So a quick recap-update from the recent work and trip:
-rear heim joints on the links
These have been holding up better than I thought. All of the clunking I am hearing seems to be the results of the upper drivers side one coming loose over time (hard to crank it down with the gas tank in the way). But I believe it is mainly coming loose because my bolts a just a hare undersized (factory hardware) from the high-misalignment spacer ID. I believe the heims were meant to use Standard hardware, not metric, and I have a tiny bit of slop between the bolt and spacer. Cranking down on these obviously helps, but that leaves the spacer with the possibility to move within the mount ever so slightly under load. Not a huge deal, but it's something I am planning on possibly addressing by drilling out the mounts to the next size bolt that should be there and buying new grade 10 hardware.
Gas tank/skid
I seriously need to look at what it will take to get the gas tank up just a bit.. its the lowest hanging portion and being in the center of the vehicle I found myself dragging it quite a bit and further damaging my factory skid. I have some large aluminum sheet that I'm planning to form into some sort of upgraded skid, but getting it up 1 or 1.5 inches would be awesome.
Front Wheel Clearance
Though I got MOST of my rubbing issues taken care off, going up the front side of daniel and getting some extreme flex/wheels turning there is definitely a significant amount of rubbing still there at the firewall. My plan is to cut, clearance and plate this area to get myself full clearance on 35's. Not sure if 37's would ever be doable without rubbing if you're not running a LT kit up front.
Lockers/RCV axles
Though pricey, having front/rear lockers in combination with RCV axles have me in a VERY comfortable place with regards to reliability. I had a couple of guys mention things like "that's a no-locker trail" or "I've made it up that fully open" etc. While that is perfectly fine, and I completely understand that a lot of the trails/climbs this rig does could be done open/open with some Skinny Pedal action, I have watched these rigs going up the same obstacles and it definitely looks violent, and the question isn't IF your axles or diff will fail, but when. Having lockers front and rear, on top of the beefier RCV axles give's me huge peace of mind. The last trail ride I did just about everything in 2Hi with an occasional rear locker engaged when I was bound up on a slick clay climb, but as soon as I would find myself not being able to make it up without really having to give it the beans I would just engage my 4wd with some lockers and it would crawl right up with minimal wheel spin and throttle. That was the entire purpose behind the build.. go out to have some fun, but do so reliably without having to do axle swaps and all on the trail.
Lightbars
Lightbars are useless for the east coast trails we have in the woods. I don't care what anyone else tries to tell you. We have done 2 long night trail rides, and my $90 amazon pods in the bumper (below eyeline of sight) are SOOO much more useful in the woods. The light car has too much output and flood yours eyes with unnecessary amount of blinding light, and anytime there is any dust or anything in the air it makes it impossible to see (granted mine is mounted on the roof rack and not in the bumper). If you were mobbing some trails out west at speed and need the light penetration way down trail, obviously a no-brainer. But for the trails we have here I decided my bar is just for looks
lol
CO2 tank
my diy co2 tank did wonders for my fill-up time. 30 seconds per tire vs like 4-5 minutes with my ViAir pump I had. I'm still testing the capacity and how many total tire fills I can get, but I figured I shouldn't have to refill it more than twice a year with the amount of off roading I do.. I still need to make a solid mount for it, because it is quite bulky and I definitely wouldn't be bringing it for overlanding trips where the rig is packed with more than just a quick off-road trip worth of stuff.
future of the build
After running all the trails (these are super difficult when it comes to off road trails, but are the "hardest" at URE) this time around, my brother and I evaluated both of our rigs and pretty much settled on the fact that they are every bit as capable as we ever need them to be... going bigger would allow the rig to get up larger stuff, but both being daily rigs I don't think I would ever have the balls to do anything more crazy than we do now... going slightly larger is pointless and a waste of money, and the next step up is north of a $15k investment. Maybe one day i'll get there, but for the time being I decided I'm going to use whats on the rig now and see where it gets me. SAS would awesome, and maybe one day when I have a decent garage i'll actually do it, but for the time being I think I am more or less done with the "large" portion of the build. I may still tinker with getting more articulation out of the rear by clearancing the flares and reducing my bump stop, but only if the shock will allow me... time shall tell.
off-season plans
I still have a bit of work to do in the off season.. mainly with relocating the bodymount and doing the cam tab gussets. I also need to weld on my track bar bracket extension, sort out the rear link hardware and clearance the firewall. Then I'd like to see what it would take to raise the gas tank and fab a skid for it, and if that goes well I plan on spending some time underneath to wirebrush the frame and do some rust prevention (I'm one of the fortunate ones to have a near-mint frame and I would like to keep it that way). Then I need to spend some time and touch up the front bumper in a few spots that have gotten scratched pretty good so that I don't have rust develop and start messing with the rest of the finish.
Thank you for all those that stick around and follow me on this journey, it certainly has been an awesome one so far!
