reh5108's 4 Banging SHITBOX tUrBo 4x4 Build

I haven't yet. I need new shock bushings and was planning on doing it then.

 

My driver side door handle hasn't worked 100% right for the past few years. It wouldn't unlatch until the handle is as far as it can go and then it would open. Finally decided to look into it and found that there was too much play in the linkage. So I put a piece of bailing wire and it works like new! Redneck engineering at its finest!


20180102_184630 by Ryan Heintzelman - Flickr2BBcode

Added some RGB led light to the topper window. Hopefully the red will attract less bugs when I'm cooking.

20180102_173135 by Ryan Heintzelman - Flickr2BBcode

A fun bonus is the dancing lights! Haha


Tried to troubleshoot why my dash lights only work 5% of the time and was unsuccessful. I have 12.23v at the white connector, 0.8v at the blue connector and 4.68v at the brown connector. I'm guessing I was testing the correct pin. Green/red led to the light sockets on the circuit and comes off the dimmer switch. I did somehow blow the tail light fuse trying to jump the dimmer switch for the dash lights. Not sure how they relate but maybe the led tail light is causing more issues. Going to try and decipher the schematics tomorrow.

 

Those dam 1st gen door handles are a pain. I replaced mine 3times already on the driver side and once on the passenger. The linkage has always been sloppy on mine.

 

Yea I broke two aftermarket handles before going oem. I'm surprised I haven't broke it yet with how hard I had to pull on it. I thought about try to put a small tac weld on it but the bailing wire seems to work fine. Who knows for how long though.

 

Lol at the dance party. Now you and @sander1036 have matching RTT dance parties.

 

Well, new cb didn't help my swr issues. I'm about to give up lol. My next theory is that I'm getting interference from everything being connected directly to the battery. Maybe once I install the fuse block it will solve my issues... I hope

 

Now that you’ve had some wheeling time with the new gears, I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

My main reason for wanting to make the switch is off-road rather than on. In 4L, my 1st gear is too high when I need to crawl, leading to lots of clutch work. It’s pretty exhausting in the rocks. Likewise, 2nd is too high for those situations where you need speed/momentum. (Think steep, muddy hill climb). It’ll end up bogging down on me.

Obvious benefit in 4L moving from 4.30 to 4.88? I really want to make the right decision, especially since it’s such an expensive one.

I’m sure 4cyl, 33s, 5.29s would be awesome off-road, but I’d like to be able to break 60 mph on the hwy. haha.

 

I personally think 4.88s with 33's is a good balance for on road and off road. There are times when I'm off road that I wish I had more gear but it's not unbearable. It's still slow enough for technical stuff though sometimes I wish it was a little slower.

I can't quite remember what my cruising speeds at 75 are but I think it's 3250 rpm. That's right where the power band is with the lce header.

I think my truck is pushing 5000lbs too. When it's fully loaded, I wish I had the 5.29s.

I have run into instances on snowy climbs where I'm hitting the rev limiter in 2nd to try and carry speed. I want to be in 3rd for speed but it doesn't have the beans to pull it so I'd have to shift and once that happens I'm done and usually sliding in the wrong direction.

Another thing to keep in mind is that my truck is at the minimum compression spec if I was at sea level. I'm far from that so it's definitely less than ideal and not making the power it could be.

If I was to do it again I think I'd go with 5.29s and mostly because of the effect altitude has. The high revs don't scare me. When I'm going over passes here I'm often floored around 4500-5000rpm (maybe this is why my motor is dying ) With the 5.29s I think I'd be able to pull hills in 3rd at a lower rpm than screaming it in 2nd.

If mpg is a concern I'm getting around 17mpg. On my most recent trip with a couple of 3.4s I was the last to have my fuel light come on but not by much.

 

Thank you for the feedback. I *think* 4.88 would be the best option for me. Low elev and I don’t carry around a bunch of gear. It all stays at camp.

On the other hand, the only time my truck sees speeds above 60 is to/from wheeling trips so I probably shouldnt let the revs deter me from 5.29s. Not a daily driver. I tow a lot. They would be so great in the dirt. MPG is not a concern at all.








Now that I read through what I just wrote above, 5.29 seems like the better option. Haha Big decision. Thanks again for the input.

 

After hearing of @aero3685 fire stories I figured I should clean up the rats nest I have going. I put every wire I've added into wire loom. It looks much better and hopefully will protect against anything shorting.

I Installed two blue sea fuse boxes. I probably should have gotten just a 6 circuit for under the hood instead of the 12 but O well. I had originally planned to attach it to the factory fuse block cover but then thought it would be a PITA if I ever needed to get in there. So I didn't have any sheet metal on hand so I did some recycling! There are probably a dozen license plates laying around the garage so I put one to use! If I can find some scrap laying around at work I'll make another bracket but for now this will do.

I attached the ground lead at 90° a first and realized it needs to be straight for the cover to fit on. I went to remove the nut only to find the ground stud and nut decide they wanted to forever be as one! So I drilled it out and did some custom dremel work to a carriage bolt I had laying around. Ground it until it was just small enough to fit in the slot then used the nut to cinch it into place so it won't fall out.


20180108_160524 by Ryan Heintzelman - Flickr2BBcode


20180108_210002 by Ryan Heintzelman - Flickr2BBcode



Then I added a 6 circuit block to the bed in the same cubby as the compressor. Hoping to clean up and add some things to the bed next week.


20180108_205944 by Ryan Heintzelman - Flickr2BBcode

This is a mess...

 

How much weight do you tow? I pulled two snowmobiles last winter and it wasn't happy about it but I still made it from A to B. Probably 1500lbs

I used to pull a 15ft fiberglass boat when I lived in Pennsylvania with 33's and 4.30s. I thought it did pretty well other than getting off the ramp. 4.88s, a light truck and less elevation would probably be fine.

 

Nothing crazy. Pull my mower around all summer. Roughly 1200 lbs plus the trailer. Pull a little 14’ alum boat that doesn’t weigh anything. Haul a lot of firewood.

Playing around with a ratio calculator right now. Probably will give the folks at ecgs a call tm and see what they say.

 

*cough* 4.7 crawl box *cough*

 

Haha. You're everywhere I go trying to make me poorer.

I don't know anything about a crawl box (other than that watching Geoff's is awesome), but I do know I do know I would enjoy new gears, so I'm starting there.

 

I need to get one for my lights I'm not running much just a 32 inch bar and about to run two pods and possibly rock lights, just white and actually use them for what there needed for. What size should I get in the sea fuse box for what I'm wanting? I am the same way I don't want all these harnesses every where. Sorry new to this very new to it. Messed with system's before for audio but really never over did it.

 

Sounds like a 4 circuit would be enough with a spot to spare.

 

Thank you.

 

Hopefully weighing my rig tomorrow. Any guesses?

 

4800lb

 

4650