Amphibious HEMTT

[WoodburyZuk]

So sweet.

 

[CDA 455 II]

I need to make one for my camper. 😎

 

[WaterH]

I need to make one for my camper. 😎

The little LED came from a truck store. You can see it in the pic just to the right of the plate. The reason I had to make the little U shape thing is because the plate is all most touching the bottom of my battery tray. It actually blocks the top of the plate alittle.

 

[ScottRS]

Out of curiosity, did you use the rope trick when installing your back glass? I have never done it, but from what I understand that is the easiest way to install window glass into a rubber gasketed frame.
Essentially you stuff a piece of light rope such as paracord or maybe a little heavier into the slot, then stick the glass in on top of it so that the glass holds it down and one of the ends comes out from under the glass.
Then you pull up on the rope so that the rope forces the gasket to come up and let the window go down into its place, then the live over the gasket drops back down on top of the glass.

I did this to put the windshield into my CJ frame, but other-way-around from what it sounds like you're talking about. Glass into rubber gasket inside groove, dishsoap the crap out of the outside groove and rope, rope around (in) outside groove, push glass and rubber against windshield frame, work rope out of groove through windshield hole in frame slowly working gasket into place. Slick, but took every bit of a family of four who didn't know what they were doing, to put a CJ windshield in.

 

[Wisconsinite]

Have been watching from the beginning. This thing is off the charts cool. Keep up the great work! You are on the home stretch!

 

[WaterH]

So I got some more done. Now it has a front bumper, a roll bar and for the first time both windshields installed. It even has working windshield wipers. Woo hoo!

This is pretty much how the outside will look. The only changes to come are the canvas rear cover and the floats. (If I choose to use them)

After I took those pics, I got inside, rolled the windows up and turned on the AC. It started blowing cold. Cool! Then the sun went behind a cloud. So I thought I should get some pics from the other side.

The green really takes on a differnt hue when it's not in the sun.

So when I got back to the truck after taking the pics, I opened the door and got a river of cold air flowing out. It was only idling for about five minutes. There is no insulation right now and the trim around the doors inside is not installed. (About a 1/4" gap around the doors.) The AC definitely kicks ass. When I started Reving it just a little to back it in, it even blows colder.

Back in it still sucks. Part of finishing the interior is installing a radio with a GPS/backup camera. That's going in a overhead console. Of course, I haven't made any of that yet. But I do have some angle riveted to the roof allready. So I won't be messing with the paint.

I would have takin it for a spin down the road today, but I don't have the front of the fenders attached. They bolt to the step brackets and I'm still working on the steps. That day is coming soon.

 

[Wendle]

Good job man, looks fan-fucking-tastic.

Needs portals!

 

[AgitatedPancake]

Dude this thing really shaped up well. Seeing it in its final colors really helped finalize the proportions for me compared to the raw form, it looks badass. Sweet to hear the amenities like AC are working well even before you insulate it too haha. And couldn't imagine why you might want a backup camera...lol

 

[AK_F250]

Get a digital rear view mirror and mount the camera to the back of the cab and keep it on. It'll feel natural to glance up at it and the wide angle will help cover the blind spots.

 

[subybaja]

Get a digital rear view mirror and mount the camera to the back of the cab and keep it on. It'll feel natural to glance up at it and the wide angle will help cover the blind spots.

Good idea.

When you're 100% done, you should find a similar-vintage stock Bronco and park nose-to-nose for some pics!

And, you MUST get hold of that Irate flag and do some poser shots for the site! irate4x4 Event Flag. I don't know about the Hammers background, but your rig can definitely give Austin's competition on coolness!

I'll bet AEV would sell those all day long for $150K!

 

[WaterH]

Good idea.

When you're 100% done, you should find a similar-vintage stock Bronco and park nose-to-nose for some pics!

And, you MUST get hold of that Irate flag and do some poser shots for the site! irate4x4 Event Flag. I don't know about the Hammers background, but your rig can definitely give Austin's competition on coolness!

Kind of hard to find stock Broncos these days. I do plan on taking it to the army base and get a pic next to a real HEMTT if they will let me. There are real HEMTTs in civilian hands, so I don't think there's any top secret stuff they wouldn't want in a pic.

I love the pic Austin did. I don't have the fancy colored LEDs. I might get some for the interior, but no plans outside except maybe one long white one under the sun visor. I would love to get a pic next to Austin's rig. One day I would like to make it out west with it. But it will have to be after all the covid nonsense is over.

I've never even looked at the irate stuff for sale. If they got a flag, I'm going to order it. Lol.

Edit, they do sell flags and I got one coming. Woo hoo!

 

[dnsfailure]

that's looking really cool :D

 

[WaterH]

So I got a stereo with gps and backup camera. Started to make an overhead mount. I had already attached the angle on the roof in anticipation of this.

It was pretty easy to make some standoffs to hold it. I didn’t have the stereo when I mounted the angle, so I gave it lots of room. It turned out really sturdy. Now I have to make a console to cover it.

i also got some cool led “bed lights”. They are very well made.

I mounted one on each side of the window/hatch.

I got them wired up along with my speakers that are on the inside right behind the lights.

The lights are angled down enough to light the engine bay. (When it’s open) The lights are so bright, I can use them as reverse lights. The only bad thing is they hurt your eyes if you look at them.

That’s all for now. I’ll have some more as I finish out the overhead console.

 

[WaterH]

Tale of the switch labels.

So all of my switches are aircraft “breaker switches”. I have used these before on several aircraft. It’s nice not to have any fuses. If it blows, you can just switch it back on. If it blows again right away, you know you have something to fix. After you fix it, just reset it again.

Anyways, I needed to label them and I decided to do it the same way I did it on aircraft. I went to a trophy shop and had engraved plastic “dials” made. It’s just simple black plastic that is white underneath. When they engrave it, the white shows through. Well, I had them make a whole bunch for all the switches. Then I got thinking I might as well get the same style for the knob controls. (HVAC fan and wipers) I installed them all and it looked great.

Later, I was thinking about how to light them. First I got a blue LED light bar that I could mount over my head. It looked cool, but it made too much light. So looking on the net, I found LED “black“ lights. I immediately had flashbacks to my teen age years With dark room, bright posters and blue smoke. Lol. I though they would light the dials and keep the glare down, so I ordered a roll of “tape light”.

First I tested them on my overhead switches. I made a long hooded strip of light to shine over my head to the long strip of switches. They gave No glare and a nice purple glow to the labels. I had a small group of switches on the center console, so I made a small strip under the dash to shine on them.

Well, when I turned them on, I got a surprise. The little switch labels were purple, but the two HVAC labels were lit with an electric glow. (More flashbacks) They were supposed to be cut from the same material and they looked the same in daylight. Once I saw that, I had to have all the labels recut with the new material.

The trophy shop said they had lots of the stuff and cut me a new set. The place is an hour away and when I got home with the new set, I had to try them right away. Well damb, they don’t glow. I called them back and they said they thought it was the same stuff. So I wired up a black light and drove back there to see what they had in inventory. Nothing glowed. The guy said they only get the stuff from two places and he will order a sheet from each. While we were talking he remembered that he had a black light in the back.

Anyways, to make a long story short, ……to late. I got the correct labels installed. I know the pic sucks, but I assure you, it looks cool. There is no purple haze in real life, just bright switch labels.

 

[CDA 455 II]

Tale of the switch labels.

So all of my switches are aircraft “breaker switches”. I have used these before on several aircraft. It’s nice not to have any fuses. If it blows, you can just switch it back on. If it blows again right away, you know you have something to fix. After you fix it, just reset it again.

Anyways, I needed to label them and I decided to do it the same way I did it on aircraft. I went to a trophy shop and had engraved plastic “dials” made. It’s just simple black plastic that is white underneath. When they engrave it, the white shows through. Well, I had them make a whole bunch for all the switches. Then I got thinking I might as well get the same style for the knob controls. (HVAC fan and wipers) I installed them all and it looked great.

Later, I was thinking about how to light them. First I got a blue LED light bar that I could mount over my head. It looked cool, but it made too much light. So looking on the net, I found LED “black“ lights. I immediately had flashbacks to my teen age years With dark room, bright posters and blue smoke. Lol. I though they would light the dials and keep the glare down, so I ordered a roll of “tape light”.

First I tested them on my overhead switches. I made a long hooded strip of light to shine over my head to the long strip of switches. They gave No glare and a nice purple glow to the labels. I had a small group of switches on the center console, so I made a small strip under the dash to shine on them.

Well, when I turned them on, I got a surprise. The little switch labels were purple, but the two HVAC labels were lit with an electric glow. (More flashbacks) They were supposed to be cut from the same material and they looked the same in daylight. Once I saw that, I had to have all the labels recut with the new material.

The trophy shop said they had lots of the stuff and cut me a new set. The place is an hour away and when I got home with the new set, I had to try them right away. Well damb, they don’t glow. I called them back and they said they thought it was the same stuff. So I wired up a black light and drove back there to see what they had in inventory. Nothing glowed. The guy said they only get the stuff from two places and he will order a sheet from each. While we were talking he remembered that he had a black light in the back.

Anyways, to make a long story short, ……to late. I got the correct labels installed. I know the pic sucks, but I assure you, it looks cool. There is no purple haze in real life, just bright switch labels.

Pretty awesome!

 

[adventr]

Holy cow dude this thing is nuts! Nice work

 

[WaterH]

Thanks guys,

I got a little more work done on the stereo. I made this bracket for the dash cam. The camera is a cool design, but there is nothing in the way of mounting.

It mounts right behind the mirror, so I can hardly see it from the drivers seat.

I also started on the stereo cover.

There’s going to be some screen on the sides to allow some cooling air in the box.

In other news, I took it out for test drive. It’s the first time I drove it with windshields. Of course it was quieter, but the engine still makes a good bit of noise. I have more insulating to do. I noticed it drives way better if I don’t have the airbags too high. When they are up, it takes away from caster. It’s pretty good when I have 2” of up travel, but it bottoms out allot on the dirt road. If I jack them up to 6” up travel, the ride is great, but the handling sucks. I may alter it so there’s more caster “across the board”.

Also, My speedometer didn’t work. I’ll have to look at that. The water temp gauge went to 250, but it didn’t overheat. I checked the cooling fans and only one of them was running. So I think maybe the gauge is not calibrated right or the sensor is in the wrong place. I changed the high temp fan trigger to turn on at 185 instead of 210. (The other fan comes on at 195) Not sure if I should have done that. We’ll see.

 

[adventr]

Would love to hear more road driving impressions with your setup.

Also, if you're trying to cut the low frequency engine drone from the cab, the absolute best thing you can do is line the panels surrounding the engine with mass loaded vinyl.
Your typical insulation/sound dampener will do very little for the low frequency stuff. I found this out a couple years back. You can get MLV from many online places. I used 1/4" thick stuff that was (i believe) 2lbs/ft. It's heavy, but it works.

 

[CDA 455 II]

Would love to hear more road driving impressions with your setup.

Also, if you're trying to cut the low frequency engine drone from the cab, the absolute best thing you can do is line the panels surrounding the engine with mass loaded vinyl.
Your typical insulation/sound dampener will do very little for the low frequency stuff. I found this out a couple years back. You can get MLV from many online places. I used 1/4" thick stuff that was (i believe) 2lbs/ft. It's heavy, but it works.

Very interesting.🤔


Will keep that in mind for future referencing.

 

[WaterH]

Would love to hear more road driving impressions with your setup.

Also, if you're trying to cut the low frequency engine drone from the cab, the absolute best thing you can do is line the panels surrounding the engine with mass loaded vinyl.
Your typical insulation/sound dampener will do very little for the low frequency stuff. I found this out a couple years back. You can get MLV from many online places. I used 1/4" thick stuff that was (i believe) 2lbs/ft. It's heavy, but it works.

I have “killmat” on the engine side of the floor. There will be carpet inside. Not installed yet. The walls inside are covered with 1/2” thick foam rubber. The main thing I’m hearing is the valve clatter that 4BTs are famous for. I like it to be famous on the outside.

As far as driving, I’ll do some more soon. A few more bugs to work out and I will make it legal.

 

[WaterH]

Update,

First a quick pic of the foam I used on the ceiling and insides of the cab. It’s just 1/2” foam from McMaster. This 3M “77” spray adhesive is the best stuff I found for gluing it up. (I tried several brands) The foam gives a nice flat black, soft look to the cab.

Next is one of those simple projects that turned into major endeavor. I wanted a couple interior lights for reading maps or some such. I found these at Superbrite leds. They are nice looking and swivel. They also have a separate switch on them, so I can turn off mine while driving at night and my pax could read something.

The problem is the shortest one they sell is 9” long. It was just too long for my overhead console.

So I just pulled the end off and carefully sawed an inch and a half off. When I did that, the LEDs wouldn’t work. Grrrrrrrr.

Itook another piece of aluminum and drilled a bunch of holes To fit an old LED I had from another project.

Soldered it to the switch and put it back together and tried it. These LEDs are blue. They look cool, but I would have preferred white for this application. I might change them later.

Tested and win!

I mounted them on my console. I think they turned out nice. I should have the whole console together shortly.

In other news, I checked my caster with the bags dropped down on the bump stops. It was a little over 11 degrees. Then I jacked the bags up 3”. The caster lost 4 degrees. 7 degrees is not bad, but that only gives me 3” of up-travel. That’s all right for driving on a good road. The other day, I had it jacked up 6” because I was driving in my (bumpy) yard and on the dirt road. When I got out on the good road, I never dropped it down. So I figure it was running at 3 degrees which is just barely enough. That’s why it wasn’t driving nice. I would like to adjust another 3 degrees in across the board, but it might have the pinion pointing down too much. I might just have to get use to dropping it down some when driving fast on good road.

 

[adventr]

What air bags are you running on your suspension?

I'm currently developing an air ride control system as part of my CTIS controller. It will have an option to automatically lower the vehicle once a set speed is surpassed, then raise back up below that speed. Might be of use on your build.

 

[Pto]

What air bags are you running on your suspension?

I'm currently developing an air ride control system as part of my CTIS controller. It will have an option to automatically lower the vehicle once a set speed is surpassed, then raise back up below that speed. Might be of use on your build.

You could inquire with Off Road Only, as their are ride system has pre set button for ride height, curb height and I think Off road hiehgt.- not sure if theirs can do it on the fly, but Theyd know if that is possible, or if theirs does it. Probably wont give away the tech, but might point you to helpful info.

 

[WaterH]

My system is all mechanical. I can raise or lower each bag from the drivers seat, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. You don’t have any reference when you are in the seat. I usually end up go around with a tape measure to get the whole truck level and at the correct height. My airbags are made by Firestone. I believe they are for big rigs.

 

[arse_sidewards]

My system is all mechanical. I can raise or lower each bag from the drivers seat, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. You don’t have any reference when you are in the seat. I usually end up go around with a tape measure to get the whole truck level and at the correct height. My airbags are made by Firestone. I believe they are for big rigs.

 

[WaterH]

I’ve though5 about that. But I would need to be on level ground.

 

[aczlan]

4 of these and a Rasberry Pi with a screen and you could have the height off of the ground for all 4 corners to within 1cm and have pushbuttons for preset heights: URM08-RS485 Ultrasonic Ranging Sensor | A Combination of Temperature Measurement and Distance Monitor | Ranges from 35cm to 550cm: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific
There are also cheaper ones, but that one looked to be watertight.

Aaron Z

 

[WaterH]

Im not really looking for more complication. I thought having control of the height would be really cool. Now, I’m wondering if I made a mistake. It seems to be impossible to eliminate leaks. It’s fine for a day or two, but after a week, it is leaning. I’ve sprayed glass cleaner on all the joints, but can’t find the leaks. Four ordinary springs is looking pretty good right now. I will reserve judgment until I drive it more on road and off. Maybe I will come to like it.

 

[Flatbed]

Valve leaking through the body on the side that's leaning?

 

[WaterH]

Valve leaking through the body on the side that's leaning?

Not sure. I believe all of them leak, just not fast. It may take a month or two to go down any major amount. The tank will go down in a night or two, but that’s not a big deal Since I can just turn it on the next time I start it. I have a manual shut off at the tank if I want to save the pressure.