Burt, The Old Man With friends Daryl and Donna

So far I have been loving the 6.0. Off road its definitely a lot of truck but for holding a camper and just eating highway and backroad miles, its something else entirely compared to the other trucks.

 

was gonna ask if the ranger was gonna be sold or turn into the daily. but waaait when did you get married man!?

 

I ask her in the summer on our anniversary, then we eloped at the beginning of November.

 

Daryl got his Bumper!
When building this truck I wanted an ARB Bumper, I just love the looks, functionality and Airbag Compliance.
The Problem was, I had only seen a couple out there, and they were 99-04 trucks so finding write ups and photos that weren't 20 year old ARB photos was impossible for the 05-07 trucks. Online Instructions are nowhere to be found. Stack on top of that, these bumpers are super hard to find. ARB was out over 4 months and only had 1 coming in. So I set about scanning my supplies each day and after about a week one popped up! So I snagged it. Then got a Come Up Seal 16.5RS on the way, and some lights. The Bumper did have a little bit of shipping damage but its an easy fix and this bumper will get beat up if its anything like my other ARBs.

Once the Bumper and Winch Arrived I planned a weekend to put them on.

Its a Big Bumper! But its also a big truck.


First Step is remove the factory bumper, which takes all of 3 minutes, its crazy easy.


We fit the winch to the bar.


A Test Fit to see what needs to be trimmed


Marking and Trimming
Gotta Make all of TW jealous with my Alcan Spring T-shirt I got from Lew since I work with him frequently.


Frame Mounts got fully installed


Installed some Lights, wired the Winch and Mounted the Solenoid.
Ironman Eclipse 5x7, and Baja Designs S2 SAE fog Lights


Lighting test, I still need to install the sPOD for hook up with Ironman Lights but they are crazy bright from testing.


Finished Product.

 

well shit congrats man!

 

Thanks Man!

 

well you waited no time haha looks good man!

 

Well congratulations!

 

Winch Day Sunday
I like wheeling my trucks, so its no surprise they get stuck eventually, or the winches have to come out for my friends.
After this last season of wheeling and with the new Winch on Daryl I had 3 winches in need of tensioning and rewrapping.
Burts had been used a new times over the last couple snow wheeling seasons and forgotten about.


Roger had to pull out a buddy on the last trip that had drive off the side of the road while try to take a picture.



Of coarse the new winch on Daryl needed to be fully tensioned before use.



We had a couple hours to spare on Sunday and went over to a nearby low traffic dirt road with a slight grade to do some winch tensioning.
First up was Roger. The Warn 9.5XP-S is my favorite winch I have used. The line speed is crazy fast and just pulls in my opinion well above its weight range being a super compact winch and still having 100' of line.

Burt acting as a weight, I had my wife drag the brakes to give a good amount of tension on the line.


Next Burt Pulled its way to Daryl, I though about trying to drag Daryl up the hill but doing that for all 80' I think would exactly make the Warn Vr8s happy.
It's a fairly slow winch and not exactly my favorite, and one I would like to replace at some point. But its works and was inexpensive.
With some more brake dragging up the hill Burts line was completed.



Finally Daryl and the Test Run of the Come Up 16.5rs


NOTE: Both the Come Up and the 9.5Xp-s have the last 15 or so feet in red, which makes its super nice when free spooling the winch out looking for an anchor to know when you are close to the end of the line. Leaving 4-5 wraps on the drum at minimum.



Even with all the brakes nearly locked up on Burt up the hill, there seemed like there was no load on this winch. Its nice and tensioned, but it didn't care about whatever weight Burt could generate.

Now all the trucks are prepped and ready for either snow wheeling or this coming wheeling season.

 

And Finally a Comparison Between Daryl and Burt. Plus Burts Christmas Lights.

 

Thanks man!

 

Got in a quick Christmas Eve snow wheeling trip. The snow this year has been pretty low so far but we found some once we hit 9,500-10,500' and enough snow drifts to play around on the side of the roads. I went up with a good friend I often travel with. It was his first time snow wheeling so it was cool to watch him learn how to do it.
I originally dropped the Toyos down to the usual 10psi but eventually went all the way down to 4-5psi to get more flotation out of them.

Originally at 10

Then down at around 5psi (no gauge I have reads all that well down at that point.) But the tires sure work well down there as long as you keep it slow.

The Gladiators first time out in the deep snow. Ultimately we only found snow up to about 3'. I was hoping for more but its not been the best year.

Playing off in the drifts gave us deep enough snow to get stuck. The Jeep pulled line once, I was lead most of the day and playing in the ditches ended up with me using Maxtraxs to get out Twice.


I always go into snow wheeling hoping to get stuck, since that means we found good snow. And hell, you buy all the recovery gear why not get to play with it a few times.

Even the Dog loves getting out in the snow!

 

Daryl's Topper got sold in preparation of Camper going in in a couple months. So we took it out with the dirt bikes and went for a ride.
The suspension needs work when it comes to off road and not airing down for a few miles was rough. Its basically stock suspension with some old adjustable Rancho 9000XLs, airbags in the back and a rear sway bar to really make the ride quality stiff. At this point the Plan is to do a Carli Pintop 2.5'' Kit and stick with the 35s. Which in my opinion is the best riding suspension on these big trucks.

 

Quick morning project on Burt.
I picked up a BackWoods adventure mods box from a customer that didn't want it anymore. While it's a bit large for Burt being 30"x24" by 15" but it provides a lot of sealed locking storage that's super quick and easy to access. With the single cab and open bed. I've been trying to get as much storage as possible for the longer trips
Since I made the driver side swing arm with a bunch of weldnuts, it allows me to put whatever accessories I want on it.


I do have additional taillights to put on the main frame of the bumper so lights will remain visible from just about all angles.

It sticks out a hair less than the Dual can holder I run on most trips.

It has 2 shelves that can be installed at any height depending on what will be put in there.

To minimize the overhang on the taillights, it's a tight fit with the 34, but when I go back down to a 33, it will gain a hair more clearance.

 

We had a nice cold blast and had a couple days down around -12. I don't know if it was the cause or it was just the same time but Burt decided it was time for a new power steering pump. The old one was screaming and after a flush and a couple bleeds it lost all power, so I picked up a new unit and through it in along with all new belt, The old ones got replaced around 35K miles ago, and were still in OK condition. But they will end up being some trail spares since they don't take up much space or weight anything.

 

Daryl Update. Since I can finally post it.
I got this truck around the idea of having a slide in camper for some of the longer trips. This also coincided with a new model coming from Four Wheel Campers, as we are the Colorado dealer I was able to pull some strings and get the first 8' model they have made.
Its the New CampOut model which is a fully Modular unit that you can buy fully loaded, empty or anywhere in between and be able to add any feature to it at any time.
As Daryl sits currently its 6" taller on the roofline than Roger, that will increase in the future.

We took it out for a quick overnight to Pawnee Grassland for a test run.



Last nights Sunset was nice for photos are well.


Interior Shots


4 Person Dinette seating since its a 8' bed model.



Modular Water system using the Dometic water jug and sinks, It was 12 gallons of capacity, and a small grey tank for dishes.



Redarc 1225 in this model and I have a 135Ah Dakota Lithium in it.
Truma Propane Furnace

 

Roger Update.
This truck is going away, With the Project M being sold soon, I talked with my wife and she's wanting to get a new vehicles as well. So after takes a some test drives, we decided a 5th gen 4Runner is gonna be the best choice moving forward to round off what vehicles we "need" But we figured that we need a 4 seater for family and if we need to shoot out to Wisconsin to visit family and aren't camping and don't want to take the big diesel out there. Roger will get stripped back to just a lift, tires and fuel tank and get traded in on whichever 4runner we like the most. But likely by the end of the month, Roger will be gone and we will be starting a build on a 4runner.
I do have a set of Method 701s on order for it already.
Most Recent photo was a couple weeks back ice fishing. This was a -27 morning getting out on the ice at first light, the truck didn't care about the cold and it was nice to be back in my old stomping ground and filling the freezer with the trout.

 

Final Update is a life update. We bought a house. We found a nice house on an acre of land, seperate two car garage with a small shop in the back and storage for dirt bikes, a 2 car carport and a 30x12x10 enclosed carport that is so close to fitting daryl, but need a touch of work to open up the door opening. It was everything we were looking for and extremely happy to have a little space and I am over the moon to have storage and enough space to have a small welding and fab shop for all the random projects I take on.
Its been a very busy last month. I still have only gotta out snow wheeling once this season but hope to get out at least once more this winter.

 

Roger is officially gone, we traded it in on Saturday after stripping it down to close to stock, and extracting around 100lbs of mud from various places.
The Final Photo.



And we traded it in on a 2022 Toyota 4Runner for my wife Delaney. Its an SR5 but in negotiations we were able to have them install heated seats for her.
Of course we both hoped to find a Trail or TRD Off road but it jus wasn't in the budget or easy to find without a 10K price hike or a ton of poorly done mods.

We already have a set of Method 701s on the way for it and initial plans for a 265/70 General ATX that we are picking up on a friends Bronco. Then my plan is that Delaney will learn how to build a rig that suits her needs. As well as learn to wheel, she drove Roger a few times but anytime we got to a harder section she was worried about damaging it and had me drive, so since this is Her vehicle the learning process can continue.
Other mod that We/She deemed necessary and will happen over the next year or two:
Hidden Winch, with Burts VR8S
Dual Battery System and Fridge
Rock Sliders, to fend off door dings
Skid plates
Roof Rack Probably and Awning
2" Lift and 275/70s once she hits the limits of the 265s or wants a bigger tire for looks.
Longer term will be a Swing out rear bumper so we can fit a 24 gallon Aux LRA tank under the back.

"Just the necessities" she has come to enjoy on Roger, Daryl and Burt

 

The Method 701s showed up, I was able to pick these up for a song from a wholesaler that had a set of 4 with had a shipment get damaged. Minor chips on the powercoat and some chips that are internally in the wheel that aren't visible once a tire is mounted. If you know me, I don't let a scratch wheel get in the way of a good campsite or trail, so minor scratch that she can add to doesn't bother either of us.
Plus I have wanted to try these Bead Grip wheels. I've never had issues running low pressure on OEM wheels but I am curious as to the performance of these. On Roger I ran OEM FX4 wheels and went down around 10psi in the sand, Burt ran 15,16 and now 17" Toyota OEM wheels, and on all of them has been around 7psi frequently and on the 15s and 17s alloys, I have run 3-4psi a few times in DEEP snow, all without issues.
The worst of the damage

These will look far better than the SR5 wheels.