I recently decided to get back into wheeling on a regular basis. I have both a 2500hd with 9 inches of lift and a H3 but opted to build a street/wheeling vehicle and picked up a 87 xtra cab 5 speed 4x4 with a clean rust free body and a 22r that needs a lot of love. So here's the plan for the build

-22re swap ( in progress)
-31 inch tires
-15x15 wheels
-Skyjacker N8002 shocks
-Skyjacker steering dampener
-in cab air tank and air hose with a compressor under the bed
-some sort of tube bumpers (undecided there so far on which ones I want)
-some sort of led trail light set up

That's going to be it for the first stage of the build, I plan on doing all of this in the next week or so. Feel free to toss in any ideas and yes I know I need to add pics!!

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img594/4424/yotanewwheels.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img528/4946/yotaintheshop.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img846/1244/yotacap.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img854/4715/wheelso.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img10/2585/sideofthehouse.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img809/5259/22rw.jpg

 

 

sas. lol. it looks sweet. love those xtra cabs. as far as a trail light set up, ive seen people rip off jeep fog lights and mount them to the inner fender/ frame.

 

SAS IT!!!

 

SAS seems to be popular around here! hahaha I've had trucks on both sides of the table. Would you guys recommend sas if I am keeping stock ride height for the time being? I plan on keeping this one as basic as possible (at least thats what I say now, I'm sure 6-12 months down the road that will change)

 

try and find a low lift, high flex setup. it may not be stock, but it will be daily drivable and do anything you need it too, also makes you less likely to roll.

 

i mean in theory, i guess you could make it look factory if you wanted to keep it stock, but if youre going to go sas, you may as well do everything you want while its apart.

 

Welcome

:wabbit2:

 

I suppose in reality if you're not going to do anything crazy with it ball joint spacers are a cheap easy way to lift it a couple inches.

 

So day two is over and the 22r is out and I went and picked the 22re and harness, ecu, and maf luckily right up the street. I'm going to throw some fresh gaskets etc. on the re in the am and hopefully have the motor in and be getting the harness squared away by the afternoon. Then I'm going to swap the wheels and tires and remove the cap and make some sort of mounts for my axe, shovel and hatchet and if all goes well do some wheelin this weekend. I think I am going to keep stock height and just upgrade the shocks and in phase 2 of the build do front and rear lockers and front and rear bumpers....possibly sliders as some of the local spots are heavy on the big rocks hahaha

 

 

An SAS at stock height will not happen without building a whole new frame section from the firewall forward, there simply isn't enough room with the IFS 4wd frame. An SAS on 31's is a WASTE anyway if you ask me.

I would recommend something other than Skyhacker shocks if you're going to spend money on anything other than stock replacements.

 

I think I'm just going to stick with IFS and 31's unless I end up making this thing a dedicated rig and go all out but for now I plan on using it to get my bikes and atvs around also. I was wondering about the skyjacker shocks, I've never used them I usually buy rancho and was going to try something different but it sounds like I should just stick with rancho. Would you say its worth going for the 9000 instead of the 5000 (half the price) I'm not really on a tight budget and I don't mind spending the extra 200 bucks if the performance is truly going to be better. I have the rs5000's on my h3 but it doesn't see the woods a whole lot and I don't plan on putting heavy armor on it like the yota.

 

I have skyjacker shocks right now and they suck. When I get new shocks I'm probably going to go with the 9000's. I really like the idea of having an adjustable shock and Iv'e heard good things about them.

 

Day 3 update , I had to slow things down a bit to do some much needed tlc to the 22re so I did the timing chain, water pump, oil pan gasket and all other gaskets. this took some time because there was a lot of old grime and mud that had to be cleaned off. I also changed my wheels and took the cap off.

 

us/a/img221/1289/nocap.th.jpg[/IMG]

 

Really nice build.... I too have a 87 that I been working on here and there. Let me know how the 22re swap goes. I'm carbureted as well and been considering doing the same although I would only be doing from head up.

Oh just to let ya know.... 33" tires fit good under these trucks with out any lift. Although the 1 1/2" balljoint spacers really give ya much needed clearance for off roading. You can pick those spacers up on eBay for like $100.00

 

Well day 4 and everything is prepped to go back in. Tomorrow the 22re will finally go in with the new harness. Once the harness is in I will figure out what I need and dont need and what I need to add. The only other thing on the to do list is to set up my in line fuel pump and get my fuel line hooked up to the fuel rail. I plan to have it running and driving saturday with all of the odds and ends squared away finally (throttle cable, vacuum lines, fuel etc.)