java230 wrote: How do you like the Puma? Its been on my radar for a long time now.
I've only done the break in procedure, 5 minutes running with no load, and then aired up the tank and run my impact gun a little bit. It is ridiculously quiet. Amazing. It filled the tank to 135 psi in a minute twenty (1:20) It's safe to say it's awesome at this point. I just picked up a 1/4" 25ft air hose from harbor freight so I can reach all 4 tires with the air compressor mounted just aft of the side doors. I haven't checked if it will fit there but I think it will. It killed the little motobatt I use to run my Ranger QuickJack in short order. She really sucks the amps and I'll follow the general use guidelines to have the van engine running while airing up tires. The compressor spins faster at 14 volts than 12 volts too, so more air, faster.
Looks like an awesome to haul your gear and bikes around for a weekend.
This is what sold me on it-
java230 wrote: How do you like the Puma? Its been on my radar for a long time now.
Also, a friend of mine asked the same thing after I texted a photo of it. He promptly bought one the next day, said I pushed him over the edge. Join the club. One of us, one of us, one of us...
Petrolburner wrote:java230 wrote: How do you like the Puma? Its been on my radar for a long time now.Also, a friend of mine asked the same thing after I texted a photo of it. He promptly bought one the next day, said I pushed him over the edge. Join the club. One of us, one of us, one of us...
One day..... It would be sweet in the moho to be able to air down a bit. It sucks ass on washboard, but airing down a 12k lb truck is kinda scary.
I don't think the 4runner has room for it anywhere.
Tough to find the real estate under the hood of the van for...anything. Mounting the Ballasts for the HID light kit from Redoval on the driver's side looked like this.
Sticky weatherstripping foam seemed like a good idea to cushion the relay and ballasts. Some thicker stuff made up for the uneven surface.
Low beams
High beams
java230 wrote:Petrolburner wrote:One day..... It would be sweet in the moho to be able to air down a bit. It sucks ass on washboard, but airing down a 12k lb truck is kinda scary. I don't think the 4runner has room for it anywhere.java230 wrote: How do you like the Puma? Its been on my radar for a long time now.Also, a friend of mine asked the same thing after I texted a photo of it. He promptly bought one the next day, said I pushed him over the edge. Join the club. One of us, one of us, one of us...
I'm planning on using 25 psi in the van, half of the normal 50-60 psi. What do you run in the MoHo and what would half of that be? I also ordered TrailHead deflators. The idea is to have it so easy to air down and back up that I have no excuse not to.
The Motovan feels cramped. I pulled out the passenger side blue captain's chair and it made it much easier to climb in and out of the van with just one side door open. I rarely ever carry more than one passenger. The blue conversion van seats were really only a place to sit facing backwards while getting dressed or drinking a beer. There was a group buy on the Sportsmobile forum for some high quality seat swivel bases. They weren't cheap, but I gain a couple of crucial feet of storage space. $430 shipped for both the driver and passenger. Lots of people went with just the passenger one, but I really want to be able to spin both.
The new radius arms and I-beams from WeldTecDesigns got a little chipped up in shipping. I also wasn't sure of the quality of the black paint they were shipped with. I had recently used the Rustoleum Hammered finish on the trailer hitch receiver and really like the way it turned out. A hard, textured finish that covers up surface irregularities. I wanted these expensive suspension pieces to stand out to a trained eye, but not be gaudy. I didn't want to paint them bright blue or red. The Motovan still looks pretty much like every other Ford work van out there. I went with Silver hammered paint. It looks good so far.
Just wiping the arms down with Acetone removed some of the paint so I was glad to be putting a good finish on it now. It's not like I'd ever pull the arms out again just to repaint. Knock on wood.
The welds on the radius arms look awesome. The Ford I-beams have cast right into them, "Do not heat or bend" They're custom bent and I don't know if heat was used to make that happen. I also ordered the "supreme quality" Mevotech tie rod ends (3) and Mevotech TTX Terrain Tough ball joints from Rock Auto. They will be here tomorrow and I'm going to have the lift installed by the end of the weekend barring any unforseen circumstances. Right now it's in my buddy's shop. It barely fit. I had to remove the winch and drop hitch. The rear bumper is right up to the door and there is only a foot or two between the tool boxes and the front bumper. Last night I cut a hole in the roof.
Almost forgot, I did the 25 hour endurance moto race at Starvation Ridge last weekend. The Motovan served as my changing room. It was a mud fest. The van is still pretty muddy.
Finish line
Aliner parking. The guy that is going with me in a week and a half to the Baja 1000 liked my Aliner so much he bought one too. His is much bigger. You could hang an Elk antler chandelier in there.
Petrolburner wrote:java230 wrote:I'm planning on using 25 psi in the van, half of the normal 50-60 psi. What do you run in the MoHo and what would half of that be? I also ordered TrailHead deflators. The idea is to have it so easy to air down and back up that I have no excuse not to.Petrolburner wrote:One day..... It would be sweet in the moho to be able to air down a bit. It sucks ass on washboard, but airing down a 12k lb truck is kinda scary. I don't think the 4runner has room for it anywhere.java230 wrote: How do you like the Puma? Its been on my radar for a long time now.Also, a friend of mine asked the same thing after I texted a photo of it. He promptly bought one the next day, said I pushed him over the edge. Join the club. One of us, one of us, one of us...
I run 60 front 55 rear IIRC. The fronts already look pretty flat at 60lbs. Also dualies are a bitch to air up and down. Id like to get the extensions that put the valves on the hub eventually.
Yeah you would definitely need good access to the valve stems.
Ball joints and tie rod ends showed up.
Wasted a good hour or so making a large cutting board into a shim to allow the flat fan mount to fit the curved roof. It was going to take a lot of work to get it thin enough to do the job. I'd watched some videos on youtube earlier of roof vent fan installs and watched a guy just lay up additional layers in the low spots to make it a flat-ish surface. I should have just done this from the start.
Here is a shot with the freshly applied sealant. It is self leveling and should end up a little smoother than this photo shows. So far it has taken 2 nights after work to get where I thought I'd be on the first night. 
Tight fit
At least it fits! There are exactly zero cars able to fit in my garage at the moment....
java230 wrote: At least it fits! There are exactly zero cars able to fit in my garage at the moment....
It's my friend's shop, but it's great to have a warm place to work. I'd love to have a big 18 ft box truck sometimes, but without having a really large shop with a really tall door, every project would have to be done outside. One of those temporary carport type deals could be made to keep you out of the rain and sun. I'll probably end up with some basic sheetmetal structure if I buy a home this winter. What I want is way more than I can afford, and what I can afford I wouldn't want to own.
Petrolburner wrote:java230 wrote: At least it fits! There are exactly zero cars able to fit in my garage at the moment....It's my friend's shop, but it's great to have a warm place to work. I'd love to have a big 18 ft box truck sometimes, but without having a really large shop with a really tall door, every project would have to be done outside. One of those temporary carport type deals could be made to keep you out of the rain and sun. I'll probably end up with some basic sheetmetal structure if I buy a home this winter. What I want is way more than I can afford, and what I can afford I wouldn't want to own.
Pole barns are surprisingly cheap. Might be worth looking into. Mine is just packed full of stuff.... Boat takes more than half of it, since it's exactly 2' longer than the garage and has to go at an angle.....
I'm pretty sore today. My step-father came over and helped me turn wrenches on the big girl all weekend. Ford needs to steal away some engineers from Toyota because swapping all the front suspension and the rear shocks was bullE36 M3. berkeleying sadistic shiny happy people if you ask me.
All new ball joints.
All new tie rods, inner, outer, 4 berkeleying tie rods! What a ridiculous front suspension design.
This shock was the worst. In order to keep the body from turning you need to stick an allen key in the top of the stud. There is no room for a deep well, short socket, ratchet wrench, pass through socket wrench....etc...
I had to make this.
Back on the wheels. I'm stoked with the placement of the Fox and Agile Offroad graphics. Still a basic looking Ford work van, but the details are starting to show. I think I'm going to end up going full ExPo look on the outside soon.
I've always wanted a vehicle with L-track. No I have one.
Auxilary reverse light bar that I plan to wire into the reverse light circuit, and have a switch so that I can flip it on and use it as an area work light in camp or at races.
I could use some advice here. I mounted eye-bolts to tie down the compressor. A regular cinch strap doesn't allow me to get it very tight. I'm thinking custom wire cable and a turnbuckle. Any other ideas?
Can you get a real ratchet strap in there somewhere? Why not just bolt it down?
A draw latch on a strap (metal or woven)?
I just couldn't come up with a good way to bolt it down. It has rubber feet on a rubber floor. I would like to keep it halfway removable to take to other venues, the Corvette at the racetrack for example. I think it would be easy to make a hinged piece of flat stock to go over the top of the bottom tank mounts and screw down with a wing nut if I had a welder. But I don't. I was too fatigued to come up with a better plan last night. It would have to be a really short ratchet strap, and if it had hooks I don't see how I'd get them through the eye bolts. I could bend them open and then close them again I suppose.
More L-track?
Ian F wrote: More L-track?
That was the original plan, but we determined drilling two holes and mounting eye bolts would do the same with less effort. The rub is that I can't pull the strap tight enough, which leads me to consider using a length of braided steel cable and a turnbuckle that I can really crank on.
In reply to Petrolburner:
OK. Try to visualize this (if you can't let me know and I'll sketch something up in CAD and email it to you):
Place L-track perpendicular to the tank, centered between the feet.
Cut two pieces of angle or bar-stock that are long enough to span to distance between the feet supports on each side of the tank. Drill a hole over the L-track.
Place bolts in the L-track that go through the holes you just drilled. Add a washer and a nut and crank it down.
Make sense?
Looks like this would make a pretty cool kart hauler as well 
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