The Build of the World's Largest Off-Road Recovery Wrecker: A Step-by-Step Guide

As we embark on this incredible project, it's essential to share our journey with you. Our goal is to create the world's largest off-road recovery wrecker, and we're committed to making it happen. To achieve this, we need to work tirelessly to design, fabricate, and assemble each component of our machine.

We've started by planning the overall structure of our wrecker. The chassis will serve as the foundation for all the other components, including the engine, transmission, power steering system, cooling system, winch, and toolbox. Our team has been working closely to ensure that every part is meticulously planned and executed. We've also made sure to keep an eye on the project's timeline, making adjustments as needed to stay on track.

One of the critical components we need to focus on is the cooling system. With two radiators, a power steering cooler, and an engine oil cooler, our machine will require a sophisticated cooling system to regulate its temperature. Tom, our team member, has been working tirelessly to weld and pressure test the radiators. He's also figured out the circulation system and thermostat for each radiator. We're excited about this development, as it ensures that our wrecker will be able to maintain optimal temperatures even in extreme conditions.

Another essential component is the winch. Matt and Tom have successfully mounted two winches, one on the front and another on the rear of the wrecker. These winches will provide us with the necessary power to lift and move heavy loads. We're thrilled about this progress, as it marks a significant milestone in our project.

As we work on the cooling system and winch, we've also been focusing on the electrical aspects of our machine. Skeeter and Lizzy have installed the mounting brackets for the heat exchangers, which will help dissipate heat from the engine and transmission. We're excited about this development, as it ensures that our wrecker will be able to maintain optimal performance even in high-temperature conditions.

Now, let's take a closer look at the toolbox. We've ordered a custom gas tank, which is designed to fit perfectly with our chassis. The gas tank is a cube-shaped structure that provides ample storage space for tools and equipment. We're excited about this development, as it will enable us to keep all the necessary tools within easy reach.

While we continue working on each component, we also need to consider the overall design of our wrecker. We've been taking notes and making adjustments as needed to ensure that every part fits seamlessly into place. Our goal is to create a machine that's not only functional but also visually appealing. We want our wrecker to stand out from the rest, while still maintaining its rugged and off-road-capable persona.

As we move forward with our project, we'll be sharing updates and insights on our progress. From the cooling system to the toolbox, every component is crucial to our wrecker's success. We're committed to making this machine a reality, and we can't wait to see it come together. Stay tuned for more updates from our workshop!

Finally, let's take a moment to acknowledge the people behind this incredible project. Our crew has worked tirelessly to bring this vision to life. We want to extend our gratitude to everyone who has contributed to our wrecker's development. From designing and fabricating components to assembling and testing them, every member of our team deserves credit for their hard work and dedication.

We'd also like to thank you, our readers, for joining us on this journey. Your interest and support mean the world to us. We're excited to share our progress with you and look forward to seeing your reactions as we bring this incredible machine to life.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enall my engineering was for nothing good morning it is another day of working on the wrecker i've actually been working on a little bit behind your back so i'm going to tell you what i did so that we're like we bring some uh trust back into this relationship i'm working on a system that i hope does adequate amount of cooling this is the system as it stands right now i have a radiator right here this is the secondary radiator it's gonna be in series this one gets its juice second there's gonna be another radiator right here i can show you that actually this is the first radiator so the hot water comes in here goes through the radiator passes from this tank to this paint tank hopefully that will cool enough we'll uh we'll let you know whether it does or not there's some other cooling tricks that we're going to do i'm going to show you one hopefully this isn't too boring too i'll talk fast all these are going to be fully shrouded skeeters over there working on the shrouds right now over here so all engines have some kind of a fast warm-up device this one is no different it runs the hot water when the thermostat is closed the water that's warming up goes straight into the cold side of the pump and recirculates once the thermostat opens the water is less interested in moving here even though it still does we are going to interrupt this flow and we're going to run it into this tank both of them into this tank so they can recirculate just like normal but once the thermostat opens the in rushing water here will go in there suck right into the pump it's going to be amazing you'll see i'll show you tom tom's going to be here later this week he is going to be doing all our tig welding on our tanks i haven't learned how to tig weld and i'm just not interested in learning how to do it uh maybe liz you'll want to i want to learn how to tig weld so bad so bad yeah lizzy will spend some time with tom tom learn how to take that way tom doesn't have to come all the way down from idaho falls every time i need something tig welded so today we're gonna be working on this system that hopefully cools we're gonna be building the brackets to hold it all in place make sure it all fits under the bonnet and that's right we're gonna call it a bonnet it's a butterfly bonnet by the way this is redneck cad cardboard egg design without cardboard just in your mind so it's the shroud and matt said if i screw it up it's my 10th strike how many do you get i don't know but it's my tent 700 strikes and you're out dang it they're trying to teach me how to read a tape measure because uh i always forget the little lines and everything i go by inches and halves half inches close enough i guess how many little lines is it away from two and three quarters one line before the half give up let's just call that two and a quarter that's pretty much two and a quarter okay so we're a half inch off over here which is within your accuracy rating we're learning how to fabricate here it'll be on the proper side of the two i use my eye on everything all right with my little eye it's still two and a quarter yeah didn't i check this side two and a quarter yeah okay tape measures are not my thing you know how to tack yes tack it buddy let's see yeah let's just weld it i can always apologize that's enough just down oh don't do that good job that'll be proud okay skeeter square for this one is this line this one yep that's the one that needs to be cut okay and that needs to be cut and this one got suited ppe is very important this is gonna be a very shrill noise because this is thin metal let me also get some hearing protection sorry for that wild ride here we go that's pretty loud isn't it right this is the upper core support for the radiator pretty good she's done it now yep she's done it now now we've got to come up with the mount for this we've got to get the top core support like the support for these radiators so i'm gonna have a piece that bolts to this there's gonna be a rubber pad you know a pin in it like we did on the bottom it will locate it'll locate them side to side and hold them in place and if the radiators need to come out then we'll just undo these bolts so i'm gonna make it out of one big plate one small one medium sized plate okay right get your measuring tape and transfer this onto here you know that it's 18 inches long so that's your first mark and then you know you know that it's 13 and three quarters so that's your second mark major up there measure up there draw line and you know everything's happening inside of there just copy that everything's in three inches three inches that one's four and three quarter that one's three this one we don't know what it is but it doesn't matter it's whatever's left over he only knows half inches lizzy i'm going to put you on this with rhett just oversee what he's doing make it nice and easy tell him he's making a mistake there's one four wait one four so that's three okay so this is gonna go right here and it's gonna pin both the radiator down so they'll we'll bend them to where they go and then they'll just hold the radiator in it will work and if it doesn't work i'm going to fix it maybe this will help you see what we're doing here that is going to be the retainer yeah it'll bend at the right angles probably do it with a hammer so we're gonna put the put the studs in there put the rubber mount on it and then when it bolts down it'll put a little bit of pressure on it and they'll just be sandwiched in there and i made these wide enough that the rubber is gonna hit the end of the tank and that'll locate it left to right so they can't slide skeeter's out looking for his dog all you can hear is me really loud whistle bat no can you lizzy wow you think that's going to go in there okay there we go that's it should break off just like that screw that no it doesn't break off oh it doesn't break up don't don't break it off in there perfect let me just kind of do that and that's true that is a slick deal right there lock all right that is how it works i'm pretty happy with that okay i'm just gonna bend this down trevor are you okay with that is that at the right angle it's pretty close so it does need to be bent a little bit more but that is literally where i want those you don't want to force it just get a bigger ham i want everybody to notice right here i eyeballed these holes those holes are almost the same size as the dowel that was literally an eyeball they get any credit for that rat eyeballing it that's what rat care is about measuring for sissies that's why it has safety glasses on so we can eyeball for years to come okay there you go they're welded on there just plug welded on the back super clean happy with that lizzy in that split second a lot has happened it has been a whole weekend there's been 15 recoveries that we've done that's an estimation it's probably only 13. i've got a haircut got my beard trimmed took a shower brushed my teeth combed my back anyway what are you laughing at and we have a special guest here today hey hello all the way from idaho falls tom tom we are still working on the radiator bracket tom tom's here to do a little welding with the tig torch welding take torches yeah it's a tig torch all right so we're gonna do some aluminum welding because we've got to modify these radiators because we're stacking them deep and we're selling them cheap let me show you how these kind of work i know i'm going to get at least one comment that says that these radiators are never going to cool unless i take the cardboard out and to you i say thank you i'll remember to do that so that's how the radiators are held in let me see if i can explain what's going on here at least with airflow the liquid path is going to be much more convoluted i'm gonna have to get hoses on before it really makes a lot of sense but the air is coming in the front through this radiator then it comes through this radiator through half of it there's gonna be fresh air comes in from the bottom goes through the cooler and then through the bottom half of the radiator a mechanical fan drawing it through here an electric fan drawing it through here will it work i don't know this radiator is going to be at efficiency disadvantage because of the superheated air that's going to be coming through here it's only going to be 10 degrees warmer right that's the yeah well and that's 11 degrees yeah so here's the math on that if air comes through here at 100 degrees it's going to pick up anywhere from 10 to 20 degrees more temperature and that's what the water temperature is going to drop or the coolant temperature the flow of the coolant there's a couple things whatever it's going to be 10 to 20 degree drop so this air is going to get raised 10 to 20 degrees so if it comes through 100 degrees it's going to be 120 degrees but that's still a lot cooler than your water that's 200 yes i agree our engineer says that it's probably gonna work so we're gonna see how cool is this this is super cool it's cool it's gonna be cool i hope it cools there's gonna be what are we gonna do what do we gotta we gotta weld onto these things right we've gotta weld we gotta plug this hole we gotta plug this hole at the bottom and we gotta make one hole without getting a bunch of shavings inside the radiator yeah what kind yeah let's shake them out we'll shake them out and then this is the one that's going to get a lot of work done to it it's actually not a lot it's going to get a bung welded in here we're going to cut this off shorter maybe there's going to be a bung on it too oh gotcha so the hot water comes out of here goes into this radiator this is a full pass radiator it comes through here it's going to go out the top the reason it's going out the top is because there's not going to be any access to this radiator anywhere for the air bubbles to go so i need it to come out the top so it'll chase the air bubbles into this radiator where they can be dealt with properly with this lid and this one is a double pass radiator or dual pass that means that only the top half of the radiator flows this way down the tank the bottom half flows this way and out here so that's how the main coolant is going to go there's some really complicated things with this bypass hose and with the heater hose particularly this bypass hose how it works in relationship with the thermostat and the efficiency losses when it's really hot outside and the efficiencies gained when it's really cold outside i'm going to try to incorporate this the function that it is plus add cooling that brings me to the bungs let me help you so this is a bung right here it's just a weld in bung and one of them is going to go right here and one of them is going to go right here this is going to be so boring for most of you but there's like there's going to be like seven engineers that are going to be like wow that's pretty cool hot water comes out of the engine goes into this tank circulates back out into the pump i know i'm going to have some thermal losses in this tank but since the thermostat's cold i'm not introducing any new cold water into the system so we'll still have fast warm up once the thermostat opens this is the bung that goes out and goes into the pump the cold side of the pump the cooled water from this radiator is going to be shooting in right here shooting straight across into the pump the pump will get cooled water the hot water that comes out of here is going to go into the bottom here and most of it is going to go through and get cold so we are adding a percentage of cooling back into the system without losing with probably maintaining at least 60 of our warm-up function and 100 of our cycle of water past the thermostat so that it can open because if you block that this thermostat will never see hot water never open you'll ruin your motor we've thought about it and this is what we've come up with will it work theoretically is it going to fail because we haven't thought about it it's not it's not going to fail it's not going to fail there you heard it here first folks it's not going to fail okay wow that's really cool because there are seven people that were going to say that so oh i wanted to be one of you you were their voices there's six spots left oh man it's hot out there we're gonna get up to about 104 clear sky and no wind thanks for watching that looks really good looks really goodish yeah so tom tom has got this all welded up but we want to pressure test it because we trust but we need to verify so we're going to send trevor and skeeter down to the parts store to get some parts we're going down the parcel to get some parts trevor loves getting parts yeah i do i need a 16 pound radiator cap this is gonna be for like a 1985 chevy no two-wheel drive or four-wheel drive with ac because you know they're gonna ask it this is gonna be the standard chevy cap half inch plugs half inch plug i don't care if they're steel or brass you know what we don't we only need two half inch plugs cause this is one of them this is what we'll put the rubber end in and put some air pressure in here the cap will vent at 16 pounds perfect we can't oh we can't blow we can't hurt it so i just need two plugs and my challenge um i yeah i'm not gonna say it i'm not gonna say it all right so that's hot all right we need some inch and a half straight radiator hose i need hose clamps for inch and three quarters we're gonna be pressure testing this when these guys get back with all these parts what's the chance that they're gonna we're gonna be sending them back like 95 percent so let's plug this oh let's clean let's clean this out really quick while we're waiting for them let's pull that thermostat housing off and let's this guy okay this last one's a oddball yeah that's what i needed because it's a chevy okay all right okay so that just got a regular old thermostat with the rubber seal in it i want to see down in there that's what i want to see oh it's incredible it's got an active bypass look at it oh no all my all your theories all my engineering was for nothing this has an active bypass like an ls and probably every other modern engine since like the late 90s so it seals up here and down here yeah so what happens is when this is closed the bottom one's open and when this one opens up to cool it it closes the bottom on the research so that that whole recirculation circuit that we built we don't really literally for nothing because it's built into this yeah they already thought about those you're like 20 years too late 20 years i have some amazing inventions and then when i build them then i'm like oh in the 50s this would have been amazing yeah what does this mean we need to pressure test everything still okay we should have taken that off earlier he would have got way more sleep there's a couple of nights where he stayed up all night thinking out this cooling system this is a massive bummer so as this opens this moves down and plugs this hole in the bottom and that's the recirculation so yeah i mean how many times can i say it okay hopefully when those guys get back we'll have everything we need pressure tested all right for this hose we're going to be using this and i know some of you have had some bad experience with this others of you have had good experience and probably most of you have never seen it so it's what we're using if it doesn't end up working we'll change it all right so the boys are back in town that's what i was looking for they brought us our stuff we're gonna pressure test it yeah ever since the old thermostat debacle i've been feeling pretty blue see if the cap fits you can celebrate let me look at that is it a spam this is a standard do not open hot matt's going to ignore that he needs to sing a deep shanty now cheer him up oh yeah yeah the everybody now there once was a jeep from southern you the name of the jeep was being a new heart was born cut that all out and we'll do it for real when we're not building a car if you'd like to hear more join our patreon i had this idea to make a whole episode a musical we need songs everybody breaks into a song oh no the build's in trouble this is gross i kept stopping so skeeter can move because you'd be like oh and then you just stop and look at it again you know what the antidote is for ethanol glyco alcohol vodka here's the question though because mountain dew so precious you need some vodka in my mouth oh boxer plants okay we're 16 pounds we're there probably more than 16 because i think yeah yeah don't exceed it yeah because that's pretty gonna be pretty easy to exceed we're using matt's toothbrush he better be sure and put it back when he's done i use the term loosely because he also uses it for his beard i'll get this one down there oh i see a leak down there oh maybe yeah i see a leak oh i'm telling you if there's a leak this this toothbrush will find it we're making ourselves a tester what do you think okay and i'll do this one i can't believe you fixed it on your second try we do it right because we do it twice all right um okay so next is shrouds right so tomorrow morning we're building shrouds so we gotta fold them up first right we gotta do all the bends we've got them here where where are we doing that how are we we're going over to rudy's shop and bending them on mike's break he's call rudy right now yeah hello hey how's it going it's going pretty good good good so i've got these fan shrouds that we've got all like marked out and cut up they just need to be folded so what's a good time to come over um it's gonna be me and tom tom so whenever like 8 30 works for me okay we'll be there at eight with bells on i said that for trevor okay thanks rudy he knows i like old-timey expressions okay so if you want to impress trevor and make him happy when he walks into work tomorrow say who is that young man i like the cut of his jib and trevor would be like yes or you say i'll have this done in three shakes of a lamb's tip i say that all the time but my wife's like that's not a thing it totally is so that's enough for today but tomorrow's going to be here like this all right we are back it's the next day i'm dizzy we've been spinning for 12 hours so uh first things first tom tom and i are gonna head over to rudy's shop and bend up some fan shrouds we're gonna get an update on the rudicon sounds like we have a plan tom let's go look at this it's the rudicon rudy here it's already hot in here and it's morning we're uh getting this figured out so we're here at underground safe solutions we're gonna go break some stuff let's do it for you guys that are fabricators you get the joke right we're gonna go break some stuff with a break right like the break the break okay this needs to bend down unless these have been back up so it's on the same plane as same uh parallel to that but this also would happen it'll it'll bend with it that's fine and then we'll have to use the pull those to do that thing there's here okay yeah and then i'm going to do the inner family us wow i stepped on otis with terrible human i think he's gonna forgive you i think he uses it he helps when you step by him so he gets some love all right we'll see you at lunch sounds good rudy was nice enough to let us come over and use the brake we got these bent up i think we can just hammer do a little hammer and a little welding a little this little that we're gonna have what we need so if you'd like to keep up with the rudicon and the build and how all that's going you can check out rudy's channel rudy's adventure and design and you'll be able to see the upgrades and as that evolves into a better and better rock crawler it's already crazy amazing it's just revisions like that pop these things back together all right so we've been doing the cooling system on here and you may be wondering why we are working in exactly the same spot so we got the radiators and all the cooling system here and then i've asked these guys to mount this winch this morning and the reason is is because we have lots of coolers to put on here let me show you but matt what does it which has to do with the cooling system i'll tell you what a winch has to do with the cooling system we've got these radiant coolers for the power steering we're probably going to be using one for the oil cooler for the engine i don't know we've got a big transmission cooler right there i really needed the winch mounted in its place so i could see how much room was left over so that's why i've got them working on that and why they're doing the front one there's an identical one on the back so i might just do both of the winches today all right let's talk about this uh tom tom got both of these radiators all welded up we got them pressure tested they're holding air we got them all figured out the circulation figured out i got uh i got schooled pretty hardcore by the kind of thermostat the with the active recirculation whew that was a hard pill to swallow tone but you swallowed it we're moving on okay we're moving on no more swallowing that pill no more we're still waiting for some parts we're waiting for the electric fan we did get this shroud done we didn't get this shroud done i don't even know where that one is oh there it is it's in the cab so skeeter and lizzy got both of the winches mounted front and rear and that's good because i've got to figure out where i'm putting these heat exchangers let me just show you what that process looks like i know where this goes i know that this goes right there i know how i'm going to be mounting this up i'm going to be using these mounting holes on the side so i'm going to put a tab out there but i need a power steering cooler and i need an engine oil cooler i was thinking about putting the engine oil cooler down in here you can just go right here on the side of the frame there's going to be airflow being pulled in through the fan down in this area so that would work for the engine oil cooler and i don't even know how bad it needs an oil cooler uh the more of air the banana neither of those have an oil cooler the more bear runs about 180 to 210 degrees like worst case scenario the banana it can get a little bit hotter so what do you think about this for power steering or for your oil power steering yeah i like it i think that's the direction we're going that lines it right up with the cooler lines but anyway i'm pretty optimistic that we're getting a lot of things figured out here we got the wheels coming there's lots to look forward to here we got the wheels coming we've got all the exhaust now we just need to start working on that get the headers figured out so while i'm working on one thing like today we were really focused on the cooling and the winches but while i'm thinking about that and focus on that i also have to remember other things because we've got to order parts so that we can keep working and i got to order parts that will work i can't just call them up and say hey do you have a gas tank for the world's largest off-road recovery wrecker and they're like yes we do it's part number 35 like we haven't sold one in years but anyway we do have a gas tank now it's uh it's a cube and this i got looking at it i can build a pretty tall toolbox and still be able to you know i can open this up and peer inside and see the thing we left the tools we needed at the shop foreshadowing i would like to take a quick moment and thank my crew they did a week's worth of work in three days that was awesome amazing and i would like to thank you guys for watching see you next time oh my heavens i'm gonna is it all my mouth cause it feels like it it's because it's a miller weld blue miller blue you want me some root beer nowall my engineering was for nothing good morning it is another day of working on the wrecker i've actually been working on a little bit behind your back so i'm going to tell you what i did so that we're like we bring some uh trust back into this relationship i'm working on a system that i hope does adequate amount of cooling this is the system as it stands right now i have a radiator right here this is the secondary radiator it's gonna be in series this one gets its juice second there's gonna be another radiator right here i can show you that actually this is the first radiator so the hot water comes in here goes through the radiator passes from this tank to this paint tank hopefully that will cool enough we'll uh we'll let you know whether it does or not there's some other cooling tricks that we're going to do i'm going to show you one hopefully this isn't too boring too i'll talk fast all these are going to be fully shrouded skeeters over there working on the shrouds right now over here so all engines have some kind of a fast warm-up device this one is no different it runs the hot water when the thermostat is closed the water that's warming up goes straight into the cold side of the pump and recirculates once the thermostat opens the water is less interested in moving here even though it still does we are going to interrupt this flow and we're going to run it into this tank both of them into this tank so they can recirculate just like normal but once the thermostat opens the in rushing water here will go in there suck right into the pump it's going to be amazing you'll see i'll show you tom tom's going to be here later this week he is going to be doing all our tig welding on our tanks i haven't learned how to tig weld and i'm just not interested in learning how to do it uh maybe liz you'll want to i want to learn how to tig weld so bad so bad yeah lizzy will spend some time with tom tom learn how to take that way tom doesn't have to come all the way down from idaho falls every time i need something tig welded so today we're gonna be working on this system that hopefully cools we're gonna be building the brackets to hold it all in place make sure it all fits under the bonnet and that's right we're gonna call it a bonnet it's a butterfly bonnet by the way this is redneck cad cardboard egg design without cardboard just in your mind so it's the shroud and matt said if i screw it up it's my 10th strike how many do you get i don't know but it's my tent 700 strikes and you're out dang it they're trying to teach me how to read a tape measure because uh i always forget the little lines and everything i go by inches and halves half inches close enough i guess how many little lines is it away from two and three quarters one line before the half give up let's just call that two and a quarter that's pretty much two and a quarter okay so we're a half inch off over here which is within your accuracy rating we're learning how to fabricate here it'll be on the proper side of the two i use my eye on everything all right with my little eye it's still two and a quarter yeah didn't i check this side two and a quarter yeah okay tape measures are not my thing you know how to tack yes tack it buddy let's see yeah let's just weld it i can always apologize that's enough just down oh don't do that good job that'll be proud okay skeeter square for this one is this line this one yep that's the one that needs to be cut okay and that needs to be cut and this one got suited ppe is very important this is gonna be a very shrill noise because this is thin metal let me also get some hearing protection sorry for that wild ride here we go that's pretty loud isn't it right this is the upper core support for the radiator pretty good she's done it now yep she's done it now now we've got to come up with the mount for this we've got to get the top core support like the support for these radiators so i'm gonna have a piece that bolts to this there's gonna be a rubber pad you know a pin in it like we did on the bottom it will locate it'll locate them side to side and hold them in place and if the radiators need to come out then we'll just undo these bolts so i'm gonna make it out of one big plate one small one medium sized plate okay right get your measuring tape and transfer this onto here you know that it's 18 inches long so that's your first mark and then you know you know that it's 13 and three quarters so that's your second mark major up there measure up there draw line and you know everything's happening inside of there just copy that everything's in three inches three inches that one's four and three quarter that one's three this one we don't know what it is but it doesn't matter it's whatever's left over he only knows half inches lizzy i'm going to put you on this with rhett just oversee what he's doing make it nice and easy tell him he's making a mistake there's one four wait one four so that's three okay so this is gonna go right here and it's gonna pin both the radiator down so they'll we'll bend them to where they go and then they'll just hold the radiator in it will work and if it doesn't work i'm going to fix it maybe this will help you see what we're doing here that is going to be the retainer yeah it'll bend at the right angles probably do it with a hammer so we're gonna put the put the studs in there put the rubber mount on it and then when it bolts down it'll put a little bit of pressure on it and they'll just be sandwiched in there and i made these wide enough that the rubber is gonna hit the end of the tank and that'll locate it left to right so they can't slide skeeter's out looking for his dog all you can hear is me really loud whistle bat no can you lizzy wow you think that's going to go in there okay there we go that's it should break off just like that screw that no it doesn't break off oh it doesn't break up don't don't break it off in there perfect let me just kind of do that and that's true that is a slick deal right there lock all right that is how it works i'm pretty happy with that okay i'm just gonna bend this down trevor are you okay with that is that at the right angle it's pretty close so it does need to be bent a little bit more but that is literally where i want those you don't want to force it just get a bigger ham i want everybody to notice right here i eyeballed these holes those holes are almost the same size as the dowel that was literally an eyeball they get any credit for that rat eyeballing it that's what rat care is about measuring for sissies that's why it has safety glasses on so we can eyeball for years to come okay there you go they're welded on there just plug welded on the back super clean happy with that lizzy in that split second a lot has happened it has been a whole weekend there's been 15 recoveries that we've done that's an estimation it's probably only 13. i've got a haircut got my beard trimmed took a shower brushed my teeth combed my back anyway what are you laughing at and we have a special guest here today hey hello all the way from idaho falls tom tom we are still working on the radiator bracket tom tom's here to do a little welding with the tig torch welding take torches yeah it's a tig torch all right so we're gonna do some aluminum welding because we've got to modify these radiators because we're stacking them deep and we're selling them cheap let me show you how these kind of work i know i'm going to get at least one comment that says that these radiators are never going to cool unless i take the cardboard out and to you i say thank you i'll remember to do that so that's how the radiators are held in let me see if i can explain what's going on here at least with airflow the liquid path is going to be much more convoluted i'm gonna have to get hoses on before it really makes a lot of sense but the air is coming in the front through this radiator then it comes through this radiator through half of it there's gonna be fresh air comes in from the bottom goes through the cooler and then through the bottom half of the radiator a mechanical fan drawing it through here an electric fan drawing it through here will it work i don't know this radiator is going to be at efficiency disadvantage because of the superheated air that's going to be coming through here it's only going to be 10 degrees warmer right that's the yeah well and that's 11 degrees yeah so here's the math on that if air comes through here at 100 degrees it's going to pick up anywhere from 10 to 20 degrees more temperature and that's what the water temperature is going to drop or the coolant temperature the flow of the coolant there's a couple things whatever it's going to be 10 to 20 degree drop so this air is going to get raised 10 to 20 degrees so if it comes through 100 degrees it's going to be 120 degrees but that's still a lot cooler than your water that's 200 yes i agree our engineer says that it's probably gonna work so we're gonna see how cool is this this is super cool it's cool it's gonna be cool i hope it cools there's gonna be what are we gonna do what do we gotta we gotta weld onto these things right we've gotta weld we gotta plug this hole we gotta plug this hole at the bottom and we gotta make one hole without getting a bunch of shavings inside the radiator yeah what kind yeah let's shake them out we'll shake them out and then this is the one that's going to get a lot of work done to it it's actually not a lot it's going to get a bung welded in here we're going to cut this off shorter maybe there's going to be a bung on it too oh gotcha so the hot water comes out of here goes into this radiator this is a full pass radiator it comes through here it's going to go out the top the reason it's going out the top is because there's not going to be any access to this radiator anywhere for the air bubbles to go so i need it to come out the top so it'll chase the air bubbles into this radiator where they can be dealt with properly with this lid and this one is a double pass radiator or dual pass that means that only the top half of the radiator flows this way down the tank the bottom half flows this way and out here so that's how the main coolant is going to go there's some really complicated things with this bypass hose and with the heater hose particularly this bypass hose how it works in relationship with the thermostat and the efficiency losses when it's really hot outside and the efficiencies gained when it's really cold outside i'm going to try to incorporate this the function that it is plus add cooling that brings me to the bungs let me help you so this is a bung right here it's just a weld in bung and one of them is going to go right here and one of them is going to go right here this is going to be so boring for most of you but there's like there's going to be like seven engineers that are going to be like wow that's pretty cool hot water comes out of the engine goes into this tank circulates back out into the pump i know i'm going to have some thermal losses in this tank but since the thermostat's cold i'm not introducing any new cold water into the system so we'll still have fast warm up once the thermostat opens this is the bung that goes out and goes into the pump the cold side of the pump the cooled water from this radiator is going to be shooting in right here shooting straight across into the pump the pump will get cooled water the hot water that comes out of here is going to go into the bottom here and most of it is going to go through and get cold so we are adding a percentage of cooling back into the system without losing with probably maintaining at least 60 of our warm-up function and 100 of our cycle of water past the thermostat so that it can open because if you block that this thermostat will never see hot water never open you'll ruin your motor we've thought about it and this is what we've come up with will it work theoretically is it going to fail because we haven't thought about it it's not it's not going to fail it's not going to fail there you heard it here first folks it's not going to fail okay wow that's really cool because there are seven people that were going to say that so oh i wanted to be one of you you were their voices there's six spots left oh man it's hot out there we're gonna get up to about 104 clear sky and no wind thanks for watching that looks really good looks really goodish yeah so tom tom has got this all welded up but we want to pressure test it because we trust but we need to verify so we're going to send trevor and skeeter down to the parts store to get some parts we're going down the parcel to get some parts trevor loves getting parts yeah i do i need a 16 pound radiator cap this is gonna be for like a 1985 chevy no two-wheel drive or four-wheel drive with ac because you know they're gonna ask it this is gonna be the standard chevy cap half inch plugs half inch plug i don't care if they're steel or brass you know what we don't we only need two half inch plugs cause this is one of them this is what we'll put the rubber end in and put some air pressure in here the cap will vent at 16 pounds perfect we can't oh we can't blow we can't hurt it so i just need two plugs and my challenge um i yeah i'm not gonna say it i'm not gonna say it all right so that's hot all right we need some inch and a half straight radiator hose i need hose clamps for inch and three quarters we're gonna be pressure testing this when these guys get back with all these parts what's the chance that they're gonna we're gonna be sending them back like 95 percent so let's plug this oh let's clean let's clean this out really quick while we're waiting for them let's pull that thermostat housing off and let's this guy okay this last one's a oddball yeah that's what i needed because it's a chevy okay all right okay so that just got a regular old thermostat with the rubber seal in it i want to see down in there that's what i want to see oh it's incredible it's got an active bypass look at it oh no all my all your theories all my engineering was for nothing this has an active bypass like an ls and probably every other modern engine since like the late 90s so it seals up here and down here yeah so what happens is when this is closed the bottom one's open and when this one opens up to cool it it closes the bottom on the research so that that whole recirculation circuit that we built we don't really literally for nothing because it's built into this yeah they already thought about those you're like 20 years too late 20 years i have some amazing inventions and then when i build them then i'm like oh in the 50s this would have been amazing yeah what does this mean we need to pressure test everything still okay we should have taken that off earlier he would have got way more sleep there's a couple of nights where he stayed up all night thinking out this cooling system this is a massive bummer so as this opens this moves down and plugs this hole in the bottom and that's the recirculation so yeah i mean how many times can i say it okay hopefully when those guys get back we'll have everything we need pressure tested all right for this hose we're going to be using this and i know some of you have had some bad experience with this others of you have had good experience and probably most of you have never seen it so it's what we're using if it doesn't end up working we'll change it all right so the boys are back in town that's what i was looking for they brought us our stuff we're gonna pressure test it yeah ever since the old thermostat debacle i've been feeling pretty blue see if the cap fits you can celebrate let me look at that is it a spam this is a standard do not open hot matt's going to ignore that he needs to sing a deep shanty now cheer him up oh yeah yeah the everybody now there once was a jeep from southern you the name of the jeep was being a new heart was born cut that all out and we'll do it for real when we're not building a car if you'd like to hear more join our patreon i had this idea to make a whole episode a musical we need songs everybody breaks into a song oh no the build's in trouble this is gross i kept stopping so skeeter can move because you'd be like oh and then you just stop and look at it again you know what the antidote is for ethanol glyco alcohol vodka here's the question though because mountain dew so precious you need some vodka in my mouth oh boxer plants okay we're 16 pounds we're there probably more than 16 because i think yeah yeah don't exceed it yeah because that's pretty gonna be pretty easy to exceed we're using matt's toothbrush he better be sure and put it back when he's done i use the term loosely because he also uses it for his beard i'll get this one down there oh i see a leak down there oh maybe yeah i see a leak oh i'm telling you if there's a leak this this toothbrush will find it we're making ourselves a tester what do you think okay and i'll do this one i can't believe you fixed it on your second try we do it right because we do it twice all right um okay so next is shrouds right so tomorrow morning we're building shrouds so we gotta fold them up first right we gotta do all the bends we've got them here where where are we doing that how are we we're going over to rudy's shop and bending them on mike's break he's call rudy right now yeah hello hey how's it going it's going pretty good good good so i've got these fan shrouds that we've got all like marked out and cut up they just need to be folded so what's a good time to come over um it's gonna be me and tom tom so whenever like 8 30 works for me okay we'll be there at eight with bells on i said that for trevor okay thanks rudy he knows i like old-timey expressions okay so if you want to impress trevor and make him happy when he walks into work tomorrow say who is that young man i like the cut of his jib and trevor would be like yes or you say i'll have this done in three shakes of a lamb's tip i say that all the time but my wife's like that's not a thing it totally is so that's enough for today but tomorrow's going to be here like this all right we are back it's the next day i'm dizzy we've been spinning for 12 hours so uh first things first tom tom and i are gonna head over to rudy's shop and bend up some fan shrouds we're gonna get an update on the rudicon sounds like we have a plan tom let's go look at this it's the rudicon rudy here it's already hot in here and it's morning we're uh getting this figured out so we're here at underground safe solutions we're gonna go break some stuff let's do it for you guys that are fabricators you get the joke right we're gonna go break some stuff with a break right like the break the break okay this needs to bend down unless these have been back up so it's on the same plane as same uh parallel to that but this also would happen it'll it'll bend with it that's fine and then we'll have to use the pull those to do that thing there's here okay yeah and then i'm going to do the inner family us wow i stepped on otis with terrible human i think he's gonna forgive you i think he uses it he helps when you step by him so he gets some love all right we'll see you at lunch sounds good rudy was nice enough to let us come over and use the brake we got these bent up i think we can just hammer do a little hammer and a little welding a little this little that we're gonna have what we need so if you'd like to keep up with the rudicon and the build and how all that's going you can check out rudy's channel rudy's adventure and design and you'll be able to see the upgrades and as that evolves into a better and better rock crawler it's already crazy amazing it's just revisions like that pop these things back together all right so we've been doing the cooling system on here and you may be wondering why we are working in exactly the same spot so we got the radiators and all the cooling system here and then i've asked these guys to mount this winch this morning and the reason is is because we have lots of coolers to put on here let me show you but matt what does it which has to do with the cooling system i'll tell you what a winch has to do with the cooling system we've got these radiant coolers for the power steering we're probably going to be using one for the oil cooler for the engine i don't know we've got a big transmission cooler right there i really needed the winch mounted in its place so i could see how much room was left over so that's why i've got them working on that and why they're doing the front one there's an identical one on the back so i might just do both of the winches today all right let's talk about this uh tom tom got both of these radiators all welded up we got them pressure tested they're holding air we got them all figured out the circulation figured out i got uh i got schooled pretty hardcore by the kind of thermostat the with the active recirculation whew that was a hard pill to swallow tone but you swallowed it we're moving on okay we're moving on no more swallowing that pill no more we're still waiting for some parts we're waiting for the electric fan we did get this shroud done we didn't get this shroud done i don't even know where that one is oh there it is it's in the cab so skeeter and lizzy got both of the winches mounted front and rear and that's good because i've got to figure out where i'm putting these heat exchangers let me just show you what that process looks like i know where this goes i know that this goes right there i know how i'm going to be mounting this up i'm going to be using these mounting holes on the side so i'm going to put a tab out there but i need a power steering cooler and i need an engine oil cooler i was thinking about putting the engine oil cooler down in here you can just go right here on the side of the frame there's going to be airflow being pulled in through the fan down in this area so that would work for the engine oil cooler and i don't even know how bad it needs an oil cooler uh the more of air the banana neither of those have an oil cooler the more bear runs about 180 to 210 degrees like worst case scenario the banana it can get a little bit hotter so what do you think about this for power steering or for your oil power steering yeah i like it i think that's the direction we're going that lines it right up with the cooler lines but anyway i'm pretty optimistic that we're getting a lot of things figured out here we got the wheels coming there's lots to look forward to here we got the wheels coming we've got all the exhaust now we just need to start working on that get the headers figured out so while i'm working on one thing like today we were really focused on the cooling and the winches but while i'm thinking about that and focus on that i also have to remember other things because we've got to order parts so that we can keep working and i got to order parts that will work i can't just call them up and say hey do you have a gas tank for the world's largest off-road recovery wrecker and they're like yes we do it's part number 35 like we haven't sold one in years but anyway we do have a gas tank now it's uh it's a cube and this i got looking at it i can build a pretty tall toolbox and still be able to you know i can open this up and peer inside and see the thing we left the tools we needed at the shop foreshadowing i would like to take a quick moment and thank my crew they did a week's worth of work in three days that was awesome amazing and i would like to thank you guys for watching see you next time oh my heavens i'm gonna is it all my mouth cause it feels like it it's because it's a miller weld blue miller blue you want me some root beer now\n"