My New Fuso FGB71 All Terrain Warriors "Universal Warrior" Slide on Mega Camper

[Karl of Oz]

Well its been some time since I've had a chance to get on the forum, I've either been working interstate or going away testing and enjoying "Big Bertha"!
Since completing the build I've had no real issues to contend with. After a trip into the Limmen River NT (we did about 500km of corrugations) everything came up pretty good. After a bit of "real life use" I did decide to change the toilet, so on our return journey we called in at All Terrain Warriors and they repositioned it by turning it 90 degrees so it now faces North (it swivels anyway). Had to cut a new door in the rear (of the van that is) but left the old one to be used as a hatch so I can easily get at my gloves, chemicals and whatever at "dump time". It is now much better and has more room than many motels I've stayed at. The fit out and layout has worked exactly how we wanted it to, and is very spacious. It attracts a lot of attention wherever I park. There is really nothing that I would change if doing it again.

We've done about 17000 km now and it regularly gets about 5.7km/litre on average. One issue I do have though is the handling on what I call "secondary roads" those being the ones that are tar, usually signposted from 80 to 100 km/h and have lots of repairs, undulations and so on. On these types of roads sometimes I'm hard pressed to do 60km/h as it is a little bumpy, and bounces around a bit. All Terrain Warriors advised me that compared to the Isuzu, the Fuso has 100 mm shorter springs and this makes them a bit stiffer. They apparently are considering a modification in the future to lengthen the springs (Parabolics).

The vehicle is fitted with Power Down truck shocks which should be ok, but I feel it needs a little more fine tuning on damping the bounce. I am doing a bit of research on Bilsteins and was wondering if anyone has any experience in using these?

Also has anyone fitted Timbren rubber bump stops which act as a shock in themselves?

Of course suspension is not just shocks, nor is it just springs, it is the whole package. It articulates well, goes great on the highway and off road, its just those bumpy patched up ones that are posing a bit of a challenge. I'd be interested in other's thoughts........

 

[Karl of Oz]

Well......its been a while since I've had a chance to get on the forum. Thought I'd give anyone interested a bit of an update. We've done a few trips now and been working on a few improvements of late:
1. Suspension! Seems everybody has issues with this. ATW advised me that for whatever reason, FUSO decided to shorten the front spring length on the FGB series from the older canters. Why?.....probably somewhere in the factory some bean counter thought it would be a good idea. I got nuthin as to why you'd do that. Anyway after about 20000 ATW fitted slightly softer parabolics to the front as a trial. It was a bit softer, but still bounced around like a Kangaroo on those secondary tarred roads to the point where I was holding up traffic because I just couldn't drive it any faster. At about 30000 km I met up with a guy from Kings Shocks in Queensland. We'd planned to fit some of his shocks that he would "hand build and tune" to the truck. First problem was the bump stops were way to high. These had been fitted alongside the new front springs and were a bit like the Timberen idea. The Kings guy wouldn't work on it any further until they were replaced with smaller ones. Also it was discovered that a shock mount had cracked. So a trip up to ATW and they refitted the older shorter ones and also fitted a kit that they make to deal with the cracked shock mount, and then some "sway bars" front and back. There was a significant improvement on the handling with these latter additions. Back at Kings and he spent 3 days making, changing, fitting, adjusting these beautiful shocks that certainly look the part. Cutting a long story shorter, the truck now handles significantly better and is much softer over the bumps. But the Kings bloke is a perfectionist and wants shorter bump stops fitted. He is now in the process of making some to suit. I can see the wear mark where they hit, and also the dust ring on the shock staunchion that shows it occasionally exceeds the 40 mm bump stop gap by about 25 mm (1"). All my research suggests fixing this problem should make life a lot better. ATW have warned to be careful of the distance between the top of the pinion behind the diff and the bottom of the sump as apparently someone once cut their bump stops and damage resulted. Has anyone had experience with this?
The Kings shocks have 20 different settings but I'm running on the soft side. I can certainly recommend them.

Next major change has been the entry steps. I had a camper manufacturer modify some and fit them to my truck. These are permanently bolted / hinged to the entrance floor and they fold in half. I no longer have to wrestle with storing and fitting the expandable ones I had previously. These are much sturdier and life is so much better.

A few other minor things here and there but the camper is working out as good as expected. What would I change?......maybe a slightly bigger water tank at the expense of the adjoining food pantry/storage area (which is never full anyway), and maybe have a separate small water supply tank that feeds the toilet so I can use water that may not be "the best drinking water" (i.e. bore water, or water from Southport in Queensland!) instead of good drinking water. When I get time I will look into modifying that. I ended up buying a 2nd toilet cartridge (which I've never used) that lives in an lower rear outside locker. In times where the first one gets a bit full, there are no dump points around, and the "stick of courage" can do no more, then I can do a quick exchange. These things only have about 17 litre capacity. Maybe I got to eat less.
I will attempt to put in a few pics but if its not successful I'll do it in a separate post.
Karl of Oz

 

[Karl of Oz]

And a few more pics while I'm at it!

 

[Family Friendly 4x4]

What a great looking truck. Love the over cab bed with pop up, very nice.

We do not get the double cab version of this truck in South Africa. I take it the cab does not tilt on the dbl cab model else you would have a problem checking the oil there LOL.

I will take some time to read through your build process. I only just scanned through it now.

Safe travels!

And don't worry about the 60kmph it is quite normal. You don't need more than that in the bush anyway!

 

[Karl of Oz]

Thanks! Some day I might get her over to South Africa..........
Engine access is via tilting the passenger seat back. Its not too bad really. Only problem is it would be difficult to fit better after market seats to the passenger side.
Over cab bed is huge! bigger than a Kings sized bed. Its well insulated so heat isn't a problem up there.
Karl of Oz

 

[Timod110]

Karl

Such a great build ! Keep posting photos and stories of you travels

Cheers

T

 

[Karl of Oz]

Time for an update!

I have made some forward progress in improving the ride. The elephant in the room however is still the short front spring length on the later model Fuso Canters. Without moving the mounts and fitting much longer springs it will always be a bit harsh.

Last month I went up to QLD to All Terrain Warriors and we made a few changes. This time I replaced the front bump stops with Timbren AEON A170-55. These are 70 mm high and progressive down to 29 mm. They replaced a much harder bump stop of 86 mm which only allowed about a 45 mm air gap between the chassis rail and the top of the bump stop.

The original set up allowed a total gap between top and bottom (assuming there was no bump stop at all) of somewhere between 131 mm and 145 mm (it wasn't easy to measure accurately). However the gap between the front drive pinion and the bottom of the sump was about 130 mm. This meant that with no bump stop, one could put a hole up to 15 mm deep in the sump!

After considering this and comparing the differences with the Timbren AEON A170-55, the maximum this bump stop could "squish" down to is 29 mm. At this point the bump stop would have to compress from 70 mm down to 29 mm. When all this is added up the outcome is that there is now about 61 mm of "free air" before the bump stop starts to progressively do its work (another 41 mm). This gap allows the Kings shocks to work better as intended.

As a little bit of extra insurance, ATW also fitted a thin packing plate under the spring to give about another 4 mm clearance thus giving a little bit more protection from Mr pinion hitting Mrs sump.

The effect of fitting these shorter progressive bump stops was immediate, the suspension was a lot better. After a bit of time sorting out the shock settings by Big Dave at ATW, we got it working fairly good.

Next stop was to Kings who pulled the front shocks apart and fitted more shims to increase rebound damping (Dave thought it needed a bit more rebound). I think its better, but the biggest change was noticed when I increased that bump stop clearance and put the progressive Timbren AEON in.

While at ATW I was lucky enough to go for a run in both an Isuzu Global Warrior and a cab chassis dual cab Hino 4x4 300 they had there for testing. The Isuzu front springs are about 100 mm (that's 4 inches to you Yanks) longer. I could notice the difference in the way the spring behaved compared to the shorter Fuso. The Hino was new and a cab chassis only with no weight, so of course a bit bouncy but its springs are about 150 mm longer again (they were standard springs, not parabolic as in my Fuso or the Global Warrior Isuzu). I think when ATW get this Hino up and running its going to be pretty bloody good, but beware its also a bit porky in weight!

I don't know that there is much else I can do now to improve the ride. It handles very well (it has ATW "sway bars" fitted and goes around corners very well...the Mrs is always complaining telling me "you're not on the bike now") but I guess it will always be a bit harsh. Another factor in the ride is the Toyo tyres of which I have dropped pressure from 85 psi (ok Americans, I still work in PSI) down to 60 psi on the front. These are harsh tyres but there's nothing else big soft and round to do the job.

Always interested to hear what others with a Fuso are doing in this area......

And the best thing I've done lately is that I removed the chip I had in it (which went well) and had the engine re-mapped. Apparently there were 57 files that had to be assessed on this model (2016) and this took the guy at Diesel Tune Australia about 5 and a half hours to do. At present its putting out around 140kW and 490 Nm. The guy who did this wants me to come back (I've done about 2000 km now) for some final fine tuning. He wanted me to try it for a bit first. He recons 500 Nm is well within the capacity of the vehicle, but its not just about maximums here, its where in the rev range and how much that suits.

As an aside, he told me the chip I had only did one thing, and that was to increase fuel rail pressure. His re-map has reduced this significantly (apparently only a few % more than standard). But that's only one area, the re-map is much more holistic across a range of parameters.

The truck is a lot smoother, breaths a lot better and picks up very well from 1500 rpm. I recon if I took the camper off it would do wheel stands!

As a comparison, on my way to work each day I have to cross a long curved upward sweeping bridge. It is down hill till about 1/2 way across then starts climbing and then goes up a long hill. It's an 80km/h zone but up till now I've been taking the gamble and hitting the apex at about 90km/h and keeping it nailed. When fully fuelled it previously slowed down to about 60km/h as I neared the top of the hill in 4th. Now I can just do about 80 ~ 85 km/h (i.e. no "run up"), put my foot down as it starts the climb and it will only slow to about 72km/h, fully loaded, all in 4th gear. That's a massive difference. In 5th gear I can go as slow as 50 km/h easily and it will pull smoothly away (but I don't recommend this). Its a lot nicer to drive now.

 

[Family Friendly 4x4]

That does sound impressive! My truck certainly could do with a bit more oomph.

Loaded and watered up I am touching the max 6 ton GVM on mine and it does struggle up hills and against head wind on a motorway. You don't notice it off road naturally because then you are not trying to flow with traffic. Really I should just stay off the motorway LOL. But it does cruise along nicely on level road.

I have had the injectors tweaked and it certainly made the truck feel more nippy. Although it does drink a bit more than the other truck (I have 2x FG84's). Plus I have had the diff ratio converted by the dealership for better top speed.

But we just do not have any remapping specialists in South Africa for this truck.

Australia is the place to be for the good stuff!

 

[GrantBerry]

A sand-flag [tip at max-height] on the front bumper (or even on the wing-mirror-mount) would work just as well ... for a cost of about $20

 

[GrantBerry]

So far its getting 5.7 km/lt (17.5/100 km) fuel usage. ...

Now that you have had it a couple of years,what would you say your average highway consumption is ? And do you manage to keep up with traffic on the hills ? Willthe fully laden Canter manage 110kmh easily on the open road? What RPM does she sit at when doing 110k?

 

[Karl of Oz]

Sorry Grant, didn't see your question until just now......

I'm still getting about 5.7 km/l fuel usage, she's done just over 80000 km. Recently we were getting highway miles on a trip from Sydney to Melbourne of 6 km/l but that was on the freeway, night time driving with the Mrs at the wheel (although she's a lead-foot). Cant remember the rpm at 110 km as we (well me anyway) try and stick to the 100 km/h limit as it is registered as a heavy vehicle. I think it does about 2400 rpm/100km/h in top gear. I haven't driven it since December due to injury so rely on the Mrs to chauffer me around in it.

Since my last posts I've added an additional 59 litre water tank, had the GVM uprated to 6.72 tonne (Maximum possible), and added a 10 litre water tank to the toilet so I can switch to that instead of using good drinking water (it has a pump and can be switched back). If I change to 17" wheels (which I think would produce a better ride) I will have to revert back to 6500 kg GVM which is possible if I splash more cash and replace my very good Full River AGM batteries with Lithiums and do another purge of all the unnecessary crap that seems to creep in and also purge some tools that I've never used or probably wouldn't know how to use anyway!

 

[rocksaltfg84]

Hi, Karl if you go to an engineer how has the qualification for GVM upgrades he may be able to get your Gvm up 7000kg with some rear brakes mods including the brake load proportioning valve area which can help in better braking test .I dont know if you have all ready gone down this path allready. Its a bit had to get away from the harsh ride of the 19.5 toyo tyres but they are reliable and carry the the correct load rating you require for a heavy vehicle.

 

[Karl of Oz]

I was asked a question about fuel economy recently.....on the weekend (our first outing after being allowed freedom!) we drove from Sydney to Lithgow and back. Took about 5 hours driving time all up. The Mrs drive (I cant yet due to injury) and on the way I noticed the fuel usage (which I have "calibrated" against real usage) started the trip at 5.3 km/l. When we got home it was showing 6.2 km/l which is better than normal. We left with a full tank of fuel but our load weight was probably about 80 to 85% maximum trip weight (didn't have the water tank filled fully and less food etc). I know that over the whole 200 litres the 6.2km/l will reduce a bit (maybe 5.7?) but its still going well. Driving at night on a cool day also helps (more power!) and there was less traffic to get hung up on. I only use CALTEX VORTEX fuel, I only ever use this or premium if I can get it. If I have to use non-premium, I lose about 1/2 km/lt in fuel efficiency.
Hope this helps someone who cares, although it probably upsets those who cant travel anywhere due to lockdowns!