Another Allterrainwarrior

[whatcharterboat]

Hi. It was my plan to post a different vehicle every couple of weeks as I did with “Yes it an FG” and this one. But ONLY if it’s OK with you guys. I certainly don’t think forums should be a place for manufacturers to dump product advertising. That’s what our website’s for. I was really just hoping to give you guys a variety of ideas for modifications and promote FG’s as the incredibly capable offroad camper platform that they are. Also I know that our stuff is virtually unaccessable to you at the moment anyway. Let’s just say that ever since Mitsubishi started selling FG’s in the US we’ve been very interested in what transpires and we’ve been talking at work about how you guys at this forum are paving the way for a general acceptance and confidence in these vehicles and at some point, export or franchise could certainly be a viable option.

For now, enjoy the pics. This truck is a tour bus built for extended day tours. Eco tourism and university study/research groups mainly. That means they have to carry all their food, hence the large freezer in the rear boot and cooking gear (and sometimes tents and swags in a trailer). They typically do 2 week trips into the outback.

This body was actually made from the same mould as the green truck in the last post. The wheel base was extended to 3900mm and the fuel tank was stretched at the same time. Because of the power requirements of the freezer and the entertainment system we fitted a 300 ah AGM auxiliary battery bank and a battery monitoring system. These guys do it tough, sitting around the campfire at night with a data projector shining movies onto a screen on the side of the vehicle while wearing UHF headphones. 3 LCD screens on the inside as well. Also has a large inverter and heaps of charging ports for cameras, laptops, etc.

You can probably see that it has long travel suspension with dual Konis and Michelin 100’s. If you look closely at the pic showing all the suspension articulation and the truck twisting, you can see that the stripes on the body don’t line up. That’s actually the amount of flex in the chassis that’s going on under the spring mounted body. And yes, the cab tilt is still retained. Also note the table/spare wheel rack and the awning is recessed in to the roof so there’s less chance of it getting ripped off. On the roof is the aircon and a skylight/escape hatch. The high rear exhaust is actually a transport authority requirement for the State it’s registered in. I’ll put some motorhome/camper pics based on this body/cab combination up soon.

Please let me know if you want me to do this every few weeks. See ya.

 

[whatcharterboat]

Some more

Some more

 

[whatcharterboat]

During the build

During the build

 

[taco2go]

I like the pictures!- and given your involvement in the company, it's nice to get the additional detail on the conversions.... my 2 cents.
This forum is great- uniquely American and uniquely global.

 

[boblynch]

I'm very interested in your Fuso experience and think it's wonderful that you are willing to share your insights and build photos. The only downside is we can't order one. Have you done any builds using the crew cab version?

Bob

 

[whatcharterboat]

Hi Bob

Hi Bob. Good to talk to you again.

We have done work on quite a few crew cab FG's over the years. Mainly long travel suspension and single rear wheel conversions using custom offset wheels with Michelin 100R16's or 19.5" Hankooks. The crew cabs are becoming more popular with tradesman here (like builders and plumbers) as work trucks, but still with the ability to go bush with them when they can. Some of our customers race dirt bikes out in the desert, go hang-gliding up the beach. Stuff like that. Also we are looking at developing a slide on camper body purely for dual purpose work trucks.

However, I'm not a fan of crew cabs whose sole purpose is as a camper as they limit engine access and restrict the size of the camper body. In Aus the new Izusu crew cab has a hydraulic cab tilt so I suppose that's a plus but the seating is still the same. For motor homes we find it's more efficient to incorporate the extra seating into the camper body so that it can be used when you're on the road AND pulled up. It gives the rear passengers a much more comfortable seating position as well especially when the back of the cab is gone and the roof is raised . Have a look at the pic and you'll see what I mean. Building mainly offroad buses, seating is not really a problem for us.

A bit over 10 years ago, I worked on an awesome crew cab FG. The customer was a professional gold prospector and used to tow a really heavy duty offroad caravan that we built for him. There was him, his wife, 2 toddlers and 2 Rotwheelers. He was using a diesel Nissan Patrol and the thing just couldn't cut it. Would overheat all the time. Mind you it would be pushing 50c in summer were he used to go. So he bought an FG crew cab and it did it effortlessly. We set it up with a dirt bike rack and crane, solar, water, generator to run jackhammers, a kitchen, with fridge, stove, sink and charging ports for his metal detectors, comunications, navagation, etc, etc, etc. Every thing was in checker plate bins with the bike in middle. They would tent it for a week or so and then back to the caravan to restock. What a life.

 

[Czechsix]

I'll have to chime in with encouragement to keep those posts coming. You folks have some great ideas, and you're pulling it off well.

I'd still like to see some long travel suspension kits show up on these shores....

 

[whatcharterboat]

Thanks

Hi guys, I got sent an email asking if I had any pics of the crew cab I spoke of. Unfortunately no, but if I get any intersting shots in the future of crew cabs, I'll post them. However I do have this shot which is of that prospectors previous rig (I think it was in '96). This is the patrol that I mentioned as it left our workshop. When he came back the following off season, we swapped all of this gear onto the FG crew cab and added a crane to lift the bike up onto the rack in the centre of the tray. Guess it was getting a bit high to go up a ramp on the FG. We also added a second solar panel onto the roof. The open bin in the pic held tools, fuel cans, generator on slides and other work stuff. The one on the passengers side held the kitchen, tent and swags and the bin at the front has the gold detectors, pics and shovels etc. That's a water tank under the front bin that goes right accross the tray. We fitted brackets/racks on the bike too for the GPS, UHF, pics,shovels, water cans and stuff. I know you can just buy all this type of thing now but back then everything had to be tailor made on the day.

The Phoenix caravans are another story (wrong forum I'm sure) but they were the first real offroad vans here. See the departure angle. Everyone tries to make 'em like this now.

There was no roads or tracks at all were this guy went. Very gutsy thing to do with your wife and a couple of newborn twins.

 

[Czechsix]

Great photo there, whatcharterboat. Even though it's back in the day, I still think it's worthwhile studying - always good to see how folks do their loadouts. You don't happen to know if he's still around, do you? I might ask on some of the prospecting forums out there and see if there are any updates, if you've lost track of him.

From the looks of things he must have been a successful prospector too. Pretty rare breed of guy. I'm one of the unsuccessful ones (but you never know.....)

 

[whatcharterboat]

Prospector

Hi .

His name was Jonathon Porter. Google him. He is probably one of the best known gold guys here. Writes alot of articles and was sponsored by Minelab at the time so I'm sure he'll be easy to find. I think he might spend alot of time in the US as well. Very successful. He and his wife were in their early twenties then.

Came to us originally with an old landrover and would then upgrade his setup every christmas break when the temps were too hot. #We did a 13' offroad van for him, #then the 18' one in the pic, #then changed the layout of the van to fit in sleeping for the kids and more freezer space (he said nothing could beat eating ice cream after a day in 50 degree heat) and the Nissan at the same time and #on the last visit we converted the FG crew cab. I left Phoenix ('97?) and haven't had contact with him since. Good luck. I'd be interested to know if he still has an FG.

 

[Czechsix]

Ah, thanks. Now that helped - yep, he's well known. I fired an email off to him, have to see what happens. I'd like to know what's worked so far for him, and what he'd change. I'm just prospecting locally right now, but it's one of the hobbies I'll take along with me once I get back on the trail in a more suitable overland truck. In one of the photos on his site, it looks like he still has the FG.

Thanks for the contact info!

 

[whatcharterboat]

Phoenix

Looks like he still has the same caravan too. The Fg is maybe different to how I remember. It's a little hard to make out in the small pic on his website. It definitely looks like a SRW though. Like I said he's had a very different life to most.