How about with anything this wide?

 

[SkiFreak]

The car has 49k light use miles

The first thing you will need to do is to stop calling your truck a car...

 

[graynomad]

The Germans do that, my truck is 14 tonnes but they always call it a car. I've asked a couple of them why but I don't seem to be able to get an answer. Surely they have a word for a large vehicle/truck/lorry (damnbiggenkaren?).

 

[driveabout]

You might want to look at the thread I started. (Building a overland camper on a Fuso FG). I just went through a number of issues that you are facing.

I am not an engineer, and do not have the technical skills, so I had to resort to ready made solutions.

As to the SRW: I got a set of 17 " wheels from Kym Bolton in Australia. Had Falcon peak all terrain tires mounted. They perform well. Drove it about a 1000 miles the other day. I was able to clock a top speed of 79 miles per hour. (It was slightly downhill). 70 miles per hr is easy.

I had the camper built by Four-wheel campers. IT is a pop up. It has a total length of about 17 feet. Quite spacious. It has also a pass through from the camper to the cab.
ALuminess near San Diego Did the bumpers and the spare wheel rack.


driveabout

I just took the vehicle to the scales and found it weighed 8900 lbs empty (including current flat bed, lift gate, a full tank of fuel, and me!) Looking forward to making headway on the removal of some weight in preparation for the camper conversion!

The car has 49k light use miles (I don't know that it was driven off road more than once!). The front shocks are crap! The car throws me from my seat and my head bounces off the ceiling when I hit bumps I can't even see in the road! To correct this I have ordered a pair of Bilstein 5100 shocks for the front as my first modification.
Part Number 24-185523. Looking forward to seeing if they transform the ride as much as I expect. I am holding off on the rears as I have not found a viable solution yet.

I want to do a single wheel conversion and am resigned to having custom wheels built. I don't want the rough ride associated with the 19.5 rims as I will be spending a lot of time in rough terrain. However, they have just increased the speed limits in Utah on the freeway to 80 MPH! It is a real safety issue to be able to travel at least 70 mph here so you don't get run down and the military spec tires are not adequate. My vehicle is a 2000 short wheel base FG 4x4 (I measure 110"). It has a rear axle rating of 8600 pounds. The only tire I have found with a high enough rating that is not a 19.5" is the Toyo Open Country M/T http://toyotires.com/tire/pattern/op...traction-tires in a 37x13.5R17LT. These tires have a 131Q rating which meets my load requirements for single wheel. So the questions are: does anyone have experience with this tire? How about with anything this wide?

 

[kerry]

You need to put Aeon rubbers on it (at a minimum) to solve the bounce problem. There's not enough travel in the front suspension with the stock bumps stops in place. Search on Aeon in this forum and you'll find a long thread about them. New shocks and Aeons made my 99 FG tolerable if not pleasant. I used OE shocks. There are other (far more expensive) solutions to the problem also. You also need to make sure your tires aren't overinflated. When I bought my FG the dealer had put 80psi all the way around. Bad idea when it comes to bounce.

 

[yabanja]

You need to put Aeon rubbers on it (at a minimum) to solve the bounce problem. There's not enough travel in the front suspension with the stock bumps stops in place. Search on Aeon in this forum and you'll find a long thread about them. New shocks and Aeons made my 99 FG tolerable if not pleasant. I used OE shocks. There are other (far more expensive) solutions to the problem also. You also need to make sure your tires aren't overinflated. When I bought my FG the dealer had put 80psi all the way around. Bad idea when it comes to bounce.

Excellent, I will check them out. Thank you for the tip.

I called my insurance agent yesterday and told her I bought a new vehicle and that I intended to use it for an RV. She had to go to a higher authority and call me back. Was waiting for bad news when she called at the very end of the day to tell me we were all set for private use liability insurance $32 a month!! Whoopee! It helps to have a bunch of vehicles insured with them. Now on to the DMV to see if I can convince them that it is for private use only.

 

[yabanja]

We did a baseline articulation test on the truck. A surprising 19" with almost no frame deflection(The flat bed is solid mounted)
View attachment 188078

 

[driveabout]

Best of luck with the DMV. In California I had to register it as a commercial vehicle until the camper was actually placed on top of the bed. In addition they wanted to make sure it was welded to the bed and permanently fixed and could not be removed.

Excellent, I will check them out. Thank you for the tip.

I called my insurance agent yesterday and told her I bought a new vehicle and that I intended to use it for an RV. She had to go to a higher authority and call me back. Was waiting for bad news when she called at the very end of the day to tell me we were all set for private use liability insurance $32 a month!! Whoopee! It helps to have a bunch of vehicles insured with them. Now on to the DMV to see if I can convince them that it is for private use only.

 

[SkiFreak]

We did a baseline articulation test on the truck. A surprising 19" with almost no frame deflection(The flat bed is solid mounted)

There is probably something that I should point out here...
The lack of flex in the frame is very likely due to the fact that the tray on the back, along with its sides helping, will be very rigid. With a solid mounting of the tray to the chassis, where the chassis can flex is severely limited.
Where the flex will occur is just in front of the closest fixation point to the cab. Not allowing the chassis to flex along its length means that the flex that does occur is very heavily focused in that front section.

I am guessing that you are not seeing much flexing because your chassis currently does not have much of an area that will flex. If you want to see the difference, take the tray off then do the same test again.
I have said this quite a few time before, but I believe that unrestrained flexing of the chassis is as bad, if not worse, than not letting it flex at all (by fitting a solidly mounted tray/subframe).
Using some form of spring mount system between the chassis and subframe allows some of the stresses associated with flexing to be distributed along a greater length of the chassis. In my opinion, that is a better solution as it reduces focused stress areas.

I should add, I am a fitter by trade, not an engineer, but this is how I understand the flexing of a Fuso chassis.