Oliver the Lunar Mist Ext Cab Build, dual cased and double locked

From the pictures above, a few weeks back I ran the infamous Rubicon trail. The truck performed great. The new front locker was a major help on the trail. Lots of steep obstacles that lead to ledges and drop offs.

few things that I noticed after some inspection after the trail were:

• Leaf spring eye bolt came lose and was barely hangings on. (Got that snugger back up)
• My steering rack was making some noise. The bushing are ready to be replaced AGAIN. Going to try total chaos this time as the last few sets of ES have been crap.
  
• My rear axle is shifted toward the driver side of the truck about 3/8”, I believe my centering pins on my leafs are bent. So I’m working with alcan to get a new set of pins as well as potentially getting a new top spring made so that the rear will sit in the right location front to back without having to use the AP relocation plates.
  
• I broke a marker light on the trail, that’s been replaced already
• I broke another valve stem. (Next time I get tires, I will request short rubber stems.)

Lastly, after the rubicon trip it was apparent that I need lower gearing if I want to continue to do harder trails. I have been working on piecing together a spread sheet for dual cases. This won’t be a cheap mod but I definitely could see how it would have made the rubicon trip safer by providing more speed control and crawling abilities, (rather than using my poor man dual case method-pulling the ebrake)

 

Rubicon footage

 

Added some beef to my skid plates to help keep it from bending.

 

Also replaced my rack bushings. Went with Total Chaos bushing this time as the ES ones have not lasted me very long in the past.

 

You'll get much better life out of the TC bushings.
Mine have been solid for 38k miles since I installed them in 2018

 

Okay so just realized I never posted that I ordered everything for dual cases in my thread. I’ve had the parts for about two month now just sitting in the garage. So over the weekend I started putting things together. Also I didn’t take pictures besides on IG lol so here are some screen shots:

 

Threw together a little bolt on mount for either a moto gas tank for trips that require more than 5 gallons of gas (have a Death Valley trip coming up that I need it) and also works with my newer 10 lb propane tank that I have been bringing camping to fuel my propane fire pit(super nice to have to use during fire bans). Both just get strapped in with a racket strap.

 

Not sure how I never subbed but

 

Right on!

 

Since I’m here I’ll make a update:
This week I’ve been working on sound damping the truck and boy let me tell you it’s boring work haha as well as getting my dual cases installed


got this all finished up on the weekend

Tomorrow I have a few goals:

• Pull the rest of the trim
• Pull the carpet
• Pull the drive lines so I can drop them off Friday

Friday goals:

• Drop off drivelines
• Pull my transfer case
• Mate my duals

Saturday goals:

• Test fit
• Make cross member
• Extend wiring harness
• And hopefully get my cases installed

Sunday goals:

• Dynamat the rest of the cab
• Install vinyl floor
• Reinstall trim

Not sure how ambitious those goals are but I think they are doable. Also have some small things like getting fluids and more RTV.

 

May have missed it but what crawl box did you go with?

 

I went with TG adapters, advance adaptors housing, and marlin crawler chromoly 4.7 gears. A little frankenbox. Tried to get the best available option

 

Ambitious af and I love it.

 

Okay I nailed my goals for the day. Got the drivelines pulled. Got the trim off and carpet out. Then got the driver side dynamat and dyna liner in. I’m out of dyna mat at this point but have another box that is suppose to be here today.

 

Okay todays accomplishments:

• Dropped off my drivelines
• Picked up tranny jack
• Got the tcase pulled
• Pulled the rear trans housing and pulled the seal and bearing
• Got the rear trans housing rtv back on the to the trans
• Put on coupling and rtv the seal on.

 

Okay, so goals were not met today. I got a few things done.

• Crawl box on the truck to test fit
• Got the shifter to a place it works and it took way to long
• Got the cross member made

Tomorrow I hope to make more progress

• Throw the cross member back on(letting paint dry over night)
• Get the TCase on
• Clearance the trans tunnel and get the tcase shifter fitted
• Extend the wiring harnesses I think there’s 6 total
• Then pull everything back out to RTV and install

 

Man your gonna need some better brakes once you get it finished .

Are you going to have 3 sticks or 2?

 

Just 2.

 

Why would OP need better brake?