El Taco Diablo... Mall Crawlin, now with LT for tall curbs

Burned in both reinforcement plates 100%


Also put in the superbumps and flip kit.

 

Burned in the passenger box plate 100%



And ended the day with getting the driver side box plate fitted and tacked.

 

Ran the welds from the box plates to the end of the rear sackle hangers. Not sure if it makes a big difference, but it looks beefier.

 

Assembled the cross member for the upper shock mounts.

 

More progress was made on the shock relocation.

 

Got to a point where we could mount the shocks and check clearances.

 

This looks really good!

I've been thinking of using the cross member I welded into my frame for my 2nd gas tank as a shock mount.

It's 1"x3or4"x.125" steel rectangular tube.

That's a long long ways off though.

 

Shock is fixed

Held pressure overnight. Turns out it must have been the loose schrader valve and resi hose (you'd think there would be a bit better quality control on these kinds of shocks... but I digress).

Doing some touch up and maintenance before I start putting everything back together.

Touching up the bedliner where it's over the rail. It has always bugged me that there were light spots where you could see body color through... and the white haze from the wax and polishing compound had to go.



Repainting the tool boxes... they were looking pretty beat after a couple years on the truck. Spraying the bed rail and truck boxes with Duplicolor bed liner spray. I like it A LOT more than the rustoleum bed liner spray I've used in the past... goes on much more even and the nozzle doesn't clog.



Already repainted the RTT rack. I liked the chassis paint I used on the frame so much that it went on the RTT rack too. It's a change from a matte paint I had on it before to more of a semigloss. The matte looks cool to begin with but it's hard to keep clean and seems to dull out quickly. Hopefully the semi gloss works better.

 

(Almost) Full droop

 

3.5 inches of up travel seems good

 

What are the specs for those fox shocks?

 

Part number 983-02-036

2.0 Smooth body resi with 7/8 shaft. Can't remember the body dimensions, but it was the best fit Fox had. 2.5 - 10 inch bodies are too long.

 

Cheap Insurance

 

Also ordered a no loss fill/check gauge for the shocks. Looks like it'll be a pretty nice set up.

 

Rear brake hose arrived today. Quick and simple install. Brings me from +3 to +8 inch hose.

 

Repost from my Insta

Have to say... Pretty damn disappointed in Fox right now. (yes, this will be a bit of a rant)

In early June I was deciding on which shocks to upgrade to. I was deciding between Fox or @adsracingshocks. I was told by my supplier that lead time for Fox would be 4 to 6 weeks, which was going to probably be less than what I had been told by ADS.

I received the rear shocks in 5 weeks... complete with a loose schrader valve and loose resi hose on the right (pictured) shock. Ended up fixing those myself because there is no time to send them back and wait. Shock mounts needed to be relocated, crossmember fabrication etc.

Now, today, 7 weeks after the shocks were ordered... I'm told the fronts wont be ready till the end of August... which will be a 12 week leadtime from order to delivery... DOUBLE what they told me to begin with.

So here I am... 1 and a half weeks away from a trip from California through Moab and on in to Colorado and back... and it appears I'll be rocking my spare set of Bilstein 5100s for the trip. I ordered these shocks nearly 9 weeks in advance of this trip... Am I being unreasonable to think this situation is completely ridiculous? These should be basically off the shelf OEM replacement reservoir coilovers... nothing "custom."

 

Sorry to hear Matt. I’m also going to replace my front shocks soon, most likely with Kings extended travel. My front is getting too heavy.
If it makes you feel better TG called me Monday, left a message, and told me my part was in. Came to their warehouse, called them, and they told me they would bring it out to my vehicle. Only to wait, for awhile, to be called by Wheelers from Oregon to tell me my part was not in and won’t be in tell maybe September. I called TG to confirm and they told me that they told Wheelers to give me a call. How come TG didn’t call me themselves when I was right there and I just talked to them? I just said ok and left.
This CV situation has cause a lot of delays for many companies, miscommunication and customer service has gone down across the board.
On another note, the trip sounds awesome, have a good one. You guys need to plan a trip to Shaver Laker area, we got a lot of good trails here. We got trails for all builds and levels.

 

Totally want to get down there to wheel with you. I want to start really pressing the truck. Especially when I finally get the suspension worked out.

I went with Fox extended travel fronts and will be doing 700# Eibach coils (my front is getting WAY heavy).

You should check out ADS. For your fronts. They are good shocks, built to race. ADS just has one level of shock = race. I know King, you have to do their upgrades to seals etc to match what ADS puts out with their shocks.

Really starting to wish I had gone ADS.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I’ll look into those ADS as well. Price and availability will be the deciding factor.

We have Swap, Mirror, Coyote Lake if you want a challenge. Dusy Ershim if you want a challenge and camp, it’s about a 3 day trail. I think those trails require at least 35”, sliders, and locker.
Bald Mountain is good for all level with obstacles you can bypass, has a great view at the top of the tower. Shuteye is also a good trail for all levels and has a great view at the top of the tower. Strawberry, Brewer, West Lake etc are good trails that don’t require too much either. I’ve done most of the trails around the area but I need to up my wheels to at least 35” to explore the more challenging ones. 35” just means I’ll have to get a new tires or wheel setup, regear, and tub my wheel well, all adds up quick.

 

Ended up spending most of the day finalizing trip prep/plans.

Let the RTT air out over night and did the RTT laundry yesterday. Put the bags and sheets back in and folded er up nice and tidy.

Checked off all the tools, spare parts, recovery gear, camp gear... and repacked it all in the various homes, truck boxes, totes, and ammo boxes.

Had to make a trip to Home Depot because I couldn't find the fucking 12mm ratcheting box wrench that belongs in the truck... bought 2 because you can never have too many 10mm or 12mm (bought a 10mm socket, just because fuck it, I'll lose one someday)

Jen got about this far on the kitchen stuff... and passed out


Finalized Hotel accommodations... we'll be staying in a Hotel the 1st night, middle night, and last night of the trip. Just so we can get showers and have a bit of relaxing.


Cleaned out the truck, checked expiration dates on the med kits etc.

I think we're actually a bit ahead of schedule on this.



Now Jen is asleep and I'm looking at fridges... I think the only thing that's going to keep me out of trouble is most of the lead times will put one here too late.