Converting my Pajero to commercial

Viejo Zorro

Lovely job!

Deadly Dave

colm_mcm wrote: »

Thats a very neat job , well done.

Deadly Dave

fonecrusher1 wrote: »

Theres a good few 4x4 trails in the wicklow mountains.

Where are these trails fonecrusher, are they legal to use ??

fonecrusher1

Deadly Dave wrote: »

Where are these trails fonecrusher, are they legal to use ??

Hello Dave, there are miles & miles of trails all over the country. Im no expert, ive been off-road with a 4x4 club in munster & a few lads gave me some info.
Not sure about the legalities of it all so im not going near that whole issue.
Over in england there are hundreds of byways or greenlanes which anybody can drive onto.
Of course this being Ireland its all about money. Most of these mountain roads are owned by the irish forestry company Coillte & they have the final say on who can use the roads. I think these off-road clubs pay money for the exclusive use of these lanes & in turn we pay them a fee.
Its all a bit greedy really but its not the 4x4 club's fault.

Anybody else who has more accurate information please feel free to correct anything ive said if im wrong.

101sean

You are largely correct that there are no public rights of way here but there are unsurfaced roads in parts of Sligo and Donegal amongst others. You need to find someone with local knowledge usually through one of the four wheel drive clubs, it's more fun (and safer) doing in company anyway. As well as Coilte forests mentioned there are are a couple of pay and play quarry sites. Have a look at http://www.irelandoffroad.com/index.htm although it appears to be down at the moment.

The UK is a veritable off roaders paradise in comparison but public rights of way is a contentious issue with many ancient byways being down graded to footpaths.

Going a bit OT here, worth starting a seperate thread on getting out and about in the Republic?

fonecrusher1

101sean wrote: »

You are largely correct that there are no public rights of way here but there are unsurfaced roads in parts of Sligo and Donegal amongst others. You need to find someone with local knowledge usually through one of the four wheel drive clubs, it's more fun (and safer) doing in company anyway. As well as Coilte forests mentioned there are are a couple of pay and play quarry sites. Have a look at http://www.irelandoffroad.com/index.htm although it appears to be down at the moment.

The UK is a veritable off roaders paradise in comparison but public rights of way is a contentious issue with many ancient byways being down graded to footpaths.

Going a bit OT here, worth starting a seperate thread on getting out and about in the Republic?

Thats a great idea 101sean.
Its something that needs to be talked about more. Theres such a lack of information regarding irish 4x4 trails, its ridiculous. I personally would like to build up a fair bit of data on accessible mountain roads. Nobody seems to have a definitive guide on the subject. Whats with all the secrecy?
For those of you that have 4x4's & havent used them properly off road, you dont know what your missing. Im not talking about extreme stuff, going up rocky 60 degree slopes. I mean just exploring some fairly remote parts of the country where regular cars cant go. A flask of coffee, a bit of common sense & couple of other fellow explorers.

101sean

The UK mags, especially Total Off Road publish road books (Salisbury Plain, 250 miles takes 2 days :eek:) but here it would have to be based on local knowledge. LRO magazine published a road trip around Donegal recently that looked huge fun but you need the local knowledge to do it.

Route knowledge in the UK used to be a semi secret thing with mags afraid to publish details for fear of abuse. Different now with a policy of use it or lose it and reporting abuse to the authorities. You'll always get idiots that will wreck it for the responsible but many authorities are becoming enlightened on the issue.

Land Rover owners tend to be the most active in this scene but can be a tad anti Jap :rolleyes:

One thing to be aware if wandering here is that protected areas are well publisised, ignorance is no defence

A central point for exchange of information with a code of conduct would be good idea, Irelandoffroad is a non denominational event site but doesn't have a forum.

Deadly Dave

fonecrusher1 wrote: »

Hello Dave, there are miles & miles of trails all over the country. Im no expert, ive been off-road with a 4x4 club in munster & a few lads gave me some info.
Not sure about the legalities of it all so im not going near that whole issue.
Over in england there are hundreds of byways or greenlanes which anybody can drive onto.
Of course this being Ireland its all about money. Most of these mountain roads are owned by the irish forestry company Coillte & they have the final say on who can use the roads. I think these off-road clubs pay money for the exclusive use of these lanes & in turn we pay them a fee.
Its all a bit greedy really but its not the 4x4 club's fault.

Anybody else who has more accurate information please feel free to correct anything ive said if im wrong.

Thanks guys, new thread started.

Tricky1127

Hi Colm_MCM, Any more up dates did you finish it and pay the VRT and if so how did it go?

colm_mcm

Not finished yet, the one thing holding me up is the tinting of the windows.the weather is too cold to do outside and I have a Starlet stripped and waiting on parts in the garage. One of these days............

2qk4u

Keep us posted, Im been given a uk reg Discovery with no engine or gearbox and Im going to comercialise it and use it for offroading, cant wait to see how you get on with revenue when you are finished.

colm_mcm

Got all the windows tinted today.

Next job is carpeting over them and bringing it to the VRT office!

2qk4u, I may know of a very cheap Discovery if you need parts (think it's a 97 LWB 2.5 - running but clutch gone)

colm_mcm

Finally got this finished today

With the side panels, the main concern was making them rattle free, I've driven too many commercial jeeps with rattly conversions. I cut out panels in hardboard, ran around the edges with gorilla tape with a light bead of foam inside them, then cut wadding to size and taped that to the inner edge of the sheets.

Next job was screwing in the panels to the rearmost windows, I had measured the depth between the facia panel and the bodywork so that the facia would be tight against the carpet luckily it all went to plan, the panels were then screwed in with selp tappers to avoid rattles.


The door panels were cut, using card as a template, wadding was stuck to the inside of the glass and the panels were then wedged into the window rubbers.

Then I used contact adhesive to stick in the carpet and trimmed it all.




now to hoover it all up and admire my handiwork!

MB1380

Im doing this myself at the moment with a SWB. Interested to see how you get on. I cant seem to be able to view page 4 though

BlackWizard

Page 4 does seem broke

edit:
I guess it's a bug with boards.ie

But there was a 4th page that I couldn't access either

Slidey

Must be a bug, I'm on 40 posts per page and there is only 46 posts in the thread

colm_mcm

Got it registered there on Friday. Had to sheet the windows with steel and build another floor under the timber one to keep Revenue happy.

Pics to follow.

mossfort

i remember the time i paid vrt on my swb pajero i just tacked in the steel floor with the intention of removing it later but the revenue guy put his hand under the sheet and started pulling at it til he broke one of the tacks and he started going on about having it bonded.
did you have to remove the glass or just put the steel panels inside the glass?

colm_mcm

I left the windows in, and stuck in hardboard then stuck steel over that using some new fangled sealant.

For the floor I made up a frame and held the steel on with rivets and techscrews, I also used sealant to stick it down first.

101sean

Oh well, looks like they are being very very fussy about conversions now and there's no shortcuts! Thanks for trying and letting us know the result.

colm_mcm

I'm nothing if not a chancer!

MB1380

I went in during the week and chanced just a timber floor and timber on the windows but no good. I need to weld a sheet to extend the floor to the back of the seats and metal in the windows. Interested to see what you've done with the windows? i was just going to bond some aluminum to the tint but im not sure if this will do.....

colm_mcm

be careful bonding to the tint as it could peel the tint off.

MB1380

colm_mcm wrote: »

be careful bonding to the tint as it could peel the tint off.

Any pics of what you did with the windows?

colm_mcm

Here's the floor, click pic to enlarge







For the windows, I wedged hardboard into the window rubbers and used sealant in the middle. I then stuck the metal onto the hardboard, sealed around the edges and carpeted over. Revenue were happy with this.
It's completely rattle-free too.

MB1380

So you havent welded that new floor to the old one at all just bolts? I was told to weld it up at the top and also where it meets the footwell floor. Its a pure lottery who you get it seems

colm_mcm

I got the checklist off them and you can seam weld, spot weld or use a suitable adhesive.

I ticked the "suitable adhesive" box.

I also covered the entire thing with a wooden floor so they couldn't inspect it too closely. I just showed them the pictures I'd taken.

tinofapples

Nice job done Colm.

Theanswers

tinofapples wrote: »

Nice job done Colm.

Very True,
But there should'nt have been a need to do it in the first place!!

Just a question.
I wonder how many people have died because they were in an a commercial jeep envolved in a crash. I'm talking about the 3rd passenger, which I have seen many in a commercial jeep.

Slidey

I don't see your point.

If they were in the back they shouldn't have been. Simple as that.