Jack's Journey, another Poverty Pack

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Jack is a one owner since new (me!) SG MY04 Forester X.
He's served us well over the years, mostly as a daily driver for SWMBO with a few camping trips towing a 7'x4' light off road camper trailer as well as board carrier and shuttle bus for the kids.
The last 18 months He's been reduced to Camper Trailer puller & Mal/Nipper (surf lifesaving) board carrier.
About 8 months back, SWMBO started raising discussions about trading Jack in on "Something Else" to the value of about $15 - 20ksecond hand, hiluxy sort of thing as she felt Jack was getting a little worn out.
This was to be used predominantly as a shuttlebus, camper trailer tower & board carrier mind you, but with a view to more adventurous touring..

With a little bit of effort, I managed to convince her that Jack was not in fact terribly worn out (backed up by the mechanic thankfully) but just needed a bit of a spruce up.

And thus the journey begins..
 
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Had a successful outing at supercheap on saturday...
Equalizer Strap
Tree Trunk Protector
4.7T shackle
Total cost: $45.00 (had $20 store credit to use)

All added to the collection of stuff I never want to use.

Oops. Slipped and fell while on ebay. In the process I accidentally bought 50M of 2.2T rigging rope and a couple of 3.2T twin sheave climbing pulleys. Not really for recovery per-se but bloody handy for moving big stuff around. It would be ample for moviing the car if stuck due to lack of traction only

Now I just need some synthetic winch cable (almost bought 30M of that for $100.00 I probably should have instead of the 50m of lighter rope) a decent snatch block or two and I'm done with the whole recovery thing - apart from 4 of those plastic track things.

I must be mad.
 
NachaLuva said:
The recovery gear box is getting bigger! :monkeydance:
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SWMBO actually mentioned selliing the trailer camper the other day, to get somethiong smaller.

So now I'm looking for a recovery box with wheels and a neat little camper on top (a bit of space for the engel, water, battery & camping junk would be good too)
 
Had a fiddle with the protype light mount yesterday. All fits perfectly, lovely wobble on the lights when mounted :(

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I think I might position them a bit further apart on the final build.

Not quite sure how to stop the wobble - the mount is 6mm aluminium or thereabouts (cut it out of an old landcruiser bull bar) but where I bolted it on it's not terribly wide thus the wobble - and it's bolted at either end of the bar (to the back of the bumper).

Here's the prototype:

to make it fit, I had to grind off some of the angle, which contributed greatly to the wibble factor.

If the flat bit was a bit higher, I woldn't have had to cut off the right angled bit so much, which would have given it much more rigidity.

So now I've gor to find a straight bit of right angle Aluminium (or steel I guess, but it's heavier..) 950mm long, one edge 50mm, the other 90mm.

I might need to also consider additional mounting points to reduce wobble.
Was even thinking of somehow trying to bolt it to the back of the alloy beam of the bumper. but haven't figured that out yet.

or... I just cut the prototype right down to two right angled tabs and bolt them to the back of the alloy bumper. Which might be the best, but I'm not hugely keen on putting holes in the bumper itself.
If I did, would self tapping screws be enough to hold it in place (thinkiing two or three per mount)..?

Suggestions would be appreciated!
 
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I'm guessing the lights don't have an attachment point for braces, don't think any do these days.

You mounted the lights bar onto the reo bar behind the bumper, or onto the bumper itself? It needs to be mounted at multiple points onto as solid a structure as possible, pref the steel frame.
 
Hi NL,
Mine doesn't have a reo bar (well, not what i think of reo as) It's an alloy bar.
I put in longer mounting bolts for the bumper (alloy bit) and bolted the light bar behind the mount that the bumper (alloy bit) bolts onto.
Currently only one bolt either end.
Definitely needs something to brace, but not sure what i can brace it to.
I might investsigate bolting the mount(I'll have to cut it down some more, possibly into two mounts) directly to the back of the Alloy bar.

I don't think I can brace to the bonnet catch steel bit in the middle- doesn't look sturdy enough.
 
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here's a snap of the mount in place:
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As you can see, it's back an above the bumper quite a bit. A little higher above the bumper than planned for final version.

The more I think about it, the more I'm convincing myself to mount it directly to the back of the alloy section of the bumper. It certainly apears solid enough.
 
^ but will it affect airflow to your radiator if mounted that close?
 
Quite possibly. you can't really tell in the pictures (because it isn't there) but almost all of the light housing will be proud of the grill.
The mount itself is a good 50-75 mmm in front of the radiator
Where the lights mount, is pretty much directly underneath the bottom of the grill, and the grill slopes back a bit, which means the bulk of the light itself will be infront.
I should have really taken the car out for a bit to see what would happen temperature wise, but the lights really were quite "springy" (not really wobbly per se, but lots of movement..) due to the flex in the mount at the mounting points and I wasn't too keen on the idea of driving around with the plastic off.

End result is, I don't think it's (or at leasts I'm really hoping it's not!) going to reduce the amount of air going through when stationary, or going slow, much at all. Travelling at speed, I'm sure it'll reduce the push of air into the front, but how much effect that will have, I don't know.

I really should put it all back together and test it before doing too much else, If they do restrict airflow too much it's a pointless excersise, in which case I'll have some nice blitz 240s for sale if anyone's interested..

I could get smaller ones and put them in the same spot if there's a heat increase but not too excessive..

if not too hot, I'm also thinking about bolting the mount directly to the back of the alloy bar, as well as tinkering with the idea of drilling 'braces' down from the mounting tabs into the alloy bar.
 
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The front of the light is just a shade behind the front of the bumper when fitted (almost level) that may give you a better idea of how far forward they are of the grill.

They are a big light though.

It won't look as weird as my 76 Beetle with it's Cibie Super Oscars on it though. Light throw should be close but. The beetle had a great advantage in that there was, of course no radiator to block.
 
I have similar sized Hella lights on a SubaXtreme nudge bar, so distance from the grill is also similar - never had a problem with overheating (2003 Forester, now with 270,000km) and that includes a lot of trips with ambient around 40 degrees C. I even have a mesh insert in the grille to help prevent locusts, bugs etc. getting to the radiator itself, but it is a fairly open mesh so doesn't make a bug difference to airflow, but it wouldn't help, but so far after 15 years no problems :-)
 
That's postive to hear, thanks!
I never put it back on today, will have another crack on friday I reckon.
 
A lot of people run big lights in front of the radiator without issues, some even behind the grill. If the cooling system is in good condition it should be fine.

The "reo bar" is that big white bar running across the front of the car behind the bumper. It's usually made out of some indestructible plastic lol
 
Ahh.. that white stuff you can see in the top pic of this group is polystyrene. There's a big (? Relatively speaking). extruded alloy bar behind that. Sort of an elongated C shape with the back of the C being flat. The open part faces to the front.

And here I was thinking older foresters had a great big lump of steel for a bumper..!
 
I'm think I'll remove the entire bumper and see how feasible it would be to bolt the light tabs directly to the rear of the alloy. Which would mean total destruction of the prototype mount. I should have kept the rest of the bullbar. Oh well.
 
Not sure if you’d be interested in a license plate mounting bracket ?
I have one on the front of my car with a 23” led bar on it and it does the job + it’s cheap
Like $25 Au
Load of people use them around here for led bars or spot lights

1WD
 
I have, but there's no way I'll fit my Lightforce Blitz 240's on a mounting bracket, just not wide enough spaces between the holes, plus the tube section at the front would be too high for the front of the light
Even if I could find one wide enough, the lights would still stick out about an inch or so in front of the mount and I don't really want them to be the first point of contact should I bump into something..:p

Currently thinking about getting 4 or so long self tapping screws, drilling through the mount and screwing it to the back of the big shiny metal bit of the bumper. Screws will need to be about 75-100mm long i think. The problem with this, is that I haven't figured out how I'll actually screw them into the bar - there's radiators in the way and due to the main bolts of the mount going onto the back of the bumper bolts, I'm not sure I'll be able to remove the bar, bolt the mount to it and then get it back on the car..

Not that I'll be able to do much for the next few weeks as the wife loaned the car to my sister in law until she gets hers fixed (bingled it).
 
When i first installed a lightbar in the grill of my Honda Accord euro I went to a local fabricator to ask him to help install it the best way i could.
He ended up drilling 2 holes in that metal support (bumper reinforcement bar?) then he pressed these little hollow pipes into the holes that had built in thread on the inside so i could bolt the led bar mounts to those holes once he pressed them in
maybe this method could help you ?
i hope you understand what i mean :rotfl:
I didn't realise your spotties are so big lol
maybe thats just what i need once i fit my bullbar

1WD
 
^ That's an interesting idea, might be worth looking into
I didn't realise your spotties are so big lol
maybe thats just what i need once i fit my bullbar

1WD
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I did quite a bit of driving at night in the bush/country when I was younger. I don't believe it's possible to have too much light when driving at night in the bush.
The dowside of such stonking big lights is the reflection from signs is pretty intense, you can't read what they say!
I still managed to have a roo jump into one out Tilpa way (between Wilcannia & Bourke) in my 76 beetle. saw it easily, it turned right, so I moved left and at the last minute the bloody thing changed direction and pretty much jumped straight into the light. I reduce speed dramatically when I see roos now (not that I was going fast in the beetle, only about 40/50Km/h), those things are nuts!

When I moved up to the Tropics from Adelaide in 2002, I went via Broken Hill - Wilcannia - Bourke and at night.the stupid things were jumping into the side of my Hilux Surf (4Runner import) while I was driving past at about 20Km/h

Didn't do any damage but I reckon at least half a dozen managed to jump into the side of the car, maybe more durning that trip.

I also think I ran over an echidna on that trip. :( something I'll never forget is the pop sound it made when I did it. I hoped it was just a paddymelon, but didn't stop to find out, that would have made me really sad. I really like echidnas.:cry:
 
I hope its something that may help.

All i do is drive at night lol
I live in the bush and work Nights so lights are a must for me.

My led bars also blind me when the light hits signs, i reflect signs unto 1.5km away but with all my lights on i don't have great distance of useable light (600m) as im only running led bars which aren't designed to shoot a spot light as far as actual spot lights like yours, so i think i will replace my cheap led bar on the front of my car with a set of good spot lights like yours then i would have great spot and flood.

Ive hit a kangaroo in my accord at about 70-80km/h
He jumped out of a bush on back roads that are 1 car wide with dirt either side, that was about 5k damage

Once i drove past a dead kangaroo at about 80km/h and saw something move,
turned around and found a joey in the dead mothers pouch. took it home and called a wildlife rescue who picked him up and looked after him.

Another time i pulled over as there was a kangaroo that had been hit on the freeway and this poor young guy and his mum stopped to try to get him off the road but couldn't get the guts to move him as he was angry (as you are), i stopped traffic and pulled him off the road to the emergency lane, both his legs where crushed the poor guy, then waved down a cop who shot him on the spot. That was traumatic to witness but thankfully the roo didn't suffer any more than it already did.

Another time i was on the freeway on cruise @ 110km/h (in the accord) with my lights on low as there was oncoming traffic, i was just about to return to the left lane after overtaking a car when i noticed something on the left side of the road in the emergency lane about 60-80m in front , i started to move to the right side of the road and it jumped out in front of me forcing me to go 2 wheels on the grass, and the roo slipped in between my car and the car next to me without hitting either

pure luck

Thats sad about the echidna mate,
I hate killing anything on the road to be honest.
Im always late because of the roo's/rabbits/Wombats/koala's around here lol

1WD
 
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