Tyler Lacasse's Supercharged 3RZ Dual Cased Fully Locked Long Travel Crawler Build

Ended up working on re-wiring all my auxiliaries and properly fusing everything. All lights work now!

Finishing up the underside tomorrow hopefully.

 

WOW!!!! Guys- I went for the first test drive from San Gabriel to my buddy's place in Chino Hills. 'Bout a 35 minute drive with the decently steep hill around Covina on the 10 freeway. I was able to drive up the hill in 5th gear and not deal with the old auto jumping down and screaming. Not going to lie, it cruised really nice.

Everything worked great. Most important observation- I have more gear reduction with manual trans than auto. Cruising, the truck is running at 3K rpms on the highway. I am on 35s right now, but the 37" tires should bring it down a tad bit enough that I'll feel better about it. With the transmission + cases and the big skid plate bracket and added front differential, the truck definitely feels heavier. No doubt it feels less doggy with the manual trans though. I feel this was a really good change for this 4 cylinder truck.

Real offroad test will be thanksgiving weekend in Barstow desert area near Slash X. I am beyond relieved this all worked out.

Also, I probably should have got the 2" instead of 2.25" I think, but the Magnaflow 18" muffler I got (Part 11255 for you all) actually sounds really good. I expected it to be louder, but honestly I wouldn't do it any different after hearing it. It is barely loud enough you can kind of hear it burbling at idle, and then a mild purr when accelerating and driving. Great balance for a daily I think.

@Dalandser I'll give you a shout sometime this week for this rod ends and I can cruise by!!

 

Holding brake mounted. Not hooked up yet though.

 

Jlmk

 

Truck looks good man!

How'd that trailgear tcase crossmember go in? I'm gathering crawl box parts right now and have been looking at that TG double mount x-member. Seems could make it go in so easy under there... Would you use it again if you did it again? Its a good bit of coin for that thing.... I'm not worried about flat belly or clocking at all so seems it'd be right what I'd want.

 

This thing is F-ing incredible. Plus the Petercar mudflaps instantly sold me on the first page.

 

Thank you man!!

• Only one main thing to consider: It is EXTREMELY heavy. It's completely 3/8" steel. It is a monster.

• Your alternative is one of those mounts that go around the t-case. I don't know if there is a downside to those or not. You'd DEFINITELY have a much better flat belly approach with this setup.

However, for ease and my use I would definitely do it again.

Unfortunately because I am a moron sometimes, I mounted the plate a few inches too far back so the gear driven t-case sits on what should be the transmission mount. It sits about an 3/4" higher and I was wondering why it seemed like my cases were so tight against the body...

I did this because I read in everyone's "manual to auto conversion" that they simply welded another crossmember in front of the old one. I totally see it. But I didn't realize this x-member goes in place of that too. Easy fix to just weld another plate ahead of the original on and move the x-member forward a few inches no problem. I got lucky on an easy fix. So don't do what I did!!

 

I have one and it does the job. I have seen where people have bent them and it hangs down pretty far. I would not get one if I was IFS and just work with the stock cross member, which is what I did. I went TG when I did the SAS. Despite the cross member being thick, it's still kind of flimsy, the "ears" sag when it's on the ground and I have seen pictures of people bending them.

 

^ I'd definitely take his advise over mine. @slander has been doing this stuff way longer than I have.

 

Thanks @Tyler Lacasse and @slander . Appreciate the thoughts on it. I'm gonna hold off on getting one for now. I am staying IFS for now so perhaps just working with the stock one will work for me. Just barely in parts gathering stage now using all the black friday sales. Have it mostly all ordered now and on the look out for an RF1A.....

 

Well... I have been completely unhappy with my bumper for quite a while. I was talking about bumpers with @defythemall and I figured I'd take a look at the Marlin Crawler site out of curiosity again. I was holding out but they had a 20% off with TURKLE20 coupon and 50% off on shipping a bumper (and other things) so I jumped on one as pictured from their site.

The problem I had with mine mainly was the weight and floppiness of the swingout. I dig the certified hitch, but I really don't have much use for one anymore. I also struggled with my swing out cracking (welded and fixed it) due to the forces I was putting on it going through whoops and stuff before. With this new setup, I was really looking for rear lower bedside protection too. I didn't care much for the lines on the Trail Gear tube bumper, but I really dug the Marlin one. Looks like my spare is going back in the bed for now!

From Marlin's site:

 

Good thing you grabbed one when you did cuz they’re sold out!

 

Man I got lucky! I went back to nab those pictures and saw that!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I am heading to Barstow Friday and Saturday for sure, possibly Sunday too. Fingers are crossed that nothing breaks between all the suspension I just did and transmission setup...

 

Lots of beer and many cheetos later. Today I learned that when you spray brake clean and miss your rag, it goes boom back at you when a gas heater is aimed your direction!

Cramming. Was hoping to be in the desert right now.

 

Transmission go boom right now :'(

 

What happened?

 

Oh no!

What is it with transmissions lately?!

 

I was cruising fifth gear and then it was as if I went into neutral, but in all gears. There was oil dumping from under the crawl box too out a seam. So I'm not too sure if my clutch was slipping the whole time and completely went or if I lost too much oil and sheared a shaft off. I'm super bummed. I'm hoping it's the clutch but I'll take everything back apart just to be safe.

 

Guys! Found something weird out now that I'm back home.

Third gear works. Everything else is like being in neutral: 1,2, 4, R.

Does anyone have any experience with that happening to them and what it might be??

 

How much oil was left in the trans?