Trigger the 4 Banger Now with T4R action!

I have full skids and I remember the days without them...never again! LOL

 

T case skI'd for sure.

Wait... purchase of new house?

Text inbound!!

 

This "midsize" truck has been pretty damn clutch during my recent move, including hauling an entire wooden tower playset in one haul. Impressive on and off-road.



Also, my boy Randall down in Tampa finally joined the Taco club with a MGM 3rd gen! I'll tag him in this post once he joins TW and we can slowly suck him in and take all of his free time and $$$$

 

Not necessarily a truck mod, but just received a RTIC 65 in tan on a hell of a sale. Supposed to measure up to a yeti a a fraction of the price. Time will tell. Time to slap some stickers on it and beat it up in the back of the truck!

 

Nice!

 

Been awhile since I checked out the build thread, you were one of the first 2.7 builds I really thought was cool. Thanks for encouraging me to spend a shit ton of money...lol

 

Hahaha. Glad I could be your enabler!!

 

Exactly what I did! Nice build!

 

Thanks man, it's been quite a ride. Very happy with the cooler so far, starting to sticker it up! I had some fun with the baby in the cooler warning tag too.


Edit, forgot the pic

 

I havent even used mine yet. I had been saving all of my good stickers for it.

 

So I blew a headlight the other day and decided I might as well do some sort of upgrade. I had been looking at HID kits for a while, but after reading all of the negatives about putting HIDs in stock housings I decided to give an LED bulb a shot. The cheap bastard side of me got the better of me so I picked up these bad boys:



https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01KFBPBC0/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Install was pretty much plug and play. The bulbs have small cooling fan on the back which made things a little tight so I had to take a couple of bolts off of the washer fluid reservoir and move it to the side a bit. Didn't have to remove it completely though. Driver side had plenty of room by the battery.



Luckily I had a helper



In order for the bulb to fit a bracket with the tabs that you would have on standard halogens has to be removed, installed which is kind of a pain in the ass with not much to hold on too, I found that putting my index finger in the hole helped. Once it's lined up, fasten the clip and slide on the boot.



There are 3 sides to these bulbs, 2 for low beams, and a third on top for the high beams so it is crucial to line it up correctly. To ensure this I turned on the lights and plugged the bulb in before I installed it to make sure I had the LED that did not come on on top. ( I also did a good job of temporarily blinding myself on the first one!)

A side by side of the two. Not a great example, but that's how the timing worked out so...



And the final result. Molly was multitasking at the time



A very technical down my street in the dark shot. I have to say these things are pretty damn bright! Not much difference between hi and low beams, but with the lows being so bright I don't really care.



Another shot. First with the brights, second with the LED light bar added



All in all I think these things are awesome for the price. My only concern at the moment is that they seem to be a little loose after being mounted, and with the added weight on the back I'm afraid they will bounce around. If so I'll find a way some way to tighten them up. Time will tell.

 

Also in my quest to turn my girls into campers this summer I picked up this little gem



By the manufacturing code stamped on the side it was produced sometime bwtween 1965-1969 right down the highway from my hometown of Gas Kansas in Witchita KS. I've got to say it's in pretty damn good shape for 50 years old! I think it was purchased, used for an outing, than tucked away for most of its life. It will be put to good use now, and I love the nostalgia. It fired up on the first try too!

 

Installed an RCI T case skid to finally get full protection of my T case. I really like the RCI design after seeing them on my old mans truck, and would go with their full setup if I were to do it all over again.



Back when I installed the All-pro IFS and tranny skids I had issues getting the tranny skid to fit right. There was a 1 inch gap between the back of the skid and the cross member. I talked back and forth with All-pro, sent pics, measured and remeasured and nobody could figure it out. All-pro sent me some metal spacers and longer hardware and I called it a day. (The All-pro skids are different than most, they tuck up in between the IFS skid and the cross member.) Oddly enough it seems like the cross member is farther back on my truck because when I went to install the T case skid it was pushed back about an inch farther than it should be because the bolts on the rear crossmember were to far back!

After bouncing some ideas back and forth with Molly we decided to just extend the slots at the front of the skid that slide into the front bolts on the questionable cross member. I drilled a couple of 1/2" holes forward of the slots than broke out the grinder and went to work. Some sparks, touch up paint and a big hammer later and we were in. I still want to do a little persuasion and retightening of bolts, but for now it will do the job.

I would really like to know what the deal is with my truck. I don't think it is a 4 banger thing because a lot of guys run the same skids as the V6 guys and I have never heard of this issue. They are marketed as 4 cyl/ exhaust reroute on the RCI site, so it seems to be unique to Trigger. The world may never know....

 

How is the 2.7 life with 285s? Thinking of making the jump myself, but a regear will have to wait until fall. What is it like wheeling with stock gears+285+2.7?

 

Don't know how I missed this post?? It is definitely noticeable with the 285's in day to day driving especially with the weight of the Coopers. Off-road I can't tell a lot of difference in power loss when I'm down in 4 low cause these things pull like a tractor when you drop them down to 4L. Only when my front tires are against a ledge that I need to go up and I am somehow stopped or don't have much momentum, but that can be tough for a lot of setups.

All that said, I am wanting to regear very much myself. Goin to go 4.88's when I do, the little engine just has trouble getting those bigger tires going from a stop sometimes especially going uphill.

I will say that I went from 245 75 16 to 265 75 16 before going to 285's, and I noticed much less power loss going to the 285's than what I did going to 265's

 

Glad to see another 4cyl build! Yeah I'm in the same boat with tire size. I want to regear to 4.88's as well. Just gotta wait for the wallet to recover after spending a good chunk on coilovers and 255's haha. Subed for a sweet 2.7l build!

 

Thanks man! I'm in the same boat, gears are just so pricey. Been looking at some already assembled 3rd members from East Coast Gear supply to do it myself, but I've never torn into a diff so I am a bit nervous.

Congrats on the new lift and tars!

 

DO NOT get ECGS built 3rds. Talk to me when you are ready and have Brian build your 3rds.

 

Thanks for the heads up. Don't want to start have diff problems on the trail. The stock 4.10 isn't all that bad and pretty stout, so I don't want to "upgrade" and end up having a weak link