You're right, sorry about that. Too many message boards for me

Come introduce yourself at this year's Jambo!

 

just read through your whole build sick ride!!

 

Jeff & Dave, owners of Rokmen and myself ran Indy & Patriot on Sunday. Perfect day of wheeling, minus the wind that kicked up in the afternoon. The 3 of us dropped in @ 10 and were out @ 1:30. We took our time and we got a ton of pictures & video. All 3 of us drove the trail without a winch pull or tow strap.

There was hardly anybody out there. Just us 3 and another group of 3 build buggies behind us. The trail is in good shape, no trash.

I only took a couple pics but Jeff and TrailBuilt took a ton. Here's my pictures.













Here's Jeff & TrailBuilt's pictures of my rig




























Full Trip report with all the pictures on Colorado4x4

 

I have rock envy

 

You've got good rocks in AZ!

 

Arizona? Dropzone is here in the NW, unless he moved. We have rocks at Brown's Camp but nothing like that at all.

It must be pretty sketch dropping into that huh?

 

Awesome pics. Im only about 15min from Independence. Havent been there in a long time. Rolled a buddys Zuk out there not a hour after we finished welding up the exo cage.

 

My bad. For some reason, I thought he was in the Phoenix area.

How far way from Eastern Oregon - Swartz Canyon? These rocks look decent.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showp...&postcount=142


Yeah, it's sketchy but not as bad as White Knuckle Hill on Behind the Rocks in Moab
http://youtu.be/ZQzFPbrEX-0

It's impressive getting a rear tire to lift on a 109" wheelbase 4Runner on the decent! Probably the biggest drop I've driven. Something this big, you have to keep it out of double low 1st gear. I was in 4.7, 3 gear I think just in case I needed to drive out of it

 

Yep that drop looks pretty high on the pucker scale.

Swartz Canyon is in Bend and is about 3 to 4 hours away from us, it does look pretty cool though.

 

can't wait for moab in may...though i'll be staying away from this trail

 

Swartz is cool! I went out there a few years ago with a couple buddy's, and a couple of the 4Locked guys. It's worth the trip if your looking for some big rocks and rowdy lines!

 

5/8/2012
I started working on my rear axle housing swap. While I'm swapping housings, I'm going to build a traction bar to help with some of the axle wrap and wrapping the pinon up while in double low.


Started tearing down the 4Runner. I had to make some jackstand extensions since the 6 ton stands I have don't reach the frame high enough at full droop.


I trimmed the horse shoe collar above the driveshaft a couple years ago but once again, it's rubbing. Guess it's time for more trimming.


Driveshaft rubs the side of the gas tank. I already trimmed the skid plate but the DS still makes its way over there at full flex. Time for some BFH action on the side of the tank.


Gas tank & skid are hammered. Still holds gas so it's good. I bet it's several gallons short now.


The junkyard replacement housing. There's quite a bit to do to it before it can go under the 4Runner.

How the crossmember side of the traction bar is going to mount. A traction bar needs to move back & forth and also rotate. This heim shackle setup will do both. This will connect to the upper traction bar.


The list. This is the short list of stuff I'd like to get done this summer. This poor 4Runner needs a ton of work but if I could get this done, I'd be happy for awhile.


The location of the heim shackle. I will weld tabs on the sides of the bushing down to the crossmember.


Traction bar axle brackets fab'd from cardboard. My finished brackets came out close to these mockups but I did make a couple changes. I placed the lower bar low enough to protect the driveshaft. Yeah, it's going to hang below the housing but it's a compromise to protect the driveshaft.

 

5/22/2012

Finally got the housing from under the truck.


The replacement. Already cut the stock perches off and shaved the drain plug. It's waiting for diff armor, perches, and shock mounts from the bent housing.


It's lived a good life. Spent 4 years on 40's. Can't complain at all about these Toyota axles and the tire size I've abused them to.


Shafts look good. No spline twists. They're ready to slide into the new housing.


Marlin Crawler sells these Daystar spring bushings for the Bilstein shocks to mount them in the factory location. I'm tired of running my rear shocks at an angle like this /\. Getting the shocks like this || will help out a ton with my body roll and I'll get more out of the shocks. I've ran the rear missing one shock and couldn't tell it was missing. That's not good.


Might as well replace all the leaf spring bushings while I have it torn apart.


Scotty from Addicted Off Road hooked me up with a new U joint for the rear driveshaft. It's gotten really bad and needs changed.

 

Traction bar axle mounts are done! Finally got them welded on Saturday. I doubt I will have time to build a traction bar before the Holy Cross trip next weekend but at least the mounts are done.


Playing around with some speed differences on the welds. That's 1/4" plate that being undercut :shock:


How it sits tonight. Axle is back under the 4Runner, diff is installed, and shafts are also in. I found a worn out driver's side wheel bearing. Probably my "bent housing" that originally started this project. I'll just pick up another axle, brake backing plate, and bearing at the pull-n-save. That will be a future project.


Traction bar front shackle will be just left of the transfer case on the t-case crossmember. Everything should line up great.


The traction bar mounts hang down below the housing but I wanted the lower mount to be alittle lower than the driveshaft. That way the traction bar will hit rocks before the driveshaft. I hope I don't hang on it too much.


Stock upper shock mounts. I've been messing with this little project all weekend. I need to move the shock mount back and up as far as possible. Using the stock mounts, the 12" shocks only will have 1-1.5" of uptravel before they bottom out. I need a couple more inches than that. My uncle is going to bend me up some new mounts and I should have them tomorrow.


And to top the weekend off. I took my female slip yoke to my uncle's shop to press out of the trashed u-joint. One of the caps didn't want to come out very easy. The press jumped after adding some more pressure. I started to clean up the yoke to reinstall the new u-joint and found a hairline crack in the yoke. Sent a buddy a text message and he hooked me up with one from a driveshaft he had. Time to hit the press again and hopefully get the new u-joint in.

 

And I finally blew up my first R&P in 4 years of running 40's!!! I found it a couple weeks ago. I ended up buying a spare diff a buddy of mine had.

 

Looks great, nice work, can't wait to see it finished....

 

Awesome build!

 

Just when I think i'm getting comfy hanging wheels off rocks I see something like this and get re-humbled. Do work!

Also, have you setup that GM alternator bracket yet? How'd you like it? I was considering giving it a shot to accomodate the massive fan I just installed.

 

awesome build dude!

 

Nice runner.