Burt, The Old Man With friends Daryl and Donna

I need to go back and update that list, Currently the suspension is Old Man Emu 880 On the Bilstein 5100s set at the lowest notch. With the weight of the bumper and Winch it was totally fine on 31s and 32s, going to the 33s I did bump it up with 1/4 spacer to add 1/2" lift. so My best guess is that I am sitting around 1.5" over stock height. Rear is an OME Leaf pack however stripped of 1 of the overloads, -.5" lift and 1 middle leaf (that needs to go back in with the tent on there) which would be anohter -.5" of lift. So the rear right now is at maybe 1" of lift.
For 33s I would say 2" front and 1.5" rear should be fine if you are keeping the truck light. Mine sags a bit with the Bumper/Winch and Bedrack/Tent and all my gear in the back. Still drives great just sits visually too low for me on the 33s.
I will go back through and update that first page parts list!

 

I was able to go out in the last couple days of 2023 to get one more trip in Burt before the new year.
We headed up to a local spot above Lyons that is great for a couple hours of wheeling. I really only come up here in the Snow and the hope was to find a couple feet but unfortunately the winter hasn't fully set in so most of the area was only few inches and the most being about a foot deep. This was also the first visit to this area in the light, typically its dark when I get up here after work.

I aired down to my typical ~6psi for wheeling.


Soon we found a fun side hill around some rocks that wasn't too hard but Fun to test out everything in the snow.



Messing around a little further into a trail I ended up sliding off my line on some snow and started tilting a little further to the side that I was expecting to. Nothing super serious but a good reminder of the slide potential of snow and mud.

I ended up just crossing the rut and straddling it.


Then hit a fun rut with a rock on the side that was enough to flex out the truck and make the locker needed. Its actually an obstacle I have done before however I had no clue of the rock being there, it was under 2' of snow last time I was out here and slipped off the rock and and had fight my way out of the rut on the 31'' Duratracs and no lockers.


Overall a Nice Fun day out in Burt

 

Been working on Burt more and more. Last night I went a head and put my OME leaf pack 90% back together. When I originally installed it I pulled out a middle leaf and an overload. The goal was just to keep a softer ride being that truck only had the fiberglass topper at the time, as keep it closer to stock height or around 1'' of lift.
With the removal of the fiberglass topper, adding on the bed rack and RTT, plus 33s and lifting the front another inch, only to about 2 total, the rear end was sitting directly level, with no weight in it, once I put gear for a weekend of wheeling and camping it sagged down bit to much for my liking.
I put in the Middle leaf, which should bump the spring rate up a touch for the weight as well as let the truck sit at 1.25" of rake which is perfect so when I load gear in it should be level. I will grab some photos of the after at some point soon as it was dark once I finished up. It rides slightly stiffer but still softer than other 1st gens I have ridden in.
Empty Before

Loaded Before

 

As its Winter, I always get the itch to work on and go out in the trucks.
My Winter/Spring 2024 Goals List in order of Likelihood of actually Completing them.
*Dual Battery System
*Fridge Cage
*Rock Sliders
*Skid Plates

Dual Battery System
I have a Yellowtop Group 34 sitting in my Garage that I have decided will make a perfect second battery for Burt. I whipped up a designed in Fusion to hold the battery on its side and the ARB Compressor just behind the Airbox. Its a tight fit. I have about 14" of space and about 13.75" of stuff to put there. Its close but it should all fit.


The Mount will cradle the battery on all sides as well as provide the mount for the ARB Compressor. I will send this out to get cut and bent. Then Fit it to the truck and make all my mounting points.


The Second battery will then have a power lead going to the Aux Fuse Box of the truck and power all Aux items. made of 1/4'' Alu.

The Charging will be handled by a Blue Sea ML-ACR. I will very likely run it in Automatic mode and if I need to do a heavy winch or jump start myself I can manual force the combination of the batteries. Its an old school style Dual battery system however I have a voltage boosting fuse to keep the charging voltage at 14.5-14.9 so it will properly charge the two AGM batteries.

I should be ordering the mount in the next couple of weeks and I can build the power system so that the fridge can be run without worry and we are even considering finding a 12v rv heated blanket to use while camping into the fall.

 

Very nice

 

Went out to fine a bit of snow, it's was the perfect depth to just have a bit of fun but some drifts were 3-4' and required some back and forth.

 

I get excited every time you make a post, still waiting on those AFTER photos from the leaf spring install! or any other photos honestly. I'm shooting for a similar lift with 33x10.5r15's on my regular cab.

 

I really need to grab a couple of after photos. This hiehgt Lift and the 33s has worked out perfectly for me. The biggest thing for me is sticking to a stock wheel and no wheel spacers, it greatly reduces Tire rub. But it only works with a narrow tire like the 33x10.50s

 

I imported these Gram Lights from Japan, 15x6.5 +44, have to run a 1.5” spacer to be at stock spec with them. I plan to mount with 33x10.5s. Just trying to figure out what the minimum lift required to fit and run the same bumpers you have.

 

Nice! Those will look killer on Single Cab. Bora makes good spacers but you will wait a month to get them. Spidertrax are also great and are usually much faster. If you measure from the center of your hub to the fender lip I can see measure mine and see how much more lift I am running. My arb had a slight trim job to fit the tires but its hardly noticeable.

 

Finally got a picture of the unloaded height with the additional leaf in the rear.
I had my usual tools and gear in the bed but no camping gear or fridge. The truck sits at about 1.5" rake which is perfect and should have about .5" when fully loaded.

 

I had to trim my bumper as well.

 

This Weekend I installed a Digital Rearview Mirror. The tent on the back of the truck blocks the view out of the back completely, and while I am used to not seeing out of the back of my trucks, I wanted at least a backup camera so I don't end up backing into a tree or rock. It also is a dash cam front and back which I have wanted to put in the truck for a while now.
I picked up the Wolfbox, as its the most prevalent option out there and seems to be sold under a dozen different names, but the reviews were good and I liked the way it installed so I picked it up and let is acclimatize in the garage for a couple of months before I got around to installing it.
First impressions after a day of having it, Its really nice to see out the rear of the truck again. It provides front and rear views if I want. It was easy to install, taking about 2 hours to pull the interior apart to hide all the wires and run the rear camper out to the bed rack. I think the 20Ft rear camera cable would be just long enough for an access cab truck but anything longer and it would be short. I took a pretty direct route and only had about 2' to bundle up behind my taillight.
Time will tell how good it is, I haven't tried to pull any footage off yet and plan to get a better micro SD so it will give the reliability the best chance.
The picture quality is good and is better than it shows up on the photos. Abit better than the current tacoma backup camera quality.

 

I like mine, but every now and then it doesn't automatically turn on. So I have to manually turn it on.

 

That's good to know, Mines in the factory 12 outlet so its should come on in ACC but I will have to keep and eye on it.

 

That is where I plugged mine in as well.

 

After reading a recommendation from @turbodb on the Osram Headlight bulbs I ended up getting a set as an early birthday present from my girlfriend, just in time for a White Rim trip this weekend.
These lights are a MASSIVE improvement even over the Phillips RaceVision H4 bulbs that I had in there. They have a much crisper cut off line, more light down low and reach farther, My guess is the life span will be shorter but it will be worth it for the huge improvement in brightness and usability.

 

How did the bumper turn out? I'm thinking of trimming some of the bottom edge off my ARB.

 

Unless you know exactly what you are looking for its hard to tell its even trimmed, so I would say it turned out great, I have no rubbing on the bumper.
Cut:


Uncut:

It also happens that these photos are almost exactly 4 years apart.

 

Grab a bunch of them, they burn out pretty fast.