iK0NiK's 2015 TRD OR "Mostly Modest" Build

I was leaning more towards Dakar pack. The Allpros are more expensive and seem like they give a little more lift than what I'm looking for. If I could have a final ride height of 23.5" - 24" I'd be happy.

Does the Allpro pack ride good?

 

I think the Dakar’s and all pros are “all the same” in most regards. If the Dakar’s are cheaper I don’t blame you.

They ride alright, I don’t have any complaints but I just wish I did the expo pack. If I didn’t have the spare 35 on the bumper the standard pack would be just fine I think.

 

Alright BIG things happening.

CVT Mt. Shasta RTT Ordered
AllPro Bed Bars Ordered
Prinsu Cabrac Ordered
CaliRaised 42" Light Bar Ordered

Planning a North Georgia camping/offroading trip the first weekend of November and should have everything in and installed by then.

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1JuhTuxHflXIj8LjtftfMy9kljEdYHGk2

Map to the planned route for November. Almost 70 miles, 40 are off pavement miles. The majority of this is part of the Georgia Traverse with the exception of FSR163 northeast of Helen.

 

Did you get your rears sorted out?

I ended up doing a 2016 leaf pack with only like 3,000 miles + a 3-leaf AAL. It was a good gain, but I've noticed the lift is directly tied to the strength of the stock leaf pack you put the AAL onto. If I did this on my 2+1 stock setup I would be very disappointed.

I'll probably go Darak next if I keep the truck long enough.... quite frankly I'll probably go with a Ram 1500 with air suspension so saggy as springs are a thing of the past. I'm ready for something bigger and a bit more stout lol

 

That's exactly what I noticed, too.

Unless I'm fully topped off with fuel, I'm sitting at 23" hub to fender with the Icon 3 Leaf currently. It's not quite what I wanted (I was hoping for closer to 23.5"), but I love the ride quality. Overall I'm not super happy to be honest. I'm getting vibes in 2nd gear now. I had tapered shims below my factory leaf pack that apparently not everyone has. I reinstalled those tapered shims below the 3-leaf when I installed the Icon replacement AAL, and boom, vibes.

I also thought about just throwing the overload back in, but I've read that ruins the ride quality you buy the 3 leafs for in the first place.

I'm gonna give one more shot at this system by pulling those shims out to see if the vibes go away. If not, I'm like you, I think I'll just end up going Dakar Mediums after the first of the year. I just don't have a lot of faith in the garbage factory leaf pack.

 

Alright, more momentum. Finally was able to get the Prinsu installed. 49,600 on the ODO for what it's worth.




Assembly was very straightforward. I was super worried after reading years worth of horror stories on the Prinsu thread about being shorted hardware and crossbars and such, but everything (I thought) was included and they even supplied a few extra bolts.

Put everything together in the living room floor in about an hour. I'm OCD big time, so I took a lot of time making sure everything was square, and evenly spaced. had every intention of installing this thing this past weekend, but unfortunately I forgot to order the 3/4" leather punch for the weatherstripping in time for the install.

Fast forward to installation day.

The rubber weatherstripping on the roof luckily pops right off with very little force, didn't even need to use a tool. I found all of the 10 (5 each side) pre-tapped factory holes and transferred their position to the weatherstripping so that I'd know where to use the punch. That was honestly the most time consuming part of the whole process.

A small dremel with cutting wheel makes light work of the underside of the weatherstripping. A box cutter will cut off most of the excess material, but there's a small 1/8" wide metal strip that runs the full length of the rubber that will need to be cut so that the punch can make a clean cut. Once that's out of the way, the point of no return is punching huge 3/4" holes in the rubber. I used this punch for the job:

$13 General Tools 1271I Arch Punch, 3/4"es

3/4" LEATHER PUNCH. Worked PERFECT.

Once I had everything ready to go, from there I used the Hershey Kiss size dab of silicone over each factory mounting hole, applied the Prinsu spacer, replaced the weatherstripping, then placed the rack on the roof. Unfortunately I was shorted the 1/4" Flat Washers & Lock Washers needed to attached the Prinsu. Had to make an 8PM emergency run to Home Depot. BIG SHOUT OUT to Mr. @Atrox1529 for helping me with the right hardware. For future reference, 1/4" Fender washers, 1" OD + 1/4" Lock Washers are needed for the assembly.

Once the hardware was in, one final square check was made, and everything was tightened down. All and all, it probably could've been a 2-3 hour job all things total had I been able to devote a full, uninterrupted time to the install. Nevertheless it looks great and I'm super happy. So far no whistles from the rack so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Light bar wiring is next, but that'll be another story.

EDIT: To include the light bar mounting bracket solution.

 

So nice!! ​

 

Thanks! Got a lot of updates to post (tent, light bar, bed bars), but haven't had the time yet. Everything should come together next week before the camping trip.

 

Coming along really well!

 

Annnndddddd RTT is on. CVT Mount Shasta Pioneer Standard, Earth Tone Green.


Got SUPER lucky and managed to snag this one during their "End of Summer 2018" sale. The wife and I made a trip up to Chattanooga, TN to pick the tent up in person. I cannot say enough good things about @Cascadia Tents and their staff. The owner, Bobby, was super helpful over the phone and their branch manager, Tim, was awesome during purchase.

The tent is supported by 2x AllPro bed bars. Prior to install they were cleaned, primed with self-etching primer, and painted with truck bedliner spray paint. I also added 5/16" lock washers to each attachment point on the bed rails to compliment the setup. These things are rock solid, and fit perfectly.

So with this we're all geared up for next weekend's trip.

Quick little timelapse packing up the RTT:

 

What trip? You need to wait a couple weeks and I'll do a day or 2 with you. I gotta go to Cleveland ga anyway in a couple weeks

 

The wife and I are going to be headed up to Helen/ Clayton Thursday through Saturday of next week. Unfortunately we had to plan this one around her school schedule so this was the only weekend we could both get freed up. We will be up again hopefully before the end of the year sometime around December!

FYI this is the route through north GA we are planning on tackling this go round.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1JuhTuxHflXIj8LjtftfMy9kljEdYHGk2

 

Give me a heads up on the next one and I'll try to join you for a couple days

 

You just gave me the route I will be taking on my way to Overland Expo East, let us know what the trail conditions and overall experience is like.

 

Will do!

You got it, sir.

 

Looks like I will be on the trail at the same time as yall, did not realize you were going this Thursday. I will be driving up Thursday to hit this trail and camp before making my way to Overland Expo East Friday.

 

Good deal!

As of right now, we're thinking we're going to push the trip back to Friday thru Sunday. We're keeping a close eye on the weather, but Thursday night through most of Friday looks to be a total washout and we'd like to avoid pitching the tent and camping all night in the rain. Hopefully the rain will have slacked off enough Friday afternoon that we can avoid the worst of it. Nothing is set in stone yet, though.

If you do get up there ahead of me, this is the latest info I know:

• Tray Mountain trail should be OK if you enter from the Helen side off of Hwy 17 north of Helen (as shown on my route plan). At Tray Gap, you'll take the right at the fork, cross the Appalachian trail, then start the descent of the rough part of Tray. My latest info came from a group that did the trail this past weekend. There's some tricky sections, but the descent is OK and a stock 4-runner made it with just AT tires.
• North of Lake Burton, you'll see I have a point labeled where the pavement turns to the red section of the FSR163 trail head. That's the only point on this route I'm unsure of. Google maps says that those two streets do not meet up right there, but you can clearly see they're connected in satellite view. If for some reason you can't get to the south end of FSR163, you can bypass it and continue up Hwy 76 east of Macedonia and still hit Charlie's Creek trail.
• Charlie's Creek is pretty easy. 80% 2WD, but beautiful. There's a few places to camp along the trail that you don't have to pay a camp fee for.
• Tallulah River Road has 3 designated campsites as you head south if you'd prefer more campground-oriented camping instead of primitive camping. Each of those requires an overnight fee, but they do have water and compost toilets available.
• There's a possibility that FSR 32C and/or Patterson Gap Rd. west of Dillard are closed. On 7/31/18 it was reported "Abe Gap Rd / FS 32c leg is closed. If you come in from the west like I did here is a well worn path around the gate that could be mistaken for a hazard marker since the road is washed out. The east end at Patterson Gap Road is gated and impassible so this required a full backtrack to Persimmon Road." On 9/3/18 it was reported "Patterson Gap Rd is blocked off due to a serious washout approx. 8 miles up from Dillard, GA side."
• If 32C / Patterson Gap is closed, you can backtrack to Persimmon Creek Road, travel east & connect into Blue Ridge Gap Rd. which is paved and will also take you right into Dillard. That's our backup plan to get to Dillard (there's an amazing winery there if you or the Mrs are into that.
  

So just in case you make it up ahead of me, hopefully that helps you out. That's all the trail notes I had prepared for the weekend.

 

Trip Report: Tray Mountain & NE Georgia 11/9/2018

Planned route: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1JuhTuxHflXIj8LjtftfMy9kljEdYHGk2

The original intent of the trip was to take the new CVT RTT out for its maiden voyage and to do a portion of the northeast leg of the Georgia Traverse. Unfortunately rain pushed the start date back by a full day, so we ended up hitting the road early Friday 11/9 to start the rainy trip towards Helen. Once we made it to Helen, the first stop was the Tray Mountain trail head. We'd attempted Tray on 2 previous occasions, but due to time constraints and road closures, we were unable to do the entire trail.

Despite the rain, we were fortunately met with some amazing fall colors at the start of the trail.



The first section of Tray, which is the ascent from highway 75 north of Helen, was very easy. 2WD and good music got us to the top of the mountain. About 1/4 of the way in, we were high enough that we hit fog, which continued for the remainder of the trip.




Once you make the split at the top of Tray and begin the descent towards Chimney Mountain Rd, the trail gets very rocky. Nothing overly technical, but you definitely need to pay attention. This starts slowing progress down to a crawl.




About 1/4 of the way down you start to run into the real obstacles Tray Mountain is known for. The first of the off camber sections pop up and picking good lines becomes critical. As always, photos don't do the trail justice, but having suspension stuffed on opposite corners was a regular thing and 4WD was a requirement.




Then you come to what's one of the worst obstacles on the trail. An exposed metal pipe that's rutted away the trial. It's difficult to show how severe this section is, but for reference that exposed pipe is approximately 15" so the dropoff in the right side of these photos is about 2' or more straight down. Luckily previous trail riders had stacked rocks on the shallowest side of the pipe which made the crossing more tolerable. For this section, I had my wife at the wheel while I spotted for her. We were able to navigate the section in one pass, but the drop off over the pipe was still very tricky.







Past the exposed pipe, there's a few more off-camber sections, also very rutted. Here we are at full stuff, almost stuck. Had to use the rear locker here. I was very impressed with the articulation that the factory springs & Icon 3 leaf AAL offered.




The remaining descent from Tray is less technical. There's more rocky areas, a few mudholes, and a huge washout. 4Lo was our best friend until we made it to Chimney Mountain, but needless to say Tray Mountain was an absolute blast. We met a group of awesome overlanders from Miami who were doing the Georgia Traverse. Awesome group of guys who had some amazing rigs.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqAZ5tzHhTo/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet


Due to Tray taking longer than expected we skipped FSR163 and went straight for Charlie's Creek since we were running out of daylight. I've posted a number of photos from Charlie's in the past, so we just booked through headed towards our campsite on Tallulah River Rd. Charlie's has definitely gotten worse since our last ride in April. The rocky side on the West end is a lot more difficult to go up than it used to be. The recent rains made the water crossings slightly deeper, but nothing alarming.

After dodging rain, we ended up setting up camp in the dark and turned in for the night.



Saturday was spent touring Clayton as per tradition. We visited Wander, Reeve's sports shop, and had lunch at U-Joint (all highly recommended). On the tail end of the day, we shot over to the Warwoman WMA to hit the Earl's Ford Road river crossing. While the trail was extremely tame (2wd the entire way no problem), the water crossing was a bit of a challenge. An unfortunate predecessor had chosen the wrong line and ended up dumping the front end off of a rock into a deep pool. The vehicle hand been stranded over half the day according to a fisherman who was fly fishing nearby.




Luckily the super nice fisherman scouted the river crossing ahead of us and found the shallower section to be on the right side of the exposed rocks in the crossing. We didn't catch his name, but whoever you were, you are awesome. No photos unfortunately. The crossing line we took kept us about 12" deep across the majority of the water, but at the very end we dropped off to a section about 1/4 of the way up the doors. Gave the sliders a much needed bath, and us a small scare, but luckily the hole was narrow and we climbed right out of it onto dry ground. Earl's Ford Rd. dead ends at a beautiful section of the Chattooga River. Luckily we had the place all to ourselves.

Night 2 we ended up camping on Earl's Ford Rd. in a nice spot by the river. We made a fire and enjoyed homemade chili. That night it got COLD, like in the 20's cold, but the CVT kept us surprisingly warm through the night



Day 3 was travel home day. Originally we planned to maybe stay a 3rd night and finish the last leg of offroading, but the bitter cold had gotten to us, and some of our gear was still wet from the night prior. An early scouting report mentioned that the section of FS32C we planned to travel was closed due to a washout, and we decided against the additional travel time to check it out. We packed up camp & made the trek back to Columbus.

Overall an amazing trip. I wish we would've been able to do more offroading, but as always, time & weather worked against us. We'll be back soon and hope to complete the remainder of the route another time.

 

I'm planning to do some scouting of popular trials up in northern Georgia next week. So far my trail list includes FSR163, Flatland rd, Charles creek, cashes valley, and possibly tray mtn. Do you have the routes for any these places on gpx files?