Badfish740

Treadwrights mounted!



It's a crappy picture but they look awesome with the blackwalls out on the black steelies. Plans for tomorrow are getting the wheel spacers, wheels, and rear shocks on the truck, and taking it for a ride to see the difference in handling. I haven't driven it except for moving it around the driveway since:

New shocks all around
ZUK mod
1.5" T-bar crank
Sway bar delete
New wheels/tires/spacers

So I should be in for a surprise to say the least. Once I get the new exhaust on the truck is "basically" done. I'll never stop screwing with it, but the important thing is that I'll have a reliable firewood hauler/all around truck to do what I need to do. Oh, and wheeling too I probably won't get around to the Lincoln Locker until later in the month if not May, but I'll have some fun with it before then. Pics of the finished product to come.

Robsteeler66

Looks great! You don't happen to be in south Jersey do you?

Badfish740

Fittingly I "resurrected" my Yota over Easter weekend in between mass, food, visits with the grandparents, etc... As soon as I finished installing the new exhaust I was so psyched to get back in it and drive it I forgot to take pictures before I got it dirty-it looks better with mud on it anyway







I started around 8:00 a.m. Saturday morning with the front wheel spacers and then got the new tires put on. I love the way the 265/75/16s look mounted on the Tundra steelies-the fit on the truck is awesome too. They're also on the narrow side (10.5"), which at least for me was a plus because I'm running 3.75" backspacing (4.75" on the Tundra wheels and 1" spacers) and an 11.5" or 12.5" tire would have required fender flares. Too much $$$ and I don't really like the way they look anyway. The tires still stick out a bit, but not enough to attract the attention of the police I don't think:



After I got the tires on it was time to get the rear shocks straightened out. They were kind of a PITA but worth it in the end I think. The Chevy shocks have a steel insert inside the rubber bushing whereas the Toyota shocks just use a plain rubber bushing. I caught a thread where someone used a 3-jaw puller to press the steel insert out but when I tried it the rubber bushings tore. I ended up taking the bushings out completely and replacing them with these:

http://www.energysuspensionparts.com...e-Bushings.asp

I used part number 9.9105-the ID is perfect at .75" for the Toyota mount, but the OD is a hair too large for the Chevy eyes so it took some work with the Dremel and some lube to get them in there. After the shocks were done it was time to finally put an exhaust on the thing. I was dreading that part because I was afraid of breaking a manifold flange stud, but it turned out fine. I had soaked them in PB Blaster a few times earlier in the week which seemed to pay off. They came out with minimal effort and a long extension/deep socket. The Bosal exhaust really fit up nice and didn't require any tweaking, beating, or cursing The hardest part was salvaging the old O2 sensor since I had to grind the old studs off and pop them out with a punch. The old exhaust was so bad when I got the truck I had never heard it WITHOUT a leak-at one point when I was stopped at a light I blipped the throttle just to make sure it was still running

I headed out to drive it around town to see how it handled with new tires, springs, shocks, and no sway bar (honestly didn't even notice it was gone) and to burn the grease/shipping labels off of the exhaust. The 32s are definitely noticeable in terms of gearing. Starting with a heavy load is probably going to burn out my clutch soon, so a new Marlin clutch is on the list. Other than that I don't see a huge difference in performance which is another reason I'm happy I didn't go any larger. I'll get new gears one of these days, but with 4.10s and an empty bed I was able to to accelerate in 3rd and hold 45 MPH in 4th up a 6% grade which is fine with me. This truck won't see much highway driving so 5th is really irrelevant. The ride is definitely rougher than it used to be, but not to the point of being annoying, but then my DD used to be an F-350 which I'm sure colors my perception of it. It will be interesting to see how it rides with a heavy load in the bed. Now for the fun part-the TIRES!!!

I am thoroughly impressed with the Guard Dogs, but you also have to realize that before them the only wheeling I did with the truck was on P225/75/15s. When I took the truck out to my wheeling/cutting/hunting spot, stuff that used to require wheelspin and a prayer now just requires 4HI and light throttle The Guard Dog tread only has a slight hum to it on the highway, but they dig in like mad in the dirt. I went farther down the trail than I ever have before with no problem whatsoever. I'm sure any good mud tire would have yielded the same results, but the fact that these were brand new $110 mud tires is what's remarkable. Even in spots where I got nervous because I was out there alone with no winch (I have a few buddies in town who could have come to pull me out that were a cell phone call away but still...), the Guard Dogs just dug in and powered through. I haven't locked my rearend yet either-still wheeling with open diffs front and rear. I honestly can't imagine the traction getting any better, so once my Lincoln Locker is done this thing is really going to be a beast.

All in all I'm really happy with the way it all turned out. Between the tires, wheels, spacers, shocks, springs, exhaust, and little miscellaneous stuff (not counting the major tune-up/brake job I did about six months ago) I put a little less than $1300 into the truck. Not a bad start-it'll haul this winter's wood with ease, get me to work on nasty days, access my favorite hunting spots, and do a little weekend wheeling now and then. There's a long list of mods still to go though, but I need to find the $$$ and the time for them. Until then I'll just be using the truck as it is. I hope that this thread helps some others who want a sturdier more capable truck but have a tight budget to stick to.

I'm in Northwest Hunterdon-I grew up on the "northern edge" of South Jersey in southern Mercer County, about a half hour ride from the pines. Do you do much wheeling down there? I used to bounce around Colliers Mills near Lakehurst Naval Air Station a lot in my old FJ-40.

Robsteeler66

I'm in Camden County. The place that I used to wheel is now a country club and golf course. I just go to muddy dirt areas now, no hills left around here.

Badfish740

Were there any hills before down there? Just kiddin...decent wheeling isn't easy to find up here either. Stokes State Forest has some trails as do a lot of the WMA lands-from what I've seen as long as you're not being an idiot no one will bother you. I miss the pines though-Wharton can be a lot of fun as long as you go during a dry spell. Otherwise you end up soaking wet or worse!

Robsteeler66

Yeah, all the hills have houses or something on them now. There's not many of them anyway in Jersey! I have to go further south to find any woods to wheel in. It's not my priority anyway, I just like drivin' my truck around.

93Xtra-Cab

Never was a fan of black rims, but they look awesome on your truck. Do you have any plans to level the front out?

Badfish740

Thanks! As for the amount of lift I'm going to play around with it I think. The nice thing about the rake that it has now is that (in theory) once I load it up heavy with firewood it should sit level and I won't feel like I'm about to do a wheelie anymore. Still, it would be nice to have an additional inch up front because it would make the rake less dramatic. I should be able to achieve that with BJ spacers plus a little cranking, but until I scrounge up the extra cash for them I'll just run it the way it is. I'll post some pics once I get a big score of wood to show what the truck looks like loaded. I will say though that I've got about 300lbs of scrap metal in the back of the truck now (old parts, and junk I've been saving up all winter) and the backend really hasn't squatted at all-the 200lb springs are no joke!

ZUK

iTrader: (1)

Yep....those 200 pounders are good for firewood trips for sure. Maybe you should get some "around town" 125 pounders....they would ride smoother and have a bit less lift yet still have decent payload ability. As you probably noticed, the 14 inch coils will never fall out since you measured 12.25" extended......good call on cutting the upper steel stoppers to 1 inch
Waiting to see what you do with the spare tire....something like what I did?

Badfish740

That's the nice part about this truck-it's only used for weekend work and play. I have a beater 2001 Corolla (33 MPG/170K miles and still going strong!) that is my DD. When the bed is loaded heavy it rides (and wheels) pretty nice I built a firepit in my backyard out of some local granite I sourced from one of my hunting/wood cutting spots. My BIL and I loaded the bed until it leveled out and then loaded a bit more until it sagged just a hair. The load was definitely over 1000 lbs, maybe even closer to 1500. The truck rode great!

A whole bunch of nothing so far Right after I picked up that free load of steel plus the welder I ended up getting a new position at work that has been taking up practically all of my free time. The money is good but the truck and pretty much every other project is on hold for now but with my wife not working we really need it. I did manage to get my garage cleared out and a propane heater installed so I'm hoping that this winter I can get some shop time in and build a bumper, spare carrier, headache rack, etc... I like what you did with your spare.

Badfish740

I cut my ZUK springs down today. I was concerned when I measured the clearance from the frame to the snubber back when was doing my build that a 12" spring would be two short and would fall out. I ended up getting 14" ZUK has since disabused me of this notion, but I didn't want to spend $60 on another set of springs, so I cut my set down. This of course makes my 200lb springs a but stiffer, but I honestly didn't notice. Now I have 7" of clearance between the front tire and the front fender and 8" of clearance between the rear tire and the rear fender. I cut the springs down to 12 3/4" and honestly they seem like they fit a little better since the cut end fits nicely between the U-bolts. I used a cutoff wheel to shorten them and they didn't seem to get all that hot, so I don't think that I'll have any problems with metal fatigue.

Really all I need now are gears. I've got the ability to carry more weight in the rear but getting it going is another story. Even though I'm only running 32s I'm really looking to make the truck into more of a tractor since it won't be spending much time on the highway. I'm going to go with 5.71s so as to get the most out of the 22RE-no more clutch burning for me!

Badfish740

Took a little ride today:



Don't worry, I don't let him drive



Love my Treadwrights:

rattlewagon

Le Bump?

Badfish740

Haven't done jack with the truck in a long time. Your bump came a couple weeks after daughter number two was born The truck will turn 25 in January which makes it eligible for "Historic" plates which means no more inspection! You don't even have to report mileage or have classic car insurance anymore-minimum state liability coverage (what I have on it now) is fine. Of course, with two kids now I'm having thoughts of finding an old dead 4Runner and cobbling together a no-top, no-doors family wheeler with visions of a diesel swap dancing in my head-stay tuned