utroda's Tacoma (LT, Lckd, 35s) & FJ40 Build (In Progress)

Did a run this weekend, and when we woke up it was snowing. So first snow run of the year!














About 3/4 of the way in theres a off camber hill climb and my uncle in the CJ didn't carry enough speed and slid off the hill into a log. Broke a tail light and ripped his license plate off. Had to use the maxtraxx and winch to get him out. I didn't make it down the hill in time to get a pic of him off the trail, I'll try and get it from someone today.





Heres a pic from the bottom looking up,


Pics from the top





All done at the bottom, back out of the snow and into the rain.

 

Finally got a picture of the jeep that slid off the trail



Sorry for the poor quality, its a cell phone pic someone else took.

 

Awesome build, awesome photography! Love your truck man. Where abouts in the PNW are you?

 

Thanks, I'm located in Ellensburg, basically right in the middle of washington.

 

Ah okay, a little further south then me. I'm definitely subscribing. Lot's of cool ideas.

 

Thanks again!

 

Its a bit late, but wanted to do an end of the year wrap up for 2017. It ended on kinda of a weird note with everything seeming to break.

Finished the year with a elk hunt in mid December where my CVT Tent (@Cascadia Tents) really let me down. First off the tent kept us warm and dry so it did its job. Here's where it let us down,

1) Tent Rails started to collapse after the rough roads (4 trips)



2) Annex rails bent shut due to cover straps going over them and it was so cold we couldn't heat them up to get the annex on this way.



3) Ladder strap hardly connects and came undone on the trip to and from camp.



4) The lower zipper didn't have enough fabric so in the cold we couldn't get the zipper around the buckles because of it. Had to leave the tent unzipped to come off the mountain in rail/snow storm. (don't mind the spider)



For around $3k I was pretty let down by this, and think all of the issues are avoidable if it was better designed or better quality controlled. I talked to one of the CVT people here on the forums and was offered a replacement rail at a discount price. This is a nice gesture and would fix one of the many problems but would yield the same result after a few trips. So I'm designing some steel replacement rail to do the job and will think on ways to fix the rest.

Okay enough with the tent, on to rotopax. On the way out I had the non-locking friction mount fail which caused me to loose a full rotopax of gas. Another shitty event after 2 weeks in the woods. So heads up to anyone running one of these.

Also I picked up some vision-x rock lights earlier in the year from a local dealer (Mule Expedition Outfitters) who said they where super good. What a joke, I truly think my iPhone produces more light than these and after 6-8 months or so on the truck the lights are so stained they hardly work. To anyone looking at vision-x for rock lights run the fuck away, and be weary of vendor recommendations.

And finally the lower uni-balls on my @allpro long travel kit are completely shot after a staggering ... 10K miles. I can seriously grab my spindle and move it up and down about 1/8" - 1/4". I would have figured these would have lasted at lease 20-30K before having to replace. Shit I think a factory ball joint would out last these.
So its all up hill from here right #endrant.

 

Also to anyone that is parting out or has a used FZJ80 for sale please PM me looking for a donor.

 

Do you have a clear photo of the tent attached with it all together showing the slider and bolts connected to the bar on your rack?

 

These are the best photos i have at the moment,

 

What do you need off one? Neighbor has two he is building a rig from so depending what ya need i can see if he has it

 

I'm looking for a complete drive train & motor, power steering going to auto swap the 40 but want to keep it all toyota.

 

96 or 97 though for the full float rear

 

That's a bonus but not required, I just want those for the buggy build.

 

Not sure what he has from the drivetrain but ill ask. I want to say one had a blown engine which was why he got the second one. Dont remember if the other one had the drivetrain or not.

 

Well, you were about 10 days too late on this message:
Coworker HAD '97 80 but not locked, super straight but 300K on the motor, I asked him to let me know before selling as I offered him $5k as is.

He sold it Sunday Feb 4 for $3500 and bought an LR3

 

Cool build! Nice to see a solid build thread with so little BS...

 

Thanks!

 

Damn I would have taken that so fast. 300k isn't much and I would do a full rebuild anyways so not to worried with miles.

Thanks for looking tho

 

Talked to him a bit before work and didn't sound to promising. I didn't realize it but one was in a collision (front drivers side). And the other was ran without oil for a good distance and appears to have cracked the block. But I let him know to keep an eye out for one. He's retired and has fun searching for good deals and parting stuff out so maybe he will find something.