Hello MBWorld!

I posted this on Expo but thought I'd share the love!

I've been pretty heavy in the Toyota 4WD side and still very much at home with Toyota's. I've had the mis-fortune of putting a dent in the C Pillar of my 4th Gen 4Runner and insurance was very helpful with compensation. We've had a few G-Wagen's come through the shop and looking underneath has really shown how much though has gone into the platform... plus some persuasion from a client of ours... I made the leap.

This is the lineage of Toyota's



Stock and well cared for 2004 AMG G55 with 130,000KM in a province next to ours was found after looking at 4 other not so good examples.

Fresh from picking it up in Saskatchewan. Factory stance.



With the 4WD's I had in the past, I put them together so they could crawl rocks, burn gravel, float through snow and still go around a corner on the street. Thankfully we're a distributor for Ohlins here in Alberta and a dealer for Viking, ORC, G-Raid, AFN and Front Runner so it'll make this go fairly smooth. First on the upgrade path was to outfit with good suspension and fit my current wheel and tire set up, Second is to build rock sliders with kick outs, and finally fit bumpers and winch. Thankfully insurance payout and selling parts off the 4Runner it will cover the entire cost of the G-Wagen and upgrades.

Let's get started... ok first something we did for another G-Wagen:



Just a few upgrades and we're almost there.

And a bit of shake down with smallish rocks and steel shale climbs. So far it feels more planted than the Tacoma and 4Runner.


These are my thoughts so far... This 4WD is a joy to drive even if it's a solid axle. I'm used to long travel but the Ohlins/Thor combo is working well over the rough in a hurry. I'll most likely take the shock apart and deal with the slow high speed dampening to smooth out the street. High velocity dampening is perfect. However, once bumpers, winch and rear tire carrier go on, the street high speed might be perfect. I'd like to run a heavier rear coil to deal with additional weight in the future. Currently the rear coil can carry itself properly without weight (zero cargo) + Tent/Rack. With a fridge, tools and gear it's sagging. When the bumper is added with the spare 35" tire it's going to really sag out. Need to find a rear coil to carry the weight and be long enough it doesn't pop out at full droop.

Climbing over smallish rocks and steep climbs the slightly longer wheel base than the 4Runner feels really good and going back to solid axle has been excellent. Really missing sliders and skid plating to really get things going. Next year it has to be dialled for Moab and Rubicon.

 

Congrats and Looking forward to seeing how you move forward with mods - coming from a long line of LC builds( 45's, 80's to 200's) I'm not impressed with most of the limited aftermarket support or options....

I'd love a winch bumper....but nothing exists for the G63's at this point....

Cheers

 

Thank you Texas!

Hopefully soon there'll be bumper upgrades for the G63!

Going with the AFN front and rear bumpers. There's an older AFN bumper that is really clean. The newer one looks like an ARB bumper which is bit much for the front of the G-Wagen. The rear bumper is really clean with a tire swing out.

 

This looks great! I just pulled the trigger on the Desert Service rear bumper and mounts, will get it installed in November. I may run into weight issues for the rear springs too, I'm on Viking Thor springs as well. It seemed to me that this was a great solution for carrying extra fuel and keeping the weight down low. Here's the configuration I'm going for:

 

Congratulations! That'll be an awesome upgrade! I just wrote to Alvin about the rear coil springs. We're putting a G-Wagen together for a client and he's going to be way outside the range of the Thor coil spring. Hoping they can come up with something to carry the weight. Even myself if I put the fridge, tools, gear with no spare tire on the back it starts to squat. Before something comes out for a bigger rear coil, I'll add a 1" urethane spacer to the rear.

 

I suppose it will add a couple hundred pounds to the rear, we’ll see how it goes. I’m thinking of removing the rear seats to compensate a little, at least the double bench seat and maybe leave the single for one rear passenger. That may help!

Then again, I don’t load up with a portable fridge, stove, cookware and other things at the moment (not yet)!

 

Right on.. that should definitely help! The weight cantilevered over the rear axle towards the back really makes things heavy for the springs.

hahaha... yet! Fridge ads up weight and takes up quite a bit of space.

 

any details on the AFN products? Don't see them on their site any longer. Photo looks great.

When I was on 33s, I had to pull my spare tire of the rear due to the weight. Still juggling a rear bumper option (Considered the desert).

Thor springs are great on the road, but are on the softer end. I've got the King externals and keep my rear damping a little firmer than the front; it seems to help.

 

What I liked about the Desert-Service bumper and mounts is that there are a few configurations you can order, they are made-to-order in Deutschland, and you can paint the bumper and mounts any color you want with no extra charge. I actually went with a double fuel basket with the hi-lift, and different color of mounts vs. bumper. So it can be tailored to your needs. Like I said, a lot to put on the bumper, but definitely keeps the COG low for those steep mountain pass shelf roads...

I'll document the installation on the board in a couple of months, we'll see how it turns out...!

 

Ballpark on pricing and timing for delivery ? looking to get a setup similar to the Slee bumper I have on my 80 series Landcruiser


...

 

Well there's only one US retailer of Desert Service products for the G Wagon, and that's OCD Custom Cycles in Santa Fe. The owner Marc is from Germany, Mercedes-Benz certified and a G Wagon specialist. OCD Custom Motorcycles - G Wagon bumpers
You can get the pricing off of their site, but a little over 2K for my setup. I takes them 4-6 weeks to build, and then a couple weeks to ship from Germany. I'm having Marc and his crew install as well. I already received their roof ladder and it's nicely made with great welds and powdercoating.

I'll be sure to take some pics during install and give you guys my impression.

 

Well here’s the fun part about ordering through Trigger Controls (distributor for AFN). We had paid for 3 rear bumpers from them in October 2019.... After numerous times of saying it was coming.. we ended up contacting AFN Portugual directly and found out the order wasn’t put through although they were aware of it. This was back in May 2020. It’s been quite the event trying to get AFN Portugual and Trigger Controls to work together to get these bumpers here. Rumour has it they’re arriving into the US finally next week. We’ll see how it goes!

 

Your 80 is epic! Finger’s crossed it’s August by the time they land to our location. Most likely we’ll be fabricating our own bumper for 2021. We have our rock sliders are almost finished and ready for testing. We’ll keep this thread updated once the bumpers are installed.

 

Spring run off was a bit much this year...



She survived!

 

Love your truck. The TE37 Beadlocks are amazing.

Any new info on the AFN rear bumpers + swingout? Any other updates on the truck?

 

Nice looking rig. Wish I could find someone that has installed the GFG G-raid winch bumper on M113K G55 and how/where they relocated oil cooler and bracket design.

 

Any news on the AFN rear bumper? I really like this set up, also just wondering if this bumper can use the Titan gas tanks....?