Colorado B.S. Thread

I LOVE my 1st gen DCSB... BUT... my truck was bought originally in Pueblo, CO, and as best I can tell... spent it's WHOLE life in Colorado... and still it's frame failed and was replaced. You've only got 4-5 months to find a 2004 DCSB that was sold in August - December 2004... to qualify for a frame replacement on Toyota's dime. If you buy an older truck that never had it's frame replaced... I'd be looking at trucks from southern California away from the coast, Arizona (but I hear they salt their roads in the summer time), or Nevada / Utah. Or looking for a truck that already had its frame replaced. I had my truck on a lift and walked around tinking the frame with a ball peen hammer. It all looked good. But I didn't know for what to be looking. The frames rot from the inside out... so...

If it were me, though I LOVE my 1st gen... I think I'd have to be looking 2nd gen now. Love that 4.0L V6 in my wife's 2007 T4R Sport.

 

Yep. My California truck looked brand new before I took it on ONE trip in a Colorado winter. Fortunately I replaced the suspension before that winter trip and only needed an 8" breaker bar as my biggest tool. And yes, only hand tools to do all the work.

 

Man... wish I could afford me a Lexus...

Some more Lexus love for that Montana dude...



But... then I'd probably feel compelled to go around surveying in duracrocs... and that is probably not conducive to long foot life...

 

I can’t see the rocks

 

Yup... during my drive home yesterday I was thinking about the clock ticking on the frame.

Here's an idea. You sell me your 1st gen DC and buy a 2nd gen.

 

Has anyone replaced the front eye bushings on OME Dakar leaf springs? Is it just cut out the old bushings and replace them with a set of the rear bushings or is it more involved than that?

 

Dang, I'm south of 136th Ave!

 

It could be summer time "Airing of Grievances", since Festivus is our winter time to do so!

 

In the past I've used my Leica GPS mounted on the hood of my Taco to get close to a point of interest:

 

Looks like your windshield got too close to a point of interest

 

Yesterday one of my principle clients mentioned driving a pasture to topo the land. He stated he just "held the rod out the door" and measured up with a tape measure from the ground to where he had set the rod on the floor of his truck. I didn't like that idea because #1 I could see myself dropping the rod or worse, and #2 it's not precise(!) and the former rocket engineer in me couldn't stand the idea of such a "rough" measurement.

But that got me to thinking... how could I precisely measure how high the GPS antenna is above the ground?

Hmmmm...


Problem solved!

Using the same magnetic mount, shoot a prism with the gun! Now I precisely know the GPS antenna height for several locations on my Taco... and can put that new OldManEmu suspension to good use topo'ing fields for clients. (Beats the heck outta walking!)

 

I thought we here @ TW called that character?

 

What about your front suspension settling? Or does up to an inch not matter?

 

Good question. Short answer: doesn't matter for this application. If something needs precision, I'm going to get out with the rod to get the shot -- e.g. around a house for a grade certificate. In this particular application where I need to topo hundreds of feet of proposed driveway, or a an acre or two or three... I'll be within a 1-3 tenths of a foot. I'm also ignoring the suspension compressing/expanding as I drive, but, then again, I'm not driving the pastures like the Baja 1000.

Measuring the rod height with the gun (i.e. Total Station) is a helluva lot more accurate than by eyeball with a tape measure, so it removes most of the measurement area. I marked the locations of the magnetic mount with fine-line blue sharpie so I can "precisely" put the magnetic mount back at those locations.

Also, after a few months, if I want to check for suspension settling, OR after I mount an ARB bull bar bumper, I can re-shoot the prism mounted at those locations and quickly (a few minutes with Autodesk Civil3D) re-calculate new rod heights.

 

I know there is speculation out there about what size spacers won't mess your shit up wheeling. I forget what the size was.

A lot of threads on TW say don't use the spacers for wheeling but I'm tempted just to bring the front end of my truck up more since I'm at least 6 months off from rebuilding the front end.

 

Is there anyone in the local Denver area able to help remove stock rear hangers? I am planning to upgrade to a flip kit or hammer hangers mostly because I just noticed that when I installed my new leaf springs almost a year ago I put the bolt in the wrong way and it is has been rubbing against the stock hangers and has rubbed a good bit out of the hanger. I know it is a pain in the ass to remove the hangers and don't really want to deal with that, so if anyone does this and is really good at it or knows of someone id be willing to pay for the convenience.

 

Watch the pups guys
https://kdvr.com/2019/08/12/a-north...hin-hours-her-pups-had-died-from-toxic-algae/

 

We just removed @Red Baron hangers (he did the same thing) and there a bastard!