Squeaky Penguin's (Trip Reports) Build Thread

Its 10 above up here right now. Not always colder. But it would take at least a day in a heated garage to get all the ice and snow off my truck.

 

Got a couple things today.



Switching out my 2 channel amp to a 4 and got another set of

$59 DB571 5-by-7" Coaxial Speakers (Pair, Black)

DB571 for the rear. We'll see how much of a differnce it makes. I just decided I needed a little weekend project. Haven't done anything to my truck this winter....

 

Spent last night and this morning installing my rear speakers and new amp.

Seat out and old amp:



Back all taken apart:



New speaker installed:



Decided to clean these plastics up they were out:


New amp (Alpine MRP-F300) all wired and installed:


Reassembly went smoothly, with the exception of the passenger side panel not wanting to cooperate. Spend a half-hour screwing around with the clips and not getting anywhere. Just said screw it and left it with only about half the clips snapped in. I've got some work to do to get everything tuned in perfect, but so far I'm loving it.

 

Two two two, two two two

 

Starting to feel a bit closer to spring up here.

882s and some steering rack bushings are due in Friday. Don't know if I'll feel like doing them this weekend, but we'll see. Also deciding if I want to do anything else to the front suspension before I get an alignment.

 

It was nice this weekend, so I decided to work on the truck. Of course the coils sounded like a much better job than the steering rack bushings, so that's what I did. While swapping coils though, I noticed a tear in one the steering rack boots, and a little fluid in there. So, might have to look into an entire new rack. I was thinking back though, In two weeks, I'll have owned the truck for two years, 22ish thousand miles, and haven't had to do any repairs. So a steering rack doesn't sound too bad.

Anyways, here are some picutres for you.





Also added longer top plate studs:




Looks a little funny with the small tires. So, right now I'm sitting at almost exactly 24" hub to fender without my skids. Don't know how much that will drop when they settle and I put the skids on, but I'm thinking I might end up adding a top plate spacer. Who knows...


Oh, and obligatory hand wound, this one was the worst in awhile:

 

Yeah, I read though that. Didn't you get yours off rock auto? Just looked and they only had a few 4WD ones and none that appeared to be made by AAE.

 

Thanks for the info! I'll have to decide what I want to do here before the wheeling season.

And aren't you making a trip out here to Colorado for some real wheeling?

 

Ouch, nice hand wound!
Truck looks good! I bet they hold the skids fine, it sits pretty tall with your bumper as is.

 

Where are you sitting now? I remember reading that with your 882s and no top plate spaces you were at 24.5". So I'm a solid half inch lower, and still have to put on my ~100lbs of skids.

But yeah, looking good, will look better with the bigger tires. It's sitting perfectly level right now, so I should get the rake I want with the shackles.

I'll be at the Moab meet. Certainly keep me updated on your plans. Steamboat's an awesome mountain town that would be great to visit. Stop by and I'll take you up on that beer and take you out wheeling.

Also, you may as well just skip over the entire front range....

.... not much to see there

 

I look forward to meeting both of you and sharing some suds and stories!

I'm still at 24 1/2". I wonder what the weight difference is between bumpers? Looking at your pics the angles of the uca and the lca's look similar to mine. Could also be a variance between my bushwacker flares and the flares you have as far as that 1/2" difference.
Either way I would think that the 882 could handle the skids with no problem. A thin top plate spacer won't hurt anything at all if it's needed and you took steps to prepare for it.

 

X2 on this meetup. Are you going to the moab meet Brett?


Also, my bumper is about 100 pounds, or 30 more than yours, and I'm sure my XRC10 weights a little more than your XRC8. But I agree, there's a lot of factors here so I think I'm in the ballpark.

Sounds good man

BTW, if you don't sell that sleeping platform by the time you make the trip, let me know, I may be interested.

And I don't mean too much by the front range comment. I was born and raised in Fort Collins. Just too many damn people.....

 

I agree it's a little crowded here, maybe a lot, but there is a college campus just a few blocks away and, well, the chicks.

Probably won't make it to the Moab meet, when it is it anyway?

The weight you have now is about what I need to add in skids/sliders I think.
I'd like to come down that 1/2" myself so good to know. Sounds like you're roughly 50-60lbs over mine now?

 

My skids won't go on until I'm ready to wheel again. And also forgot about the sliders, those weight 50lbs a side, but are not solely on the front. So I really don't know. So the 24" measurement is with 40sih lbs more in bumper/winch & sliders.

And he's the info the Moab get-togeather:
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/moab/307112-2014-rock-therapy-official-thread.html


Either way, I'm sure I'll wheel with you one way or another.

 

Painted up the wheels today that came with my 255s. Decided to try yet another option. Stuck with Duplicolor wheel paint, but this time went with Silver paired with their Matte clear coat. I think it looks pretty good.




Also decided to throw the jack under the hitch to get an idea what it would looks like with the 2" lift shackles. Should be close to the right amount of rake:




Then decided to do some driveway snowbank flexing:



882s compress nicely:




And the 255/85s clear pretty well:

 

AAE sterring rack ordered. Thanks for the link Timmy. They had free shipping and found a 5% off coupon for a total of under $250 shipped.

Did you replace the bushings it comes with with the energy suspension ones?

 

Your truck's looking good, squeaky.

 

Thanks man! It's getting there.

I have to imagine it's easier when I can have it on a work bench versus crawling under my truck. I guess you had already installed the ES bushing though. I haven't.

Will also be replacing both outer TRE while I'm at it too. Don't see the point in replacing all that and using the old ones.

 

Dude…studded duratracs. Last forever and we can run them year round. Feel kinda bad about it during summer but CO roads are so bad anyway...