All right guys, so I'm here at Norweld. We're meeting up with Jure,
because we're fitting up the new Norweld canopy on the back of the new build.
It's the 200 series landcruiser.
The thing that I'm getting a lot of feedback from people these days
is why do you carry so much weight or how do you manage the weight that you carry?
Now first of all what we do is, it's very important to manage the weight
that you carry out in the bush these days especially if you're doing your towing as well.
Because you've got to allow for ball weight.
Now first of all, the first thing I do is when I when I take it into Creative Conversions,
I go straight up--4,495 just under 4.5 tonne GVM now. We covered that in the last video.
But in this one, it's going to be all about what weights go on with the canopy
and how we're going to manage those weights.
So first of all, most important make sure you get your GVM upgrades done.
And then we go the chassis extension and the towing upgrade so I can do the towing.
You know, you think about it, we're on the road for nearly 10 weeks
filming All 4 Adventure and I've got to feed a lot of people,
carry a lot of gear, including things like outboard in the back of my canopy,
boat on the roof, all those sorts of things.
And I need all these things in order to go out on the road and film for that length of time.
I've pretty much got to take everything when I leave home.
So a lot of people do ask why do you carry so much gear?
That's why. Let's go and check it out now, and we'll give you a little bit of insight into this build.
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All right, guys, so we're here at Norweld in Brisbane, and I've got Jure.
Those of you who don't know who Norweld is, they've been doing all my canopies
on all our trucks for ages now--Back in Black, the 200.
You know those trucks; everyone knows them.
Now Jure, so you look after the workshop here at Norweld in Brisbane.
That's correct.
Now I must be your worst nightmare, because I come in going,
‘hey Jure, I need to carry this and this and this and this’
and it's all about weights these days, isn't it?
It is, mate, it is, yeah. But we've designed this canopy around you and working with you.
With what you guys do, it is set up to carry those big weights.
And also with Creative, using their GVM upgrades and their extensions that they do.
Well that's what allows me to carry the bigger weights.
Correct, correct, yeah.
The one thing that I notice is there's always a compromise.
Yes, you want to carry the weight.
Two, you want to try and keep it as light as possible,
but then you've also got to make sure the canopy is strong enough.
That's right. There's always this weight versus strength.
Yeah, so how do you combat that,
because I put a 105 kilo boat probably on that Almac boat loader, right?
Then I'm chucking a 40- what is it, 40-odd kilo Mercury outboard in the back.
And then I'm going, yeah and I need everything else... Food, you know, beer...
Exactly, exactly yeah. No it's just the way that we've designed it. We use all quality aluminium to do it.
We've also got a lot of strengthening that we've done through it as well too with our uni strut system.
We've got our own extrusion that we've made that it is structural.
And all our stuff is tested to breaking, so then that way we can,
you know, offer that lifetime warranty with all our stuff.
And you guys are probably the worst guys who drive these things,
in that you drive it like you stole it sort of thing.
So you know, if anyone's going to test it, it's going to be you guys.
And that gives us a lot of feedback as well too.
Where, you know, thankfully we haven't had any problems--
No, touch wood, to date, no dramas whatsoever.
Yeah.
The only drama that I have is working out where to position things over the years.
And I think I've got it down pat, because you'll notice
I don't change too much from canopy to canopy.
You don't, you don't, no. And the way we've sort of designed it,
a lot of our stuff is moved forward towards the cab of the vehicle.
So most of that weight distribution is closer and over that rear wheel.
This is definitely the the layout that I've gone for,
and it's very similar to the one that I've had for ages.
And the reason for that is because over the years you tend to work out what works and how it works,
and you know, where you put the fridge in relation to the food, or access to the food.
Especially if you're cooking out of a canopy, which I do. So the changes...
I've made a few little subtle changes, but overall the location of things stay the same.
What do you do in the canopy that sort of, I suppose, creates a better weight distribution?
Because it's very important on a four-wheel drive.
Oh definitely, definitely.
So you can't have all the weight at the back or all the weight at the front or so on.
So what do you normally do about that?
Definitely yeah, so those things that are the heavier objects or I guess or the components within a canopy,
like a tank, you know, that's heavy, so we put that at the front.
In your case, you've got an upright fridge, so yeah that weight is still there, but it's always forward.
But even with the drop down fridge slides that we use or even in Simon's,
we try and push that all up to the front. So ours are all actually built with--
And then the other thing that is very heavy is the batteries.
Correct and they're all placed--
Up forward as well?
Up forward as well in the canopy.
Now talking about weight distribution, um suspension.
And that's going to be another thing that a lot of people do ask is:
am I going to need to upgrade my suspension if I put a canopy on the back?
Definitely.
I know I do, but...
All vehicles, we strongly recommend doing a GVM upgrade.
A lot of guys are going to be, straight off the bat when you buy the car.
That just, one, keeps you legal, keeps you insured and things like that.
So what we've got is an Outback Armour heavy-duty upgrade and a GVM 4495.
It's got towing capacity of 4.2 tonne. So it's actually got helper coils on the shocks.
Correct, right.
It's got airbags which come standard, because it's a coil rear end.
It's not a leaf. So the airbags come standard in this conversion.
And I've gone with a heavy-duty coil that we actually helped Outback Armour design that coil
with feedback that we were giving them. So it's a serious coil.
Definitely, definitely, yeah, yeah.
But we've used it now on season 11. And that's why I've gone straight back into it.
Same suspension under my truck for series 12.
Because there's no doubt about it, I carry a shitload of weight.
Yeah you do, you do, you do.
You've obviously retrofitted my boatloader. Is that very common now?
Yeah, the Almac boatloader is one of the leaders, I think, in the boat-loading game these days.
And we've worked closely with them to sort of make our adaptive brackets to suit theirs.
I've seen that. So you're making the brackets to fit them now all the time.
And then if you look up there, you notice that you've taken a bit of material
out of the bracket to keep the weight down.
Correct, yes.
But also give it its strength.
Exactly.
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The other thing I've noticed too is you've gone from an aluminium tank now to a plastic tank.
That's right, that's also another weight saver as well.
Also just usability of it, yeah. The the plastic does sort of last a lot longer as well too.
But the weight is the biggest thing.
I'm going to a different filling system too this year.
Yes reverse-filling...
Give us a show.
Basically yeah when we have the tap-- so what we've done here is we've blocked off the filler point.
So our filler point would normally sit here.
That would be normally there.
Yeah and we would fill through...
Like I normally do.
From a tap? Yeah it would fill through here, and we'd have a breather coming back from it.
So what we've done now is we've reverse filled it so the breather is here.
And that's actually your outlet point now.
Yeah okay.
And then from the taps--so we're going to have two taps on Jase's one.
I run two taps.
Yeah so we're gonna have one at the back and one at the front.
So the front here where the tap will sit, you just plug your hose into that and fill up that way.
So there'll be a tap.
Correct.
But on that will be a hose fitting.
Exactly yeah.
And then I just grab the garden hose and go bang.
Bang and fill up that way.
And that fills the tank. You know it's full when that overflows.
It overflows there, so yeah. And the other thing is, too, it stops anyone chucking stuff down in the filler as well too.
Dirt and sand.
Yeah you can lock the tap. The tap does come with a locking mechanism in it,
so you can lock it there or put a little padlock on it. And then yeah you're right.
Obviously there she is under there. Yeah is it a bigger tank? Smaller tank?
Correct yeah, these are 70-litre tanks now.
As opposed to...
They were a 68-litre LE tank so these now are the 70-liter polytech.
Our design, our mould, yeah so that's the difference that we do.
It's not just a buy off the shelf item that you can do.
So it's custom.
We've designed it, yeah.
Any more storage? We haven't--obviously, we've got some storage to go in there yet.
Correct yeah.
So we've got a 1200-long shelf here. 150 deep that's all encased in its own little cocoon, I guess.
And that's what makes it waterproof and dustproof.
We've also gone with newer locks now, so we've got our compression locks.
Yeah so we've got our compression locks so dual-locking as well.
So you've got your key, plus you can put a padlock on if you want extra safety.
But that roller lock basically compresses in, and then pulls those doors in and keeps that seal tight.
That's awesome. All right well let's get this and chuck it on the truck and see if it fits nicely.
Yeah definitely. Should be good okay.
A bit more, mate. A bit more. Give it a little nudge more. Yep, perfect, perfect.
Oh yeah, back one's in. Front just in. Is yours in?
Yeah. Yeah, front's in.
Oh that's gold.
Yeah, that's perfect. That's a good fit. That's a perfect fit. See this winch...
This big Red winch that I've put on the back here. 16.5 thousand pound now on the rear.
And the drawer--the new design in the drawer--which is basically,
Isaac from Norweld has redesigned the drawer so that it fits a rear winch which is perfect.
And you have a look there, I've literally got five millimeters of gap under my winch which is perfect.
Absolutely perfect.
That is a big winch. It's a big heavy truck.