Zam15's Adventure Build

I dig as well. I say do it.

 

Ugh, leave it to Amazon to mess up my order and send the bracket mounted LEDs instead..

 

I'm trying another seller. Picking up a set of these to go where the ARB logo is

And a set of these to replace the blinkers. Should act as a decent fog, ditch, camp lights They'll give me much wider front coverage at the intend angle. I have also seen a few people mount the lights on the bumper wings...
The turn signals the ARB comes with are also crap, and I want to get all the mounting holes cut before the bumper goes to powder coat
A little different that my install "LED Light bars in turn signal location on ARB Deluxe Bull Bar"


Also stopped by the shop as they are back open after the holiday, not much progress due to the shut down so I just took another look at everything. The timbren bump stops seem to work great with the new setup! Actually more up travel now because there is not a 10 layer thick leaf spring on top of the axle, that at leas 4-5 more inches... rame plates are also doing their job!

A little rusty from not getting any love... Explorer drilled rotors from Currie for the rear and and you can see the lower links and panhard mount.

Love how beefy the axle is!!! Ready to eat some rocks, the custom diff guard is great, ties into the axle truss great just like the panhard mount. It's all tied in!

 

Now I'm going down a rabbit hole looking at light bars... I'm looking at 20" for the center, I could squeez two, no there in there! Just where to mount... I just need to make sure I hook up the lockers as the LEDs wont get me out of a mud pit..
Depending on how the Nilight pods turn out I'm looking at

$33 Nilight - 60005C-A 20" 126W Spot Flood Combo Led Light Bar Off Road Lights Boat Lighting Fog Light Driving Lights LED Work Light for Trucks, 2 Years Warranty

this can't believe the prices now. I could get 33 of these for the price of one top brand. Reviews seem good.


Well here is the result I am looking for, to add some coverage on the sides that my HIDs and headlights don't currently get.
Here is a good example of a regular light bar vs light bar and two LED pods facing outwards slightly.



Now mounting, bottom, middle or top (top would likely result in tickets without a cover)?

 

How long are your links and where are your CO's going ?

 

I just installed some nilight pods. No complaints so far on the lights. The harness I ordered from them kinda sucks. Some of the wires were to short and some crazy long. Your truck is going to be so awesome when it's done.

 

Nice! I know mine are a different model but the light output should be similar.

 

I'll try and remember to measure the links next time I go check on the truck. I'm curious at the exact lengths myself. They go from the axle to about mid door (rear) door on the truck. Here are some better* pictures. Can probably calculate it out, tire is 285/75R16 As for the coilovers they'll likely get tucked outside the frame, slightly forward of the the axle. At least I believe that is the current plan... Need to fab up some coil buckets.

 

Definitely don't mean to be a troll buddy just want to make sure you have thought of these things and asked these questions....the work looks rad there are just a couple of design elements that seem odd to me based on what I learned when we did my links. I could be completely f-in wrong

I would suggest you ask these questions :

1. If your CO is going outside the frame rail on a 1st gen short bed and right at the axle you are going to have zero room for articulation travel unless they notch your frame to create inboard room maybe ?...seems like your CO will be right at the back of the tire at ride height if they don't ? I have 35's on a short bed with my CO's on the links and my tire BARELY clears the CO when articulated...Your CO is going to be behind the tire...make sense ? Here is what mine looks like :



2. That panhard bar is really short so your rear axle is going to have a lot of left to right movement as your suspension cycles. A good way to visualize this is to take a piece of string and tie a pen to one end, tie the string off at the length of your current pan hard bar and use that as a compass to draw the radius your axle will travel laterally on - Then make the string a foot longer and draw another radius outside the first one and that will be a good visual representation of how much a longer panhard minimizes that lateral movement. They could have made the panhard about a foot longer it seems which would cut down on that lateral movement. You should get under there and cycle it yourself while it is on the rack to see how much it moves. You and I do very similar baja overland camping trips and even with the length of my panhard when the truck is loaded down and the ass end sags a bit the rear end shifts over 1/2" + to one side...trust me when you draw that radius I described above you'll trip out when you see how much lateral movement your axle is going to have from bump to droop. When I get ready for a trip I jack the truck up and preload the CO's to keep the ride height level to avoid that issue and have the tires even on each side at ride height. It is a weird sensation to get used to at first even just driving down the road you will feel the ass end moving laterally over every little suspension movement.

In this pic you can see how my panhard length was maximized by having it right at the back of the hub on the left and actually outside the frame rail on the right and you can see that with the axle at ride height the panhard bar is as close to flat as possible :



Hope all this makes sense and again not trying to troll just want to make sure you avoid any of this stuff if I am right ?

 

I completely agree with all your points, I had actually thought they were going with a setup like yours and went back after a few months and saw this... Still it looks like it should work, but when I get into larger travel numbers there will defiantly be some side to side. But it appear they replicated the trail-gear 3-link kit, so if it working for others I don't see why it won't here. Shop asked me if I was ok to notch the frame before they started and I told them yes. I don't know 100% how this will end up as the previous guy working it left and now someone new took over.

 

I mean here is the amount of space I currently have between the fame and tire on the drivers side. Currently a little less on the passenger when stuffed. The panhard mount could have been pushed back a few more inches allowing for a longer bar. May look into a sway bar on the rear depending how much body roll I get when all is said and done.

I am also contemplating new tires and maybe different rims as one of them got bent down in Baja and the others have some rock rash and gouges. More backspacing would also help and better fill out the fiberglass. LED pods should arrive tomorrow so I can drop them at the shop and get the mounting holes cut before everything gets sent off to get powder coated.

 

That new rear end definitely gives you some room in there my concern is that your C/O is going to be right behind the tire vs out in front of the tire. Rear sway bars get tricky on a short bed 3 link too, I can't use the type @nfs257 has. Between my panhard mount and bump cans there is no room for the arms to travel. I could only use a custom built axle mounted style sway bar which I am still contemplating playing around with. There is actually a ton of science to sway bar and end link design but luckily there is a ton of info on this here intraweb. I am going to go on the front of the axle and link it to my links where the lower CO mounts. It's honestly not too bad running without one when you get used to it but you definitely want to run as stiff of a spring or springs if dual rate as you can to help with the sway. Between the sway and the panhard movement it feels pretty sloppy at first but when you get used to it the plush feeling is cool.

 

I feel this setup would be able to support a sway bar as the panhard mount would not interfere. But yes every setup has trade offs. I still have the axle setup for a full four link should the need arise but living in CA and keeping it a DD prevent that. I would defiantly prefer a setup that will locate the coilovers in the front corners of the bed but unless they build some trailing arms I don't see that happening. Will be interested in seeing how your sway-bar setup would turn out, think I can picture it. I remember when I first drove around with the front long travel, defiantly have to make an adjustment to your driving style, and I'm super top heavy. May change out my setup in the future to lower my CG a little. Pretty sure this thing will handle like a boat when all is said and done haha

The correct LED pods for the bumper finally showed up! These things feel solid and seem to put out some decent light doing a test hookup.

Can't want to see them installed, will likely drop by the shop Wednesday to see how it looks.

 

So it looks like the lower links are approximately 40" I believe the stock lowers on say a 4Runner will run about 26"


Passenger side bump stop slide nicely into the V


Tight clearance all around..

LEDs will fit perfect! One nearly fits into the pre-existing cutouts, and the pod will fit perfectly where the ARB logo was, not sure why they had the holes cut out there in the first place but it makes the perfect location for new lights without having to cut out much more than what's already there.


This is the shit that really pissed me off a few weeks back... Should be getting new radios swapped back in however. Just pissed they cut most of the wires and use a crowbar to take the radios making it more of a P.I.T.A. to swap anything back in.

It was so clean before

 

Your rear end is going to look sick when it is all primed and painted, the parts look rad. In all seriousness it seems like their shop should have insurance that would replace the damaged dash parts for you ?

 

Thanks! Yea, it'll work and as long as it keeps up with the front I'll be happy for now. I know it will crawl fine but may not be able to get too crazy with high speed desert stuff which is probably a good thing. Just want to get back out again.

They have a rolled taco in the back that they can pull any interior parts they need from. Hopefully getting newer hardware as well, as my head unit is discontinued and they have a new model. More stuff built in so I wont need all the Bluetooth add-on boxes and such. Slightly newer maps will be useful as well.
Having my stereo back was actually the thing I was most looking forward to. Need my jams back!

Bedsides should be getting some updates as well.. Stay tuned!

 

I did the same thing I had the older Alpine AV unit with every add on module and last year I upgraded to the new Alpine App Radio and I love it. The newer Alpine app radios also have a tuning app you load on your iphone and you can adjust and tune everything including time alignment via your phone.

 

Finally had time to toss a quick Baja trip video together! No audio so I added some music, feel free to mute if its not your style.