SRW - Single Rear Wheel, Fg style

engineer

Adventurer
G'day from OZ fellas, I'm just new here and found you all through Yahoo. I manage a fleet of off road buses in Cairns but grew up on Fraser Island, I've been playing with Mitsubishi 4x4 trucks for about 15 years.
Bloody Transfer cases howling, studs breaking with singles on the rear, latest 4.5mm chassis cracking.... yep, we push these things to the limit.
Has anyone here tried the 19.5" singles? they are the pick at the moment in Oz. I'll put up some picks of an NPS300 with them fitted.
 

Chucaro

Adventurer
engineer said:
G'day from OZ fellas, I'm just new here and found you all through Yahoo. I manage a fleet of off road buses in Cairns but grew up on Fraser Island, I've been playing with Mitsubishi 4x4 trucks for about 15 years.
Bloody Transfer cases howling, studs breaking with singles on the rear, latest 4.5mm chassis cracking.... yep, we push these things to the limit.
Has anyone here tried the 19.5" singles? they are the pick at the moment in Oz. I'll put up some picks of an NPS300 with them fitted.

Hello mate, welcome to this fantastic forum.
I am from Moore Park Beach,just 20 Km north of Bundy.
Your post are a bit of a worry to me. I was under the impression that the Canters were tough because they are used by the Bush Fire Brigade here in Oz and I never heard of any complains.
Do I have to considering the Isuzu then ? or just keep with the Land Rover brand and buy a 130 Defender ?
I use the vehicles to reach remote places for my nature photography.
I am looking forward for your comments.
Cheers
Arthur
 

engineer

Adventurer
Chucaro said:
Hello mate, welcome to this fantastic forum.
I am from Moore Park Beach,just 20 Km north of Bundy.
Your post are a bit of a worry to me. I was under the impression that the Canters were tough because they are used by the Bush Fire Brigade here in Oz and I never heard of any complains.
Do I have to considering the Isuzu then ? or just keep with the Land Rover brand and buy a 130 Defender ?
I use the vehicles to reach remote places for my nature photography.
I am looking forward for your comments.
Cheers
Arthur

Don't worry Arthur, Fuso are OK, Isuzu are really anal on the warranty claims. If you pay the extra $10K for the Isuzu, one would expect to get better service than the Fuso, but in my experience, I've found that Fuso are more accomodating than Isuzu (in Cairns anyway). We have to carry 14 people with all the luggage, camping gear and food on a FG649C (SWB) and they hold up better than the six wheeler in my avatar. They are on Cape York for 6 months solid and are driven reasonably hard for the Itineraries we have to follow.
The only problems that we've had that others might (because they will never ask the little canter to do as much as we ask of it) is the transfer case selector cables rubbing on the front cross member, but just ask the salesman to make sure they cut a little half moon out before you pick it up.
A small heat guard between the Turbo and the chassis cracks from vibration stress, but I've welded ours up with some 16 gauge and it's been fine for 2 years (it did take 2 years to crack, and that is on Cape York.)
If you buy one soon, you'll get it cheaper as they are euro 3, the Euro4 is due later this year which will see another price rise.
If you treat your Fuso nicely, you will be pleased by it's performance.
 

Chucaro

Adventurer
Thanks for your reply,
The idea is to get one Canter (Fuso) and with a pantek body at the back convert it to all terrain motorhome.
I converted a Mazda T3500 bus before but they are not the best for driving out of the highway.
If I can not get a suitable pantek then a cheap pop-up roof caravan on the top of the chassis will do the job.
There are plenty cheap pop-up roof caravans that do not meet the new regulations and a used Canter with low Km are cheaper than a 4WD vehicle.
Cheers
 

engineer

Adventurer
I saw a second hand 2003 canter 4x4 at east coast commercials today with a tipper, ally bullbar and 15,000 lbs warn winch for under 50K. It had 40,000 on the clock and seemed in good order. Looks like an ex QNPWS rig. I don't know if thats what your after?
 

Chucaro

Adventurer
engineer said:
I saw a second hand 2003 canter 4x4 at east coast commercials today with a tipper, ally bullbar and 15,000 lbs warn winch for under 50K. It had 40,000 on the clock and seemed in good order. Looks like an ex QNPWS rig. I don't know if thats what your after?

Thanks for the info, I will considering it. I was looking in getting one as a project and rebuild it to my satisfaction ad keep the Range Rover at the some time.
Cheers
 

Chucaro

Adventurer
Seven kilometers per liter ? that it is not to bad ! Heaps cheaper that a Landcruiser 4.2 petrol or diesel here in Oz
My Rangie use 17 liters per 100 km so the Canter will be a very reasonable vehicle for a motor home.
Then again I follow with great interest what happens here with the price of diesel. In many parts in the outback is already $ 1.95 a liter ant the prediction is $2.20 wholesale by the end of the year.
Looks like that I will go back to my BMW R1150GS for touring again :rolleyes:
Cheers
 

engineer

Adventurer
Yeah, thats the old model that you could hold your foot flat out all day, the new ones are a bit more powerful and use about 75l/350k fully loaded.
I'll let you know all the fuel prices in Cape York when i get back....
 

whatcharterboat

Supporting Sponsor, Overland Certified OC0018
Dowm under prices

Gidday again Kerry.

Engineer's example is fairly typical of price. A new FG 4x4 here is around $60K and the ones they sell after 4 years on the beach and 300,000k's still bring over $20K with a tray on the back. There's a '99 dual cab for sale near here at the moment with lots of extras. It's $36K and that's not too bad. Any thing under $20K is pretty sad.

2 weeks ago our dollar reached a 55 year record high against yours > about 0.98cUS and I'm sure it was only about 2 years ago we reached an alltime record low of 0.55cUS. Around 0.70c US was more like a normal figure. Might be a good time to come over and do some shopping.
 

sostahoe

New member
looking for as much info as I can gather before doing my super single conversion. I am starting with a 92 FG 5 lug. what is the largest tire size any one has run on an FG ? I would like to know maximum for stock , but I am open to any modifications (suspension,axle,body) to find max limits. but looking for ALL feedback.
 
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