XM1027 - CUCV Crew Cab Build

[rivcrazy2000]

I have 55w HID's through a set of projectors in my truck rated at 4500 Lumens I believe? I can't remember what they were rated at exactly but the output is extremely impressive especially since the projectors provide for high/low beams and focus the light where you need it. A 500W LED light would be insane! I want to see some shots of it in action when you get it mounted and wired up.

 

[tim292stro]

The 55W and 100W are easier to do, I just need to stick/screw them to a good heatsink (PC/CPU type works fine). For the 500W I will be buying a high power 24VDC power supply for testing and development (1500Watts). Once I get there I will be taking pictures and video. I really do have to water cool the 500Watt LED, otherwise the 500Watt heatsink is 12" x 14" x 8" thick, and needs two 120mm fans moving 200+ CFM each.

We are also moving this week (we believe) so work will be slow but still happening (need something to do to keep me sane in the wee hours).

Yeah from what I read, a 35Watt automotive HID is about 2900 lumens new, a 55Watt is 4500 lumens new and a 100watt is about 8000 lumens new. The general energy efficiency of HID is about 80 lumens/watt for the automotive type. You can get higher, but the cost goes up and the Chinese don't copy them as well. I'm also staying away from HID conversions on this project since I want full DOT compliance. There are DOT compliant HID conversions, but I'm not familiar with a 55Watt version being compliant. I'm not judging, I have 35Watt high/low HID aftermarkets in my Toyota Pickup in Cibie ECE housings, but I know I'm not compliant and won't throw a fit if a LEO catches me on it. And some guys think that the color temperature above 6500K is better (I've seen some here in the S.F. Bay Area that look purple) - I'm not in that camp, I run 4300K HID which is somewhere between daylight and incandescent light (a reasonable target window for "white" IMHO).

This issue with DOT regulations is also why I'm not putting these in the headlights - they are for Aux lights, and will be locked out for normal road driving. The LED headlights will be commercial-off-the-shelf J. W. Speaker 8900 Evolution fixtures.

Power white LEDs are anywhere from 50-120 lumens/watt right now, the LEDs I picked are in the 105-110 lumen/watt range with 4300K white, and Chinese for cost. One of the nice things dealing with the Chinese on LEDs is that they remember that I'm the customer, so they give me what I want and ask for (i.e. color temperature, connection topology, power, etc...). I've only found one US LED company that was this accommodating recently, and it was the LED company that sold me the NVIS Green A parts - Wamco (BTW this is NOT a paid or otherwise compensated recommendation/endorsement, this is my experience on this project and topic I paid for my parts without any request or expectation of endorsement).

The other thing for me was the life - a halogen you get about 1000-2000 hours out of, an HID you get 5000-9000 hours out of, but with an LED you get 50,000-75,000 hours out of before it gets too dim if you drive it correctly - and unlike an HID it doesn't usually take the power supply (ballast) out with it.


[Edit:] For giggles, I'm going to ask the LED company to build me a 32x32 die arrangement LED, which will give me about a 1150Watt LED @ 127,000 lumens with 102 volt drive and 11.25 amps. Just trying to push the technical envelope - four of them would make a great scene light on a mast. This probably won't go on the truck though - separate endeavor of potential interest. [/Edit]

 

[rivcrazy2000]

My setup from an American company out of Georgia, theretrofitsource. Good people, solid warranty, great customer service. I had a generic 35w kit in the projectors originally and it burned out quick, so I went for the highest quality I could find. I also run 4300K for output reasons. I tried 5000K didn't like them, and ordered up the 4300K to get the few extra lumens. Yeah the 55w do not put off enough heat to worry about putting up heat sinks that's nuts. How big is the heat exchanger for the liquid cooling on the 500w? Where do the water jackets flow on the housing? Sounds interesting hopefully they can work something out for your purposes.

Edit: Come to think of it, I have a buddy who builds his own LED light bars for all kinds of applications, could you not make the 32x32 yourself or is it just easier to get it prefabbed?

 

[tim292stro]

This is a slight tangent, but I'll clarify. These are packaged single LEDs - they are higher density than the LED light bars which are constructed from dozens of packaged single LEDs.

The 500Watt looks like this:



Inside that yellow colored square area is actually 20 x 20 (400), 1mm 1-1/8Watt blue LED dies. 20 are strung together in series (+ from one to - of the next), and 20 strings are in parallel. The yellow is actually a red/green phosphor embedded in an inorganic binder (so that it survives high heat). The phosphor coating reacts to blue light, but it isn't solid, it has gaps that lets blue light escape. This creates an RGB light source, that we see as white - and it's called a "phosphor conversion white LED". This is similar to the popular CREE LED (another Chinese thing) like this one that only has 4x LED dies in a single package (you can see them easier because the package has a lens):



So what I'm doing for the truck should end up looking like this (cropped from earlier posting) costing me about $450 for 55,000 lumens:


Instead of this "E" model bar from Rigid Industries (about $1500, for 21,000 lumens) that doesn't match the look of the truck (looks too "new"):


[Edit:] The 32x32 dies will still look roughly the same as the first picture since it's packaged, but it will be 12-dies wider and 12-dies longer, for a single led package that has ~2.5x the dies count of the 500Watt LED which would make it about a 1200Watt LED that is only 4" squared and outputs 125,000 lumens. The face of that would still be smaller than most headlights - 1" shorter and 3" narrower than the standard CUCV headlight, and yet 100x brighter than the same's high-beam in raw lumens [/Edit]

 

[tim292stro]

I like your truck's snow camo

 

[tim292stro]

Just picked up a set of troop seats from another SS member, now I can be truly confused as to what to do with this truck when I'm done.

 

[tim292stro]

I'm back in California, from a two week visit with the in-laws, have been spending most of my free time in town cleaning up our new digs (apartment, last tenant left a mess, land-lord cut us a deal if we cleaned it ).

As I mentioned above, while I was in Ohio I picked up a set of troop seats with fiberglass slats from SS Member Shrapnel (Thanks again Cory!). The seats will need to be taken apart, stripped, and repainted - and I'll need to find a few nick-nack parts to really complete them. Just before I left, I shipped all of the goodies I had collected there including the front-clip parts I bought from SS Member 2002ford. The core support looks great, there is only a little area near one of the mounts that needs to be fixed. The front bumper and grille guard are in great shape, only a little surface rust I need to remove and repair from the bumper mounts. I am also missing a front tie-down bracket and loop - but I am following another thread here for a winch mount that gave me some better ideas. I really like this look:



All of those parts are shipping truck-freight at great expense $$$$ back to California now, so I should have them by the end of the week. I will begin the sheet-metal work in the next two weeks, as I have not received parts from getting coatings in Texas. My retired father was complaining yesterday that he doesn't have anything to do and needs to get a job, so I'm going to see if we can fix that for him .

LED company can't do the 1200Watt LEDs this month since they wouldn't be able to test them, so I'll roll with the 500Watt LEDs for now. I whipped up a quick circuit for PWM-ing the LEDs , but I'm going to need to power the G3 Push-button Master Vehicle Light Switch, to see how the dimming output works (if it's PWM that makes detecting everything easier).

Cold weather came with a vengance, had 1.5" of ice in the back of my pickup bed this morning (I was frozen rain). I won't likely be able to do finish paint and assembly, but I'll see if I can drag out a diesel fired heater and continue the welding and zinc coating to keep this moving along.

 

[tim292stro]

Not much happening right now other than acquiring parts. The shipment from Ohio isn't expected to get here until either next week, or the first week of January (holidays).

I bought Pedram (Pfab) a new tailgate from the night we dropped off the engine to cucvnut - apparently GM didn't design the 2000's tailgate to support a 454 plus transmission/torque converter, so it caved in when the engine hoist failed . That increased the project cost by a bit but it was the right thing to do, and I still feel bad that he is going to get the tailgate Line-X'd himself. He has been lighthearted about it, but I still feel like I owe him for the remaining costs.

I'm trying another antenna company - this one is out of Colorado. They make the current ultra-wideband antennas used in theater, and they did list schools among the customers and their webpage says "commercial customers", so maybe there is hope. What I have been doing is collecting all of the patents I can find on ultra-wideband/broadband/multi-band antenna systems, in the event that no one will sell to end users, I'll just dump all of the patent science into an RF-FEA program, roll my own, and publish it at no cost as an educational endeavor for crowd improvement and use.

 

[tim292stro]

Picked up a P-pump for the Cummins yesterday, and ordered a P-pump gear cover and gear as well. I think I'm going to try to get the engine running and through the BAR referee before screwing with it. I don't think this year is a SMOG check year for my truck, but I won't know until the registration paperwork comes through in around May - and I'd like to have the engine change done and inspected by the BAR referee, and have a BAR sticker on the truck before they even think about printing that paperwork out.

Very hard to do a smog check with no engine, even harder to do the SMOG check if the wrong engine is in there

I still haven't received the shipment from Ohio that I sent on the 6th, hopefully it is here this week - the weather was really bad in the middle of the country, so I understand the trucks aren't going to move as fast (if at all). Speaking of past feature creep - I came across a company that has a nice "upgrade" I could do to the body of the truck... Maybe later

 

[tim292stro]

Something that is brought up when one does these types of builds, is the number of little things that have to be obtained/purchased to keep the project rolling, but I think when it's brought up, it's more of a complaint in hindsight.

What is happening behind the scenes here while you don't see frequent posts on this thread is that I've been trying to keep tabs on all of the parts as I spec them out, find them, price them, purchase them, and receive them. For the last few months, I've been using a "draft" in my email to do this, so that I can pick at it when I have spare time. There are still some things I'm missing, and "nice-to-haves" that I have been documenting, but I think it might be interesting for some of you to see this list as it is now. I am keeping tabs on those here who have participated in this project via classifieds, and for those purchases if more than one item was purchased, I only give a total not an individual price to mask the pricing the member gave me (which may have been a one time deal, for their protection). Posted here in a PDF (pasted into MS Word, then saved). This might give you a look into what is involved in the project management aspect of this type of build.

Read my disclaimer in my signature, and know that my experience with the companies in the links is more or less limited to this project. As a further disclaimer:

I am not, nor am I compensated to, endorse any of the companies or websites contained in the document. Prices and web-links in the document are not in any way guaranteed, may be inaccurate or missing, or may or may not include applicable taxes and shipping costs.

View attachment XM1027 Management.pdf

[EDIT:] Some may ask why I purchased some things in the order I did, and I'd like to address that now. This CUCV make-over project was started after I had to stop work on a 2-seat Toyota project I had been working on slowly for the better part of 5 years. Some parts come directly from that project (it is dead, can't have a 2-seater). Other parts that were ordered "out of sequence" were done so that I could get an idea of spacing and sizing. You can read a datasheet all you want, but sometimes manufacturing tolerances are a "wish". Other parts were just so good a deal, and I was going to "need" them later anyway, so I bought them. [/Edit]

 

[tim292stro]

With a sigh of relief, I picked up the Ohio shipment today (took a month to get here). This shipment contained the troop seats I bought from Shrapnel, and the front end I bought from 2002ford including the bumper+grille guard. It was too dark to take any pictures tonight (gets dark here at 5), so I'll take some pictures tomorrow morning on the way to work and post them here. Thanks again for Shrapnel and 2002ford for the easy transactions and great hardware!

Now I just need a rear axle... and more project time, which I should get now that the move and holidays are calming down.

 

[tim292stro]

Picked up a tow-bar from SS Member jesusgatos, good deal. This will be used for moving the chassis around and then once everything is buttoned up and "finished" (can a project like this ever really be finished?) the tow bar will be used for towing behind an RV (it's really a bus). I noticed that I promised pictures in my last post - then work happened. I'll make good on that promise this weekend - I should be able to take some pictures during the day on Sunday.

Just looked, there are over 11,000 views on this thread and a few posts shy of taking the lead in the CUCV Hot-rodding and Modification forum. Since there appears to be so much interest, I guess I should get with it huh? More to follow this month and February.

 

[tim292stro]

This is the third try posting this, my dad's computer keeps crashing (if I was at my house this would have taken 5 minutes...)

Here is the front end that 2002ford sold me:


This includes the front bumper and grille guard (one tie down mount is missing, but I have another route I'm going there), the 2-headlight core support from a CUCV, the grille that I brought out of storage for the mock-up; and not shown is the turn signal fixtures, the headlight buckets and sealed beam headlights (which will be replaced with LED fixtures), the blackout drive light (bracket is visible through the usual hole), and NATO plug plus harness. It's all in great shape, was as described, and survived shipping without any damage.

Also shipped on my trip was the set of troop seats from Shrapnel:


I only took a picture of one side, since they are HEAVY (something like 90-125lbs a side) and I was by myself, so I didn't want to get hurt or something (safety first ). These are also in great shape, only missing a few pins (as described), and Shrapnel was a nice guy when I met him.

I didn't drag the tow bar I bought from jesusgatos out of storage for the photo shoot since they are also rather heavy, but for now you can take my word that they are complete with MWOs and are in great shape considering the manufacture date (my set is '70s vintage).

Thanks again to those who answered my classified ads, and those who have sold me parts.

[EDIT:] Around the time of post #108 where I paid Pfab for the replacement tailgate, we got to talking about the sub-frame and steps. The more time I've had to stew over this discussion, the more I'm deciding that I wish to fully cage out the cab. This move will allow me to tie the steps into the cage and then to the sub-frame to create 4 rock slider rails that go from wheel-well to wheel-well (two under the rockers as steps, and two under the frame rails). I would then be able to attach light plate (3/16" I'm thinking) flush to the sub-frame cage to create a flat skid-plate surface to protect the drive-line, transfer case, fuel tanks, exhaust (vented with slots of course), and electrical (yeah, the whole underside of the truck). This will also only marginally increase the project time and cost over what I was already planning. It also adds a little bit of physical security by protecting the tanks and transfer pumps from tampering under the vehicle.

I've also been doing a bit of design work on the exportable electrical stuff, for which I think I will have two output locations, one in the bed which can do full power, and 6 outlets on the lower rear driver's side bed fender (behind the dually fender) with various outlet types (3-phase and single phase). The electrical generation planning has been an interesting excersize in finding who is still in business in the USA...[/EDIT]

 

[tim292stro]

I am giddy!!! I just got off the phone with someone well-placed at a forth military antenna company, and it sounds like they will play ball in selling non-export antennas for this non-exportable project at retail price (this will be very painful). For opsec this is the last time I'm going to mention this until the antennas are installed, and I'm not going to be at liberty to talk about the antenna models, company that provided them, and any other details other than "it works" or "it doesn't work".

 

[tim292stro]

In preparation for reenforcing the cab doors, I have a quote in hand for some steel that will go in. This is light ballistic steel. The doors will be "skinned" so that I can have total freedom to work inside the doors, and repair any rust that might be hiding. The external skin of the door will be reenforced with a corrugation of ballistic 3/16" steel sheet, then enclosed with a flat sheet of the same giving the external panel of the doors a cellular sandwich construction. The rim of the door will be a 1.5" chromoly tube hoop, supported by 1/4" ballistic steel pieces, and the cellular corrugation will be welded to this when the door is reassembled. The door panels will be given a "Dynamat Extreme" layer (have this stuff left over form another project), then the cellular structure is going to be filled with closed-cell spray in foam. Power windows will be moved along a linear bearing track instead of the factory window regulator, which should support a heavier piece of glass if I decide to go down that magical road.

The antenna thing is going to be interesting, the antennas are going to be a little taller than I had hoped, which means that I need to think about a way to retract them from within the cab. I bought a 24V power window kit on e-place to play with, if nothing else, it will give me a 24V geared ball-chain driver. I can do the rear sliding window as a power window with one of those if the antenna ideas don't pan out.

Negotiating with my dad about doing some engine work in his garage, one of the things that sucks about apartment living is the relative difficulty in doing long-term projects that require shop space... something to keep in mind for those out there in my position.

 

[tim292stro]

Spoke with the guys at Off Road Designs (ORD), I am working on a suspension recipe for the truck - they will need to beef up the normal 1-Ton springs they normally sell for my use-case. I will be doing hydro-assist steering with the parts from ORD - I will not be doing the Dana-60 Crane knuckles on the front axle, since I can do the whole steering setup in what they would cost.

The door steel project is going to be split off from the rest of the truck project - I spoke with a few vendors over the last couple of days and they are recommending some changes that I agree with - but will not fit into my schedule for usability. So it looks like I will actually be re-using the original doors for now, but still doing the cab-cage/frame reinforcement - the new doors will be exactly that, built from scratch .

I will be picking up my new Dana 80 rear end next weekend (15th/16th), so I'm hoping to have all of the frame-related parts in hand so that I can do so decent progress on the chassis before the end of the month. I'd like to have it "rolling" again, and painted by then (lot of work left to do there).

If all goes according to plan, the drive-train assembly and installation should be done hopefully around the end of April or beginning week of May. I picked up a NP203, and I'm still bothering myself thinking if I need or want to go all the way with a doubler (H-N-L-LL, with 1:1-Open-1.96:1-3.92:1 respectively). If I do it now and don't use it I probably lose a little bit of drive-train efficiency forever (perhaps solid digits of MPG?), but if I don't do it now, it's going to be nearly impossible to do it later - since everything will be very tight underneath the truck. I'm also now focusing on the 3.73:1 final drive ratio rather than the 3.54:1 ratio - just seems like I might snap an input pinion should I have to tow something heavy.

Some of the final body work will probably not be done, and likely very little of the interior work by the time I take this to the BAR referee for the engine change sticker (late May to June-ish time frame), and so I won't bother with the paint at that time - it'll be ugly but running and street legal. The paint will have to wait until early/mid-summer, where I will tear the truck down and do a fully "exploded" paint job.

Also, I am speaking with Muncie about continuous-duty power take off options for the exportable power generator - this will have to be somewhat custom, since I have exhaust and a 4WD drive train (cramped), and I'm not taking power from the NP205 (coming from the transmission).

 

[Warthog]

Still following along.

Thanks again for documenting your build.

 

[philjafo]

Still following along.

Thanks again for documenting your build.

me too, but too much documenting not enough picturing.

 

[tim292stro]

...but too much documenting not enough picturing...

Right now that would be a picture of me waiting for the UPS guy, sending emails, or talking on a phone - figured I'd spare you guys that.

 

[ChrisinVT]

This is an awesome project, especially like the LED upgrades.