The Rock Lobster

This thing is awesome man. The sesame street guy cracked me up.

 

Damn i guess you weigh more than me haha. I haven't got it weighed yet but i am estimating right around 5000lbs under the normal everyday setup.

I've been trying to convince myself its only money for a long time. I think i may have finally done it haha

Thanks man! I'm gonna try and post some more updates in here today.

 

yea i weighted about 5800lbs with just stuff for me..if i have a 2nd person..their gear and two dogs..well over 6000lbs then..ha

and i still haven't added a belly skid..or my 35s..im a fat ass...haha

But yea! id say you've done a good job at that haha

 

Next up, i went to the 2013 Rock Therapy event in Moab. Truck wheeled awesome and went up pretty much whatever i pointed it at.

Driving through Glenwood Canyon


Arrived in Moab about 10pm in the rain


All the trucks getting ready to run Hells Revenge


Stalking 4-Ripcord


Hells Gate


On Top of the World with Sierra Expeditions and ARB


Yep its straight down like 1000 feet


All the trucks lined up


Oh god i'm blind

 

After Moab, Holy Cross has been on my list of trails to do for a long time. I got invited by Bob (NYCO), Eric (CoTacoTrd), and Jace (lotsoftoys).

For some reason i didn't think to charge my DSLR battery just used my phone to take video so these pictures are all courtesy of Bob

Near the beginning of the trail


Jace up the 1st obstacle


Eric heating up his tires


Myself


Winching was needed on the 2nd obstacle for most of the group. It was pretty tricky since you had to hug the rock wall on the right and try and turn in as much as possible. The long wheel base of the Tacos made it challenging.


Kinda shows how close you had to hug the wall


Eric with a nice wheel stand


Cameron getting twisted


Getting the Lobster to stretch its legs




The 80 made it look easy


Bob pulling himself up


Next up was French Creek. This is one of the main obstacles on the trail. There are a couple different lines you can take through it but really only one is possible on IFS. The line on the left is really the only option but there is a rock that sticks out and you will eat your quarter panel if you aren't careful.

Jace was the 1st to head up. The quarter panel muncher is the one Cameron is standing on.


Using the slider to pivot around the rock


Cameron was up next




My turn.

 

Continued...



Of since i am stupid, i had to try the hard line up the middle.



It was just too much without bigger tires and a front locker so i backed off and took the same line as Jace and Cameron.

After the creek we turned around since not everyone was going to make it past.

Coming back down. I attempt to take the left line but i was going to crunch a door for sure so i figured dropping down the middle was safer. Not sure if that ended up being true or not but my doors made it through fine.

On a side note, did you know that a ODL antenna mount will bend about 90 degrees if you catch it on a rock in just the right spot? :lmao:



Photos rarely capture how big some obstacles are.






Thats all for now. I have some videos i will post up and I'll probably steal some more pictures from other people and post them here too

Thanks again guys for the invite and to NYCO for his awesome photo taking abilitys

 

God i wanna do Holy cross after that trip report i saw..looks so bad ass.

 

I picked up a 42 inch double row light bar and wanted to mount it on the roof. I sat it on the roof rack but felt it was too far back. I have plans to build a full length roof rack but i'm impatient and wanted the light bar up there now .

I grabbed some 2x1/8 plate and made up some brackets to mount the bar. After mocking them up, i think a 44 inch bar would be the perfect length for the roof of a 3rd gen but i'll have to make to with a 42 inch

Here is what i came up for the mounts


They aren't perfect as i did them by hand with a angle grinder, welder and mostly just eyeballed it. Do i care? Not even a little bit.

On the truck


They sit behind the weatherstrip and rain gutter and are secured with 2 self tappers per side.


Wiring runs to the passenger side and its grounded to one of the self tappers


Positive wire runs down the rain gutter to the fender where it runs under the hood to the relay. No holes were drilled in the roof to run the wires. Less holes, less chance of a leak.


All done!




Now what everyone wants to see!

Its hard to get an accurate picture of the beam output. This was the best i could do.

Low beam. 55w HID projector retrofit


High beam


High beam and light bar

 

And this brings us to the most recent update

First off, i got rear ended about 3 weeks ago by a kamikaze Subaru. I was stopped in traffic on the highway and she hit me doing about 30

Her car


And the Lobster






It did end up tweaking the swing out hinge. I was never really happy with how that ended up when i built the bumper so i decided to use this as an excuse to make it better

First i cut out all the old hinge and made the mounts for the heims much taller.


I also added another tube on the swingout and moved the heims further apart so there would be less leverage on them. All the mounts are now made from 1/4 instead of the 3/16's i used before.




During the rebuild, the weather hadn't made it much above the single digits so progess has pretty much stopped for a couple weeks. This past weekend i finished it for the most part

All done (ish)


Since i'm never actually finished with any project i do, i will eventually make the other side match and devise the hold open pin. But since i am a lazy person, i have convinced myself that it works better than it did and i'm happy with it for now

In other news, I picked up a pair of spot fog lights to replace the floods in the bumper that really don't project light far enough to do much.


And i upgraded the rear shocks to some ICON VS 2.0 resi's



They are the 05+ Tacoma shocks which are the perfect length for my setup. I did have ICON custom valve them for my 4Runner and the extra weight i have. They ride freaking AWESOME.

Thats pretty much it until i break something again or decide to take a torch to the IFS

 

best sticker yet.

i actually think I want one, much more classy than the jeep roll me over

 

Haha yeah it's one of my favorites. I think I have another one already made. Pm me your address and I'll throw it in the mail

 

I would love you forever...its probably not even worth it to send the 49 cents or whatever for a letter to shit.

how about if i give you some beers and a pepe touch in moab

 

Great rig and nice pics!

 

Just the beers por favor

 

k deal

 

I got da stickerz! Pretty dam funny ones in there too!

i have my own "if you can read this..." sticker, so clearly im a rock crawler now

 

That is all...
Cannot wait to throw the taco box in my rig & 35's! Sounds like I should be ok for now anyway, im tired of seeing this axle on the floor of the shop and a perfectly good plasma beside it

 

Thanks man! She does alright. Should be getting a power upgrade here soon

 

Power?? wtf else could gonna do?? haha

 

Different boosting method