Crashnburn80's Supercharged Gladiator Mojave Build

My living room looks like a truck parts depot, so much gear awaiting install. If BFG would just finally release those tires...

UT has been on my list for sure. But I haven't made it over there for off-roading yet.

 

If come to UT I want a heads up to come wheel with you.

 

Nice! The Mojave already has HD cast iron knuckles from the factory. I plan on a regear to 4.56 with the 37s, which should weigh 91.5lbs per corner. That would return the effective gear ratio, factoring the tire, to stock. Of course with a regear it is the right time to add a front locker, which is tempting. It would also be the right time to add chromoly shafts. Those RCV ones are quite nice! Nicer than the ones I was looking at. Undecided how much I want to sink into the axles though, and if chromoly is really justifiable for what I do.

Back in my TJ days I did more extreme wheeling than anything I’ll ever do in my Tacoma or JT, but I’ve never done stuff that extreme. All my wheelers second as daily drivers. Minor scratches are expected, but body damage is definitely not welcomed.

 

Aluminum knuckles because the unsprung weight on a solid front axles setup is stupid, especially on the JT Rubi/Mojave with 10mm reinforced axle tubes. But agreed the Rubi should have received the reinforced cast iron knuckles as well.

I'd have to dig through photos. I typically wheel in the mountains starting in Eastern WA. Starts out aired mountain desert with open softball size loose rock hill climbs, eventually gets into very tight technical forest trails with some narrow sketch points where off camber can put you sideways into a tree if you F-up. Some minor rock crawling in the WA funny rocks. But admittedly I'm absolutely horrible about stopping to take photos, so I don't have many pics of the varying terrain. Many of the forest trails are pretty narrow with little to no turn-around points and are low speed technical, real exiting when things go sideways in there.

Here is my Tacoma on some rock areas on the trail, this was brand new before the first oil change:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIHAhINLRfI

 

Maybe you've already bought your wheels, but in case you are still shopping:

The AEV Savegre II is 31 pounds (so a little lighter than the AEV Pintler which is listed at 35 pounds). Both have a +25mm offset, which AEV recommends for 12.5" wide tires (35s or 37s) on Gladiators, and both have a load rating of 2,400 pounds. Both are priced at $260 per wheel.

One you haven't mentioned is the Method 703 which has the same offset as the AEV wheels (+25mm). These weigh 30 pounds; and the load rating is 2,650 pounds. These are around $275 per wheel. One pound lighter, and a little stronger than the Savegre.

Yeah, the Volk racing wheels you mention are super light (18 pounds), which is awesome. On the downside, they are not as strong a wheel as the Savegre or Method 703 - Volk doesn't seem to publish the load rating, which is a little concerning. You talk a lot about speed, and you are going with aluminum skids, so it doesn't sound like you plan on building a heavy JT. Are you going to tow much? If not, maybe you can get away with the Volks. The +16mm offset should be okay since you want to run an 11.5" tire, not a 12.5" - but what if you end up deciding to go up to a 37-inch tire? Are there any 37x11.5 tires? If you have to go 37x12.5, you'll be getting poke with the Volk wheels. Another downside, as you mention, is price: they are about $750 per wheel. That would really suck if you moved up to a 37x12.5 and wanted to sell the Volk wheels to get a wheel with +25mm offset.

I guess it comes down to how badly you want a light wheel: there is a significant strength and price penalty for those Volks, and they give you a little less flexibility with your tire sizes. That was my .06 cents - up from .02 due to current inflation

You've got a great build going! I've owned a few Jeeps going back to a 1978 CJ-7 - but I've owned more Toyotas. However, I'm thinking about trading in my 2017 Tacoma for a Gladiator, so its really cool checking out your build. Good luck!

 

The annual Christmas tree snow run is a lot of fun. Of course you'd want a truck bed to actually get a tree. That Africa hot was some serious BS, hopefully that was a one time thing. In my TJ we'd do lots of day trails, now we focus on primarily multi-day overnight camping trails.

Pulled the trigger on Method 313 flow-formed wheels in 17x8.5 with +25 offset, at 23.5lbs. Same dimension specs as AEV at a much lighter weight point, and most importantly lighter than stock. Load rating is also 2650lbs. I did decide to go to 37s for a variety of reasons, and will be running the new Ford Raptor OEM 37x12.5r17 KO2s, designed to be lighter and C-load. Just waiting for them to be released to the public. Net gain for the wheel/tire combo from stock 33s to 37s should be around 4lbs per corner.

Vehicle performance is important to me, and that means minimizing weight everywhere possible. I want a built rig that can excel on the trail and still perform on the street. The 1/4" aluminum skids will be drastically stronger than the stock skids, lift the underbelly into the truck to provide higher clearance, provide a continuous smooth surface and replace those laughable stamped cross members with vastly improved stronger steel ones. Net gain on the skids is +10lbs, to replace tin foil with seriously strong full length continuous armor protection. I ran 1/4" aluminum skids on my Tacoma, while that certainly isn't acceptable for the most extreme wheelers, it is plenty for what I do.

The Gladiator is a pretty awesome platform, it does have drawbacks over the Tacoma with the longer length, longer wheelbase/worse break over angle and significantly less storage, not to mention higher price point. But the utilitarian build with top and doors off in the summer is unbeatable.

 

Nice! And thanks for your reply. I think you will be happy with 37s given the added length and break-over angle of the Gladiator. Nice work finding a super-light wheel & tire combo! Love to hear more about your experience with the Raptor version of the 37-inch KO2.

I've been running KO2s for a few years because (1) they are a good all-around tire (only real weakness is mud), (2) they have earned the snowflake for winter use, (3) they have a higher speed rating than most competitors, and (4) they are lighter than most other similar tires. But I run the E-load version which is heavier than the C-load, because I had a bad experience with multiple side-walls getting cut in the past - not with KO2s but with the C-rated version of the Goodyear Duratrac. The E-rated KO2 has burly sidewalls for an AT tire; you have to move to either a Nitto or Toyo AT, or an MT tire to get thicker sidewalls (all of which are much heavier than the KO2).

How do the sidewalls look on the new lightweight Raptor version of the KO2?

 

Is that BAMF’s front bumper? Looking to pull the trigger before midnight to take advantage of the 15% off sale. Got anymore pics you could PM me?

 

Sorry, I’m a little late on this…

Yes, it’s the first BAMF bumper on the market. Technically speaking, it’s a prototype, as he has made a few small enhancements since mine was made.
[EDIT] Woops, thought you meant the Tacoma front Bumper… It is a BAMF bumper. Jerry still hasn’t designed the skid plate for the sway bar disconnect, but that should be coming soon. [/EDIT]

The sale price is totally worth it, and I hope you pulled the trigger.

 

It’s all good. I didn’t pull the trigger. It’s a good price on sale or not. It’s between BAMF and Metalcloak’s frame built bumper. Both good options, and based off my previous dealings with both companies, both good companies to support.

 

I've run many sets of KO2s on my Tacoma. I really like the tire for all the reasons you mention plus they have some of the best sidewall protection available in an AT. Running them in E-load based on your sidewall experience with Duratrac is unnecessary. Duratracs are known to have weak sidewalls with almost no reinforcement, the tire is not well designed for an off-road environment where sidewall abrasion will be an issue. KO2 sidewalls are vastly superior to Duratrac, I'd go with C-load the next tire round. It is also worth noting the KO2s are very quiet on the highway, vs say the AT3.

My issue with KO2s is that their wet weather performance deteriorates rapidly after 25k-30k miles. Seems the tires get harder and in high horsepower applications the rear end becomes way more slippery. In the Seattle area rain is a thing, and the performance drop off is very noticeable. So I usually just flip my tires every 2 years or so for fresh rubber, though now with working from home more that tire time line may be extended.

The new Raptor 37" KO2 leaked photos look just like the standard KO2 tire. There is only a 1.5lb savings over the available D-load KO2s of the same size, so it is likely just small tweaks to the existing tire mold to reduce load from D to C requested by Ford. But less weight is less weight, especially performance robbing rotational weight. And a C-load tire will ride better than D-load. I love the buying power OEMs in the performance off road game place on tire manufactures to produce lighter weight tire options than they would otherwise.

 

Thanks - that's good info on the strength of the KO2 sidewall in the C-rated version. Too bad the timing was just off - I bought five new E-rated KO2s about 6 weeks ago!

 

Seriously? Bestop's soft doors on the highway spend more time pulled away from the vehicle than they do sealed against it. And this isn't even the bad sections on film. The velcro eventually started pulling away and I was concerned I'd outright loose my upper doors on the highway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7Qql_Y6TzI

I showed this to my engineering team and they immediately went into solution mode with inducing leading edge vortex generators to destabilize the laminar flow in order to reduce the low pressure zone over the door to reduce the lift pulling it away from the body. I'll consult my PhD Aero experts before attempting modifying the doors, but the product performance is pretty disappointing.

 

I've been keeping an eye out for these 37s ever since @crashnburn80 brought awareness to them in this thread.

I'm not a vendor, etc...just a regular end user, and I noticed a couple online tire places that have started to list these c-rated ko2s. So I *think* they've just been released (besides being on the Raptor).

I'll look for a sku.

 

@crashnburn80 @memario1214

Does sku # N1496154-99 point to this 37" badboy?