Squeaky Penguin's (Trip Reports) Build Thread

Aerocatch hood pins. I lost my hood latch with the new core support.

 

Last night's campsite was acceptable.

IMG_1799 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

Only a couple minor issues to address on the rig, so I'm feeling good about that.

More to come.

 

Idk why we subject ourselves to these horrid views time after time...

 

Amazing spot!

 

Yep. It's pretty awful.

IMG_1789-Pano by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

 

Jesus that looks like torture. You poor bastard

 

Holyshit. Awesome work on the engine mounts and core support! I haven’t TW’d much lately. It was cool to read through that whole thing in just a few minutes. Must have seemed never ending while it was going. Haha.

 

That came out well.

 

Thanks man! It was pretty exhausting for sure, especially having a deadline to make a trip. I have a few more items to work on now, but not going to touch it for a few weeks.

 

Any feedback on them? They look cool, I might be looking into them more for another application. Not super concerned with ease of installation, though that is always a factor, but mostly how do you like the feel, how solid to they hold the hood in place? Things like that.

It's looking great and awesome pics!

 

They do look cool, that a big positive to me over pins sticking though your hood.

They're a huge pain to install. It's tough to line up the pin correctly given the arc of the hood, matching them side to side, getting the pins and part that attached the hood to not be in the way of anything else, etc. Took a little fine tuning to get them to slide though the pins correctly too. Good thing with the above panel ones though if you're off by a bit, there's some wiggle room to make the hole a little bigger.

One of my pins broke on the interstate on the drive home. Saw it moving and had to strap down my hood. I see afterwords that they make an 'extreme' version with steel pins and it's the same price so I'm going to blame that one on myself and lack of research beforehand. Luckily the replacement steel pins are relatively cheap.

They feel solid with a nice click in both the open and closed positions. Seems like the dust wasn't helping them though. Going to try to find some dry lube to lightly lubricate them.

Need to rework some new hood bumpers before I weight in too much on how solid the hood is. If you look closely in the last picture of my completed core support, I welded on some tabs for the stock hood bumpers, but wasn't able to get them to work right. Currently researching a better solution for that. I ended up using the bumper that goes over the pin that comes with the kit, and I don't think that's the best solution. I had it working nicely in the garage where you had to push down on the hood to get them to latch, but I believe they settled on my trip, which may be associated with the broken pin.

TLDR: I like them, but it's a bit of a project to get them setup properly.

 

Photo dump - San Rafael Swell

Take a break from reading trip reports online and get out and enjoy it while you can. No telling what might happen to a lot of these roads with new regulations hitting the area. It's an awesome area to explore.

IMG_1732 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1734 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1735 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1737 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1740 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1742 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1743 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1744 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1747 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1755 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1758 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1763 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1765 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1766 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1769 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMAG0863 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1770 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1772 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1773 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1774 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1775 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1776 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1778 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1781 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1782 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMAG0864 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1783 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1787 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1792 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1796-Pano by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1801 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

IMG_1802 by Brett Bjorgum, on Flickr

 

Looks like and awesome trip! I have always wanted to take a few days and explore the San Rafael Swell.
How are you liking those new Cooper AT3 XLT? They seem like a good option for a rig that sees a lot of winter highway miles.

 

Looks awesome! We had a blast down there too. Swell in next place I'll be headed when we go back

 

Fun trip. Hopefully you guys will let me join you one of these days.

 

Awesome awesome photos as always guys. Bummer on that hood pin! Guess making the stock latch work just wasn't worth it?

 

They seem to be working out well. I was pretty impressed with how they performed on the snow when I drove it a bit this winter, quiet on the highway, and holding their own offroad. Drove though mud, sand, slickrock. etc. last week and initial impressions are good.

Need to do more testing though, which I won't have a problem getting to.

Apologies Jake! We'll figure out joining you on the trail again.

Might have been able to make it work with more fabrication. Just didn't want to try lining it up and thought the hood pins were the way to go. At this point I cut the catch off the hood and pulled the cable out, so no going back. I think they will work perfectly with the steel pins and new bumpers though.

 

Happened to wander into the GFC thread this morning and the douchery was strong. I guess part of the human condition is the tendency to want to align into camps, but good grief. It’s like we’re all still in f’n high school or something. What’s next? An Anchorman-style rumble between the GFC bros and the Vagabond bros?!

Anyway, I hope you find a way to resolve the water intrusion issue.

 

FUCK YEA!! looks like you hit up some great areas..recognize most all of them. definitely sucks about the new regulations passed, but it seems like most of the roads will remain even those cherrystemming through the wilderness areas... some of those lesser traveled areas might be at risk though like the overlook spot you were at with the pano. those routes might die off unfortunately. looks like it might get absorbed in the muddy creek wilderness that looks to be getting extended.

 

Wildernest or die bruh! I may have to pop in there...