924runner17 it's an old style MarlinCrawler. I recently welded a stinger to it to protect a light bar when I get around to buying one, but the photobucket app has been quite the pain lately on my phone, so I can't upload pics here until I get to a computer. Hopefully I can do that soon!

 

Nice Explorer! I had a blue one just like that, what a piece of crap... Lots of great memories! Lol. What size tires and rims and lift and what kind of suspension kit did you use and what's the hole in your hood and why do hey 3.4 swap instead of a 5.0? Wait there's a few more things... Hahaha. Just kidding brother, you know I love that blue bunny!

 

Well...it's been awhile! So where'd I leave off...BFG's Rocks to Riches trip

Turns out my Runner was less prepared than I was, and ended up with some issues. At the first water crossing I started having starting troubles that just got worse all of day 1, but that turned out to just be corrosion in the battery terminals. The road was a bit harsh, too, though, and I ended up breaking the passenger side upper shock mount


Got a couple other cool shots, though!





After the night in Vegas and all, I decided to extend my road trip and went down to Mark's pad in LA for a bit, then went the long way around up to my parent's for the holidays.

Stopped for a morning coffee at Donner Lake


Tooled around in the Tillamook State Forest for a day while up at my parents



And after making it back home in Utah, I found this on the inner passenger side of the frame, the same bracket that the shock mounts to...The factory weld had completely broken


So after that was fixed, I did a bit of nothing for awhile until one of the Jeepers from the Rocks to Riches trip came to Utah for a weekend, so I showed them around as best as I could, out around 5 Mile Pass OHV area. I got stuck...Real stuck


Yep, the Jeep had to pull me out, and it had a hard time of it for a bit


So after that I went down to their place in Vegas and he showed me Rocky Gap, a pretty sweet little trail that can be easy(lots of bypasses) or downright nasty if the runoff has shifted stuff just wrong. At the top of the trail there's a posing rock, of course


A few days there, and I made my way down to Mark's again to help with some preparations to go to KOH2015, and while there I made up some sliders and welded a stinger on my Marlin Crawler bumper








We made it to Hammers despite some drama with my Runner, Mark's Runner, and especially with the RV he rented to tow his Runner there with, and I mostly posted my rig up to camp out of. Ran around here and there, watched a little racing, but the group I was with had rigs way more built than mine, so I didn't want to hold them back big time



After that nothing exciting, went through fire season on high alert mostly, but didn't have a very operational year. Lately my vehicular excitement has been with a couple interesting Fords and my Subaru, which is now lifted and sitting on 28" All Terrains...at the Bonneville Speedway, but it's underwater. Stopped on the way to the Ultra4 championship in Reno



And then there's the interesting Fords...a Hybrid Model T/model A with a 302 and a 5 speed in it...street legal, by the way



And Ultra4 truck #4437, Sexton Offroad's Bronco. I was surprised to find it still has about half of the original frame!



That pretty much brings us up to now, with some glossing over of the boring details, but hopefully I'll have more updates with the SAS soon! Thanks for looking!

 

Lol you're only about a year late with hat update haha!
Dude i though you already had that crack fixed youve been lagging it!

 

A little update for any that care to see what I've been up to with the ol girl...







she got a solid front axle finally! And has gone wheeling a little with a Jeep

 

My eyes got a little teary when I saw that body damage on instagram man. I personally would be extremely upset about that....that's a big booboo.

-RONI-
:bnager:

 

Yeah, I wasn't thrilled about it, but it is mostly just the door, and the alternative was the entire side and windows. It's got other various body damage from a trip to Hammers, too, so I'm pretty sure it's going to end up a truggy of sorts. The weight distribution front to rear now is nearly 50/50, so my thoughts are 4 doors and a utility minded bed cage with room to put a 40" spare for when I get that far along. Hopefully the weight won't change much for handling, and I can go full triangulated 4 link and coilovers in the rear then, too. Hopefully I'll have it sitting lower by then, too.