AJ120s 2009 D4D and DIY camper trailer

[D4D Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close D4D]

They are a work of art Andrew! Can I buy 2 from you?

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

They are a work of art Andrew! Can I buy 2 from you?

Thanks D4D. Unfortunately they are all hand made so VERY labour intensive to produce, lots of file work to get the elongated holes, and time is something I am short of.

If loads of people were interested, I could look at the option of getting some laser cut and jig up to weld them together. If people are genuinely interested let me know. Please DO NOT register your interest in this thread, send me a PM.

A few more out and about pics as well








Cheers Andrew

[1coolbanana Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 1coolbanana]

That is really quality work, excellent job.
Such a shame you cant buy quality like that very often.

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

Very nice work Andrew.. And I agree, the quality of your welds certainly S*&t all over the ARB's... Looking forward to the completed pics!

[8608 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close 8608]

once again, top work and wicked fabrication. i can appreciate all the time and effort that goes into improving what was apparently sufficient.

can't wait to get a set of your reinforced brackets.

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

Well my new recovery points are on, only issue was due to some slack R&D on my behalf the outer bash plates needed a couple of mm trimmed of them on the bottom flange with the single bolt in it.

I mentioned fitting a 4th bolt, this in the same spot as the outback Ideas recovery points (that many may be familiar with) have their top bolt and it is the system I used when fitting my original recovery points pictured on page 1 of my build. Most people drill the hole on the inside of the chassis out to 12mm and then put a long bolt through the hollow chassis to attach the recovery point. I saw 2 issues with this, tensioning a bolt through a hollow chassis is not the best practice, and secondly the clearance between the radiator and the bolt head is only a few mm’s which has potential for problems.

What I did was drill the inside hole out to ¾”, you need to remove the 2 bottom radiator bolts and loosen the top 2 and swing the radiator out of the way, then place a piece of 90mm timber between the radiator and the aircon condenser to give you room to work. Then I drilled out holes as below, in the interest of complete honesty the picture below with the drill is a recreation of the actual drilling event that took place a couple of years ago LOL.






Then I cut a piece of shaft 62mm long, drilled it right through in the lathe and taped the appropriate thread (m12x1.25) through, the outer measurement of the shaft is such that it is an interference fit through the drilled hole, this means that it is a very tight fit. In order to make it easy to install I then heated the area around the hole using a heat gun until it was to hot to touch, this caused the metal to expand and the shaft is then lightly tapped into position making sure it is lined up with the bolt, once temperatures return to normal the steel contracts and locks around the shaft tightly!

As you can see below clearance to the radiator hasn’t changed at all, and you can tension up the bolt correctly without fear of crushing the chassis.






The description above is actually what my very first post on PP was describing, and was the reason I joined PP in the first place! Of course I didn’t know how to post pictures back then so it was only a description.

Due to the 4 picture limit I will continue in another post.

Cheers Andrew

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

Ok more pictures of the finished product.








you may notice that my factory tie down points no longer exist after an altercation with my angle grinder, don’t remember exactly but the Prado was less than 1 week old when I chopped those off!

Cheers Andrew

[tassie tiger Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close tassie tiger]

Hi Andrew

Can you recall your hub to hub measurements on the trailer (that is if they track true to the Prado)

cheers

darren

[D4D Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close D4D]

Looks good, should have painted the hooks red

Would the hooks fit on the oppopsite side? I am only thinking they may get hung up where they are?

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

Hi Andrew

Can you recall your hub to hub measurements on the trailer (that is if they track true to the Prado)

cheers

darren

OHF to OHF (outer hub face) is 1630mm for the trailer axle, I think this is marginally more than the Prado but only by 5 or 10 mm, so it tracks close enough to the same that it doesn't matter.

D4D, each hook could be bolted on in 4 different ways, as they are, hooks still turning out but bolted to the other side of the plate, hooks facing in and once again on either side of the plate, I couldn't put them facing in if I still had the original tie down loops. If you had the hooks facing inwards and used a bridle you would be putting the force on the weaker side of the hook, probably not a big issue but I prefer it the way I have it.

Where they are situated is almost identical to where they were when I had the alloy bar on, so i am not too concerned about them hooking up on anything.

It did cross my mind to paint them red, and then thought I don't think so, black is good.

Cheers Andrew

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

I have upgraded the OE battery to an Optima D27M, I needed a new battery elsewhere in my fleet so seemed like a good excuse to upgade the Prado battery and reuse the original battery in another vehicle.

When i removed the battery I thought that the multiple number of split tube conduits that I had installed for various accesories looked a bit rough, 4 hours later I had integrated all the wiring into a single loom including linking most of the earth leads into 2 larger cables to neaten up the earth connector, all fully taped and then covered in a single larger piece of spit conduit.






The D27M requires a couple of the cables to the battery to be lengthened as the terminals are on the wrong side, pity they dont offer the battery in left and right positive.




Cheers Andrew

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

Nice work Andrew. Having the extra posts certainly help in making for a tidier install.

[wooley Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close wooley]

looks great!

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

When I first built my camper trailer I had the intention of mounting a high lift jack on one side but was talked out of it by a friend who assured me they were too dangerous and not needed. Last year we found the use of someone else’s high lift jack to be more than useful in shunting the trailer sideways to get around a very tight bend at Gunshot creek on the old tele track. So I purchased a new high lift jack before our high country trip earlier this year and carried it on the roof rack, I have finally got round to putting it in the spot originally intended for it. I still have the option of putting it back on the roof if I desire!

First I spun up some nylon spacers in the lathe using some of the left over nylon shaft that I used for my spare wheel spacers.







Then with some ½” all thread with a nut welded on one end I attached them to the mudguard and the battery box, I also made large (60mm diam) washers for underneath to minimize flex.






Another nut on top of the jack keeps it secure.

I have drilled a hole through one of the threads in order to add a lock if needed.

Cheers Andrew

[D4D Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close D4D]

Nice job and out of the way too. I use a velcro strap on the foot to stop the incessant rattle.