On this episode of Dirt Every Day presented by Tire Rack
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MotorTranscript
00:00 On this third everyday we took a two-wheel drive front-wheel drive rad four and made it into the raddest little rock crawler
00:06 Come on Dave
00:09 On this third everyday we took a two-wheel drive front-wheel drive rad four and made it into the raddest little rock crawler
00:17 Let me do it again
00:19 Two-wheel drive front-wheel drive rad four and made it into the raddest little rock crawler
00:25 Front-wheel drive rad four and made it into the raddest little rock crawler
00:30 Front-wheel drive rad four and made it into the raddest little rock crawler
00:34 This week on Dirt Every Day we took a two-wheel drive front-wheel drive rad four and made it into the raddest little rock crawler
00:46 Yeah
00:49 Why didn't you do that the other six times
00:52 [Music]
01:14 I get viewers that ask me all the time
01:18 How do I turn my two-wheel drive into a four-wheel drive and honestly don't do it
01:23 Just start with a four-wheel drive four-wheel drives are so much better
01:26 What's even crazier is when somebody asks me how do I convert a front-wheel drive vehicle into four-wheel drive?
01:31 It's all wrong the engine and transmission run the wrong way. Just start with a four-wheel drive
01:37 Brad I found a two-door rad four and it's front-wheel drive
01:40 Get in
01:42 Where are we going four-wheeling? We're going front-wheeling
01:44 We're going front-wheeling
01:47 Buckle up for safety. I'm working on it
01:49 I can't see anything. Oh good job
01:55 Dave, why did you buy a two-wheel drive rad four? I have no idea. No, I've I think they're neat because they're really little
02:02 Why is it doing that? It's peeling out it just has no tread on the tires. It has so much
02:10 Power that it just breaks the tires loose. Yeah, it kind of rips. It's pretty much a rally car. Is your seat belt on? Yes
02:17 The only downfall with these mini buggies that I can see. Yeah is
02:22 That is rad
02:26 Is you only get low range. Oh, so we're building a rock buggy. Yeah
02:31 Turn left turn left
02:33 You got it Dave you got it
02:38 It's gonna be rad
02:41 We could call it the rad four. It's gonna be rad. It's rad already. This thing does pretty good
02:47 I don't even know why you want to turn it into a four-wheel four
02:49 Go that way. Go. Oh, geez. Go over this ditch. Go that way. Go that way
02:53 Go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go. It's not going
03:00 We got a humvee off of some boulders with you jumping on the bumper this thing has to go
03:10 I'll give you a push. Do the jumpy wiggle. Go Dave go
03:14 Come on Dave, come on Dave. I feel like we've been here before. Why do we always end up like this?
03:23 I'll go get us something to tow us out. We'll go to the shop and fix this thing
03:28 Oh Dave
03:31 Okay, Dave
03:39 Oh
03:41 Back her on up
03:43 It's the last time it's gonna drive this well
03:45 It's so tiny it hardly uses any shop space at all
03:49 Pop the hood
03:52 Oh, look, it's got one of those
03:54 so
03:57 two liters of fury
03:59 Same motor that a Toyota Celica has this thing was wrecked when I got it
04:03 I had to put a hood on it the hood had flown up and smashed that the front fenders I had to bang out
04:09 a little bits and uh
04:11 Like none of this is on very well. That's good because all that stuff's gonna go. Yeah, the motor's a junkyard motor
04:16 so I don't know if it's got a million miles or if it has
04:19 20,000 miles. To the white board
04:22 What color do you want Dave? Green
04:25 How about pink? I'll take pink. I'll take blue. Most important part of this job
04:29 The name
04:33 You're drawing animals. Here's a kitten
04:37 So the engine turns this way forward and that if we're putting solid axles under it
04:43 Yeah, so we need to use the front axle shafts as the drive shafts. Correct. We got to make sure the axle shafts turning this way
04:50 Transfer into the car going forward in frontward gears. Otherwise, we'll have a really fast car in reverse
04:56 Yeah, you've got a trans axle on the front wheel drive cars
04:59 It's a transmission and basically a rear axle and one the rear axle component is going to in turn be the transfer case
05:07 When it's four-wheel drive because then it's going to have axles out from there
05:10 so
05:11 So this is your front wheel drive engine trans axle with axle shafts down to each tire. Yes
05:16 So we got to figure out the rotation of the axles
05:19 Weld up the trans axle
05:21 And pull it all out and put it in the passenger seat. Correct
05:24 So
05:26 We pulled the fuel tank out we drained the coolant system i'm pulling the battery exhaust is cut out
05:39 Basically, we're spending the day just stripping everything off of this to get a build plan of where it's all going to fit once it goes back in
05:46 Dave is removing all the plugs and hoses from the engine and he's marking everything rather than
05:53 Complicate that by helping him i'm going to work on the interior. The engine is going to have to live where this seat is
06:00 The back seat is actually a two-part seat. So i'll probably remove the passenger side of that
06:05 Also probably rip up the carpet and find lots of spare change, too
06:18 We got everything in the motor compartment undone and ready to pull out the interior is pretty much gutted
06:24 we're going to lift the car up to drop the motor and front suspension out we'll get the motor and trans axle off of the
06:30 Cradle at that point and start figuring out how to put it inside the car sideways
06:35 This is going to be our engine transmission and transfer case
06:41 But we want to put it back on the springs and the wheels so that we can roll it out of here
06:46 So we're going to take the springs off the springs and the wheels and we're going to put the springs back on the springs
06:51 And we're going to put the springs back on the springs
06:53 And we're going to put the springs back on the springs
06:56 And we're going to put the springs back on the springs
06:59 And we're going to put the springs back on the springs
07:02 And we're going to put the springs back on the springs
07:04 And we're going to put the springs back on the springs
07:07 And we're going to put the springs back on the springs
07:10 And we're going to put the springs back on the springs
07:13 [Music]
07:19 Made a big hole
07:21 [Music]
07:31 I say we
07:32 Cut this dash in half
07:34 Get everything from this side that's plastic out of here
07:37 And then you have all that room to work around and if there's a tube behind there you can build right off of it
07:43 They did a rough cut first to kind of get an idea of what we were going to do and this should be our final cut
07:49 Get this kind of squared up and we'll put a square tube cross member in front and back and that'll give us something to build
07:55 Off of for the motor and suspension
07:57 You know what they say
08:00 There's no turning back now
08:02 You can't make an omelet without cheese and onions and
08:05 spinach and bacon
08:07 Dave
08:11 Cut that piece of metal you needed. Thanks, buddy. This here's
08:13 The front cross member thingy thing made out of free range steel. This isn't like farm raised steel. This is free range
08:21 This is wild steel
08:24 So basically we're kind of adding a beefier substructure to this unibody
08:29 That'll give us a point where the suspension mounts can run off of and also the engine can be mounted to
08:35 [Motor running]
08:37 We're trying to use the stock mounts
08:42 and
08:43 They're all in weird places on these front wheel drive motors
08:46 It's not like a small block chevy where you just have like the two
08:48 basic ones off the side if we use the factory mounts every one of them is a little bit different, so
08:54 It makes kind of tricky mounting for everything not to mention i'm trying to put it in the passenger seat
09:00 Fred might have been right about not wanting to do this
09:04 It's becoming fairly difficult
09:06 But we will prevail
09:08 The goal for the weekend was to get the engine out of the front of the rav4 and into the passenger seat
09:14 And that's where the engine transaxle will then feed our solid axles. Dave is finishing putting in a cross member to mount four
09:22 Body mounts that hold the drivetrain in the truck when he gets home. He's going to work on little things
09:27 He's going to try and do the plumbing the wiring get it to run again
09:31 And then he's going to bring it back to the shop in a week or so
09:33 And we're going to stuff the axles under it and once we get the axles on it, then we're going rock crawling
09:37 Come on, Dave. Let's go. You got to go home
09:40 Looking good, Dave. Yep real good
09:46 So Dave took the rav4 home to do some wiring and he didn't actually do any wiring
09:50 But he did pull the engine and transaxle out of the car pull the transaxle apart weld up the differential
09:56 That's in the transaxle. So we actually have a locking differential in the transfer case put it all back together
10:02 Put it all back in the car
10:03 And then had time to take his wife and kids out on a boat for a day
10:07 Which I don't know when he has time to do that
10:09 I got some dirty old junkyard fj80 axles and uh, we've blown those apart and cleaning them all up. I installed
10:16 TJM pro lockers front and rear i've finished the rear axle up at my house and then came up here and we put the front
10:23 One in last night and with all the gear drop with this transaxle to transfer case kind of deal
10:29 It's gonna have like a 78 to 1 crawl ratio, which should be pretty good
10:32 It's not gonna go fast down the highway anymore, but it should crawl well
10:36 Things getting faster dave
10:49 So
10:51 Axles done
11:01 They look hecking rad
11:14 It looks rad. It's gonna tell us how it's gonna work though
11:18 It looks like we're gonna have to stretch the rear back like two more feet to get the driveshaft to work
11:24 Sometimes these projects tell you what they want you to do to them like as you're doing the work so far the rav has told
11:33 us
11:34 Start over the whole engine transmission and transaxle system that we put in there already has to move over
11:40 About eight inches in the rear and five inches up front so that the axle half shaft will point towards the axles
11:46 Before we deal with that. We're going to start the suspension get that dialed up. Nobody makes a lift kit to do what we're doing
11:53 Building a four-wheel drive rad four is kind of not on the list. We talked to the guys at bds suspension
11:58 They make suspension kits for a lot of different vehicles. We decided to go with a jeep xj front suspension
12:05 But we're actually using two of their front suspensions
12:07 Under the rad four one in the front one in the rear and we are going to modify it slightly to make their four link
12:14 Work under this vehicle. We're not using jeep axles
12:17 So the brackets on the toyota lancuser axles had to all be cut off
12:21 And putting new brackets on from barns four-wheel drive and then we have a cross member
12:26 So there's gonna be a lot of modifications but off the shelf. This would be a great lift kit if you were building an xj
12:32 So
12:34 We're back in the shop
12:47 The rav4 is looking awesome. Dave went home for a few days because he had to go to his real job
12:52 I did a little bit of work on it while he was away and then he came back yesterday and we
12:56 Put the axles back under put the engine and transaxle back in today is what?
13:01 Start working on a roll cage figure out where the seats go
13:04 And get the fuel tank mounted and some of the parts like I want to figure out where the battery air compressor for the lockers
13:10 And that stuff goes. Dave always smashes the rocker panels up on all of his nice 4x4s
13:14 So while he was away, I made him some rock sliders. Thanks fred
13:17 Yeah, it's gonna be more cutting grinding and welding a lot of it
13:20 If you're building a rad four and making a four-wheel drive, it's a super easy weekend job
13:25 You just need about 70 weekends start with a real toyota 4x4. Yeah, don't don't do this. This is cool, but don't do this
13:32 I'm sitting in the back here and dave's figuring out where the roll cage is gonna fit. I'm gonna sit on this side
13:50 So I as co-pilot and keep an eye on all the engine vitals
13:55 This is fighter jet status right here. I'll be the goose. Dave will be up front. He'll be the maverick
14:00 I'll just hang out back here and
14:03 I don't know do whatever backseat drivers do
14:06 Rad four is coming together nicely. Dave's working on a roll cage
14:10 So dave's driving department is getting much smaller
14:13 But there's still room for him to work all of the pedals in the steering wheel
14:18 The shifter is run by a cable down to the transaxle
14:21 I'm going to start working on the front of the rad four
14:24 Jack it up and rotate the front tires and see if the tires are going to hit the body and then
14:29 Cut and clearance the body. It's coming along. Everything's finding its little home inside this little tiny car
14:35 So
14:37 It's looking better dave this thing's here to party
15:04 Let's take a minute and talk about tires
15:06 Let's take a tire rack minute and talk about tires. The rad four has brand new tires on it
15:10 These are the firestone destination mt2
15:13 It's the new version of the destination mt. It looks cooler and it's more aggressive for off-roading
15:19 It's built to hold up to mud and snow. It even has like the holes here if you want to put snow tire studs in there
15:24 They've also abused these off-road in the rocks, which is cool because we're building this rad four basically as a rock crawler
15:32 The rad four is on a 35 inch destination mt2 and it's on some 17 inch
15:38 Kmc xd series wheels a lot of times I like to put really big tires on my projects
15:44 But there are times when you don't really want a giant 40 50 inch tall tire
15:48 There's lots of benefits to having a smaller tire
15:51 Better braking you have less rotating mass to stop when you come up to a stop sign or if there's an emergency braking situation
15:59 Probably better acceleration because you don't have as much tire to get moving if you use your vehicle for
16:05 Overlanding or it's your work truck. Basically if you have a truck or 4x4 suv that you're getting in and out of a lot
16:12 Having a smaller tire is going to be a benefit to you because the vehicle won't be raised as high
16:17 You'll be able to load things in and out of it easier
16:20 But there are times when big tires are a benefit like ground clearance crossing big holes going through deep mud
16:27 So it's always a mixture of what are you actually using the vehicle for?
16:31 I get people all the time to ask me. How do I build my 4x4?
16:34 Well, what do you want to do with it? And how big a tire do you want on it?
16:37 So destination mt2 tire good for mud snow rocks. It's like
16:42 Tough enough to go wherever the trail should take you
16:44 That's like an awesome tagline, you know, the guys at firestone should use it. So that's your tire rack minute. Thanks for tuning in
16:51 back to work
16:54 So
16:57 So
16:59 So
17:02 So
17:04 So
17:06 So
17:08 So
17:10 So
17:12 So
17:14 So
17:16 So
17:45 All right
17:46 So we are at hollister hills
17:48 And on the other side of that tunnel, there's a man-made rock crawling course. That's what I built this for
17:53 This is the testament of all of your hard work and dedication
17:57 Perseverance don't let me down rad four
18:00 There's lots of rad rocks over there. I'm gonna try and get into this thing. All right, let's go. Oh, geez
18:05 Where am I supposed to sit? Not very user-friendly
18:12 Where do my feet go? I don't know. I had a hard enough time with the front seat buckle up for safety
18:18 All right, i'm clicked in
18:22 What do you think my rock crawler there you go, it's got that seat belt that tries to choke you out every time
18:28 This place is cool
18:41 This is the silliest thing we've ever done. Yeah. Yeah
18:45 All right, so you see how there's rocks and then there's like
18:53 Gnarly climbs and then more rocks. Yeah, that's what you built this thing for. All right
18:58 As a passenger i'll just hang out here in the back
19:01 I can see all the tires turning and the drive shaft spinning
19:07 So i'm gonna try and get in there and see what happens
19:09 I kind of feel like you didn't think a lot about passenger comfort
19:31 I don't I don't think that I thought much about anybody's comfort
19:36 I think it's just a little
19:38 I think it's just a little car
19:40 Rock crawl
19:42 There's that skin plate
19:46 Wiggle around a lot i'm wiggling i'm wiggling around a lot
19:56 So
19:58 Are we getting anywhere or am I just getting seasick? I think you gotta push give me a push. Oh, look at that
20:12 Oh, yeah, you're way up in the air
20:15 All right
20:24 Can I bump it back? Yep get it
20:27 There you go
20:32 Come over that come right there
20:36 I think the key is to keep the tires on the rocks and not the belly do that
20:44 Here comes the belly again there goes my brand new rock sliders
20:54 Looking good dog
20:56 Yep right there
21:04 It seems like it has enough gearing it's good
21:08 You're gonna have to split this right through the middle there you go. There you go
21:20 Hmm
21:22 Yep
21:26 This is about where you'll smash that door
21:29 Come on
21:35 I think it will be good once I've learned to drive it better
21:50 So
21:52 Keep going keep coming. Come on
22:08 So
22:10 There you go, there you go, come on keep coming keep coming
22:27 Back up
22:35 So
22:37 Front end's not turning no four-wheel drive. It made a bad bang
22:47 Is the front shaft spinning
22:52 It's broken
22:55 Nope broken
23:02 I broke my rock crawler. You broke your rock crawler. I broke it. You know what I was worried about breaking
23:09 The differential that differential
23:12 Pretty sure I broke that
23:14 All right, dave fred. I don't want to put it away yet
23:17 That's fine. We now have a pre-runner
23:19 so the front
23:21 The front made a big bang. Well
23:23 I thought the transaxle made a big bang the front of the transaxle has like a little a little shaft and then there's a
23:30 CV carrier bearing and then there's the front driveshaft and so that front little shaft is still spinning
23:36 Yeah, part of the problem was is that this joint up here didn't have enough angle
23:40 It probably like pulled the axle shaft out of that cup and then it went blink and spun
23:44 The splines out or broke the cup. Yeah, so maybe we should re-engineer this
23:49 Did we win or did we lose? Wait, we won dude. We made a two-wheel drive into a four-wheel drive and
23:57 Then we took it back to two-wheel drive. Most people would would just settle for four-wheel drive keeping it
24:02 Like it's like the cycles of the moon. We took it all the way full circle
24:07 That's it for dirt every day if you have a two-wheel drive just leave it alone and if you have
24:13 A one a four-wheel drive just go get one. Yeah
24:15 We could have done a lot with a regular four-wheel drive and the amount of time we put into this thing
24:20 Yeah
24:22 There's already vultures circling
24:27 All right, let's get out of here. All right go Dave
24:29 The steer is really slow
24:33 So
24:35 So
24:38 Ha ha ha
24:40 Whoa
24:43 So
24:45 So
24:47 So
24:49 So
24:51 So
24:53 So
24:56 So
24:58 So
25:25 Hi fred you doing some tricks, yeah
25:28 [MUSIC PLAYING]