Official Crawlbox BS thread!

@Speedo Looks awesome!

I'm so thankful for the pics you posted.
I need to move my parking brake cables to the left like you did.
Don't know why I didn't think of that

 

What are you folks using to heat and bend your shifters?

 

MAP gas, roll it around a pipe or put it in a vice and have at it.

 

20 ton press worked pretty good. just used a bushing spacer and the halfmoon side of press block

 

i scratched my head for a few days on that. I ended up grinding down the bracket for the shifter cable and moving it on top of the bracket instead of under it as it was causing issues with the shifter cable. one bolt is holding the parking brake quite well.

 

Might be easier to cut and weld vs trying to bend without a press.

 

Any of you 1st gen guys make a skid for the rear tcAse? I got hung up on it today, think I should give it some protection.

 

I made these out of 1/4" metal and so far haven't hit anything with it. 1 for the VF tcase and 1 for the 2 RF1A case. I don’t like the fact that I'm using the original 4 mounting hole from the thin factory skid mounting location. But once I finish with my built, I'll need up making one out of 3/8" and run it the full length of the trans pan to rear case with frame to frame bracing.

 

Has anyone installed a NWF ecocrawler without triple sticks? I am curious if there are clearance issues with the floor and if the crawl box is going to need to be clocked? I saw something above stating a body lift may be required, but saw they did triple sticks. Just curious if anyone knows about this install without triples?

 

Throwing this out there before I post it everywhere else. I’m picking up an atlas June 4 so will be selling my entire setup.

A340e to inchworm prerunner adapter to trail gear dual cases (23 spline, 2.28 crawl and 4.7main) passenger drop, twin sticks etc

a340f transmission

Trail rough rear disconnect for front digs

trail gear a340f to gear drive transfer cases https://trail-gear.com/drivetrain/transfer-case/adapter-plates/tacoma-t-case-adapter-plate-kit.html

everything besides the trans and adapter plate and rear disconnect are still in the truck and won’t be sold till I have everything to put the atlas in but taking feelers/making a list of anyone wants it. Pm to talk price etc

 

I installed mine with a single FJ shifter. I had to cut the trans tunnel all to shit and sacrifice a cupholder to get it to work. I could definitely see where a body lift around 1" would help because the sides of the transfer case hit the trans tunnel with out the t case clocked but I did without and trimmed/hammered under neath the where it was hitting. If I remember correctly I didn't want to clock it because it would either hang too low or if I clocked it the other way I would have to cut I giant hole in the floor.

 

Thanks for the info, this is good to know. I think I’m going to try to avoid cutting the floor so we’ll see if that ends up being possible

 

Once you cut one hole, you wouldn't mind cutting more hole.

Hurt to cut the first one tho

 

If you're going to use a crawlbox to it's potential, you shouldn't be afraid of cutting holes in your shitbox.

 

First trip report with the NWF crawl box and triple shifters. First off, the gearing is perfect! The clutch is basically now an on/off switch, I only stalled when I was too heavy on the brake, a bit of a learning curve at first but figured it out after a few obstacles. No need to feather the throttle anymore, even on very steep obstacles, just dump the clutch/brake at the same time and it immediately engages and crawls.

One issue I did find though (at it may be unique to my vehicle) is the 2wd/4wd rail bolt of the triple shifter interferes with the body, and when flexed out (which happened quite a bit on the Cleghorn trail) and under throttle, the t-case would get knocked out of 4wd. Keep in mind I have a 1999 4Runner Limited with a rear heater, so Tacomas and other 4Runners may be different, but it is worth checking just in case. My solution would be to either cut the end of the bolt off with a cut off wheel or clock the transfer case, but both solutions require removing the transfer case. I'll be starting a SAS in a few weeks so I'll be clocking it then.

 

@Littles

Have you received your Eco box yet?

 

Negative. Just called them for an update. He said I am close to the top of the list and should be shipping end of next week. They are currently running a batch of VF2s, then they will be switching over to the VF4s.

 

Thought you had a tacobox?

 

I do. But what if it breaks?

 

Marlin never has any issues with any of their products.