Our country has always been distinguished by the ability to create unusual things with our own hands without the presence of professional workshops, expensive machines and other equipment that makes life easier. It will take years for designers of foreign enterprises to create projects and test the possibilities of creating an SUV, and we can build a jeep in a few weeks in the garage. Sometimes a homemade SUV surprises with more factory options.
Photos of such homemade products have become a hit on car sites, and videos are requested more often than test drives of new Japanese serial jeeps. There is no such trend towards the development of the field of home-made SUVs in any other state.
Almost a real Hummer from GAZ 66
Based on the photo, it is difficult to say that this is not a real American jeep with an excellent pedigree, a powerful engine and military roots. But in fact, underneath all the top cosmetics is the most ordinary and very old GAZ 66 without any major alterations. If you saw the video or watched the car live, you would immediately identify the catch, because the sound of an old domestic engine does not suit an American jeep.
Such an interesting homemade SUV is made in a regular garage in the following stages:
Complete disassembly of the GAZ 66 to the frame structure itself;
replacement of suspensions with more powerful ones, search for appropriate wheels;
production of body parts from metal and plastic;
assembly of parts on the frame;
arrangement of the "jeep" salon;
technical tests.
It was in this sequence that a home-made Hummer was assembled on the basis of a Soviet SUV. This is not the only jeep parody from America. But this option is the most successful and well-known. Photos of the result of the work of Russian garage engineers are often requested on the Internet.
By the way, the car may well perform the functions of a real passable vehicle. The only thing that hinders its full-fledged operation is the lack of registration with the traffic police.
Increased wheelbase for old domestic jeeps
The most common type of homemade products in our country is modified old passable cars. With the help of a few weeks in the garage, craftsmen transform a very mediocre old SUV into a completely presentable and interesting piece of technology.
Such a home-made car may well conquer the competition of off-road vehicles, become the winners of a long trophy raid and even races in the corresponding class. The most important features of the cars after the alterations are as follows:
Functions of a real jeep, thanks to the huge ground clearance;
self-made SUVs of this type are not afraid of any roads and obstacles;
high reliability when using quality materials for rework;
using native or more powerful imported engines.
One of the advantages of such a modification of the car is the lack of the possibility of registering the car with the traffic police. Given this moment, you can use an uncleared Toyota engine, for example, and get an excellent all-terrain vehicle, which, however, will not be able to drive on the roads. But on such a homemade off-road vehicle and across the fields, you can get to the right place.
Fully homemade high-traffic vehicles
These developments can hardly be called jeeps, at least in appearance they look more like ants. In the CIS countries, there are about five different developments of such technology. Three wheel axles allow the self-made car to get out of any scrapes. Also, the car shows the following significant advantages:
Fairly reasonable cost of assembly and maintenance;
light weight, small requirements for machine power;
low load on the engine and other units.
Also, designers are free to choose the type of suspension, materials and consumables for their car. Of course, you need to have some engineering knowledge to create such a car from scratch. And this all has one big problem - the car will never be registered with the police. Such a car is used on one of the farms in Russia - it is now very easy for the owner to get from one end of the farm to the other.
Summing up
Given the rather complex possibilities of assembling a car with your own hands, homemade SUVs are very rare. It is really not easy to come up with, design and assemble a real jeep that will perform the functions of a passable car and give the owner reliability and quality.
Nevertheless, many constructors in garages create prototypes of real-life self-made monsters that could go into mass production in factories. It remains only to establish cooperation of such craftsmen with our machine manufacturers.
Instructions
When building an SUV, be guided by the requirements developed over the years by fans of extreme tourism. A real SUV should have: high ground clearance (at least 220 mm), a high-torque engine (better) with water hammer protection, power steering, a shock absorber on the steering linkage, 31 or 33 inch wheels, differential locks, powerful power sills and bumpers, powerful towing hooks, winch, underbody protection, large roof rack, radio and navigation.
Start with the wheels. 70% of a car's off-road performance is dependent on tire size and tread pattern. In addition, large wheels save the suspension from strong shocks, allow you to get out of the truck or tractor track, and increase it. When choosing tires according to the tread pattern, be guided by the size of the lugs. In most cases, when installing large wheels on an SUV, a body lift will be required.
Lift the suspension. If the SUV is frame, raise the body above the frame by installing oversized spacers. Ordinary hockey pucks can be used as spacers. At the same time, geometric passability will improve and it will be possible to install large wheels. Do not forget that this will also increase the center of gravity.
Perform hydraulic protection on the engine. This is necessary not only for, but also for the motor. For the procedure, it comes down to installing a snorkel - a pipe for air intake at roof level. For a gasoline engine, additionally protect the ignition system and spark plugs from water. If you don't want to mess around, get ready-made kits. When making your own snorkel, try to use the highest quality materials possible. In this case, the pipe must have a sufficiently large cross-section and have no more than 2-3 bends. Its fastening must withstand blows from oncoming tree branches.
In addition, protect the transmission from water: repair the breather valves in the axles, transfer case and gearbox in good condition and bring them out with plastic pipes as high as possible. Seal the fuel filler neck and engine. Protect the underbody under the engine, gearbox, gas tank, steering racks. Take aluminum or steel as the material.
The steering shock absorber (damper), which protects the steering wheel from shocks transmitted from the wheels, is standardly installed on SUVs such as Defender or Mercedes G-Class. For self-installation of such, purchase a double-acting shock absorber, calculate the attachment points on the steering linkage and secure it with high quality.
Power bumpers and thresholds that can withstand jacking up an SUV from any position, purchase from firms engaged in OFF-ROAD tuning, or make it yourself. In the manufacture of such products, it is important to observe certain subtleties. Therefore, if you want to make these parts yourself, be sure to consult with professionals. Power bumpers must have powerful towing hooks (eyes) and be welded directly to the frame. The front bumper must be sized to accommodate the winch.
Install the mechanisms for locking the interaxle and interwheel differentials. They are sold as ready-to-use kits and are designed to be fitted to the differential housing. Proprietary mechanisms work more reliably and more accurately than standard ones. The main disadvantage of locks is the ability to damage the transmission if you forget to turn them off after overcoming off-road conditions.
Place an expedition roof rack on your roof. It is an indispensable item for off-road travel. The trunk can be welded independently from pipes of the desired size. Also install a GPS navigation system in your car to avoid getting lost in the terrain. If you plan to travel not alone, but as part of several cars, put a CB radio station on 27 MHz
Homemade SUV
Conceiving a car for travel, the author decided to lay in it constructive simplicity, reliability in operation, unpretentiousness and ease of maintenance. When choosing the layout, I stopped at the "jeep" scheme, but its version differs from the classic one in that it has only one drive axle - the rear one, for simplicity.
Outwardly, the "jeep" looks smaller than, say, LuAZ, although in terms of the size of the cabin and trunk it is not inferior to it. This is achieved, firstly, by tightly “packing” the engine compartment and, secondly, by the external placement of part of the luggage (on the roof), the spare wheel (on the left side) and the canister (at the back). Full weight - 900 kg.
Simplifications, however, did not affect the driving performance of the car, it has already covered hundreds of thousands of kilometers. Every year it was used for trips from Yerevan to Moscow and back. Including with a homemade trailer-dacha weighing 500 kgf. Participation in the motor rally made this journey much longer. However, the construction has withstood the test of the roads of Karelia and the Kola Peninsula. The Jeep confidently walked both along the highway (at a speed of up to 120 km / h) and along a broken track.
In his native Armenia, he climbed on it to an altitude of 3000 m above sea level, overcoming impassable roads, rocky heaps, slopes up to 30 °.
The hardships of the road are easily transferred in a comfortable and comfortable car interior. In hot weather, you can slide any of the four side windows to bring in fresh air. Or, if that's not enough, open the sunroof.
There are many other simple and original design solutions in the car. For example, how the body works. It consists of a space frame and an outer skin. The frame, designed for significant torsion and bending loads, is welded from square and rectangular steel tubes. The less stressed hood, doors and rear window are made of channels, T-bars and riveted corners.
The floor in the passenger compartment and the hood lining are made of corrugated duralumin sheets 2 mm thick. The body sheathing is made of smooth sheets with a thickness of 1.5 mm. They are attached to the frame with M5 countersunk screws. The joints of the sheets are hidden by rubber and metal pads.
The cabin is lined from the inside with a thin layer of foam rubber and soft plastic. Triplex. glazing and doors are equipped with rubber seals from cars of the Volga Automobile Plant. The floor is covered with rubber and synthetic mats. All this reduces the noise level in the cabin and prevents dust from entering.
The dashboard and glove box are homemade. Front seats with reclining backs - "Zhiguli". The rear passenger seat, designed for three people, is homemade and has a fixed backrest. Behind it, at the bottom, is a 45-liter fuel tank (from the "UAZ") with a neck led out above the rear bumper. There is an inner luggage compartment above the tank. Access to it through the rear window.
The principle of "simplicity plus reliability" has extended to the power plant: the engine and gearbox are taken together with the units serving them from the "Zhiguli" VAZ-2101. Only the paper oil filter was replaced with a cheaper inertial filter from ZAZ-968.
The rear axle, taking into account the possibility of towing a trailer, was taken from the VAZ-2102 and slightly modified: the lower support cups of the suspension springs and the brackets for attaching the upper jet rods were removed. Instead, two U-shaped suspension cushions are welded to the bridge beam.
The springs are used from the front suspension of the UAZ-469 vehicle. Each package consists of five sheets coated with graphite grease prior to assembly. They are suspended from the body frame in the area of the rear spars.
In addition to the springs, there are telescopic shock absorbers. By rubber-metal hinges of the tanks, like on Zhiguli, they are attached to the rear axle brackets, and by the casing hinges - to the pins on the intermediate cross member of the frame.
The torque from the engine to the rear axle is transmitted by a propeller shaft from the Volga GAZ-21. The choice of this particular type is due to the fact that it is simpler and more reliable and does not require special care.
As for the front axle, it is completely homemade. While designing it, Khopshanosov was guided by his favorite principle “simplicity plus reliability”. The line of reasoning was something like this: the front axle is a very important unit. It provides motion control, the "health" of the entire car depends on its "well-being". Therefore, the fewer parts and movable joints in it, the better.
Three years of operation showed that the decision was correct. Whatever stones and potholes fell under the front wheels - nothing at all. This is how the bridge works.
Its main element is a thick-walled seamless steel pipe 060 and a length of 1100 mm. Suspension cushions, shock absorber mounting pins and ball bearings of the front suspension are welded to it.
When assembling the front axle, it is necessary to take into account the camber of the wheels, so the support pads were attached to the pipe in a specific order. First, the lower ones were welded on and (also lower) ball bearings of the pivot pins of the Zhiguli wheels were screwed onto them. The upper pads were first attached to the corresponding ball bearings of the pivot pins, and then welded to the pipe. Moreover, the camber angle was 0 ° 20′-0 ° 30 ′, which corresponds to a 2-3 mm difference between the dimensions taken from the edges of the wheel rims to the vertical (the pipe is horizontal); installed using a plumb line.
The front axle is attached to the body frame in the same way as the rear axle - by springs (four sheets in a package) using bolts and clamps and telescopic shock absorbers, the rods of which rest against special brackets on the front side members.
Toe-in is regulated by a steering rod (from the Volga GAZ-21).
The control device of the all-terrain vehicle is also very simple and reliable. Turning the steering wheel, the driver, through two shafts and two hinges (from the ZIL-130) located under the hood, acts on the steering mechanism fixed on the front beams in front of the radiator grill. Further, the force is transmitted by an unregulated traction to the double (welded of two) lever of the right pivot pin, and from it, by an adjustable rod, to the lever of the left pivot pin.
The brake system, interior heater, headlights and wiring are borrowed from the VAZ-21011 Zhiguli, the rear lights are from the Skif trailer, and the windshield wipers and control devices are used from the UAZ-469 car.
It seems to be incredible, but from the most ordinary car it is possible to make a real jeep yourself. No kidding! Let's see how this is possible in principle.
The frame of the machine consists of 3 cross beams and 2 longitudinal spars, which are located with some convergence.
The latter have a very complex cross-section, and are based on two 0.32 mm water pipes welded together. A box of 2 L-shaped steel sheets is also attached to the pipes by welding from above. Typically, the spar section height can range from 120 mm at the center of the frame to 80 mm at the ends. The square crossbeams are welded from sheet steel, 2 mm thick, and the front beam also serves as a spare oil tank. It has filler and drain holes with plugs. Additional rigidity to the frame, in addition to the cross members, is given by 2 diaphragms, which are bent from a steel sheet.
Make yourself a jeep for only $ 600? Easily.
The engine along with the gearbox is borrowed from the VAZ-2101 car. Both the oil and air filters have been slightly redesigned.
The chassis and transmission were used from the GAZ-69, but with the use of some separate parts from the UAZ-46E. The cardan, located between the transfer case and the gearbox, is homemade. But the cardan half coupling with a cross in it is serial, from the GAZ-69 car.
Instead of the springs of both axles, the rear leaf springs of the GAZ-24 Volga are used, but to improve the softness of the ride, you can use homemade earrings, which are 20 mm longer than on the Volga. The shock absorbers are also taken from the GAZ-24. The springs themselves are installed parallel to the frame side members, i.e. at an angle to the axis of the vehicle. But this does not impair their work in any way.
The body can be made of steel sheet with a thickness of 1.0-1.2 mm. It all consists of relatively small panels that are connected by spot welding.
For the manufacture of doors, sheet steel 1.4 mm thick is used, and the rest of the body is assembled from panels 1.2 mm thick; millimeter steel is suitable for the manufacture of the front fenders. A drift can be used to fit the windshield. The panels are joined using spot welding.
Locks and door hinges can be homemade, although using ready-made ones, say, from Zhiguli, is also not bad.
The cockpit windows are borrowed from the VAZ-2121 "Niva". For the installation of which an effective solution has been found: a steel corner with a thickness of 1.2-2 mm is welded under the rubber seal around the perimeter of the window.
Bumpers are prepared by rolling from 1.6 mm steel sheet.
We propose to make the hood of steel panels, surrounded by a frame made of a 0.16 mm thin-walled pipe along the entire perimeter. A thin foam pad can be provided in front of the windshield, behind which the wipers can be removed.
It is convenient to take the steering control from the GAZ-69, and the brake system from the GAZ-24. Headlights - motorcycle, from "Chezet". The inner pair of them must be raised by 10 mm so that the front of the car takes on a completely finished look. Direction indicators and sidelights are homemade. Rear lights from "Moskvich-2140".
The machine's gas tank is an 80-liter steel sheet tank, reinforced between the 2 rear cross-beams on the frame.
The awning frame is welded from 0.25 mm water pipes. There are four much thinner crossbars under the roof, three of which are removable.
The front seats of the car belong to the GAZ-24 "Volga" car. But they are slightly altered. You can do the rear ones yourself.
In conclusion, I would like to say about the operational data. Probably the main advantage of a jeep is its excellent cross-country ability. Even snow drifts are a barrier to homemade cars.
Photos of jeeps made by hand
Craftsmen will never die in our homeland. Let's admire the results of their creativity.
Jeep based on Niva's hull
Converted GAZ-69
Jeep from GAZ-67
The production of cars in factories does not always suit modern designers and craftsmen. Therefore, homemade cars are a great alternative for those who can design and build an SUV. True, it will not be possible to register such a machine, but it is excellent to plow the impenetrable expanses of hunting grounds on it and get real pleasure from operating a machine of its own production.
Homemade vehicles often turn out to be much more passable than factory jeeps, because they are devoid of excessive design. Such cars can delight the owners and others. If you want to drive a car of your own production, as well as have a registration certificate and state license plates, the best way out for you is to buy an old jeep and modify it, make a homemade product, leaving only the supporting base parts. Interestingly, homemade SUVs of this type can be registered by operating them on public roads. Today we will consider several specific options for homemade products from Russian craftsmen.
Common handicraft jeeps based on the GAZ 66 model
One of the best ways to make homemade cars in the form of SUVs is to purchase an old GAZ 66 and redesign it for a modern style. You can find a huge number of photos of similar jeeps. Despite its advanced age, this car can provide many benefits to your personal production car. Among the main benefits of buying this particular model for alteration, many call the following aspects:
- high quality body metal and a fairly reliable assembly that will last for more than a dozen years;
- a sufficiently high-torque and hardy engine, which can not be changed, but it is possible to change it;
- the suspension, of course, must be replaced, but you can choose parts from any other jeep;
- the appearance without changes will resemble a truck, so it is better to build a different body;
- with the right approach to visual tuning, the photos of the new model will be very worthy.
One of the most interesting homemade cars in the world can rightfully be called an excellent jeep called Bulat. It is a huge car that has been featured in many videos from a wide variety of journalists. The SUV demonstrates what can be done in the GAZ 66 if desired. Some parts of the car are Japanese, some are Chinese, but all this is assembled in a Russian garage by the skillful hands of specialists.
Jeep with soul - completely homemade cars
Absolutely homemade cars are a rarity. But such developments are also present in Russia. If you want to act as a car designer, you do not need to remake the old vehicle, but completely create a new structure. The production of such machines begins with the organization of the base and frame. It is better to make a frame jeep, it will be safer and more passable. The following calls are also awaiting the constructor:
- organization of the supporting structure according to the distribution of weight and size;
- thinking over the suspension mounting system, the main parts that are needed for movement;
- creating a car interior that is comfortable for its operation;
- performing the normal controls for driving a car;
- testing in safe conditions for the life and health of the driver.
Such jeeps often do not receive registration plates, but they are the creation and innovation of the creator. Many of these cars take part in trophies and competitions, receive awards and even investments for the development and improvement of the design. A homemade SUV of this kind will only be safe with a series of tests and fixes.
Improving the cross-country ability and power of the old car
If you have a car that can be used for a complete overhaul, it makes sense to take advantage of the transformation of this car into an SUV. Today, many make homemade SUVs, ordering Chinese factory-made parts, but it is much better to follow Japanese showdowns and buy productive parts for a penny. The alterations should touch upon the following aspects:
- completely changed chassis of the old car, reinforced struts with a long stroke;
- large wheels with special rubber - sometimes incredibly large rims should be used;
- changing the drive system, using various parts from the disassembly of off-road vehicles;
- implementation of those jeep functions that you need and will use in the future;
- raising the body above the ground, increasing the minimum clearance to 25-30 centimeters;
- installation of a more powerful motor, which can also be bought assembled with a box for disassembly.
These alterations will become the basis for the patency and efficiency of your transport. Be sure to consider the various features of operating the machine so that it is efficient and effective. Remember that homemade products will often be filmed and tried to leave reviews about your car. So everything should be presentable. Often, the creators of such cars are given the chance to sell their car and make many more home-made SUVs for operation.
Summing up
If you decide that your car collection is lacking something exclusive, there are different ways to do it. First of all, you can take advantage of buying a vintage car for several million dollars at an auction. If this method does not suit you, and you have always dreamed of driving a homemade SUV, it's time to start creating something unusual and amazing.
Buy an old GAZ or UAZ, Niva or even an ordinary Zhiguli and think about how to turn this car into the dream of a lover of passable and efficient technology. You can do this quite simply, especially with the involvement of certain specialists. However, if you initially buy an SUV, then you won't have to do too many alterations in it.
