ATEV
New member
Hello everyone, new here but not really as following the expedition portal for quiet a long time now and finally toked time to register and share my passion and not only.
After a "little" health issues couple of years ago I opened my eyes and saw the time flying past , kids growing up, me and wife getting older waay too fast so decided to make a change, I used to build race cars, motorcycles 4x4's etc thru the past 20 years of running my business, few years ago went back doing some offroad with family which is completelly different from competition and getting out with mates to look at most extreme stuff we could do and I really enjoyed it. Now it seems to be my way forward to getting into expedition/overland, my wife get hooked with the offroad and camping as well as my kids so why not. Slowly there are less race cars in the workshop and more expedition vehicles, yes still some competition 4x4's (ultra 4 class) but that's a part of it all anyway. I had a very nice Jeep zj on nissan patrol axles and bmw 3.0 td engine which we absolutely loved with the half jeep trailer as well but decided to sale it and do something that was in my mind for quiet a long time now. A van, I know there are few on the market already but nothing suits my needs or simply didn't like them so decided to build one that is not too small and not too big, as light as possible, offroad capable and powerfull enough, and possibly cool as well. choice was made on a vivaro or trafic (same van) nit the wvt5 as i find them massively overated smaller inside etc and mostly as this vivaro's simply don't rust and that is a important think in a project that should last for long time, plus i really like the shape of it.
As for comp experience once again usung nissan patrol y61 axles, bmw 3.0td engine remapped to 310 bhp and around 7/750 nm torque, 6 speed bmw gearbox as they are very strong ( we use them with our v8 turbo systems) g-class transfer case. The problem is that there is no engine bay big enough for that engine and no tunnel at all for the transmission as this vans only come as fwd so that have to be build from scratch as well as the whole section of the frame/chassis legs, std ones come too wide, too low and right there where the springs should be.
For now I am concentrating on chassis/driveline then inside and expedition trailer but thats another chapter as we are soon gonna build them for customers.
Alright lets not waste any more time and get you all annoyed, lets go with pics:
this is how I started about 20 years ago, my second jeep xj , built this one on patrol axles as well, the one on the right, in Italy.
After a "little" health issues couple of years ago I opened my eyes and saw the time flying past , kids growing up, me and wife getting older waay too fast so decided to make a change, I used to build race cars, motorcycles 4x4's etc thru the past 20 years of running my business, few years ago went back doing some offroad with family which is completelly different from competition and getting out with mates to look at most extreme stuff we could do and I really enjoyed it. Now it seems to be my way forward to getting into expedition/overland, my wife get hooked with the offroad and camping as well as my kids so why not. Slowly there are less race cars in the workshop and more expedition vehicles, yes still some competition 4x4's (ultra 4 class) but that's a part of it all anyway. I had a very nice Jeep zj on nissan patrol axles and bmw 3.0 td engine which we absolutely loved with the half jeep trailer as well but decided to sale it and do something that was in my mind for quiet a long time now. A van, I know there are few on the market already but nothing suits my needs or simply didn't like them so decided to build one that is not too small and not too big, as light as possible, offroad capable and powerfull enough, and possibly cool as well. choice was made on a vivaro or trafic (same van) nit the wvt5 as i find them massively overated smaller inside etc and mostly as this vivaro's simply don't rust and that is a important think in a project that should last for long time, plus i really like the shape of it.
As for comp experience once again usung nissan patrol y61 axles, bmw 3.0td engine remapped to 310 bhp and around 7/750 nm torque, 6 speed bmw gearbox as they are very strong ( we use them with our v8 turbo systems) g-class transfer case. The problem is that there is no engine bay big enough for that engine and no tunnel at all for the transmission as this vans only come as fwd so that have to be build from scratch as well as the whole section of the frame/chassis legs, std ones come too wide, too low and right there where the springs should be.
For now I am concentrating on chassis/driveline then inside and expedition trailer but thats another chapter as we are soon gonna build them for customers.
Alright lets not waste any more time and get you all annoyed, lets go with pics:
this is how I started about 20 years ago, my second jeep xj , built this one on patrol axles as well, the one on the right, in Italy.
