RRC Based 88" Buggy

[Team Idris]

I've been thinking of putting my old build up for a bit, so here it is;

First I'll thank Rosie, for helping in the 'smart' decisions. Seen here in our 1991 BT-transit 190, leaf sprung, 2 litre pinto home made camper van. It's nearly a classic in its own right!

[Team Idris]

How it looked when the 1972 RRC arrived as an insurance right off;



Once it was dismembered;



After it had been stripped to a bare chassis, shortened, fitted with a roll cage, had a boat load of welding and put back on its axels.



And as a buggy that moves about on it's own. Right now I'm 100% welding that blue S2 wing. It has been driven into trees now since 1995 when this picture was taken, so it doesn't look quite so healthy a part today

[Team Idris]

A few months later it is all done and pretty, so off we go to it's first trial. We have oil pressure issues so bad the tappits shut down, but we still rag it for half a day in Mid Wales.



Here's Rosie giving that V8 plenty of boot! (She calls it the Beast) We did a couple of comp safaris with it as well, where we found it only did three miles to the gallon. It gives good service until I decide to get a masters degree in 2000. Funds mean I have to store it here and there until I finish in 2005. The beast takes a dislike to this and deteriorates.

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One more of Rosie Trialling;




My friend Geoff told me how he had marshalled a Midland Offroad Club event and seen something that will suit me just right! "Called a challenge event, you have to winch yourself around to different punches and drive where you can". I'm sold on that and it is closer than the Mid Wales Offroad Club Events we liked to do. I come across an X6 winch in the scrap yard for £10. I know the motor is stuffed, so I order a new one and get going on the mid mount position. The sticky up bits of red metal are the mount.

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I need a front winch as well as a rear and Rosie says get a good one. I decide on the Milemarker TypeR. Terry and I set to creating a plan to put a hydraulic PTO on the front of the V8 like a JCB has. We decide on a pump raft, trapped between sump and engine block, braced to the heads. It's about 2007 and there is a lot to do to pull this off. We have a two port valve block and a pile of expensive bits............

[Team Idris]

That is a flippin' awesome winch to use
At 3000rpm, 2500psi it is a lot of horse power. The pressure gauge really is vital, or you have no idea what is going on. Being able to do speed and pull, it looks deceptive when working, because it never looks like it is working hard. Earlier in 2014 it got a new pump, as to get good pressure at 1200 rpm for winch-and-drive the pump needs to be less than half worn.
Well chuffed with our work, which includes a crank adapter I drew up on CAD and had made, we get a sinking engine. Time for better mounts.

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We try various rollers on the back to direct the rope and they are all excellent. The rear winch is far enough inboard that it happily self reeves and you pretty much ignore it.

The front winch isn't so fortunate, so we conceive a sliding fairlead to direct the rope away from the winch cheeks before any damage can occur. To keep an eye on the proceedings I fit a wing mirror on the bull bar. (I say bull-bar, but it is tied into the wing bars to stop the winch snapping the chassis off)

You can just make out the bonnet fan. I took us a fair while to figure out that we had a carb boiling problem. It did trials and comps fine, but winch challenge made it spit the dummy every time, even in winter.

[Team Idris]

We melt the X6 motor, blow the rear diff and smash the back end in on a tree over the next few events. I fit an under ski so it slides over stuff, make a new 40 box rear cap structure with corner rope guides and splash out on a KAM rear diff and shafts.







Fed up of mud getting behind the guard

2" by 4" slidey thing. Great for logs and walls. Runs from diff to diff.

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November 2010 ish I decide to start at the back with a 9" angle and cut my way forward to the back of the seats. The rear cross member that was new in 1994 is shot and gets replaced with a 3mm steel quarter-pipe to slip over stuff. The rad is remounted, the 12,00lb TDS moved to the middle and the winch wiring looked at. The diode split charge is working well with a Lodar remote and at this point we believe the TDS will be our rear main winch for all days. But I still add metal for a top-line winch, just incase.

The old X6 set up;



The first TDS set up, same position, new ally rear rollers on ball race bearings;



Sorry, same photo again, but in a different context.

The current install, with greater roll bar strength to stop the rear winch killing the truck when the rear winch is reeved to the top line. That 12,00lb tds is an animal. We haven't stalled it yet! ;







This new thread is kind of working better, as I can group it by sections rather than time

[Team Idris]

Proper Billet machined Fair lead;





Just minutes before I destroy the front diff

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The journey of a ground anchor; this maybe version 4 & 5 on the same spade? The milmarker on a 2 tonne truck can pretty much kill anything. Having a T handle on the back for Terry to steer it is it's best attribute.

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Gwyn's damper mod kit before I went to Sumo bars;

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The last 4x4 show at Stafford Show Ground. This is as smart as it has ever been in the 'Dragon' art work

The same smart Beast at a TOR photo shoot at Silverdale.

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Not sure I'll get away with this one



I'm happy to pull the photo if required. But we are still super proud to have got a few pages in a mag

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Front Axel is now a 'B' with 'A' outers and Ashcroft CV's & Shafts with KAM diff. No Photo's though. All I can say is that it gives even greater prospects for getting into trouble.

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To consolidate my thoughts, where are we now? The old rope seal V8 is in the shed, LT95 went, both diffs and shafts went, the seats wore out, the 12 gallon fuel tank was replaced, the X6, cross member went, engine number two is about to die.......

We have; diff locks both ends, fiddle brakes, a front hydraulic winch with sliding fairlead and bike cables to change its gears, a high mounted diesel Landy steering pump, second power steering box, Insa Turbo Special Tracks instead of SAT's, underneath protection, HP22 auto, TDS that does rear and top line, working on Lodar remote, two decent batteries, diode split charge and a host of other stuff.

The high mount power steering is about to become very critical. Not because it pushed the already slopey bonnet to the absolute maximum lift before it stopped vision, but because the dry sump pump is about to go in where the low mount steering pump was.
Old Position;



New Position;

[Team Idris]

We had a red light come on at Bridgenorth in 2011
We bought another engine that was nearly as bad, (well done us) but didn't have a warped block, so we built one out of two. Luckily our old engine had good +20 though pistons, so they were re-used.

Here is the old engine used as a jig for the dry sump;

Re-bore

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Mucho cash later it's time to fabricate and fit the dry sump gear to go with the stuff I've bought. No point having a max-torque cam and ARP studs without having decent oil pressure at all angles.

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Now it does this without smoking, and the pressure stays above 28psi and below 40psi hot.




There is a Gwyn Lewis track rod guard under there and a pair of old Man Emu rear shocks. A greacable A frame ball joint awaits fitting. It really is starting to perform like it should. And it hasn't got a lift kit !

[Team Idris]

Fiddle brake history next maybe? They really need a 4 pot calliper to work right and the 5/8" CNC lever set. Maybe even 1/2" bore that they don't make. The 3/4" bore set I bought are pants. But they do help.



Spare clutch pedal? Why not find it a friend and go foot-fiddle-brakes

]

[Team Idris]

Latest bonnet photo and Dash photo;

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A hydraulic winch for £400 is too good an opportunity to pass by

That must have come before foot fiddle brakes then? I haven't put he levers back in.

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Always looking for a better off road aid, here are the new mud ramps;

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The current job is sorting the front wings out and the scaffold tube support it has on the right hand side. I think our next winch challenge is May, so I need to get working on it, because I don't move at a massive pace these days

[bushwhacker]

A great read and pics to on a Sunday morning.

It's not hard to see what you enjoy doing.

Thanks and good luck for the future.