offroad customization?

[terkill]

I know a lot of people are against this because of the instant thought of cruelty the tercel must go through to have this be useful...
on the contrary! I want to protect my terc from debris and such (I'm already making some skid plates) so i was wondering if anyone knows of any sales / sites / adds and perhaps sizes of a brush guard/grill guard. (for instance: the Rav 4 has the same size front! I'm not sure if it does, probably doesn't )

I've seen a lot of pics of other popular tercs with guards and it looks pretty sick. but I lack the information, without spending a ton of time finding it out, to come across a guard at a junk yard / local craigslist add. So far ive looked at a land rover brush guard, which pretty much weighed half the size of the car it felt like, and a suzuki brush guard which didn't even come close to fitting, even with my capabilities of cutting and welding a custom bracket.

-help appreciated?

[ARCHINSTL]

One suggestion would be to peruse Australian auto sites for info about roo guards. The few I've seen look pretty robust - guess 'roos are pretty hefty, even compared to a deer?
Somehw, I think I'd rather hit a deer than a kangaroo...a p'od 'roo looks more dangerous than a p'od deer.
Tom M.

[terkill]

i probably would have never thought of that in my life, thanks for the tip! id imagine if they didn't jump-clear the entire car that they'd mess up the front end pretty bad

we got moose too though, my dad hit a 500+ lb one with his durango and tore it in half on the corner of his old brush guard and it barely bent the frame, he just had to bust out the crow bar for the fender going close to the wheel.

[terkill]

the only things that came up under Roo Guards or Roo Bars were either plastic construction site barriers or giant tractor trailer grill guards.

[ARCHINSTL]

Perhaps Australian/New Zealand members can contribute links/pix of roo guards?
Tom M.

[Mattel]

I think this is what Tom is thinking of.



sadly this car (with no rust or damage) couldn't sell for $300 in the classifieds. so here it is at pick a part. Shame really, parts of it will live on in mine and others cars though
this is what happens when you try and sell a car without placing photos in your Advert.

My friend Lochie once his a roo that wrote off the front of his landcruiser troop carrier with a bull bar on it - these roos are huge. Often you will see skid marks in the middle of a straight bit of road in the desert where someone has tried to swerve past a roo. I haven't hit one yet but almost rolled a car avoiding them.. I don't recomend driving at night in some parts or aus.

[Mattel]

someone got a land rover freelander brushguard to fit there T4wd. and one of the french forum guys has got a factory guard that looks great

[terkill]

thanks ill look up the landrovers, my big problem that ive seen is the height of it from the brackets and the weight. By factory brush guard you mean the tercs in france had an option to get a brush guard with em? if so that is sick.. because the closest Pre-Made brush guard to a tercel was one custom made for a Subaru Baja.


edit: and if i saw a tercel like that in a junk yard where i live, man id have taken those roof racks, guard, rims, seats etc. so fast... theres nothing like that near me, most of the people i know that have seen my car never seen one like it in their entire life.

[Mattel]

Hey Terkill. Not sure if you got the little Land Rover Freelander over there, it had typical english quality issues so parts could be cheap now

mate, there's 95 pages of Tercel goodness in semi translated Franglais here, some of the pic links are down. but they have some great customization shots.

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... ls%3Den-us

and

http://209.85.171.104/translate_c?hl=en ... #t14688032

good luck!

Here's a photo of the factory brushguard

[terkill]

oh wow if i could only get the schematics to that factory brush guard id be golden, i could weld together my own perhaps.

i know a little french, so even the stuff that isn't translated i can grasp to an extent.

thank you for the help

[terkill]

gonna resurrect this thread to ask a question, I don't know who this person is on the site, and if they are reading this, how did u get your tercel so high? ive seen it in that tercelmania video i think..

[terceldude]

Speaking of off-road for the Terc, I faxed my letter, that not only speaks for me, but for everyone on this forum, to Downey Off-Road on Friday at Staples.... Haven't heard a call back from Staples yet...... When I do, will go there, get the output fax and pick it up, possibly scan it, and throw it on the forums... Otherwise, I will type up the whole letter they had sent in response......


I will let you all know soon what the status is......

P.S. I even asked about the original design plans and anything else on the project.......

[graphiteblimp99]

The back is easy, a friend has done it. You lift it up and cut off the spring mounts on the axle then put square tubing that has the diameter you want in between and weld them together. In the front you can lengthen your strut by using drive shaft tubing and then find a cartridge at a local auto parts store that is the same dimensions as a tercel cartridge but longer, then put it all together, however, if you do this to the front I wouldn't take that car faster than 40 mph. It gets to squirrely but becomes very agile off road and in fields.

I can not take credit for this.

[vervepipes]

this one's a Westin brand from a ford explorer, brackets were modified and welded to the front crossmember.

[graphiteblimp99]

I am currently building my own after going to a scrap yard. I plan on a simple configuration of two bars on top of each other in the back yet a slightly more complex system in the front. The front I plan on modeling after 83toybeater's front one but it may be slightly different. Though I think that westin bar looks great! Unfortunately I just moment's ago tore off my front bumper so there's no going back.