Bushbound wrote:After crossing the Simpson and driving the GCR, Heather, Gunbarrel and Gary Highways I was fed up with my bull bar continually coming loose and needing to be tightened up every day before we set off from camp and contacted TJM, their agent from Darwin, Dean was really good and had some plates made up to my design to replace the 'Washer Plates' that were supplied with the bar. The 'washer plates' are made from 2.5 or 3mm plate with 13mm holes for the 10mm bolts and had deformed and were completely useless
The new plates were an engineered solution and made from 5mm plate with 10.5mm holes drilled to suit the bolts and much stronger
I also upgraded the bolts from Class 8 to Class 10 and turned the original mounting from this --
to this, the whole mounting sandwitched between the 5mm plates with lock nuts on the bolts.
This has fixed the bar from coming loose and I had no more trouble from the mounting.
About 1/2 way along the Gary Junction Rd I noticed the spotlights were all on the piss and thought they'd come loose but turned out they were pulling out of the bar and had stretched the top deck of the bumper bar and had to be removed
I struggled through the rest of my trip without driving lights and the bar was replaced when I got home.
I've since discovered the side rails and steps that were bought to stop the bull bar shaking so violently on corrugated roads have also broken where they join at the front of the step. TJM have replaced these as well but because of poor design they will fail too -- they use a pissy little tab welded onto the inside of the rail to bolt them together and this causes stress cracks up the rail, eventually breaking a piece out of the rail. I'm about to have the gearbox rebuilt and will weld the steps and rails together when we put them back on after the rebuild.
More photos of the steps / rails then.
Geoff
mad_industries wrote:May I ask why you continue to use the tjm bars as they keep failing?
It's obvious that their bar isn't upto standard especially for your case.
jakelux wrote:You got any big trips planned soon?
huggies wrote:That is one awesome xtra cab.
love the build thread and very impressed with the camping setup.
well done bloke keep up the good work.
packeteer wrote:btw Bushbound, I've just re-read your thread from the beginning and saw the post about using metal mesh to fill gaps in the bullbar.
I've used plastic mesh + zip ties to fill my gaps, but I like the look of yours better. Might investigate that. Thanks
QFM HPX pads, these are like an equivalent to a Bendix Ultimate in terms of performance as they are both rated to 550 degrees, but the QFM's don't come with any of the downsides of the Bendix like high dust and rotor wear
packeteer wrote:this is the recommendation I got re pads:QFM HPX pads, these are like an equivalent to a Bendix Ultimate in terms of performance as they are both rated to 550 degrees, but the QFM's don't come with any of the downsides of the Bendix like high dust and rotor wear
packeteer wrote:also, I wouldn't bother with the crappy Toyota LSD. I reckon you'd be better of with either a TrueTrac (mechanical LSD) or Yukon Grizzly (auto locker)
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 21 guests