The Wild Crow - Flight Preparations

Sweet!!!

 

Happy Pi Day!

 

I think my sugar shot up looking at the picture

 

STOP! In the Name of......Stopping

We all need to just stop occassionaly. Stop hate, stop Nazis, stop sexism, and stop our trucksThe brakes on the Crow were doing OK but with 64,000 miles the pads were due to be replaced.

I've used EBC pads and rotors on the Tundra for years. They've always performed well for my needs whether I'm empty or loaded, towing or not. The rotors on the WC were in fine shape and all I really needed were pads.

Shopping around a bit and I found some EBC Extra Dooty pads. Yeah, I said Dooty.... not just regular dooty but extra dooty.

These are red, and shiny, but not to be confused with their regular dooty red pad. These are supposed to be better for towing. Time will tell. What can I say about changing brake pads? Nothing. Toyota makes it so fn easy. Here's the pics



They came with these funky shims to keep squealing and vibrating to a minimum. Never seen those before but they seem to be doing their job




After the break in period they stop the truck. I like that

 

THANGS THAT GO BUMP! IN THA NIGHT That's me, Sam B. I gotta zombie army and you can't harm me. Who do you voodoo....... wait, sorry I got a little carried away.

While I had the wheels off to for the brakes I added a set of wheelers super bumps to the front. Modifications don't get easier.

Unscrew the old ones, and screw in the new ones.







Inexpensive and easy to install. I like it. And they work. When the suspension bottoms out over a zombie, or a pothole its smoother....

 

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Man, You've Got To Ac-Cenn-tu-ate the Positive
Eliminate the Negative
And LATCH on to the Affirmative

Since I bought one of the first double swing bumpers from SOS Concepts I found some incompatibility issues with my set up.

It had a simple and normal red handled latch to close the gate, and a secondary latch to firmly lock it with no possibility of it accidentally opening



The latch mechanism actually interfered with the flip up license plate when the hitch was installed in the receiver.


This pin (and its consequent locking mechanism) which is part of the security latch Eddy designed to positively lock the gate in those rough situations hit the license plate before the gates could get closed.

The easiest solution to this problem is simply having the plate somewhere else, like on the Jerry can holder. I don't like easy, the more difficult a project the better.

We ( and by we I mean Beth) found a latch similar to the red handled latch that came with a locking mechanism. All i had to do was weld it onto a plate and bolt it onto the swing gate.

Remember, I hate the easy way? Yeah, well the new locking latch needed a longer plate so the mounting bolt didn't interfere with the lock. Sure I coulda just drilled a new hole and slapped it down, but that's not me. I welded the holes closed, drilled new ones where i needed them and siliconed the heck out of them to prevent water intrusion



And since I liked Eddie's idea of the secondary latch I added one with my spin. One plate on the end of each swing gate. When closed one plate rests on top of the other and a simple pin drops through and keeps it extra secure.


Daily driving were just run the locking latch, off road and trail rides, the pin goes in and keeps that gate closed.

NOW, with all that said. DO NOT think I'm ranting or complaining about Eddy or SOS Concepts. He's a stand up guy with great products and I would buy this bumper again. He has since changed his design to accommodate the use of the tow hitch with the swing gates.

If you need a dual swing bumper (or single swing, or no swing) buy @SOS CONCEPTS it's so solid and well built it wasn't easy to modify.

 

I thought you already had them

 

COOL BABY! STRANGE BUT NOT A STRANGER, I'M AN ORDINARY GUY!

Long Tru Cool. I'm no stranger to these. I installed one on the Tundra yeeeaaars ago. I decided I wanted to add one into the Tacoma to alleviate any transmission issues towing in the desert or mountains.



It comes with every thing you need for the install.


I took out the grill and began bending those thick metal straps into brackets




Once bent into shape (unlike the out of shape I usually am) I painted them all black, ran the lines to the oe cooler send tied it into the system. I changed the fluid in the process, just changed not flushed, the old fluid still looked really good and smelled like, well, transmission fluid.

With the grill in place it looks like it belongs




This is one cool baby that won't be burning down the house anytime soon

 

I had them installed them a few weeks ago.

 

OLD MAN EMU TAKE A LOOK AT MY LIFT, I'M ON REAL GOOD SPRINGS NOW

As a running theme to this thread, you'll notice that I buy things then take about a year before installing them. The OME HD Dakar spring kit was no exception. We bought these from the wonderful people at Headstrong Offroad. We bought the whole kit, springs, bushings, u bolts, carrier bearing drop, the whole emu and kaboodle.



The first order of business was a quick repaint of the springs. The delivery a year ago left them chipped. Some Rustoleum black tractor paint made them new again



Up in the air


The shocks were simply unbolted at the bottom to let the axle droop fully. And the Daystar cradles were removed. Those bolts all snapped sp were haff to buy new ones



Our Electrical Engineer fired up the impact wrench and removed the ubolts



Drivers side removed. The Long Range gas tank made the front bolt a little more difficult to remove but it was still easy


Then it's just simple R&R


Then it wad the passenger sides turn


The u bolt brackets had to be painted to match the springs


Everything got torqued to spec


After a quick test drive and a bolt retorque we called it a success.


Thanks to Old Man Emu this old man's life is a lot like a new ride

 

Nice write up, you'll enjoy the new ride. Whenever I rotate tires I take the time to hit the springs with fluid film to keep the squeaks down. Might as well hit the frame while you're under there.

 

It is incredibly smooth over rough roads!

 

About time

 

We finally did it. Our first teardrop camping trip of the season. 2 months behind shedyool but we wound up with a great weekend.

Since it was our first trip we went by ourselves to reorient and reaquaint ourselves with the CrowsWing. It was also the first test trip for a few new features.

The new OME Dakar HDs were awesome. Gear and the 370 pound tongue weight only dropped its stance by 3/4 of an inch. The highway ride just floats over bumps. The rough forest roads are easily cushioned with and without the trailer attached. Im very pleased with this mod!


The new Stone Guard that Beth made worked just add beautifully. Modeled after the Aussie guards that ride underneath the trailer tongue it deflected all the stones much better than our old mudflaps did.


The SOS dual swing bumper worked as well. The gates open without touching the trailer, I can jackknife the combo without either the spare or jerry can holder touching the trailer. And it pulled the trailer over some very rough terrain without a wiggle, jiggle, or complaint.


The camping was marvelous. The weather was cool, and lightly breezy. Our favorite campsite was open and clean. The forest was nearly empty of people.







We saw a first for us. We've been camping all over the state (and other states ) for years, both of us have spent time in the woods hunting and we've both fished all our lives. Nether of us had ever seen an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake until yesterday. Driving down a GWNF forest road and there it was crossing the street.


Black phase and beautiful. We snapped our quick pictures as it rattled its way into the woods

We hooked to St Marys Falls


A local we ran into gave us a tip on a cool vista for sunset


The weekend ended much too quickly but it created some fine memories

 

Quite a bit . Beautiful pictures as always. Were you close to where we went last year? Was it as rough getting in? I have never seen a pretty snake sorry

 

We were down in the Crabtree Falls area. Different section of GWNF, less traffic than flagpole. The road is probably equivalent to Dunkle Hollow road, we just didn't have any trees to winch off the road.

We'll take you there sometime

 

Did you see @TaKoToy I think he was out there also. I looked at the Crab tree falls campground and wanted to go there but not trails

 

It's a big forest, didn't see TakoToy. There's lots of campsites in the forest no campground needed.