Mxpatriot's Locked and Long Travel 4x4 Tacoma / Alaska Offroad Thread

I like that rear tire carrier looks good

 

It's so nice to go out to a nice warm truck with heated seats at 5:30 in the morning. I don't know why I waited so long to do the remote start and heated seats.

 

Hey man, how did u mount your winch in the back?

 

I welded a steel plate to my high clearance hitch. It's hard to see but it has three large gussets to the square tube. I think I have a better picture somewhere, of the hitch off the truck, I'll try to find.



Used real thick gauge wire (0 AWG if I remember) to run power to the winch.

 

Gears and lockers ordered from ECGS. 4.88 and ARBs front and rear with a high output ARB compressor.

Can't wait to put those assembled thirds in.

 

Gears and lockers are in. Now to break them in and then take the truck wheeling.

 

Some new pictures:













Nice to have these:

 

Looking good man! How hard was the install?

 

Rear differential was a piece of cake. Three hours and I had the new one in and air lines plumbed. The front took about eight hours. Front differential was technically easy, but physically kind of a bitch. Getting the differential back up into position by myself took a lot of grunting and cuss words. It's a tight fit.

The compressor/switch wiring was easy.

 

See I need new gears but not sure if I have the mechanical skills to do it my self....and I'd rather not pay a shop $1800 to install them. Did you make your rear tire gate?

 

I installed assembled thirds for the gears and lockers. East Coast Gear Supply will send you a differential ready to drop into your axle. Five year warranty, so it's hard to beat. I wouldn't trust any of my local shops to set up gears with any confidence of longevity. Swapping the differentials isn't that mechanically challenging, the front differential is just best done as a two man project.

Yea I built the tire gate myself. It stands up vertical or lays down flat, in addition to swinging out like a regular tire gate.

 

Some flexing pictures from the Southern Missouri Offroad Ranch a few weekends ago. Didn't have a passenger so no pictures from the trail.

 

One more week with the truck, then it gets dropped off for it's 33 day shipment to Alaska.

Going to miss it. The thought of it sitting in a VPC yard... Like a dog at the pound.

 

Spent the day yesterday in a really shitty field / march recovering a buddy's truck.

Ended up ruining a idler pulley bearing. $40 part so not bad. Took a few hours to figure out exactly what was the source of the whine. Caused symptoms that sounded like a transmission pump going out so I was sweating it for a while.

 

Shipped the truck to Alaska yesterday, this is a copy of the DoD vehicle processing center's inspection... lol.

 

Bahahaha that's how mine was when I shipped my 4 runner up there.

 

Badass ass truck; I can't wait to see it. It looks like I'll have to introduce you to the local USPSA and 2-gun leagues up here too.

Check out:
www.fairbanksalaskashooter.com

 

Picked up all my weapons today; I'm down to go their next match.

 

Did a little exploring in Alaska today. Haven't found any good 4x4 trails yet, it seems that a lot of the public land is very pro-ATV but also very anti-4x4. Saw a small black bear.