The Bowman Odyssey Rig
- Thread starter LeftofLucky
- Start date
...Throw in the 75th anniversary of Daytona Bike Week, and things were getting stressful. I really, really didn't want to have to do the parking lot thing with the wife and kid. We decided to take a flier and move away from the coast, inland. We wound up at St John's River, a wildlife management area with a rustic campground. We had the place to ourselves for $8. Sold.
Interesting how those bar-mounted lights "appeared" overnight... Seriously, though, are they set up to be portable? Is there some sort of quick disconnect for the wiring?
Keep the updates coming! This along with the Drive posts are some of my favorite reading material currently.
Best,
Max
LeftofLucky
Observer
I was wondering if anyone'd notice. So here's the skinny on the lights. They were part of the package of goodies that ARB sent us before we left. I originally installed them in the instructed location, just above the winch in front of the grille. You can see them here:
Sweet, right? Protected. Out of the way. They throw a good pattern from there. One problem, though: even at an ambient temperature of around 60 degrees, the truck's coolant temp would start to climb on even a slight incline. I have an Edge Insight CTS plugged into the OBD2 port, and it shows a readout in degrees. The truck usually sits around 188/190 with the 190 thermostat. Lugging up the big climbs out west, I saw a maximum increase of about 197. On the drive from Knoxville to Hungry Mother, the temp topped 200 routinely, and it wasn't like we were doing a 7,000-foot climb. Just nice, easy hills.
So what changed? At first, I thought maybe I'd gotten a bubble in the coolant when I did the clutch fan. I had to drain the radiator to pull the upper hose. So I bled the system. Then I bled it again. Then one more time for good measure. No bubbles.
The truck requires a massive amount of air to keep everything cool, and the nose is packed with heat exchangers. Radiator, intercooler, power steering cooler, A/C condenser. The bumper and winch effectively block off the lower half of all of those. Those massive IPFs took up what was left of the available surface area. My guess is, they form a negative pressure zone behind them.
So, I took them off for a spell to see if the coolant temp would drop back down. Sure enough. Even at 87 degrees under full boost, the thing has only crept up to 196. I can deal with that.
That takes care of the cooling issue, but what about the lights? They put out a stellar amount of illumination, and the factory high beams are pretty weak. I don't plan on doing much driving off highway in the dark, but they're worth having, and I'd already done the legwork of wiring them up. The bull bar comes with top mounts for HAM or CB radio antenna, and they're large enough to accept the lamp posts. Fine. Stuck them up there, moved the wiring from the slick, hidden spot where I had it to above the radiator. Aimed everything up. It's goofy as hell, and they look like they're begging to snag a branch, but they work.
It's a bummer that the bull bar is designed to put those big lights in the grille, especially when the 5.9 needs so much airflow. I plan to get on the horn with ARB and talk to them about it. See what they say.
Oh. New update on The Drive, too.
http://www.thedrive.com/article/2663/lost-in-the-weeds-of-days
justbecause
perpetually lost
I was wondering if anyone'd notice. So here's the skinny on the lights. They were part of the package of goodies that ARB sent us before we left. I originally installed them in the instructed location, just above the winch in front of the grille. You can see them here:
Sweet, right? Protected. Out of the way. They throw a good pattern from there. One problem, though: even at an ambient temperature of around 60 degrees, the truck's coolant temp would start to climb on even a slight incline. I have an Edge Insight CTS plugged into the OBD2 port, and it shows a readout in degrees. The truck usually sits around 188/190 with the 190 thermostat. Lugging up the big climbs out west, I saw a maximum increase of about 197. On the drive from Knoxville to Hungry Mother, the temp topped 200 routinely, and it wasn't like we were doing a 7,000-foot climb. Just nice, easy hills.
So what changed? At first, I thought maybe I'd gotten a bubble in the coolant when I did the clutch fan. I had to drain the radiator to pull the upper hose. So I bled the system. Then I bled it again. Then one more time for good measure. No bubbles.
The truck requires a massive amount of air to keep everything cool, and the nose is packed with heat exchangers. Radiator, intercooler, power steering cooler, A/C condenser. The bumper and winch effectively block off the lower half of all of those. Those massive IPFs took up what was left of the available surface area. My guess is, they form a negative pressure zone behind them.
So, I took them off for a spell to see if the coolant temp would drop back down. Sure enough. Even at 87 degrees under full boost, the thing has only crept up to 196. I can deal with that.
That takes care of the cooling issue, but what about the lights? They put out a stellar amount of illumination, and the factory high beams are pretty weak. I don't plan on doing much driving off highway in the dark, but they're worth having, and I'd already done the legwork of wiring them up. The bull bar comes with top mounts for HAM or CB radio antenna, and they're large enough to accept the lamp posts. Fine. Stuck them up there, moved the wiring from the slick, hidden spot where I had it to above the radiator. Aimed everything up. It's goofy as hell, and they look like they're begging to snag a branch, but they work.
It's a bummer that the bull bar is designed to put those big lights in the grille, especially when the 5.9 needs so much airflow. I plan to get on the horn with ARB and talk to them about it. See what they say.
Oh. New update on The Drive, too.
http://www.thedrive.com/article/2663/lost-in-the-weeds-of-days
Hood scoop with vent louvers.
and some functional side vents. Just make sure to position them so they arent in the way when you install a snorkel later.
whats a little cutting and grinding on the ol roving home stead?
Hey bud I run 4 bigger lights than that in front of my dodge and have buddies with more blocking air flow than me including folks with motorcycle or with tires up front like carlyle on here. I might look at fan, radiator etc. There is no reason to be concerned about those temps. If you were constantly running 230 then there might be a issue. I run at 200 empty. I run a 6.7 but these modern cummins run a littler hotter. You could swap out to 180 degree tstat. But I would look at a better intercooler and radiator for the long run.
LeftofLucky
Observer
Sure, the thing can run at those temps, but why force the issue? It's a big, old, tired motor. Why put the extra stress of additional heat on the thing? And again, can't stress it enough, I was seeing that swing on a thin incline in very cool ambient temps. Can't imagine what it would do in the heat of the summer desert with a legitimate grade in front of it. Engines need air. Simple as that. At some point, you have to do the cost benefit thing. Am I going to stress the engine a little more every day for that one hour a year when I need a little light? It makes no sense.
As for a better intercooler or radiator, that might be an option if we still had a garage and a fully outfitted shop, but I'm not going to be swapping heat exchangers on the trail if I don't have to. I'm all about aftermarket solutions when the need arises, but there's no reason to throw another grand or more at a problem I created.
ExplorerTom
Explorer
I'm a big fan of Redline Water Wetter. It might help to extract some additional heat by breaking down the surface tension of the water and allowing good contact to the heat exchangers.
kraven
Hegelian Scum
Have you thought about using some cardboard and duct tape to experiment with guiding the air into the grille? It might be profitable to play around with it, then add small sheet metal bits as more permanent attachments. Generally, aero doesn't need a ton of ducting. Just some subtle hints on where to go.