ffirg's 02 DC Build

And hopefully you're headed south for fishing. Reds are in thick on the Russian

 

Dude, don't evn get me started on that. That's what I wanted to do but couldn't get anyone that wanted to join. So I'm headed north to do some kayaking around/drinkin beers and enjoying the sun. Might meet up in sutton on Saturday with the rest of the tAKoma group if I have time too. But I have two kayaks on my roof right now haha. That makes tight trails fun.

 

Well that should be fun too. I'm pissed I'm gonna miss the meet. Got called in to work for saturday

 

Truck is lookin good man!

Funny thing is im also thinking about getting some duratracs for all year long driving. And i have some 15" steelies i want to put on. Im pretty much set on getting the 33x12.5s haha. Should me a nice tire for the nasty winters we get. Plus i can snow wheel the shit out of them

 

Thanks!

I'd be super happy with a set of steelies. There's been a few sets of 4runner and FJ wheels for sale on Craigslist though too. Too many decisions haha. Ok seriously, just bought beer and I gotta get outta here. I hate waiting on people to show up!

 

Mike, if you do end up going with steelies, I have a set I painted black you could have for cheap if you're interested

 

For tires.....get what you want but GACK! I hate Duratracs! They might be ok in the snow but From what i've seen from guys running them here in Utah they have very weak sidewalls and the tirewear is aweful. Plus I think they are FUGLY.

If I were in your shoes I would get either some BFG AT's and have them siped for winter. They'd work great I think. If you wanted something more aggressive the Interco Truxus is a killer tire in the snow and great in the dirt too. It would be better in deep snow than the BFG.

 

That's very true. I've heard the duratracs do have sidewall issues. Especially on the load range c tires which is what the 265/75 is.

 

I'm not suggesting he needs a rockcrawling tire. But I think there are better options than Duratracs, even for snow.

 

Care to share?

My thoughts on the duratracs is they are an excellent all around tire that handle well in the amount snow we get up here in BC. We get heavy/Dry/Wet/Icy snow 6 months out of the year so it would seem like a good choice. Running a 2nd dedicated winter tire can be expensive. Sure its the best tire but for the price it seems like it would work out

sorry to threadjack

 

Yeah i mentioned a couple earlier. If you deal with a lot of hardpack snow the BFG AT's with extra siping (have the tire store sipe them) work great on that stuff. For the deeper heavier stuff (as well as hard pack) Interco Truxus are a great winter tire and would be awesome for you guys up there with muddy trails in the spring/summer. Having the tire shop add some extra siping to these would make them even better in the snow. From my experience they are every bit as good as Duratracs in the snow, and not a peice of shit like the Duratracs at everything else.

 

Duratracs are alright in snow and ice. Extra siping would make them better, however that doesn't solve the weak sidewall issue. Also, a 33x12.5 like you mentioned earlier is not going to do nearly as well as a 33" tire that's 9.5-10.5" wide. The 12.5" wide tire will really only benefit you once there's multiple feet of snow to my understanding.

 

It may not do as WELL as a skinnier tire, but ive been told by guys who run 11-12.5 wide tires all winter around here and they say it doesnt make much of a difference. They also work at a tire shop.
Slushy wet snow - A skinnier tire would probably help
But hard packed icy snow like we get - I would expect to see more surface contact and traction




Thanks Adam, I will look into that

 

Thanks for the opinions guys. I'll research the interco tire and read up on it. I've talked to a lot of people up here that absolutely swear by the duratrac, so I don't know who to believe haha.

I don't "rock crawl" but I do go up some trails that are full of boulders. I just got back from wheeling around actually. After a day of driving up very steep rocky and/or dirt trails I was very pleased with my current tires. And right when I was going to say to myself that I don't need new ones, this happened. haha



...Yes, those are kayaks on my roof lol.

Had to get towed out by a jeep after my shitty tow strap snapped while a chevy attempted to pull me out. Got to use my new snatch strap with the Jeep, worked great. Except I didn't use the chafe guards well enough and I saw a spot that got cut a little. Not sure if I should worry about that or not.

 

And here's a couple pics of the leisurely drive before getting cocky and driving though that mud hole haha.

 

The word shit was mixed in with a few other four letter words, yes. Haha. What sucks is I hit the ONLY soft spot in that piece of shit hole. 6 inches to the right was solid ground, and to the left was solid as well. I slid into it coming around a corner. I was going slow enough I probably could have just stopped and backed up but, whatever. Truck, 4x4, what the hell. But I was high centered in the front, all 4 were spinning.

And yeah these pictures don't do it justice. I have some more pics and videos on my gopro but I won't get around to posting those for a few days probably.

 

So I got a quote from a local muffler shop for install of a magnaflow 14 or 18. They said 220 including parts/labor. That seems a bit high to me. Anyone think that's reasonable?

 

I'm not sure what springs I have but my 285's on stock rims rub the frame at full lock, that's it though. I would go tall skinny if I were you. When we did our snow run in sutton all the guys with them seemed to do better than the 12.5's.

 

I bought my 18" Magnaflow myself and a shop welded it on for $100

 

Yeah don't take it in a specialty shop.. IMO take it to a cheap do everything shop.. I mean hell cutting a muffler off with a sawzall and welding a new one on isn't exactly rocket science. You'll be able to hear any exhaust leaks as soon as you crank it up. With the 14" muffler they'll have to weld on an extra 4" or so of pipe.. But still. Call around and get a few more quotes I'm sure you can get a better deal. I got my magnaflow 14" for 80 bucks off Amazon. I got it welded on for 60 and honestly I paid too much

Edit: here's a blurry pic of the extra piping they had to weld on, and yes the dumb SOB's welded it on backwards. They're lucky this muffler is a straight thru design.