Alaskan

Banisters has them. Also, a gun in Austrailia has four that he will be selling on Ebay soon, if not already.

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

A lot of effort went into that! Are the center wheels powered? I ask because they look like they are suspended above the ground.

 

Matt

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.

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!

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....

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!

I tackled the sleeve again this year. The newly fitted circlip from the previous round came off quite easily, using the "specially manufactured tools" and a lot of brute force and ignorance. The front sleeve and shaft was disengaged, [ATTACH=CONFIG]71895[/ATTACH]

 

slightly repositioned

,[ATTACH=CONFIG]71894[/ATTACH]another new circlip fitted, (they get busted in the process taking them off!), slided the rear sleeve on that was forgotten during the the previous round

[ATTACH=CONFIG]71896[/ATTACH]

and the shaft reinstalled

.[ATTACH=CONFIG]71897[/ATTACH]

This took five painful hours.

 

So now when filling the bevel box again and checking for leaks, surprise, surprise! The oil still disappears when filling the bevel box but I can find absolutely no external leak!! NOW WHAT????

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

Just re-read your re-build thread, and the more I look at it the more sense it makes, an audacious concept well carried out..:bow:

 

Are you taking the easy route by using the truck's identity, and just declaring it as re-bodied?

 

I'm just thinking that there would be more than a few hoops to jump through as a much modified Saracen, there certainly would be in the UK, that's for sure.

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.

briliant...fantastic job...I have a spare chassis...I wonder...

 

so comparison.

 

fuel consumption

std ...........................modified

4mpg.......................... 8-12mpg?

top speed on road

45mph........................ 70 plusmph

Brakes

air over hydraulic.......... air

top speed off road

variable...................... unlikely

reverse speed

45 mph........................ 10mph

trench crossing

1.2m............................. 12 inches maximum as long as speed maintained.

reliability

30 hours between............. 10,000 miles

breakdowns

Driveability

simple once used to it.......... like a truck easy..

 

for fun it is a great on road conversion that can be used regularly...as a capable military vehicle it is no good at all...just proves how good the saracen was in the fifties over 60 years ago...

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.

A few finished pics. Will post more in the future when I have more money

Alaskan's build thread here: http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?26924-Saracen-Upgrade-Progress

 

Very successful for it's intended purposes it seems , in my opinion, just needs a faked up cover for the rear wheel so they all look the same, but I'm sure you have a plan for this Alaskan ..

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

what engine did you fit, she looks real cool like that...a diesel sarry and ferrett would be my idea of heaven...diesel stalwart will be first in line...

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

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.

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.

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

Nice sunny day here. Took the Saracen hybrid out for a spin. Accelerates like a normal truck and has no problems keeping up with traffic. For a video of the vehicle click here:

A picture of our progress inside the vehicle. Almost finished with renovations.

Hello,

Wondering if anyone had any information on what the proper antennas are that were used on the Saracen vehicles. I have two antenna mounts on my Saracen and would like to equip them with the right antennas for display. Does anyone:

1. Know the proper nomenclature for the antennas?

2. Know where I can obtain antennas?

3. Have any pictures of a Saracen equipped with stock antennas?

Thank you for your time

Rodney

Final pictures of the outside of the vehicle. I put my side business logos on it to allow me to deduct the costs on my taxes. I will post pictures of the inside renovations when we have completed them.

People are stopping by the shop daily just to look at this beast... way cool!

Awesome man, but howcome does it appear that the centre wheels are being dragged when turning?

Didn't have any downward pressure applied to the wheels...easy fix that we will take care of. Still learning...lol

To answer a few questions...

- The top engine armor was raised 2" to give extra room for the DT466. We had to make an adjustment to the stop for the front driver escape hatch, but that was fairly easy and everything fits very nice.

- Visabilty is actually better than before as the vehicle sits a little higher. I drove to town (15 miles) with the front armor up, driving 55mph...looking through the vision block with no problems. I had the front left and right murder holes down to get an occassional view out the sides and used the mirrors for the back. I will be installing a three camera system to get good side and rear views.

- Steering is far better than before. Steers like a passenger car, very easy. Drives better with the center wheels up.

- Air brakes are tight. I like to feather my breaking, so getting used to the new brakes will take some time. We have a part on order to improve this somewhat.

- The decals in the photos are coming off, but we are working on new decals, possibly magnetic as it will be a dual use vehicle (see attached)

- The front bumper. Alaska law requires an "energy absorption device" (technical term for bumper) on vehicles. The funny thing about this law is that it can be about anything, including a 2X4 ...lol Anyway, we had mounts for a bumper so we installed a piece of pipe. The vehicle looked better when we sloped the front armor down to the bumper. In the future we will be extending the side rails/walkway (?) down 6" to improve the look on the sides.

- I have a short video on Youtube (best I could get on my phone) will get a better one up, hopfully next week when it is all nice and pretty with a new paint job. here is the link for the video

Attached are a few more pictures of a possible end look with logos on. Will post more next week.

The upgrade process is finished (finally) after five months. We did our best to keep most of the origional look of the vehicle. A recap of the mods:

• DT466 Diesel engine
  
• Allison auto trans
  
• Air brakes, no hydraulics
  
• Batteries relocated inside the engine bay
  
• 6" of additional interior floor space
  
• tire size increased from 12R20 to 14R20. Still military runflats, but easier to obtain in the states.
  
• Vehicle height increased to 9' 6"
  
• 12v power system
  
• interior heater
  
• front bumper and forward sloped armor added
  
• Retractable center wheels to allow tight turns
  

We are conducting road testing today. When that is completed it will get a new paint job and then we can start enjoying it.

Rodney

I'm impressed! Looking very good! I was wondering about the cost this far.....

Total cost will be between $45 -$47 thousand (uggh)

On the plus side it gets me quite a few bells and whistles, like heater, retractable wheels, backup and side camera system, new paint job, etc. A few of the larger costs:

• Dumptruck 8k

• The 14R20 tires cost me $4200

• custom gas tank $1300

• drop axel $500

• specially designed steering components (to keep steering in the center and match up to the new engine) 1k

• about 5k in misc parts, including heater, cameras, steel fabrication for new floor, etc.

The rest is labor at about $100 an hour.

Hope to have the project finished (mostly) sometime next week. Will get detailed photos up when it is all nice and pretty

Making progress every day... a few pictures of our steering mods and install of a heater (nice to have for Alaska). Looking rough now, but will look great once we get everything pained and cleaned up.

Morning...

I have a few questions I was hoping some could help me with:

1. My Saracen has a front armor section in front of where the driver sits that folds forward. It also has a section within that armor that folds up with a hydraulic like pump. What is the purpose of the small inner section of the armor that folds up, and why does it only raise slightly?

2. The pump to raise the armor is not working. We have filled the unit with fluid, but it is not working. Any ideas? Asking because it could be operator error and us not knowing what we are doing.

3. Will the Saracen windshields fit in a Mark VI?

Thanks

Rodney