Our "new" Tiger...

[chet]

for your back seats I would leave the original fabric on the cushons and have the new fabric made like slip covers with velcrow attachements down one side so they can easily be pulled off for cleaning. This is what we did on our little trailer we have and its great for cleaning. Oh and make sure you prewash the fabric to shrink it before doing anyhting with it! We had to remake one cover due to this error.

 

[HMR]

chet- That's a good idea on the seat covers.

I'm rethinking the lift + new shoes now, based on your input it sounds like with new tires (mine has 16" rims already) I may be able to get the kind of ride I'm looking for with just tires. But did yours come already lifted? I think I recall that.

I can't stress enough what a difference the stronger tires have made. Our van was already lifted. It's nothing fancy, the previous owner just had the torsion bars cranked up in front and used the airbags to lift the rear. The 225/75/16 size required some minor trimming in the front wheel wells to avoid rubbing during turns even with the lift.

 

[HMR]

I can't get over how good the Pergo looks on your floor back there, nice job!

Thanks L!
I've had more questions about the install so I'll post some more detailed pics...

The bare floor:

I used a pencil and paper to trace the angles created by the bathroom door. This was the only tricky part as everything else was pretty much square. Here's my paper template on the boards:

I outlined the cuts with tape both for a guide and to protect the laminate from being chipped by the saw blade. I staggered the sheets of "wood" to create a stronger bond and prevent bulges in the floor:

After double checking my template 20+ times, I made the cuts and everything fit perfectly. Here's a test fit without the foam padding:

 

[HMR]

Continued...

This is the hole that holds the mount for the metal table leg. It goes all the way through the floor, you can look straight down to the ground through it (bad design, IMO):

I thoroughly scrubbed and cleaned the bare floor then laid down two layers of padding below the laminate:

This is the mount for the metal table leg. The bottom extends below the wood floor and is exposed to the elements. It was in pretty bad shape:

We scrubbed off all the corrosion with a wire brush and solvent. We sprayed on several coats of primer and finished the top with silver Rustoleum:

Here it is installed:

This closeup shows some of the approx. 100 stainless steel screws we've installed wherever we've removed original hardware. You can also see the sealant used along the edge of the entire floor:

Thanks to the sealant and good fit of the laminate panels, you can spill a glass of water on the floor and it just sloshes around without getting absorbed. The floor is pretty much waterproof which is one of the main reasons we chose to go with laminate flooring.

 

[HMR]

The seat mounts are a bigger project than expected. I've put a solid 8hrs into them and I'm maybe 2/3 of the way done (hopefully!). I'm having trouble getting the new seats to face perfectly straight forward. Everything is square but there's some sort of mystery offset between the Provan base plate and the stock seat bottom. I've mapped out every angle and measurement I can think of but it's still not lining up properly when I put the seats in place. It'll all be worth it once I'm finished as the new seats are a nice improvement. Oh well, think I'll go walk the dogs and brainstorm some more...

 

[HMR]

Success!

I ended up spending around 16hrs designing and redesigning the seat mounts. It was a lot more complicated than I anticipated. I probably built 5 different mounts in total. Just when I thought I'd had it all figured out, the seat belt wouldn't fit or the seat adjuster lever wouldn't move freely or the armrest would be too close to the door, etc., etc. Once I had all the quirks figured out on the driver's side it only took an hour to cut, drill and mount the passenger side.


Here's a shot, again, of the stock and Provan seat mounts:

Here's the final version of my custom mount. Figuring out the correct offset and angle was the time consuming part:

The swivel worked perfectly on the first try.

The stock seats offer more room and a lot more adjustability. Definitely a worthwhile upgrade.

 

[ntsqd]

The only problem that I see with the new seats is that they lack that Bordello Red color. :sombrero:

 

[HMR]

The only problem that I see with the new seats is that they lack that Bordello Red color. :sombrero:

We felt the same way so we took the material off the old seats and had it custom tailored into His and Hers Expo wear.
I wanted something that captured the feel of the original interior as well as tying in with the Tiger theme.

Here's mine:

The wife is still working on hers.

 

[HMR]

Table.

We used to have a cool little wooden fold-up table that disintegrated after years of outdoor use. We'd been searching for a replacement but hadn't found anything we liked. Now that we have the Tiger, we wanted one that would also fit snuggly in the Tiger's rear closet. Our chances of finding the right size seemed slim so I started sketching out plans to build my own.

Then, a few days ago, I was walking through a store and saw this:

The style was exactly what we wanted but I couldn't remember the dimensions of the closet. I eyeballed it for a minute and thought, "Man, that looks perfect..."

Sure enough, it's a perfect fit:

I put up two j-hooks to hang it on. Snug fit = no rattles.

 

[wanderer-rrorc]

We felt the same way so we took the material off the old seats and had it custom tailored into His and Hers Expo wear.
I wanted something that captured the feel of the original interior as well as tying in with the Tiger theme.

Here's mine:

The wife is still working on hers.

DAMMIT MAN!!!!!!!!!!

I just shot coffee out my nose!!

thats funny!!

 

[HMR]

We'd been scrambling to get the van "trip ready" so we could head to Anza Borrego for some camping/wildflower viewing this weekend. The Tiger surpassed our expectations and we had a fun trip. AWD, suspension and new tires worked great in the deep sand and mild rocky sections. Careful packing and all the screws we've replaced made for a smooth, nearly rattle-free ride. My wife did most of the offroad driving so I just sat back and enjoyed the view. As usual, the winds varied from calm to 30+ mph during the night. The cabin was stable and quiet. So far, so good.

At camp:

New, full-size spare barely fit on stock carrier but it's plenty strong enough to hold the extra weight while bouncing along offroad:

Fish Creek:

Had to search a bit to find the flowers (still a little early).
We chose to hike up a random "no vehicles" wash and got lucky.
Lots of these in bloom if you find the right spot:

 

[T.Low]

Major Fellow Astro Congrats on the Maiden Voyage!

 

[slooowr6]

Congradulation, it looks really really nice. Great setup!

 

[ihatemybike]

Love the location shots! That thing is looking good out there.

 

[HMR]

MPG Update...

We've put another 1200 miles on the Tiger the past 2 weeks. I've been trying to get an accurate gauge of our MPG. It's a little difficult to get exact numbers due to the length of the fuel filler hose. I'm still not sure exactly how much it holds. The other day I pulled into a gas station with the fuel gauge on "E" and pumped 28 gallons into the 27 gallon tank. I doubt I was running on fumes so I'm guessing the filler line could be capable of holding an additional 2+ gallons? As I've said before, it's hard to tell if the tank and fuel line are completely full due to the routing of the fuel line. Anyway, I'm accounting for the extra fuel in my calculations so these numbers should be "worst case"...

With the old "C" rated tires, we were mostly taking back roads, taking things slow and keeping the load as light as possible due to the squirrelly ride. With that combination we seemed to get right around 16mpg.

Now, with the new tires, we're able to comfortably drive SoCal freeway speeds and carry a "full" load (full water tanks, tools, camping gear, dogs, etc). On our recent Anza Borrego trip we spent much of our time either on steep mountain grades or creeping along, offroad, in 1st or 2nd gear. Our avg. MPG on that trip was 13mpg. This week I took the 101 and PCH up past Santa Barbara for some coastal camping. To keep up with the flow of traffic, I set the cruise control at 70-75mph for most of the trip. My avg., again, was 13mpg. Personally, I think the "magic" speed for the Tiger is going to be somewhere around 60mph. I'm guessing the mpg at that speed and with a heavy load will be in the 14-15mpg range. It'll cruise at 70+ just fine but it takes a lot of extra fuel to push it through the air at 70 vs. 60.

FWIW- All of the above MPG calculations were done using GPS.