Laxtoy’s making of the pig

Looking good man! I didn’t even realize you had a build thread for your truck.
Hope all is well.

 

Thanks man! I’m trying to get ready for an Oregon BDR trip in mid June- I’m afraid to post a to do list in case I can’t get everything done.

 

Haha, gotta hold yourself accountable! What’s on the list?

ORBDR in June is bold, especially the northern section. Expect snowdrifts when you get up to 6500’.

 

Yeah, thought of that, but snow packs have been really low this year, 50% of normal, and we’ve had some stretches of mild, dry weather. I figure anything too hairy and we’ll abort that section for a later date especially because we’re rolling solo.

My concern about a later trip would be the fire danger and heat, not that we’d be at too much risk, but if there’s excessive heat or smoke that would be manageable but extremely unpleasant, or worst case, closures. I’d rather deal with cold as a possibility, pack a chainsaw, prepare for the worst than just know the trip will be rough with bad conditions.

We’ll be going from south to north and don’t have an unlimited amount of time either, basically a long week Friday to Sunday, so realistically 8 days on the actual BDR with a day of travel time bookending the trip.

Here’s my list, somewhat ambitious, but some things are not really that important

Camper/truck to do

• Chevy springs, high priority
• Inverter, low priority
• Trac board mounts, high priority
• Cigarette lighter plug, medium priority
• Tailgate lock, metal handle necessity
• Tailgate cutting board cover, medium priority, move fridge slide prior
• Tailgate step, medium priority, cover prior
• box frame, high priority
• refresh engine/valve covers, necessity
• lower control arms, necessity
• Alignment, necessity
• Taco tabs, high priority
• steering rack nut repair, necessity
• Delta joints, low priority
• calipers, rear brake line repair, check drums/shoes, adjust, brake flush, necessity
• lumber rack 100% functional, touchups include angle brace, holes for lashing, t slot rubber trim
• solar panel mount 100% functional, touchups include pivot/brace, flat braces on mounts, pads on mounts
• Wire charge controller, panel
• new solar charge controller, Phocos 15A mppt controller
• 10 awg solar panel extension cord with Anderson connectors, low priority
• Hi-lift mount, necessity
• Rework Jerry can mount, necessity
• Prime Jerry can swing out, necessity
• Paint Jerry can swing out
• Rework swing out latches, low priority (before rear bumper paint)
• Center console, necessity
• paint rear bumper, low priority (after swing out latches, clearance rear bumper)
• cut front bumper side horns, replace front plate, low priority (prior to paint)
• Replace fog lights, medium priority
• Paint front bumper, low priority (after front plate, cutting side horns)
• Mount Lightforce, low priority
• New switch box, wire Lightforce, low priority
• mount ax/shovel, necessity
• Propane tank mount, necessity
• table mount, medium priority, aluminum cut
• floor plywood system, low priority
• remount fridge, low priority, prior to tailgate
• Wire 3rd brake light
• wire Juicebox, necessity
• Clean up wiring to fuse box/2nd battery
• Reign awning/walls, high priority
• fairing, low priority
• Supercharger, low priority
• Clearance bumper at rear tires, low priority (prior to paint)
• Backup camera, low priority
• Seal tailgate, high priority
• Behind seat area, medium priority
• Mount 2nd fire extinguisher
• Repair sill plates

 

Holy moly, that’s quite the list. Sounds like tearing the back end down to the frame is your first step. Heck you might as well french those Chevy springs in at that point, just need to drop the tank.

Agreed on the low snowpack, snow might not be an issue for you. Although once you’re up in the Blues there are not a lot of ways to bypass the trail as I recall.

 

Yes, the list is a bit over the top- been working on things in the evenings after work, I feel confident I’ll get the necessities done and start after some niceties, not sure about the rear though. Wouldn’t be the end of the world, but the T100 springs I’m on are pretty clapped out. They’ve made driving with a lot of weight scary at times.
I do have some advantages that will assist in doing so if I get to it Using a two post lift will definitely help cycling the suspension and hot having to mess with jack stands.

I do plan to French the hangers as well as swap the spring perches and get the pinion angle dialed in. Years ago I tried to recenter the axle by drilling new holes in the stock perches since the T-100 leafs pushed the axle about a 1/2” to the rear, so they’re done and ready for the trash.

From my research so far, I don’t think any section is so far that if it becomes impassable I won’t have the option to turn around and head back the way I came. Plan to bring a Jerry can for fuel and water, hoping to not need the fuel.

I stranded myself many years ago with no winch, no locker, and no radio, and the lesson stuck, so not going to do anything haphazard. Good coms, good maps, backpackers GPS, detail given to contacts throughout the trip, etc.

Now iPhone 14 and newer running OS 18 can satellite text as well.

 

Nice! Two post lift will be super helpful to do all the suspension and frame work.

I haven’t done the BDR from south to north, but the first time I did it going south I filled up in Walla Walla and coasted on fumes into Granite. Which luckily has a seasonal gas station, that happens to have ethanol-free 94 octane. That stuff is like rocket fuel for a supercharged engine.

Did not know about the satellite texting, I just got an iphone 16 so that’s super helpful to know. Thanks!

 

I definitely appreciate the feedback Dan, I may reach out to you pre-trip and pick your brain a bit. I bought the OBDR map, need to sit down and plan the stops, fill ups, etc. I typically average 230 a tank, I figure some of the early sections through the desert will be flatter/straighter so maybe a bit better mpgs, sections with more twists and turns, maybe later sections will be a bit slower going. Not entirely sure, research required, looking forward to that part of it

 

So, it’s been about a month and a half since I last posted.

First and foremost, we started our trip on the Oregon BDR last Saturday, June 14. It was a bit of a mixed bag in terms of what we liked and didn’t. Definitely liked the southern areas better, being in one of the most isolated areas of the US, it really satisfied my desire to get away from people. As we made our way north and hit areas like Sisters and Bend, my anxiety grew and I felt the desire to get away from these places that are nice if you’re into the area, I mean, having the view from your town of mountains in almost every direction (have that in Seattle area as well) and a dirt road leading to dispersed camping almost e everywhere you go is awesome, but they felt like tourist traps and you couldn’t throw a rock without hitting a built out Tacoma, Jeep, or Sprinter (and inevitably some douchebag talking loud on his Bluetooth earpiece on a sales call while tuning his mountain bike).

Because of fatigue, wet weather and impassible routes from snow (just as @drr said), and concern for the condition of the truck and Lone Peak camper and how they were working together, we chose to cut our trip short after the 5th of 7 sections, so we skipped section 6 Detroit to Government Camp and section 7 Government Camp to Hood River (we knew there would be impassible sections in the last stretch).

Our first night on the road was not a pleasant one. It’s a 10 hour drive from Seattle area to Denio, NV, and we were constantly running behind the whole trip where it was stressful and defeating the purpose of the trip.

We ended up in Burns, OR at about 9 pm, still several hours short of the start of the BDR. They apparently had some kind of event going on, so everywhere we looked for a hotel that took dogs or an rv park, all sold out. We ended up sleeping in a Sinclair truck stop parking lot, and needless to say, not a great nights sleep.

That was our jumping off for the trip, heading to Denio to refuel and start the trip several hours late again.

The actual first day and night of the BDR might’ve been our favorite. Denio is a cool little desert town with a lot of character, and the path we set out on from there led us through desert tracks where we didn’t see a person for miles. It was awesome to be in complete isolation. Only downside, so much dust. Dust would be the theme of the trip, and clearly became one of the biggest oversights I made, not sealing the tailgate.

We did a bit of everything camping wise, including rolling into Sunriver (3rd leg of the trip) and just finding a spot in a campground. Regardless of perception, I love the ability to quickly adapt. If we’re in the middle of nowhere, we have 200 watts of solar and are self-sustaining for days. If we’re in an rv lot we have a battery charger for shore power and have leveling blocks and can pop up without worrying about a crappy campsite to set up a tent.

The pic above was part of section 4 heading north on FS Road 4600 at about 6750 ft elevation, not far from the Three Lakes store.

The route prior to that point had a lot of exposure to the sun, but as soon as it started into the shade there were several long swaths of snow. We stopped about a 200 feet short of the spot after making it through a few areas where the trail was covered by snow with little effort. I walked out the trail and got to this point as was like, “nope.” Traveling alone, and obvious to me, no one else (including sport bikes, lots of their tracks seemingly looked for a route around) had attempted the area yet, not going to be the first.

We ended up staying in this spot though and camping, and aside from my wife being cold (her fault, she slept in sweats instead of long underwear in a 20° down bag, should’ve been plenty warm) it was an awesome night. Completely isolated, no moon or clouds so the stars just looked amazing, built a fire, burned up all the wood I cut/split from deadfall around the area, cleaned up the trash the idiots tried to burn who were there before us and left the site in good condition to backtrack our way to Bend and continue on to Detroit lake.

Even with us not doing the complete trip, we considered it a success and more importantly we really enjoyed it (my wife now sees why I love the desert), and considered it a good shakedown run on the truck.

There are some obvious things, such as a truck with 345,000 miles on it and a body that is falling apart, I am convinced we will do the body swap on the truck, whereas before we were on the fence thinking we’d possibly rebuild the other truck and sell it for a good profit and thought, hey, let’s just limp the current truck along, it should be fine.

By the end of the trip, things like the passenger bedside tear opening up a bunch, the bed spreading at the tailgate, that it became obvious the Lone Peak needs to be bolted on (their mounting puck system couldn’t stand up to the abuse we threw at it, the camper moved forward on the bed and both window frames contacted so had to loosen all 6 of the mounting pucks to slide it back), the inner fenders and core support cracks worsening, the custom battery tray that I welded to the left inner fender continues to fatigue/worsening sheet metal cracking, the rear leaf springs are done, just too much abuse before the camper went on, basically the main leaf has been “S-ing”, the need to box/support the frame.

Several miles of the trails we were on I would pull speeds of 40 mph+ because the Fox suspension and new Solo lowers did so well, but along with an insane amount of dust, there was just a lot of jarring on the truck, and we’d hit the occasional whoop or rut and try to slow down but admittedly I took some hits I should’ve avoided.

When we do the body swap, the new truck will be treated with a lot more care to preserve it, and the plan now is to turn the current truck into a flatbed crawler, because it just isn’t going to be worth much when trying to sell.

Fortunately though, the things like the bumper swing outs/latches and the bolt-ons that I fabricated, they stood up very well, which made me happy because when we do a body swap, I know that those will stand up, and I know after we do a body swap, I’m going to do a lot better job of taking care of the new vehicle.

There are also other pluses, how we convince our spouses/significant others at times can be a trial. Take your wife and 2 dogs on a 1500 mile journey over every type of terrain from freeway driving at 75mph to crawling up muddy/rocky trails that tosses the truck around, you can convince her of a lot, so we’ll be getting the Recaro seats I’ve wanted for years to replace the current, and we’ll be putting on 285/75/17’s with wider offset wheels to better the on road driving and a bit more stability in off camber.

I’ve had 295/75/16’s on for about 12 years, and they are awesome off road other than a lot of squatting when aired down, but a narrower contact patch as well as more of an all terrain so the truck gets more usable in the winter, supposed better on road performance/mpg’s because of less rolling resistance, and the increased diameter (maybe only a half inch overall) may get the odometer/speedometer a bit more accurate (currently off about 3%).

I figure I’d start out with a list of what we got achieved on the truck before we left. It was frantic at times, putting in hours everyday after work.

Summer also creates too many distractions, between concerts we purchased tickets for last winter, birthday parties, bbq’s, alumni lacrosse games, baseball games, helping on friends houses I’d promised months in advance, everything tried to slow us down.

• Chevy springs, high priority
• Inverter, low priority
• Stock first aid kit
• Trac board mounts, high priority, ended up strapping to rack
• Cigarette lighter plug, medium priority
• Tailgate lock, metal handle necessity
• Tailgate cutting board cover, medium priority, move fridge slide prior
• Tailgate step, medium priority, cover prior
• box frame, high priority
• refresh engine/valve covers, necessity
• lower control arms, necessity
• Alignment, necessity
• Taco tabs, high priority
• steering rack nut repair, necessity
• Delta joints, low priority
• calipers, rear brake line repair, check drums/shoes, adjust, brake flush ended up not needing to, new lower control arms and steering rack repair alleviated brake pull completely, brake fluid next due to be flushed in 15,000 miles
• lumber rack 100% functional, touchups include angle brace, holes for lashing, t slot rubber trim
• solar panel mount 100% functional touchups include pivot/brace, flat braces on mounts, pads on mounts
• Wire charge controller, panel
• new solar charge controller, Phocos 15A mppt controller
• 10 awg solar panel extension cord with Anderson connectors, low priority
• Hi-lift mount, necessity
• Rework Jerry can mount, necessity
• Prime Jerry can swing out, necessity
• Paint Jerry can swing out
• Rework swing out latches, low priority (before rear bumper paint)
• Center console, necessity
• paint rear bumper, low priority (after swing out latches, clearance rear bumper)
• cut front bumper side horns, replacefront plate, low priority (prior to paint)
• Replace fog lights, medium priority
• Paint front bumper, low priority (afterfront plate, cutting side horns)
• Mount Lightforce, low priority
• New switch box, wire Lightforce, low priority
• mount ax/shovel, necessity
• Propane tank mount, necessity
• table mount, medium priority, aluminum cut
• floor plywood system, low priority
• remount fridge, low priority, prior to tailgate
• Wire 3rd brake light
• wire Juicebox, necessity
• Clean up wiring to fuse box/2nd battery
• Reign awning/walls, high priority mounted older OVS 180° awning, didn’t use once lol
• fairing, low priority
• Supercharger, low priority
• Clearance bumper at rear tires, lowpriority (prior to paint)
• Backup camera, low priority
• Seal tailgate, high priority
• Behind seat area, medium priority
• Mount 2nd fire extinguisher
• Repair sill plates
• Replace carrier bearing

 

A little walkthrough of some of the work done pre trip

Carrier bearing Ugh, nuff said.

Valve covers gaskets
This is the second time I’ve done them. The first I made a huge mistake and put the spark plug tube seals in backwards, which resulted in a lot of leaking as time went on. I put the work off too long, especially for something so simple. I had to use 3 cans of engine degreaser and had to drive up on blocks to lift the front end up enough to get everything, coated the bell housing, rack, diff, heads, burning oil on the exhaust manifolds would smoke at stop lights and stink to high hell.

Admittedly, I didn’t drive it much during this time, last long drive was last summer and things have got much worse since then.

The amazing part is how clean the top end looks on an engine with 345,000 miles.

While I was doing the job, I also replaced plugs, wires and coil packs. I really don’t think it needed new coil packs in hindsight, but it didn’t hurt either.

Steering rack nut repair/rack bushings


Haven’t seen this issue from anyone else, but some time back I had to remove the rack for some reason and when retorquing the bolt, it stripped.

For months I’ve had a longer bolt and a nut on there. Maybe it was fine, maybe it had slop, because I had serious pull to one side. Had to be repaired before I got it realigned post new lower control arms.

What a fucking bitch. Hot metal just raining down with no good angle while drilling out/grinding down the existing nut. On top of that, I didn’t want to put too much heat there because I had the new bushings installed so had to weld then spray quickly. If I have to the rack again for any reason I’ll burn that in, for now, it’s not going anywhere.

Hopefully with a high grade nut it won’t happen again.

Solo lower control arms, Icon Delta Joints, DuroBumps All I can say is wow. Nerdy, I know, j sound like my mother, but damn, such an improvement.

The Solo arms push the lower ball joint an inch, so now magically, the tire rub I had at the back of the wheel well, on the frame at the inside/back of the tires, and the proximity of the tires to the shock reservoir hose is all alleviated. It performed exceptionally of road, multiple times bottoming out the suspension at considerable speed, only contacted the inner fender liner up front where I’ve key it a bit long to protect the rock lights from road debris.

On top of that, the uniball is gone from my upper control arm, replaced with something considerable longer lasting, a greaseable ball joint, so no more pain in the ass uniball swaps.

At the time, my uniballs were ready to be swapped, and when I pulled them there was definite play.

On top of all this, I had done serious pull when braking hard. It would grab the steering wheel and pull it to the left about an inch or so, but the truck would stay straight. I got used to it, but admit, I shouldn’t have. It was dangerous, and I let it go too long.

Trailer tongue locks

It became very frustrating after I initially fabbed up the ax/shovel and the Hi-Lift mounts around a trailer tongue lock I can’t find anymore which had a span that fit a 1-5/8” and a 1/2” pin. I bought probably five or so different iterations of these trailer locks, all that said they had this correct span, and nothing was correct, so I had to deal with it myself.

I at least was able to find a set of keyed alike so I have to only have one key for the Hi-Lift and ax/shovel mount.

I ended up cutting off the end, then threading it for 1/2-13 nut, and welding the knot on, worked out good

Hi-Lift mount

Of my own design, I decided to utilize the t-slots on the Lone Peak.

Turned out good- accessible, out of the way, had to go over cab to clear the side hatch. It’s a little noisy off road, but oh well, what isn’t?

1/2-13 stainless carriage bolt with a 1” long aluminum spacer, lock tighted on and welded up a secure way to mount a trailer tongue lock.

Axe/shovel mount carrier
Trying to keep everything low, I didn’t want to mount these up high for several reasons- potentially dirty, hard to access having to stand on the slider/tire to access, more weight low helps center of gravity, and these get used more frequently than most tools, good for access and simplicity, mounts with 3 bolts and is very secure.

As mentioned, the swing outs held up well to a little of abuse, this was a bit of a trial run since it’s not the lightest method, but it works well for our purposes, even if it’s throwing the dog leash over the shovel handle to keep the dogs in a safe spot.

Propane tank mount
Let me preface this by saying, the mount works excellent. I basically bolted it to the inside of the gas can carrier and increased the amount of bolts holding the gas can carrier to the swingout mount from 4 to 8, so it’s very stout. I made it out of 16 gauge to cut the weight, and it held up very well.

What didn’t work well was the propane tank. I should’ve done my research. I wanted something sleek, lightweight, easily secured, and better volume than a regular 5lb steel tank.

Liquid MARINE tanks are made for horizontal mounting, and are made for sea level applications. Everything in this trip was above 4000 feet, and we had problems from the get go.

Felt pretty damn stupid as I struggled to make dinner.

We ended up being just fine with 1lb throw away tanks. I’ll be mounting 5lb tanks in the future (which I have 2)

Center console
Admittedly a ripoff of a Tuffy 6-1/2” center console, matching the dimensions as near I could.

It’s very secure, stored valuables in there if we left the truck on hikes, but I’ll also admit, it’s pretty big.

In hindsight, I think I’d have made it shorter and not quite as long.

Shifting is a little bit of a learning curve, and what you have in the cup holder matters in terms of height and contact going into 2nd, 4th, and reverse.

Driving position is very comfortable, but I still need to add an arm rest pad.

Arm rest pad or not, the dogs absolutely love it for a place to lay their heads while we’re on the road. Pretty funny, I don’t get much space with a dog head there.

 

Getting ready to go to war
-Solo frame boxing kit
-3/4 ton 63 Chevy springs, RuffStuff kit
-early 90’s rear F-150 18 gallon tank, starting with just the tank to get the spacing/fabrication right.
-New cheapo stock tank skid from Amazon, old skid is okay, rusty and has taken a few hits, whatever.
-enough 1.75x.120 DOM to redo the rear crossmembers/upper shock mounts. I think I can get another 1” out of the shock travel, but even with T100 springs, 10” travel shocks are the limit of the rear axle droop.
-304 stainless 16 gauge 2-1/2” exhaust, Borla muffler
Removing the stock crossmembers has caused the frame to spread ever so slightly, still, figure with the frame box kit and new crossmembers and some well placed gussets, I’ll get the frame tweaked back into shape.

Had more extensive damage on the trip than originally noticed.

What remained of the stock battery tray. Ignoring some of the circular holes, which were spot welds I drilled out from a new tray I tacked on top of the oem one, the oem one was completely wasted. All of the factory spot welds but a few had busted loose.

I’m aware it’s because of how I mounted the battery, basically there is no tie in the the core support like stock, so my mount just rattled itself apart.

I don’t plan to reinvent the wheel too much, especially with it getting more obvious the green truck body it falling apart, but I think with a tie in to the inner fender up high, should stabilize it considerably, and it’ll be 16 gauge and I plan to tack the crap out of it. If it fails again before the red truck body goes on, I’ll know I’ve gotta do something else. Still hope/plan t on make the green truck a crawler, so if all else fails I’ll move the battery behind the cab.
Well, after almost 10 years to the day, the tailpipe I fabbed from mile steel has about kicked the bucket, or at least the JBA muffler (probably close to 20 year old cat-back) and tailpipe hanger I installed finally quit.

I’ve decided to try my hand at welding stainless. Got the filler metal- .030 ER308L, new gas nozzle and a teflon gun liner for my Miller 180, bought a stainless specific blade for my Makita LC1230, got some passivation cleaner for cleanup after, just gotta rent a bottle of tri-mix.

At the end of the day, again, probably could’ve paid someone to do it. All in, with the pipe, hangers, muffler, isolators, welding supplies, probably in $600.


Oh well. I’m also very specific where I want it to dump. This is with the tailpipe shifted a bit, but the shock is close.

The old exit from muffler was pretty set, so I can make the turn toward the tire a bit sooner, and I think I can cut a bit off the pipe off to shorten it from the muffler before the elbow.

I plan to change the shocks up slightly as well, and maybe have a bit longer of a mount. This will push the top toward the front and the bottom toward the back a bit, better clearance. It’ll also get the shocks a tiny bit more vertical, they’re dead on 30° now, so maybe a bit more effective, though they feel great now.

The reservoirs have to change direction so they are facing the front due to the spare gas tank, kind of a bummer since it’s easy to get to the adjusters now. Oh well again, we’ll find a way, and I haven’t adjusted them once since mounted anyway, not sure I care they’re not super easy to access.
And this is just the way life goes sometimes. $130 grinder that’s only a couple years old, broke the lock button (probably being dumb trying to lock it while spinning to free the wheel easy). Still have a cordless Makita and a 25 old Bosch, but need this guy, just a lot burlier.

So do I spend $130 on a new one or buy replacement parts (the “type Y” grease is $25 alone) for $80 shipped? Of course I did lol. Can’t throw away a broken tool, gotta fix that shit.