Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

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davidvdm
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Re: Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

Post by davidvdm »

I've just started repping on the mines here in Carletonville for my SIL who has a Tool and Industrial supplies company. So hopefully things will start coming together in the finance department as soon as the mines start getting going and everybody is back at work and budgets are released..

Sani was supposed to start doing duty transporting the bigger stuff for deliveries. Our first problem.....
Towbar tooo high
Towbar tooo high
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This trailer probably sits the best behind the Sani at the moment, but you can see that its braked axle is off the ground most the time. I need a drop plate of at least 300mm to get back to a good towing height. The ball presently sits at 740mm
740 Towball height
740 Towball height
20150919_131414.jpg (2 MiB) Viewed 6343 times
I will however only employ a drop plate that long if I can pull supports back to the chassis to support it. Something like the Discovery has.

Some other interesting measurements....
Lowest part of chassis to the ground
Lowest part of chassis to the ground
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Floor height
Floor height
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Centre of head light
Centre of head light
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Is this my new wading depth :rolling: :rolling: :woo: :blonde:
Snorkel head height
Snorkel head height
20150922_164250.jpg (1.55 MiB) Viewed 6343 times
Its all good fun, but fairly unpractical for daily use at the moment because it still handles like a pig in a snow storm on Dunlop HTs
David - Bfreesani
1997 Nissan Sani MK3 2.7TD - Hillbilly (SAFANI)
MQ C200 SFA
MQ H260 LSD Rear
MQ Transfer as second low range
5" Lift
33"x12.5x15" tires on 8.5J rims - Want 35's
DIY rock sliders
DIY Snorkel
Madman EMS
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davidvdm
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Re: Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

Post by davidvdm »

I'm running out of data on my stokkie :doh: ... Need to get this done before someone else uses it all up :rolling:

While slowly moving my things between two towns, I find my new house has this little bump in the back yard... Sani still only 2x4, but don't think I got anywhere close to loosing traction.
2015-12-28 11.07.23.png
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20151228_103514.jpg
20151228_103514.jpg (217.99 KiB) Viewed 6342 times
Drop out
Drop out
20151228_103613.jpg (155.82 KiB) Viewed 6342 times
Compressed
Compressed
20151228_103620.jpg (164.62 KiB) Viewed 6342 times
David - Bfreesani
1997 Nissan Sani MK3 2.7TD - Hillbilly (SAFANI)
MQ C200 SFA
MQ H260 LSD Rear
MQ Transfer as second low range
5" Lift
33"x12.5x15" tires on 8.5J rims - Want 35's
DIY rock sliders
DIY Snorkel
Madman EMS
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davidvdm
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Full Name: David vd Merwe
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Home Language: English/Afrikaans
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Re: Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

Post by davidvdm »

Last set of pics
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2016-01-07 15.57.19.png
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2016-01-07 15.58.54.png
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Just in case this is a pissing contest
Just in case this is a pissing contest
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Hopefully can get back on track, with something that resembles work, on the Sani, by end of Feb. I have a nice garage and car port setup at the new house that will make life a lot easier. Maybe I can even get it up on the ramps to see how full articulation looks and what shocks I am going to need.

I still have the Gabriel FR76104 or Monroe T5054 in mind. That gives me a heavy duty shock with damping designed for a 7Ton vehicle that should compensate for the 180mm higher COG. I also like the 20mm mounting bolts that I very much doubt the Sani will ever break off compared to the 12mm bolts of the Disco shocks. I have also changed all the mounts from pin, to bracket so that we have support from both sides, and no way a bolt is going to bend off any more.

These shocks also cover any possible articulation that I could possibly get out of the leaf springs, with 530mm compressed, and 904mm extended, giving me a range of 375mm.
David - Bfreesani
1997 Nissan Sani MK3 2.7TD - Hillbilly (SAFANI)
MQ C200 SFA
MQ H260 LSD Rear
MQ Transfer as second low range
5" Lift
33"x12.5x15" tires on 8.5J rims - Want 35's
DIY rock sliders
DIY Snorkel
Madman EMS
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iandvl
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Re: Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

Post by iandvl »

davidvdm wrote: ...
I still have the Gabriel FR76104 or Monroe T5054 in mind. That gives me a heavy duty shock with damping designed for a 7Ton vehicle that should compensate for the 180mm higher COG. I also like the 20mm mounting bolts that I very much doubt the Sani will ever break off compared to the 12mm bolts of the Disco shocks. I have also changed all the mounts from pin, to bracket so that we have support from both sides, and no way a bolt is going to bend off any more.

These shocks also cover any possible articulation that I could possibly get out of the leaf springs, with 530mm compressed, and 904mm extended, giving me a range of 375mm.
...
David,

Sorry - getting quotes for these has been on my to-do list. My to-do list is just very long at the moment. Will see if I can get a quote on these today.

Ian
Ian de Villiers

Patrol 4.5 GRX
Jurgens XT65 2x0 with Super Select Zero
ORRA: H80
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davidvdm
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Re: Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

Post by davidvdm »

[/quote]

David,

Sorry - getting quotes for these has been on my to-do list. My to-do list is just very long at the moment. Will see if I can get a quote on these today.

Ian[/quote]

Really not a problem Ian.. I'm also so caught up in this house move. Limited packing and transport space with the Sani sporting a diesel tank in the "boot", and not enough budget to go around for all the driving I need to do back and forth to Parys.

With the move and the unpacking, setting up of my solar and gas and water purification stuff at the new house, I am going to be busy for a while.

Only consolation is that the handling issues is keeping my foot very light on the loud pedal, so fuel consumption is not too bad, even with the trailer on behind.
David - Bfreesani
1997 Nissan Sani MK3 2.7TD - Hillbilly (SAFANI)
MQ C200 SFA
MQ H260 LSD Rear
MQ Transfer as second low range
5" Lift
33"x12.5x15" tires on 8.5J rims - Want 35's
DIY rock sliders
DIY Snorkel
Madman EMS
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iandvl
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Re: Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

Post by iandvl »

davidvdm wrote: Really not a problem Ian.. I'm also so caught up in this house move. Limited packing and transport space with the Sani sporting a diesel tank in the "boot", and not enough budget to go around for all the driving I need to do back and forth to Parys.

With the move and the unpacking, setting up of my solar and gas and water purification stuff at the new house, I am going to be busy for a while.

Only consolation is that the handling issues is keeping my foot very light on the loud pedal, so fuel consumption is not too bad, even with the trailer on behind.
David,

Great - I'll keep you posted though.

If I may ask - are you moving to Carltonville now ?
Ian de Villiers

Patrol 4.5 GRX
Jurgens XT65 2x0 with Super Select Zero
ORRA: H80
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davidvdm
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Re: Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

Post by davidvdm »

Yip we moving. Fastest way to fail is to leave a back door open as an escape route. Time to commit and go balls to the wall.

Much more opportunity here than in Parys, and the Parysians are really a back stabbing community.
David - Bfreesani
1997 Nissan Sani MK3 2.7TD - Hillbilly (SAFANI)
MQ C200 SFA
MQ H260 LSD Rear
MQ Transfer as second low range
5" Lift
33"x12.5x15" tires on 8.5J rims - Want 35's
DIY rock sliders
DIY Snorkel
Madman EMS
User avatar
davidvdm
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Posts: 627
Joined: 13 Sep 2011 15:47
Full Name: David vd Merwe
Nickname: David - Hillbilly
Home Town: West Coast
Current 4x4: 1997 2.7TD Nissan Sani Mk3 4x4 SFA (SAFANI)
Home Language: English/Afrikaans
Has thanked: 4 times
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Contact:

Re: Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

Post by davidvdm »

Friday night at Berakha we chatted a bit about the Sani and the idea of adding a Panhard rod on top of the leaf springs in the front to see how much that stabilises things.

I have had the greatest of butt pinching times with our house move, and the loads I have been carrying, with COG this high, and then add a trailer on the back as well.

Christo (Bogeyman) was saying that he has done all his Safari's this way, and he has felt the improvement on the standard height with SUA. We believe I can only benefit on the Hardbody with 180mm lift and SOA.

The question I have is this: how high between the diff and chassis do I mount the Panhard. I am feeling that it needs to be at the same level as the spring perches, as this is the "twist" point of the leaf pack when you are articulating. Further away you move from this point would surely increase possibility of binding.

I had a look at the front end of the Sani and see my leaf pack is running with NO arc at all. This causes a problem in that the mount on the diff will be nothing more than 50mm off the spring plate. The mounting on the chassis will have to hang on one massive and long bracket to reach the level of the mounting on the diff. That is of coarse if I want to keep the Panhard horizontal as possible.

This now puts me very close to the pumpkin, and the last thing I want to do is build a wrap around the pumpkin panhard. Further away I move from horizontal brings on bump steer.

Solution is to lift panhard and use primarily for road and other high speed applications. Make the panhard dislocating the same way you would make the sway bar dislocate for high articulation situations.

I have not gone into final measuring, but I think around a 100mm lift on the diff mounting, and around 150mm drop off the chassis may see me very close to horizontal. I will see if I can get to do some measuring this evening to get some final figures.

Any advise or pointers from anyone???
David - Bfreesani
1997 Nissan Sani MK3 2.7TD - Hillbilly (SAFANI)
MQ C200 SFA
MQ H260 LSD Rear
MQ Transfer as second low range
5" Lift
33"x12.5x15" tires on 8.5J rims - Want 35's
DIY rock sliders
DIY Snorkel
Madman EMS
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davidvdm
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Posts: 627
Joined: 13 Sep 2011 15:47
Full Name: David vd Merwe
Nickname: David - Hillbilly
Home Town: West Coast
Current 4x4: 1997 2.7TD Nissan Sani Mk3 4x4 SFA (SAFANI)
Home Language: English/Afrikaans
Has thanked: 4 times
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Re: Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

Post by davidvdm »

After posting on the Flex Thread, Gerrit Loubser made some observations/comments that make sense.

For the sake of keeping this build thread up to date, I'll post some of the pics here as well.

I know this is really drawn out, but we are working at the speed of my budget, which is basically non existent. So if any of you want things to happen any faster, let me know, and I will send you my banking details :rolling:

I had pulled the Sani over a bump in the back yard and it looked ok, but I have been wanting to get my garage in a better state to pull out my 500mm high ramps to get things tested in a bit more controlled manner.

This is what happened.


The pics...
Image

Image

Here is the major problem of getting the MQ to flex under the Sani... Shocks don't have enough travel. These are standard Disco 2 shocks, and with this little flex, I have compressed totally on one side, and fully extended the other side.

Image

Image

Rear end is still Hardbody, so I am not sure how that is going to change once the Patrol Diff is in.

Leaf spring compressed flex on the front...

Image

Rear view

Image

What does make me feel slightly better about the test, is that the left rear wheel ended up in a sand hole of close on 150mm deep. This made the trip up the ramp less successful, but does account for a little more flex than what is initially seen.

Image

Gerrit mentions that there is way to little flex on the rear. Not much has changed that end, besides the 130mm lift blocks that have been added on the each end of the leaf pack, and then a set of Gabriel shocks, from Ians Patrol, has replaced the old Sani shocks while they were moved to new mounting points top and bottom so that they face toward each other instead of being on each side of the diff as it is on the Hardbody.

The leaf springs used up front, are standard Hardbody one tonner packs, with an added military wrap blade to carry the additional weight of the engine.

I have some things in mind for the front end, one of which will be an increase in Castor. Another being the addition of a Panhard rod, and then also a stabiliser. Shock mounts on the diff have been planned below the diff tubes since day one with the use of fleetrider shocks that will give me 375mm range from around 530mm up to 900mm.

The rear end is still a total unknown. The H260 Diff and probably 1,5 times the weight of the little diff that is presently in there. I expect the additional weight is going to change drop out considerably (or am I mistaken). I also wanted to employ revolver drop out shackles to assist articulation, but that’s not a definite yet as I may be running into problems in that the propshaft may not be able to handle the angles already after the nearly 7" lift.

So the question is, at the moment, is the front end too soft, or the rear too hard?
I'm I worried about too many things now when too much could still change by the time everything is complete, and that I should rather just wait until later to "fine tune" these little gremlins.

Keep in mind, this is still my daily drive, so the rubbish handling I have at the moment is somewhat of an issue. I am hoping that the big culprit of the bad handling, is the very small Castor I presently have, and that the increase to around 7 degrease is going to do a lot to fix this. It presently at around 1,5deg.
David - Bfreesani
1997 Nissan Sani MK3 2.7TD - Hillbilly (SAFANI)
MQ C200 SFA
MQ H260 LSD Rear
MQ Transfer as second low range
5" Lift
33"x12.5x15" tires on 8.5J rims - Want 35's
DIY rock sliders
DIY Snorkel
Madman EMS
User avatar
davidvdm
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Posts: 627
Joined: 13 Sep 2011 15:47
Full Name: David vd Merwe
Nickname: David - Hillbilly
Home Town: West Coast
Current 4x4: 1997 2.7TD Nissan Sani Mk3 4x4 SFA (SAFANI)
Home Language: English/Afrikaans
Has thanked: 4 times
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Re: Patrol/Safari bits for Sani

Post by davidvdm »

Sunday we had a little get together for the Fathers day thing, and while chatting, one of the guys and I had a disagreement as to the wheel base of the Safari compared to the Sani. As myself and a Safari owner one day got under the two vehicles with a tape measure, I am fairly certain of my "fight".

BUT... while I am fighting my fight, something dawns on me... If the Safari has the same wheel base, the distance from front diff pinion to rear diff pinion through the transfer case, must be the same when installed under the Sani. Suddenly my spirits lift as I am thinking that the costs to modify three propshafts suddenly seems not to be needed anymore.

As soon as I got home, I'm under the Sani with a tape measure.

Now, taking into account that the H260 has a 130mm longer pinion to center of the tube measurement as the C200 diff, and the 4" lift to the transfer case, the Sani needs a total of 70mm more propshaft length with 20mm extension on both the front and rear slip joints on the props.

Damn, why am I out???? I could not figure that a 4" lift would add 70mm, how far do the standard Safari slip joints extend at normal ride height?

Then it hit me, I forgot, that when I turned the leaf pack around on the SFA, the locating pins on the leaf pack were offset to the rear end of the spring. As they are turned backward to carry the front diff, the offset is now to the front of the vehicle. While I was busy with the exercise to locate the front diff, I did some measuring to fit 33" rubber instead of the standard 29".

Nett result was that the Sani ended up with a 60mm longer wheel base than it had on the IFS. Add the 4" lift of the transfer case, and my rough measurements of 70mm longer propshaft distance started making sense.

The placement of the transfer case also works out very nicely through my rough measurements. I wanted to cut the tube out between the two UJ's on the connecting prop between the two transfer cases. But it looks like a 30mm tube will be needed to get the Safari TC in just the right place to use the original front propshaft as is.

This is a major budget score, with the guys quoting me around R2K per shaft to modify. If I can get away with the modification of the connecting prop, and get the Sani running front wheel drive, it does not have to be taken off the road while I sit with no propshafts to drive the thing.

The rear angles are fairly steep, and I wanted to go Double Cardin on at least one end of the rear shaft anyway. To fit the DC into the shaft, they have to cut the length down, so all this can be sorted out at the same time.

Would be a bonus if I could get both front and rear to work as is, but I know I can't pull back the 60mm longer wheel base without cutting body work to fit the tyres in. So that is the price I have to pay. I am wondering about spacers on pinions to make up some extra length, but not sure how far you can push with spacers.

Can a Safari guy maybe tell me how far your slip joints are extended please, and how far you could let them extend before they cause problems. I have not pulled any of mine all the way out to see how long they are, I'm just plain scared I am going to break something.
David - Bfreesani
1997 Nissan Sani MK3 2.7TD - Hillbilly (SAFANI)
MQ C200 SFA
MQ H260 LSD Rear
MQ Transfer as second low range
5" Lift
33"x12.5x15" tires on 8.5J rims - Want 35's
DIY rock sliders
DIY Snorkel
Madman EMS
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