Richloam WMA Info & Meet Thread

Lee I started thinking last night about the OGT and why it performs. Once you consider all trucks should be locked F+R if you're going to play off-road. I know there are exceptions where 2 wheel drive do very well but in my opinion given the choice they would choose 4×4.

So it comes down to 2 things. The most important thing is driver experience. The second part has to be tire choice. Without the right tires not much else matters. Tons of horsepower, gearing and street tire aren't going to get you anywhere in the woods when things get wet/muddy.

Now this is the thought it leads me to. After my motor swap I know I'm going to need tires in the next couple years. Originally I would have picked something in a mud terrain that still remained streetable. But why not just run my current set for street use and pick up some 38 inch super swampers on a separate set of rims for when I wheel.

The only down side would be making room in the garage to store them. The up side I think my old 4Runner would be damn near unstoppable. The only thing that turned my off to the Interco's is how long they would last on a vehicle that is driven often on the street. This solves that.

I'm just bench racing at this point.

 

Well, haha, I can't say I disagree with anything you said. I think if you just went ahead and swapped out the transmission for a 5 speed manual with a gear driven old skool Yota gear driven t-case now with maybe a 4.7 gear set (then later you can get a crawl box with a 2.3 or whatever gear set and have a nice little 2lo option without twin sticking the t-case), you would solve the majority of your problems. The 22R was more than capable of turning big tires, but the automatic transmission sucked balls. When you get around to doing the motor swap, all you'd have to do would be to change the bell housings to match the new engine and you'd be golden. In all honestly, I would do the trans first so it will buy you some time to find just the right donor for the motor.

Just my anecdotal experience, when I had my '83 with the 22R and the 5-speed, it had about 4" of lift and was sitting on 33s with factory gears...



I drove it to work on the interstate 45 minutes each way and had no problems maintaining speed on hills and whatnot in 5th gear.



Then, while I still had it, I bought an '87 with the same config, single cab, LWB. It had the 22RE mated to an automatic transmission with stock sized tires on it. It was the worse dog I've ever driven and that includes a diesel Volvo with an automatic.


The point being, I think your 22RE will come alive with a manual transmission and would have little problems turning 38" Swampers with 5.29 gears. Had I been smart at the time, what I would have done was take the 22RE out of the '87, put it in the '83 with the '83's manual transmission and solid axle, and then put the '87 cab and bed on the '83. Then I would have had a healthier, probably more efficient engine, A/C, a radio, and a less spartan interior to go with the lift and solid axle of the '83 frame. I'm sure adjusting body mounts would be a lot less work than cramming in a Chevy drivetrain, and I would have had an awesome truck that I might still have, though that's debatable.

Also, and this is just my opinion, but I dunno if I'd mess with a turbo. I just don't feel like they are the right mix for low speed crawling where throttle response might be critical, or in water like at Richloam where it might suck up a crap ton of water even faster than N/A, haha. But again, that's just my opinion. You're more knowledgeable than I am about it anyway.

It's funny you were thinking about why the OGT performs. I'm actually pretty sure when I find the cash to do my regear, I'm going to replace the lincoln locker with a True Trac LSD unit with 4.88s and then try to go to 35s. I won't be double locked anymore but I'll have more ground clearance and hopefully it'll be easier on my CVs and I think it'll do almost as good if not the same. Then if I ever find the cash to SAS her, I'll go back with a detroit in the front.

 

The swap will go in stages.

1. Transmission
2. 3rz
3. Turbo if needed. The turbo I'm thinking of should make full boost at very low rpm, in the 2200 range.

 

Cool. I think you're gonna be surprised at how that old engine comes alive with a manual trans.

 

I expect it will feel like it gained 50 horsepower. I think it makes sense to go twin cases at that time. For the sake of budget and not really needing ultra low crawl ratios I'll just use 2 stock cases.

I did touch 75 mph on flat ground heading up to Richloam. Just takes a while to get there.

 

So, I need to amend my statement about door seals. Not that there was an issue with them. Not at all. In fact, they held up substantially better than the grommets in the floor of the cab that I poked holes into to run my coax & PA wires.

No substantial flooding, just wet under the front driver and passenger side floor mats. I hit it with the shop vac (managed a paltry 1/4" of water at the most) then I pulled the trim and had the carpet lifted with a fan blowing under it for the bulk of the afternoon. The carpet was dry to the touch this evening, but the padding is still a little damp. I've got a Damp-Rid bag hanging in there for good measure. I'll probably leave it for a while just in case.

To rectify the situation, I hit the grommets with Flex Seal spray I even hit the grommets that I didn't run wires through.

I also managed to find where it was rubbing up front, but the rear is still a mystery. I tried flexing the ass end with a floor jack, but still had a couple inches of travel left. The tire was no where near anything.

20180617_163554 by CAISOB Taco, on Flickr

20180617_163600 by CAISOB Taco, on Flickr

 

You gonna do the super bumps or fix it with a BFH in the front?

 

Glad I went fishing

 

What are you talking about? You have about as much carpet as I do ATM , and besides Guy, you'd have been the highest above the water level. Only water I had in the cab was from me and Rick getting in and out with wet feet and condensation dripping from the A/C ducts...and when they get around to putting the video up, I went DEEP on one hole trying to follow LeeMar after he tore it up with 35s.

You missed a hell of a day. It was great out there.

 

I've got a set of Timbrens that I had bought for my Ram. I checked a while back and found that it it the same "spring", just without the cup. I just need to figure out what size bolts I need to put them on. It may get the BFH treatment as well for good measure, but I believe the low spot it's hitting on the passenger side is where the washer reservoir sits. I think.

 

The one thing I did notice after rinsing off the truck this afternoon is that I might finally have to break down and pull my headlights so I can wash the insides out. It was just that orange Citrus crap in them but the right one looks like it's got quite a bit of black muck in it now. Given that I have to pull the grille to pull the radiator anyway, it shouldn't be too far out of my way anyway.

 

Was just a little guy, he wouldn't eat much.

 

Check your motor and transmission mounts too, I know your front has been pushed in before but I'm wondering if your motor ain't walking forward some under torque.

Might be time to change your fan too, it's supposed to flex some but not enough to reach the radiator, and given how well your hood and grille line up the front core support can't have been pushed in that much.

As for armour for the radiator I was thinking what about some stout gauge stainless wire mesh like so:

ASC Stainless Steel Mesh 304,#2 .063 Wire,Cloth,Screen,Woven Wire 12"X12"

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C37HVJU/ref=dp_prsubs_1

Get yourself an appropriately size piece to cover the core and space it off like a 1/4 inch. You'd brake your fan before you put a dent in that.

 

Nice! That sounds like and even better idea than the one I had. If I could get it in a 2'x2' sheet or larger which it looks like I can then I could just zip tie or bolt it to the radiator and I'd be good.

 

Have you extended your bump stops down? I put two 1/8" thick x 3" dia fender washers on mine to drop the stock bumpstops down a 1/4inch and I no longer rub on my top of my fender when I bottom out. You might need 3/8" worth of washers. It's like a 5 minute job if you have a tool big enough to turn the bumpstops. I used a big pipe wrench. The stud on the stock stops are plenty long enough.

 

Here's a little quick and dirty vid of the cockpit view of the F250 recovery to go with Rick's vid...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kzBWJZftZs&feature=youtu.be

 

Man, I looked at some of my dash footage and it's not going to require a lot of editing. It all looks pretty cool. There's just a couple spots where I accidentally left the camera running when we weren't moving that I can cut out. That means I'm gonna have hours of video to upload. I'm just going to have to figure out how I'm going to break them up since I would imagine a 4 hour video wouldn't get many views, haha.

 

Well my cab is definitely humid, got two big damp rid buckets in the back and have been leaving a fan in the cab while I'm home, when driving I've been rolling windows down ac on floor blast.

It's toeing the line of developing a musk el du fron wet-douge.

I'm really hoping I don't have to pull the carpet. If I do I'll probably go dynamat, reflectex, and get the OEM fleet vehicle trim rubber flooring.

Had a chance to hit the body today with the pressure washer and tomorrow morning when I get home I'm going to jack it up and hit the belly of the beast. Come this weekend I'll pull the skids and drums.

Time to summerize her like Lee's doing, get her all prettied up and detailed, keep her clean for a while.

Need to get my CB issues sorted and look into GSM radio stuff.

 

Not that I've made much progress on that. I got the big clumps sprayed off the outside and the outer underbody yesterday. Got all the trash and gear out of the bed today. Tomorrow, if I manage to roll out of bed before noon, I'll probably get underneath her with the power washer and spray that off, not that I expect there to be much there; that's the bonus about Richloam, going through all that deep water rinses most of the underbody off for you. After that, I'll do a full body wash and start in on the maintenance, adjusting the rear bumper back to where the tailgate opens all the way, repairing the radiator, cleaning the inside, and then I might consider a mod or two. I've got a new 28" lightbar to install and I need to do something about the hitch so it doesn't pull my bumper up every time I have to get aggressive with yanking on someone. The clicking CV and the crapped out inner axle seal I can wait on until the fall wheeling season, but I imagine there's some water in the front diff so I'll have to check/change that as necessary and I still have to do my oil change.

 

Yeah I plan to do a full gear oil change, I found my front diff short breather tube was split wide open when I had everything dropped to do the oil pan before Richloam and when I drained the diff it was a sloppy mess of water and foul oil.

I replaced the short hose with some Gates 5/16 transmission line and put clamps on it; shouldn't have to worry about that again but the damage was already done.

I was planning on changing the front diff fluid again after the trip after the oil had a chance to circulate and grab any gunk it could, plus I figured I haven't changed gear lube since when I first got the truck a year ago. Having no idea if the previous owner ever did it. That's the kind of thing non gearheads just don't think about. Most folks that care about a vehicle will be good about engine oil changes but gear lube gets forgotten.

Marlin Crawler is doing their Rubathon30 event, pretty good sale prices, going to get 6 quarts of Redline Shock Proof gear lube from them, cheapest I could find it with the sale.

First time I changed the gear lube what drained out was black and very thin so I'm sure the stuff I put in it a year ago is full of filth that it's cleaned up now. I want to check for water intrusion in all cases too even though I have the rear axle breather extended up into my bed pocket I've never done water crossings like we did and I want to witness its effectiveness.

By the way does anyone have a shot of my truck when it was stuck, I want to see how far up the water level was on the passengers side, I know it was lower than the drivers side, I'm sure had I not had my snorkel I would have hydro'ed. As it was I left it running so water wouldn't creep up the tailpipe and to keep positive pressure in the crank case to prevent seepage in through the seals.

It was kind of funny to see the exhaust bubbling and churning the water there.