GRANT'S TRUCK
I became seriously interested in 4 wheel driving while lying in hospital with my right
lower leg in plaster recovering from a major motorcycle accident and getting used to
the idea that I would never ride again (almost tore my foot off ). I filled in my days
after getting out of Hospital looking through the Trading Post looking for a suitable
vehicle, found what I was looking for on the net (www.carsales.com.au) and it was a
December build 1996 Cherokee (Zucchini Green) and knew that I had to have it, so I
went and purchased it. Unfortunately VicRoads at the request of the TAC (Transport
Accident Commission) stepped in and suspended my licence (because of the nature
of my injuries) and I had to undergo a driving assessment with the end result being
that my licence was restricted to Left Foot accelerator only, so it was off to a
VicRoads approved engineer to have my Jeep modified so that the
accelerator is now on the left of brake pedal.
Roughly 12 months ago I joined the Melbourne Jeep Owners Club (MJOC) and have
not looked back. The first trip with the MJOC that my wife and I attended was a
night drive and although I found my Jeep very good off road I knew that I could make
it a lot better, so the modifications started. Having a sound background in all things
mechanical, and having worked for 20 years in the Safety, Survival and Aircraft
Engineering fields, I sat in my thinking chair (thinking chair is a cane chair out in
workshop) with the doors open to my workshop and just looked at the Jeep and
decided that first thing that needed to be done was a set of side rails (had already seen
an article on the Cherokee America web site of the kind that I wanted), so I made
some enquiries over the net to find out the cost plus shipping to Australia and that put
them out of the realistic price range. I went and had another look and think, and
decided that seeing as how they were too expensive to buy I would make my own.
The saga of making my own Rock rails began by getting down on the ground with a
tape measure (mind you with a destroyed right ankle getting down was easy enough
but getting back up was a whole world of pain) and doing some serious measuring
and looking to see where it was best to mount the support rails to on the chassis (if
you could call it that). Next step was to go out behind my workshop and find some
suitable material to make these out of, with this criteria, material had to be strong
enough to actually protect the body of the Jeep, had to be 50mm * 50mm* 6.2 mm
wall thickness (that is what I wanted).
Then came all the cutting and thankfully I had a cut off saw to make life easier, using
car stands to hold the rails against the side of my Jeep I positioned the rails where I
wanted them ( 3 inches out from pinch weld seam) with the view of adding brush bars
at a later date and they had to be out far enough for me to use as a step to get in and
out. Then is was just a case of drilling all the holes needed and then tack welding all
the parts in place and checking against Jeep to ensure correct fitment. After temp fit it
was just a case of welding, all joins and grinding welds and painting them, and as it
turns out that was the easy part, the hard part was in the final fitment and drilling and
locating holes to get all the High tensile bolts into place. Each rail is held in place
with 9 high tensile bolts, and the finished product looks good. (Add pix here).
From there I decided that the standard Cherokee recovery point was a waste of time
so I went and purchased 2 Black rat recovery hooks and then it was down onto the
ground again this time under front to see what I could or where I could mount the
hooks, I had to settle for removing the front Air dam from under the bull bar and then
looking again to see what I needed came up with two pieces of 2*2*3/8 inch angle
iron and high tensile bolts now this was easy as I only had to drill two holes on each
side of the bull bar mounting bracket and utilize the existing mounting points for the
rest of the attaching bolts. The angle iron brackets make the recovery hooks sit neatly
lined up with front edge of the bull bar and is attached to the body of the vehicle using
4 high tensile bolts, and I now have two recovery hooks on the front an engineering
mate rates front hooks at Class 3.
Following the external improvements I then looked at what I could do to improve the
inside, first thing was to get the two radios moved out of the passenger side to a better
and more accessible place like overhead I found an add in the club magazine for
overhead consoles (consoles and Carriers) so I rang Chris had a talk to him and he
built exactly what I wanted. While I was at his place he was looking at my rock rails
and measuring them up so that he could start making them (he will make them to what
you want so that they are individually tailored for each person.
I then fitted a hand throttle unit, and fitted it to the console rather than the gear
selector (this way I did not have to have heaps of slack to allow for selector
movement, and I do not have to reach forward to use it as it is right by my thigh).
Under the bonnet is a dual battery system monitored my a Piranha DBE150s control
unit, as well as the Airflow snorkel. This leaves almost no room in engine bay for
anything else (if I drop a spanner in engine bay I have to hope it will work its way
through as I would not be able to find)
Recently fitted are a set of 50mm over length springs that lifted the whole vehicle
approximately 1 ½ inches, with the rear having a new number two spring installed so
that it now a 5 leaf spring instead of a 4 leaf set.
I have also modified my sway bar links to make them into disconnects total cost for
this modification was $12.00 and two hours of time.
Future Mods
I hope will be a new set of rims with some more back space to allow a set of 30"
Cooper S/T's rather than the 28" set I have on now.
Braun Portable winch (this will allow me to winch from any position)