I finished the compilation of pix and videos of last weekend's Big Bear Ca Off-Road trip with Chefyota4x4 and Red Wagon

Enjoy

 

Sick job buddy! Great time!

 

Nice vid. Thanks for posting.

 

You guys are welcome. I definitely liked the choice of song; especially for the beginning part.

 

Well guys i got the dreaded letter from the DMV yesterday. The letter nobody ever looks forward to. I'm talking about the Vehicle Registration Renewal Notice. I don't have any problem paying for the registration. That is the easy part. But i have to smog my truck at a "STAR" smog check station. I hear those are the worst of all when it comes to getting a smog check(here in california those are the pickiest). And to top it off i have my Check Engine Light on due to the CODE 52 knock sensor problem.

I hear these new STAR locations are extremely picky. Heard people having problems passing their trucks and friends with import vehicles passing the smog when they have done engine swaps to them. kinda makes me think 2ce about it. Also hear their visual inspection is pretty nasty too. the pickiest places to do your smog at ever.

I'm gonna have to get on replacing the knock sensor/wire asap. just in case i have other problems with the truck ill have time to get to that too. I need to get this truck to pass the smog by 2/14/2013

 

Dang! Mines coming up to... I hope I don't get that extra notice. If it helps, I used to go to test only to do hot rods and other cars that I thought might not pass. That will give you a good idea on some of the visual and all of the rest. Yes, its 29$- $59, but it could save you from the drama of failing more than once at that other place... Which will automatically flag you as a gross polluter, requiring that you always go to the referee from that point on. At least with that car...

Another thing that is a little pricey but seems to always help is just putting a new cat in right before the test. I did that with the newly rebuilt engine and still just passed on NOx. But, I had comin to my second retest and wasn't going to take any chances of having to pay $500 to some smog repair authorized station. The bottom line is you have to fix that knock sensor or somehow trick it or you are going to fail for sure. Maybe you could just start breaking it down now and just drive the Corolla until its finished, giving you several days to get it done...?

 

Fixed my mud flaps today. That was a quick little fix. Ever since we mounted my rear bumper i lost the bracket that holds the mud flaps away from the tire. So as a result i had lots of rubbing over the past few months especially in the past 2 weeks. This past offroad trip my driver side mud flap was torn off. and the passenger side was beginning to get mangled on the leaf spring. So i had to fix them.

Here are what they looked like when i took them off the truck.


traced lines for where i need to cut with the jig saw.


I noticed that i could bend the bracket down to be flat vs the "L" shape it was. The "L" shape part is where the old bracket used to mount to to pull the mud flab back. But since im not using it i took a hammer to it to flatten them out like this


Drilled out new holes on the mud flaps, and with that bracket bend downward i was able to hold those mud flaps back away from the tire to prevent rubbing. it works great! All that is needed now is to get some red rubber paint and redo my "4WD" text on the flaps.


Finished job








I also went to AutoZone and bought some new mudflaps. wide enough to cover the width of my 12.5 tires. and i will be cutting those to size and mounting them up in the front. I'll post pix of that process when i get to it.

 

Nice! Now,......mine! Lol... I gotta get creative on this one. .. Only a matter of time before I get nabbed... Grrrrrr! Lol
.....

Nice work man

 

nice simple an effective mod
great job rich!

 

Mark yours also rub? I had no idea you were having problems with yours.

Thanks will. I thought I was going to have to weld a bracket from thw bunper to thw metal bracket but man I'm happy I didn't have to do that. This was much easier and only took about 45 minutes to an hour to figure out and do.

 

and that looks a hella lot better than what ive seen a few do with chains to hold the flap from going forward yet letting it sail a bit to the rear UGLY
the normal trucker stays most are a pair of rods |_|
but one milk truck up here had a cow head made of 1/4 rod an chromed to hold his flap its a nice touch

 

Yeah, I read more to the front, but I'm on 35... So it can run to the rear if I hit at the right angle coming out of a hole or something like that. And, they can pulled forward over a rock or something as your backing up on the trail and get ripped off by the tire too.... As you very well know. Lol... I found the front ones get ripped off even easier ...

What I say going to get nabbed, I mean by the cops... Like that day at Pismo with the CHP lady just waited over in a tucked away parking lot and pulled over multiple trucks?

Again, nice work buddy!... I did see some nice ones at the yard one time on something... I think it was earlier Range Rover or something like that...

I have to hit the yard really soon, let me know if you want to go. Gotta get a hood for my older daughter and a bunch of other stuff for my younger daughter.... And definitely need some stuff myself. Take care buddy

 

Nice work on the mud flaps Richard! I'll have to keep that in mind when I eventually build a bumper for mine.

 

Hi Guys,
I wonder if Richard got the overheating issue sorted out.
All components on my coolant route are brand-new. However, I still have the stock fan clutch. I posted questions on this thread, I hope to have your inputs.

 

The intro music to your vid was awesome. Like outlaw western. Looks like you guys had fun. You guys really put your rigs to the test. It looks like you and chef are a little more easy on the throttle than red wagon. Seems like he really was hammering on it. I also did what you did to my rear flaps. I also took some metal strap and heated it up and made my own reinforcements cause the stock ones were to weak. My only problem is when i climb something to steep they drag. I lost a front one wheeling and i actually retraced my steps to find the dang thing...the factory flaps are hard to find and actually pretty pricey used online. I always nab them up at the scrapyards if theyre on the vehicle.

 

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, Richard!

 

happy thanksgiving rich i hope you an all there are doing well

 

Looks like you had some great wheeling. As far as the DMV, that can be a nightmare for you guys. Just about as stock as you can make the motor and everything working correctly and that sometimes can be hard to do. Now you are talking about STAR, I have no idea what it is and am sure it isnt good. They want us into those battery operated cars. I will buy a horse before I do that.

 

Oh I know what you mean with the chains. I don't think going that route is effective at all because the air pushes them far back while you drive; especially on the freeway. Originally what I had planed to do was to make a U bracket like the one you said " |_| " this would definitely get the job done in keeping them straight and away from the tire. But after discovering that extra bend part of the stock bracket I figured it would be much better to go the route I did, less work, no fabricating, and everything could be used with stock parts


Thanks dude. I know exactly what you mean. My old red Toyota pickup got the front mud flaps ripped off. I had to buy some thick universal mud flaps and cut them to size to replace them. I already bought the ones I'm going to use for the front but I still need to cut them to size. They are the perfect width for the huge tires we run. I'll show pix when I do those.


Yes. It will be a good and quick fix once you loose the stock bumper. I just wish I would have done this immediately after installing my bumper because the face of the mud flaps were kinda ruined with the constant rubbing of the tires. if I would have done it my mud flaps would still look good. lol



Well the most recent overheating issue that I had when I first installed the front plate bumper was due to not enough air flow to my radiator because my license plate was mounted to the air flow holes on the face of the bumper. So I wasn't getting enough air flow. Once I made the license plate holder on the hitch receiver I was able to get sufficient air flow to my radiator. I haven't had any issues with overheating since I did that.

But I do know that my radiator is old. And it might be time to buy a new one. because come summer time im sure im gonna have issues again when driving to big bear.

Thanks man, I specifically chose that song because I had a bunch of scenery pix and videos and I thought that would work great as an intro to show the beauty of Big Bear. And while reviewing our videos I thought the first 2 vids of Chef and Redwagon were also perfect to use while the song as it escaladed to the good faster paced stuff.

We had loads of fun. Chefyota4X4 and I were able to go easier on the trails due to the front and rear spartan lockers that we're running. Red Wagon is only running 1 rear locker which is why he was a little heavy on the throttle lol. Some times that's what it takes to get up these boulders is just brute force lol But don't let the videos fool you; even though I was locked front and rear I was still having a hard time due to me running 33" tires. Mark and Andrew both have 35" tires so that gives them 1" more clearance then me on the bottom of their axle. But for some of the things that they were able to clear easy(due to the extra 1"axle clearance) I was not able to pass because of my shorter clearance. Mark went over everything with close to no issues at all due to his triple stick transfer cases. he just crawled over everything making it look like a piece of cake. lol I'm sure if I were to run 35" or 37" tires my truck would have no problem at all clearing all those rocks haha! Maybe I outta think about upgrading to one of those sizes when the time comes. I'm gonna have to grab some front mud flaps some day whenever I see them at the yards. But I think the after market ones should be fine for now. I'll probably get to that project this weekend.

This is exactly why I think I should have just upgraded the motor instead of rebuild mine. it would have been a little more expensive but well worth the extra time and money because I would have less emissions problems, more power, and less gas guzzling. I am actually thinking about going to the auto store today to order my Knock sensor and wire so I could get to work on it ASAP! As for the STAR Ca Smog check, Yea its a huge pain in the butt to have to go through them. OR so I've heard. I have never had to go to one till this year. I have had a friend have to take his motor and performance parts out and reinstall everything back to stock just so he could pass it legally through them. I hear that STAR smog check stations are the absolute worst. They don't cut anybody any slack at all. So I guess you can say that yes I am a bit nervous. I have always had horrible times passing cars at the regular smog check stations and now I can only imagine how its gonna be at this place. I'm very nervous.


Thank you guys for the wishes. I had a great thanks giving with my family. I hope you 2 had as good of a time as I did.

 

Sorry again about the S. T. A. R. stuff!

And, as far as not wanting to overheat... Tierra del Sol this coming up in February... Its pretty freakin hot at that event as well..... Definitely should give the guys I told you about a call at least have a plan and an idea exactly what its going to cost you?

Nice work on everything, buddy!