Exterior Images

Currently:

Pelfreybilt Front Aluminum Bumper with Bajadesigns 30" wide driving LED bar & Bajadesigns Squadron sport amber fogs.

Warn VR10000S winch.

Gobi stealth rack.

Pelfreybilt sliders.

RCI full aluminum skid package: IFS, Mid, Transfer, gas tank

RCI steel rear diff armor

Pelfreybilt rear dual swing arm bumper. Bajadesigns S2 Pro lights integrated into the bumper


FRONT BUMPER:

The bumper is a Pelfrey design, and although its aluminum, it’s still heavy enough that I decided to add my own custom upper support brackets after some serious trail vibration caused the bumper to contact the headlights and snap some plexi off. After the brackets were installed and secured to the radiator support tower via 3/8 bolts and nylon nuts, no more vibration!! I love the design, the aluminum construction allows me to contact rocks and obstacles with only cosmetic damage, and functionally it gives me the clearance I needed in front of my tires to get up larger obstacles.


I can’t say enough good things about the BAJADESIGNS lights. The S8 wide driving light is awesome off-road when we’re driving at dusk or night, illuminates the trail in a 180 degree horizontal spread, and projects out far enough to drive safely on a trail going about 25mph. The fog lights are Squadron sport lights with the yellow lens. This helps cut through the dust and allows me to be seen on the trail during the day and early evening.

I’ve used my WARN winch to move rocks and large items at home and on the trail, but have yet to use it for recovery or obstacle climbing. I have used the front bumper D ring brackets to pull some people out of trouble with my ARB recovery gear.

Edit:3/11/19: Finally used my winch in my own recovery after I followed some vehicles up a hill that had larger tires than I did and dug a couple nice tread holes for me to belly up to and get stuck. Initially tried recovery straps, but I didn’t like the angle of the pull, so I pulled out my winch. After 2 unsuccessful tries, I dug out some debris and tried again. Success!!

Edit: After examining my winch line after my last extraction, I notice severe abrasion and damage to the line itself, mainly due to the fairlead (aftermnarket with machined edges). I'll be installing the original Warn fairlead which is huge and ungainly looking but smooth.

My RCI aluminum skids have seen some very heavy use on the trail, and at first I was worried about their longevity as opposed to steel, but even with gouges, gashes, and dents, they are holding up just fine. And no need to re-paint after each trip. Absolutely recommended, and high quality gear from RCI.

Edit: Tackled some really tough trails out in Anza Borrego which ripped apart one weld that is there to protect the bolt heads during obstacle climbing. Also snapped 3 welded frame nuts where the skids attach. A lot of gashes and scoring of the aluminum, which I fully expected to happen, and I'm close to upgrading to a steel IFS skid if I plan on taking more difficult routes.

I went with the PELFREYBILT SLIDERS over RCIs design mainly because they have 4 tubed supports (as opposed to 3) welded to a full back plate that bolts to the chassis with around 10 bolts. Absolutely rock solid and strong. I’ve jacked the truck up on each side with zero flex from the slider, and come down hard on them with no deformation.

Edit: Just took the sliders off for the first time for a full re-paint. All the bolts looked to be in great condition, silders were not bend or deformed in any way. Lightly sanded them and sprayed them with VHT Satin black roll bar and chassis paint, good as new.

When I ordered my King suspension I wanted some protection from the rocks coming in contact with the lower mount that really chewed into my 5100s.

FJ TOYMAN makes some solid products, and I purchased his King shock skids. So beefy and well made. The paint and clear coat he uses makes me want to keep them nice and shiny. But that ain’t gonna happen. I’m going to be ordering up some spindle gussets from him as soon as I move up to a 34” tire.

GOBI gets a lot of flak on here, but none of it has to do with their product. Their rack, at least the way I use it, is second to none. Quality welding, quality direct bolt on product that sees A LOT of use. Absolutely love it, and the ladder.

Interior Images

Switchpro 8100 + toggle bypass power switch

I really haven't used this to it's full potential. It's really just a fancy switch for my lights at this point, but I hope to one day have some time to sit down and fiddle with all the controls.

Stock

Stock

Suspension Images

2.5 King coilovers with resi and adjusters, 650# coil

2.5 King rear extended travel shocks with resi and adjusters

OME 898 rear coils

Icon Delta Joint UCA

Stock front LCA
Stock rear upper and lower trailing arms
Stock panhard

Wheelers Bump Stops

FJ Toyman rear King shock skid

Prior suspension:

Toytec Ultimate 3” kit
5100 Bilsteins front and rear
2.0 Superflex rear coil springs
Eibach 600 and 650lb front springs
Stock upper and lower front and rear control arms
Stock rear panhard
Running sway bars


When I first installed the Toytec suspension, I was bone stock as far as weight goes. The 600lb front coils were good at quelling most of the nose dive that the stock suspension exhibited. The Bilsteins were good at giving me the extra ground clearance I wanted to tackle some tougher trails, and allow me to take a more aggresive line on trails with some obstacles. At the stock weight and with little gear packed in the back, the superflex coils really shined. They gave me added articulation and held up the rear just fine. Overall, the Bilsteins were just a small upgrade to the stock shocks, and honestly didn’t really wow me with their damping properties. If you want a suspension lift and low cost of entry is your primary focus, I suppose this kit gives you a lot of bang for the buck. The best feature about this kit is that as you add weight, you are able to fine tune the adjustment with the spanner wrench tools, get the preload and height dialed in just right, and know that you can play around with it as you go. A huge benefit over my King coilovers is the fact that you can adjust the ride height while on the vehicle as opposed to taking them off. After I bought them I learned that 5100s are tuned on the progressive end of the shock spectrum, similar to Icons. I definitely like a more neutral to progressive tune.

There is no comparison between my King setup and the 5100s, other than the fact that they both used 650lbs coils. And I won’t bash an essentially sub $1000 kit when compared to a $4000 setup.

The difference though is night and day.

The Kings feel like there is an added layer of insulation between me and the road. Even though they ditch the rubber isolating lower coilover bushings in favor of spherical bearings, there is comfort and adjustability that just wasn’t found on the Toytec kit.

Up front there is more control and damping when I hit potholes and speed bumps.

I will caveat that statement by saying that a big part of that is also due to the Icon Delta Joint, and getting me some good caster numbers to go with the added lift of the King kit.

Wheels and Tires Images

FN Sixshooter 17x8, 0 offset

285/70-17 Cooper Discovery STT Pro

Super aggressive, massive tread blocks and deep lugs, hopefully all I’ll need to get over the rocks my KO2s were slipping on. Full review once I’ve had them for a few thousand miles.

Edit: I've had the Coopers on for about 6,000 miles now. I've done a lot of desert running, and a few difficult, technical trails. First the great; These tires have MASSIVE amount of traction off-road, and excellent capability where I wanted it most, on the rocks. Atrac doesn't need to work nearly as hard to get me up and over obstacles and soft gravel is a breeze. In the sand I can feel no difference in traction when aired down as I had with my KO2s, so that's good. These tires, despite being an MT, larger, and heavier, are hands down a softer ride on and off road. The not so good. As expected, they are loud on road. My KO2s were extremely quiet and well behaved on road. These tires feel like I'm constantly on a gravel road at low speed, and straight out the box they were noisy at highway speed. But that's the trade off to excellent off-road performance. I wasn't sold on the hybrid tire like the Nitto Ridgegrapplers and the price I paid is noise. If this were strictly a toy I would have no hesitation in buying these tires again. I have taken very rough, rock strewn trails, spun the tires on loose rock and dirt, and never lost a lug or had a chunk taken out of the tire to date. By this time with my KO2s I had many chunks of rubber taken out, with half lugs giving their life to get me up a mountain.

Bonus: The place I have my tires serviced said these are the the only MT tires they've had that took 4 ounces or less to balance.

Former tire: 275/70-17 BF Goodrich AT KO2

The BFG KO2 tire has been nothing but a great tire for 99% of what I do. On road it has been extremely quiet, even past it’s halfway lifespan. It grips extremely well on asphalt, and the few times a year we get rain here in SoCal, it’s never misbehaved or been anything short of adequate and safe. Off-road, it has tackled ALMOST anything I’ve thrown at it. Dirt roads and loose trails it’s outstanding. Tracks straight and doesn’t like to get loose when I throttle it. It does pick up stones and carry them for a while, so there is the potential for rock wear between the treads, but I haven’t seen anything to worry about, and being an E rated tire, I have 10 ply between me and the road. Don’t do a lot of mud. I know the KO2s like to gunk up but I’ve never had an issue running through wet clay in Death Valley, still grips. I’m sure as they wear down it gets worse, but the lug gaps are larger than my original KOs, so maybe that’s the difference. Rocks! This is the KO2s weakness. I haven’t been able to scale obstacles the way I feel I should, and the tire likes to just spin and spin, even when A-Trac is trying to help. The tread has lost lugs here and there from abuse, and I expect that given the trails I like to tackle. I had feathering issues early on due to adjusting my Toytec suspension and mis-alignment. Since then it seems to be OK. Still a little more worn on the inside than outside, but I think now that I have everything where it needs to be I shouldn’t have any problems. I have run the snot out of these tires and have some gashes to show for it, but the tire is very strong, 3 ply sidewall is stiff and tough. I like the strength of a 3 ply sidewall, especially the way I like to push the envelope on trails. I’ll be sticking with an E rated tire when I change these.

Overall, I really like the KO2s. They have been stellar off-road and very streetable as well. I would probably buy them again, and recommend them, but I won’t be buying them for this rig. I’m going to go MT to see if I can’t get a little more rock crawling performance.

FN SIXSHOOTER: Dustin from FN is a stand up dude, really helpful, informative, and has some great product. I would say that a lot of his stuff is replica, which is fine as long as the quality of product is there, and he's not pawning them off as fakes. This is a flow formed cast wheel, which is about as good a process as you'll get unless you want to pay $1K+ for a forged wheel. I'm not going to say how much I paid for my set of five, but after cash discount, local pickup (Orange County), and a blemish (lol, I couldn't even see anything) discount, I paid less than $1K. To me, the offset is perfect, and pushed my wheels out 1.1", saving me from having to go with spacers. I wish I could have kept the stock wheels, but no can do for a 285 tire.