The biggest problem we had before was tires grinding...
...on the wheel well.
I've dealt with that.
I'll show you how.
Stay tuned.
This is the Sendero HD - Stage 1 Upgrades: complete.
In short: bumper has been moved up; it used to be about
there.
It's been moved up.
What I did was, I swapped the front and the back mounts, and so now the bumper is sitting
up inside what used to go down on the back, here.
I also took the sliders out from underneath and drilled some holes through and moved these
on top.
I had to cut off the little stumps.
But now, they are at the right height.
I had to put some longer body posts in the front
and I had to raise the rear a little bit.
I bolted the bed further up the back of the cab as well.
So now, it's even, it sits beautifully inside the slider rails.
It sits smack-bang on the bumper itself, which is back as well, so our approach angle is
now better than it was.
This is a very lightweight body shell and raising it almost a centimeter almost is not
going to make a lot of difference.
I think the trade-off is worth it to get the clearance for these front wheels, which can
still rub a little teeny-tiny bit, but hardly at all.
And the last thing I did was to add some wheels.
These wheels are roughly, they're almost double the weight of the stock plastic wheels.
What I'd prefer to do is to add a little bit of weight on the actual steering knuckle assembly
itself, rather than to have it as rotational mass.
But, as a reasonable Stage 1, low-budget upgrade, this seems to me something that the average
owner of a Sendero HD would want to look at.
Throw some wheels on.
Raise everything else - so, some front body posts, which is a few dollars.
And that's all you need to spend.
Gearing I haven't touched.
Everything else is the same, but just having that difference in height and a little bit
of weight down low, that I think will be enough to make just the difference we need to get
better performance on the rocks.
So let's get it out there and see how it goes!
I actually took it easy on the throttle there.
Sometimes, extra throttle can help, but it can also get you in trouble.
Now we need to get it across and up.
Do the heavier wheels make a difference?
Are they better or worse?
Well, we're up, just, just barely!
This is similar to the original attempt.
The only thing that saved us there, I think, was the overdrive, which is still at 5.7%.
So we're past Problem 1.
Problem 2.
Just get that left... the servo doesn't have enough power.
That's where we need to be, just on the inside.
There.
Good.
Now, you know what you can't hear?
Dakka-dakka-dakka-dakka-dakka with the tires grinding away!
Now that is the difference.
That's why we've raised the body a little bit.
It still side-hills fine; we've made minimal change to it's ability to side-hill.
So, we might come in...
I'll just try one other thing.
We've got a little more weight from these wheels, not much.
It's about 400g total; 100g per corner more.
There!
There you go, look at that.
Oh no!
I don't know that a reverse is going to help, but we might need to.
Just the tiniest little bit!
There!
Done!
Woo-hoo!
Okay, next problem.
I think this might be the review.
It's going to be close if it can do it.
The problem here is clearance.
4.65" tires... yes!
Problem 5.
The afternoon winter sun, which is lousy for filming, I'm sorry.
But, we can still see how it goes.
Or whether it goes.
Just take a reverse there, that was my bad line choice.
The sun blasting in my eyes, here.
That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!
This is an uncomfortable angle.
That's better.
Oh, wow!
The way it held that!
That was magnificent!
Okay, onto problem 6.
Okay, Sendero HD, onto Problem 6 with Stage 1 mods.
Now this is the one that, if you've been watching this channel, you'll be wondering about, because
this problem is cruel and unusually punishing.
Come on!
Then we dropped.
We're going to have one last attempt at that.
We did get up, but then it fell.
There was this last moment of fine throttle that you need, and I tell you, for a moment
there, I was driving and I forgot about the camera.
I was just really enjoying driving this thing on this problem.
That's what this hobby's all about.
It's so relaxing.
Honestly, I can do this all day.
Well, we didn't get any further that day.
I didn't have a lot of time left, mind you, but I reckon with a few more attempts we could
get the Sendero over that rock.
So that's 5 out of 6!
That's better than 4 out of 6.
Clearly the mods have done the trick.
So now, we'll get it back to the bench and see if we can eke a bit more performance out
of this very capable platform.
If you enjoyed this video or found it useful, please make sure you leave a Like on this
video.
That helps me grow and it tells YouTube that what we're doing here is useful and that you'd
like to see more of it.
Thank you so much for watching to the end and I'll catch you on the rocks next time.
Cheers.
I'll try and be kind to it.