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Alaskan

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  1. Banisters has them. Also, a gun in Austrailia has four that he will be selling on Ebay soon, if not already.
  2. Hello, I recently obtained NOS vision blocks for my Saracen / uparmored. I am looking for any advise on how to remove the old ones and replace with new blocks. Thank you
  3. The center wheels were put on a air lift system to allow the vehicle to make really tight turns. Driving down the road they can be lowered with the flick of a switch and add stability, but are not powered.
  4. Still going strong! Over a thousand miles since the upgrade with no mechanical issues. The vehicle was featured on the NatGeo Show Doomsday Preppers, episode "Take our Country Back". We now have a working .50 cal BMG for the turret and are continuing with the upgrades. Driving like a champ!
  5. Hello everyone, thought I would show a few pictures of the updates we have been making to my Saracen. First we had K&N custom design a high capacity air filter system for the vehicle and installed that. We also enhanced the frontal armor, created a cowling, and are installing ballistic windows. More modifications to come....
  6. About two years ago I bought a Saracen. It made it seven miles from the dock before its first issue. A thousand dollars later got it home and this time it went about 15 miles before the next breakdown. Another three weeks and 1500 dollars I was able to drive it in the July 4th parade and it held up untill the way home leaking gear oil like it was a faucet Feeling quite depressed a few guys on this forum tried to calm me down by saying "if it's not leaking, it doesn't have any oil in it". Not quite what I wanted to hear Finally got tired of going 10 miles btw breakdowns and went for the bold plan. Complete power train swap out with a modern diesel an auto tran. 2000 miles later, not a single issue....it will go 70 and drives like a big truck. If you have the money you can do great things with one. If you look at some of my previous posts you can see how it came out. Good luck!
  7. I feel for you. I had horrible leaks in my bevel boxes. One was caused by the hex bolts working themselves loose. About when I lost all hope someone told me if it's not leaking it doesn't have any oil in it. Best of luck
  8. Under our laws here, it is registered as the Saracen and not the sacrificial vehicle used to upgrade it. I had to have it inspected for road suitability and insure it, but beyond that no problems. It is classified as a special use vehicle.
  9. Paulob... your breakdown is fairly accurate except for the trench crossing and reliability. This modified Saracen sits higher and comes in a 9 feet, 7 inches tall. The tires are 14R20 run flats, so it should be able to handle a fair amount of water/trench. I was not getting 30 hours between breakdowns before...unfortunately. As far as off road... I will probably never know. It goes up steep hills with ease, but I don't want the nightmare of getting it stuck anywhere so I will not venture far off the beaten path. The armor has been maintained so that I can use it if needed for my day job (Alaska State Trooper) but I agree it is not the military vehicle it once was. From my prior thread you can see that it was a simple choice for me.... 1. keep it original and have a museum piece in my garage, or 2. modify it so I can use it. Parts, maintenance, breakdowns, leaks, etc. in its original form were killing me. Had to make a change.
  10. A few finished pics. Will post more in the future when I have more money
  11. Yes, you are right... we want to make the wheels look the same, just a money issue. All in time. Finished the paint and graphics today, will attach a few more pictues
  12. Hello.... We installed a Navistar DT466 diesel, with a heavy duty Allision Auto Trans. It has gobs of power now and the auto trans allows me to drink my coffee as we cruise down the road...lol Rodney
  13. Hello everyone thought I would give you an update on my Saracen project and some of the improvements we have been making to it. First, the vehicle was featured in last month's issue of Diesel Power Magazine, which helped me get sponsors to continue the upgrade progress. Rockford-Fosgate donated about 20k of electronics which will be installed in the vehicle, and I have engineers from K&N and Magnaflow helping with the air intake and exhaust upgrades. As you can see from the attached pictures, we modified the exhaust with a low-flow muffler and custom built stack similar to some Saracens I have seen in the past; most notably the ones modified for the old Judge Dredd movie. The deck plates on my Saracen had bowed and warped slightly with time, so we upgraded and strengthened the deck. This also gave us areas to install marine grade speakers Rockford-Fosgate gave us. The yellow lettering and gry/black warning decals in the picture have not been applied yet (the paint is still drying). I have put several hundred miles on it since the engine upgrade, with no problems or breakdowns. Top speed is 70mph, but will cruise all day at 55mph. Getting about 12 mph before muffler upgrade; hope to bring that up a mile or two with the new exhaust work.
  14. Wow... reminds me of how mine operated just before I completely replaced the drive-train and modernized it. Best of luck finding the problem. I can tell you my mechanic said the worst thing for any vehicle is to not be used. Perhaps you could get lucky and find that it is a worn thermostat causing your temps to get too high and cause/contribute to the other problems.
  15. Hello, I have a full set of Saracen manuals, parts, repair, etc. that I will part with cheap if you are interested. Email me at thedials@gci.net and I can send you photos of the manuals and we can discuss shipping. Rodney
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