DownThunder 3.0: We Said "Hang In There". Sorry It Took Eight Years.
After eight years of silence, DownThunder has been rebuilt from scratch. Your account, rigs, photos, posts and Gears all survived the journey, which frankly surprised us too.
The last entry in our old changelog is from February 2018. It ends with the words "Hang in there guys!" We then went quiet for eight and a half years. In that time a baby could have been born, learned to walk and started asking for a Hilux. We apologise. Mostly.
But here it is. A brand new DownThunder. Every page, every button, every screw. And, crucially, we've kept everything you had. Your old password works. Your old albums are where you left them. It's like restoring a classic, except this time nobody found a family of possums living in the engine bay.
Your rig, in quite alarming detail
Tell the new rig form your model and year, and it suggests the Australian variants and fills in what came from the factory. It's pedantic. It's precise. It's the sort of thing that would make a certain type of man very happy on a Sunday afternoon. You can even set the drivetrain to EV, for the three of you who've actually tried the Simpson on batteries.
Every rig gets a build sheet with all its mods, and room for 120 photos. Not 30. One hundred and twenty. Because nobody has ever taken just one photo of a new bull bar.
The logbook, or: finally, proof
Every rig now has a logbook for services, fill-ups and repairs. Export it as a PDF, or send a buyer a read-only link. No more "trust me, mate, it's had the oil changed". Now you can prove it. Or be exposed. Both are useful.
Gears, Lightnings and trophies
Gears are our reward points. You earn them for posting, uploading and reviewing. Lightnings are your notifications. There are now pixel trophies set in a mud tyre, which is either the best or the most ridiculous thing we've ever built. We honestly can't decide.
Parts, places and the rest
The parts database is back, with reviews from people who actually bolted the stuff on. Cane Toad Equip and JK Warehouse are the first sellers on board. Campsites, 4WD parks and tracks sit on a proper map. Paste a link into "Add a place" and Claude fills in the form for you, which is more than we ever managed.
And your mates are back
You can like other people's rigs again, and add them as mates. In 2014 we announced this feature with a loud "Maaaates!". Twelve years on, we stand by it.
Eight years is a long service interval. Even for us. But it starts first time, and nothing's leaking. Yet.