Mojave Rebuild and Random Projects Build Thread

I like the statement that tuning is more important than travel. This is a very true statement. But 16" of travel is still cooler than 8" haha. So it does help to have wheel travel, when it's a lot more haha. But 8" of we'll tuned to 10" of off blahhhh, I'll take 8" all day.

 

Dude I know... how else can it be said!? Hahaha

I for sure have a lot of learning to do but have seen what you mentioned countless times. I got my stacks ready to swap out on my shocks soon! Truck is ridding pretty smooth now though with my double spares in the back and such. Still need to speed up that rebound though like we talked about. I have been paying a lot more attention to it and the rear is packing for sure.

 

Some pics from the other weekend. Got my cross bar fabricated and installed. Some temp spray paint on it for now. I'm still undecided on the final bed configuration. I like vertical spares better, they look better and I can mount stuff between them. But mounts for that take up a lot of perminant space. This form makes tire removal and bed use real easy... I'll run it for now and see how it goes!

 

Spares would be in the bed against the cab. I think there will be about a foot...

 

Well I had a successful and expensive Mojave Road trip for 2017... I know this post sucks without pictures, and I plan to post some as soon as I can get my brother to send them to me haha. We had a lot of fun, but I did have a couple problems, brought on by some fast driving haha.

Trip went well for the first two days. The evening of the 2nd day we did some night driving and I hit a hole at speed. There has been a lot of rain out in the Mojave and there are a lot of little 1' - 2' wash out holes in the trail. They are very hard to see, especially at speed at night haha. I noticed the steering wheel wasn't straight anymore and once daylight hit I could see that my passenger side front wheel was showing some negative camber. Finished out day three on the trail and thats when the fun began.

Decided I didn't want to scrub off my new tire I had so I went for the "Shell parking lot ghetto alignment job." With limited tools, a 3/4" wrench that seconds for a 17mm and a crescent wrench I was able to get it really close. Brought the lower alignment cams in all the way, and luckily my adjustable UCA's got me across the finish line. Had to do a little toe adjustment but the steering wheel is back to center and it drives pretty good. I am certain that my caster is way off and my rack isn't centered but hey, not bad for limited tools at a gas station.

I will say if you are good at fixing stuff on the fly, then heim UCAs are a huge help. If I didn't have them, I would have been stranded or ruined who knows how many tires trying to drive 3 states home. I didn't really care for my UCAs and never would have purchased them before. But they came on the truck so I run them. I wouldn't go back now after this, at least for anyone who wheels hard like I do....

New spindle on order from McGeorge Toyota Online Parts, best price I could find at $280 shipped. I am actually driving back to CA this weekend (no trails) with my ghetto alignment still on the truck and feel confident about it. The tires show no signs of scrubbing and the truck still drives decent after a week of being home from the Mojave.

The other damage done... many scratches of course, but I was doing some very tight mountain rock climbs that hadn't been wheeled in a while from the looks of them. Also ripped off my drivers front fender flare. I knew it would rub a little at compression but I guess I underestimated the effect it would have on the flair. I didn't drive the truck real hard though and I had some high speed bottom outs that I am sure didn't help a lot. Oh well it's an offroad truck and this is what it is for!!!

 

My brother gave me a link to this thread. Thanks for keeping our dad's old truck running and wheeling!

Sub'd

 

New spindle on, alignment done, all is well!!! I will see how it goes and see about what to do later. At least with it this way, if it bends, I can still get off the trail.

And some overdue pictures from my Mojave Road trip. I am terrible at taking pics on the trail, I love to just take it all in and leave the camera in the center console. So here are the few pics I got from my brother. Nothing really crazy, just me goofing around on a rock pile and some camp shots from one of our nights.

 

Thanks for the response. I just got a message from your brother as well.

Despite the thieves trying to mess it up the truck is going strong and serving my family well. I still love this thing despite the violation. The repairs were done very well and it's still just as solid as the day it was new. I have changed a few things to match my uses and styling but for the most part the heart of your dads truck is still there and it is a great truck. I am bad at pictures but my two boys love it and it will be in this family until they are old enough to drive it. Until then I will keep it going, adding a few more things as I go so that I can keep on exploring with it!!!

 

Man I haven't updated this since April!? I need to get on it.

Big changes going down, truck is getting long travel! Been driving it with the current setup for a while now. I rides pretty good (rear is still a big bouncy), and it is super capable.... but I can't just leave it alone. So after having a few things come together I have ordered the following:

- Dirt King long travel kit
- Dirt King axles
- King 8" Dirt King spec shocks from Down South Motorsports
- Fenders, hoping this group buy happens

We will start with getting all these parts on and keep building from there. I have a lot of fab work planned, bumpers, gussets, inner fender wells. I will be posting updates as I go.

Also I got a bedrack from @CaliRaisedLed on the truck a long with a RTT from them. The extra weight is great at smoothing the rear suspension out. With the new direction of the build I will have to see if these stay or go.

Lastly, I picked up an 03 GTI for my DD. It is the VR6 V6 which is not turbo'd, but it's 200HP in a little card with a 6-Speed and it is fast!

 

Congrats on the LT and the GTI. I have been looking for a 20th anniversary for myself to DD. Love the VR6 though...

 

Thank you! The GTI actually was "free" but had an overheating problem and bad motor mounts. By the time I got it registered and the heating and motor mounts fixed, it's a $4K car haha. It is high millage but runs strong and the VR6 is super fun to drive, it moves!

 

It begins!

 

And then the game changed. Decided to hit the dirt one more time before the tear down. And I blew the 3rd member trying to do some double black diamond hill climbs... now I need to decide what to do. Want the Currie F9 replacement but not sure that's in the budget right now. Anyone got an elocker 3rd they want to sell!?

 

Shit buddy that sucks. Sorry to hear that.

 

Found time on Sunday to get the truck back on the road. Just as I guessed, stripped ring and pinion. Other that the obvious broken parts the 3rd was in great shape and looked perfect. Will keep it as a core just in case I keep the taco rear diff. The new to me 3rd went right in with no issues and the truck is back on the road! Perfect timing too as my daily needs some garage time to fix a strut... LT kit is almost ready to go on. Just waiting on axles and fenders. Should hopefully start to take the truck apart this weekend so I can do all the disassembly and gusseting while I wait. Doing my own spindle and UCA gussets. I have TC alignment tab gussets but may do my own for there as well. Also going to address some of the other areas down there that are known to crack. Should be fun!

 

Couple more