trekker's taco and Melly's 4R

Lots of progress this weekend. Solar is mounted, wired, and charging the battery. Diesel heater is properly wired into the new system instead of relying on a crappy 12v socket and plug. Accessory switch panel is in place and powered up as well, and I ran an exterior plug from my inverter to the passenger side of the camper - that's where I ran my heat gun for about 20 minutes to run the battery down enough to get a decent idea on solar production. Skies are hazy, the truck isn't pointed at the sun, and my roof rack crossbar still needs to be shifted a bit. That leaves my 400w of panels to pull in around 250w. Now for pics:

 

When are y’all getting to Jambo?

 

We're on our way, save us a spot

 

Stay cool out there. Still need a bigger trans cooler, but this is phase 1.

 

Welp, it finally happened again. Sucks it had to happen 250 miles into a cross-country road trip, but my third rear gear set was already hanging on for dear life as it was.

Replacing thirds is getting old, so I'm ditching the warped axle housing. ECGS D60 is on order, and while I'm under the back of the truck I'm going to toss the old and worn Dakkars with a bunch of Archive Garage goodies to get the new axle set up right.

Time to begin phase one of making this truck bulletproof. Looks like I've got a winter project!

 

Awesome! Can't wait for the updates.

edit: not awesome about blowing up your diff again though.

 

Man I can't wait either. I've grown VERY tired of babying this thing along trying to preserve the gear set. I did all of my moping on Saturday now I'm PUMPED.

SUCKS the truck will be down for a few months though. Shipping lead time on those housings is 60-75 days. Good news is my trans temp stayed below 200° going up the pass into Price, UT. New radiator is putting in work for my heavy truck, but I sill think I'll swap out the t-cooler for a larger one.

 

What do you weigh currently? I was at 7250 for the Moab trip.

 

I'm around 188 nowadays since tearing into the kid's Halloween candy.

Oh the truck! Shit don't get me lyin'... I'm sure it's a lot though. Too much steel and a loaded camper don't help.

 

Yo truck bros, hope y'all had a great Christmas! We definitely had a good time with friends and family.

The last few days I've been hacking up the rear end of the truck installing a bunch of Archive Garage goodies - their hammer hangers, shackles, high clearance cross member, and heavy duty leaf springs. Still waiting on the new axle housing to ship, but at least it's got some fresh beefy suspension to ride on. Finally ditching my flat ass dakars! Rear of the truck still needs to settle - it's about 2.5" higher right now. Keen eyes will notice I left off the bump stops and some of my u-bolt nuts are fubar'ed. I'm not driving this truck on the road with a blown rear gear set, just moving it out of the shop so I can make room to help a buddy out.

 

Looking good! Only thing you need now is a shock relocate w/some 12-14" shocks to go with that shiny new axle.

 

That would be nice! Although I think I can get in enough trouble with the travel I've already got

 

99 days after doing this:



There's now this:



Took my time with the install and didn't run into any big issues. Rebuilt the drum brakes while I was at it and threw in a new u joint at the axle yoke.

I need to wire up the locker before mountain season begins. It'd be nice to get the ox e-locker actuator to work with the stock e-locker switch if I can figure that out.

 

Hopefully the new one holds up better.

 

It ought to.

9-3/4" ring gear, 3-1/2" diameter axle tubes that are 7/16" thick, 35 spline chromoly shafts... this unit is beefy and won't warp like my stock housing did.

 

That's badass.

Any plans for the front/IFS setup?

 

Not right now, but I'm thinking of at least getting some RCVs. Marlin Crawler or JD fab goodies would be fun.

 

Yeah, I'm not sure which I want to do either. Even allpro is coming out with a RCLT copy.

 

Interesting, good to hear more options are in development.

My focus is now on "bulletproofing" my truck. Trans cooler is low-hanging fruit on that list and then I need to figure out a steering rack upgrade to eliminate that weak point.

 

... and the steering rack feeds into your LT plans!