Shizen's Gen3 camper build

eyehate

Member
Digging that rack, as nothing seems to be 43+ inches wide out there to cover the entire roof. May have to try and tackle that for mine. How are you planning on attaching it to the rails?
 

Monty85

Observer
Thanks. Thats right, nothing in the market thats wide like this and also for my affordable price. My rack is 50" wide end to end and 90" long. I kept the sunroof area open and will make detachable piece that goes on it in case I need to use that area for storing stuff or sleeping on top.

For the bracket, it literally took me months of thinking how to attach roof nicely without messing with factory roof rail until I came up with this stupid simple idea that would help to distribute the load and clamp well on roofrail. I plan to make this using may be 1.5~2" flat steel bar. Bend it into shape and clamp with bolt/nut. I hope this works.

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Update: 4/1/2018

For those interested, I ended up using Reeses cross bar for mounting my rack to roof rails.

It was easiest and cleanest I could do at this time.

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Inyo_man

Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining.
Great work on the rack!!

Did ARB add lots of weight ? Does it sag the front end ?How heavy is that thing ?

The ARB and winch added substantial weight, however I fitted OME H.D. suspension to help carry the load.
No sag at all.
 

Monty85

Observer
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Brake question:

While my rack build is on hold due to schedule and heatwave we are having, I had to do brake job on rear quickly. I have done many many brake jobs and never had this happen.

I chose to use semi metallic pads and new rotors from Autozone. Chose the semi metallic for better heat tolerance and bite as I read online.

Once everything was put together, i went for a drive, perhaps 2-5 min of highway drive, exited out and I smelt the brakes. When I looked out the window, my driver side brake was smoking. So I drove home slowly and disc was hotter on driver side when I took temp reading.

I took it apart and re-did the whole job again. There was no sign of stuck caliper, rusted caliper pins or what so ever. I lubed the pin and contact points well. I noticed driver side pad had little bump on the metal where it mounts on the caliper. So I ground it off smooth and put it back together.

Now after 2nd test drive, I have same issue with passenger side. Slightly smoking. Driver side disc is cooler this time.

Is this normal to have smoke initially ? Is it because of semi metallic pads ? I always used ceramic pads in past.

I haven't driven it for extended period of time since I don't want to overheat the brakes.
 

Michael Brown

You followed me, so now we're both lost
I would switch back to ceramic. Semi-metallic pads do have better heat tolerance and bite, but they eat into the rotor causing more heat due to the metal particles. Your rotors are probably overheating because of this. It is strange that it is happening on one side more than the other.
 

Monty85

Observer
Ahhh Michael, wish your comment came in last night. I went through brake bedding process in the evening yesterday. By the time I got home, all 4 rotors were about the same temp. (~270F on front and ~260F on rear). There was smell but no more smoke and disc had evenly spread purple tint. Its looks a bit darker towards center, perhaps because I was dragging parking brakes also.

I will keep an eye for next couple days of driving and if it seems hot, will switch back to ceramic like you said. Also I plan to replace the rubber tip on caliper pins which could possibly be a cause too.

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Monty85

Observer
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USB charger:

Randomly found this neat add on USB charging port on amazon. Fits right into the empty slots on center console.
Installation was breeze. Hooked it up to cigarette lighter wiring and works great.
They are 2.1A and 1.2A output.
 

Monty85

Observer
Regear: 4.3 >>> 4.9

Ever since swapping tires to 33”, monty became little sluggish and suffered a little on uphill.

Finally got to time to swap out the diff this past weekend. So far I just replaced the rear one to try out and have been driving in 2wd mode.

Stock setup was 4.3 : 1 ratio with LSD
Replacement is 4.9 : 1 ratio with open diff.

Ride is so much better. From the stop, it is not faster or anything. 1st gear acceleration just got shorter. But so much of improvement on uphill and highway acceleration.

Where 2nd gear would be under high load, 1st gear would be revving engine pretty high. Now it can cruise uphill in very relaxed way with 2nd or 3rd gear.

Now I have couple questions:

if possible, I would like to swap my factory LSD into this new housing.
Is it worth doing the work to swap LSD ?

How well does factory LSD work when in need ? Is it better just going with Air locker like ARB?

Anyone with experience? Appreciate your input.

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Toasty

Looking for that thing i just had in my hand...
The stock hybrid LSD is better than nothing but not by much, it works until you don't have traction then it doesn't work at all.
 

Michael Brown

You followed me, so now we're both lost
If you already have a 03+ with the traction control, then the LSD is not really needed. The traction control functions in the same manner on trails so the LSD was dropped in later models.

Toasty would be correct about the no traction/free wheel situation if it was a standard helical gear/torsen (torque sensing) differential. These gear LSDs are very strong and low maintenance compared to clutch-pack style LSDs. The gear mesh locks up when unequal torques are applied to each of the wheels, but allows a free spin when one wheel has no torque (lifted in the air). To overcome this on the factory Hybrid (Hyblid on housing label) unit, Mitsubishi implements a small clutch that engages under free spin and generates enough torque to allow the gear mesh to sense and take over for continued driving. You can see the clutch unit in the picture below.
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The hybrid LSD also works with the traction control system. If the LSD locks up, then the traction control never activates. If the LSD spins, then either the clutch system or the traction control provides enough torque to engage the gear system. I have been running like this for ~50k in my 05 and it always impresses me on the trails.
 

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