on vehicle modifications

NUTS to these MODS!

BY DAVID WILSON

Front three-quarter shot reveals an enhanced approach angle, stated at 44 degrees compared to the stock model’s meagre 30.5 degrees.

D-MAX AT35 working on its tan in a brief moment of Arctic sunlight. “Boomer”, some bloke called me the other day. I didn’t know whether to be offended or chuffed, until I thought about it a bit more.

He was asking for opinions on what direction to take his new D-MAX on, particularly when it came to tyres and suspension. The mistake he’d made was he’d spied the new AT35 D-MAX from Arctic Trucks (and somehow now available in Isuzu showrooms). You know how it goes on the forums … you take delivery of a new vehicle, you want to make it yours and individual. I get that. I’ve been doing it forever. I’ve followed a tried and proven formula that’s worked on my vehicles for thirty years now and I’m not about to change it. As alluring as a pumped-up and butch ute might look, it’ll be impractical with a capital I. So, this bloke had a bit of an idea and wanted it validated by his peers on Facebook. There’s the problem straight up, Facebook engineers. Old mate wanted a body lift-kit, with an additional three or four inches of suspension lift in the front and three inches in the rear and then sit it all on top thirty-fives! In case that needed deciphering; replace the existing body mount rubbers with items twice the height, then replace the front suspension struts with something approaching 75-100mm longer than stock and do something similar in the rear. Then

Side-on shot shows the massive increase in clearance; 266mm in the front, 290mm in the rear.

balance it all atop a wheel/tyre combination, that’s 120mm taller than the stock rubber the car was originally sold with. He’ll need a stepladder to get into the cab! Anyway, the Facebook engineers all chimed in, in support of taking what was originally a very pleasant vehicle to drive around town, with a modicum of off-road ability and turn it into an absolute pig, an illegal one at that (at least in Australia), now likely dangerous and hopeless off-road. I’ve seen folk go down this path time and time again, vainly spending thousands and thousands in search of something that is the local equivalent of a USA monster truck. I thought since he was asking, I’d offer an alternative viewpoint. He’d already made his mind up though and didn’t need to hear my recommendations because I’m a boomer, so what’s going on in 4WD land today that is driving this fantasy? Once upon a time in Australia we used to build utes, you know, the Falcon and Holden single cabs and all the young urban tradies bought the go-fast Typhoon and Maloo variants to ferry their tool belts to site and back each day. Must-do mods included a loud exhaust, a cold-air intake, seriously wide rims with lowprofile rubber to suit and a tougher posture, slammed to the deck with lowering springs. That’ll make a boy-racer out of any ute!

Front-on and man, look at those haunches, all puffed-out and full of tyre. AT35 runs a 17x10” rim with an LT315/70R17 or 35” in the old money.

The locally made utes are no more, so young tradies are gravitating to Thai utes and flipping the genre on its head, and going up, instead of down, is the new, errr, black. You know what I mean. Now, vehicle rules are there for a purpose and it’s called safety. A modern truck (ute) has safety in its DNA because it’s mandated so. That safety camera up in the windscreen is measuring all sorts of perils and distances to stop, distances to other vehicles, over and over again, precise computations measured in milliseconds. Change the viewing angle and guess what? It won’t work. I noted my new D-MAX with Isuzu’s IDAS (Intelligent Driver Assistance System), went missing for a few weeks when I did something as innocent as changing my wheel/tyre combination. Whilst modestly taller and well within the legal 50mm tyre diameter increase that we are permitted nationally, the D-MAX’s primary safety gizmo went MIA. That slightly elevated view of the road ahead was enough to challenge IDAS into submission, but it returned after “learning” the new angles weren’t upsetting the algorithms too wildly. That nominal difference is apparently designed into the system, but a vehicle sporting a now 200mm taller stance, was never conceived of in the computer’s rulebook and it’ll throw an error and that will have a domino effect on critical safety systems. That’s bad and outside of vehicle design rules, making it likely illegal and positively uninsurable. Suspension rule 101 states: “Though shalt not f*#k with an IFS” (that’s independent front suspension systems).

Rear view of Holden’s wild Maloo R8 go-fast ute. Previous generation AT35 D-MAX having a frolic in the sand.

Going down the pathway of big lifts creates all sorts of steering geometry craziness and dictates changes to control arms to be able to dial in corrections to help it steer. Not only that, driveshaft angles will be horrid, pointing so far downwards there’ll be zero droop travel left and you’ll be riding on the bump-stops. The CVs (Constant Velocity Joints) will be stressed to the max and likely binding on every change in direction coupled to a bump. Smashed CVs become an expensive tedium after you’ve broken the first two or three. Hope you left a budget for a diff-drop to offer some respite to those CV angles? Whilst you’re fiddling there, think about extending all the cables and brake lines, the diff breather hoses and the transmission selector. The bigger news though is the effect the new wheels and tyres will have. Thirty-fives weigh plenty. A stock alloy wheel/tyre combo will tip the scales around 27kgs. A thirty-five will weigh 50kgs. Apply that mass to things and you can expect failure. Hub assemblies will have double the force exerted on them than they were designed for. Steering racks will suffer bent or broken tie rods, hell, maybe even the steering box might be torn from its chassis mounts? The rolling mass of those big wheels really messes with brakes. Those pathetic drum brakes up the back will have no chance of effectively stopping a 2.5T vehicle from higher speeds, so you might have just made yourself a crash-test dummy. That same rolling mass breaks front differentials; gear sets stressed beyond belief and crown-wheels and pinions smashed to bits on bumpy uphill grades. You could argue that the monster truck concept would be an investment and so much more astute than pissing the same money up against a wall, or smoking it. Nope, spending $30-40K to build a 4WD that is now cop-bait doesn’t float my boat and I bet I can run rings around it off-road with my modestly lifted and re-tyred jigger. Call me a boomer, because yes, I was born in 1957, but I haven’t had the 4WD life sucked out of me. Yet.

Black and Gold Artic Trucks D-MAX twins.

Arctic Trucks even thought about preserving the mudflaps from an inadvertent dismembering!

We Want To Give You A Boost

CALL +61 8 9478 2144

TURBOTECH BRANDED TUrbochargers

Price List

Ford / Mazda Bravo 2.5L RHF5 B2500 TDCI Ford Ranger/ Mazda BT50 3.0 J97MU 115 Kw Holden Colorado RC 3.0 L Holden Rodeo <97 Holden Rodeo 98-2002 Holden Rodeo Isuzu Dmax Hyundai KIA / SANTA FE 2.2L CRDI TF035 Isuzu Dmax / Holden Colorado 4JJ1 3.0L Mazda CX7 Petrol Mitsubishi 4M41 TF035 early 3.2L Pajero Mitsubishi Pajero 4M41 Mitsubishi Pajero 4M41 RHF5 3.2L TT-VJ33 TT-VJ38 TT-VIGM TT-VI58 TT-VIBR TT-VIDW

$1350 + gst $1350 + gst $1350 + gst $900 + gst $900 + gst $1350 + gst TT-49135-07310 $1350 + gst TT-VIEZ $1350 + gst

TT-K0422-582

$1350 + gst TT-49135-03410 $1350 + gst TT-VT13 TT-VT12 $1350 + gst $1350 + gst Mitsubishi Triton TT-49135-02912 $1350 + gst Mitsubishi Triton / Challenger RHV4 4D56 2.5L 100 Kw TT-VT10 $1350 + gst Mitsubishi Triton / Challenger RHV4 4D56 2.5L D-ID 100 Kw TT-VT16 $1350 + gst Mitsubishi Triton 4M40T 2.8L TT-49135-03130 $1350 + gst Nissan Navara 3.0L ZD30 D22 1411-9S00A 170 Kw TT-HT12-19D $1350 + gst Nissan Navara D22 2.5L RHF4H TT-VN4 $1350 + gst Nissan Patrol HT18 TD42T Y61 GU watercooled TT-14411-62T00 $1350 + gst Toyota CT20b 100 series 1HD-FTE TT-17201-17040 $1350 + gst Toyota CT26 80 series 1HDT TT-17201-17010 $1350 + gst Toyota Hi-Ace TT-17201-30180 $1550 + gst Toyota Hi-Ace TT-17201-30200 $1550 + gst Toyota Hi-Lux / Prado / Front runner 2.8 L TT-17201-11080 $1550 + gst Toyota Hilux 3.0 L 1KZ-TE CT12B TT-17201-67010 $1350 + gst Toyota Hilux 3.0L CT16VGT 1KD-FTV D4D TT-17201-30110 $1550 + gst Toyota L/Cruiser 12HT 1HJ61 TT-17201-68010 $1350 + gst Toyota L/Cruiser 1VD-FTV V8 twin turbo LC200 series TT-VB22 $1850 + gst Toyota L/Cruiser 1VD-FTV V8 twin turbo LC200 series TT-VB23 $1850 + gst Toyota Prado 3.0L CT16VGT 1KD-FTV D4D TT-17201-30160 $1550 + gst

Brand new highest quality | 12 months conditional warranty Each unit fully tested prior to sale | OEM quality and performance Trade and volume discounts if applicable

484 Great Eastern Highway Ascot WA 6104 m: 0418 922 018 | p: (08) 9478 2144 | f: (08) 9478 2166 e: sales@turbotech.com.au | w: turbotech.com.au