You guys should make/sell some Sherpa Motorsports #4628 Race shirt so we can show support.

We definitely need to. It's hard to find time to work on the race car right now let alone sell shirts on the side but I'm sure we can make it happen soon enough.

Random but, how did you mount that light bar in the spoiler? Looks clean there versus some other mounting locations I keep seeing.

We simply just cut out the area on the back to allow the lights to pass through, drill holes on the bottom, and bolted it in with some washers to keep the plastic from cracking. Holds up great so far.

Over the weekend we did some really boring stuff and got started on some really cool stuff!

The boring stuff was ripping the old axle out and cutting all the old brackets off the frame. We also rebuilt our front cross-member that was destroyed, tied it into the cross-member the a-arms mount to as well as got the Addicted Offroad bumper cross-member to our frame as well as the engine cage landing on the bumper.

On to the fun stuff, we designed, cut, and welded our 4 link brackets for the new 4 link. I have lots more pictures coming as well.







Here is a sneak peak.

We started to land links last night. We got our upper and lower mounts tacked to the housing, as well as made our lower links. We also got one of our lower mounts tacked on. It was late and a jack stand was blocking the other side so that will go on tomorrow, we are also going to cut and bend our upper links.

For the links we are using Summit Machine Billet Joints, these things are beefy. One side has a threaded bung so we have adjustability, the other end will be fixed and is welded to the link. As far as the link itself it is made of 2" 1/4" wall DOM and the uppers will be 1.75".120 Wall DOM. This should provide us with plenty of strength and longevity with these. The lowers are BEEFY. The upper will also be very beefy when compared to the factory links.





And boy is it wide!!!





As far as the housing goes, we are running a Trail Gear 9" Housing. This is their Full Float Roller Kit so it comes with nearly everything you need to have a roller housing. The housing, the weld in bearing pockets, Dana 60 Hubs, brake calipers with mounts, rotor, and lugs. We then had to buy the Dana 60 hub drive flange kit, a Truss, and the axle shafts which are equal length 35 Spline Chromoly shafts.

We have the 3rd member being built right now along with the front and we will update you on that shortly.

Nice build. Looks like you've been getting some good seat time over the last year.
Your gonna love the ROCKS of JV!!! they big��. Looking forward to seeing your build prep for KOH and all the fun you have in the race. Good Luck, keep it rollin.

For those curious, here are the 4Link numbers we landed as close as possible to.


Also, something from Locked Offroad showed up this morning for the front...

Ironically I was trying to learn about Anti-Squat last night and this morning. It looks like you did a pretty good compromise between desert and crawl percentage for the rear axle.
I'm gonna try to stuff some 14" bypasses under mine, but I plan on getting my butt kicked in the beginning, trying to learn the geometry of it all.
Took me an hour to find free software to be able to write into the calculator, finally settling on Apache. It's the one I use the most everyday anyway, I was over thinking it for awhile. Just had to figure out what format I needed. Paying for Microsoft WAS NOT an option what so ever.

Its been a huge learning curve for us too. I'm sure we ended up a little off from the calculator but as long as its close I am happy. We wanted to split the difference as this car will certainly shine in the desert much more than the rocks but we will try to make it good at both! Driver mod will be required for sure.

Looking forward to KOH and seeing your truck in person.

This thing looks amazing

The team made some amazing progress over the weekend.

First, we got the rear axle and 4link finalized and installed. We started with coil perches, shock mounts, and hydro strike pads.






We are running bent upper links to clear the factory cross-member as we are not allowed to cut it out per the class rules.
Untitled by alex fleming, on Flickr

We mocked up coil placement after cutting and planting the truss.





Then started the shock placement.






Then, hydro bump pads.


Then got the axle full welded and prepped to paint.

The 200 series rack is getting ready to go in as well. We started by removing the factory bushing to have our offset spacers machined. The hole spacing needs to change about 1/2" to fit the 4runner frame.




So, that is off having the parts made, should have them back sometime today actually.


Stocked up on a bunch of fluids for the truck.


Got the roof rack ready to rock as well. We gotta do some marketing so threw some Maxtrax on the rack (which may come in handy) and a rotopax for show.


Replaced our final original bump stop mount.



Painted these.



Installed our Yukon Air Compressor


And here is where she sits. Front end comes Wednesday... hopefully.



There is a lot of other small things we have done that I don't have pictures off such as more cage reinforcements, wiring, took all the decals off to prep for a wrap, and a whole lot more.

That is some amazing work! Can't wait to see it in action!