[snivilous]

Originally Posted by AssBurns

Gonna save some dough and just go single. I’ll cry later if I have to. Also not that I have the money but link to the for sale ad?

This is the one I was thinking you should get 4400 class Tribe 16 built top 10 Ultra4 #1111 up for sale

[AssBurns]

Got pretty much everything to do with the tubbed wheel wells knocked out this past weekend. Started off Saturday morning by fixing my wifes Chevy Cruze again... Had to replace the PCV Valve that is part of the valve cover. I just replaced this part in November 2016. After that I got working on the 4runner. I knocked out all the final patch work on some of the smaller areas, and just did a little more prep work. Nothing worth taking any pictures for, except some additional tie down points made from 5/16" rod. Still didn't take any pictures though.



Sunday I was able to spend all day on the getting it done. I started by covering that little hole in the middle of the floor. The upper links come through the floor about 1.75" at full shock bump so, I made a hump that was about 2" tall. I used a little thicker steel for this piece (14g), because it needs to take a little more abuse of throwing a heavy tool box on top of it, and it needs to really hold some rigidity since the brace on the bottom was obviously completely cut out. I wanted to make it more of a trapezoid shape to keep some triangulation in the mix for rigidity, and also so that its not as much of a blunt edge to get my toolbox hung up on as much when pulling it in and out. Also not having 90* corners, makes it easier to clean all the dirt 'n shit.













From there, it was time to prep everything for paint. I just used some acetone and a rag to wipe down all the surfaces and grocery bags over the shocks. Pretty straight forward. I used some of that Spray On Undercoating to spray everything. I can't remember which brand, and can't compare to something like 3M since I've never used this stuff before. I went to town on all the seams with a few thick coats on the inside and out. Then started with a few coats all around on the entire wheel well, both inside and out. This stuff seems to work alright. I wish it was a little thicker and more rubbery, but it will do. Eventually I will do some indoor/outdoor carpet on the wheel wells. Then painted the frame and bump stop cans with some semi-gloss paint.









Next was putting the carpet and plastic panels back on. I just rolled out the carpet and cut a small corner out on the passenger side wheel well. The rest I just pushed into place. I might cut it a little more to make it fit a little better, but idk yet. For the panels, it was just cut, fit, cut, fit, etc. until it was right. I did cut the passenger side a little much on the top (Maybe 1/2'-1"), but it will be fine. The drivers side came out much better.










Last thing was putting the bump stops in. I put a thin layer of anti-seize all throughout the cans to hopefully keep the bump stops from getting stuck and rusted in down the line. I am going to pick up my buddies nitrogen tank after work sometime this week and air up the bumps and shocks a little more. I'll take it with me on my next trip out to play around with the pressures. Eventually I'll get around to meeting up with my other buddy that turned some bump stop spacers for me to shorten the stroke to 3" instead of the current 4".










Now that all that stuff is done, I need to finish buttoning up a few things. I had my brother order me a new fuel pump today, so that I can replace that this weekend. Then bleed the brakes, tighten the link jam nuts, and air up bumps & shocks, and hopefully cruise up the fire roads for a quick test of the new setup.





I took some measurements of things after I was done working on things for the day. Measuring the travel without bump stops, just shocks, it came out to 14.25". The axle sits 1/2" below the frame rails with the shocks fully compressed. With the bumps installed, it measures out to be about 13.5" of total travel with the axle about 1.25" below the frame rails at full bump. Not bad. Now I need to focus on the front end before I get too far into the rear end. I don't see a point in getting much more than that until I have significantly more travel up front to justify more rear end suspension. Long term plans are Long Travel (either keep IFS or go TTB swap). From there I would need a wider axle to match track width and fit coilovers/bypasses. If money permits, then a fabricated 9". If not, then maybe a Tundra 10.5"? Still don't know what the WMS is for those newer Tundras.










Also today I ordered an ARB Single High Output compressor from Amazon. It was Prime Day (What a joke that turned out to be!), so it was on sale for $30 off at $246.09. I also pulled the trigger on the front locker from ECGS. I went with an ARB, and obviously 5.29's to match the rear end. I ordered it a little later in the day, so I haven't spoken with anyone on the current turn times yet. I will call them tomorrow to see what they estimate. Pretty stoked to finally get this thing back on its feet and 4wd again. It's been 9 months without 4wd and almost 3 months since I've driven it. I just hope I don't get too excited and break something first trip out in my typical fashion...

[AssBurns]

Got pretty much everything buttoned up now. 4-link is done, along with the tubbed wheel wells and hydro bumps. Been driving it around the past couple weeks and it feels pretty good. A couple things that I noticed about the new rear suspension setup:
1) when I welded my coil buckets back in, I welded them in about an inch or so lower than stock. Didn’t have much of an opinion due to how the frame rails slope back down as you go further back. This resulted in a little higher ride height in the rear. Kind of a bummer since I have been wanting a lower ride height. I’m looking to find some stock Jeep JL coils to try out. They are tall enough and should be soft enough to give me around the 2” lift I want.
2) Even with the increased ride height, there is noticeably less body roll. Not anything dramatic but still noticeable. This is because I increased the Roll Center about 2” over what I had before. Once I lower my ride height, it’ll be nice.
3) At about 100% anti-squat, there is no squat when accelerating. Personally, I don’t like that part. Once I lower my ride height a couple inches, the A/S should go down a little bit (not as much as I’d like but better than nothing). To me, stock setup was pretty nice with about 70% Anti-Squat. If there were an easier way to lower that number for me without decreasing ground clearance, I would.
4) No Roll Oversteer! This was a big one for me. Ever notice when you corner, that you have to countersteer as the body rolls? That’s roll steer, and it’s super sketchy and annoying. Now I actually have a tiny bit of roll understeer. Super weird to get used to but it’s super predictable in the corners now. I still find myself anticipating countersteering as I go into corners, but realize I don’t have to anymore. Super nice!
5) Up travel and hydro bumps. Wow! Hydro bumps are super awesome! I used to have those 4-1/2” daystar bumps that gave about 2.5” of compression, but you still felt it ever time you made contact. Now these hydro bumps are so plush, I can’t even tell when they make contact. Up travel is awesome too. I tried to jump and only came within about 2” of full bump. It’s nice to be able to hit some hard stuff and not bottom out all the time, even with soft suspension. Right now I have just a hair under 9” of up travel at ride height. Once I lower the rear to where I want, I should be at around 7”. I think that 50/50 ratio with up/down travel will be perfect.

I was having issues figuring out why my fuel pump wasn’t working. It must have been an electrical issue, because when I jumped it straight to the battery, it worked fine. I couldn’t find the issue, so I wired the pump to a rocker switch, that is tied to my ignition. Not the best thing but it’s racecar stuff, so it’s fine.

Next thing was the air compressor. I installed that in the rear cargo cubby. Pretty straight forward except having to extend all the wiring. Nothing hard, just time consuming. Especially trying to solder 8-10 gauge wiring with a soldering iron that can’t stay hot enough to do so. It looks boogery but it’ll be fine. Got all the switches wired up everything works.

Got the locker installed pretty easy with my buddy, Danny’s help. (Not sure his name on here). We got it installed and the air line plumbed in. I went to go test it out and wasn’t getting my locker to engage. I double checked all my wiring and such, and all looked good. Then @theesotericone said to pull the diff end of the air line to see if air is blowing out. Sure enough, it wasn’t. But it was at the compressor end. I looked along the frame rails and the air line wasn’t secured in the spot closest to the exhaust manifold, and came in contact, and melted. I ordered some 6mm couplers, and had it fixed within a few minutes. Yesterday I finally had time to test the locker out, and boy am I excited to do some wheeling. Gonna be a game changer for real!


Now this weekend I get to replace the steering rack, tie rods and rear brakes. Then pack for my trip to Dusy Ershim with @rkntoy and @theesotericone . Super stoked!

Also found some cracks in my LCA. It’ll get replaced after my trip. As long as I’m not jumping, it’ll be fine.






Some Jeep JL coils that I asked someone to take a picture of. Perfect free height!



Flexy poser shots testing the locker.





As you can see, nice long smooth transition for rocks to slide on, and out of the way from the tire. Also at bump, the lower links sit above the frame rail, so nothing to get caught up on.





New muffler. I wish it was super quiet, but that’s all I could fit in that spot. I despise loud exhausts on 99% of vehicles.

[rkntoy]

Originally Posted by AssBurns

Now this weekend I get to replace the steering rack, tie rods and rear brakes. Then pack for my trip to Dusy Ershim with @rkntoy and @theesotericone . Super stoked!

Getting close!

I just need to dial in the links, wrap up my fridge platform, and get to packing. Of course my rear hatch now decided to stop working - it can wait. And work has kept me too busy to get the rear main seal done - hopefully I don't start losing too much out of it.

[theesotericone]

Originally Posted by AssBurns

Now this weekend I get to replace the steering rack, tie rods and rear brakes. Then pack for my trip to Dusy Ershim with @rkntoy and @theesotericone . Super stoked!

It seems like where all doing the last minute rig prep. I'll be in the garage most of the day tomorrow. Then Sunday will be a test run I hope. The Dusy is gonna be such a blast.

[rkntoy]

Originally Posted by theesotericone

It seems like where all doing the last minute rig prep. I'll be in the garage most of the day tomorrow. Then Sunday will be a test run I hope. The Dusy is gonna be such a blast.

Yup - that's where I will be. And trying to get some work done with loads to do and a Board meeting on Tuesday.

Fortunately I have rock piles at the house to test on to save time for packing. I think my pup knows something is up. He probably thinks he is getting left behind again because he has been sleeping in my truck. With the half doors I can't keep him out.

[AssBurns]

Dusy Ershim Trail | 08/15/2018 - 08/19/2018

So a few of us @theesotericone , @rkntoy , and two other Tacoma guys) have been planning this trip for quite a while now. Probably almost a year since @theesotericone messaged me asking if I’ve ever heard of the trail. Well over the last year we slowly started getting the dates and plans put together. Pretty much all of us had some last minute repairs or modifications before this trip. And for me I haven’t had any sort of shakedown run since I’ve done quite a bit of work. I knew this was going to be one hell of a trip to be testing everything out. Especially with a 7 hour drive each way.


Day 0?
I get off work, haul ass home and finish packing the last minute stuff, drop of the kids at my parents, get gas and more ice, then hit the road by about 7pm. Right on time. Drive the 7 hours up to Courtright Reservoir and attempt to find the group at 2AM. After a few circles around all the campsites, Andy heard me and turned on all his truck lights for me to spot out in the distance. Everyone was asleep at this point so my wife and I each cracked open a beer a decided we need to get some rest. We both didn’t want to setup a tent, so we set the way for the rest of the trip by sleeping under the stars. This was way better than sleeping in a tent, and to have my wife be on the same page was pretty awesome.

Truck mostly packed besides clothes bags and some food. I figure I had maybe 700lbs in total? It was a lot and my motor definitely felt it.


Some beers for the trip. Bells Two Hearted Ale was recommended by @eimkeith , and it was damn good.

[AssBurns]

Dusy Ershim Day #1 | 08/16/2018





Woke up this morning and said some hellos to my Tacoma buddies that I've wheeled with before, and got to meet @theesotericone for the first time.

@rkntoy met up with us in the morning at our campsite (Voyager Rock Campground) at about 9am. We chatted for a bit while getting everything together and was on the trail by about 10am. We heard it’s important to get an early start because the next Campground was 8 Miles away at the top of Thompson Hill. We were also told don’t underestimate Thompson Hill. First obstacle was Chicken Rock. This wasn’t hard by any means, but it was an extremely steep granite slab that is maybe a hundred yards long. A lot can go wrong quickly if there is a problem on that hill. We all made it up no problem.

From here there are plenty of obstacles, but nothing super difficult as long as you pay attention to your lines. This section got us thinking that we were going to make camp way earlier than we expected, but we were definitely underestimating Thompson Hill. This hill is about a mile long of steep loose climbs with large boulders and ledges all the way up the hill. We started up it taking our time and one obstacle at a time. Eventually we all had some spots that were tough, and would need some rock stacking (Even with everyone being dual locked). I really got to put the front locker to the test here, and boy is it nice to be able to flip the switch and keep climbing. After a ways up, @theesotericone broke a CV. It was kind of a shitty spot to try to fix it, and we thought we were close to the top, so he decided to try to limp it in 3wd up to the top. Well that was definitely not our best judgment. After another little ways up he was struggling again to get up an obstacle, so we go look and it the other CV was broken now. He was trying to get up a loose ledge in 2wd. Not happening. So instead of breaking more shit, and knowing we were very close to the top at this point, we hooked up the strap and I pulled him to the top of the hill. Luckily we were past the worst of the obstacles on this hill, but it still wasn’t any walk in the park to get up. Once at the top, we were only about a 1/4 mile to camp, so we decided to fix it there since it was getting later in the afternoon, and we were all pretty beat. Camp this night was at Thompson Lake. We all just relaxed for a bit, ate some dinner, then @theesotericone and @rkntoy fixed the CV axles while the rest of us proceeded to relax and drink some beers around the campfire. I was wearing sandals all day on the trail, and I jabbed my toe into a sharp stick earlier in the day causing a nice little hole in the front of my big toe. I just walked it off and let the dirt wash the blood away. Well later that night when we were hanging around the campfire, I noticed something looked funny on my toe, so I looked and sure enough, I still had a small piece of that stick still in my toe. I was walking around for hours like this and didn’t even notice! I wish I got some pictures of it.


Chicken Rock. Pictures do not do this justice on how steep it is.



The forest is dense right here



Some bridge we crossed, I think on the first day.



Some big dome of granite


@rkntoy motoring on up the hill with his 37’s and dual cases










Camp for the first day





So a couple lessons we learned that day were:

1) Don’t underestimate Thompson Hill. It can end up being half of your day.

2) If you break something, fix it! Don’t try to limp it further. Especially on Thompson Hill.

[AssBurns]

Dusy Ershim Day #2 | 08/17/2018





We woke up knowing this was going to be an easy and possibly shortest wheeling day. So we had no rush of getting out of camp early. We hit the trail a little after 10am and started cruising. My wife wanted to drive so I rode passenger all day, and that was pretty relaxing. We cruised through a few cool meadows and some dense forest areas, with some obstacles scattered throughout. We came up to Summit Lake, and hung out for a bit until the bugs started to swarm in and get annoying.

We hit the trail again and made it to East Lake by about 1pm or so. We hiked the short ways down to the lake and hung out for a bit, debating on what to do the rest of the day. It was either stay here at East Lake or try to make it to Ershim Lake. Ershim Lake is supposed to be a better campsite and lake but that also means it could be crowded, and another 4 miles of unknown difficultly made us not want to have another super long day. So we just hung out for the rest of the day at camp and by the lake. @theesotericone went and caught us some dinner, while we just relaxed and watched from the other side of the lake. That evening, we all cooked a little something to share amongst each other along with the fish that @theesotericone caught. Definitely a good dinner. From here we just BS’d the rest of the night until the last of us trickled off to bed.





Ranger at Summit Lake





Us hanging out at East Lake while @theesotericone does some fishing on the other side of the lake somewhere.



Camp #2 at East Lake






This turned out to be a much needed relaxing day after the long day we had yesterday.

[AssBurns]

Dusy Ershim Day #3 | 08/18/2018


We knew this day we had a little more ground to cover if we wanted to make it more than a few miles. Ershim Lake wasn’t too far away but we wanted to get past that and on to the next camp site. We got up a little earlier this morning and was feeling well rested. We hit the trail at around 9:15 this morning and started cruising. Most of the obstacles weren’t anything super difficult but still difficult enough to keep you really paying attention to the lines you take.
After a few hours we made it to Ershim Lake. I can see why people like to stay here. There are log tables setup, log benches made, and a beautiful alpine lake less than 100ft from camp. From what we heard, it can get crowded and become quite the party if there are enough people there. Could be a good or bad thing depending who you are. We ate lunch here and relaxed for a few minutes, then headed back into the trail.
A little ways in, we came up to Divorce Rock. This is a large granite mound that you ride the ridge, then turn down to the right at the end. Not anything hard but if you don’t pay attention, things can turn bad, quickly. I was behind @theesotericone and noticed that he was on top and his passenger front wheel was turned full lock but his front end was moving towards the driver side. I immediately yelled out on the radio to "Stop moving!" Something was definitely wrong. I run up to notice that both wheels are turned opposite directions. Passenger side outer tie rod is broken and bent down about 90°. He really couldn’t have picked a worse spot on the trail to break. He was on top of the ridge, at a slant towards the side that goes down about 30-40 feet. We wanted to see if we can get him a couple feet forward is a little better/flatter position, so we hooked up the winch to a tree to the side to see if we can pull him over and forward a bit. That just ended up not working out well, so we kept tension on the winch, and hooked up a strap from his slider to a nearby tree, so in the event the truck were to slide, I wouldn’t go very far. Out came @rkntoy ’s handy bottle jack, and a few minutes later we were back on the trail.
Smooth sailing from here, for about another 1/2 mile... Still behind @theesotericone and I see him stop. Turns out the CV broke on the side the tie rod broke. My guess by the way the outer cup ripped open, is that when the tie rod broke, the CV over extended and cracked the outer cup. It just took a little while for it to actually fail. Well at this point, he has already used up both of his spares, so thankfully we share the same parts, so I gave him one of my spares. Got it swapped out and kept going the rest of the day until we got to Mallard Lake.
Took a very short break here to use the last restroom of the trail, then proceeded out decent down to Lakecamp Lake. This trail section is pretty gnarly, with some big boulders that just seem to constantly be right in the way. Luckily we were going downhill, so gravity was on our side for the most part. Once to the bottom, you are at Lakecamp Lake. This is a pretty cool but small lake that has a big marshy meadow all around it. We made camp here for our last night on the trail. Not a whole lot we did that night besides just cook dinner and hang out around the campfire reminiscing about our last few days, talking about wheeling, and all around BSing for a few hours while enjoying some drinks.













Notice the front tire turned all the way? Yeah that’s a broken tie rod. Also notice the sketchy spot that it broke? Not the best spot for a trail repair.

[AssBurns]

Dusy Ershim Day #4 | 08/19/2018

Got another early start this morning. We weren’t sure how the rest of the trail was going to be considering how the past few days have been been very mixed with travel times. We knew we had to climb up Givens Hill, and there was the last rock garden that was supposed to be the 2nd most difficult part of the trail. Got at it and most of the first few miles were a little faster paced with some tough sections mixed in. Givens Hill turned out to be fairly easy as well. We got to a couple Vista Points and snagged some pictures of the stellar views. Lake Thomas Edison to the northeast and Huntington Lake to the west.
We kept moving on and came to the last rock garden. Definitely difficult but we were coming down, so gravity was on our side again making it a little easier than going up it would have been. Sure enough, right before our final rock section, @theesotericone broke another CV. This time it was the inner joint, just like I had issues with in the past using this same brand of CV’s. My conclusion is that the axle shaft is too short and not getting enough plunge into the inner cup causing the tripod joint to basically tear its way out when the roller comes out of the cup. We tried to replace the broken CV but the 2nd spare I had wouldn’t fit. It was almost as if the outer joint was binding and wouldn’t let us get the spindle seated to the LBJ all the way. So instead of messing with it any more, I just pulled out the inner and out CV stubs I carry with me, and plugged the diff and hub, so he can at least get through the last section in 2 or 3wd.
That was pretty much it for the hard parts. We cruised down about another 1/4 mile to a little lookout where the trail basically turns into a dirt road, then another 1/2 mile or so to the end of the trail.
We aired up, inspected our rigs, and cruised down 30 miles or so to Shaver Lake to get gas before going down the mountain.
As we were all getting gas, we looked at our alignments. Mine was still good, @theesotericone needed a minor adjustment as would be expected after replacing the tie rod, then @rkntoy ’s alignment was way out of spec. Way to much toe out on the passenger side. We got @theesotericone ’s alignment dialed in a couple minutes, but @rkntoy was quite a bit more work than that. First we could not get the jam nut loose on the tie rod. We tried WD40, then held a lighter up to it for a few minutes to heat it up. Finally we got it to bust loose. We went to adjust it by spinning the inner tie rod, and only got a half a turn. How weird! Why would the inner tie rod not turn? Pulled the boot back to see the inner tie rod to be significantly bent. So glad we caught that before he hit the road for a 13 hour drive. Luckily we all had spare tie rods with us, so we got the tie rods replaced, then did an eyeball alignment. Cleaned up the tools and @rkntoy was back on his way to Oregon.
@theesotericone , my wife and I decided to grab some pizza and beers at Shaver Lake Pizza. We also took mini showers in the bathroom there. Boy was I filthy! We got done and headed back down the mountain and continued our treks home.



Lake Thomas Edison in the distance







Hunting Lake beyond the trees



A herd of cows








@rkntoy ’s broken tie rod that we caught last minute before his long drive.

[AssBurns]

A recap on how things went:



We had a solid group of guys that were down to wheel, camp, break, and help fix whatever was needed to keep moving. I’d probably have to say this was my favorite wheeling trip I’ve ever done. It combined so many of my favorite things; Tough wheeling, Camping, High Sierras, Relaxing by the Lakes, spending time with my wife, and hanging out with a good group of guys. If you do this trail, don’t underestimate Thompson Hill. It’s about a mile of constant difficult crawling up a hill. Also, like we learned the first day, fix broken parts right away. Don’t try to limp it. Carry spare parts, we used a quite a bit of them throughout the trip. If you are dual locked and looking to have a great time, I’d definitely recommend this trail. Just be prepared for a tough, but amazing time.



How the truck did:



Mechanically, the BeerRunner did absolutely great! I was extremely surprised and impressed that nothing broke, especially since this was the first trip with everything back together after 4 months of sitting and 10 months without 4wd.



Cosmetically, is another story. I got plenty of dents, dings, scratches and scrapes. The quarter panels above the rear bumper got pushed in after coming down off a large ledge and slamming on my bumper. The rear body mounts are so soft that the body came down on the bumper and got crushed. Luckily it’s only cosmetic. I also got a new dent by the taillight, probably from a tree. Somehow I managed to miss my fuel tank skid plate and hit my fuel tank on a rock or something. Nothing bad but still impressive where it hit. Driveshaft flange and spacer got chewed up from the rocks. Transmission oil pan got a ding in it. Sliders have a ton of little dents and bends. Front skid has a ton of dents and dings in it. Bumpers only got some scrapes from rocks and trees.



Front Locker is absolutely amazing. I wish I did this years ago! I think this is going to save me from breaking parts as often as I was. Maybe not though. It's amazing how you can be in a tough spot, then just flick a switch and just keep moving forward. I highly recommend getting one.



4-Link was great to really test out in multiple aspects of the trip. High speed highway driving, especially around corners, is a night and day difference. I used to really take it easy through turns when loaded down due to body roll and the gnarly roll steer that it had. If there were any bumps through a turn, the vehicle would be all over the place. Now I can keep a solid pace through the turn even when there are bumps and dips. There is significantly less body roll now when loaded down, and having no roll steer makes cornering super predictable and comfortable. Even driving straight for long periods, the truck just seems to want to stay on track better than it did before. In the rocks, I used to hit my lower link mounts and lower links all the time. Those things were major rock hangers. Now I rarely touch the links. Based on the scratch marks, I only touched the links once the whole trip. That was pretty nice.

Smashed quarter panels




Dent in the fuel tank. Wonder what caused it.



Skid plate is definitely not flat plates anymore.





Just one little scratch on the lower links.



Ding in the transmission oil pan



Some dings in the sliders.





Bumper and tank skid took some hard hits, but did their job and didn’t budge.

[Unner]

Nice trip report! Looks like you passed your curse of repeatedly breaking stuff onto @theesotericone haha. I bet it was nice being out there on a trail like that, you probably don't get too many passerby's out there.

[theesotericone]

Originally Posted by Unner

Nice trip report! Looks like you passed your curse of repeatedly breaking stuff onto @theesotericone haha.

LMAO. We actually joked about that on the trail. How @AssBurns was usually the broken down one in the group. I really broke 4 CV's on purpose just cause I wanted him to feel better. lol

[Unner]

Originally Posted by theesotericone

LMAO. We actually joked about that on the trail. How @AssBurns was usually the broken down one in the group. I really broke 4 CV's on purpose just cause I wanted him to feel better. lol

That was so nice of you to do that for him haha