- Great article about repairing your tire on the trail: http://ow.ly/3iu2S #
- Uploaded a ton of new photos to the gallery: http://dinoevo.de/photos/ #
- Vancouver JDM Delica Pajero Meet. Friday Dec 3rd. 6pm – 9pm. IKEA Coquitlam parking lot #
- Can anybody recommend a sound deadening product which is not crazy expensive? #
- Where can I buy these Tufloc locks? http://www.esmet.com/tufloc-lock-models.html #
- Thermal insulation and sound dampening material order. Time to get ready for the winter. #
Monthly Archive for November, 2010
Reversing at night with the flimsy stock backup lights and limo tinting is quite challenging. To make it easier we have two PIAA work lights on the rear bumper. Hooked up to the stock lights as well as a switch on the dashboard. With the switch I either can turn them on permanently or just when I switch the gears in revers. Works well!
I assume 16+ years ago engineers haven’t worried that much about interior noise as most of the body panels had no dampening material at all. So I went ahead and took all interior panels off, cleaned everything properly, applied about 80 Sq Ft sound dampening material from Fatmat.com and covered all voids with a rust prevention spray. Pretty straight forward process, but A LOT of work. The engine hump is also covered, which works as a nice heat barrier. Even now the carpet and interior panels are off, there is already noticeable less noise. Specially covering the doors made a big difference. Next step will be the thermal insulation…
A few electrical projects got done over the last week with the kind help of a friend.
Usually, I don’t use the horn that often, but if I have to, it should make an impact. The stock horn was just way to wimpy for this purpose, but I also didn’t wanted to add additional stuff for an air horn to make it crazy loud. Therefore we changed it out to Hella Supertones. What a difference!
One step to a better electrical management for the auxiliary stuff was to get a proper fuse block. The marine industry has some nice options like the Blue Sea ST Blade Block which we installed in one of the side panels where the rear AC/heater controls used to live. It’s connected to the IBS dual battery system in the engine compartment.
You can never have enough 12v outlets. Unfortunately there was only one on the dashboard. So we installed a second one with heavier gauge cables next to it. The outlet goes straight to the fuse block and therefore is connected to the second battery. It’s great to charge up stuff and not to worry about your starter battery.
Oh by the way. This little 12v rechargeable torch you see in the picture is from Spotlight. Very handy and pretty bright for the size.
After using those tires and rims for about 10 month I came to the conclusion they were not the right fit for our purpose. While I still think the tire size (235/85R16) is perfect, the steel rims and the tire tread are not.
Problem:
Rims: Steel rims in 16×7 are way to heavy (about 33lbs vs 22lbs in alloy) and take too much power away from this already small engine as well as overstrain the suspension. Going offroading with lighter wheels proofed that the suspension in a Delica is just not made for too heavy wheels and struggled in several situations. For the durability steel rims offer, it is just not worth to accept the downsides for a lightweight overland vehicle like I’m building up.
Tires: Due the cab over design of a Delica, the noise of the mud-terrain tires are pretty noticeable inside. At around 30-60km/h you can hear a loud hauling sound. Also even if we use our van mainly for recreation offroad, I don’t think it’s actually worth to live with the downsides like higher fuel consumption, worse handling in snow/rain and the noise. Good All-Terrain tires offer similar handling off the road AND on the road and just not as good in very muddy situations.
Solution:
Rims: The 4″ backspacing of the steel rims is perfect and brought the wheel right to the edge of the body panel without hitting anything in full articulation. The problem was it is really hard to find 4″ backspacing (0 offset) on 16×7 in alloy. After weeks of research, emails and calls it came down to two options. Either some indestructible white TX-1 rims from Performance Wheels in Australia or MOD#3 trailer rims from Greenball in the States. Due budget limitations I went with the MOD, but they needed to be sandblasted as well as powder- and clear-coated to fit our aesthetic vision for the van :)
Tires: As stated it my previous wheel post, it is quite important to choose a tire you can get in every country you like to go to. That means most of the smaller brands or some Asian brands are out already which leads again to the big player in the business.
As for the tread it needs to be something less aggressive but still good offroad. Also not all the suitable tires are available in 235/85R16 (31.7″). In the end it was a decision between the Goodyear Wrangler DuraTrac, BFGoodrich Commercial T/A Traction or the All-Terrain T/A KO.
Due the overall good ratings and availability I went with the the BFG All-Terrain. They are probably better tires out there but considering all our requirements, I think an average, well known and mild aggressive tire is the way to go. Time will tell.
I bought the tires and rims at Discount Tire Direct. They had to special order them but it worked out to be a great deal, fast shipping as well as good customer service.
I was not really happy with the aftermarket ladder which came with the Delica, even it was stainless steel and well done, it was too wide and heavy to accommodate upcoming mods like a tire carrier. Also the bottom bracket didn’t hold up very well due a slight dent in our rear door, so it came off under heavy usage.
Andy (contact) – a fellow Delica owner and very talented fabricator made up a custom aluminum ladder with some strong stainless steel brackets for us. Just 10″ wide with the option to mount it as far to the left as possible. After the ladder was done I sandblasted it at U-Blast and dropped it off at a powder coating place to match the van colour. The final protection layer was done with DuPont A-7480S clear coat.
Recent Comments