The bonnet had to be trimmed a bit to fit the larger wheels. These pics show the huge amount of suspension travel available.The bonnet had to be trimmed a bit to fit the larger wheels. These pics show the huge amount of suspension travel available.
I made new footwells out of aluminium instead of the original plastic ones. It is not unusual for branches to get caught under the car and the plastic just didn't provide enough protection. To give a little more leg room I made a bulge in the footwell. I recently bought a cheap Chinese TIG welder and this is the first proper job I have done with it. I'm pretty pleased with the results considering this is pretty much the first time I have TIG welded anything.
The front prop shaft uses a Corsa drive shaft welded to a Sierra prop shaft. This allowed me to use a single piece prop instead of having a centre bearing.
As you can see it only just clears. I tested this setup without any wheels on the car and at full speed there is a bit of vibration in this shaft which is worrying. I may end up having to fit a centre bearing anyway.
This is the rear steering ram. Rear steer will be electronically controlled using a solenoid valve. This is not legal for road use so there are two lockout blocks for use on the road. They simply lock the ram in the centre position.
Although I carefully drew the suspension in CAD I didn't think about the caliper clearance. I had to cut out a section of each rear wishbone to clear the calipers.
To power the rear steer I needed another power steering pump. The front of this engine is getting rather busy. The front steering will be powered from the new Ford Transit pump which has a higher flow than the original Corsa pump. I'm using a much bigger ram than the corsa pump was designed to run so I need the extra flow to keep the steering speed up.
The front steering rack. It isn't very clear what is going on here and I forgot to take pictures of the rack before I fitted it. It is a Peugeot 306 rack sat on top of a custom made hydraulic ram. Peugeot 306 racks are designed to have an external ram but theirs is tiny compared to the one I am using. I need the extra power to swing those big wheels in deep mud. You need to be built like a gorilla to steer this thing without power steering.
Sitting directly above the steering rack is the front winch.
I haven't taken many photos of progress but here are a couple of pictures, from the first incarnation to the latest version.
Do you like what I am doing? Am I doing it all wrong? If you have any questions or suggestions, do let me know by posting a comment.
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