Another green laner build

While waiting for the diff bits and throttle position sensor to come in I looked into mounting the sand ladders. I'd rather mount them outside as they get covered in mud. They are exactly the right length to fit on the roof rails. I'm thinking about using over centre latches to clamp them on, something along the lines of this:
 

The catch would be permanently attached to the rail and would hook over the ladder. I'm struggling to find suitable latches though - these ones don't have a safety catch. It would be too easy to a branch to hook on the handle and release it. About all I can find is these . They are a bit small though. Anyone have any better ideas?
 

What about a modified j bolt with a large washer and wing nut? Pass it through the board and hook under the rail. Or even just drill the rail and use a normal bolt that remains in place like a pin and have a wing nut and washer to retain the board? You could even cross drill the bolts to accommodate small padlocks?

I didn't think of using a J bolt. My biggest concern with that method is that when you remove the ladders you have loose bits that are easy to lose or drop in the mud, especially if you have cold fingers in the winter.

I had considered having a pin sticking up and using a linch pin through it. That's effectively how I did it on the Copelander, though those are on the side. The biggest down side is that the pins would stick up above the ladders and be vulnerable if I need to squeeze under a branch or fallen tree. With catches or J bolts, removing the sand ladders would gain me an extra 40mm clearance. Devon lanes can be very overgrown and tight (even for a Jimny) so clearance can be an issue sometimes.

One problem with using bolts or pins is reaching them when installing/removing the ladders. It's that much of an issue on a flat surface but if the car's at a funny angle in a lane it could be quite a stretch to reach above the ladders and do up the nut/linch pin.

I'm not that concerned about theft. The ladders will only be on there when I'm green laning. For normal driving they are likely to generate too much wind noise and drag.

Do it the other way then. Drill a hole in the rail and hook the j bolt onto the board then have the wing nut under the rail. It might even be possible to leave the j bolt in place without the board and still have clearance to the roof. That said anything I put on my cross bars is secured by cam straps.

Car builder solutions have some decent stainless over centre latches either with a lock or with a cotter pin option...

www.carbuilder.com/uk/large-locking-stai...over-centre-fastener

wrote:

Do it the other way then. Drill a hole in the rail and hook the j bolt onto the board then have the wing nut under the rail. It might even be possible to leave the j bolt in place without the board and still have clearance to the roof.
 

I like that idea. The J bolts would remain attached to the car so no lost bits. I have some M6 stainless threaded bar that I could make them out of. Or for a better looking job, I found some suitable stainless J bolts on eBay .  I'll have to do some measuring up tomorrow.

The last parts for the diff arrived today so I managed to get it built back up. It took most of the day as I'm making a big batch of CNC turned parts for a customer. I had to stop what I was doing every 2 minutes to feed the hungry machine. The throttle position sensor is due to arrive tomorrow so I may finally get to drive it on the weekend!

Well, I took it for a test drive and the auto gearbox is playing up - this car is really fighting me. Most of this weekend was spent driving and trying to fault find the gearbox.

The driver's seat is way too far forward to be comfortable, so I made some seat relocating brackets. They relocate the seat 60mm further back. If anyone wants a copy of the drawings, let me know. I also took a quick video of the parts being cut out on the plasma.
Click here


The finished parts bolted in the car for a test fit. I still need to paint them.
 

I'm seriously considering attaching this winch to an adapter that fits the receivers. It's only a small winch but it should be enough for recovery purposes.
 

An idea for mounting the hilift. It's held in with a linch pin so that it doesn't fly around the cab in a rollover or crash. The blue tape marks where it needs to be cut. I won't be cutting this hilift as it fits the Copelander but they are cheap enough to buy. After playing with it I think I'll turn it around so the foot is towards the door.
 

 

The hilift mount is now made and installed. The hilift has been shortened by about 200mm.
Old supermarket totes are useful for storage. I'd like to find some way of locking everything down so it doesn't start raining hard and heavy items if I roll it. The floor is currently cardboard. It's basically the template for a plywood floor.

 

Here's a close up of the mount. It screws onto the original rear seat fixing. Thinking about it. I'll probably move it to the driver's side. The plan is to sometimes use this car for longer outings. If I remove the passenger's seat and replace it with a suitable platform there will be enough room to sleep in the car overnight. The totes stack easily so they can be stacked on one side overnight.

 

Sand ladders mounted with J bolts. I was concerned about wind noise but when I took it for a test drive I didn't hear anything, which is great news.
I'm not totally convinced by the J bolts. They are a bit fiddly to use. I'll stick with them until I figure out a more suitable clamping method.

 

The "18W" (actually 6W) LED reversing lights throw lots of light. Much better than the dim glow of the standard reversing light.

 

Hopefully I'll be finally taking it on a proper green laning run this weekend. It's still on the original 205/70 road tyres. I want to get an idea of how it performs as standard before fitting the 195/80 Saharas. It will also be interesting to see how it compares to a friend's un-modified Terios on 185/80 R15 tyres. I already know he has considerably more chassis ground clearance than me.

Before you take that too far down the road please remount your high lift jack with the foot towards the seat. If you get shunted from the back as it is, you or your passenger are sitting directly in the path of a large metal spear that will travel straight through the seat frame through your back and down your leg because there is no way it's staying put mounted by that rear seat bolt. At least if the foot is against the seat it will probably only be a crush injury if you are unlucky.

Actually the more I think about it you really need to mount it transversely across the rear foot well. Yes it will be more difficult to get to but mounted longitudinally which ever way forward it is bridging the crumple structure of the car and is going to cause carnage to the occupants. Your other alternative would be to have a mount above and behind the upper front seatbelt point and have it vertically ish behind the seat. But anything is better than running the risk of being impaled on 15kg of farm jack.

Either end slamming into your back would make for a very bad day. I just did some research and it looks like about the maximum survivable peak vehicle crash acceleration is around 60G. The jack weighs about 11kg so you are looking at about 660kg/6500N peak load on the mount. Looking at the way it's attached I don't think the seat mount would tear out at that load. It would undoubtedly bend a bit but keep in mind under that kind of acceleration the passenger is going to move forward quite a long way as the seat belt stretches.

I think the various other bits that are loose in the back are probably more dangerous. I'd like to find a good way of holding that stuff down.

I'm not suggesting it might move if you hit something and stop abruptly, I'm saying that if something hits you from behind and drives the jack forward. A Jimny is bad in a crash anyway but if you were hit by say 2 plus tonnes of discovery sport into the back door, that would easily send the jack through into the occupants.