Weight Reduction

[djr320kw]

Did a bit of searching and found some information.

There is always heaps of questions and comments about getting more power out of a 4x4. I was going to bring up weight reduction. As sometimes this can be cheaper and easier to do.

The purpose of this thread is to gather different ideas on reducing weight. Provide links if you know where items can be purchased.

Some begining suggestions are

- Taking carpet out
- carbon fibre bonet

I hope this post is in the right place.

[Tiny]

as this is relevent to all 4bs it may get better coverage in tech

what about a chop? thats what I am doing and taking the carpet out and will make the tray out of chomoly

[djr320kw]

Thanks for moving it tiny. Good idea. If people could also estimate on how much they are saving would be great

[bogged]

Thanks for moving it tiny. Good idea. If people could also estimate on how much they are saving would be great

how much do you intend to save, carpet and bonnet wouldnt really be that much weight..

Is it comp only ?

chop would be the biggest saver...
failing that non essentials.
rear seats, mid seats, any mounts and brackets that arent used,
CF guards and bonnet
CF seats
CF dashboard or just plain sheet only with whats needed...
No barwork

all depends where you want to end.

box of laxettes for driver and co driver for 2 weeks prior to event.

[Tiny]

I have also removed my 2nd and 3rd row seats as it is comp onluy and a roll cage has being istalles, when the chop is done there will be very litle interior and the rear window will be perspex, I havnt weighed it, but expect it to be pretty much same as a standard unladed GQ given it had a cage, sliders and 35s

[GQ TROL]

On a GQ ute conversion we're doing, doors and glass would by far be the best bits to remove to reduce weight. Replace glass with Perspex or Lexan and side doors with fibre-glass replacements. Perspex scratches easily though, and Lexan is very expensive!!

We probably added weight to the rear by chopping the body off and building a tray-deck. Gutting the back end and keeping it as a well-side would have been better.

Was alot of weight in the all heater fans, ducting etc under the dash too.

[grimbo]

Losing weight is great to a point but on certain cars it can get detremental too. On Suzuki tray I lost as much weight as possible and found I wasn't generating enough traction in the rear and had to add a bit of weight to get it to perform better.

It si amazing how much stuff people carry in their vehicles that is really unneccesary. Things like roof racks, extra spare tyres, full water tanks for daily driving, extra seats, even storgae systems etc. It really comes down to getting rid of stuff you don't know and replacing the stuff you do with the, where possible, lightest components you can.

[MARKx4]

Im going to cut my MK back off, roof if allowed. Leaving only windscreec, doors, guards and bonnet. Contemplating on CF guards and bonnet. Light tray, maybe all alloy. I think of carrying a little weight is good but keep it low and dont carry to much weight up top. And the driver could loose the weight aswell.

[djr320kw]

These are all great ideas guys keep them coming.

I didnt just make this thread for myself but as a general idea for everybody

If anyone has any good links or photos add them as well. If we get enough information maybe we can make it a sticky

[Slunnie]

Materials!

I'm rebuilding a Landy 2a, and just about everything is alloy, weighing next to nothing. The only thing that is heavy above the chassis height is the firewall, and then perhaps the glass in the windows.

[F'n_Rover]

last time i weighed my landy it came up as 1620 kg with me in it @ 85kg
not loaded with anything except 1/2 tank juice

remove roof & 1 piece rear door 150 kg
replace salisbury diff with rover diff and lux centre 70 kg
replace 3 ton leafs with parabolics 50kg
alloys instead of steelies 50kg
disk brake conversion 20kg
bobtail arse end 100kg

[ISUZUROVER]

last time i weighed my landy it came up as 1620 kg with me in it @ 85kg
not loaded with anything except 1/2 tank juice

remove roof & 1 piece rear door 150 kg
replace salisbury diff with rover diff and lux centre 70 kg
replace 3 ton leafs with parabolics 50kg
alloys instead of steelies 50kg
disk brake conversion 20kg
bobtail arse end 100kg

That seems very light. A mate's stock ex-military IIA ute (with canopy) weighed in at about 1920kg with him and 2 spare tyres in it.

Dear in mind that when you remove the roof you will likely install a roll cage (if yu want to be safe or are competing in comps) which will add a fair bit of extra weight.

I would have thought that a disc and caliper would be about the same or heavier as a drum brake.

[redzook]

last time i weighed my landy it came up as 1620 kg with me in it @ 85kg
not loaded with anything except 1/2 tank juice

remove roof & 1 piece rear door 150 kg
replace salisbury diff with rover diff and lux centre 70 kg
replace 3 ton leafs with parabolics 50kg
alloys instead of steelies 50kg
disk brake conversion 20kg
bobtail arse end 100kg

how much are u bobtailing to get 100kg

[F'n_Rover]

redzook wrote:

how much are u bobtailing to get 100kg

yep fair call - just gestimating figures, the rear x-member would have a bit of beef, but thinking about it nowhere near 100kg and the cut off body work would weigh as much as an empty vb slab.
was going to cut off at the rear spring mounts havn't measured but around
300mm

isuzurover wrote :

that seems very light. A mate's stock ex-military IIA ute (with canopy) weighed in at about 1920kg with him and 2 spare tyres in it.

Dear in mind that when you remove the roof you will likely install a roll cage (if yu want to be safe or are competing in comps) which will add a fair bit of extra weight.

I would have thought that a disc and caliper would be about the same or heavier as a drum brake.

i had it weighed at a scrap metal weighbridge- dont know how accurate it was but would imagine it would have to be calibrated and inspected by the goverment mob. may

what motor did your mates ute have? i'm running a 186s and only 31" atm. also the bloke who had it before me already ripped out the carpets and sound proofing

the rangie disks i have (older non vented) seem a lot lighter than the drums, could be an illusion though. never actually had them both together.

i'll weigh it again at a different place.

[ISUZUROVER]

what motor did your mates ute have?

2.25 petrol. 7.50x16's.


I converted my ex-mil IIA from a hardtop to a ute - not to save weight, just improve C of G and lessen body roll on sideslopes (and improve rear visibility offroad). Never weighed it though. The 33's on disco rims weigh a ton and the rocksliders and salisbury rear add a fair bit.

[ludacris]

Dont forget to replace your front bar with a 31Kg cheezy bar. Rope instead of cable on the winch.
Basic tray to carry just what you need instead of a bend here and there to fit your spare tyre tool boxes and so on in there special places.
Over board on bracing.
Make the Navi run all the time .
Tyre sizes and widths. Air con, heater.
You dont need 160 litres of fuel for a weekend of winching.

LudaCris

[lr90]

last time i weighed my landy it came up as 1620 kg with me in it @ 85kg
not loaded with anything except 1/2 tank juice

remove roof & 1 piece rear door 150 kg
replace salisbury diff with rover diff and lux centre 70 kg
replace 3 ton leafs with parabolics 50kg
alloys instead of steelies 50kg
disk brake conversion 20kg
bobtail arse end 100kg

That seems very light. A mate's stock ex-military IIA ute (with canopy) weighed in at about 1920kg with him and 2 spare tyres in it.

Dear in mind that when you remove the roof you will likely install a roll cage (if yu want to be safe or are competing in comps) which will add a fair bit of extra weight.

I would have thought that a disc and caliper would be about the same or heavier as a drum brake.

There's not much fat on my 90 and that weighs in at 1900kg with driver, recover gear and fuel.

I can think of several things to add but not much to take away :(

[largesuzy]

Make the Navi run all the time .
LudaCris

i think dad needs more of this hes starting to get heavy again

[Dozoor]

Want to lose 500kg of ugly fat

[ausyota]

The heaviest thing in my lux is the driver
Hmm maybe if I wasnt such a fat bastard I could fit more accesories and barwork .
Paul.

[toughnut]

Removing weight is all good, BUT, placement of weight is just as important. As a couple of examples:
V8 supercars spend thousands of dollars to make their cars as light as possible. Why do they do this when they have a minimum weight? Its so they can put the weight back on the vehicle where it makes the vehicle more stable for racing. The other example is that vehicles like patrols etc are very heavy over the front axle. You could do things like move the radiator, batteries and anything not needed in the engine bay to the rear of the vehicle. Kym bolton has moved his fuel tank to the rear of the tray to put the weight more over the rear axle.

[djr320kw]

Removing weight is all good, BUT, placement of weight is just as important. As a couple of examples:
V8 supercars spend thousands of dollars to make their cars as light as possible. Why do they do this when they have a minimum weight? Its so they can put the weight back on the vehicle where it makes the vehicle more stable for racing. The other example is that vehicles like patrols etc are very heavy over the front axle. You could do things like move the radiator, batteries and anything not needed in the engine bay to the rear of the vehicle. Kym bolton has moved his fuel tank to the rear of the tray to put the weight more over the rear axle.

great point. They also do this in F1 they use tunsen (sp??) to distubute. weight over the bottom of the car. Everyone has suggested good ideas.

[F'n_Rover]

more ideas :

reduction starter
alloy radiator
rewire for basics only
gut the doors if your 4b is old enough to legally do so
smaller battery
single blade wipers instead of twin

[twinnie]

yeah placement of weight is important, but which model you start with is also important you can get a zook below 750kg! and thats was with a roll bar and 31's.

now here is an example of models my pajero wieghs 1700 odd it's the hi spec one the lower model one weighs 1600 now mine has leccy windows and all that jazz but it has the 3.0 v6 as aposed to a 2.6 4 banger, which is where most of the weight is i spose.

if you want to shed weight easerly if you have sliding windows they can easerly be replaced by pastic as some one said earlyer. it's easy to go over board removing recovery gear could leave you stuck...ect.

now to my final rant placement of weight. the closer the weight is you your trucks center of enertia the easer it will turn. one this you could do is move your spare closer to the center of the truck. so kim puting his fuel tank ot the rear i find an interisting idear, but he is very sucsessful so i'm not going to question it.

Matt

p.s. does any one have a link for binskins 4x4 they do kevlar stuff

[toughnut]

Yeah Kym had the fuel tank mounted just behind the cab where the normal sub tank usually is but he found there wasn't enough weight over the rear so he moved it further back. This also gave him space to put his centre mount winch. I also have a GU comp truck and I still have the rear fuel tank for the same reason. If I moved everything forward there would be too much forward bias on the vehicle and it skips too much in the rear, especially when getting airborne over jumps. The rear stays in the air and if you don't keep on the gas it gets a bit hairy.

[MARKx4]

I think the idea is to get the front and rear as close to equal weight as possible and the work the rest of your necessary weight evenally around the middle.

[GQ TROL]

Yeah Kym had the fuel tank mounted just behind the cab where the normal sub tank usually is but he found there wasn't enough weight over the rear so he moved it further back. This also gave him space to put his centre mount winch. I also have a GU comp truck and I still have the rear fuel tank for the same reason. If I moved everything forward there would be too much forward bias on the vehicle and it skips too much in the rear, especially when getting airborne over jumps. The rear stays in the air and if you don't keep on the gas it gets a bit hairy.

Agree entirely Steve,
We bob-tailed the chassis on the new ute which means we can't run the standard fuel tank. But we're fab-ing up an another one to sit over (and just behind) the rear axle to keep some weight over the rear where we need it. Things like moving dual batteries to the tray can help too.