AMERICAS 2011 Expedition



These are the items I still have to decide. If you came through the "Americas 2011" link then you already know the route I am planning. If not, take a look here and come back.  Before making your comments, please consider that the accessories that I will have to chose are not only for rock crawling or off road use, I must also take the total weight of everything in account since the payload must not exceed 1000 Lbs.


1- Tent: Rooftop for sure. Usually the bigger, the better, options here are 71" (180cm) or 87" (220) wide . The main problem is that the bigger one is wider then the car, so the only way it will fit is along the roof line, thus living no more room on the rack for anything else.




Above is the 71", it can be mounted with the entrance facing the side or rear of the car. Bellow the 87", even on the Defender 110 it can only be mounted facing the side. It has the disadvantage of not having the rear door covered by the tent's base.



I drew down the "floor prints" and data of some manufacturers I have considered. Hope someone find it useful.












2- Suspension: A lift kit can be very useful in off road but although some makers claim "incredible highway handling", that probably only means "it is worst then the original" as far as highway use. The point here is: BECAUSE of the overweight on the roof - Will it be needed?  Can it actually improve highway handling ?



Maybe just changing for a higher rate (stronger) coil spring? Or a not so "lifted" one...



Maybe this one with only 1.5" and the Rancho 9000 could be a good choice.  BTW the RS9000 will be on the car for sure.




3- Roof rack: Things start to get complicated as the number of variables increase... Flat, Semi-flat or basket type? Fixed or lift & tilt? Top only or cage type?




4- Back Tray: This seems a pretty good idea if you need to carry extra stuff, especially if tent of choice takes all the space in the roof rack. Nice place to put the generator too and avoid flammable vapors inside the car.




5- Sand Tracks: A must have! Besides the old style aluminum, there is also plastic and fiberglass to choose from. ARB even has a folding model made of heavy duty rubber.




6- Snatch Block: Large variety of makers and huge differences in prices. Does it worth to pay for the brand name?




7- Air Jack: The concept is great and as far I could find, there are only this two options. The flat hose on the X-Jack appears to take less space when packed.  Which one is better?




8- Winch mount: OK... If it is to change the whole front bumper, the options are in the hundreds.



One of my main concern is to keep the overall weight as low as possible.  A full metal front bumper is around 110 lb, I believe its much heavier then the original. I found a mount plate to be an acceptable (not pretty) solution but could not find any review on how good (strong) they are comparing to the whole bumper.




9- Some extra horse power?: I had considered a turbo but I don't want to mess with the warranty on a brand new car. So a performance chip may be a good option to gain some HP and increase mileage. Many makers/models, I am trying to find reviews to chose the best one.




10- These are cool !!: Information is never too much. The option here is pay a lot for an awesome display or pay the right amount for the data only...




11- Cooler or Fridge: I must say this one has been taking my sleep...  Coolers are way cheaper and a lot lighter then fridges, a good quality one is also quieter and consume less battery. The bad part is they don't freeze and they depend too much on the exterior temperature, leave it on inside the car under the sun and it won't cool at all. As for the fridges, centrifugal or reciprocating compressor? Waeco uses the first, Engel the second and it comes with a heavy price tag, it has an advantage on start current draw. I tried to find witch one is quieter but could not find reliable data.  It will run on an auxiliary battery during the day.  Noise, weight, consumption, best interior size, form factor...

If you cannot read this table and are interested on it, ask me by email and I will send you a lerger version

While writing this page I came across this model. 30 liters capacity, drawer format and "movable" compressor up to 59 inches away from the drawer. Why I have not seen this one used on any project???




12- Emergency repair: I will definitely have one of these. Anyone can tell me which one is best, and why?




13- Electricity: There are many options in this topic too. My idea is to run it at night to recharge AA and D batteries, run the laptop the fridge and recharge the auxiliary battery too. So I wanted the quieter possible, to my surprise Kipor have the lower Db but after reading the users reviews I understood why people pay almost the double for a Honda or Yamaha.




14- Extra fuel/water: After seeing this, that is not much to say about the old, bulky and heavy Jerry cans.




15- Lights: Also hundreds of options. I liked this one particularly because of the filters you may add to narrow or wider the beam.




16- Spare tire: I really don't want to get caught in the middle of Central America or the Atacama desert in the need of second spare tire/wheel. Besides of maybe not having the space for it on the roof rack (because of the tent), I would like to avoid having the extra weight that high, increasing the center of gravity. I've seen these on Land Rovers but did not find any for the JK so I started to develop my own, with extras!.
Now I just need to find someone to make it.







The chambers are to avoid the water from shifting side to side on curves, the equalizing holes to make it possible to fill all the chambers from one opening, comments?


17- Gizmos: Here are a few devices that miraculously improve HP, fuel economy etc. Some even make sense but I really doubt the numbers and % they claim.  Has anyone ever tried them?

Raizin Voltage Chip Module: The weirdest, it claims to improve from sound quality to engine response, even increases torque and 7% HP!!!
Besides the "extra" ground cables that really can improve the flow of electricity, this "magic blue box" looks like just a bunch of capacitors (a full wave rectifier?), and a few LED's for visual effect. Don't know how it does all that it claims.




Vortex Air Intake Supercharger: 28% on fuel? 7% more HP? It is activated by the air coming from the filter!! It cannot and does not increase the speed of the flow. It may change the air flow from straight to cyclonic but with no increase on the amount of air getting into the chamber. It could work on a coal furnace to increase the temperature (by spreading the air flow) but I fail to see the point of this device on an air intake for an internal combustion engine.




GTE Electric 5psi supercharger: Here is something that worth analyzing. If it can force more air (compress) to flow to the combustion chamber we may see some results. Then again the numbers are hard to believe, up to 60HP... but the worst part is that it is only for burst use. You cannot have it on for "more then a few minutes" so it is not a day to day device.
The thing to consider is: Does it work? And in which (off road) scenario would it really be useful?




GTE Stage 2 Performance Chip: Does anyone has something to say about this? That sliding knob look like a "crappy" toy to me...




So, this is it. I will apreciate any input that helps me get the best stuff to my trip.


Renato Costanzo
americas2011@yahoo.com
www.joa150.com.br/americas2011
www.acromereca.com