Squeaky Penguin's (Trip Reports) Build Thread

17"

Trust me, I know by now....

 

lol, thanks. I'll give that a try cause mine are streaky as a mofo

 

To be perfectly honest. I think this is set 6 or 7.

I remember being pissed off driving up I-70 in a snow storm the day I bought the truck. The wipers were so terrible I could hardly see. Had to stop and buy a set before I even got it home.

So far I've tried

Super cheap Ancos

Mid grade Bosch

Cheapest Rainx

Mid grade Michelin

and a few others. Out of those the basic Bosch were the best.

 

Tweeters installed. Too lazy to improvise a snazzy mounting bracket, so I just flush mounted them. The little shell thing they include actually fits perfect in the hole with no trimming, meaning I can possibly change it in the future if I want the stock cover.

My super delux wiring:



And how it looks:

 

Did some touch up painting on the skids and sliders today. While doing that, I decided to do my rear bumper too. I don't hate chrome like everyone else on here does, but it just looked a little out of place after the front bumper.



Mall crawling pic for the rear bumper:



Also started to make me wonder if I'm beginning to push the 5100's length wise:

 

After a bunch of time searching craigslist, I got an amazing deal today on a brand new set of 245/75/16 BFG Winter Slalom's today. I'm thinking the perfect size for a winter tire would've been 235/85, but I got the set for $400 + a 3.5 hour round trip drive to Meeker. Hopefully will be able to get them mounted on my set of 2nd Gen TRD OR's this week and toss them on. Great timing being were up to about 6" of snow tonight

They look a little small though:

 

Did you have problems with your BFG A/Ts in the snow?

 

Yeah, as far as I am concerned they were down right scary last winter. I ran them under 30psi all winter, but they still didn't perform very well at all.

There's a lot of factors to consider though. I spend several months driving through snow, if I only had to make a few trips I could probably put up with them. I assume the fact they are load range E didn't help either. And I have also read that BFG ATs are famous for getting really stiff in cold temperatures. Most times I couln't get the truck to move in 2wd, and 4wd only helps with starting from stop. I also don't have ABS, and could lock the wheels easily whenever I wanted.

 

Oh yes - 1st Gen. I had to use 4wd in heavy rain to not fishtail here - in part because I had no weight in the back. I had a cap like your picture shows.

The BFG A/T have the little Alpine symbol which makes them "officially" equivalent to snow tires for regulatory purposes (when CalTrans designates chains required except for 4x4 with snow tires).

I was hoping they would perform well, but I recognize that they are an all-around tire, so probably not as good as special-designed snow tires. I might only drive up to the snow once or twice a year though - not frequent enough for a 2nd set of snow tires.

My 2004 had ABS though I think.

 

Nice find man! Should've told me, instead of wasting all that gas I would've went and got them and then you could've met me in Hayden or somewhere. I bet one of my friends was in meeker today and came to town too. Ah well just send me a PM if you ever need help man. I would be more than happy to help

 

I appreciate it man, but I'm not much of one to ask too many favors. Especially fronting that kind of cash.

But I'll keep it in mind If I ever need anything else out that direction.

 

Set of 4 spidertrax spacers went on today to help with rubbing issues with my BFG ATs, and make my winter tires look less goofy.




Good thing I never took a picture of the truck with the little tires on the 2nd TRD ORs and no spacers. Looked goofy as hell. Summer tires back on for the last wheeling trip of the season tomorrow, and then going right back to the winter set.

 

needs 33s

 

Thinking about it. I'll get back to you soon.

 

Got this today. Used XRC10 w/synthetic line. It came with extendent power lines to mount the solenoid under the hood, and wiring to mount a permanent switch. Gonna be spending some time cleaning it up before it goes in the truck.

 

Nice!

Id look into tearing it down and repacking it with grease. Think its common that the grease from the factory for these isn't great..

i have an XRC8 and has worked great so far. guy before me repacked it.

 

Already pulled the drum, and the grease is as tacky as hell. I plan on cleaning it the best I can, repacking it with good grease, and making sure its sealed up nice.

 

Spent the weekend cleaning up and installing my winch.

Started off by opening up and cleaning all of the synthetic line.

Then it was off into the all the gears. Glad I did, that grease was in need of replacement.





One Clean



All cleaned up:



As good as I felt like getting this:



And installed:

 

^Looks good, Squeaky!