The post The 2022 Welsh 150 appeared first on Kirkby Signs 4x4 Off-Road Motorsport Team.

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Our truck is a space frame so it has no chassis. Its made by Joe Thompson JFT Fabrication. The space frame has tabs welded onto the tubes so you can bolt on engine mounts, gear box  mounts and four link suspension arms.

The Engine is a Land Rover TD5. We have refreshed the engine with new power steering pump, water pump and addressed all the common TD5 issues. We run an uprated VNT Road Turbo from CR Turbos and the ECU is Mapped by Jose st TD5 Inside. We also run an up rated inter cooler and have plans to put a new engine in next season with an up rated exhaust manifold and bigger inter cooler.

The gearbox is a Land Rover R380 supplied by Ashcroft Transmissions. Its has up rated bearings and 300M shafts. Its bolted to an Lt230 transfer box again supplied by Ashcrofts which has some up rated goodies in. We changed from a 1.2 ratio transfer box to a 1.4 as we were struggling to take off in 1st high. The 1.4 is so much better but we might still go 1.6. When we upgraded the transmission we also changed the bell housing for a shortened version from Wrecker Fabrication. This moved the gear stick forward 3 inch but it also gave us a better rear prop angle.

The front axle is Nissan Y61 and has been strengthened. We run upgraded drive shafts, stub shafts and solid hubs. We are still trying to iron out problems with wheel bearings coming loose. We run a HF air locker in the front axle which is operated from a switch in the cab.

The rear axle is Nissan Y61 and has a welded diff. The axle casing has been strengthened but apart from that its pretty standard. They are a very strong unit from the factory.

Both axles have upgraded wheel studs and nuts from Gigglepin Racing.

The brakes are standard Nissan but we run up rated brake lines from Pioneer 4×4.

Prop shafts are supplied by Bailey Morris and are the most heavy duty ones they make. We carry a spare set on the van.

The steering is hydraulic (Hydro Steer) and is made up of an orbital, standard Land Rover steering pump, a hydraulic ram and a reservoir.  We have had a lot of issues with the steering but hopefully its all sorted now. We make all our own hydraulic pipes and we take a press and pipework with us to every race in case we damage or blow a hose.

The suspension is a 4 link set up front and rear and we run a 110 inch wheel base. We have Terrafirma Factory Racing coil overs and bypass shocks, all 14 inch. The suspension is one area where we are struggling. We are experimenting with various spring rates and are currently running springs supplied by Full Flex. We plan to fit a rear sway bar to reduce body roll as we have rolled the truck three times in the last month:).

The wheels are Method Race Wheels and where supplied by South Lakes Speed Shop. Really impressed with these wheels. We ripped one clean off and it had no damage!

The tyres are 40 inch Maxxis Trepadors sticky compound. We love these tyres and they are great on the rocks.

The wiring is supplied by Pace Automotive and consists of two stand alone wiring looms, one for the engine and one for the body. Our wiring is very basic, if we don’t need it we haven’t got it. We don’t even have a wind screen or wipers! We have wired our truck so all the wiring, switches and ECU are above our head. This is so we can go in deep water and it wont cut out. We have been in deep water a few times without any issues.

The post Basic spec and tech info 2021 appeared first on Kirkby Signs 4x4 Off-Road Motorsport Team.

You tube vid of the weekend here

We had done loads of work on the truck to try and sort all the problems we we had during he 2021 season. Fuel, cooling, intercooler, rear axle, steering, wheel bearings etc. So Bainloch was always going to be a big test for the truck.
We loaded up and set off Friday morning, took about three an half hours. We were told to unload the trucks at the entrance to the deer park and drive them up to the car park. We unloaded trailer and Jack and Reece jumped in the truck. Next minute black smoke everywhere and truck cuts out, boost hose popped off! Limps truck to car park and sorts boost hose then we noticed one of the rear brake pipes was leaking! Good job I got 4 spare off Pioneer 4×4. Next is scrutineering, no major issues. Trucks attracting a lot of interest…. Wots an U4 truck doing at a winch event

. So it’s off to the lodge for a chill and some scran.
Early start sat. Starts truck up checks everything couple of last minute jobs. We forgot all the straps and the winch blankets so Mikey brought his an rolled up to sign on about 7.30. We have tons of stuff we have to charge up for every event. Go pro’s senna’s, snap on lights, phone charger packs, snap on gun, Leisuire batteries, spare phones, radios… this divvy charged everything but forgot to bring the go pros!

So we work our way up the mountain. Quick talk from Dougie and it becomes apparent this is going to be good! Lots of laffs and a great relaxed atmosphere.
So Dylan and Mikey take off in opp direction to majority of the trucks and disappear into the distance along the tree line border, we follow the trucks into the forest. Brilliant event for spectators, u can watch the trucks doing the punches and follow them round the forest. We walked for about 2 hours right round the site then wow! We saw our truck right up in the trees, we was all made up it was running ok and sounded great so we climbed up the hill and took the lads some dinner.
We discovered that they were doing really well. They had about 15 punches and truck was running perfect. It was great to follow the lads round, videoing and talking to other people. People were commenting on the truck and how well the lads seemed to be getting on. We were impressed at how good Mikey was, it was great to watch them at work and see our truck in action.
When we was on the top of the mountain I heard Mikey say into the headset “no don’t cos u might roll it…,” apparently Dylan said “Narr I won’t, watch this!” Next minute trucks on its roof!
Was proper funny, everyone laughing! They got it back on its wheels an cracked on. About 3.30 and they had around 35 punches and couple of golds then there was another roll but this time more serious. Mikey was trying to get the rear diff past a rock by winching down a hill but didn’t realise the front diff was also caught on a rock. When the winch pulled the truck free the front flew up and the truck rolled over a couple of times and down the rocks into the trees. I heard stuff bursting an I thought it was the rad or the swirl pot, thought race was over. Mikey didn’t seem too phased, mr cool. Had to winch the truck back onto its roof so it could be winched back onto its wheels, jack ran off to get help. Another truck winched it upright and surprisingly there wasn’t too much damage. The hissing noise was a fire ext going off. Bit of bar work damaged nothing major. Lucky escape. So we heads down the mountain to the pits. We spent an hour jet washing the truck, checking it over and straightening out some panels then went to our lodge. Was great not kipping in the van. We all went for a meal, the Riley crew and Sam came too. Had a good laff in the lodge then was up early doors and back at the pits.

Great atmosphere, was talking to few other teams and then we was up the mountain an the lads were off again! Wasn’t long before the steering packed up! First problem we had had with the truck. Me an Ged drove down to the pits to get the spare pump and all the tools to change it. Took us 30 mins but when we got back the lads had the old pump off and we’re waiting for the new one. Jack changed the pump in about 10 mins!! And they were off again. Steering seemed very noisy. Lads cracked on and were nailing the punches. Then we had an electrical problem. Batteries were sparking and truck cut out. Turns out one of the terminals was loose, probably from when it rolled so Mikey sorted it. Next minute steering’s gone again! Let the truck cool down for 15 mins and steering’s back but we got a water leak. Overflow outlet snapped on expansion tank, 2 min fix. Me an Ged goes to see if we can borrow a ps pump off anyone. Don’t have to go far.. Joe Thompson “ me vans open, there’s 3 in there!” Nice one joe! I’d said exactly same thing to him and Sam when they snapped their rear output shaft the day before..”vans open”. That’s wot it’s all about. So Jack changes power steering pump again. It’s still noisy but it’s working so they crack on. We had had a good couple of hours down time now and was feeling bit fed up and was thinking maybe it was over for us. We had about 2 hours left then the lads found a gold punch, then another, then another an it was like wow! 4 gold punches to add to the 2 the day before and they were back on it! Working their way thru the forest smashing punches one after the other! Was a great feeling. We knew that even if truck broke down we had done well and we cracked on without giving up in fact the opposite, the lads smashed it right till the end! Mikey was knackered, was a hard weekend for him.
So we makes our way to the pits, the event is over. Speaks to more people, jet washes truck, loads van and trailer then for the results. We came 8th and we were made up. Only 8 points between us and 4th place! Imagine us scruffs coming 4th

. 1st, 2nd and 3rd were miles ahead! It’s hard to imagine how Tom Hiron and Sharpy got so many points but well done to them and well done to our team! Already Looking forward to this event next year hopefully with same 2 scruffs in the truck. Hopefully have the steering sorted but we always have one prob or another cos the truck takes that much stick! Goal for next year … 100 points!! Thanks to Dougie and his team for putting on an amazing event

The post Bainloch Extreme Jan 2022 appeared first on Kirkby Signs 4x4 Off-Road Motorsport Team.

We have done loads of work since the last race of the 2021 season which was the Welsh 150 were we did a serious amount of damage. First thing we did was cut off all the top suspension mounts and took the truck to JFT Fabrication to have our new Fox shocks fitted. Joe also cut out our front winch tray and fitted a new one, changed a few damaged tubes and fitted new front bump stop mounts. This took a couple of weeks so we didn’t get it back until just before Xmas so we worked all over the hols.

We took out the fuel tank and cut out the battery trays. We made a new battery tray and refitted batteries long ways to make some space for our new 100 litre Jaz fuel tank. We then fitted our new fuel set up which is a red top facet primary pump, swirl pot and Bosch 044 pump. We changed the gearbox as we have destroyed the Ashcroft one. This will be sent back for repair. We checked the LOF clutch and it was ok so it went back in. We fitted a new larger 4 core v8 radiator. Karl at Wrecker Fabrication modified the inlets and outlets and made us a custom made cowl to house our 2 new spal fans. He also fabbed us up all new aluminium water pipes. The fans are now controlled by a twin stage fan switch with an override switch in the cab. First fan comes on bang on 80 degrees. Karl also straightened our back axle. It was touch and go whether we needed a new casing which would of been a lot more work but we managed to sort it. We also changed the rear shafts as splines where bit twisted and fitted all new bearings. We had the shafts machined to take Gigglepin fast nuts. Our rear welded diff failed at the 150 and we really struggled with it.

So the rear axle is now fully refurbished. We had to send the rear prop off to be repaired. We changed a rear four link arm as we snapped it. We replaced the 4 bottom rear 9/16 Jonny joints with 5/8 hyme joints. We recently changed all the top 9/16 Jonny joints to genuine 5/8’s ones. We changed gearbox and transfer box breathers to 10mm so every breather on our truck is now 10mm. We fitted a new much larger intercooler which Karl totally modified for us and made us new intercooler pipes. Pretty much hard piped now with a modified inlet manifold. We fitted a new alisport exhaust manifold and big stud kit. We changed viscous fan bearing, tensioner, aux pulley and fan belt. We fitted a new hydro rez. We had to modify it by drilling out the base to bypass the filter to increase flow. We drilled out pump from 3.5mm to 4mm. We had to adjust 1 kingpin. We tidied up loads of wiring, cables and pipes inc brake lines. We changed every oil on the truck. Karl made us a new thru cab air intake so this is a lot neater. We fitted some strobe lights. We fitted a new bonnet and pins. We are at Bainloch this weekend so should be a good test for the truck.

We didn’t think truck was out for another couple of months so we have had to get the work done fast. We still need to change the box in the cab were we keep the ecu. We have a much bigger one which will also house our isolators. We have had to do some temporary switch wiring which will need to be re done. We have new winch ropes to fit. Been a very busy couple of months and the whole team have pitched in.

We are all excited to see wot the 2022 season will bring! Good luck to everyone who is competing and we will see you in the pits

The post Truck is ready for the 2022 Season appeared first on Kirkby Signs 4x4 Off-Road Motorsport Team.

It’s the end of the race season for KS4x4 and we have to repair all the damage to our truck that it’s suffered during the 2021 season but mainly after the Welsh 150.

We also have some upgrades we want to do to make our truck better for the 2022 season.

We have broken the rear welded diff. We thought we had snapped a rear shaft but its the diff centre. We also have a rear off side collapsed wheel bearing. Theres not much left of it. The rear prop is toast and this has been sent back to Bailey Morris but they are still waiting on parts to make us a spare set of props. We need to get a new rear 4 link arm made as we snapped one at the 150. The truck is going to JFT Fabrications to have some bar work done. We have rolled the ruck a few times this season and we have bent some sacraficial tubes that are being replaced. Joe is also mounting our new Fox shocks. We have took the Terrafirma profenders and bypassess off as we struggled to tune them. We were getting there but to save time we have gone with the Fox as these are already set up for our truck.

When the truck comes back from Joe’s we are putting the spare diffs on and send the 2 on the truck away to be checked and repaired. We will also strip down both axles, we need to have the rear hubs machined to take speed nuts. We have spare front knuckles now too which need some machine work on them.

We are totally updating the fuel system on the truck. So we will be running Bosch 044 pumps and Red Top Facet Pumps with a swirl pot, Jazz tank and Hydromat. We need to make space for the larger 100L tank.

We are fitting a larger electric box to house the ECU so we should be able to put our 2 soleniods inside too. We run bare bones electrics on the truck. If it doesnt need it we dont have it and all the electrics are high up in the truck so we can go through deep water.

The gearbox and transfer bos are going back to Ashcrofts for some work. The synchro is gone on the gearbox, transfer box seems ok but we will get this stripped and checked. We will also be inspecting the LOF clutch as it had some major abuse at the 150 but held up well!

The engine will need a full refresh. We will be changing the power steering pump. Its only done a couple of races but its starting to get a bit noisy so we will keep it on the van as a spare. All the the bearings on the front of the engine need to be replaced.

We are also fitting a new much larger intercooler so this will need to be hard piped. We should be able to move the front bump stops up a bit too as currently they are stopping the axle hitting out low mounted intercooler.

We will post more info along the way…..

The post 2021 End of Season Damage Report appeared first on Kirkby Signs 4x4 Off-Road Motorsport Team.

You Tube footage here https://youtu.be/PDogtvTbPII  https://youtu.be/EqkCnqtJsvY

On the first lap Dylan put the truck on its side in a ditch, Reece couldnt even get out but luckily Sam Webster was behind us and he winched our truck back onto the track. Then Reece twisted his knee and that was it for him. So we had to change co drivers and i had to jump into the hot seat! We cracked on but then we broke a suspension link on the main steps in the arena. We thought our race was over but again Sam came to the rescue with a spare arm. Took us a good hour to change it with help from couple of the marshalls too..thank you. And we were off again.

We managed to get 4 laps in on the first day. Each lap was taking about an hour and 40 mins. They’re 12 km laps but you have to do do 3 challenge sections where you have to get your truck to into certain positions so you can punch your card. Its hard work and involves a lot of running and climbing for the co-driver while the driver just sits in the cab and flicks switches, shouting the odds!

So we did the 4th lap with no brakes as we had ripped a brake line. We got the truck back to the pits and got it fixed up for the night stage. We did the night stage no problem but we struggled over the rocks, the truck didnt feel right.

Day 2 we set off and we were struggling to get up sections we where flying up the day before then we realised we had no drive to one of the rear wheels so we had snapped a rear shaft, probably on the steps on day 1. So we only had 3 wheel drive. This explained why we struggled on the night stage. So we cracked on but we where struggling, having to get the winch out a lot more then we lost the steering. We had thrown a fan belt due to a siezed tensioner and aux pulley. The lads walked the parts out to us but we were 40 mins away so we lost a lot of time. We got the truck fixed and we finished the lap. I was happy with that and thought we had put in a propper shift but we cracked on to do another lap. The truck felt terrible. Dylan was struggling to find any gears, its was popping out of high and low, the suspension had given up and i think me an Dylan had too. We where both exhausted. When we got to the finish line on lap 7 we were told the race was over and no more trucks were going out and we where made up:)

An amazing weekend for me, Dylan, Reece, Jack and Ged and we came 9th out of 39 trucks.

We will be so much better prepared next time round having been thrown in at the deep end.

The post The Welsh 150 November 2021 appeared first on Kirkby Signs 4x4 Off-Road Motorsport Team.

After crashing through a fence on the prologue at The King of Britain we decided to take it easy.

We had also done loads of work on the truck and not had time to test any of it.

We had changed the clutch, clutch master, slave, pedal box, servo and brake master.

We had also changed from 1.4 transfer box to a 1.6 so main aim of the prologue was to get the truck back in one piece and see how it felt.

Everything went well so it was back to the pits to give the truck a check over and fit new front springs we hadn’t had time to fit.

First day was going well, we were still only taking it easy as our main priority was to finish the race and get some points. Then about 5 laps in we had a major problem, the truck cut out! Reece come over the radio “we’ve broke down”. Took Reece and Dylan about 30 mins to sort but we were absolutely made up to see them drive back into the pits. Thanks to Mikey who stopped to give us a snatch but rope snapped:) The earth wire had snapped off the fuel pump so no diesel. They fixed the broken wire but struggled to bleed the system back up then it just fired! While the truck was in the pits we checked the wheel bearings and they were fine so off they went. The rest of the race went ok and we completed the full 12 laps.

That night we went over the truck and checked everything. Both front wheel bearings needed nipping up but then the truck wouldn’t start! I had changed a go pro mount earlier in the day and had to remove the ecu cover that also houses the 24v to 12v dropper. The wires are dead long an i just coiled them up and jammed them inside. Turns out the coiled up wire got hot and the dropper failed so the fuel pump wasn’t working again:( Anyway we sorted this and the dropper came back on. So after a full check over we were ready for an early start in the morning.

We decided we weren’t going to bring the truck in to check the wheel bearings, we were going to stay out and try get the full 11 laps in.

Everything went well, our lads kept a careful pace and we completed the 11 laps and finished in third position.

We couldn’t believe it, our first podium. So we were waiting for the truck to come into the pits to celebrate only to find out it had broken down and had actually coasted over the finish line and had to be recovered:) The fuel pump had finally given up. Good job the race was over as we had given Mikey our spare pump as both his pumps had packed in.

We all felt like everything had clicked into place for us and we deserved it too for all the effort we had put in this year and all the problems we had and overcome.

On top of our amazing result because we had a 3rd, 4th and 5th we also finished 2nd in the championship.

Still hasn’t sunk in, all still buzzin:)

First ever pic of all 5 of us below and also a pic of our team with Mikeys team.

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