SpeediTurtle's College Budget 96 Taco Build

Just received my dakkar rear leaf pack. They won't be going on for a bit, as it's too cold to do anything right now.

 

@McSaucyWalrus Decided to drive down and meet up with me, @TwinPineMedia, and our other buddy for a quick snow-wheeling/ camping trip. We headed out kinda late so by the time we hit the trailhead, it was already pretty dark. However, the skies were clear and we were able to see some killer stars.

After getting to the main split in the trail, we decided not to go any further due to deep snow and trail closures. We goofed around in a big open area for a bit then set up camp, built a pretty big fire, bs'ed, and enjoyed some brews. T'was a pretty rad night aside from the weird people that showed up and started talking about how aliens had been following them.

The next morning we did some light wheeling around dog valley.

Da boyz

Is it really a snow-wheeling trip if nobody gets stuck?

All in all, it was an awesome quick trip. It's always a good time when the old crew gets back together.

 

It was a fun trip. I'm glad I came down from Oregon to hang out for a few days

What kind of dummy gets stuck on the side of the trail with not even a foot of snow on the trail?



Oh wait.... That's my truck

 

I don't know what it is about camping, but I've ran into all sorts of people like this.

 

Yeah, it's crazy! Even his kids were about it. They kept showing us videos of "the military storing tanks on mars."

 

I cant get over the color of your truck! It looks so good! Super jealous of the cooler and the shell and wheels make it look even better!

 

Thanks man! I can't seem to get away from firetruck red. Everything I buy is that color

 

My favorite is the maroon some fords come in but i really like yours cause it seems to change depending on the lighting haha. Looks sweet and looking foward to watching this build.

 

Yeah it has grown on me. Thanks man, hopefully I can provide some suitable eye candy in the coming months.

 

I'm pretty stoked to announce that my friends and I have a small partnership with ARB/Old Man Emu and Grizzly Coolers. We're doing a big two week trip through Utah this summer and will be filming/photographing the whole thing and providing photo's and video for the different companies to use on social media etc. @TwinPineMedia @McSaucyWalrus my buddy Brett will all be driving their own trucks on the trip, so we'll have a pretty solid little caravan going everywhere. We'll be putting out a couple videos showing what goes on and the different highlights and low points from the trip. Any feedback on what you all would like to see in the video's would be greatly appreciated!

Also, anyone looking to meet up and wheel a bit, feel free to chime in. We don't have any set dates yet, but it will probably be late June/early July. It will be hot as hell but that's what works with all of our school schedules. The plan so far is to head out from Reno to Salt lake, then down to Zion for a few days to hike, do some climbing and take in the scenery. Then from there we'll go to Flagstaff for a few days and to Sedona, and then up to Moab/Canyonlands/ Arches National park. To finish off we'll dip over to Grand Junction Colorado and then back to Salt Lake, then Finally back to Reno. All this is a rough schedule and I'm sure some adjustments will be made. Anyways, it would be awesome to get some feedback from everyone to find out what people would like to see in the videos!

 

Said this on TwinPineMedias as well but if you are near the Las Vegas area or southern Nevada area actually, let me know and maybe we can meet up! Good luck with the trip guys. Looking foward to seeing it play out!

 

Absolutely man!

 

The original plan for this weekend was to head up to Klamath Falls and meet up with @McSaucyWalrus however, plans fell through AKA @TwinPineMedia finally got a lift! So yesterday, we headed to his friend Jesse Haine's place to put it on. Between drooling over Jesse's new crawling rig, Prickle, and goofing around, we finally finished the install(7 hours later). When all was said and done, we were quite famished, so off to panda express we went. We waited there for our other friend then headed off to Moon Rocks. Once there, we did some light night crawling and goofing around.
(I didn't have a tripod so please excuse the nighttime fuzziness)



The next morning, @TwinPineMedia and I awoke to some beautiful skies.

PC: @TwinPineMedia

We ate hearty breakfasts of stale bread and peanut butter and began our day.



stuffed like a thanksgiving turkey




Here are some photo's by the lovely @TwinPineMedia

 

I had such a blast down in Johnson Valley this past week. King of the Hammers is like Burning Man for off-road enthusiasts. It's a week long of dust and badass motorsports. I took way too many photos to post them all, but here's a few of the cooler ones.




Congratulations to Erik miller for taking the win!

 

I hadn't seen my dad in a while so he decided to come up for the weekend. We went to Pyramid lake on sunday, fished for a couple of hours then headed back to Moon Rocks to make camp. My brother and his girlfriend met up with us for our "gourmet" camping dinner of steak and potatoes. We talked by the fire and looked at the stars for a couple of hours then headed off to bed It was a super short trip but it was great to be camping with my dad.
IMG_1561 by Lucas Dodson, on Flickr
IMG_1557 by Lucas Dodson, on Flickr
IMG_1568 by Lucas Dodson, on Flickr
IMG_1590 by Lucas Dodson, on Flickr


I have a bunch of goodies going on the truck soon. I just need to find a free day to do it all.

 

Wow, I haven't been on here in a while. Nothing too crazy to report. Dakars and roof rack are still sitting in the garage. However, last week, bot of my lights went out so I replaced them with the Hella 200mm headlights and threw the osram 85/80w bulbs in. Huge improvement. Also, sliders are coming soon.

 

School has been beyond stressful as of late. In order to calm my nerves, I succumbed to the alluring grip of "Retail Therapy" Dun Dun Duunnnnnn. So here's the outcome.
I had a coupon through summit racing and figured now was as good of a time as any to get sliders. Trying to get them on this weekend.
Edit: excuse the poopy picture

 

I finally got some stuff done!

This past weekend I called up my buddy to see if he was available to help me with my sliders, we started at 8 am sharp on Saturday.
IMG_5535 by Lucas Dodson, on Flickr

Notching out the pinch weld

IMG_5536 by Lucas Dodson, on Flickr

Mock up

IMG_5537 by Lucas Dodson, on Flickr
IMG_5538 by Lucas Dodson, on Flickr

Getting them fabbed up

IMG_5539 by Lucas Dodson, on Flickr

About four hours later we ended up with this; The finished product before paint. My friend did a great job welding them together, and to make it better he only charged me a case of beer

The next day, after the paint dried, we welded them to the frame and strength tested them.
IMG_5547 by Lucas Dodson, on Flickr
IMG_5548 by Lucas Dodson, on Flickr
After a bit of touch up paint this is what it looks like.
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Also, today my cb finally showed up (a few months late) so I got it all mounted up.
IMG_5552 by Lucas Dodson, on Flickr
(excuse the messy truck)

I ordered my extended U-bolts for the dakars, so those will be on within the next few weeks.

 

Beautiful truck! You have some really nice shots posted, what camera do you use?

 

Loving this build on a budget thing, sounds all too familiar

Also, how do you like the spacers out in the desert terrain? I'm thinking about next steps for my truck after the suspension upgrade and love the stance you've gotten with yours.