Air Lockers on the Unimog 404 Axles

Today was American Idol, so I went out to the barn to escape the torture of it all. I got the head lights mounted, and the rear air cylinder for the locker mounted. Originally the Unimog 404 has linkage actuated lockers, but I thought they would work much better if they were air actuated. To do this I mounted a Bimba air cylinder to the pinion adapter, and fabricated a new arm on the differential to get the optimum angle on the cylinder, and to keep it all close to the dif. I am still trying to sort out the front actuator, everything gets really tight up in front when the suspension is at full bump. Having six more inches of ground clearance comes at a price of other liberties. Soon enough I will need to tackle that front locker. It's 15 to midnight, I think I will go to bed now.

Air Compressor

For an auxiliary air compressor, I chose the 480C from Viair. I went back and forth between this one and the KMA12 ARB unit. The ARB puts out more cfm (2.18cfm at 30psi vs. the Viair with 1.52cfm) but has a 150psi limit, and 50% duty cycle. The Viair 480C is rated for 100% duty cycle at 100psi, and max output of 200psi. Viair is very popular amongst mini truckers. When I did my first air ride suspension, I only had one on board air compressor, and what a nightmare when it failed out on the trail! My second air ride system had a back-up ARB compressor, but it topped out at 150psi, where as the engine compressor ran at 200psi (I need 200psi for the air ride to work well). With the two systems running at separate pressures I had to run a complicated series of regulators, check valves and blow-off valves to keep from over pressurizing the ARB unit.


This time around I will have both running at 200psi, one blow-off valve, one pressure switch, and alot less plumbing.

I'm trying to get as much weight up front as I can, or let me say locate as much of the weight up front as I can. It's been my experience that a forward bias center of gravity does much better rock crawling, given the type of wheeling I like to do. This being said, I decided to mount the compressor in front of the radiator. It's only 11lbs, but every little bit counts. In the end, I may even run lead shot in the front tires.

Mount the seats, then remount the seats, then do it again

After dinner and putting the kids to bed, my wife and I settled down to watch some TV. After confirming there was absolutely nothing worth watching, I snuck back out to the barn.

The seats on AR-MOG-GEDDON had been bugging me for quite some time, so once again I ground off the tack welds holding the seat rails in, and remounted them outboard. Then I sat in it for a while imagining where to place the switches and gauges......no dash yet.

Several times Caleb has asked "Dad why do you tack weld everything first?"

Trying to finish up the Go Fast Jeep

Saturday Amy's sister came up for the day, so it was Monster Barn day for me! I started the day by working on the firewall and floor on the Go-Fast Jeep. I was into it about 20 min. when I got reassigned to give horse rides to all the cousins. After that, an old friend came over to shoot the breeze so I shifted gears and cleaned the barn some while bench racing. Finally, around 1:00 I got back on track and got something done.





The fire wall and floor are one piece, or shall I say several pieces welded together and formed into one piece. To do this first, you cut the individual pieces reducing the gaps as much as possible. Next, the pieces are tack welded together-middle, then the ends. Following that continue tacking in between each existing tack until the entire section is tacked. When you are done it will look a little messy but will clean up.







After an eternity of tack welding you can start cleaning the weld up. I start with a grinding disk on my 4 1/2 inch angle grinder. Do not work in one spot, you need to move the grinder from one end of the seam to the other. If there are high spots, you can hit the high spots a little, but don't take them down past the surrounding weld.













Once I'm getting close I switch to a flap style sanding disk to finish it off. Tight corners require more imagination, and a combination of a 90 degree high speed with sanding disks, and round grinding stones.

Take your time and it will turn out much better!

After the firewall was finished, I fabricated the front push bar or stinger. Then moved on to finish the front shock hoops.












The X brace on the front shock hoops is reminesent of the X brace on the front of the chassis of the 427 Cobra that I am slowly, and I mean slowly, building from scratch.

Christmas time in May

After I sold the yellow #2 chassis, I started ordering cool stuff for AR-MOG-GEDDON, and the stuff is finally starting to filter in. It's like Christmas........only it's all stuff you want!!! I thought I would get a free hat or something with all the thousands of $$$$ I have spent at Summit Racing, but no hat. I got a box full of Carling marine type rocker switches off eBay-sweet! I had to hide them from my kids. Hella lights, aluminum radiator, two double ended hydraulic cylinders for front and rear steering, pneumatic actuators for front and rear lockers, and a cool new stock for my rifle.

Choate Ultimate Varmint stock for my Remington SPS Varmint Special.

Gear Head Disease

Being a Gear Head is something like a disease, and if you do not have the disease it’s hard to relate to those who do. There is a totally different language spoken by those with the disease, and vocabulary varies with the level of infection. Left unchecked it can swell and consume your every thought. Sometimes when people see you there quietly on the couch doing nothing they may ask, “What you thinking about?” You quickly have to think up something to tell them so they won’t know you were thinking about how you can build your own carbon fiber floor boards, or do you need the compressor with 1CFM or 1.6 CFM if the larger one is fifty dollars more? The disease comes and goes in episodes of varying degree.

I have had this disease since childhood, and once over a decade ago I had an episode that at times I am still trying to work out. It was an exceptionally hot day, and with the hot South African sun beating down on your head, lunch time is much better spent at home than on the curb outside of the convenient store. So only being a mile or so from the flat, we decided to make out way home. Then as if beckoning to my diseased brain I looked up and there it was an army truck.



Army trucks were common place in the midst of a politically torn South Africa during the mid ‘90s but this was no ordinary army truck, it was a Mercedes, it had geared hubs…..geared hubs that made the axle stronger….geared hubs that gave it six more inches of ground clearance….it was cool!
Ever since that day somewhere in the back of my mind, in the depths of the muck, AR-MOG-GEDDON has been stewing. A rock crawler with Mercedes Unimog axles, only lighter, and more agile than the already capable Unimog.
I have been collecting parts for this thing for the past eight years, and now it’s finally coming together.

Number Two

I took what I learned from the first buggy and applied it, and the money from selling it to a new buggy. My wife and I went on a shopping spree. 35" Boggers, bead locks, 4:1 gears for the transfer case, ARB front and rear, crate engine, advanced adapters t-case adapter, warn 8274 winch. I went to town and it took two years to come together. 102" wheel base, 20" travel air ride suspension, hydraulic steering.

Right in the middle of the project, we moved. So for three months I worked on it in a storage unit by my apartment with a generator powering my welder, chop saw and drill press. There was only enough room to skinny past on one side, and you had to climb over the tires on the other side. Finally we bought a house and moved it to my new garage.

I painted it yellow and left the body bare aluminum. This one worked quite well, and I wheeled it for almost ten years. I was a little sad when it drove down the road on some one else's trailer, but that's how we make progress.