TheNatural's 2012 Totally Expo Trail Limo Build

I've had them on long enough to have an initial opinion now. On dry asphalt they were surprisingly quiet. Good grip on snowy roads - both dry snow and wet slushy stuff. The only time I was not totally satisfied was after some freezing rain. There's really no substitute for studded tires on ice covered roads. I think they'll be a great tire for 98% of my driving though... Perhaps a little less than ideal on ice and I expect the same sort of thing in deep mud (no substitute for an aggressive mud tire). They are quite versatile. I am looking forward to doing some wheeling with them but haven't had the chance yet.

 

if you go bushwacker and have to cut them, the fake bolts can be used in the OEM fender holes. i only had to add 1 hole each side in the front i believe. then you use bolts to hold in the fender using those holes.

 

Already done. The tire poke isn't as much as it would be without the bushwackers, but they do poke out a small amount. An inch was probably an exaggeration.

 

oh yea... guess i could have refreshed my brain by looking back a page and seeing that lol

and you probably don't have enough room to put a "mud flap" behind the front tire? heavy rubber piece, maybe removable, as thin as possible... kind of like your rear flap

 

I actually bought a big trucker mud flap to chop up and some hardware to try that with, but I didn't follow through with it because I'm lazy and there wasn't an obvious way to mount it that seemed secure and didn't either look silly or take up needed tire clearance. That would really help out and save my sliders a bit too so I might have another look at it!

 

After a winter of not being able to turn all the way, I finally did the cab mount relocation. It's fantastic. No rub lock to lock around town. At full lock and full bump I need to beat the firewall back just a little more, but the rub isn't bad at all with the 35's.

I also rolled over 200k and started some routine maintenance. Oil change, grease UCA bushings, rear diff oil and transfer case oil today. Apparently I suck and bought 1 quart less than I needed so the front diff had to wait, along with lots of other things I didn't quite get to today.

 

Picked up that quart of diff oil on my way home from work and changed the front this evening. Also installed these Rago fab hilift mounts that have been sitting around for a long time. They're pretty nice.

 

I put some extended brake hoses on today. +1" front and +6" rear. Fancy stainless steel braided ones. Should be good for all the extra droop from the 12" kings in the rear when I get around to that install.

Brake pedal still feels a little soft. With the stainless braided hoses and all new brake fluid (I didn't just bleed a little, pulled over a quart through) I was hoping it would firm it up more. I used an inexpensive brake bleeding tool with a handheld vacuum pump; I'm not sure how that would be an issue, but I might try bleeding them a bit with the brake pedal tomorrow and see if there's any air that wants to come out.

 

I got my wife to help me bleed the brakes the "old way", but not much difference in pedal feel. I adjusted the rear brake shoes and that firmed it up a bit. I didn't have the right bolts to pull the drums and they were awfully stuck, but it was easy enough to reach the adjuster through the service port in the back. Brakes have been fully functional this whole time, but feel just wasn't great. I think the rears were the problem.

I also cleaned the air filter... Which didn't really need it

 

i haven't been satisfied with my brakes in many year. gave up trying to get them to be good. luckily i don't have to daily the truck anymore. stops good enough for road trips.

 

I keep thinking about getting a daily driver. It doesn't make financial sense with my short commute, and I have no real need for a second vehicle, but I like new things and can't bear to part with the taco. The real benefit would be having a backup for when I'm working on the Taco, but that might just stretch my projects out even longer if I'm not in a hurry to get it back on the road. Sometimes I'm glad to have the taco with me though.. I pulled someone out of the snowbank on my way to work this morning; can't do that in lil 2wd daily.

Is your daily the Lexus, or is that Kayla's? I'd insist on AWD for where I live... I think the new RAV4 is about the smallest I'd go. I've also considered getting something big and suitable for family roadtrips and retiring the taco to bush truck duty, but I hear the LC300 isn't coming to North America

 

sti for me, wrx for kayla. trucks are backups for big snow days and for fun... the motorcycles for more fun

yea makes sense for you to have something awd or another 4wd... maybe something like a gx or join the subaru fam

 

Ah. Not sure where the Lexus thought came from then. Subaru's seem like a good idea. I don't think I could swing a GS though; they look sweet, but that's not daily driver money for me. I know I said LC300, but I've been low key saving pennies for one for a long time (still not quite there) and that would be a dream car buy, not a regular 5 year cycle kind of car. Maybe the next gen LX will be a winner

 

had a rc350 before swapping out for the sti. although on paper they sound like they have power, in reality, they are not impressive.

 

I did a long overdue paint correction on most of the truck... I have one bedside and the tailgate left now. It was getting dark and I was getting tired. Wash, clay bar, chemical guys v32, v38, and jetseal.


I've been working on this trailer mod too. I put the last coat of paint on the rack before work today, so when I get home I can put the RTT on it and start loading up for a camping trip. This trailer will now hold his&hers ATV's with the RTT above the front one, plus a kayak rack next the RTT eventually. My snowmobile will also still fit underneath the rack. Gets a couple hundred lbs off my daily driver and allows us to use the full height of the annex too. Should be a win all around, except the slight inconvenience of loading the front ATV which will be a tight-ish fit

 

We took the trailer out for its first trip (since the rack was added) this weekend. We only brought the one ATV but two do fit on there. I enjoyed having the full annex height and it was easier to set up the RTT without my swing out and cab in the way. It's certainly not going down any crazy trails, but it's a nice set up for base camp on a family getaway. We often take the ATV's if we're going too far off the beaten path these days so it should work well for us.

The trailer towed nicely and I still like the idea of moving some weight off the truck. It's a nice setup, and probably the biggest toy hauler I would want to pull through mountain highways with my taco (fully loaded is only about 2800 lbs with both ATVs, although the truck's payload is also maxed out with the family, camping gear, and tongue weight). The taco could certainly tow much more, but it would make driving much less enjoyable.

 

I pulled the back seats out before the weekend camping trip too. It's been literally years since I've had a human back there so I figured I'd make more space for the pups and cargo. I didn't notice the difference with all the dog bed stuff back there, but on the way to work today I noticed a whole lot more road noise. Those rear seats do a lot for sound insulation.

The cab smells like gear oil now too. My compressor is mounted behind the rear seats and that compartment used to contain the gear oil smell from the locker, but without the seats... I need to figure something out for that.

 

hinge some plywood to cover the opening back up... takes up less space than the seats, but you can maybe seal it up with a rubber gasket to keep the smell in.

 

Pulled the supercharger to change the spark plugs. It was time consuming. It would go much quicker the second time though. The

$9 IKH22 Iridium Power Spark Plug, (Pack of 1)

IKH22 plugs with 90k kms (55k miles) were in really rough shape. I'll be changing them more often now.

I pulled the nose drive assembly off of the supercharger to change the coupler and I tried to pull the impellers to grease the needle bearings, but the inner part didn't want to come out and I didn't want to wreck anything so I gave up on regressing. I'll try again next time.

 

Killing a little time this afternoon I decided to swap the rear cab mount bushings out for poly ones. The front cab mount bushings were replaced with the cab mount relocation recently and I did the radiator core support bushings not too long ago. I haven't been in a rush to do the rear ones because they looked OK, but when I took the nut and washer off the bottom it revealed the truth. One of the bolts is really seized into the bushing so it's currently soaking in some more screw loose before I give the bfh another go. Other than the one seized bolt this would be a super easy fast job.