Billster here loging in on Mike's account. Mike and I hit SEMA today and had a total blast.

Arrived at about 1030 am and went to pick up our reg. materials and passes (waiting in a long line for about an hour). On the way we saw the big Ford Superduty that Avalanche Engineering had modded for the "Ultimate Challenge" and thrashed on Upper Hellderado. Also checked out the Turtle Expedition vehicle with its Dana 135 rear end.

Then off to the booths. We flitted here and there, seeing nothing particularly interesting, then headed up to the Ford display. We looked around for the Land Rover stuff but only found 1 LR truck - a G4 4 door Freelander. Met Bill Baker (from LR corp HQ) and chatted about the d-90.com site and the D90 list. He told us the only "real" LR was at the Rover Accessories booth (a D110).

Then onward we checked out the Firestone airbag display and chatted with the engineers (btw Sam - you were right man!!! I will let Mike elaborate later), and learned much about the airbag dynamics.

The Moser (axles) booth was very interesting, and they had alot of ford 9" stuff (man those pinions are huge), and some D60 stuff.

We then stumbled on the GKN booth displaying a bunch of their CV stuff. Talked shop with the tech guys there about the LR CV's and about strength and materials issues. One guy from GKN mentioned Bill Davis' name.

Then we headed to the Warn booth and checked out the sweet new 9500's and winch controller packs (solid state with no moving parts- sealed in resin).

Then on to the ARB booth where Mike rubbed elbows with the ARB bigshots.

Finally stopping for the evening at the Rover Accessories booth, where they had on display a newly built D110 4door shortbox pickup (with full Safety Devices roll cage and all sorts of cool stuff, like a carbon fiber center console, etc, etc). Mike went next door and pestered the guys at Wrangler (wiring and such).

With both feet aching from all the frickin walking we called it a day and had headed home.

I noticed on the way home the right front tire of the S1 making some wierd noises, and sure enough, when we got back to Mikes house it was flat.

So that is it for now, time for the picts:

Billster

Here is the new "black" Warn 9500 Ti:

What do you think this is?

Some picts of the Rover Accessories Defender 110 pickup (which was very nicely done with some preproduction Firestone mud terrain tires on it).

Hey Bill, tell mike those are some nice sandals.

Oh, and the pic is of the new winch control.

Side view with Mike pointing out something:

Last one for today:

Super cool pics guys...I wish I had bought my SEMA pass cheap when it was still 10 bucks (and my thesis wasn't due on the 15th either) or I'd be there!

Ok, Mike here....

KC, thanks. I like my Birkenstocks as much as the next guy, that's for sure. I was even wearing my old pair this morning while Bill helped me do some grinding and repairing of my rear shock mounts on the S1. I asked Bill if he had any flipflops to wear while he was helping me. I almost didn't let him help because he didn't have any.

SEMA is always cool and fun and whatever...but really it is just about being able to go around and see all of the really neat people that you know who are involved in the industry.

Met and re-met some cool clients and former clients and hopefully did a little networking. Talked a lot to Charles and his business partner Mark at Rover Accessories. They have some cool stuff coming up so watch them.

WARN has some cool new stuff, but I'll try not to be a pimp for them since you all think I'm so biased! :flipoff2:

Stopped by the Ramsey, Superwinch and Mile-marker booths and picked up all their marketing material. Course, theirs all sucked and the print material WARN puts out is so superior, of course their winches are better. Oh, did I say I wasn't going to pimp WARN? UH-oh.

Bill is being a very good houseguest. He even made his bed this morning and didn't complain when my kids were throwing tantrums late last night. I recommend a visit from him strongly.

Airsprings: I was schooled heavily this afternoon by two of the head technicians at Firestone. We learned a LOT. The first thing I learned was that I don't have a firm grasp of the terminology that is used, so I can't even talk intelligently about what it is I'm trying to figure out. Go figure. I'm just a photographer, remember???

Two terms that I'm still trying to figure out are spring rate and frequency. Apparently you really can't compare spring rates of air springs to that of steel coils, except in general 'feel' of the spring. The characteristics are completely different.

In a nutshell. The more air you put into an air spring the more the bladder can inflate. The larger the bladder is the more the air inside the bladder can compress. Also when the bladder is larger it takes longer for the air to compress to be noticably 'stiffer'. Also (this can go on forever....), the shape of the lower piston affects the springs 'feel' tremendously.

Bell shaped pistons and tapered pistons and straight pistons all compress air differently depending where on the piston the bladder is resting.

So, IOW, Sam was right. The more space you create in the air spring (by inflating it) the more area there is for that air to compress into before the stiffness increases dramatically.

That is not always true though, because even that characteristic changes throughout the travel of the air spring as the bladder travels over the lower piston. And THAT can be changed by the shape of the lower piston. Whew.

So, it was nice to learn that I have been heading in the right direction with my experimentation. Also, it was nice to learn that I have a lot more to learn, and that it will go quicker when I begin to understand more fully what it is I'm trying to control. Woah, you still with me???

I'm heading back with my air springs and my CNC adapter plates to tell them more about what I'm trying to accomplish. The cool thing is even they admit there is no segment of the market that addresses my needs, so they are willing to work with me directly. They're even willing to make me custom airsprings, and they didn't seem to think that I'd need to order a gazillion of them to get it rolling. So, I was happy to spend some quality time with the Firestone folks.

GKN was definitely enlightening, and there may be some good news coming from them in the future.

Meeting Bill Baker from LRNA was definitely cool. I think he was as excited to see some fellow LR enthusiasts as we were to meet him. There was only the one Freelander there and I think he was a bit dissapointed that Ford only gave him enough space for the one truck. Perhaps the space allocated is proportional to the % of total vehicle sales??? Hmmm....

Anyway, lots to see at SEMA. We're going to do an LT-230 swap in to my LWB tomorrow, then back to SEMA on Thurs/Fri.

Birkenstocks:confused:

Get some real footware:

Nice pictures Mike! Any more of the RoverX 110?

Originally posted by chrisvonc
Nice pictures Mike! Any more of the RoverX 110?

Hey, I didn't take those pictures! Billster did!!! :flipoff2:

Nope, he doesn't have any more.

We're going back tomorrow and Friday. Any requests???

I'll try to fill them as well as I can.

I dont remember asking who took them, just if there were more. :flipoff2:
:p

I'd like to request more of the 110 if you get a chance to please. :D

Thanks in advance!

Originally posted by Serious One


Hey, I didn't take those pictures! Billster did!!! :flipoff2:

Nope, he doesn't have any more.

We're going back tomorrow and Friday. Any requests???

I'll try to fill them as well as I can.

Drop by the Mooneyes booth and see if there is any free schwag. Antenna ball is always cool!

Hey Mike, are you sure you didnt snap those pictures, they sure look like Nikon quality! LOL:flipoff2:

Mike,
I'll be there today. If you want to hook up give me a ring
525-9907

Speaking of air springs....

There is a fairly good article in the (I think) current (US) LROI about a fellow who put air springs on his D90. He used air springs from a kneeling bus to get what he felt was the right maximum height and runs 15" shocks. Since he needs it to be road stable as well, he just lets them deflated way down for highway driving. It mentioned that he was going to start importing the whole mess as a kit from the US for sale in the UK.

Yes! I read that one as well! It was quite informative regarding the setup of the airsprings in that defender. He had 4 differnt valves I beleive allowing him to adjust all four corners independently. I want to say it was the same issue that eds truck was in, but I cant say for sure mike. Anyways, I'm sure those firestone guys will be more helpful regarding specifics, however, this article is entertaining in the least!

Yeah I saw that article too.

All the guy did was take an existing system of solenoids manifolds and switches from a company called AirRide Technologies. He plumbed it up to some airsprings that are wrong for the application. If I hadn't done something similar and realized I did it wrong I wouldn't be criticizing him so heavily.

For road use when he has them way deflated he is running them at an improper height and the springs will fail prematurely (ask me how I know). When he has them up for off roading he has NO articulation (ask me how I know).

But, kudos to him for trying something pretty cool. The system is proven, it does work, it's just a matter of getting the appropriate air spring for the GVW of our vehicles. That's what Firestone and I are talking about right now.

I hope he doesn't sell many of those kits. He may have some upset customers.

Michael,

You should call 'W' back in Portland, OR. He owns a Landcrusier shop, Over the Hill Off Road, but he has many custom rigs with air spring applications.

I'm sure he'd be a wealth of info.

Justin

did you guys see this thing? Did it have anything interresting on it? Stole it from a guys set of pics on the general discussion board.

-ben

John Lee did a nice write up and has some interestings pics from the show over at EE.

Worth looking at.

http://www.expeditionexchange.com

hadn't checked out john's site in awhile and came across these.
nothing extreme just kind of cool to see video of rovers off-road.

http://www.discoweb.org/video/moab2001tr3.rm
http://www.discoweb.org/video/backeast.rm
http://www.discoweb.org/video/hitr.rm

-ben

Here's my fave from the show.

BTW, it's Billster's hand. :flipoff2:

I guess it's true what I hear: That them cowpokes in Nevada like fat calves.....


j

Just to let you know...I am the guy from GKN(well, used to be, now I am with UTS) that mentioned Bill Davis' name.

Let me know if you have questions about CV joints.

Steve

Cool man,

I am sure you will get an ear full of questions about CV's. Good talking with you at the show.

Billster