Pongo, my 2016 TRDOR, it's life stages, and travels

Can't wait to see the new look

 

Love this build so much it makes me weak in the knees. How did the truck ride with the heavy kit before you got your bumper on? Did it sit close to level or was it nose high? Also when you put it together did you already throw the extra leaf in or did you add that as you started to add weight? I'm looking at the OME kits now and would prefer to only have to put a suspension together once. Was it manageable or were you getting your teeth rattled out driving down the road? going to put a bumper and full armor and sliders on within a year. Already have the softop and going to build storage this summer. Thanks in advance.

 

It was a little stiff, but not as bad as I expected. I waited until the weight was added to the rear before putting in the extra leaf.



Pongo received a facelift recently. A beautiful T3 bumper with hood and grill protection for the tight east coast trails from @CBI Offroad Fab , TRD PRO grill,
Gzila Designs hawse fairlead, and some of the trick KC HiLiTES Flex Cubes rest on the CBI Off Road ditch light brackets.
I think it has changed the personality of the truck.

 

Was there a reason you decided to get rid of the ARB bull bar?

 

Going all CBI components. Like the title of the thread says -life stages. The truck will change and develop as time goes on. This was just one of
the stages of it's metamorphosis. There are some additional changes in the works, and some pretty major planning happening behind the scenes.

 

Looks nice! What are you planning to do with the ARB Bumper?

 

Your truck is the epitome of my goals for my truck. Fully functional and simple and beautiful. Quality build my man. What bed rack is that btw? ........ also i just got my 2017 TRD OffRoad in AT... it does seem to do a bit of gear hunting ... do you think it needs to be flashed? Is there a way i can tell what software it has? I am sitting at about 400 miles on the odometer right now. Thanks for the info and I look foward to more of your build!

 

nice looking truck. how the hell can you afford this. life stages this thing is only 1.

 

I think that is the first full hoop CBI I've seen, any more pics? Looks great.

 

Thanks. It's going to a new home, on a sweet Quick Sand truck.

Thanks very much. The bed rack is an @CBI Offroad Fab . The rack is awesome! Goes together super easy, looks great, and is very functional. They really thought it out
well, as it has a ton of points you can use to attach tie downs etc. Your truck may/may not have the most up to date calibration. It would depend on the build date of the
the truck. There isn't a way for you or I to check without being able to hook the truck to a techstream computer.

I've been working over 40 hours a week since I was 16. Now I'm 35, working 40 hrs/week
would feel like a part time.

I'm probably biased, but I agree on the full hoops. I think they look great! At first I wasn't sure which option I wanted to go, but am definately
glad I went full grill and headlight protection. The trails around here are so stinking tight, the headlight protection makes you feel a little better
about pushing through the tight spots. I'll be posting more shots of the setup.

 

Another odd question... I'm picking up the GB for the rack now, and will add the softtopper shortly.

It looks like you run a sofftopper with the pack rack in some pics, and later without, so I'm assuming that you have a fairly flexible setup.

Do you have to remove the rack to roll back the topper? Any operation tips? I've heard locally that the softtopper is awesome, but that it is a gas sink - so it's good to keep it down on the highway.

thoughts?

 

Bumper and grill look great! Well done, sir.

 

There are two different racks in the pictures. The one with the softopper is an AllPro Off Road Pack Rack, and the latest one is a CBI Off Road. To lay the topper down would require
taking it loose, inside the rack, as the arc in which it travels to close is higher than the inside of the rack. I didn't notice a loss of mileage with the softopper up.

Thanks very much, I appreciate the compliments

 

Thanks for the tips!!

 

Is your T3 bumper steel or aluminium? Do you know what the weight difference is? I like the look with this bumper more than the ARB. The ARB makes the truck so much longer.

 

I went with the steel. In hindsight, I would have considered the aluminum. I don't know what the weight difference is in the two, but I
would think it would be fairly substantial.

 

my father lives in bedford....looks like i have another place to check out when i go to visit him

 

I noticed you said you did not have a second battery setup. I was wondering how you wired your arb fridge. I have a similar size dometic fridge I need to install but worried about it killing my factory starting battery! When camping do you leave the fridge on at night or is it on only when the truck is running?

 

Super nice folks, very cool products, and a very cool shop. Definitely recommend stopping by if you're in the area.

My fridge is on 24hrs a day, and has been for like 4-5 years. I would like to have a 2nd battery, but haven't had to yet. It hit the low voltage cut off on the fridge while we were camping in Idaho last summer, but was on the third day we had had stayed in this one spot. When I got ready to get breakfast goods out of the fridge that morning, I noticed the blinking light.
Keep in mind, the more stuff you have in the fridge, the less it has to run to maintain that temperature. Mine was packed to the gills.

 

so you wired it straight to the battery?