<a href='http://www.skiwagons.com/downey2.html' target='_blank'>http://www.skiwagons.com/downey2.html</a>
Also, I need the admins/owners/forum managers of tercel4wd.com to drop me an email, so we can talk about a few items, ASAP (I know ICE is one of them... I don't know if there are any others).
Thanks,
Teddy
The promised photos from Downey, 1983
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GTSSportCoupe
- Highest Ranking Member
- Posts: 1626
- Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2004 9:14 am
- Location: Victoria BC, Canada
Awesome site and great ideas!! Is it yours? I just started reading through it and noticed that it mentioned tercel4wd.com . I did send you an email BTW regarding your question above.
Current:
91 LJ78 Landcruiser EX5
95 A32 Maxima SE
Former:
87 AW11 MR2 Smallport 4AGZE
93 Taurus SHO ATX
86 AL25 SR5 6spd 4wd
90 AE92 GTS
82 KP61 SR5
85 MX73
87 AE86 GTS 4AGZE
85 AE86 GTS
83 AL21
91 LJ78 Landcruiser EX5
95 A32 Maxima SE
Former:
87 AW11 MR2 Smallport 4AGZE
93 Taurus SHO ATX
86 AL25 SR5 6spd 4wd
90 AE92 GTS
82 KP61 SR5
85 MX73
87 AE86 GTS 4AGZE
85 AE86 GTS
83 AL21
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Dirtmagnet
- Advanced Member
- Posts: 78
- Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2004 8:37 pm
- My tercel:: Two 1983 4wd SR5's, One Lifted; 1986 Deluxe Auto, All with Webers
- Location: Northwest Georgia
That is a cool looking car! I like the new website. I'm with GTS, Is it yours or something you have started? Or is it an old resurected business. Is the suspension kit the same as the original offered by Downey?
The Cooper tires listed on the wheels and tires page are the same ones we have on the Rover.
Keep us posted.
The Cooper tires listed on the wheels and tires page are the same ones we have on the Rover.
Keep us posted.
Once your over the hill, you just pick up speed. <><
Dirtmagnet and GTSSportCoupe:
Yes, I am involved with skiwagons.com (along with a few other people).
No, the suspension that we are developing (with Jim from Downey Off-Road's assistance) is NOT the exact same one as they designed back in 1983 (The Downey Rally Performer) but, it is going to be very similar. Two inches of lift total with our setup (not counting lift from 14 inch wheels and bigger diameter tires), all spring and shock (no blocks/spacers) etc.
Dirtmagnet! I NEED YOUR IMPRESSION OF THOSE TIRES, THEN! I NEED YOU TO REVIEW THEM FOR ME!!! PLEEEEEASE!!!
After measuring about 20 tires or so, I decided on those for the two inch lifted Toyota Rally Wagon... everyone I know with the BIGGER versions of those same tires on their much bigger trucks RAVES about them... but, they don't get nearly the press that BF Goodrich, Nitto, Interco, Mickey Thompson, etc. get...
Do you: like the tires? feel that they provide "adequate" traction on paved roads (especially in the wet)? Do they release mud/snow/sand well?
I will be testing them myself as soon as the beta Toyota Ski Wagon is built, but that is several months away.
I will also be looking at some Kumho rally tires, some Hankooks and a set of the smallest mud/SSR tires that Interco sells (for 14 inch wheels).
Roof racks, skidplates and bumpers are also being engineered.
- Teddy
Yes, I am involved with skiwagons.com (along with a few other people).
No, the suspension that we are developing (with Jim from Downey Off-Road's assistance) is NOT the exact same one as they designed back in 1983 (The Downey Rally Performer) but, it is going to be very similar. Two inches of lift total with our setup (not counting lift from 14 inch wheels and bigger diameter tires), all spring and shock (no blocks/spacers) etc.
Dirtmagnet! I NEED YOUR IMPRESSION OF THOSE TIRES, THEN! I NEED YOU TO REVIEW THEM FOR ME!!! PLEEEEEASE!!!
After measuring about 20 tires or so, I decided on those for the two inch lifted Toyota Rally Wagon... everyone I know with the BIGGER versions of those same tires on their much bigger trucks RAVES about them... but, they don't get nearly the press that BF Goodrich, Nitto, Interco, Mickey Thompson, etc. get...
Do you: like the tires? feel that they provide "adequate" traction on paved roads (especially in the wet)? Do they release mud/snow/sand well?
I will be testing them myself as soon as the beta Toyota Ski Wagon is built, but that is several months away.
I will also be looking at some Kumho rally tires, some Hankooks and a set of the smallest mud/SSR tires that Interco sells (for 14 inch wheels).
Roof racks, skidplates and bumpers are also being engineered.
- Teddy
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lesabre400
- Advanced Member
- Posts: 91
- Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2004 10:54 am
- Location: Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Hey Teddy,
Great website - can't wait to see all the stuff you'll have available. I'm drooling at the idea of a 2" lift kit. Great to see more support for the little car that could. Keep us posted!
By the way, the Kumho rally tire is very tempting. I have 15" rims and if these tires are good for everyday use, they may be my next set. Let me know what you think of them.
Great website - can't wait to see all the stuff you'll have available. I'm drooling at the idea of a 2" lift kit. Great to see more support for the little car that could. Keep us posted!
By the way, the Kumho rally tire is very tempting. I have 15" rims and if these tires are good for everyday use, they may be my next set. Let me know what you think of them.
I almost look forward to winter now...
I was thinking about a roof rack for my racing Turtle. Means I can haul stuff that's a bit too long for the cabin...
What area are you considering for the skidplate? Covering further back along the transmission? CV joints? What areas are you looking at?
I'd prefer a full, wraparound bullbar for the Tercel as opposed to a little nudgebar as was in the pamphlet listed on the website. Makes things a little harder at the front end, although it would increase the weight on the front shocks. What I'd like to see is a bullbar with wraparound pipework heading down to some running boards, similar to what you see on larger 4wds. The running boards would give you better access to what's on the roof, and the pipework would protect the whole nose of the car from damage.
But then, it'd make the Tercel look like a wannabe Landcruiser...
What area are you considering for the skidplate? Covering further back along the transmission? CV joints? What areas are you looking at?
I'd prefer a full, wraparound bullbar for the Tercel as opposed to a little nudgebar as was in the pamphlet listed on the website. Makes things a little harder at the front end, although it would increase the weight on the front shocks. What I'd like to see is a bullbar with wraparound pipework heading down to some running boards, similar to what you see on larger 4wds. The running boards would give you better access to what's on the roof, and the pipework would protect the whole nose of the car from damage.
But then, it'd make the Tercel look like a wannabe Landcruiser...
1983 Tercel SR5 with 185/75R14 tyres, 32/36 DGAV Weber carburetor, lumpy cam and upgraded Pioneer sound system. Veteran of several fire seasons (with the scars to show it) and known as "The Racing Turtle"
Some tire tests....Teddy wrote:
Dirtmagnet! I NEED YOUR IMPRESSION OF THOSE TIRES, THEN! I NEED YOU TO REVIEW THEM FOR ME!!! PLEEEEEASE!!!
After measuring about 20 tires or so, I decided on those for the two inch lifted Toyota Rally Wagon... everyone I know with the BIGGER versions of those same tires on their much bigger trucks RAVES about them... but, they don't get nearly the press that BF Goodrich, Nitto, Interco, Mickey Thompson, etc. get...
Do you: like the tires? feel that they provide "adequate" traction on paved roads (especially in the wet)? Do they release mud/snow/sand well?
I will be testing them myself as soon as the beta Toyota Ski Wagon is built, but that is several months away.
I will also be looking at some Kumho rally tires, some Hankooks and a set of the smallest mud/SSR tires that Interco sells (for 14 inch wheels).
<a href='http://tercel4wd.com/invision/index.php ... #entry5939' target='_blank'>http://tercel4wd.com/invision/index.php ... try5939</a>
Give a boy a gun-give a biatch a cell phone-and pretty soon you almost got yourself a police state.
Orwell said: War is peace! Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength...
Orwell said: War is peace! Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength...
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3A-C Power
- Highest Ranking Member
- Posts: 849
- Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2004 5:22 pm
- Location: Ontario, Canada
This is great! I really like that trailer hitch. Any chance they will be building it again?
Let me know if I can help, I'm a mechanical engineer and have access to some machining facilities. I'm sure you've got it under control though.
I'm tied up in body restoration for a little while, but after that I'll be working on a 20 valve swap and after that, improvemenets to the Z54F tranny. Any designs produced in this work will be free for the Tercel community.
Let me know if I can help, I'm a mechanical engineer and have access to some machining facilities. I'm sure you've got it under control though.
I'm tied up in body restoration for a little while, but after that I'll be working on a 20 valve swap and after that, improvemenets to the Z54F tranny. Any designs produced in this work will be free for the Tercel community.
I agree with 3A-C...that hitch is almost a must have. I actually got excited when I saw it. my litle bumper hitch is ok, but about the only thing I have ever used it for is to bend my bumper back up once (don't remember how it bent down, but when I jacked the car up by the end of the hitch......right as rain)
them: so you're telling me your tercel has 1.5 liters...where as my pepsi has two?
me: yes, can you seat 5 people in your pepsi...and does it have 4WD? oh...my bad
me: yes, can you seat 5 people in your pepsi...and does it have 4WD? oh...my bad
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3A-C Power
- Highest Ranking Member
- Posts: 849
- Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2004 5:22 pm
- Location: Ontario, Canada
It wouldn't be hard to fabricate a trailer hitch. I have all the equipment and can get the steel. We just need to take frame dimensions. Doing that in 3-D is not so easy. It could also be made by cutting each part to fit as you go along.
The good thing about bumper hitches is that they don't add as much unnecessary weight. There are lots of newer cars with frame mount hitches available that have the same or less towing capacity than the Tercel, and I used to wonder why. I figured out that they must make frame hitches for cars whose bumper can't support a hitch adequately to match the car's towing capacity. This is true for most newer cars with plastic bumper covers where the bumper is just a little strip of steel. The Tercel does have strong bumpers and the bumper mounts can take some bending force from vertical loads. Why build a hitch to span the distance from the frame to the trailer ball when the bumper already gets you most of the way there? It would just be added weight. Another benefit of the bumper hitch is that if you hit something with the hitch you're likely to bend the bumper rather than the frame. So even though bumper hitches are cheesy, they aren't entirely inferior. What I don't like about the bumper hitches is that they load the whole bumper under torsion. It's okay as long as the ball remains close to the hitch, but if you use a different receiver to raise or lower the ball, or try to use a hitch-mount bike rack, high torsional loads would result and perhaps screw your bumper. I'm sure this is why they don't usually bother making receiver mounts in bumper hitches.
What I would really like to see in a hitch is a true non-drilling design. I don't like to cut or drill the Tercel's frame unless I have to, for rust preventative reasons. Drilling is also an opportunity to screw up the alignment of the hitch. My Reese universal fit hitch required all 4 holes to be drilled, even though it could have used the two weld-nuts that Toyota provided in the bumper. I don't know why but they only put two nuts in there, and any bumper hitch requires 4 mounting locations to be supported.
I figured if I ever fabricated a hitch I would have it mount to the 4 large bumper mounting nuts on the rear frame rails. What turns me on to the Downey design is it extends the rear mount even further back, giving you more space between mounts thus reducing the resultant force on each mount. If you mounted a hitch to just the bumper mount bolts, the distance back to the ball is about twice that which would give you a 3:1 lever ratio on the two rearmost bumper polts. For the 150lb max tongue weight that's still just 225lb per side, but there's still the impact forces from hitting bumps which are unknown.
My hitch is a piece of crap, but I have a stainless steel ball! I hate rusty hitch balls.
The good thing about bumper hitches is that they don't add as much unnecessary weight. There are lots of newer cars with frame mount hitches available that have the same or less towing capacity than the Tercel, and I used to wonder why. I figured out that they must make frame hitches for cars whose bumper can't support a hitch adequately to match the car's towing capacity. This is true for most newer cars with plastic bumper covers where the bumper is just a little strip of steel. The Tercel does have strong bumpers and the bumper mounts can take some bending force from vertical loads. Why build a hitch to span the distance from the frame to the trailer ball when the bumper already gets you most of the way there? It would just be added weight. Another benefit of the bumper hitch is that if you hit something with the hitch you're likely to bend the bumper rather than the frame. So even though bumper hitches are cheesy, they aren't entirely inferior. What I don't like about the bumper hitches is that they load the whole bumper under torsion. It's okay as long as the ball remains close to the hitch, but if you use a different receiver to raise or lower the ball, or try to use a hitch-mount bike rack, high torsional loads would result and perhaps screw your bumper. I'm sure this is why they don't usually bother making receiver mounts in bumper hitches.
What I would really like to see in a hitch is a true non-drilling design. I don't like to cut or drill the Tercel's frame unless I have to, for rust preventative reasons. Drilling is also an opportunity to screw up the alignment of the hitch. My Reese universal fit hitch required all 4 holes to be drilled, even though it could have used the two weld-nuts that Toyota provided in the bumper. I don't know why but they only put two nuts in there, and any bumper hitch requires 4 mounting locations to be supported.
I figured if I ever fabricated a hitch I would have it mount to the 4 large bumper mounting nuts on the rear frame rails. What turns me on to the Downey design is it extends the rear mount even further back, giving you more space between mounts thus reducing the resultant force on each mount. If you mounted a hitch to just the bumper mount bolts, the distance back to the ball is about twice that which would give you a 3:1 lever ratio on the two rearmost bumper polts. For the 150lb max tongue weight that's still just 225lb per side, but there's still the impact forces from hitting bumps which are unknown.
My hitch is a piece of crap, but I have a stainless steel ball! I hate rusty hitch balls.
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Dirtmagnet
- Advanced Member
- Posts: 78
- Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2004 8:37 pm
- My tercel:: Two 1983 4wd SR5's, One Lifted; 1986 Deluxe Auto, All with Webers
- Location: Northwest Georgia
Teddy,
I really like the tires. They are great in the mud and clean-off well. On some occasions the clutch will slip before the tires spin. We do have some real sticky red mud here in Georgia.
Have not had the chance to use them on sand or snow. I would think they would work great on snow with the open knobbies.
Have not had a problem with the grip on the wet pavement, seems to do well. They also handle good in low to medium speeds. Have not had it up above 60mph very much. Most driving is secondary roads.
They are very noisy on the road. This is not a problem for me, but some may consider this a negative.
We have a 2" lift and this is about the largest dia you can put on the Tercel before you get into the rear door/fender. Actual clearance is approx .75".
We have scrubbed on the rear tires with a full load on off cambers. You can see some of the knobs cut on the side in the photo. Looks like the inner flange on the fender digs in. Also on left turns with steering full left, there is scrubbing of the left front tire against the frame. These are not major, only nuisansses.
They give it a nice aggressive stance.
I really like the tires. They are great in the mud and clean-off well. On some occasions the clutch will slip before the tires spin. We do have some real sticky red mud here in Georgia.
Have not had the chance to use them on sand or snow. I would think they would work great on snow with the open knobbies.
Have not had a problem with the grip on the wet pavement, seems to do well. They also handle good in low to medium speeds. Have not had it up above 60mph very much. Most driving is secondary roads.
They are very noisy on the road. This is not a problem for me, but some may consider this a negative.
We have a 2" lift and this is about the largest dia you can put on the Tercel before you get into the rear door/fender. Actual clearance is approx .75".
We have scrubbed on the rear tires with a full load on off cambers. You can see some of the knobs cut on the side in the photo. Looks like the inner flange on the fender digs in. Also on left turns with steering full left, there is scrubbing of the left front tire against the frame. These are not major, only nuisansses.
They give it a nice aggressive stance.
Once your over the hill, you just pick up speed. <><
