Website · 2026

DownThunder 3.0

Ground-up rebuild of DownThunder, Australia's 4WD community, relaunched after eight years with every member account, rig, photo, forum post and reward point carried over from the old platform.

Launch Project Deep Dive

The Mission

Bring a 4WD community back after eight quiet years without asking a single member to start again: same login, same rigs, same photos, same history.

Legacy data migrationGround-up rebuildCommunity continuity

DownThunder homepage with a 4WD on a beach, the 'Where to next?' search and member builds — 8 years dark, every member keptThe new homepage: where to go next, and the latest member builds straight underneath.

// The Problem

The Challenge

Rebuild a twelve-year-old community platform without losing its community. More than a decade of member data (accounts, password hashes, rigs, photo albums, forum posts with legacy :thumb codes and smileys, reward-point balances) had to survive the move intact, and every old URL still had to work. Years of neglect had also left spam accounts, duplicate places and placeholder parts behind. The rebuild had to give a dormant member base a reason to come back.

// The Approach

The Solution

Migrated all accounts so members log in with their existing password, or with Facebook, which matches existing members by email. Old posts are rendered with the member's actual photos in place of :thumb codes, and smileys become emoji. Spam accounts were removed and duplicate places and placeholder parts merged, with their old addresses redirecting to the record that was kept.

On top of that sits a rig form that suggests the Australian variants for a model and year and fills in the factory spec; build sheets with up to 120 photos and PDF export; a per-rig logbook for services, fill-ups and repairs that can be shared with a buyer as a read-only link; parts pages with owner reviews and 'fitted on N rigs' counts; seller storefronts with analytics; and an 'Add a place' form that reads a pasted link or text and fills in the fields.

Content can also be submitted by AI assistants through a DownThunder MCP server, and everything still goes through moderation.

// The Details

Screens & Details

The interactions that make the project what it is.

Jeep Gladiator build sheet listing 13 mods grouped by protection and suspension, next to a trophy shelf — 01A build sheet for every rig, every mod sorted by area

Member 4WDs page showing the most complete build of the month with its build score and mods — 02Member 4WDs: build of the month and a score out of 10

ARB Deluxe Winchbar part page with owner photos, rating, price guide and fitted-on-rigs count — 03Parts reviewed by the people who bolted them on

Cane Toad Equip seller page with parts count, ratings, categories and a store map — 04Seller storefronts, starting with Cane Toad Equip

Places to go page featuring the place of the month with price, amenities and filters — 05Campsites, 4WD parks and clubs, reviewed by members

DownThunder rig page on a phone with the bottom navigation bar — 06Built for the phone in the glovebox

// The Scope

What Shipped

Delivered & live

Recovery

Twelve years carried over

✓Accounts and old passwords migrated✓Rigs, albums, forum posts and Gears intact✓Old URLs still resolve✓Spam cleared, duplicates merged and redirected

Rebuild

Every page, every button

✓Rig garage with Australian variant data✓Build sheets and rig logbook✓Owner-reviewed parts and seller storefronts✓Places on a map, forum and news

Relaunch

27 September 2026

✓Gears, pixel trophies and Lightnings✓Cane Toad Equip and JK Warehouse onboard✓MCP server for moderated submissions

Momentum

24 releases, nine days

✓Likes, mates and a Founding Member trophy✓Member 4WDs with build scores✓A page for every make and model✓Rig-to-reel video, made on-device

Open for work

Have something that needs
building properly?

A shop that actually sells things, some awkward bit of logic nobody else wants to touch, or just a second opinion on what you already have. The workshop is open.