Betterbuckleup's 2000 taco build & BS

Been meaning to head out there for awhile now. Might have to have you been the tour guide out there now.

@Fernando you wanna go play around there sometime when your truck is perpetually broken and mine isn't always being wrenched on?

 

Hell yea. Always down. It's a cool area.
There's endless trails out there. You could drive offroad all the way to Oregon if you wanted to.

Summer time though if you wanna camp. Way too cold otherwise.

 

Yep. Summertime would be when I'd want to head out there. Camping would be a must since I don't feel like driving 9/10 hours in a day.

 

Oh absolutely. Moonrocks day trip? Fuuuuck that

There's a whole bunch of go-fast terrain out there too, so better make sure your shocks and bumpstops are up to the task

 

Guess I ain't going fast in that case....

 

It's ok. Just air down some more

 

Ha! I don't think I want to air down more than I already do. I sit right around 10 to 12 psi on most trails.

 

lol yea that would definitely be pushing it.
Lowest I usually go is 11-12. Anything lower I just have zero ground clearance

 

Yeah, low psi and c rated tires equal zero ground clearance. 35s should fix that a little bit.

 

I was just about to say you guys need stiffer side walls. I go down to 8 and as low as 6 when needed. That's without beadlocks. lol

As much as I'd like a Moon Rocks trip I suggest we do Sand Hollow instead. It's 4 hours for me to Moon Rocks and 6 to Sand Hollow. Sound like it's time to start planning a trip.

 

Forgot that you have C rated tires. Jeeze, yea no kidding.

35's will definitely do the trick

 

I've been loving these E rated Grabber X3's so far.
Don't you have pitbull rockers or whatever they're called?

Sand Hollow in Utah? That would be 10 hours vs 3 for me lol. But still would be down. I've been wanting to go there. Looks like the rock section of moonrocks, but a whole shit load more of it

 

Yep. Pitbull Rocker Radials. 35x12.5x17 They are the best tire in the rocks I've had. The sidewalls are stupid stiff. I can drive at highway speeds at 10 PSI and it feels fine. lol

There's a ton of shit out there. I've also never been so it's high on my list of places to go.

 

Yeah, Sand Hollow is a 10 hour drive for me. At that point I think I'd rather drive another 4 hours to Moab. Definitely looks like a fun place to wheel and definitely somewhere I need to checkout at some point. I'm probably going to stay "relatively" local since I'm locking the front of my truck and buying new tires before Summer. I also just bought new UCAs, soooo yeah, I haz no moneys.

 

That's what I thought. Yea from what I've heard about those, they're stiff as shit. So that checks out.

Definitely. There's still a good amount of trails in the Sierra's that take precedent for me. But one day I'll make it out there.

 

Not sure if you met my buddy chico. He bought a ranch out in reno. Guess he is about 5 minutes tops from moon rocks. My buddies with the big trucks went last year and said it was a blast. We should deff go play. Truck was going back in next monday, but now the wife wants to go to tahoe for her bday at the end of the month. I'm not sure i trust this place that it will be done in 2 weeks

 

Don't blame ya. Let's hope then that either they work well under pressure or find a diff shop and let them see if they can fix it.

 

Ok enough with this fluids BS.

Changed out the crawlbox gear oil for hopefully the last time for a while after putting another 758 miles on it. Much cleaner than last time. Still a small amount of particles in it, but I figure that could have just been some leftover in the case from the first fill. I'm not too worried about it. Could actually see through it when you hold a light up to it this time.

Filled it back up with a new bottle of conventional

$29 75w-90 Synthetic Gear Lube - 1 Quart (Pack of 2)

75w-90 & topped it off with some of the drained fluid since I didn't have another bottle.



Also finished installing some L-tracks in the bed so that I have some more tie-down points. I was getting really tired of using only the 4 tie-down points in each corner, 2 of which behind my toolbox difficult to get to. Used them this last trip out to Reno and they were super convenient. Way easier to get things securely strapped down in the bed.

I was initially hesitant to drill holes in my bed, but I'm happy with how these turned out and glad I did. They are low profile and shouldn't get in the way of dragging things in/out & around the bed. The L-track system has a lot of accessories and options.

 

I removed my front diff drop spacers since it caused the mounts to ride directly on the skid plate.

The mounting washer that the bolt goes through is cracked because of that.

Also saw that the diff housing itself was contacting the skid plate in it's lowest hanging spot so hopefully that doesn't happen anymore.


Took the opportunity to also reinforce my IFS skid in some places

 

Got a new PCV oil catch can to replace the shitty ebay one that I had that was pretty much a soda can with two barb fittings. This one actually has baffling in it and some stainless steel wool at the bottom to help with additional separation. That and an oil dip stick to check the level. Overall pretty good quality for the whatever 27 bucks it costed on Amazon.

I wanted it closer to the inlet and outlet so that it could actually work properly. With where I had it before, the lines were so long that I believe no oil or vapors were actually able to get to it.

So I made a little bracket out of some 16 gauge & 3/16"s flatbar to hold it off of the firewall. I used an existing hole for the grounding wire that's supposed to connect to the cylinder head and made a new one and put a rivnut in it.

I whipped up the bracket pretty quickly. Didn't wanna spend too much time on it. Nothing to call home about, but does what I need it to do.