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Post by terryrob on Mar 6, 2018 19:22:18 GMT
Yes a sierra 4x4 would fit the chassis I would think without too much modification. But, wheel sizing is a problem, just like 2 wheel drive rv's, with bigger wheels ans tyres giving a much greater rolling radius makes it over geared. But I would think diffs of around 4.4:1 or 5:1 would be available from the rallying world.
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Post by jamman on Mar 6, 2018 19:38:22 GMT
Or alternatively you could do what a couple of us appear to be doing on this forum and fit an existing 4 X 4 chassis etc under the body. Entirely legal with dvla too if you don't alter the wheelbase or chassis I believe.
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Post by baloo on Mar 6, 2018 20:13:33 GMT
Or alternatively you could do what a couple of us appear to be doing on this forum and fit an existing 4 X 4 chassis etc under the body. Entirely legal with dvla too if you don't alter the wheelbase or chassis I believe. Hi been having allsorts of ideas about rv's including using a 4x4 chassis, have used the Suzuki vitara chassis in the past for all sort of projects, they have all sorts of good points they appear to be the same shape and size as an rv so no body cutting/lengthening, vitaras come with a wide range of diffs from 5.7 down to 3.7 and loads in between big alloys are cheaply available of the fat boy suzukis you get power steering abs if you want them even the stock fuel tank looks like it would be ok, will be dropping an rv body on a rolling chassis in the next couple of weeks just for a look see
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Post by jamman on Mar 6, 2018 20:46:26 GMT
Great idea. It`s down to individual preference I think. I am sure Eagle would have done it back in the day but the truth was that back then apart from rangie`s etc there was a limited choice of seperate chassis decent 4x4`s that were cheap enough to use as donors. My preference is a swb Frontera 3.2 which is in entirety really just an Isuzu. I have reported on this in various posts elsewhere on this forum. It means stretching the body a few inches but in my humble opinion if I stretch the load bay and cut in a very particular way it will actually improve the looks of the Eagle and make it more balanced. It will also give it far better road manners.
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Post by terryrob on Mar 8, 2018 20:23:45 GMT
That chassis looks Ideal, I will try and find some pics of the Frontera one suggested by Jamman.
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Post by baloo on Mar 8, 2018 20:37:41 GMT
That chassis looks Ideal, I will try and find some pics of the Frontera one suggested by Jamman. hi yes please never has a frontera so don't know anything about them or how the chassis is laid out would guess the front suspension is double wishbone and torsion bars for springs ?? like a mk 4 hilux or forunner ?? and the 3.2 v6 would certainly give it some go, I have a complete rolling vitara chassis with engine and box still in place in the workshop will take some pics of it for reference tomorrow
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Post by jamman on Mar 8, 2018 21:14:47 GMT
I am afraid I have no idea how to upload pics. But here is some further info regarding Fronteras and my plans. I bought a low mileage mint short wheel base frontera 3.2. 205hp standard. Goes like stink. Way better off road than people give them credit for. I was going to use this as my basis. Trouble is my wife fell in love with it and the short version is I am not allowed to use it for the RV. So it was at this point I found out how truly rare short wheel base 3.2 frontera`s are. Very few were made. So my dear wife has set the project back many months. However, there is more than one way to solve any problem. Last month I bought a scruffy 2.2 short wheel base petrol fronty for peanuts. Tatty body, solid chassis. Chassis on all engine variants are the same. Then just last week i located a lovely 79000 mile long wheel base 3.2 frontera, of which there are relatively plenty. Again for peanuts as it was an mot failure on brake pipes, wheel bearing and exhaust. No problem for us as we jave our own restoration shop. So now I have my swb chassis needed so the dvla do not get upset as no chopping required, and I have all my 3.2 mechanical parts. And I have loads of spares for my daily driver long wheel base fronty diesel and for the wifes `stolen` (from me) 3.2 swb. For both of these latest fronty`s I paid less than 550 all in for both. (Anyone want a nearly brand new vauxhall 2.2 petrol engine :-) ) The other advantage I now have is that I can strip the swb to a rolling chassis and mount the RV body and modify as necessary without risking damaging any of my 3.2 mechanical pieces. And I now have a choice of diff ratios and spring rates so I can mix and match to suit the final vehicle weight and performance requirements. I can use the 2.2 diff ratios to get away with much larger rolling diameter tyres and still have good economy. And the extra inches in the wheelbase (96” or thereabouts) will still give me a great frontera type ride. Yes the fronty has standard Jap front torsion bars and double wishbone with again standard six bolt stud pattern wheels. The chassis is surprisingly well made and designed and very substantial yet light and is compact with 4” deep box section chassis rails compared to the classic range rovers 6” ones, so with a bit of skill the rv body will not look like it is just plonked on top of the chassis like Eagles own range rover chassis version did. Hope some of my ramblings are of use or interest to someone :-) Happy measuring, preparing and building to all!
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Post by jamman on Mar 8, 2018 21:16:30 GMT
I forgot to mention... It is the second generation frontera I am talking about here. First gen was completely different and pretty crap really.... So 1998 to 2005 for second gen.
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Post by baloo on Mar 9, 2018 19:24:42 GMT
be nice to see some pics its easy to put them on here, can talk you through it if you want
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Post by baloo on Mar 9, 2018 19:27:43 GMT
well the body is off the vitara and I tried the eagle body on it, almost fits but wont drop down to the right height
as its an early shell that has the bit in the back where the vw engine would have been but nothing 5 seconds with an angle grinder wont fix
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Post by baloo on Mar 9, 2018 19:28:54 GMT
few more
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Post by baloo on Mar 9, 2018 19:31:15 GMT
this body is a bit rough, bulkhead has separated from the shell
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Post by jamman on Mar 9, 2018 19:40:44 GMT
Nice. That will work very well I think.
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Post by jamman on Mar 9, 2018 19:46:53 GMT
Thanks Baloo. Help to upload pics when I get into this will help. I work abroad as well as being in the custom car trade so my periods where I can play with my own stuff are way too far apart and tend to be frenetic when I get the chance :-) Next week when I am home the 2.2 swb fronty gets stripped back to rolling chassis ready for the new framework. The plan is to dramatically increase the thickness of the grp on the new RV shell in all areas. We will then mount it correctly on the chassis. Next we will make a custom steel framework welded to the chassis to allow for every conceivable item, structural or not to mount through the body and into steel. This will strengthen the rigidity of the chasssis and prevent the star stress grp cracks most fibreglass and all eagles seem to suffer from. Then the whole chassis is going off yo be galvanised at our usual company in Liverpool. If we get it right it should be a pretty much everlasting vehicle. Certainly will outlive me :-)
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Post by baloo on Mar 10, 2018 18:30:49 GMT
Thanks Baloo. Help to upload pics when I get into this will help. I work abroad as well as being in the custom car trade so my periods where I can play with my own stuff are way too far apart and tend to be frenetic when I get the chance :-) Next week when I am home the 2.2 swb fronty gets stripped back to rolling chassis ready for the new framework. The plan is to dramatically increase the thickness of the grp on the new RV shell in all areas. We will then mount it correctly on the chassis. Next we will make a custom steel framework welded to the chassis to allow for every conceivable item, structural or not to mount through the body and into steel. This will strengthen the rigidity of the chasssis and prevent the star stress grp cracks most fibreglass and all eagles seem to suffer from. Then the whole chassis is going off yo be galvanised at our usual company in Liverpool. If we get it right it should be a pretty much everlasting vehicle. Certainly will outlive me :-) that sounds like a plan to me, not had much to do with fronteras or izuzu maybe I will keep mye eye for a cheap one so I can strip it down and have a looksee at the chassis, always played with suzukis myself, same sort of size chassis, mainly 4"x2" box section, they always seem in good condition once you shot blast them unlike the bodies that seem to suffer with tin worm a lot hers a couple of pics of one of my other projects based on the Suzuki chassis
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Post by baloo on Mar 10, 2018 18:35:18 GMT
couldent get them to post
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Post by baloo on Mar 10, 2018 18:36:41 GMT
ah says I exceeded the forums limit on attachments in this thread so no more pics I guess
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Post by jamman on Mar 10, 2018 18:47:40 GMT
I think a lot of these Jap chassis are actually well designed. Basic and strong. Same with the fronty. Bodies go crusty but chassis and axles very strong.
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Post by baloo on Mar 10, 2018 19:56:34 GMT
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Post by jamman on Mar 10, 2018 20:07:39 GMT
Very very nice. Very thorough job. That will make the rv drive like a factory car. If you compare that set up to the Eagle chassis... That will make a beautiful car.
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Post by terryrob on Mar 11, 2018 21:53:30 GMT
Fair play, you two guys are doing great and not hanging around either. I will have to keep up on this thread. Looks like we are gonna have a few more cars on the stand pretty soon.
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Post by jamman on Mar 11, 2018 22:00:39 GMT
Thanks Terry. Work begins for me on the strip down on Wednesday.Just waiting for slightly warmer weather to lay up extra thickness on the shell grp. Not looking forward to that job but if I do it now it will pay dividends in years to come. The rv shell I have has been dry stored since new and clearly well looked after. Yet it already has some faint spider gel coat cracks and it has not even been anywhere. The shell grp is very thin. But as it still looks factory fresh then adding grp thickness should be easy. Even if I significantly add to the weight of the shell, it will still be lighter than the Fronty shell. And the closer I make it to Fronty weight, the less I will have to mess around with spring rates and suspension geometry.
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Post by jamman on Mar 11, 2018 22:03:16 GMT
Ballo is way ahead of me but it is funny how we have come up with very similar plans at the same time though isnt it? And yet no one seems to have done it before. Someone called Dave PM`d me months back to say he was doing exactly the same as me with a 3.2 swb fronty. But I could never get an answer on the number he left. Soif you see this Dave and you are still doing it, I would love to hear from you again.
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Post by jamman on Mar 11, 2018 22:05:16 GMT
baloo I meant. for the typo`s. Small keypad and fat fingers :-) I have a few pictures of my shell ready to upload so if you could give me some easy pointers how to get them up if anyone is interested I would be very grateful Baloo.
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Post by terryrob on Mar 11, 2018 22:15:01 GMT
To be honest the early shells and chassis like mine are pretty poor, I don't think they were intended to be around this long lol. But you are dong the right thing by strengthening everything, try to build in some form of side impact protection, as they came there was nothing stopping the shell getting ripped off the chassis ! On top of that the front wings droop and the sides sing down over the chassis in time lol. But all good fun to improve all this and be unique on the road. There loads of photos of Frontera chassis on google they look pretty good to. Attachment DeletedAttachment DeletedAttachment Deleted
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Post by terryrob on Mar 11, 2018 22:18:44 GMT
Jamman, use the add attachment at top right of the reply sheet / page. It appears it will work for a limited number of pics.
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Post by baloo on Mar 12, 2018 20:44:57 GMT
Ballo is way ahead of me but it is funny how we have come up with very similar plans at the same time though isnt it? And yet no one seems to have done it before. Someone called Dave PM`d me months back to say he was doing exactly the same as me with a 3.2 swb fronty. But I could never get an answer on the number he left. Soif you see this Dave and you are still doing it, I would love to hear from you again. hi I am not really very far ahead, all I have done is lifted the body of the vitara, the pics with the shot blasted/painted chassis are of one of my other projects same sort of thing, vitara chassis and fiberglass body shell, had to lengthen and widen the shell to get it to fit the vitara chassis but glass is easy to work with
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Post by jamman on Mar 12, 2018 20:50:11 GMT
Cool. Exactly what I am doing with the rv. I am trying to post pics of my shell and frontera. Terry said there was a button at top right which said add attachment but at least on my mobile phone page I do not see it... Told you all I was bad at computers :-)
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Post by jamman on Mar 12, 2018 20:51:48 GMT
That looks like a nicely produced shell Baloo.
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Post by baloo on Mar 12, 2018 20:54:36 GMT
so back to the eagle, the body isent quiet a match for the Suzuki chassis but its close, if I mount it with the rear wheels centred in the wheel arch then the front wheelarch is 3" to far forward so need to move the arch backwards a bit, easy enough I think, proportions always looked wrong to me anyway, I always thought it needed a bit more length in the back or a bit taken out of the front to balance it up, true I could have used a lwb chassis but then it would have been 5" to long and I would have needed to lengthen the body
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