1Coolbanana's Grande Build Up

[1coolbanana Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 1coolbanana]

It all started in the late 80's with my urge to get out amongst it and with a lot of ARB and custom work, the shorty was born.
The sickness kind of started here and had many awesome trips and did a lot of places that are now closed (like the Great North Convict Road) with this tough old truck.



That ended in the mid 90's but Ive been craving to get back into a 4WD.

The Prado seemed the only choice really as something to be my daily ride and be able to get out amongst it on the weekends and it fitted the bill perfectly.
I wasnt looking for a Grande but when this beauty came along in mid April with 100k of suburban living I couldnt pass it up.

The perfect blank canvas......perfect



And so far

• BFG 275-65 KO AT's
• AMTS Spare Wheel Spacers
• ARB Deluxe Colour Coded Bar
• Leigh's Voltage Booster
• IPF Extremes x 3 (2 x wide and 1 x spot beam)
• Diff Breathers, front diff, rear diff
• Transmission and transfer case breathers
• Oricom UH200 UHF
• Uniden AT870 3+6.5
• Tough Dog Adjustable Lift
• BM404400 struts, BM401116 shocks, TDC974H front springs
• Thumper 50 amp Anderson plugged power isolator charger for cargo area
• New OEM dashboard
• Dual Batteries in Cargo Area (removable self contained) charged by Thumper Kit
• AirAWare TPMS on all 5 Wheels
• Black Speedy Grande Wheels, all 5
• 50 Liter Ironman Fridge
• False Cargo Area Floor
• Trektable for rear door
• Avenger Mako 9500 winch with Dyneema rope
• AMTS full length bash plate, colour coded
• Upgraded the BM401116 shocks to BM401111 150 series long travel shocks
• Airbagman extended long travel airbags
• Diff drop 25mm
• LED marker lights and blinkers

Ill keep updating this and the pic to match the current state

[1coolbanana Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 1coolbanana]

Was going to leave it stock for a while but after the first drive out..........



I just had to get rid of the grand Treks and fit some more "manly" rubber
After a huge amount of mental anguish deciding whether to get muddies or something less aggresive and then finding out there is such a massive shortage of suitable tyres I was very lucky to get a full set of BFG 275/65-17 and Im extremely glad I did!



Then of course we needed a bar.
After more mental torment I finally decided on the ARB Deluxe.
I actually wanted a Sahara but was talked out of it.
Wanted it colour coded too but that meant an 8 week wait so black it was.



Bugger, now shes sagged a bit more in the front.
That will need looking at.

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So now Im starting to get the evil eye from the missus......shes having flashbacks of the 90's and the beast "Shorty" but Ive been assuring her that she doesnt have to worry!

Im still getting used to a 4WD with power steering!!!!
And crickey, there all auto's as well these days!!!!!

Anyway I figure we need some lights now a score a second hand pair of IPF's on fleabay.



Better start thinking about the best way to wire them up aye!

Must say Im pretty disappointed with the ARB Deluxe to be honest.
They are lacking the most basic functionality like:
No rated recovery points
No easy way of fitting decent recovery points.
No antenna mounts along the top tube.
Not enough room between the bonnet opening and the top bar so it makes things awkward to fit an antenna mount.
And last but not least, the wings bounce way more than they should if they were triangulated properly.

Too late now, best make the most of it.

[Matty80 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Matty80]

Wings bounce more than they should?
Bar should be fairly solid, good chance that your seeing the difference in movement between the body and the chassis.

Does your bar not have the extra eyes located vertically next to the factory points? I thought I could see them in that last photo?

[1coolbanana Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 1coolbanana]

Does your bar not have the extra eyes located vertically next to the factory points? I thought I could see them in that last photo?

Yep, its got the piddly little "tow points" as they are called by ARB but hardly what you would call proper rated recovery points.

[1coolbanana Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 1coolbanana]

Decided I didnt like the black so off with the bar to be colour coded.

I think this is better



For the life of me, I cant work out why they decided to paint all the plates under the bar.
Maybe it will grow on me.
Nothing a spray can cant fix.

[1coolbanana Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 1coolbanana]

Time to think about wiring the lights and giving myself scope for other electrical doodags along the way.
Got a common rail fuse box with six fuses but needed to work out the best place for mounting.
Figured the best place was up the back left, nice and out of the way with plenty of room to add stuff later.
Enter one of the wifes chopping boards
Theres a couple of spare 8mm mount holes just where I needed.

Trial fit



Fuse block on



Used another piece of chopping board cut in a strip as a stand off from the guard.

[1coolbanana Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 1coolbanana]

Starting to take shape



Found it a lot easier to move the charcoal unit out of the way so I could get the wiring in behind.



Used the IPF relay but made my own harness up and voila

[1coolbanana Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 1coolbanana]

Heres the wiring under the bar for the lights.
Scored a third IPF in the process too







Yeah baby !!!

[MidLifeCrisis Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close MidLifeCrisis]

Mate

I love the ARB guards painted! Gonna do it myself!

[1coolbanana Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 1coolbanana]

Mate

I love the ARB guards painted! Gonna do it myself!

I still havent decided whether I like it or not yet but it is growing on me.

We may start a trend!!

The only problem will be when I get the AMTS bash plate...........paint it to match or not?????

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

Not.... I would leave the AMTS bash plates black (having looked at your rig a few times now, the colour coding is growing on me too.) I might even colour code mine! Oh, what a minute....

[1coolbanana Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 1coolbanana]

So the next lot of things to do will be breathers and a lift.

The breathers are straightforward but the lift not so much with the Grande issue of the airbags and not wanting to blow the budget with new airbags.

The issue seems to be the possibility of the airbags dislodging at max extension with suspension that has too much additional travel and how to simply and successfully retain the OEM airbags.
The alternatives are get a true long travel rear shock and airbags or get a good shock that has travel limited to no more than 20mm more max extension than OEM.

The way I figure is that I have at a 800 rear ride height I have 90mm+ of droop so there is plenty of leeway for lift and maintaining 60-65mm of ride height droop.

There isnt really any issue with the front, just disconnect the wiring and fit any quality strut and spring, no real limitations if keeping within the 800mm ride height to <900 full droop.

So Im looking at a rear shock that will give me a max extended droop of 900 and a ride height of 825-830 to be able to retain OEM airbags without issue.
The front wants a 790 ride height with 880-900 max droop.

While my search continues the breather are next up.

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Rear diff breather comes first and fortunately I had enough Festo pneumatic fittings left from and old job to do the rear breather and take it up into the rear quarter into the jack area.
Once again the Grande posses extra issues as the common place for the tubing to enter, behind and under the rear quarter is full of stuff!!!
On the Grande thats where the airbag pump and controllers are located so I had to find a different way to enter the quarter..

I actually did this backwards, as its easier to start at the filler end of things.

1/8 BSP, quick connect 6mm tubing at the diff.
Make sure you clean around the area before removing the OEM breather.
You dont want any crap falling in the hole.



Make a nice loop to allow for suspension travel but not too much and you can use the retainers that are present above to hold the tube



Route over the chassis rail and cable tie to something convenient, in this case, art of the air pump controller



Then up behind the rear guard to the filler

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My ever ready under body helper



The tube comes through the bottom of the filler colar drain hole and then poke a hole through the soft rubber and into the quarter panel.
When its all exactly where you want it, silicon around the tube where it enters the quarter panel



It comes through above the jack, so fit a filter and cable tie securely out of the way.



Your done with the rear