The Getaway...Crom's build and adventures

UHMW is way burly, they use sheets of it for tobaggons and haul fuel bladders to South Pole Station on the traverse every year to resupply the facillity - ends up costingless than flying fuel down on LC130s

 

So I built a filter for my on-board air system (OBA).

The reason for this was the alarming amount of water that gets into compressed air on humid days.

This unit has a polycarbonate bowl. That shouldn't be a problem, if I care for the product, but an aluminum bowl would probably be a better choice for off-road enthusiast in a portable setup.

It wasn't very expensive, so I decided to give it a shot. Made in Korea, and looks good, and fits well. I tested it to 120 PSI. I ran 8 gallons of air through it with my home compressor. Nothing was captured. Not entirely surprising though, my home compressor the water coalesces in the tank, and drains out that way. I will do some tests with the twin ARB and report back.​

Modular approach to filtering







​

 

Nice cook table, can you share the dimensions? Also curious about the camp stove, still using Coleman myselfbbut may upgrade some day. I have to get out to the upper Owens Valley someday. Maybe next winter after work.

 

Always seems to be the case, or as we say: where else would you keep the kit....
Usually takes about 4 days of the road trip to get things all where they should be on an Alcan trip. Of course it would likely take less time if I was organised, perhaps after I get a garage.....

 

I always made it a mandatory camp spot on weekend trips up to the Sierras. Great place for scrambling.

 

This place is indeed glorious! I've had the fortune to have savored their fare and it is tasty!

 

All this talk about Robertos and such is making me hungry. I guess I'll have to some for dinner.

 

Good call. There is a top notch penetrating oil made by Kano Labs called Aero Kroil- in aerosol can, and I think just plain Kroil by the gallon. Not cheap and likely not available in Cali. Between good quality flare nut wrenches and some Kroil, that might get you sorted- Sea Foam also makes a good product. Good luck.

 

Sounds like a grand time, albeit way too short. A note on some of the mine safety efforts of NPS. Back in the early 80s a foreign tourist fell into mine shaft and died, of course mine hazard signs written only in english weren't quite enough warning. The family sued the park service, and this prompted the mine safety program. Some remediation was with the stainless steel cable nets which were constructed and hauled out to various sites and installed. The larger sites look as they present more challenges.
All in all a semi functional response. The difficult thing is trying to bonehead-proof the world which has kinda become the mandate in the litigation happy culture that exists these days.
The preserve for future use, and provide for access mandate sometimes make for some silly solutions as well as really $$$ ones.
Bottom line it does act to keep these places preserved, however they sometimes interpret the mandate in strange ways.
I miss my time in the valley, and am so glad that there are still good folks that appreciate the place and devote personal time and effort to help keep up the historical structure.
Side note: I'm guessing BFF is a 2nd gen armor fab place. I reckon it will be either fab my own or get one from Eric at Relentless Fab. The new bumper rocks.

 

That's awesome! I think it was @Gaunt596 that told me how it's used in the hobby rally car circuit. I read up on it, seems like a legit use for custom bullet-proof wheel well liners.

There is a major distributor of plastic materials just down south of me about 12 miles away. San Diego Plastics, been in the biz since 1986. I've been trying to find time to get over there and get a big sheet of plastic to play with. I just need more time.

I found it wally world. Marketed as a tailgate table. I've got two. I think they're great, fold down small.

• Size: 20" x 40"

• Adjusts to 3 heights

• Folds for easy storage

Since that experience in the Volcanic Tablelands, I keep my tire care kit right next to the air hose which are both stored in the white bin in this pic.


The plastic bin needed to be reinforced with strips of duck tape, after several trips, but it's still doing work holding my stuff.

I kinda wish I lived closer. We're only making it up there twice, and in the summer time.

 

Leaf Spring Shackles

Shackles can be used in at least two different ways. Toyota used an inverted shackle design on the second gen Tacoma, this is called a tension shackle. As the truck is loaded the weight of the truck is trying to stretch and pull the shackle apart. The first gen Tacoma used a different shackle design, where the shackle hangs normally and the shackle is compression. As the truck is loaded, the load is trying to compress and crush the shackle.

My post is not going to compare the two different designs. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. From reading around different suspension designs, I've gathered that if your sprung under axle, compression shackle is desirable, if your sprung over axle, tension shackle is quite common. There are many, many other considerations as to why a truck chassis design engineer would choose one design over the other, like how much room there is under the truck, rake, ride height, types of loads that are carried, etc. It's a complex subject. The most succinct source for speculation and commentary on this is this old thread on Pirate4x4.

I've been asked before in private, and I'll just add this here, that I like my inverted tension shackles and will keep them. I think there is room for improvement to beef up the structural integrity of the frame shackle hangers, but that's a different subject for another time.

So turning to the stock shackles. I was lucky and got some stock shackles back in August '16, from another TW member to play with.

They came off an '05, and look great shape.

Stock Tacoma shackle,
sold in kit part 04483-04080

The skinny part of the shackle is where it bolts up to the frame hanger, and the fatter part is where the rear leaf eye bolt gets mounted.

I do not know why, but the factory bushing design in the shackle is different from what I've seen in the stock Toyota upper and lower a-arms. The shackle bushing design consists two independent halves pressed into each end the shackle eye. [part no. 90389-A0003]

Each bushing half consists of a short metal center sleeve, and that is fused in rubber to an outer metal shell. The metal shell has a flange on the leading edge, and the whole thing is press fitted in the shackle eye. Removal of the bushings are more difficult than the other stock rubber, IMO.

I've only seen one person tackle this, and that was @Sandman614 in his post over here.


Pictured above, I removed the rubber and metal sleeves by using a propane torch.


In the photo above, you can see inside the eye, where the two metal shells meet in the middle.

So why all this talk about a stupid rubber bushing in the shackle?

The answer is, I think my passenger side may be binding up and robbing me of 1-1.25" of suspension travel. I could be really wrong here, and it could also be a characteristic of the spring pack. I don't know for sure. My theory is based on some measurements I've taken while the suspension is drooped out.

Comparing shackle angles while lifting each rear tire off the ground, one at a time


Passenger Side


Driver side

I will move forward to replace the stupid rubber shackle bushing with a ES Poly one. A polyurethane bushing functions more like a bearing than a bushing, and will not resist rotational movement like a rubber bushing will.
Once I've ejected the stock bushing, I'm going to have a machine shop drill and tap the shackle for a grease zerk fitting.
Fingers crossed for my plan.

I should have done this back in October when my '09 shackles were off the truck and sitting on the garage floor.


----> I have confirmed the shackle bushing was in fact binding!<----​

 

Thanks Steve. Appreciate the historical context. That's typically how our government works, always reactionary.

I noted several of the cable nets in and around Chloride Cliff, Chloride City, in DV.

And yes, there are a number of us that really love the public lands and treat them well. I saw you've been active in the Death Valley thread. Lots of good folks in there.

 

Great thread Crom, nice work. You're approaching everything from the right direction. Congratulations on getting closer on the build of the year. Great work.

 

Thanks. I got second place in the popularity contest. I'm supposed to collect two (2) $100 visa gift cards from two different vendors. Both of which I am donating to charity, actually a guy who needs a kidney and can't work.

I'll keep the $50 gift card from Pelfrey for myself with hope of using it later this year.

 

I'll be following along with this when I get to my leaf spring refurb. One thing I found out recently that you may want to look at is that if the bolt for the shackle mount (going to the frame hangers) is overtorqued, it will also cause the shackle to bind. This is important for us that are always fiddling with our trucks. A buddy had his overtorqued (by a shade tree mechanic that will not be named) when i did his suspension install. Turns out there is such a thing as too tight when using the German scale: "güdentite". His shackles were bound and not allowing them to rotate. Essentially creating a fixed mount for the rear spring eye. Before you go through the work, I might suggest lossening the bolt (maybe use some blue loctite) just a bit and see if that helps your binding issues. I'll be doing mine when the rain clears a bit.

 

Thanks. Yeah that's a great idea. Very well could be the issue.

I'm very religious about suspension components and proper torque values, despite that, something could have gone wrong. Got nothing to lose, so I'll give it a whirl!

Thanks

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YN9SAKHMz0&feature=youtu.be

 

I'm a lot more lax when it comes to torque values. My torque wrench usually only comes out of the tool box when I'm working on an engine or firearm. Basically stuff that blows up.
I'll be loosening mine and possible greasing the rubber bushings to hanger contact faces.

 

Outstanding!

 

Some things I do the good-'n-tight and I'm good with it. Other stuff, especially suspension stuff, I'm too scared of what would go wrong if I didn't do it by the book. Yeah I suppose engine work has to be done right too. BOOM! I hope I never have to go in the engine. I'll pay for that. I'll do pugs and clean throttle body stuff, but not going to pull valve covers and what not. Too much for me.