Breakin' Bolts Build

Started adjusting the high and low speed on the Elkas from the factory settings. I hope to grab another trailer of firewood rounds now that I can tinker with what might be best with the added tongue weight and pulling load. I imagine it certainly helps when pulling a few thousand pounds in a utility trailer!

The last three days I've been riding one click softer on high and low speed compression from what they came set at... and it's interesting what one clicks of adjustment translates to on the triple-axis butt accelerometer scale!!

Driving a few miles a week down our road means lots of grit and mud thrown up in and on the resi's, so I've been considering picking up a industrial spray bottle for water and soft bristled cleaning brush and leaving them in a box in the bed. Then whenever/where ever I am and want to mess with the adjuster knobs, I can spray water/brush dry grit off them. Trying to be smart and not break stuff...including getting the knob stuck/dislodged due to a grain of sand or grit getting bound up while turning the adjustment knobs.

 

Officially (5 months later!) tagged that custom Hammer Hanger crosstube by @EatSleepTacos

 

Awww yiss! That looks great.

 

so when do you want to swap beds and bumpers? I’ll put you on a layaway plan...

 

2021 swap date availability?!?

 

this truck better be sold by then...

 

Had a blast testing the muddy tracks out at @3pooches place. Thanks for the great time and some snap shots to accompany some shitty in-cab video of a few runs I remembered to take...not sure they're worth much! Makes me wish I grabbed the gopro...always seems to dawn on my after-the-fact.

The trail caravan


Dropping/sliding down the hill while taking a caravan around the trails

 

It was great to meet you Greg! Thank you for coming out!

 

Likewise, great times, great people, delicious food and lots and lots of mud = grand ol'time!

 

So I ran the Elka 2.5s with them all the way "loose" while running around Pooches trails.

When I left the reservoirs were all caked with mud and grasses...made it into a car wash bay and hit the mud coating on the exterior and underside of the truck, but in my rush to getting home, I didn't readjust the resi's and drove the entire 2.75hrs back home in the softest Hi and Lo speed compression settings, no problem, and it was a good test of the different settings and how it impacts the drive.

Yesterday, went to another car wash bay, took a bit more time with spraying and soaping the entire exterior...and realized I also forgot to spray out the radiator, which was holding a decent amount of mud...and also helped with the engine performance I noticed on the drive from work yesterday.

Of course I'm now again messing with what my DD setting should be at...but that's half of the fun of a new suspension, right?!?

 

The Elkas look really good, they are at the top of my list for new suspension.

 

They've been a welcomed improvement and I've not been driving much these days due to injury, but I was dialing in the DD adjustments off the factory settings, leaning a bit firmer on the hi and a bit more softer on the lo settings.

I ran it with the DD setting the first trip around a dirt/mud track and then opened them all the way soft/open and it was a noticable change in the handling/absorbing the bumps.

 

they look really good, I parked next to a guy that had them. The 2.5 cans are huge, sick.
Thats cool you are fooling around with the settings trying to find the sweet spot, it would be good to be able to set them for the street and then open them up for the bush.

 

It's been a while since I've driven the Taco...So long story short, before I was breaking Tacos I was an ace at breaking and dislocating my own bones and tendons!

Spoiler: The long story

so the chronology: At the ripe age of 11yrs old I had my first break...pillow fighting with cousins had a cousin fall and crush my right wrist backward onto the forearm = broke growth plate and dislocated both radius and ulna. 13yrs old @ our all star baseball game, it was a play at the plate and the runner half jumped, half ran into me, cleating me below the shin guard ankle soft protection on my right ankle = broken growth plate. 18yrs old, mountain boarding with a new set of foot hooks...didnt get out of the hooks and spilled hard focusing on feet and not prepping the fall = broke left wrist/hand pisiform and saphoid bones, torn part of my TFCC and then almost a year later had surgery that found 60% tear on my triangular ligament. About 6 years later

...I developed a tenosynovial cyst on the back of my hand...it started impeding my finger flexibility and grip. Had surgery to remove it, or as it turned out most of it.

Spoiler: Surgery Photos - A bit graphic

That was over 9 years ago now.

Jump forward to late May 2020, I woke up one morning with some tightness/soreness in my left forearm...or so it initially seemed that simple, so just started doing stretching exercises and went about my day, figuring I slept on it funny or something.

Spoiler: Blah blah blah

With my past wrist injuries I pulled out the night wrist brace and used them, but two weeks later it was worse off. I wasn't helping myself with my daily drive of ~ 90 mile, lifting our then 6+ month old, throwing her and flying her around, splitting and cutting firewood, etc., let alone I type most of my workday, I got a wrist splint with a thumb splint, since the thumb tenosynovitis became the main culprit and source of pain.

I tried not using my left hand/arm as much as possible, but it continued to get worse and became a constant and increasing discomfort. I'm stubborn and continued using it to the extent I could and doubly stupid was waiting until August before calling the new hand surgeon, which took until

mid September to get in...by then forearm soreness and sides of the wrist pain developed into the reemergence of the cyst (the day before my appointment, no less). Post MRI showed 5 of 6 chambers in my left hand are inflamed, and we planned the surgery approach and goals. Told the doctor cut as long and wide as you need to get it all out...no aversion to adding to/adding another scar to the hand.

Spoiler: Current Inflammation and Cyst

Surgery is next Tuesday, I'll also be getting steroid shots in the remaining 4 chambers to hopefully resolve that tenosynovitis, especially in the thumb. Then it's likely 3 months of rehab to get me back to normal!

 

Post trash run, always gotta flex after dropping the trailer and trash cans!

Guess I'll be contacting KC re moisture in both C2 floods...just from overnight dew.

 

So long, shot before I was breaking Taco's I was an ace at breaking and dislocating my own bones and tendons!

Spoiler: The long story

so the chronology: At the ripe age of 11yrs old I had my first break...pillow fighting with cousins had a cousin fall and crush my right wrist backward onto the forearm = broke growth plate and dislocated both radius and ulna. 13yrs old at an allstar baseball game, it was a play at the plate and the runner half-jumped-half-ran into me, cleating me below the right shin guard ankle soft protection on my ankle = broken growth plate. 18yrs old, mountain boarding with a new set of foot hooks...didnt get out of the hooks and spilled hard focusing on feet and not prepping the fall = broke left wrist/hand pisiform and saphoid bones, torn part of my TFCC and then almost a year later had surgery that found 60% tear on my triangular ligament. About 6 years later

...if you got the chronology of breakage this makes sense, otherwise just suffice it to say I had some trauma and surgery on this left hand...I developed a tenosynovial cyst on the back of my hand...it started impeding my finger flexibility and grip. Had surgery to remove it, or as it turned out most of it.

Spoiler: 2009 Surgery Photos

That was in mid 2009.

Jump forward to late May 2020, I woke up one morning with some tightness/soreness in my left forearm...stretched it out and went about my day figured I slept on it. Worn the night wrist brace, but two weeks later it was worse every morning. I wasn't helping myself with a near 90 mile daily commute, lifting our then 6+ month old, throwing her and flying her around, splitting and cutting firewood, etc., let alone I type most of my workday, I got a wrist splint with a thumb splint, since the thumb tenosynovitis became the main culprit and source of pain.

I tried not using my left hand/arm as much as possible, but it continued to get worse and became a constant and increasing discomfort. I'm stubborn and continued using it to the extent I could and doubly stupid was waiting until August before calling the new hand surgeon, which took until mid September to get in...by then forearm soreness and sides of the wrist pain developed into the reemergence of the cyst (the day before my appointment, no less). Post MRI showed 5 of 6 chambers in my left hand are inflamed, and we planned the surgery approach and goals. Told the doctor cut as long and wide as you need to get it all out...no aversion to adding to/adding another scar to the hand.

Spoiler: Current Inflammation and Cyst

Tenosynovectomy Surgery took place on 17 November, it was successful, the doc extracted this behemoth...twice the size of what was done in 2009, with a matching 6cm incision

Spoiler: 2020 Surgery Results

I got my stitches out today and start what's likely 3 months of PT tomorrow...

 

YUP!

You move your Taco and move onto your T4R yet?!?

I'm making progress...got the "strong hand" wrist flexion about 30 degrees behind the normal/right wrist numbers. The "fun" is starting up now with some strengthening exercises...

Now just trying to schedule some time over the holiday break with my BiL to finally remove the 4degree leaf spring shims...and also coordinating some hunting and wheeling adventures for the rest of the year, as well as for next month.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ock-2006-gx-470-sport-unicorn-edition.692094/

truck has mostly been parted out except the armor and wheels/tires...debating keeping it for a DD, trading for something more fuel efficient (Accord or Camry), or selling and applying the equity towards debt...would really like to have a third car and make the GX my "project"...

 

This is the weirdest description of a JO routine I've seen yet!