AmboLander

[FDM2012]

@jblaze5779

I want to thank you for the lead on the LED's. I ordered 2 the same day that you recommended them, and they are the CatsAzz!

I have already ordered 2 more, and FYI, they work great with this little dimmer.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/39160233326...49&var=660718189575&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

My rig has 6 domes, but I am only going to have 4 of these lights, and will either do Red LEDs
in the middle row, or put TV speakers up there. Time will tell......

I have cardboard on the other side of my DIY ReflectoShades. Probably makes more sense to have them turned around, but with
the reflectix pointed inboard, I can have the domes turned down even lower, thus saving battery power.

I am driving it from Tampa to Dallas for Christmas, so I will crash a night or 2 in it, and see how well it holds temp.

Will post a better pic once I get my other 2 light s in on Wednesday.

Not sure how these will react with a dimmer. They are cheap so I'm sure the bulbs aren't fancy dimmer compatible ones. Maybe? Who knows.

I've just been trying to get rid of the most halogen as possible. I even got some floods off amazon and made up some steel flanges to replace the front side and rear scene lights. Those stock units eat battery like crazy.

 

[FDM2012]

Agile RIP Kit. Not a bad install to do. Did it all by myself in 1 day, and that was with
several breaks and curious neighbors lurking and invading my space. Other than one
smashed fingernail, nothing significant to report. It is all pretty straight-forward,
and only takes a couple of tools to do it:

I am holding off on doing the front springs, until I do the rear springs. It is already a
little bit raked, so will take care of the rest when I do the SRW conversion.

What I did do is: Shocks x 4, sway arm bushings and drop kit, trac arm bushings,
steering stabilizer, scraped and wire wheeled A LOT of area, sprayed with Rust Reformer,
and also undercoated the wheel wells.

Ran out of daylight, so will double check everything tomorrow, touch up some of the paint,
put the wheels on, set the steering stabilizer, and take it for a spin. Headed to Dallas on Friday,
so hopefully all is well.





Strange things is that I never thought that it rode too bad, but all 4 shocks were not just rusty,
(but once compressed), they do not extend back out.

 

[patoz]

Wow, considering the condition of your old shocks, that should be a big improvement I would think!

 

[Bikersmurf]

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0...ge_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1&tag=vglnk-ca-c30-20#

12.99 US or 47.32 CDN... I'm disappointed. 8 of them at that price isn't in my budget. I'll have to see if I can find them at a better price.

 

[FDM2012]

My other 2 LED's came today. Here are some pics with the dimmer turned all the way up:






I figure that I have about $75 into the 4 lights, dimmer switch, and the harness I built and ran
through the ceiling, and they are plenty bright for my use.

I am also going to split them up, and use the current dimmer for the fronts, and another dimmer
mounted by my little night stand in the right rear corner for the 2 rears.

 

[patoz]

Yep, I think those are more than bright enough. Now the question is, will they hold up to to vibration from off-road trips, etc.

 

[FDM2012]

Made it to Dallas today, after leaving on Friday. I had not driven it more than 45 minutes
on the highway (and only twice) since I brought it home from W. Virginia in June.
Obviously, I have done a crazy amount of conversion projects and engine mods since then,
so I was mentally prepared for "something perilous" to happen, but I am happy and
proud to announce that I had ZERO issues, whatsoever.

On the way, I got to meet and drop off some parts to patoz (Point Five Ambo Build), stopped
and shared memories with 2 different Shipmates from my NAVY days, in New Orleans and Houston,
stayed the night in New Braunfels with another buddy, whose kids (3 and 6) said they wanted to
live in AmboLander for ever and ever! lol
And now, I am warm and cozy at my Mother's house in Plano, Tx.

As far as utilizing the rig, I stayed Friday night at a Walmart in Slidell, La. It was just warm enough
that I didn't need to use The Big Buddy. Bummer.........

The electrical, water and window systems did great, although I will be adding a dimmer for just the
rear 2 ceiling LED's. No need for all 4 on at the same time. I will mount the switch so I can reach it
while standing at the back doors.

And yes, I cooked some Hot Pockets:


Here were my driving parameters:

With outside temp in lower 70's on Friday and most of Saturday:
MPH - 70
RPM's 2380
Coolant Temp I am having sensor issues, so unknown.
Engine Oil Temp 216
EGT's 750-1100 depending on grade
Boost 7-15 (The Wicked Wheel 2 sounds awesome..)
Air Intake Temp 74-82
Trans Temp 140
Fuel Pressure - 68-70

When I woke up this morning, it was in lower 20's in New Braunfels, so I was anxious to
see how it would start. I cycled the glow plugs twice, and in probably in less than 3 seconds,
it fired right up. That made my day.

Until this thing gets the engine oil warmed up to about 175 degrees it bucks a little bit at low speeds.
Today, it never got warm enough to not buck. Not liking that, but its fine above 1100 rpms.

Today with temps in upper 20's and low 30's:


MPH - 70
RPM's 2380
Coolant Temp I am having sensor issues, so unknown.
Engine Oil Temp 205
EGT's 750-1000 depending on grade
Boost 7-15
Air Intake Temp 30-38
Trans Temp did not even moving my gauge.
Fuel Pressure - 68-70

My biggest takeaway is that I DO NOT like where my EGT's are at. I jumped on a scale on the
way out of town, and fully loaded, it was at 10,700.

Intercooler is not an option, so I am leaning towards putting this thing on Meth. The grades are
mild at best in the southern states, so I would hate to see anything significant. And, I would like
to be able to tow up to 6,000 or so.
I played around with my tunes, and none of them made a noticeably difference, and that includes
the towing tune from Innovative Diesel. But it does run better on theirs, than the SCT given tunes.
I could try pulling the EBPV, but I would like to keep it for a brake....

Lots to think about regarding all of this, along with slowly but surely, getting closer to going SRW with 35's.

Anyone else have a similar weight and numbers like mine on a 99-03 PSD?

 

[patoz]

Eric,

It was good to finally meet you, and I'm glad to see you made it safe and sound with no mechanical problems!

Considering it was in the 70's when you left here and it's in the 20's in TX, you've gotten to test it through a pretty wide temperature range.

BTW, I emailed you that info we discussed this afternoon.

 

[jblaze5779]

I'm in the texas hill country and it was about 25 degrees on my drive home today. I can hit 1100F on some of those hills with that outside temp. These are much bigger grades than those found on the trip from dallas to NB though. i think my main cruise temp is around 650-700 (estimate).

 

[Abitibi]

Hi Eric

I have different numbers in mine due to tire size (35's) and gears (4.10) and a bit lighter (9500). Not sure if you have a Tuner or not but I've got a Dptuner with 80hp daily, tow & mountain 60 and/or 80 (can't remember which one is which).

In any case, my egt climb higher than I like once I hit a grade on the 80 daily but once I switch to mountain it brings them down below 1100 most of the time. I also towed a 10,000+ lbs trailer couple weeks ago and the tow tune did awesome. I kept it at 55mph but never slowed down on the hills and my egt barely broke 1000 at any given time. I was stoke! Anyway, just sharing experience...



Cheers
David

"Another great day ruined by responsibilities"

 

[FDM2012]

Other than tightening my HPX fitting due to a small oil leak, I am slow to get back to work on it right now. I forgot I have a
business to run and a house that needs yard and fence work.... That ever happen to anyone else? lol

Anyways, I did mess around with my tuner after ordering a tune from DP Tuner.

With the rig unloaded and probably back down to around 10,500lbs and with the 60HP Daily Econo tune, it screams!

The cackle is louder, and there is a bit more smoke when I really lay on it (can't wait to find some protestors....!!), but it has
so much more power. And, I ran it on the highway when it was close to 80 degrees outside at 73mph, and my EGT's stayed between 800-850.
THAT, is a definite improvement.

Hoping to go up to N. Georgia in a month or so, and that will be a good test for it on some decent climbs. Not serious, but decent.....

Although I have to feather the throttle a bit to get it to shift into 4th at 50mph or under, they seem improved, as well.
So, for my rig, I will ONLY run DP TUNER tunes from here on out.

Cheers

 

[FDM2012]

Well, it was mid-October when I put my coolant filtration system from Dieselsite.com (not affiliated) on my rig,
and between local driving and my Texas trip over the holidays, I am right around 3k on the first filter.

Here it is:


Nice, huh?

I figure I will change the next one at 5k. The motor now has just under 180k on it.

 

[Coachgeo]

did you clean the shiat out of the coolant system before installing the filter kit?

 

[FDM2012]

All I did was change the coolant (that appeared clean and green) install the filter, drove it for about 3k, and that is what I got.

 

[DT75FLH]

On a friends 7.3. He had the same type of crud...by his 4th filter they were relatively clean after that when we cut them open