Fuel Efficient Mud Truck - EcoMudder

[Gealii]

Originally Posted by order99

You say you tow it to the mud-are you licensed for road use, and if not could the Metro be made dual-function on the cheap? I think it would be fantastic if you could measure FE for Highway, City...and Mudhole!

His metro has no title so legal road use would be out of the question

[Johnny Mullet]

Not legal on the road and I used to drive my 4X4 to the mud park 45 minutes away and pray I make it home. Now my 4X4 will be the tow vehicle.

This vehicle will never be driven on paved roads and considered the brake trick, but went with the welded diff instead........

[Gealii]

Originally Posted by Johnny Mullet

Not legal on the road and I used to drive my 4X4 to the mud park 45 minutes away and pray I make it home. Now my 4X4 will be the tow vehicle.

45! I would want to tow my rig as well then. Only reason im considering a rig is my 9 min drive there along the most populated route there

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

If you won't ever drive it on-road, have you never considered a Diesel swap? Either with one of those 1.1L 3cyl Perkins/Caterpillar or the engine from a side-by-side ATV such as the Polaris RZR or the Kawasaki Mule?

[Johnny Mullet]

I never thought of using a diesel swap because the entire purpose is to keep it a Geo Metro. I also need high RPM's to keep it going through the mud and the Suzuki G10 is capable of sustaining 6-8K RPM's for extended periods of time without grenading right away. The 3200 stall converter will give me the tire-breaking power I need to turn both front wheels in the mud.

[jakobnev]

How about turning into a plugin hybrid by adding electric drive to the rear wheels?

[Johnny Mullet]

BDR Torque Converters out of Buffalo, NY finally got my converter re-stalled to 3200......



Updates soon.

[UFO]

What a scream (literally)! Thanks for the updates, what a fun vehicle.

[Johnny Mullet]

Believe it or not, I started a fuel log on this thing. Getting the gas can loaded up for some fresh gas tomorrow

[Johnny Mullet]

I had the metal fabricator/mechanic we have at work do the skid plate job. We ended up removing the Turbine Tech frame brace and starting with some angle iron............



Then added the lower piece of diamond plate steel........



Then a quick test fit and tack job..............



Now he welds it all together..............



Here is where he welds the upper portion under the bumper with pre-drilled holes and welded nuts on the back side...........





Here it is bolted to the car. Only two bolts up front and the lower control arm nuts are needed to remove or attach the skid plate................



Check out all the protection when looking from the rear of the car..........



Since the frame brace is no longer the lowest part of the car, I now have 9 1/2" of ground clearance...............



All painted up and let dry over the weekend...........