Udy's '06 TRD Sport Build

Install is complete!














I will get some daytime pics tomorrow!

The ride and drive are great, tires are just awesome in the snow, on road and off. I'm gonna play with air pressure to try to fine tune the ride.

The front sits a little higher than the rear, but I'm fine with that till the winch and ARB bumper are installed. I think the extra weight and some time to settle will level things out.

 

Winch and ARB are here!



I didn't get any more pics, but the winch has been clocked and installed on the bumper. So are the marker lights/turn signals. I still need to redrill the fairlead to match the ARB mount and install the wire extentions, then I will get to the install onto the truck!

I will try to get more and better pics to try to document the install!

 

Looks great man!

 

Thanks, can't wait to get it ON the truck!

 

Step one: Prep the bumper and winch. Clocked the winch, it did have the TMax casting. Did it twice, 72* was not enough. A bunch of caged nuts had to be installed. Mounted the marker lights and fairlead with the winch. The fairlead had to be redrilled for the mounting holes to line up. Installed the provided longer leads from the control box to the motor, then mounted the control box along with the license plate bracket. Not great, in-depth pics, but here are some of the prep work.








Step 2: Dismantle the "bumper" from the truck. I guess crumple zones are more important than rigidity. The bumper is an aluminum box from frame rail to frame rail. Then the cover is installed over it. There were more plastic tabs than screws holding it in place. Scary, nothing is protecting the front of the truck. Any way, grill and bumper get removed. Again, not great pics, but I'm a whore for them, so here goes.







Step 3: Installing the bumper's mounting bracket. If I wasn't so pumped on the install, I would have remembered to take a couple of pics, but I didn't. You do know about the concussions, Polish blood, and my mom smoked and drank during pregnancy...right? Anyhow, the mount is attached to the truck with a shit-load of nuts and bolts. It acts as a frame cross-member also. VERY rigid.

Step 4: Lift the bumper into place! There are 3 main bolts per side. Again, the fit was perfect, very rigid and tight. The bumper needs to be spaced from the headlights and fenders so no damage will occure when flexed. I used some 1/2" stock as spacers. My buddy's neighbor was quite the help when trying to get it all lined up and straight. I have a few pics of the gap. I'll have to check it in the daylight tomorrow. Once again I will apologize for the pics, but here they are!



















The last step for me was to wire in the lights, quite simple. Wire the winch, again, just basic stuff. Mounted my license plate, front splash guard and done.

Not a great write-up, but it works for me. I need to do driving and fog lights. Drivers will be up top and wire into the highbeams. Fogs will go somewhere, I don't know where yet, but I don't like them on the bottom. I may have to figure a way to mount them between the two beams on the front of the bumper. They will get wired into the stock fog circuit. (anytime fog mod is done!)

That's all for now, thanks for looking!

 

Very nice job. I'm looking at Duratracs for my truck also.

 

Nice!

 

Thanks you guys!

Today we are gonna do a little snow wheeling at my buddy's place. 65acres of woods, ravines, ane fields. There is even a motor cross track. I'm not beating my truck, but there will be a few buggies and thrashers there too.

At that point, I can tune my front ride height, decide how much to trim off the back of the wheel wells and see if the body mount needs trimming. Also, the front of the wheel well liners are just ziptied up in the front. I need to decide what to do with them. I'd like to mount a set of "off-road" lights today too!

Thanks again for looking!

 

Pics for simplicity!









Wheeling today! Hopefully cycle the suspension to figure if I need to raise it to compensate for the bumper/winch weight.

 

Trimmed the fender flares and wheel well liners!







Still need to raise the front of the truck another inch to compensate for the weight of the bumper and winch!

 

Just for documentation, I added some cheapie lights to the ARB.



It's very hard to get any pleasure out of this. While I was doing the wiring, my little dog ASPEN was killed in the road not 25' behind me. No brakes, no cars slowing down, nothing. I buried her on Sat. FEB. 5th.

RIP ASPEN, I miss you so much, thank you for all the unconditional love you gave me. I'm sorry I let you down.

 

I adjusted the front ride height yesterday. Something to do to get my mind off Aspen. Gained a full inch of height. Everything seems level to my eyes. Front measures 24" from the center of the hub to the edge of the fender flare. Rear is 25". (The adjustments were a PITA!) I will need new spanners for any future adjustments. Removing the tie rod end links gave a little more movement. A long "breaker bar" is a must.

I also raised tire pressure from 36psi. to 55psi. Road manners, which weren't bad, improved. No more shimmy in the steering wheel. Again, not something that happened all the time, but haven't felt it since. I may even gain some mileage improving rolling resistance.

That's all for now, still crying over Aspen from time to time.





Thanks again for looking!

 

So sorry to hear about your dog. There is no way you could have known what was going on or going to happen.

Truck looks great though! Very inspiring. You've done almost exactly what I want to do with mine.

 

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

I'm sorry to hear about your pup.

How is the 55psi working out? Running about 45 in mine I found that they didn't seem to contact the road on the last inch of tread on either side.

 

Thanks for the thoughts of Aspen! They are truly appreciated!

As far as the 55psi. goes, I'm happy so far. I haven't noticed any odd wear patterns yet, but I've only put a couple hundred miles on it since going up that high.

I originally started at 45psi. and got quite a wobble in the steering wheel and a bit of a hop, at certain speeds, in the rear. I then went to 35-36psi. The wobble, for the most part, decreased, but was still there. Then when installing my bumper, I noticed a cupping in the whole tread width. That's when I went up to 55psi. Since then, the wobble is gone, the truck tracks awesome, no wandering on good pavement, but a little hopping around on really rough roads. You know, the potholes and heaving of the expansion joints due to frost, ice and snow.

I may drop to 50psi. just to see what happens.

On another note, the Toy goes to the dealer for a free oil change etc. and a final alignment since adjusting the front coilovers.

Thanks again for your thoughts on Aspen, she is missed!

 

x2

 

Took a drive to fill the tank. There is a station about 12miles from me that sell the non-ethanol premium. This tank was 15.8mpg with about 50miles of the 245 in 4-wheel drive. NOT BAD.

Anyhow, I'm afraid to make any changes. The Toy runs down the road awesome. Even the bumpy, heaved sections are tolerable. It is easy to knee-drive, or just a couple fingers on the wheel. I hope the alignment doesn't screw with it. Same thing with tire pressure, though that would be an easy one to change back.

Oh well, like I said, the Toy is driving like a charm, I can't say enough about Toytec's ULK and the LR UCA's.

I'M LOVING IT!!

 

Excellent!

It's amazing what ethanol does to your mileage.