Marcgb91 mid-travel build & adventures

Just updated a few posts now haha, couldnt get away from those graphics.

 

With all of spring & early summer working on maintenance, it was well overdue to go out and enjoy a bit of trail time & send it around corners.

 

July 2023
After spending an obsurd amount of time looking at front bumpers, bouncing back and forth w/C4fab hybrids and prerunner style tube, fabing myself vs buying from someone...
Pulled the trigger a year later w/Kalil Fab prerunner bumper!

Mainly wanted that style, keeping the front end light was ideal (52lbs), most of the trails out on the island are FSR, so a winch wasn't quite a 'must' for now. Big plus for the 1st Canadian taco w/that bumper so far.

Skid plate came in powdercoated black, but ended up wrapping it silver to compliment the rest of color combos, i felt the black made the front end to dark (from photograph persperctive). Shortly after paired it w/ @Baja Designs S8 30" combo... Results:



Now ready for BCOR & Whipsaw.

 

Dude incredible build! Awesome pictures and love the rally content. Will definitely be following along!

 

Thanks! I now realize i'm way behind on my own thread and will need to upload more haha!

Cheers

 

July 2023 - BCOR
Bright and early start of our drive from Comox (Vancouver Island) to catch the first ferry sailing and a must stop to the groups favorite shop in the morning at Overland Outfitters!


BCOR was great, insanely hot weather and dust storms but all together a big win for our group. Pit stop at the Merrit View point.

A little more money spent down the drain, but upgrades everywhere for us! Raffles were never ending, vibes were relaxed.

 

August 2023
Quick trip North Island for some well deserved break

Great group of old/new friends!

Wild to see the warmer weather sucking up all water streams late in the summer still.

Set up with the new 23zero Pellegrin 180* awning - Insane coverage! Well worth the money spent from BCOR.

Late in the evening, stargazing

Time to return home

 

August 2023 - Whipsaw Trail
A long planned trip finally checked off our Bucket list, small convoy from the Island drove over near Princeton, BC to tackle on the Whipsaw trail.

Day 1 - Start the drive from the crack of dawn to catch the ferry (0515am ferry), pitstop at Overland Outfitters for a few last minute purchases & pointers from the crew.
Pit stop along Hwy 93 past Hope.

Starting the trail in the early afternoon once groceries and fuel were topped up in Princeton. Using the BRMB app, we followed our best the predetermined trail loop but completly missing the proper route to Dicks Cabin & a few popular obstacles somehow. Trail was dusty and full of cool spots to stop and sight see!

Using drones to spot trails from above, airing down a little more, we noticed the biggest cloud we've ever seen from a distance. What seemed to be far away but likely not so far at all...Carrying on further, the cloud seemed to never faze away or get any smaller; we then realized that it was the very start of the wildfires that erupted in Kelowna, BC.

As we tirelessly kept driving forward further into the trails, things grew hectic with everyone starting to get hangry, dead radios, missing trail turn offs...The long 19hr day (up since 0330am) had gotten all of us. Finally, Wells Lake, were we all took the time to stop, eat and recovered throughout the night.

 

Day 2 - Whipsaw Trail
Morning kicked out with fancy crepes, strawberries, coffee and all the other goodies! Still sleepy from the long haul, we joked about all the fuckery that happened as we packed and gearing up to leave camp.

Overall the trail was great! Crawling along at a comfortable pace, spotting when needed while some were pushed out of their wheeling comfort zones.

Landing uptop the meadows for lunch, we could get some reception and updates about the wildfire situations. Seems like it just kept growing over the past 24hr. As the coast ahead was projected to be safe & clear, we hurried up and traveled to the next camp.

 

Day 3 - Whipsaw Trail
Higher altitude brought down a little cold weather overnight, although the haze from the wildfires had finally caught up to us as well! Smokey air surrounding us and realizing the "what were to happen if..."

We packed up, made sure everyone's truck were in order and ready to go on safely - official group photo before leaving!

BRMB had the preset trails as a circle loop, dead ends and wrong turns made us realize those were most likely out of date so we pushed through the last few obstacles and got out via Coalmont.
Photo won't do justice as to how steep this was...Shortly after the engine oil light came on due to low oil haha.

 

Few other photos from the trip

Day 3
We opted out to leave the area as soon as we could and not stay the last night in Princeton in case the main hwy was going to close. We enjoyed the scenery as much as we could while staying vigilant of the ongoing fire conditions. Pushing out to Harrison lake area, we tried our best to find a "quiet" spot to camp...Only to realize this is in fact a very accessible & crowded spot for most Vancouverites! The long day made it longer now trying to navigate through Prius and slower sedans on FSR, no headlights or trail etiquette...But we eventually landed to an interesting new place for the evening!


The late ferry gifted us sightings of Orcas along the way, although most of the group were dead asleep recovering from the non stop driving over the past few days.

 

October 2023

After a few months of hunting gremlins, and odd noises, I finally rebuilt the Dirt King UCA with new bushings & ball joints, also noticed my inner tie rods had some play. Steering rack bushings weren't to to bad but figured while i was taking everything a part, might as well upgrade those as well.

Upgraded to JD Fab billet heimed tie rods. Top notch quality once again! no guessing work, everything lined up perfectly, tight tolerances though, had to hammer in the outer heim in the spindle gusset but that may have been from the welding/slight warp or we forgot to account for a small washer/spacer for a little more room to play with.


JD Fab Nylon rack bushings were also great, removing the rack wasn't as bad as most people mentioned, although i had the luxury of working with a hoist. Note that the inner OEM rack bushing sleeve has to be removed as well. Slight bit of confusion on our end as to how it was being pressed in...but eventually all went back to normal, alignment and done!
Steering feels heavy (the good kind), sharp and responsive. Still have a weird clunk every now and then but I'm slowly giving up on that chase.

 

October - November 2023
Getting rid of the Coastal Offroad w/dual swing out, I've been thinking on removing the tailgate and build some sort of tire carrier/gate. Highly influenced from the prerunner/trophy truck looks. I got a few pieces of pipe insulation and loosely mocked up what it could look like when done w/tubing. I could still keep the swing out capability while not having the extra weight on a bumper. Also slowly planning to gear up for Long travel build, if i go towards the Dirt King pre-fab bed cage, i would then fab the rest of the "bed cage" towards the rear end of the swing out to reenforce the carrier.
Now the dilemma, tire facing out or facing in...Note 16x8 wheel on 315/75/16 for size reference.



Took advantage of a sale w/Dirt King and also pulled the trigger on the frame notch/bump stop mounts for later on. Piece by piece gathering parts.

 

December 2023
Group camping trip north of Comox Valley.

Who would've thought backing up 2 trucks with 2x 270* awning would lead to so much cover for cooking...Missing the 180* awning (on the wrong side) but the idea of perfectly parking all trucks together would lead to serious coverage in the event of harsh weather.

Lake side view along the evening.

The following day we pushed further up in the alpine exploring a little more trails unknown to us at the time. I must say, it's a luxury to have the weather system on Vancouver Island; from spring weather in December at lower levels, to finding snow at higher altitude really is nice to pick what you want to play in on a daily basis.

And of course, it's always a good time bashing through wash boards & ice puddles.

 

September~ 2023
Friend of mine had just installed his Dobinson MRR shocks and we felt like we should head over to a local sand pit and test/tune what we could and attempt a few different settings.

Tacoma was also sent air borne the slightest amount.

 

December / January 2023 & 2024
Slowing down for the time being and enjoying as much time off for the holidays as possible. Wet season is among us here on the Island. Constant wind warnings and heavy rain falls with snow up in the alpine & mild temperatures in contrast to the rest of the country.

Snowstorm on Christmas Eve at the top of Mt Washington Ski resort while raining at sea level. The baja designs really helped cutting through the glare and storm. The light pattern (S8 drive combo) and the Morimoto XB gen2 is always interesting to notice in bad weather.

New Years eve fire at the same location as previous photo although mild weather with lots of fog rolling through.

 

Nice build.

Plan on a steering rack upgrade down the road?

 

March 2024
Boxing day deals w/Dirt King, i had bought their frame plate kit to carry on with future long travel build. Most would do all the work in one shot, although the truck being a daily driver and not making thousands per week, I have to do it at a much slower pace. Good thing is more time for research, cross reference builds and products on here. I had also finally received the new C4Fab Rock Runner bumper with single tube that I had ordered in November 2023. Needing to burn off a few last days of vacation, I went ahead to take off the bed, fuel tank and grinded away the frame to prepare welding of the frame plates.

Pre-weld, frame plate location fits perfectly where they should, plenty of holes to access factory nuts & bolts on the frame and evacuating dirt & water.

Few photos with the new bumper loosely mounted. Its very light! i believe ~ 80lbs total, a huge weight savings in comparison to the old Coastal Offroad w/dual swing outs i had, shy of 300lb all said and done once you added the spare & 2x 25L jerry cans + more weight with RTT and camping gear.

Great friend of mine helping with the welds

Moving forward, I decided to also tube/triangulate the crossmember with 2''x0.120 DOM, once we tacked on the 2x frame plates, we cut off the back half of spare tire crossmember, boxed in the crossmember piece and welded in the 2x tubes sideways first. As seen below:

The frame plates also went down forward next to the gas tank in the frame section underneath the back of the cab.

We eventually measured and cut a million times to finish the new crossmember and spray paint the rest.

Overall, we ballparked 30hrs Wednesday & Thursday evenings to remove everything and prep frame for welding by myself. Friday evening we burnt in 75% of the plates and did 1x tube. Saturday we finished the rest of tubing and reassemble alone.
Still need to work out the corner pieces as the single tube has the downward angle and will not be compatible with the previous bumper bed side cut. We have plans to customize the pieces to lift them higher soon! Although currently, it's how she sits. Side note, added new AlphaRex tail lights

 

Potentially! The rack is still doing ok considering the 35s, and everything upfront reenforced & gusseted. driver side has the smallest leak but not losing much fluid, barely noticeable.
I've looked into the HOWE steering pump kit, but I don't think it'll help the current rack if it's ever so slowly going. Tundra rack is possibly the only good upgrade later on, but it's unfamiliar territory & knowledge at this time.

If you have any recommendations I'll gladly take the time to look into it later on though!

 

Update on frame plate & tubed crossmember -
It's been about a week of driving, the reinforcements were noticeable immediately! It's probably hard to compare due to the variety of other set ups & shocks on here; although initial reactions were how stiff everything was. Stiff in what I feel a good way, no frame flex, the bed bounces around slightly over bumps and potholes on the road going slow in town, so I may add rubber shims between the frame & underside of bed or underneath the bed bolt washers. Truck feels more planted and on rails in curves, round abouts. I have yet to have time testing it out in trails though but I'll try to get out in the next few weeks.