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LJ78 Build Thread

I’m not sure but they and Intervolt do dcdc battery to battery chargers for leisure batteries. If you were to fit the Intervolt, you could at lease charge one battery at the correct voltage from your alternator and charge both from some solar cells. I’m not sure it would be right though. Might be worth talking to Intervolt as they are an Australian company and very helpful. There may be other ways of doing it. There are of course small cheap trickle chargers with solar panels. Not sure again if they would be what you are after.​
 
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Thanks Rob. :thumbup:

Its difficult to say at the moment because my tyres are so bald and shredded! Once I fit new tyres then I will be able to get a better comparison between The 78 and Jiri's 76. :think:

But so far we havent found anything that one of us could drive but the other couldnt, but to be fair Jiri has to avoid a lot of the really tough stuff at the moment until he fits some more armour.
When you're driving a brand new $80k vehicle you cant afford to damage it. :shifty:

I've just ordered him a set of ARB side steps and scrub bars and have agreed to make him a custom, heavy duty rear bumper. So once those bits are fitted he wont have to drive the chicken tracks. :icon-twisted:

As for the 71/72..................

That would be an interesting comparison. If we talk about the short wheel base 70's you get in your part of the world, they're the GR series with the 4 litre V6 petrol engine and rear leaf spring suspension.

I imagine that engine would be a lot of fun and have plenty of power. What do you find the ride is like with the rear leaf springs? :think:

Hi Ben - my comparison is the 76 1hz vs the 71GR...both rear leaf sprung. However, the 71 has a far shorter blade length resulting in a more "choppy" ride. plus the big difference in "on-road" weight. (the heavier 76 is more stable). In both cases, the crazy 90mm narrower rear axle causes very nervous steering in soft sand, particularly with very square profile tires, with the shorter71 being the worst victim.
There is no comparison when it comes to power (or fuel consumption) - interestingly the V6 sits BEHIND the front axle (probably can be labelled mid-engined:) and weighs probably half the diesel 6.

In typical large dune work, hot deep sand the 71 reigns supreme, in all other off-road conditions, I would choose the 76 format - here we are starting to see 76 's and the odd 78 with the v6 4ltr. That may actually be the pick of the bunch, surpassing the v8 diesel on a power basis....
 
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I’m not sure but they and Intervolt do dcdc battery to battery chargers for leisure batteries. If you were to fit the Intervolt, you could at lease charge one battery at the correct voltage from your alternator and charge both from some solar cells. I’m not sure it would be right though. Might be worth talking to Intervolt as they are an Australian company and very helpful. There may be other ways of doing it. There are of course small cheap trickle chargers with solar panels. Not sure again if they would be what you are after.​

Thanks Rich, I will give them a call. :thumbup:

Hi Ben - my comparison is the 76 1hz vs the 71GR...both rear leaf sprung. However, the 71 has a far shorter blade length resulting in a more "choppy" ride. plus the big difference in "on-road" weight. (the heavier 76 is more stable). In both cases, the crazy 90mm narrower rear axle causes very nervous steering in soft sand, particularly with very square profile tires, with the shorter71 being the worst victim.
There is no comparison when it comes to power (or fuel consumption) - interestingly the V6 sits BEHIND the front axle (probably can be labelled mid-engined:) and weighs probably half the diesel 6.

In typical large dune work, hot deep sand the 71 reigns supreme, in all other off-road conditions, I would choose the 76 format - here we are starting to see 76 's and the odd 78 with the v6 4ltr. That may actually be the pick of the bunch, surpassing the v8 diesel on a power basis....

That all very interesting Rob. :thumbup:

Do people not correct the rear wheel track over there?

I know sand is the one area where its most noticeable as the rear wheels dont follow the ruts made by the fronts! :thumbdown:
 
I finally got my 78 on historic registration, which brings my registration (road tax) down from $850 a year to $75 and reduced my insurance premium and excess massively! :dance:

It does restrict me to only being able to drive it 45 days a year, although I can pay another $75 and get another 45 days if I need to, but I doubt I will even use 45 days! :icon-biggrin:

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The 78 got put to work getting the fire wood to heat my house this winter. :icon-cool:

But first I picked up some new chains for the saw and a maul for splitting the logs.

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We then drove out to a local state forest and in an area recently logged, we found lots of logs to cut up.

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Then it was Easter and I had 10 days off work! :dance:

So we decided to head to The Otways, which is an area which borders The Great Ocean Road, West of Melbourne.

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We found a great camp site.

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But as I had my wife and this little guy with me we couldnt go too remote.

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As always, all cooking was done on the fire!

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The next morning.

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After breakfast we decided to use some 4wd tracks to get to the beach. :dance:

One track was extremely muddy and chopped up as a tractor had driven down to try and recover a Belgium back packers 2wd van!

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Annoyingly the farmer trying to do the recovery informed us he had (illegally) blocked the track further down with trees, we drove to the blockage but there was no easy way past and the trees were too big to move so we had to turn back around. :thumbdown:

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Eventually we made it to the beach.

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Where we had lunch.

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Lexi loves the beach!

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We got back to camp in time to cook dinner.

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Lamb shanks!

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My favourite part of camping, breakfast!!!

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Sam had a blast and if I left the back doors of the 78 open and turned my back on him for one moment he would climb up into the back!

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We went and collected some more fire wood, which we then chainsawed up and then split with the axe.

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All was going well until I swung the axe into my leg! :doh:

I hadnt even been drinking at the time, it was 11am and I was stone cold sober. :icon-rolleyes:

Jiri drove me to the hospital.

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Where I got shit loads of intravenous morphine!

The first shot was the best, it took my breath away and was the most high I've ever felt, it was incredible!

The next 4 shots wernt as good.

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Had Xrays.

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A lovely Sri Lankan doctor was called in and he wanted me to come back the next morning at 9am and he would then put me under general anesthetic and send me to theatre to stitch me up.

I told him that wasnt possible and I needed him to stitch me up now!

He didnt think I would be able to take the pain but agreed to try. :shifty:

I chatted to him as he did the operation and apart from the injections into the wound at the start and scrubbing the gash with a scrubbing brush and iodine, it really wasnt that bad!

6 internal stitches and 12 external later and it looked like this.

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I returned to camp that evening and enjoyed a few beers around the campfire until the early hours.

The next day Jiri helped me pack my tent up and he drove the 78 back for me.

He said its much nicer and more comfortable to drive than his new 76!

The coil rear end and better seats make a big difference! :icon-cool:

By the time I got home the wound was already looking better.

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2 days of resting later and it was time to head to the High Country for another 4wd/camping trip! :dance:

The clutch peddle was a bit difficult to press as it hurt my muscle, but we pushed on to Bright.

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On the way we stopped at my favourite bakery in Australia.

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Eggs Benedict.

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We then pushed on to our camp site just outside of Bright.

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Tents were soon up and fire lit.

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And a friend for Lexi!

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We headed out for a drive.

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Amazing views!

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Passed some future burgers.

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A few river crossings.

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Then a night spent around a roaring fire.

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The next morning we went for another drive.

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Matt even joined us as he was on his way to an enduro event, hence the bike on the back of his HZJ75.



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A rare sight indeed..........

A lamerover moving along under its own steam, not broken down or on the back of a recovery truck! :wtf:

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We stopped to collect some fire wood.

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And loaded the beautiful VDJ79 up!

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We found one particularly steep and rocky section of track that didnt look like it had been driven much.

And to my amazement Jiri gave it a go!

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He got up OK and then it was my turn!

With both lockers engaged, my bald tyres wheel span and just got me up! :shifty:

Then it was the turn of the big 79 followed by the Patrol. Both vehicles were double diff locked so they made it up OK.

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The others attempted but with open diffs they stood no chance!

The disco surprised me as I thought it would get a lot further than it did. I presumed with all that tech it would do really well, but in reality it was disappointingly terrible off road!

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We descended into Bright.

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Where me and Matt ate yummy brunches and everyone else got boring coffee's.

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We said good bye to Matt and wished him luck in his enduro competition and we headed back to camp.

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Simon chainsawed all the logs up and then Jiri split them all with the axe.

I banned myself from going near the axe. :shifty:

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We checked out the beautiful river next to our camp site.

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Lexi had a swim.

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The big tree stump wed put on the fire needed a little bit more cutting with the saw.

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The dogs had a great time playing.

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While some of the humans braved the autumn weather to have a dip in the river.

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The next morning I had to leave as I needed to be home by the afternoon so my wife could go to work and I could look after Sam.

Rather than taking the boring road way I took the off road route through national parks and over the mountains.

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It was a great trip and by the end of it even my leg had stopped hurting when changing gear! :dance:
 
The tyres on The 78 were the cheap, Chinese made tyres that came on the car over 2 years ago and they were knackered! :shifty:

So I needed to order some new ones.

In the past I've had KM2's and they are a great tyre but............

For some one like me who does very few miles per year they are false economy as they will be hard, cracked and out of date (tyres will not pass a RWC/MOT test here when they are too old) long before they are ever worn out as it would take me 10+ years to wear a set out. :think:

A tyre my boss runs on most of his LandCruiser's and Suzuki's, which costs half the price of a BFG is a tyre made by Federal.

They are a really soft compound so they wear quite quickly and will only do half the amount of k's a BFG will, but they grip really really well because of that soft compound. :icon-ugeek:

So IMO if you do low k's then its better to buy a tyre like one of these Federal's and in 5 years time buy another set rather than one set of BFG's! :icon-cool:

So this is what I bought which happens to be the exact same tyre and size I run on my other 70, meaning I now have 10 wheels/tyres the same.

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I took my wheels with old tyres fitted into work in my trailer and then I used the tyre changing machine and wheel balancer to fit and balance them all myself.

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I brought those home in the trailer.

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And a few days later my new wheel arrived! :dance:

The 78 only came with 4 wheels and no spare, but fortunately I was able to order a 5th one out of the catalogue at work.

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I got them all fitted.

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Then tested them out pulling tree stumps out in the back garden. :icon-twisted:

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I'm going to buy a set of 33" Simex/Silverstone extreme mud tyres that I can then run on either of my 70's over winter when the tracks are wet and muddy. :icon-cool:
 
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Great pics apart from the axe incident! That could've been a lot worse!!

Good to see all the family out too :icon-biggrin:
 
Your tyre comment is like everyone's fascination with Coopers - the only reason that they last so long is because they're rock solid by the end of their life.

I've got into the habit of selling (or putting on the trailer) my tyres off the 4Runner when they get to about 40,000km - they're about half worn then, so the same depth tread as a brand new car tyre - but people are happy with a decent tyre at $100/corner. It then means it only costs me $120/corner for my new tyres as well!
 
Ouch, as Gary said, that axe-gash could have been horrific, it was bad enough in any event... and I was eating lunch when the photos came up :puke-front: :lol:.

Having all wheels and tyres the same is an advantage irrespective of what they are. If you gash one of them you’ve always got a compatible replacement to hand.

Great update as usual Ben, thanks for the time and effort...
 
The tyres on The 78 were the cheap, Chinese made tyres that came on the car over 2 years ago and they were knackered! :shifty:

So I needed to order some new ones.

In the past I've had KM2's and they are a great tyre but............

For some one like me who does very few miles per year they are false economy as they will be hard, cracked and out of date (tyres will not pass a RWC/MOT test here when they are too old) long before they are ever worn out as it would take me 10+ years to wear a set out. :think:

A tyre my boss runs on most of his LandCruiser's and Suzuki's, which costs half the price of a BFG is a tyre made by Federal.

They are a really soft compound so they wear quite quickly and will only do half the amount of k's a BFG will, but they grip really really well because of that soft compound. :icon-ugeek:

So IMO if you do low k's then its better to buy a tyre like one of these Federal's and in 5 years time buy another set rather than one set of BFG's! :icon-cool:

So this is what I bought which happens to be the exact same tyre and size I run on my other 70, meaning I now have 10 wheels/tyres the same.

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I took my wheels with old tyres fitted into work in my trailer and then I used the tyre changing machine and wheel balancer to fit and balance them all myself.

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I brought those home in the trailer.

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And a few days later my new wheel arrived! :dance:

The 78 only came with 4 wheels and no spare, but fortunately I was able to order a 5th one out of the catalogue at work.

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I got them all fitted.

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Then tested them out pulling tree stumps out in the back garden. :icon-twisted:

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I'm going to buy a set of 33" Simex/Silverstone extreme mud tyres that I can then run on either of my 70's over winter when the tracks are wet and muddy. :icon-cool:
Your tyre comment is like everyone's fascination with Coopers - the only reason that they last so long is because they're rock solid by the end of their life.

I've got into the habit of selling (or putting on the trailer) my tyres off the 4Runner when they get to about 40,000km - they're about half worn then, so the same depth tread as a brand new car tyre - but people are happy with a decent tyre at $100/corner. It then means it only costs me $120/corner for my new tyres as well!
I use Coopers and get over 90,000 k’s out of them
 
I use Coopers and get over 90,000 k’s out of them

Is that till they're down to the wear limit or down to about 6mm?

At 6mm they're no different in terms of tread depth to a brand new car tyre, so my logic is that once they've reached that they are no use to me off road.

Also, how long does it take you to get to 90,000km? It would take me about 5 years to do that, which is within the 7 years that tyres are said to be good for. If you're only doing 15,000km you're going to take 6 years, so that's pretty close to end of life for a tyre in terms of aging and UV damage. If you're doing 10,000km (which might be what you end up doing on club rego - 200km on 50 trips) then it would 9 years to do that...
 
Is that till they're down to the wear limit or down to about 6mm?

At 6mm they're no different in terms of tread depth to a brand new car tyre, so my logic is that once they've reached that they are no use to me off road.

Also, how long does it take you to get to 90,000km? It would take me about 5 years to do that, which is within the 7 years that tyres are said to be good for. If you're only doing 15,000km you're going to take 6 years, so that's pretty close to end of life for a tyre in terms of aging and UV damage. If you're doing 10,000km (which might be what you end up doing on club rego - 200km on 50 trips) then it would 9 years to do that...
At one stage I was doing about 25 to 30,000 a year but since being full time back on our land from about 6 to 100,00.
But I have a different outlook on tyres than an off-roader as i was a cartage contractor for a good part of my life and used to run new ones on the front and when worn would Bandag them and put them on the tandems and if I could get Bandags on my wagon I would use them on the rear wheels.
Bandags are a cold process system and they are good.A Japanese invention.
 
Do they have that system of retreading in the UK or Aussie?
 
Just catching up on you exploits Ben. Jesus, I'd have thought you of all people would be safe with an axe!

Watching a series called Your 4X4. I'm guessing you know a few of the characters in it. I was surprised not to see you in it. Or maybe you are ....

Stunning places to go wheeling I have to say. One day ...
 
Just catching up on you exploits Ben. Jesus, I'd have thought you of all people would be safe with an axe!

Watching a series called Your 4X4. I'm guessing you know a few of the characters in it. I was surprised not to see you in it. Or maybe you are ....

Stunning places to go wheeling I have to say. One day ...
Ben ,a lack of your informative posts lately,but the same happened to me with
Marriage,parenthood and
being steered in a new direction in life,it happens to us all but later on we pick up with old mates and resume contact but without maybe the vim and vigour of youth.Best of luck I am quite sure you and your family will continue
To prosper.Pat
 
With the little man now mobile Pat, I expect even Ben is finding all his time is taken (as you’ve alluded to) keeping him amused. The Hospital job was boring but it gave plenty of time for forum updates.
It’ll be good to see what ‘Mini me’ gets up to as I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t turn out to be a chip off the ol’ block.

@Ben , short updates are fine with us if you get the chance. :)
 
Thanks guys. :thumbup:

This is the first time I've turned my laptop on for months. :crazy:

I've been spending every spare minute in the garden trying to fix the mess I made of it. :shifty:

I completely overlooked the fact that the ground would be far too wet in the middle of winter to dig and terrace my hill side back garden. :icon-redface:

I got the huge 7 ton bobcat stuck for hours, broke the storm water pipe in several places then had to lower both the sewage main and storm water pipes to allow me to dig down enough to level the top terrace. I also had the great idea of using some of the tons of stone and bed rock I've been digging through to build a huge stone retaining wall. :icon-neutral:

So basically its turned into a massive job and I'm working on it virtually all day every Friday, Saturday and Sunday and I'm even out there at 6am most week days doing an hours digging before work. :sleeping-sleep:

I've still managed to squeeze a few great 4wd trips in though and only this weekend I've done an amazing snow trip in the High Country. :flags-australia:

I will get some pics up soon. :thumbup:
 
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