SCCRMUM- a Lexus Mountain Goat

And then, after 4 days of invading @05tacomabro house, I came back... only cause @02YotaGuy was already there though!

We put a small (1/4"? idk) spacer on the front driver side to fix a bad 3/4" driver lean I had. the rear could probably still use the last SSO 1/4 spacer to really level it out but I don't want to have to deal with that giant ass Dobinson spring on the driver side for a while. it's just 10 lb of shit in a 5lb bag back there with spring compressors and gas tank and what not. The passenger side can droop enough that you don't need compressors but the upper link bottoms out on the gas tank on driver side limiting that droop. Sigh. whatever.

We also had to rotate the whole coilover assembly 120* at the top hat bolts because the JBA arms and bilsteins both have so much droop that the UCA was hitting the coil.





For better or for worse, now the UCA lays down ontop of one of the coils. I think thats better than rubbing the OD of a coil.




Yeah. Droop for dayz.



I also tossed on my 5160's in the rear that finally showed up. the Dobinson progressive springs and 5160s are sooooooo much better than the factory airsprings and shocks.



peekaboo, I see youuuuu Mr. air bump

 

So no pics really up close but I installed 1030 t-slot cross bars on my stock roof rails and then mounted Front runner Quick release mount mounts. I have to take the tent off after every use to fit in the garage. HOA will tow me if I park outside regularly.

I will never, ever wish upon my worst enemy the task of mounting an RTT to a stock roof rack on an SUV. HOLY BALLS. my hands couldn't physically fit under the side rails to get to those damn nuts on the clamps for the tent. my girlfriend had to do them for me. It was literally about 90 mins to put the tent on and probably 60 mins to take it off. I did it ONCE for Overland Expo. I immediatly walked inside when finished and bought the front runner QR mounts.

here's the tent on the stock cross bars and tent mounted directly to rack:


About the QR mounts: They are equally or even more painful to mount the first time. It's a kick in the dick to get the spacing correct foreward to aft such that they have enough tension on the latches that they function properly and the tent is mounted tightly. Once that is finally set, though, taking the tent on and off is a breeze. the tent sits kind of high for my liking but oh well. pics later.

On the way back from expo my friend had a flight to catch in phoenix. We were making great time, stopped for lunch, got rolling with time to spare...and then hit 3 hours of standstill on I17 near black canyon city outside of phoenix. They had it down to one lane due to brush fires and then idiots where smashing into each other. I crossed the median (whoop whoop making use of the truck!) and booked back to the last exit we saw. Sarah mapped out a powerline road/trail that would take us south a ways, cross i17, and continue basically past all the traffic.

We hauled ass on the trail. Thank god for the hydro bumps. We made it to the i17 crossing where the crossing was a small, narrow, short tunnel under with a locked gate. Probably a locked gate on the other side too. There was another gate at the end of the trail leading straight to the i17N shoulder. luckly, someone was lazy and left the chain and lock juuuuuust loose enough that we got it off so we didnt have to back track an hour+. We rolled up i17N to the next exit, crossed, and caught some fire roads/trails back on the west of I17 heading south to black canyon city from where front side of Crown king lets out onto the highway.

My friend's flight got delayed so we were still in the running. hauling some ass, we were soooooo close to making it. Then Sarah and I looked at each other as we heard a clunking from the front. Got out and did a full inspection to find the front right UCA nut backed off. THANK GOD we out the bolt back in factory style a-la facing down instead of the easy way of putting the bolt up from the back. I probably would have lost the bolt and whole front corner had we not done that.





So we lifted the weight off the front and got the bolt back in all the way. it was like 1-2mm away from completely backing out from the rear half of the UCA and would have dropped the UCA. close call. We limped back stopping every half mile or so to hammer the bolt back in all the way. Finally made it to pavement, limped down I17 to the carefree/i17 exit to the home depot. Got the hardware and we were in the parking lot, front spot, putting the nut on as Sarah was airing up. Then...

She calls out "they're getting robbed!"

Chase and I stood up and were like wtf are you talking about, and then heard a full throttle peel out. we turned around and sure enough, a Volvo S40 packed full of 3 mexicans with their arms FULL of tools went racing past us. I stepped out at them but didnt get too close. We got the plate number and gave it to the employee that chased them out. not sure if it was a good or bad thing that I didn't have my gun on me... (thanks to the expo rules of no firearms and me being all law-abiding and shit).

then as we are finishing up, I shit you not, a second group of Mexicans, surely affiliated to the first, came running out of the home depot arms full of tools and hopped into a civic that peeled out and ran off. They literally ran and drove right past the employee as the employee was on the phone with the police.

Holy. Shit.

So finally got to Phoenix, my friend missed his flight, so he stayed in a hotel and flew out the next day. They have him first class for free. I guess it was aight.

 

Here's a way better pic of the Expo camp site. I love driving hours to go sleep in a tent and still hear other people breathing that I don't know.







Fast forward to the next weekend (memorial day) and we went out to Big Bend Ranch State Park in Texas with my same friend Chase (from San antonio).




We left thursday at 830pm cause sarah had a meeting until 8pm. we drove through the night mostly and got to BBRSP just before my buddy at like 10:00 Friday morning. We went and ran McGuirks Tank loop on the east side in the Solitario district. It took about 30 mins for Chase to get stuck. The ARB Summit bar for Colorados really gives em an underbite. He did a wonderful job at digging himself in. I don't understand him nor others who take the risk just to see if they can make it unclock/2WD ect. Once you get stuck, that stuff isn't going to help nearly as much lol. He was unlocked 2WD initially, then dug himself in with 4WD and both lockers

Doors were dug in so we did a Nascar switch to see if I could drive it out first


Then came the winch. No good recovery points on his truck that weren't burried for static strap recovery with my truck.






We camped at Tres Papalotes camp ground after:







woke up Saturday and Ran the Road to Nowhere:







then went and ran the Los Almos loop:








we pulled in fairly early Saturday night and camped at Pila Montaya 3, which was a beautiful camp site.



Mawlie ( Lil' Bish) wasn't too thrilled with my Lion King impression:


Here's some rain that was rolling through the east side of the park that we saw from camp:




Then Sunday we ran the big loop in the Black Hills between the main road and rd 160 in the NW portion of the park. No pics processed from that. On the map above, it's listed as a foot/bike/horse trail. last year they opened it up to vehicles. After that we ran from the agua Pens across Javelin trail to camp all the way down at Chorro Vista. No pics yet from there either. Other than this one that Sarah took (@Sashields1027_habitus) when we were running across the park from the west side to get to the Black Hills. Go follow our business acount @SpiritedApex on instagram and look for it there eventually. Could damn near be an ARB or Chevy advert. We were romping about 50 on dirt here.






It was damn near dark when we rolled in and frankly it kinda sucked cause the Prime parking/camping spot for my truck ended up right near a gnarly colony/hill of africanized ants that were complete dickheads. They bit both of our dogs and another dog that was with us and was trying to invade. I tried to draw them away by throwing some ground beef out the opposite side of the hill but they straight devoured that in like an hour. It was disgusting how many ants there were. you literally couldn't see any meat. Just thick blanket of ants. We moved my truck to a safer spot but it put Chases' truck and tent right between us and the view

Monday on our way out we went out and back West to Presidio to fill up fuel. Both of us were on empty after 2 Jerry cans each. Cuttin it close! We then ran along the Rio Grande eastbound for the scenery. It added a couple hours to our trip but it was worth it. We even took a quick dip... We stayed in the US. I think.





Here's a sweet pic I actually took myself (Suck it, Sarah!) on the way home. This was just after we crossed into AZ on I10.

 

Here are a couple really good pics Sarah took on Reddington Road here in Tucson back in May. We were blown away at how green it was down in the low East side of the Rincons. The dogs enjoyed it.

 

Just Yesterday I did some quick work and finally put on some Dust boots on my front SPC Jounces. Bryan, former owner of Light Racing, told me these jounce packages met GM durability testing for 80k miles no upkeep when they were spec'd for Border Patrol 2500 trucks like 10 years ago. I see why. What other Hydro bump has optional dust boots? (even if their cost is borderline extortion at $37 each).

 

Oh and on that Powerline trail coming back from Expo, I laid my truck down onto a massive boulder backing down from a failed wash climb the first time. I made it, but my passenger side link mount got crunched. Planning on probably having Ballistic Fab here in tucson weld on some of their HD link mounts onto the frame. Eventually.





Notice the fold above the link bolt. Sigh.

 

Oh Oh Oh, also, one of the firestones here did an alignment for my lifetime alignment and the tech must have been green. They aligned it with the cam bolts upside down and left them too lose so they bent my cam tabs. Ballistic Fab here in Tucson laid a quick bead on them to reinforce them for the cheaps. Really need to get myself a welder considering I can Mig and Tig...



Then after that got buttoned up, I kept trying to track down a rattle in the rear. Finally found it. Jonny Joints aren't suppose to look like this after 2 months!





MetalTech4x4 sent me a new Jonny joint for free as a warranty coverage, along with a MT4x4 glass and a "Check your nuts" patch! they said they've seen this happen before when the bolts loosen and cause the joint to load wierdly since its loose in the mount. I had already replaced every single link bolt with nylock nuts after loosing lower link bolts twice. If you have a 120 chassis and upgrade/change/replace the links, USE NYLOCK NUTS. I told MT4x4 they should include nylock hardware with their links so people don't reuse the stock stuff. They said they've thought about it but are worried about the extra $5-10 bucks added cost making them uncompetitive in the market. My suggestion, worst case, is to eat that cost. Buying the hardware in bulk from Mcmaster won't be that much cost to eat in your margin.

(Thanks @05tacomabro and @Brindybot for bringing me a nut the second time when it was on trail!)

 

Your fingers hurt yet from typing? lol.

 

hahaha kinda... I want to get out of the house but dat heat... swing by after work for a brew homie!

 

Ill hit you up after I'm done with something at home!!

 

I have Chorizo and tortillas that will go bad soon if I don't have help eating them. Jussayin

 

That goes for you too @05tacomabro and @trojanman18 and @Captain Magma and @ whoever else from Tucson. If we get more than 3 people including me, someone may need to stop and grab some more meat for me to cook up for the tacos but I'm bored and sarah works hella late tonight so bro beer truck shit

 

Looks like you've been busy. I like the look that your GX has taken. Still don't think Ill be able to convince the wife to go this route though.

 

so made a trip to the Chiricahuas with some homies.



Camp saturday night:




Also started the swingout with @JeepAndrew (mostly him, I contribute every so often and otherwise drink his iced tea and get in the way sometimes)









where we left it after worknight #1:

 

Night two we (he) cut and bent the swing arm to follow the curve of the hatch and tacked it onto the spindle sleeve for mocking up, as well as started the receiving side.



Day 3, started getting the recieving end finished with rubber bumper, latch, and delrin feeder slides top and bottom to fully seat and cradle the arm:







Also started the mounting frame for my dual Jerry can holder. The Driver side bar for the jerry can will also have a plate on it to mount my 5lb propane tank for the stove.

 

Also Got the awning mounted, finally. I lost my CAD license so I had my buddy whip up the CAD for extention plates to have Ballistic Fab cut on their laser CNC cutter. the ARB brackets were not long enough to clear the roof rack side rails. I need the ARB corner brackets to face down because I won't fit in the garage otherwise and HOA will tow if parked outside. so wow. Much communist.

so ballistic cut them, I painted them, assembled everything, and found the awning hung about 1 inch too low and impeded door function.

Washer stack on the carriage bolts to level the surface with the side rails:


The middle M6 bolt overlaps the ARB bracket and the custom extention bracket:


Because of the bit of sag, The doors wouldnt open and close without holding up the awning slack. I'm holding up the slack here:


so I marked the ARB brackets for new awning holes 1" higher than the original slots allowed. Then chopped the bottom half of them off since it was uneeded.



Got it all mounted up at Andrews while he did productive work on the swing out:


I kinda regret not going 8ft awning but I was worried since 1/3-1/2 of the awning would have cantilevered forward with no support since my stock rack stops behind the sunroof. now with the 6.5 my driver door isn't fully covered so it's not as ideal for rain coverage. Sun coverage is still very much there ,though

 

What did you do for your rack crossbars? I have not been able to locate any factory style ones anywhere and I see you have made your own.

 

Cut to 39.75" or remeasure your own, 39.8" was a bit tight! I recommend 5 cross bars if you're going to mount anything but an RTT to it. For RTT you only need 2. Or, if you want cheaaaap, you can have my stock cross bars!

 

That would be fantastic. Its the wife rig and we don't often need the top for gear, but when we travel, its difficult to take some of the larger items. Ill hit you up when I get back to AZ.

 

Sub'd for build and bumper progress!