rdlsz24

Very nice. I would love to have a Trekker. I don't think they exist in the Midwest lol. I've never even seen a 1st gen truck here.

Rob

Belize Off Road Team

how bad is the road noise in that Trekker? would you put dynomat all around the inside and then get some fiberglass to make some cover panels?

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

Thanks. I was originally looking for an '85 X-tra cab or 4Runner but hit refresh when trolling Craigslist and was the first one to look at this one. Got lucky I guess. Needs some work. Still a lot of the first gen Trucks running around on the west coast...I wish someone could get a 1st Gen truck up to Adam at 4xinnovations in Wisoconsin so he could make some bumpers and stuff for these trucks...


Suprisingly the road noise is not all that bad, even after gutting the interior. You can still have a conversation with out raising you voice. The Toyo Open country MT's are fairly quiet even with the windows down. If this truck was going to be a daily driver I would go the dynomat route. But since the truck is a mainly a trail truck I will just end up using some herculiner or other rollon bed liner stuff after I get the holes in the floor patched up. Heck, I took the tube doors off a couple of months ago and haven't even hooked the speakers for the stereo up again...

Thanks...

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

So had to do some moving big stuff around and ended up with my dad's flatbed trailer. I had towed my trekker using a tow dolly and taking out the rear D-shaft but that is kind of a pain, plus the front tie down straps don't fit real well. Thought that since I had the trailer at the house I would try out the trekker on it. Towed it around, went through a weigh station, weighs 4750 (truck and trailer) so I am well within the 6500 towing rating on my Tacoma. The electric brakes make a big difference. It sits up a lot higher than I would prefer so if I ever get a flat bed, it will be a regular car hauler that sits a lot lower. Overall the Taco did fine.


Still wish I had a full size truck and towing the '81 on the Flatbed will be few and far between. If towing needs to be done, I still have a tow bar that I will be integrating the mounts in the planned front bumper, eliminating 800 pounds of trailer weight but loosing the electric brakes kind of sucks....
The trekker should be realiable enough (eventually) to drive to most trail runs...

phildelfino

Caught slackers thread on trekkers and had to subscribe to this one to keep track of it. doing a fine job on yours ocdropzone. being from ohio i never saw one before and did not know they existed. lived in las vegas, nv for 15 yrs from 1990 and did not know about them. i know i'd like to have one now, but i got this 88 runner taking up time and money. I like the B4Runner and glad you let slacker use it.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

I recently picked up a used CBI tire carrier from MillerPKA, a fellow yotatech member and a great guy to work with. He had it mounted on his 4Runner.
Cleaned it up and gave it a fresh coat of paint:

It is nice to have the rear cargo area back...
It flips up and down very easily and with the intergrated high lift jack mount it will make access very easy.
It does stick out a little more than I thought that it might:

But does leave enough room that I could get a Nato style gas can between the carrier and the back of the truck. Maybe down the road I will have a friend modify the carrier to get it closer to the back of the truck, but it will serve it's intended purpose well in the current form.

Visibility obviously is now limited but hope to have the fixed soon, my wife gave me a back up camera system from Costco for X-mas.

After mounting the tire carrier I was going drive the truck around the block to see how it rattled but couldn't get either door open. Tried 3 different keys and no luck. I was getting a little ticked off, crawled though the back hatch...a big advantage to a Trekker . I wasn't able to even get the doors open when pulling the door release and up on the lock at the same time. Bit the bullet and pulled the door panel the best I could. With pliers I was able to get the latch to release finally.
Found one of these on each side:

at somepoint someone had remote electric door locks on the truck. Would have been nice to have a remote and known about them . Only thing I can figure is that with all the rain and cold we had it fried them, just wierd how they both went out at the same time....
Anyway but the extra rod connected to them, and doors function like they should...

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

Found a couple of sawzall blades that still were good so decides to trim a little bit off the trekker...too bad anyweight savings is temporary . I was going to cut off the trackbar mount so I could get the gusset fitted but now I know why everyone takes off the axle and does it when they rebuild the axle...not much room to work under there.
Finally getting the Trekker over to my welding buddy's house to redo the front springs/mounts/high steer/u-bolt flip..
Started with this:

Chopped for a little while and had this pile left over:

The bumper is crap but if someone needs the stock mounts,they appear to be amazingly straight--free to a good home, just pay shipping.

Clamped up the Trail Gear winch mount so see how it would fit. Fit is pretty good, can't bolt it on (sold of 84+). It will be welded permanently. I will have to pull the radiator to weld to the rear of the mount. When I get a winch I will have to modify the body under the radiator for winch clearance, but unless I win the lottery that is a ways off

Played with paintshop (i suck at it) to see what I might end up with, I have got some 2x3x1/4 wall box and 2x2 tubing that I am planning on using. thinking about having a 2x2 tube on either side of the bumper to allow a high lift jack point similar to the ARB bumper on my Tacoma.
Couple of ideas, let me know what you think...


I do have access to a bender, so I might just go with a simple stinger to protect the hood/radiator...plus keep the weight down (like a little weight at this point really matters )...

fillsrunner4

Damn dude truck looks great Once I get my 4runner going ill have to hit some oregon trails with ya (haha Oregon trail i remember that game )

Keep up the great work dude it looks sick

Yota Runner

lol...Oregon Trail....that was back in the day

fillsrunner4

Ya it was Elementry school for me but comp class was always to short to beat it great game

Sorry for the hijack

CC_yota

Lookin' good OCD! I saw a Trekker down here, first one I'd ever seen in person, back in April and flipped out and followed it around for like 15 min. just to get a good look at it. Dude must have thought I was crazy but I was in awe.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

thanks, I wish it was progressing as fast as yours..maybe by the end of the summer I can head north and wheel with you...

I am getting too old. .my kids love that game
thanks CC..I get some good looks every now and then when 4 people crawl out of the truck only expecting a couple of them....


Truck is going to feel some plasma and other forms of heat next saturday...hope to have the new spring mounts and high steer on...
using a 94 IFS box, so from what wabbit posted in the high steer thread I should have a fairly quick ratio...

Guess it is time to go back to work..break time is over

fillsrunner4

I wish mine was coming alone fast. Its been a while longer than it looks but it is coming

Youll definetly have to make it up the the Northwest sometime. Let me know if you do and hopefully by then mine will be running. I project mine to be going again within a month but ive said that before

Adawg_08

Dude, THIS THING IS JUST SICK!!! I love this build up. keep up the great work. By the way are these things fiberglass?

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

thanks! Yep, the bed and canopy are fiberglass so no rust worries for half the truck...

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

Quick update, finally got over to my friend's shop. All the welding it done but got a late start so I should have it put back together monday.

Todd had his 65 Chevy on the lift..would have made the job a little easy. We ended up finishing his brakes:

everything removed:

the spring mounts were persistant:




SPring mount and winch bracket on (need to remove the radiator though to be some beads on the back of the bracket/crossmember) on:


Cutting off the panhard bracket to make way for high steer bracket--Trail Gear could come up with some better install instructions for that

3/4" holes are a pain:


Will head out monday morning to bolt it back together...

4banginRunner

looking great!, keep us posted

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

got everything mounted today, but ran into a snag getting the spring centering pin lined up, needed a third hand--that and limited time kept me from getting it finished up. Will head back out to my friend's shop and loosen up the shackles, should allow enough lee way to push the axle around.
Forgot the camera too . I know a ton of people have ton high steer, but it does look better now with the tie rod up above the springs and out of the way of rocks...I think Islandyota mentioned the steering arm cone washers being a pain too...after 27 years, they were...

I

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

Hope to get back out to my friend's shop this afternoon and get the thing bolted back together.


Let me know what you think of this for a tail light option:
I have had the tail light lenses swiped a couple of times in the 9 months or so that I have had my Trekker and have been thicking about converting to an LED type taillight like this:

Was tooling around on Pirate and found what another 1st Gen Truck owner did I kind of like how it came out:

I think that I may go this route, would just need to glass it in and use a trailer converted to get brake and turn signals from the same light. Would also give me an excuse to wire something brighter for back up lights..

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

Cutting off brackets...torch or plasma.

Drilling 3/4" holes in frame - hole saw.



Personally, I do not like that LED.