Isuzu Troopers - the "Wolfpack"

[justcuz]

Nice design on the hi lift bracket. I would suggest another hole between the bolts for a bike lock to prevent theft.
Your thumb screws look easy to remove and liberate the hi lift.
If the oil stabilizer reduced oil consumption then maybe a synthetic blend oil may help also like Valvoline high mileage oil in the red bottle.
I mix Marvel Mystery Oil in with my assembly lube, cam lube and assembly oil for engine rebuilding. A guy who builds a lot of marine engines swears by it. Says it has anti wear properties. Not sure it is any better than plain old ATF, but it smells better!

 

[PPCLI_Jim]

I keep my hi-lift inside, nice and clean


It does impinge a bit on the rear door entry, but other than watching out for it when entering/exiting it is not in the way.

Just did that in my 88 Gen 1 so much nicer but i do feel I will have to upgrade from 5/16" . and I need a longer Hilift as mine runs out just as it starts to lift the wheel off the ground

stevo-mt can you post pictures when its done? that I want to see

 

[stevo-mt]

No problem on posting pictures. I love sharing these things on the forums. I almost feel guilty sometimes when I find the solution to a problem from the busted knuckles and headaches other people have had to do to come up with some of these solutions. After I got my wifes trooper the Torque on Demand system on the borg warner transfer case wasn't working. I was able to browse around and find how to get the troubleshoot codes. Then another forum deciphered the codes to tell me the two speed sensors on the transfer case were not working properly. I was trying to figure out why several people were quoted up to $1500 for the dealer to replace them. After about 5 minutes of crawling underneath I saw that the wiring harness with the sensors is a pain to remove and can't be done easily with the transfer case in. My solution was just soldering the wires for the sensors I had removed from the parts car. It isn't as good as a fix for what the total replacement would be but its an old car with 150k miles on the body I'm sure my soldering will outlast that vehicle.

For the hi lift jack mount I put a half inch round stock dowel in there on the top for a lock and a backup if the threaded knobs happened to vibrate out. I don't think it would happen but you never know! It was just kind of hidden from the pictures.


I think I have most of what I want in the gas can holder figured out. I have some aluminum left over from the slide out drawers I made for my friends 4runner that I will use for the material. When I installed the el cheapo can holder off of amazon I didn't really like the way it worked out and left a lot of ugliness behind. My thoughts on version 2.0 is to have the aluminum sheeting cover the entire licence plate area of the small back door. (use a little bit of foam gasket around the edges of the aluminum to help keep the rear door sealed and clean) When you remove the licence plate plastics and light there are several other little plastic crew connectors and holes that become exposed. The bulk of the weight of the assembly will be secured with the licence plate mounting holes. They were a decently secure mounting point but in my opinion not up to the heavy duty standards alone. There are two bolts on the side of the small door that I can utilize to bolt a piece of aluminum too and then attach that to the gas can holder. I think it would also be prudent to take apart the back door's plastic and utilize the other holes for thru bolts with backing washers for reinforcement. The hinges on the door are pretty stout but I see vibrations causing long term problems if it isn't fully secured.

The width of the rear door is a bit more than a gas can. There was about 1.625" of what I call free space to utilize. So I thought it would be a decent place to mount an axe or something there and also a fire extinguisher. I'm not sure quite yet if I want the axe and fire extinguisher on the outside or mounted inward closer to the door latch handle. It won't affect the design much but would just need reversing.






For the licence plate light I could reuse the one thats on the trooper but for this I'll probably just put one of the nice little LED ones on there. https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Lights/Optronics/LPL55CB.html I have one on my M1010 and it has held up great for 4 years.

For the axe mount and most likely the fire extinguisher I will end up using these cool rubber mounting straps I found on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Original-Quic..._UL160_SR104,160_&refRID=16TH4NVB1EV5XF77WW0V

As far as the roof racks and crossbars go I'm trying to figure out the exact goals. The easiest solution for doing simple crossbars is to buy a set of the surco TR100 mounting brackets (~$70) and bolt some aluminum bars across them. They do raise the level of the roof rack fairly high. I'm not 100% sure if that helps on mileage or if it just worked out that way. I have two 6' pieces of aluminum L track that I don't think I will use on my M1010 project. They would be just long enough to go from the rear mounting bolts all the way to the front bolts. Using aluminum L track I would have to machine some aluminum mounting brackets to tie into the troopers roof bolts. The things I will most likely put on the roof would be a cooler and maybe a couple action packers with extra gear. As far as those go I think I could make a specific set of cross bars with the L track mounting bolts that could removed easily for the cooler and another set for a couple action packers. Then when not in use they just pop off. http://www.uscargocontrol.com/Ratch...Accessories/Double-Stud-Fitting-w-Bolt-Thread

With my limited roof rack experience the biggest complaint I had was having to always check to make sure that everything was secure and not having a specific tie area. I think that by putting L track the whole length of the roof it would provide you with a crazy variety of options. Fuel and water can holders, cooler mount, action packer mount, and you could even just attach a factory roof rack basket with a set of bars too. With the cost of heavy duty aluminum vs the cost of expensive name brand rack parts you can pretty much make dozens of attachments and still be money ahead.

 

[BornToHula767]

Excellent Thread, I'll be keeping an eye on this for sure. Do all 4 of your Troopers have the 3.5? I have a '99 Rodeo with the 3.2. First Import SUV/4x4 and Am very satisfied with it. Very interesting ideas here.

 

[stevo-mt]

All of the Troopers have the 3.5 in them. The 98 trooper is a bit different under the hood compared to the 2000s and 2001. They have the PCM right under the hood with a bit different electronic ignition system. The injectors and coil packs are a bit different too.

I've been working on a roof rack system that utilizes the aluminum L track. I have to say it opens up many options and can be somewhat modular. It makes me question on mounting positions of the hi lift jack and a spare gas can on the back doors. But I like to try and keep a lower center of gravity usually anyways so I will go forward with those and at least build a prototype.

Just doing a little playing around with the modeling it should be fairly straight forward for a simple crossbar setup. By using round aluminum tubing I can bore holes into some angled aluminum and have the lower lips facing each other. From there I can rivet or bolt some straps of aluminum to the bottom to provide some support. I really don't want to weld on something like an aluminum crossbar so the best solution I've come up with so far is to utilize a 1 1/8" shaft collar. If I keep everything semi modular I can play around with different configurations and eventually get to the setup that I prefer. Of course the hardest part of this project is the mounting bolts to the isuzu itself. I'll machine the prototypes out of some aluminum stock and hopefully I can keep the look halfway decent. It's kind of tough to mock up the mounting brackets without being able to get the trooper in my shop this week and use all my measuring tools. The plus side is once that is done I could send them to my machinist friends and get several made. As far as making more, I'll probably make a second set for the "spare" trooper and put some L-track on that. My wife's will keep the surco rack, which I ended up having to temporarily take off so it can fit in the parking garage at the college .




I have a couple other ideas that would be fun to try. I'll probably build and LED light bar mount or a light bar with Hella lights on it. Another thing that I would like to toy around with would be an Espar air heater system that is removable. Basically I would build and mount a box that would contain the espar heater on some crossbars. Those would mount to the L-Track roof rack like the cooler bracket or gas can holders. They make an espar setup with a solid metal box for more rugged mounting so I don't see too many reasons why it wouldn't work. The espar would be able to have its intake combustion air and its exhaust straight out of the box. For the cabin heating air I could use SCAT hose (looks like dryer vent hose but is covered in silicon) to connect to a plastic panel that would fit in place when you rolled down the window a ways and roll it up to hold in place. A small fuel cell or something similar to a boat gas tank could provide to fuel for it right on the roof. 12V power would have to be ran to it but that could be set up with some Deutsche connectors. I'll have to go back through the options that are out there for temperature settings but if I remember right there are some simple ways to operate a thermostat for the heaters. What we found out with my friends 4runner is that you put it on the lowest setting and the heater will manage the temperature just fine.

 

[justcuz]

Very nice work and ideas. Thanks for sharing.

 

[stevo-mt]

Well I got a few things taken care of the old Trooper. Of course I have a dozen things going on once but it's kind of necessary due to my dad's storage shop where I get most of my scrap materials and he has his milling machine is 15 miles from my shop so I have to be wise when I go to town to make things the most productive.

I built a new gas can holder on the rear out of aluminum sheet that I bent on the metal brake. Then I built some tabs and bolted it together. I was impressed how much more ridged and stronger the aluminum was then the smittybuilt setup. I am waiting on some countersunk metric bolts for joining to the original licence plate bracket but I am complete for that more or less.




I have been working on the hi lift jack carrier and the roof rack simultaneously. I ended changing the hi-lift design carrier a bit mostly for simplicity sake. I ended up using a plate 3/16" x 6" wide to go along the back of the door from the spare tire mount bolts over to the lip of the door edge where I welded a piece of angle steel to the edge. This lip went around the back of the door and was drilled and tapped with 6 1/4-20 set screws. Those provide quite a bit of resistance to movement while the bolts from the spare tire carrier carry the majority of the weight. As far as being in doubt, I would like to make it a bit more stout. It is pretty good the way it is, but I think there are a few things I can do to improve it. I ended up using some rectangular tubing to offset the jack out a little ways and it will hold the bolts that then screw on with some threaded handles. I was just using my old beater jack for mock up and the little metal tap wasn't letting me put the handle all the way up with the jack bolted on the mount. The new jack doesn't do that.





I've been playing around on the milling machine making some aluminum mounting brackets to connect the L-Track to the trooper. I finished one side but need to build the mounts for the other so I can make them parallel and find the final mounting positions. I'll machine these mounting brackets to allow me to put a c channel of aluminum upside down over the brackets then bolting the L-track over that. It will essentially make an H beam and be super strong! I was concerned about seeing the trim mounting tabs of the car but they might not be so visible after I'm done. The front will be a bit tricky to tie everything together in a clean fashion.

 

[stevo-mt]

I also used some aluminum hinge and some spare diamond plate to make a rear fold down table.




Having the retaining cable in the middle wasn't necessarily my first choice. I'm not sure if it will cause me frustration when we use it or no. The reason I went to the center was because of the easy mounting bolt. I happened to have some nice stainless prefabbed cables from who knows what that were about the right length. I couldn't get the cables to fold away nicely when I was attempting to mount one on each side. They seemed like they were trying to jam up the doors and such like that. I plan on installing some molle panels on the bottom of the little table too. :elkgrin:

I ordered a few things to add a little creature comfort. A new stereo, speakers, and a remote starter. So Monday should be a Funday!

 

[piratexpress1369a]

Nice progress

 

[BigSwede]

Nice work.

Having the retaining cable in the middle wasn't necessarily my first choice. I'm not sure if it will cause me frustration when we use it or no.

I'm guessing it will. I put a cook stove on mine, but wouldn't be able to with that configuration.

 

[stevo-mt]

It seems like most of the time we are using jet boils when we don't have our bigger truck. I should probably just get some 1/ 16" cable or light chain and just make it go to the outside.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[stevo-mt]

I wired in a pair of led strips. They are waterproof and were supposed to be self adhesive. What I've found out with these LEDs strips is they need some help with adhesion. I use the hot glue gun and gave them a few dabs here and there. I did that on my truck's LED strips and they haven't given me any issues since.

I also made a LED light mount that can slide up above the trooper. I used a set of RAM mounts to make the light adjustable. I did a similar setup on my m1010 truck and it has held up for a year now and survived many miles of rough road. I used some aluminum extrusions that slide and can lock.





I'll find some expandable cord for the electrical hookup. Then I'll wire a relay to the extra function on the remote starter key fob. The open trunk function will probably need a relay that stays on when you activate it and shut off when you activate it again.

I have a set of rigid 2x2's that are going to go where the factory fog lights would be. I robbed the old fog light switch out of the parts Trooper and all the wiring was already installed. I just have to cut out the last part of the bumper for the lights and hook up the wires.

 

[outofrshell]

Interesting ideas and nice work. Dave

 

[stevo-mt]

I finished up the high lift carrier. It turned out pretty well. I decided to put a couple of beads of RTV on the back of the plate to help minimize vibrations. It isn't going anywhere anytime soon. I also drilled a hole so I can just run a padlock through jack and the rack. I also used a simple cable setup with the gas can in the back. One nice thing is a safety siphon will work super easy without having to even move the gas can with the fuel nozzle right there. Plus it is easy to fill up!
One thing I did notice was the weight between the old hilift and the new one. The old one weighed about a 1/3 more, which works out for less weight with the newer style. Plus these troopers don't weigh enough to cause problems. I'm not sure how much I'll actually use it but if I get high centered or something it will be nice to have. I can also use it as a winch so to speak too. I won't get a winch installed for a while but I do have a 4000 lb aluminum come along to help and some other goodies to get by.



I made a pretty simple rear storage setup that I am going to carpet. It is just some 3/4" plywood with some reinforcement. I made the top 36"x53". It's 11.5" tall overall and the base is 36"x36". It will tie down to the factory tie downs and is completely level when the seats are folded down. I probably should have made it so it had another piece fold down over it in the front to cover the seats and fill the gap between the front seats and the rear seats. I did figure on always having so much clothes and gear and junk it probably wouldn't be a big deal to just stuff some duffels in there. I'll do some head scratching and see if there isn't anything that can be done to make it a little more like the 4runner's storage I built for my friend. I'll probably build a drawer for it this summer, but for the meantime I'm going to just stuff my tools and things in it. I pack so much of that stuff anyways it will fill the compartment.

The aluminum L track roof rack has been an interesting project. I've almost got the design perfected.



The fun thing about trying to machine parts for a vehicle that has much greater tolerances is that you'll spend a bunch of time on the mill and then just use the sanding disk to get it to fit. I see why no one makes a full length rack for the trooper. The front bracket is a fairly difficult one to machine. To make it meet the l track flush it needs to be cut at a compound angle. My machine's vise only rotates in one angle and I didn't want to rotate the head until I got everything figured out. I'm waiting on some C-channel aluminum to mount underneath the L-Track. The picture is more for mocking up. With any luck I'll have the rack finished up before the weekend and can start on getting all my parts re-designed and set up to manufacture a couple more. I came up with a few clever solutions to compensate for the inconsistency that can be encountered on the body of the vehicle. With a little luck I'll build all the parts for a second rack and do the install. If that is successful I can make another one for my wifes trooper and if anyone else wants one. I will try to make an adapter for the surco basket to tie onto a set of my crossbars. I feel bad spending that much money and not just using it the way it was, but it turns out building one of these costs a decent amount as well. But the basket will make a good trial setup to see if I can take it off of one vehicle and put it on another consistently!

I see why the surco roof rack just made the basket on the back two mounts. I think for one of the troopers I am going to build a simple setup that just utilizes the two rear and two mid mounting brackets. It would make things a lot easier and cheaper. Having a front crossbar for a canoe or sheet of plywood is still doable. I will just make a bracket that only has enough mounting room for one clamp so you could still haul something awkward like a sheet of plywood but with the drawback it wouldn't be as heavy duty or adjustable as the full length bars. Not for everyone with a trooper but there isn't a clean full length setup that I'm aware of, yet...

 

[piratexpress1369a]

That's awesome