whatcharterboat
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Have been discussing posting this thread with a few guys for a couple of weeks and thanks to Doug Hackney for providing the question template. I didn’t change the format at all. Just hope I do it justice. If anyone else has any suggestions for improvements please feel free to offer them up.
This is an interview with Shaun Walker who is the head mechanic for Adventure Tours here in Noosa. Their company runs a fleet of FG’s doing day tours from the Sunshine Coast to Fraser Island. I also plan interview a couple of the other fleet mechanics as our paths cross. Hopefully the next interview will be with a mechanic from Cairns who also runs a fleet of FG’s that run constantly up Cape York in the dry season. The challenges and problems these guys experience are very, very different from one another and I’m sure it will be good to see a combined perspective. Also working only on the one type of vehicle, they aquire a specific insight into FG’s that most mechanics working in a dealership or general workshop cannot.
BTW I hope I don’t send alarm bells ringing with any FG owners out there when reading about the problems these guys have. I must stress that these FG’s in a commercial tour bus role on the beach or the in the outback, will be subject to more abuse in a few months than most privately owned FG’s will see in their entire service life. These buses in particular are driven on the beach every day from sun up to sun down and then they get washed down with a fire hose and do it all again in the morning. All the minor maintenance is done at night. Basically they never get a chance to dry out. Always wet. The only thing that changes is the salinity.
I’ll give these guys a plug too, so if anyone comes over here to Aus, Fraser Island is a must see and also I’ll thank Shaun for his time on behalf of ExPo. This is their site. http://www.fraserislandadventuretours.com.au/ Actually they’ve been mentioned recently in the threads if you’re searching, regarding the wheel/tyre setup up they use.
Shaun Walker
Age: 36
Born/raised in: Lived most of my life on the Sunshine Coast
Traing/education/certifications: I’m a Qualified Motor Mechanic. Began my apprenticeship with the Noosa Shire Council at the age of 16.
How did you get interested in vehicles/trucks/ etc? At the council I worked on just about everything. Small engines, tractors, trucks, loaders, forklift, mowers. You name it.
Who taught you your initial mechanic skills? Dad was a mechanic too. He started a workshop in Gympie in the ‘50s.
What was the first thing you ever took apart? Did you get it back together? Were there any parts left over? A Yamaha DT 125. Ah yes and no.
Years experience as a mechanic? 16 years as a qualified mechanic but played around a lot as a kid too.
Years experience with offroad / expedition vehicles? 9 years with Adventure Tours
Years experience with FG’s? That’s all I’ve worked on for the whole time here.
Best attributes of an FG? They are bulletproof as a beach vehicle. We just can’t kill ‘em. Sure they have some inherent problems but we try and tackle them as soon as we buy them so they don’t give us any major headaches later on.
Worst attributes of an FG? The thickness of the chassis. It causes corrosion problems and then we start to see stress fractures and cracks around the suspension points.
Common failure points/components of FG chassis in long-term off-road/expedition/excursion use? Really the chassis is the ONLY thing we have to complain about.
Common/typical modifications made to mitigate failure points/improver reliability/improve capability of FG chassis in off-road/ expedition/excursion use? Well, like I said it’s all about strengthening the chassis. We replace the rear spring hangers with cast ones from the 2wd tippers. You know how the crossmembers are a 3 piece arrangement? Well we plate the cutouts at the end and weld it all together so that it becomes 1 piece. So far so good. No more cracking. Also we pull the rear shock mount tube out and weld a piece of steam pipe inside it. Also we plate above the very front suspension mounting bracket. Since we’ve been doing that we’ve had hardly any dramas with them.
Setup/preparation tips for best performance in sand? Going to single Michelins for sure. We run a spacer to support the single rims on the rear too. Singles down rate the truck from 4.3 to 3.4 ton over the rear axle but that’s OK for us. Obviously the front axle loading doesn’t change. The other thing for sand is your corrosion protection. We’ve tried just about everything over the years, but what works for us is just a brew of underbody spray, x-trol and rustproofing fluid sprayed on every 3 months. We did try some acrylic recently which did the job well but it was too hard to work around so we just went back to the old method.
Driving tips for best performance in sand ? We run 65PSI in the tyres but if the beach is really bad we’ll send one bus up with 40PSI and the others will follow his compacted tracks through the soft stuff. That way when they get back on the bitumen you only have to pump up the tyres on one bus instead of 3, 4 or 5. So it saves a lot of time. Another tip for sand driving, in really soft stuff and if you’re by yourself is to run forward and compact the track, then back up before you go down, then go forward again compacting a little further each time till you get through.
Setup/preparation tips for long expeditions/excursions in remote areas (where no support/help/etc. is available) ? Do what we do and keep it simple.
Spare parts list for long expeditions/excursions in remote areas (where no support/help/etc. is available? Wow. OK. All the usual culprits. Belts, filters, enough oil for a change and not just the engine either. Definitely take some diff pinion seals. They are the same as the front transfer case seal too. The rear transfer case seal is usually safe cause it’s protected well by the handbrake drum. The front axle seals should be OK too as long as the boots are both good. Super glue is handy for fixing leaks in the radiator tanks. I’d take a couple of short u-bolts to wrap a spring with if you break one. That is a good “bush fix” that’ll get you home. Take about 3 metres of assorted hoses. Say 3/16”, 1/4” for things like oil return lines. You can slide it over a cracked pipe if you have to and some 5/16” and 3/8” hose to cover you for fuel lines. Also take some radiator “stopleak” and some power steering “stopleak” and don’t forget some terminals and fuses.
Tools list for long expeditions/excursions in remote areas (where no support/help/etc. is available)? A 3/8” and a ½ “ inch socket set up to 27mm for your drain plugs. I wouldn’t bother with a ¾” set but make sure your factory wheel socket is good. You need a special tube spanner for the axle nut. I just made one from some exhaust pipe and a couple of bolts. Easy. I dunno. Hose cutters. A hacksaw. Oh yeah. A big hammer. Haha.
Minimum mechanical skills/ abilities recommended for long expeditions / excursions in remote areas (where no support / help / etc is available) ? As long as the vehicle is prepped and well maintained, basic mechanical knowledge and common sense should get you out of trouble. I would think that being able to weld would be important if your body mounting isn’t flexible enough. That could be a problem, so yeah, I suppose being able to weld would be handy. Welding in the bush could be a problem. Hmm.
Funniest story related to an FG? We had a really bad vibration / noise on one truck for a good 100,000kms. All the drivers kept complaining about it. A couple of us had a look. Just couldn’t trace it. Finally we found a Stanley Knife (box cutter) that had slid down between the injector pump and the engine block.
Most unusual repair/fix related to FG expedition/ excursion vehicles? I would think that most of the repairs we consider normal here would be considered unusual but I’d have to say doing the brakes at 50,000 kms. We normally get more than 80,000kms out of them.
Biggest lessons learned from a career maintaining FG expedition/ excursion vehicles? There is always something to do. Expect the unexpected. When you’ve got 6 or 7 of them they go out in sympathy with one another. But most importantly constant maintenance. There is always something to do. The original head mechanic, old Ronnie once left them for a month and then it took him 3 months to catch up.
Ideal medium duty 4x4 truck chassis for expedition/ excursion use. Given that you have a clean drawing board and not necessarily based on an existing truck? For us the FG’s are pretty close to perfect. Great diffs, transfer case, gearbox and they are simple. Being simple, that’s the most important thing. Electronics fail on the beach. An extra 40 or 50 horsepower would be better too. So my pick would be an ’04 model with the 4.2 litre, 637 motor with the mechanical pump. Then add an aftermarket turbo and fit the factory intercooler from a 3.9T, which should bolt straight in.
That’s it. I interviewed Shaun while he was washing down the trucks tonight. Unbelievable. No fancy rotor brushes or soap/wash guns. He was dribbling Dishwashing liquid straight from the squeeze bottle into the stream of the hose for the soap down. So cool. Full credit to him for the workshop he runs and the efficiency of the operation that has to cope with these tough conditions. Have tried to replicate everything Shaun said as accurately as possible but if you have any queries I will try to answer but I may not be able to answer on his behalf. The pics were only taken with my phone. Sorry for the quality.
This is an interview with Shaun Walker who is the head mechanic for Adventure Tours here in Noosa. Their company runs a fleet of FG’s doing day tours from the Sunshine Coast to Fraser Island. I also plan interview a couple of the other fleet mechanics as our paths cross. Hopefully the next interview will be with a mechanic from Cairns who also runs a fleet of FG’s that run constantly up Cape York in the dry season. The challenges and problems these guys experience are very, very different from one another and I’m sure it will be good to see a combined perspective. Also working only on the one type of vehicle, they aquire a specific insight into FG’s that most mechanics working in a dealership or general workshop cannot.
BTW I hope I don’t send alarm bells ringing with any FG owners out there when reading about the problems these guys have. I must stress that these FG’s in a commercial tour bus role on the beach or the in the outback, will be subject to more abuse in a few months than most privately owned FG’s will see in their entire service life. These buses in particular are driven on the beach every day from sun up to sun down and then they get washed down with a fire hose and do it all again in the morning. All the minor maintenance is done at night. Basically they never get a chance to dry out. Always wet. The only thing that changes is the salinity.
I’ll give these guys a plug too, so if anyone comes over here to Aus, Fraser Island is a must see and also I’ll thank Shaun for his time on behalf of ExPo. This is their site. http://www.fraserislandadventuretours.com.au/ Actually they’ve been mentioned recently in the threads if you’re searching, regarding the wheel/tyre setup up they use.
Shaun Walker
Age: 36
Born/raised in: Lived most of my life on the Sunshine Coast
Traing/education/certifications: I’m a Qualified Motor Mechanic. Began my apprenticeship with the Noosa Shire Council at the age of 16.
How did you get interested in vehicles/trucks/ etc? At the council I worked on just about everything. Small engines, tractors, trucks, loaders, forklift, mowers. You name it.
Who taught you your initial mechanic skills? Dad was a mechanic too. He started a workshop in Gympie in the ‘50s.
What was the first thing you ever took apart? Did you get it back together? Were there any parts left over? A Yamaha DT 125. Ah yes and no.
Years experience as a mechanic? 16 years as a qualified mechanic but played around a lot as a kid too.
Years experience with offroad / expedition vehicles? 9 years with Adventure Tours
Years experience with FG’s? That’s all I’ve worked on for the whole time here.
Best attributes of an FG? They are bulletproof as a beach vehicle. We just can’t kill ‘em. Sure they have some inherent problems but we try and tackle them as soon as we buy them so they don’t give us any major headaches later on.
Worst attributes of an FG? The thickness of the chassis. It causes corrosion problems and then we start to see stress fractures and cracks around the suspension points.
Common failure points/components of FG chassis in long-term off-road/expedition/excursion use? Really the chassis is the ONLY thing we have to complain about.
Common/typical modifications made to mitigate failure points/improver reliability/improve capability of FG chassis in off-road/ expedition/excursion use? Well, like I said it’s all about strengthening the chassis. We replace the rear spring hangers with cast ones from the 2wd tippers. You know how the crossmembers are a 3 piece arrangement? Well we plate the cutouts at the end and weld it all together so that it becomes 1 piece. So far so good. No more cracking. Also we pull the rear shock mount tube out and weld a piece of steam pipe inside it. Also we plate above the very front suspension mounting bracket. Since we’ve been doing that we’ve had hardly any dramas with them.
Setup/preparation tips for best performance in sand? Going to single Michelins for sure. We run a spacer to support the single rims on the rear too. Singles down rate the truck from 4.3 to 3.4 ton over the rear axle but that’s OK for us. Obviously the front axle loading doesn’t change. The other thing for sand is your corrosion protection. We’ve tried just about everything over the years, but what works for us is just a brew of underbody spray, x-trol and rustproofing fluid sprayed on every 3 months. We did try some acrylic recently which did the job well but it was too hard to work around so we just went back to the old method.
Driving tips for best performance in sand ? We run 65PSI in the tyres but if the beach is really bad we’ll send one bus up with 40PSI and the others will follow his compacted tracks through the soft stuff. That way when they get back on the bitumen you only have to pump up the tyres on one bus instead of 3, 4 or 5. So it saves a lot of time. Another tip for sand driving, in really soft stuff and if you’re by yourself is to run forward and compact the track, then back up before you go down, then go forward again compacting a little further each time till you get through.
Setup/preparation tips for long expeditions/excursions in remote areas (where no support/help/etc. is available) ? Do what we do and keep it simple.
Spare parts list for long expeditions/excursions in remote areas (where no support/help/etc. is available? Wow. OK. All the usual culprits. Belts, filters, enough oil for a change and not just the engine either. Definitely take some diff pinion seals. They are the same as the front transfer case seal too. The rear transfer case seal is usually safe cause it’s protected well by the handbrake drum. The front axle seals should be OK too as long as the boots are both good. Super glue is handy for fixing leaks in the radiator tanks. I’d take a couple of short u-bolts to wrap a spring with if you break one. That is a good “bush fix” that’ll get you home. Take about 3 metres of assorted hoses. Say 3/16”, 1/4” for things like oil return lines. You can slide it over a cracked pipe if you have to and some 5/16” and 3/8” hose to cover you for fuel lines. Also take some radiator “stopleak” and some power steering “stopleak” and don’t forget some terminals and fuses.
Tools list for long expeditions/excursions in remote areas (where no support/help/etc. is available)? A 3/8” and a ½ “ inch socket set up to 27mm for your drain plugs. I wouldn’t bother with a ¾” set but make sure your factory wheel socket is good. You need a special tube spanner for the axle nut. I just made one from some exhaust pipe and a couple of bolts. Easy. I dunno. Hose cutters. A hacksaw. Oh yeah. A big hammer. Haha.
Minimum mechanical skills/ abilities recommended for long expeditions / excursions in remote areas (where no support / help / etc is available) ? As long as the vehicle is prepped and well maintained, basic mechanical knowledge and common sense should get you out of trouble. I would think that being able to weld would be important if your body mounting isn’t flexible enough. That could be a problem, so yeah, I suppose being able to weld would be handy. Welding in the bush could be a problem. Hmm.
Funniest story related to an FG? We had a really bad vibration / noise on one truck for a good 100,000kms. All the drivers kept complaining about it. A couple of us had a look. Just couldn’t trace it. Finally we found a Stanley Knife (box cutter) that had slid down between the injector pump and the engine block.
Most unusual repair/fix related to FG expedition/ excursion vehicles? I would think that most of the repairs we consider normal here would be considered unusual but I’d have to say doing the brakes at 50,000 kms. We normally get more than 80,000kms out of them.
Biggest lessons learned from a career maintaining FG expedition/ excursion vehicles? There is always something to do. Expect the unexpected. When you’ve got 6 or 7 of them they go out in sympathy with one another. But most importantly constant maintenance. There is always something to do. The original head mechanic, old Ronnie once left them for a month and then it took him 3 months to catch up.
Ideal medium duty 4x4 truck chassis for expedition/ excursion use. Given that you have a clean drawing board and not necessarily based on an existing truck? For us the FG’s are pretty close to perfect. Great diffs, transfer case, gearbox and they are simple. Being simple, that’s the most important thing. Electronics fail on the beach. An extra 40 or 50 horsepower would be better too. So my pick would be an ’04 model with the 4.2 litre, 637 motor with the mechanical pump. Then add an aftermarket turbo and fit the factory intercooler from a 3.9T, which should bolt straight in.
That’s it. I interviewed Shaun while he was washing down the trucks tonight. Unbelievable. No fancy rotor brushes or soap/wash guns. He was dribbling Dishwashing liquid straight from the squeeze bottle into the stream of the hose for the soap down. So cool. Full credit to him for the workshop he runs and the efficiency of the operation that has to cope with these tough conditions. Have tried to replicate everything Shaun said as accurately as possible but if you have any queries I will try to answer but I may not be able to answer on his behalf. The pics were only taken with my phone. Sorry for the quality.
