sweet!!!

you should do the shakedown run on the 22nd so i can go too.... hope to have the winch on the jeep installed by then.

Al

 

thanks Al, anyway you could go on the 21st? I finally got a friday night off and might be heading up with some guys from church that saturday. My wife would kill me if I miss church...

but there might be a few issues keeping my going, big one is I am not sure if my rear driveshaft is too short, take a look at the pic and let me know what you think (it is a stock rear shaft shortened) I am thinking it might be a couple of inches too short and not have enough spline contact...

the guy that did it said he could shorten another shaft for me but not sure if I could get down there in time to have it done..

 

well not much of an update, dinked around cycling the rear suspension to see if I have enough travel left in my slip yoke, it is kind of close at full droop..

Anyway, found the Bud Built skid plate that went with the original but wrong crossmember I had bought off ebay almost 2 years ago, got it bolted up:

it adds some much need and serious protection

the shift boot I had for my truck was pretty well toast, went on ebay to see if I could find one, last few trips to the u pull it were a bust
found one for a 85+ that the guy wanted $65 ish for it no way..

decided to try to the U Pull It again,
bought a couple out of a mazda truck and one out of an '87 4Runner (w/56), grand total $5.46.
The 4Runner shift boot is about 1" too long in the middle so I cut about an inch or so out of the middle and grafted it together, added a flat piece of rubber to help seal:

The Trail Gear Knobs 2wd/4wd and 4.7 knobs are got are metric, inserts are brass, a couple of turns with the 1/2 SAE tap and they screwed right on..
it works just fine on the FROR twin stick.

I tried to get the FROR shift boot to pull down farther, no luck, might need to heat it up with a blow dryer...if not I will make a small frame for it so that part of the truck is sealed...

 

seriously that is one of the nicest toyotas ive seen ...

i really like the old skool flavour front bumper...

hope you can get it out to test!!
thats the best part about a trailering your rig.. i use a dolly

if it breaks you can drag it home!

 

sorry man, i work saturdays so i only get to play on sunday and mondays. we'll have to figure something out.

not sure about the shaft. you might just have to try it out and see. i got a big dirt pile we can flex it out on here at the shop.... and my 4wd group has an RTI ramp in vancouver. but the trail test is usually the only way to tell.

Al

 

Mondays and Tuesdays are my normal days off so maybe we can work an early run out to Browns some monday morning.

Derek is shortening another shaft for me. hope to pick it up early next week. If not I guess I will suck it up and order one of 4Crawler's DS spacers...

 

Long day coming. Glad for you. The B4Runner is looking good.

 

Finally had some time and got the front seats installed in the truck. Got a set of matching F/R Mitsubishi Montero seats at a 50% off sale at the U Pull It ...
I am getting old and for some stupid reason thought having an arm rest instead of hitting my ammo can center console would be a good idea.
What a PITA to install (universal seat sliders, 1.5" sq tubing and 1" sq tube) -would i do it again...no way, should have stuck with my Integra seats..Oh well, they are in and are pretty dang comfortable.

I was gonna get some firewood so I had taken the ramps off the trailer, saw them sitting there so thought what the heck, will try some driveway ramp shots:




could have gone up a little higher but no spotter...
got a couple wiring gremlins to chase down and am probably gonna order one of 4Crawler's driveshaft spacers to help eliminate my too short of rear shaft issue..

 

Whats the rti number ?

 

that thing is sooooo sweet.

 

I dunno, I think you need more flex?

 

will find out this weekend on the shake down run. I did find that I forgot rear bump stomps to that will have to be fixed.

 

nice creative driveway wheeling! but it looks like it needs bigger meat under those wheel wells!

let me know on a monday wheeling trip. i gotta get the winch on the XJ and then i'll be ready to roll. should be nice to get up there during the week, lots fewer clowns up there i'm sure!

Al

 

Such a nice rig. I wouldnt change a thing about it. On another note, do I see 3 gearshifts in there??

 

Thanks
actually there are 4 shift levers: 1 for the 5 speed, 1 for the front 2.28 transfer case, 1 for the 4.7 low range TC and one to select 2WD/4WD. I went with twin sticks in the rear case incase I bind up the front axle (locker)

 

Well finally got the trekker back on the trail, it had been over a year. Everything pretty much worked as expected.
Double low is rediciously slow, but climbed some stuff I never thought I would, Aussie Lockers front and rear=pretty good bang for the buck.

Went up to Brown's Camp OHV park in the Tillamook State Forest with some guys from my church. The other 3 guys were all fullsize: 2 suburbans and a half ton dodge. Watching those guys make 90 point turns inbetween the trees made be appreciate the small size of a 1st Gen truck






sliders got a little use pivotting off of stumps

I am hoping Nate or Jeff emails some more pics to me, didn't get much chance to take pics of me wheeling. My personal Photographer (my missus Jess) had other plans.

Overall the truck worked pretty good. Nothing broke. Was able to take some stuff in 2WD just due to the flex. Getting use to the selection of 20 forward gears might take a little time. I would definitely not recommend anyone just do 4.7 gears in a single case. Way slow. having stock 2.28 as a choice was great.

Need to either get a new longer rear shaft or order one of 4crawler's DS extensions and inspect the rear third. It worked but I am still not totally confindent in my differential set up I did..

 

looking good, but what's with the stockish rigs? i bet they were holding you back! what trails did you run? i'm itching for a monday run (maybe next week?).... i wanna see how that does on FB5.

Al

 

I wish we had a place like that to ride close to my house. The closest OHV park is about 2 1/2 miles away.

 

this^^^ no way those pigs could keep close to you!

awesome views from up there as well.

what tires you runnin?

 

we did run's like Cedar Tree. Yeah it was pretty mild. It was still nice just to get out to the woods, been way too long. I got to play a little bit. Idled right up some pretty good sized stumps and boulders.
Not sure about next monday. Kids have some dentist appointments first part of March, need to check. I also want to pull the rear third to see how it is holding up, no noises but still not totally confident in my gear seat up...
If it looks bad I will have to order a master rebuild set and take it down to Salem to have some work done. There is a guy from Kanyon Crawlers that does it pretty reasonable.

If the rear diff looks ok and nothing going on maybe we can head up there in a couple of weeks...

Brown's Camp OHV park is pretty cool, has stuff for stock truck all the way to truggies. Only about 35-40 minutes away

it did take some time for the full sizes to get through the trees. The Dodge did end up with a decent crease down the DS bed. Exactly the reason I bought a 1st Gen, they fit much better

I am running Toyo Open Country MT's, 33x12.50's. Pretty much what a ton of people around here run, local Les Schwab Tires staple. I wish I had got with 35's or 37's.