SYRON CONVERSIONS' 1992 Toyota Hilux single cab 4x4 Truck

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

:D Yes I call it a truck because my wife drives a small Nissan 1400 bakkie and both vehicle's park next to each other in the garage and her bakkie looks so small, anyway to give a brief history of this vehicle, I bought it from a guy in Delmas which is near Springs in The Transvaal a few years back, maybe three.

Before I bought this Hilux I used to own a Datsun Tracker which was a 1983 model, it had the small L1800 engine fitted, I re-built this vehicle collecting parts from all over the place, it was a very reliable little 4x4, but times change in a person's life, after hitting a few cattle in the road with my other Nissan 1400 bakkie which I wrote off, I decided that I required a vehicle that had more muscle to the front end of it, thus I sold the Tracker for R18 000. wanted more but the guy who was interested in buying it from me knocked my original price of R22 000. down to the
R18 000. luckily he had not seen the vehicle yet, thus I just removed the new ATX Firestone tyres and fitted other more worn tyres to the vehicle, which I sold the bakkie to him with, I also gave him a few extra spare parts to go with the bakkie and then afterwards I sold the ATX tyres to a farmer who carts milk for R4 000. but there were in fact 6 tyres basically new, thus at the end of the day I still got my money in the end 8)

So I now had a written off Nissan 1400 bakkie, which my insurance paid me out R26 000. then also the R18 000. from the Datsun Tracker and thus I started to look around for another 4x4, looking at various web sites and newspapers as well as The Autotrader magazine. Next page

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

So while looking in The Autotrader I came across this advert of a Toyota Hilux single cab 4x4 for sale, I then phoned the person Carel (will leave out his surname ) anyway there was one photo in the magazine but a person cannot see much in thoughs pic's, thus Carel emailed me some more, my brother said that this vehicle lookied like a boat, he even asked where is the outboard motor at the rear?

Well I like what I saw and told Carel that I am interested in buying it, but first just some info on what it consisted of;

Black Diamond 3" suspension as well as shocks
50mm body lift
4Y engine with branches and free flow
single joint revolver shackles at the rear
A so called Detroit Locker in the front will come back to that later.
Snorkel
Dual roll bar system on the load body
Shortened load body but the chassis was not shortened
Mounted axe and spade
Funny looking copy type ARB front bumper, had this checkered plate on it for show.
Side rock sliders
Rear pipe with Bow shackle
BFG Muds in 33" x 1250 x 15" but not much left of the tread.
Rhino seat cover
Rhino tarp for the rear
And last buty not least A grade 3 anti theft devise pepper spray system as well as the alarm system.

There might have been one or two other items that I have forgotten to mention, well Carel was rather rude to me, he said that if I wanted this vehicle I must pay him straight away, well I did want it, thus without actually seeing the vehicle in "the flesh" I transferred R55 000. into his bank account and then a few days later went up to JHB with a truck from work to go and fetch it, met Carel in Springs at a place that looked like a huge ship at some shopping mall, had to wait for him and I can tell you I was getting worried "thinking you know what" :?

Well Carel did eventually arrive and took me out to his plot at Delmas to look at the vehicle, I can say that to buy a vehicle under these conditions is not very nice, what I saw on his drive way was in fact a vehicle that had just had some paint put on it.

Thus we then sorted out the paper work, keys and a few other things Carel pointed me in the direction of the nearest petrol station where I had to fill the vehicle up, after this I was on my way home, but I can tell you driving a vehicle of this size down the hiways of JHB at 100km per hour was not fun, when most of the vehicles were passing me left and right at 120 to 140km per hour, but the looks that I got from people that passed me, I am still sure to this day that they were not looking at this 8) dude driving this vehicle but at the Toyota Hilux instead.

First of all so that everybody can see who SYRON CONVERSIONS belongs to and who we are.

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

Eventually after many hours I managed to arrive safely back in Queenstown, this is when I noticed some oil leaks, the power steering box was leaking oil out through the pitman arm shaft, colour red ATF oil, and there was also a small oil leak under the engine.

Thus I will just post a few photo's here and then carry on with the various modifications that we have done to this vehicle in the other section.


The above photo shows basically what my Truck now looks like.

Ronny driving my truck and I was taking the photo's, the young guys who were with us, help us to clear back the cut thorntree branches, we normally give them meat and cooldrinks when we braai and some money as well.


Crossing over to the other side, yes this is the route that we have to take, this trail is known as The Rocky Mountain 4x4 Trail, just outside Queenstown, it is mean, rough and tough, but optional by-pass sections are available for the drivers who drive 4x4 vehicles that have side steps and no diff lock.

We call the above crossing Wayne's Crossing, one of our club members left his front bumper behind as well as the electric winch, he was driving a Mazde 2.5 DTI and was not happy, he sold that vehicle soon afterwards and is now riding a 4x4 Quad.

Look carefully at these photo's, you will see that not many 4x4 vehicles cross these sections, if they did you would see tracks made from the tyres.

[BenHur]

Nice pics. I enjoy the large resolution. Well done!

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

:D Yes they are very nice, at least a person can see what the photo is about.

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

Yes the larger format is nice, but I will carry on using this format and then here and there some of the bigger photo's, the photo below was taken at Somerset East a few years back, I was taking part in a 4x4 challenge, was just showing off here in this photo' was trying to see if I could spray the by-standers.

well nice pic anyway.

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

How many of you can go out 4x4ing on a Friday afternoon after work

Ronny and I went to the top of Maderia Mountain to check out the snow that is still on the surrounding mountings from Monday, Hangklip Mountain still had some on the heigher slopes, then towards The Winterberg these mountains were still thick with snow, not forgetting also towards the west h\Hogsback and Catberg Mountains were still covered in snow.

Took a few pic's to share with ypu all.


Photo above of Queenstown

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

http://snap28.photobox.co.uk/9446389627 ... 82f0fd.jpg

Having a rest, balancing the front wheels on this dried mud crest.

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

8)

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

No I am not but I am just real 8) but you shood have seen my wife, she said stop stop I am getting out, you are mad

Thus I slowly apprioached this little mound of clay sand, selcted both lockers, made sure that I was in super low low range and slowly as she goes, my Hilux climbed straight up, no wheel spin, no trouble and over the top we went.





The photo's tell the story. This is what or why this Hilux Truck was modified to this extreme so that it can do this sort of terrain.

Will your Hilux follow, join us next time we are out 4x4ing

:)

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

I deleted the large photo's so that it makes it easier to read the posting or topic

Here are some more, these I call In and out







Now you must remember that the wheel base on my Hilux is the same as any double cab of the same years, only the load body has been shortened.

Would your Hilux be able to follow through this small stream

[BenHur]

Would your Hilux be able to follow through this small stream

Yes with a little bit of momentum, but the towbar will plow the bank of the river a bit going in But I would rather not do it otherwise old shorty will sh1t his broek

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

More damage is done to this area each time the stream comes down in flood, your little "ball" will not do any damage to worry about, you should see the mess that The Landy's have made where the other vehicle's went through and out, there was this one Landy that just wheel spinned and dug huge holes :|

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

I call this photo "Wet & Wild" It was taken on a 4x4 trail on a farm called Ferndale that is 30km from Cathcart towards The start of The Black Kei River, awesome area to visit, they have an excellent camping area, hot showers, flushing toilets and even a double story lodge that they hire out. Been there about ten times, will post an article about this place in the other section.

See which vehicle is leading the way once again.

This is when I first got my Hilux, see old type front bumper that I removed and it is in the shipping container waiting to be sold one day as well.



When we come upon a stream or river, we enter and see how far we can drive up or down it



see tire tracks





Looking to check what is around the corner, this is Ben...

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

This is what I call a close shave

When I was doing 4x4 Challenges in East London



I think I shat in my pants

Some more pics of the challenge

07.jpg (10.03 KiB) Viewed 8171 times

08.jpg (7.49 KiB) Viewed 8163 times

[Cookie Monster]

Hi Simon

How did you manage that

[glevey]

Hi Simon

Trying to give me competition

Cheers
Geoff

[BenHur]

Hi Simon

Trying to give me competition

Cheers
Geoff

Have you got the pics to proof your claim

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

Thankyou benhur

Well here are some more pic's of my little Hilux in action competing against the more experienced 4x4 challenge drivers, we had a 4x4 challenge event today in Queenstown, there were more than 20 vehicles competing in the various classes, consisting of;

Super modified, basically for pipe vehicles

Modified Production vehicles with diff locks

Standard vehicles with factory fitted diff locks etc

We had some fun, but however we did not win any prizes, however it was nice to have some other people to compete against.

Two bad things happened to use today.
First the passenger seat belt would not work, thus we opted out of the first obsticle.

Then I locked my door keys in the Hilux, thus had to break off my 29 meg ariel to unlock the door.



Up this obsticle I use 3rd gear low range above and below pic's. But had my foot in the hook as well, this terrain was very loose, no grip and no rock, thus the low 1st gear was of no use, had to get some momentum, from a stand off point.







And we made it to the top but only just........ photo's do not show how tough these sections actually were.







Yes 4th gear selected low range took us all the way to the top, from a slight roll back and then full rev's straight up to the rev limitor and just dust and flying stones all the way

[glevey]

Yes
http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoffrey_levey/1010073758/

Cheers
Geoff

[Family_Dog]

I can't believe you guys get up to this! Have you never heard of things like...

Centre of Gravity
Top Heavy
Falling over?

Geoff Levey.jpg

-F_D
<Shudders>

[iHilux]

I can't believe you guys get up to this! Have you never heard of things like...

Centre of Gravity
Top Heavy
Falling over?

-F_D
<Shudders>

-F_D,

I've had the privledge to "pilot" with Simon on a couple of these outings, and I gotta admit, if you have a weak heart, or weak bowels, then don't try this at home.....

I've got to add, we spend a lot of time watching how other vehicles perform in the obsticle before us. Then it's great debate as to the best option and line to follow. Then there is alwasy the escape route that is embedded in our minds before we pull off.

Most obsticiles are done at snails pace, and always with the option of escape.

It's better with two in the vehicle, as then Simon can concentrate on the driving, and I've gotta encourage, talk, advise, and shi1t my pants for both of us. Oh yes, and occasionally I gotta operate the siren too...... :D

So yeah, driver concentrates to the wheel, gears, clutch and brakes.
Co-driver does the thinking, talking, encouraging and shi1tting.

-F_D, if you ever get offered the oppertunity, grab it with both hands. You'll bet amazed as to the extreme these SFA can go! You will never view your own SFA in the same light again.

[Family_Dog]

Wade,

Thanks for the invite, but I guess I'll pass on this one, my nervous system & bones are far too fragile to do things like this!

I remember Simon posting a picture of himself climbing a near vertical rock face in the old 4xforum. Simon, do you still have that picture?


-F_D

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

With the smaller photo's that behur posted for me, I must tell you all that iHilux was my excellent Co-Driver, yes we bost shat in our pants But rather be scared than Stupid and dumb

Thankyou
Wade :)

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

4x4 Challenge Queenstown, joint competition with The Border 4x4 Club from East London

To tell you what happened, I will let the photo's show you the type of action that we had.

And yes I did not get any placings, however two of our club members did in their 4x4 vehicles.

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

Got some more pic's from The Queenstown 4x4 Challenge.

Old Range Rover



This vehicle is known as KRAPPIES But!!! these two guys in it were The Actual Marshalls and they decided that they would also take part in this 4x4 Challenge, is this fair? :roll:











And that was that, another day of 4x4ing to remember :)

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

And boys will be boys.........

[CasKru]

Nice Pics Simon :)

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

Here we have a pic that was once published in The SA 4X4 Magazine a few years back, this photo was taken on Andries Farm, (you see he also farms rocks)



Photo takenfrom The Rocky Mountain 4x4 Trail near Queenstown, this area is real 4x4 terrain, state owned and very large, if you are looking for some real thrills and adventure, come drive our 4x4 trails around Queenstown but only if you and your 4x4 can handle them :)

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

Thread brought upfront for Mark to see photo's of what this awesome vehicle looks like 8)