Colinb17's kinda sorta build thread - now with 4-link and long travel

oh, gotcha. yeah, that'll make noise for sure. happened to me once mid wheeling trip. it'd a different noise/feel than the ball joint though.

 

alright, pictures......

for anyone doing this, be prepared for that gold top nut on the balljoint (the 1.25 inch nut) to be tight as hell. i hadn't loosened mine in 2 years. took a pipe on a pipe on a 3 ft breaker bar to undo it.


waiting for the new paint to dry after i took out the old bushings and pressed in the new ones.


new bushings, new ball joints, and fresh paint. pretty much new arms.


closeup to show the new boot and new bushing design


Back on the truck, sitting and ride height.

 

Very nice!

 

Glad everything worked out colin! Those UCAs look awfully familiar now...hmmmmm very nice!

 

Well, I got what looked like a dark grey, but apparently a dark grey cap on the spray can actually means silver......

 

Hmm... I didn't get a pm from you

 

huh, bob did mention something about the site being a little out of wack for a little. i'll resend it.

 

You just wanted people to think you had TC!

 

I've been telling people this for 2 years, but never taken a picture to prove it.......here is the proof that LR UCAs will work fine with extended travel coilovers. far from maxing out the balljoint. the coilover is still the limiting factor for drop.

 

Yea man. Agreed 100%. I have been saying the same thing. The shocks (mid travel) will top/bottom out before the LCA BJs see their limit. Couldn't ask for more than that.

 

yup. and the manufacturers know their stuff. they limit the shock travel to what it is because even just a little farther (drop), and your cv binds real quick.

i think they should make 2 and 4wd speciffic coilovers. if they made an even longer shock for the 2wd huys, they could get another inch or so of travel before maxing out the lower balljoint.

 

Got a cool new toy for the truck. Bluetooth OBD2 sending unit.



takes all of the information the OBD2 port provides and sends it to your smartphone (via the "torque" app).
so pretty much a scanguge, but a hell of a lot cheaper, easier to use, easier to read, easier to personalize, and displays more data at once.

the unit was $17 with free shipping off of Amazon (prime), and the app was about $5. there is a free verson of the app, but hell, for $5, why not get the extra features.

just like on the "desktop" of smartphones, there are 7 pages to scroll through, each of which is customizable with any combination of informational displays.

here is my main screen so far



and this is one page over.....should help with the off camber pucker moments while wheeling. i'm curious to see a hard number for the timming threashold for out trucks. i'm guessing about 35 degrees off camber....we'll see next weekend.



there are a TON of other things you can monitor. I have been getting a check engine light on and off in my truck relating to an o2 sensor and cat efficiency. it likes to go on and off when i'm bouncing around wheeling, so i'm pretty sure it's just a loose sensor, however, just to check in on them, i have another screen showing all 4 cat temperature sensors.

so far i love this thing and can't wait to really use it. there are a ton of other features other than engine monitoring, but i have yet to really experiment with those.

so my recomendation is that if you have a smartphone, less than $25 gets you a better and more versitile product than the scangauge and ultragauge (i've played around with both before)

 

$17? Damn, mine was $99

 

they ranged a lot on Amazon. i just read the reviews, and got the least expensive one that didn't have all negative reviews.

 

big wheeling trip this weekend in Gore, VA. last time i wheeled there (last july) i came away from the weekend with two sizeable dents, one in the passenger bedside, and another on the drivers fender. we'll see if i can come away from this weekend a little better off. should help that i've gone from 265 half worn ATs, to 285 full tread MTs

tow strap is prettybeat too, so i have a nice new ARB strap coming in on wednesday

 

Have a swell time....save sum o dat truck fer Oct.!!

 

shoot, october is two wheeling trips away. wheeling again in august if all goes as planned

 

minor update

new American flag vinyls. had to order them off a jeep decal site because they were the only ones with the brains to pring both orientations for two sides of a vehicle.....




I've had a pro comp recovery (tow) strap for a good 4 years. it's been used like crazy and been a great strap, but after years of hard use is a little frayed, so i figured it it'd be a good idea to get a new strap before my wheeling trip this weekend. went with the ARB 8000kg snatch strap.



also got a giant shackle for free last week. we were excavating on our jobsite, when the operator found an old shackle (probably from a crane a few months back). he figured i would have more use for it than him, so he gave it to me

 

went wheeling at the Cove in Gore, VA this past weekend. had a great time with a bunch of land rovers, and a couple jeeps.

I was one of the only people with a camera unfortunately, but here's what i got.

start off with the RTI ramp. little friendly competition with my buddy who drives a land roverdiscovery 2.......IFS takes the win

















some trail action....
for anyone who's been to the cove, the main trails we ran were: Trickle, Wahoo, U-turn, Snake Bite, Moose, and Corum.













































saved me from some trees





































































































sorry about all of thedog pictures.....my girlfriend kept stealing the camera