AssBurns 2000 Limited Build Thread

[AssBurns]

Well here it is guys. What you've all been waiting for... well, maybe only me. I've been waiting to get this done for too long. I haven't ran a front bumper since KOH '16! Decided to build my front bumper out of tube to save some weight while still having the protection I need and the ability to have a winch. Saving weight was quite a success over the heavy plate bumpers. I weighted the bumper before I painted it, without the skid and it weighted 56lbs. So with the skid, paint, and hardware I'm estimating ~60lbs. The materials I used were 1.75" DOM tube for most of tube work except for the side tubes that connect to body mount perches. Those are 1.5" DOM. For the frame horns and winch plate I used 3/16" plate. The skid plate is 3/16" 6011 Aluminum. 6011 is the hard stuff so it should hold up decently and saves so much weight over steel. Luckily I had a buddy that me borrow some handy tools to made the build much easier. I got to use his JD2 Tube Bender, Tube Roller and his JD2 Tube Notcher. Tube notcher hands down is the most convenient tool compared to using the old school chop saw technique. Definitely gonna buy one in the near future. Overall the bumper turned out exactly as planned except it sticks out about an inch or so further than I planned, which is still okay. The cool thing about the way it got designed is that when I get a winch, the fairlead will actually be tucked back into the tubing away from damage and even the winch hook should be able to be tucked back as well. So the tube bumper itself should be the furthest thing forward after everything is said and done, not winch parts to get banged up. I still need to get some more trick tabs to mount some lights on the bumper. I have two 130w KC daylighters right now and will probably just pick up two more to have 4 lights on the bumper. Now for pictures...

First use with the hydro kit so I bent a sample tube to test things.

Tube Roller. Way more time and effort than I was expecting, but the hydro tube bender made up the difference in effort.

And the build starts. 1st mockup.

Painters tape works get for visualizing tube placement.

I cleaned everything really well with mineral spirits and let it dry, then primed it, and painted it. Just painted with Rustoleum semi-gloss black.

 

[AssBurns]

And the finished product.. for now...

So some things that still need to be done: Light mount tabs, turn signals, final coat of paint to clear up the scuff marks from pounding it on during install, and possibly a valance. Valance is more likely to happen than not but I haven't bought anything to do it yet. We'll see.

 

[4-Ripcord]

nicely done on that fab work. I really like the curved top bar of the bumper!

 

[AssBurns]

nicely done on that fab work. I really like the curved top bar of the bumper!

Thanks Rip! I got lucky that a friend had a tube roller. I really like having the nice smooth radius.

 

[AssBurns]

On my way home from work today I noticed my coolant temp started to rise, so I pulled over to check it out. My first thoughts were that I was just low on coolant or that the bumper was blocking the air flow somehow. I had a gallon of coolant in the back and a few water bottles to add to the radiator. I was super low on coolant so I knew there was an issue beyond just low coolant but wasn't quite sure where. Shortly after a CalTrans truck pulled up and the guy asked if I needed help. We topped off the radiator and started the truck. Sure enough we noticed the heater control valve broke and was dumping coolant. I was able to make it off the freeway to the nearest gas station and had my sister pick me up and take me to Autozone up the street to pick up a new part. Bummer to spend $50 on such a simple little part that isn't even OEM. Didn't have a choice at that time though. 5 minutes later I had the new part swapped in and coolant topped off. What a hassle for a Monday!

 

[DirtyB12]

Any idea on where to find the rear upper trailing arm brackets? Does anybody make them? Toyota says you have to get a whole new axle housing. Just bought a 2000 sr5 and found out the bracket is broke and can't be welded.

 

[AssBurns]

What a trip we had this last weekend! Absolutely nothing about this trip went as planned, but we still managed to have a blast.

Our original plan was to go down to Baja, camp on the beach, drink cervezas and relax. We were supposed to go with our buddy that knows the area very well and goes down there for all the races. He works in a race shop building and doing maintenance for buggies for the race teams. Then every race he goes down there and either chases, works in the pits or co-pilots. Unfortunately last minute he ended up getting sick and couldn't go. I don't know Mexico very well and wasn't very comfortable going without him to lead the way. We were literally ready to walk out the door when my buddy told us he couldn't make it and I immediately posted a thread here asking for some cool places to go within a 4 hour drive from where I live. Luckily a forum member quickly responded and mentioned a few spots in the Eastern Sierras.

We grabbed some warmer clothes and a few extra blankets and took off within minutes. We still weren't decided where we were going specifically but we new the direction we needed to go. My wife started looking into the mentioned places and we decided on Coyotes Flats. I unfortunately had no maps saved in this area and figured I needed to stop somewhere with Wifi to download some maps. We stopped in Lone Pine and got lunch at a little cafe then went next door to Jakes Saloon and grabbed a beer while the maps downloaded. Once I had enough mapping to feel comfortable, we hit the road again. We made one final stop before getting gas at Mahogany Smoked Meats and grabbed some fresh jerky. Got to the trail, aired down and headed up the trail for the weekend to explore the High Sierras.

The trail is about 14 miles till you actually hit Coyote Flats and you gain almost 5000 feet in elevation. What an awesome place it is up there, but about 1 mile into Coyote Flats my steering rack came apart and dumped all my power steering fluid, causing me to lose power steering. I didn't have big enough channel locks to try to thread the cap back on and I only had about 12oz or less of power steering fluid with me. We just found a spot to camp and called it a day.

We woke up in the morning, ate breakfast and drove back down the mountain to Bishop. Boy was it a pain to drive with no power steering! We stopped at O'rielly's, got large channel locks, and a gallon of power steering fluid. Went out and fixed it and it's still holding up. Not sure if it came unthreaded or simply just popped off. The threads looked and felt good so I'm guessing it came unthreaded?

We got some pizza in town then headed back up to Coyote Flats. As we were heading up my A/T Temp light came on so I pulled over and let it cool. I turned the heater on to help the radiator cool faster and help the A/T fluid cool faster. Immediately the engine temp got hot. I then realized I never bled the cooling system fully after the heater control valve broke last week. When I turned on the heater a bunch of air got into the cooling system causing it to overheat. I let everything cool and tried to bleed the air out by letting it run with the radiator cap off. At this point my wife was uncomfortable continuing since she is pregnant and this was the 2nd thing that happened already. So we headed back down again and went to another saloon while we let the engine cool down for a couple hours. Drank a few local beers with some old hay bailers and just talked about random shit for a few hours to kill time.

After the engine cooled I was able to fully bleed to cooling system. We then just went up highway 168 up to South Lake and found a decent campground (Four Jeffrey's Campground) that had a nice site. We just hung out, listened to music and relaxed together for our last trip before our 2nd baby comes in July. What an adventure it was but we still had so much fun. Definitely a trip I'll remember. I also want to try to plan a trip up to Coyote Flats with a group to really get a chance to explore the area. The little glimpse we saw was absolutely beautiful.

 

[185Runner]

I have a bunch of family down in Bishop and they love the Owens valley. Glad you made the most of it. It's a great place to be.

 

[theesotericone]

My wife started looking into the mentioned places and we decided on Coyotes Flats. We made one final stop before getting gas at Mahogany Smoked Meats and grabbed some fresh jerky.

Good choice on both. Next time you stop there get some of there deli sandwiches. Best in town.

When you where at O'Reilly's you where literally within a 1/4 mile of my house. Next time your planning a trip up this way shoot me a PM and I'll give you my number. My garage has all you'll need to make any repairs in the future. Which, hopefully, there won't be any. It's always more fun to wheel then wrench.

I was in the Domelands when you where up at Coyote. I bet we crossed paths on 395 on Sunday. lol

 

[AssBurns]

I've had a few folks ask about my rear suspension setup and ask if I really had to notch the frame. I just wanted to point out a couple things why I did what I did. First of all I wanted to keep as much up travel as possible. That was the main goal for this project besides the other obvious reasons for outboard shocks.
I'm honestly very surprised to see others be able to fit a 12" shock with no issues. Obviously keeping all the up travel made it a little more difficult to package in such a small area. Could I have gotten away without cutting the frame? Maybe. But that would leave no room for error.
Here you can see how close the tire actually comes to the shock itself. Roughly .5" and this isn't at full shock compression. Still had about .75" shock left until full compression. So that .75" of shock travel will actually push the tire closer to the shock. Not leaving much room for tire deflection when aired down.

Now at full droop the lower shock mount swings just below the frame rail. This was why I notched the frame. To keep clearance in this area. Kinda hard to tell in a crappy picture but there is about .5" clearance between the top of the frame and the shock body. Plenty of clearance at the bottom of the frame rail though. The last thing I wanted was to bend a shock rod while off-roading.

Still not 100% sure how others are fitting a 12" shock with no issues. Must be because the amount of up travel I was trying to keep available. Maybe I missed something that others didn't. But here is what I got out of the project.

 

[AssBurns]

So I think it's time to upgrade to coilovers...

Unfortunately that's not gonna happen right now. Bummer! I can't blow that kind of money right now with baby #2 due within the next few weeks. Coilovers are just going to have to wait a while. This is the second 5100 that has broke in the last 6 months. I guess they just can't handle what I've been putting them through. I shouldn't really expect them to either. When this one broke I was on my way home from work and decided to take a "shortcut" through a dirt road/ wash. As soon as I was about to get back on pavement I heard loud ping and thud sound. I immediately knew it was the shock by the sound. Luckily I was able to drive the last few miles home with no problem. I had my buddy pick me up another one from his work and will be installing tomorrow morning. Hopefully it drives better now with a fresh shock instead of the old worn out one that finally ended its life.
Drove home with that fresh gangster lean...

I guess that's a quick way to get that lower ride height that I've been looking for. Who said you need a lift for 35's?

For some better news, I was able to pick up a set of 130w KC SlimLites for $40 from a local Tacoma guy last week. I finally got around to installing them tonight. Boy is it nice having double the light output. Now I'd like to get a set of ditch lights next. The bumper looks more complete too with 4 lights instead of just 2.

 

[jkeith.w]

So I think it's time to upgrade to coilovers...

Wow. is that from too long compressed length (I'm guessing), or too short extended length??

 

[Slo.Runner]

man i like your front bumper. if you ever want to make another i would be all over that. only thing i would add would be a stinger :wow2:

 

[AssBurns]

man i like your front bumper. if you ever want to make another i would be all over that. only thing i would add would be a stinger :wow2:

Thanks! I'll let you know if I ever make another one. Doubt it though haha. You are free to use the design though if you ever decided to tackle the project on your own.
I like the stingers too but I'd rather have room for 4 lights. Stingers get in the way of that. I'd eventually like to get 8" lights so I made the mounts with extra room for bigger lights.

Wow. is that from too long compressed length (I'm guessing), or too short extended length??

I think the lengths are fine. Doesn't bottom out the shock at full bump. It may be from topping out too hard and too often though. The extended length seems fine too. Any longer, and the CV's will start to bind. Maybe limit straps would help keep it from topping out hard. I'll look into that soon.

 

[theesotericone]

So I think it's time to upgrade to coilovers...

This is the second 5100 that has broke in the last 6 months. I guess they just can't handle what I've been putting them through.

2? Holy crap man, what are you putting them though? Are those the Tundra or Taco Billies? What clip? I have the Taco's and beat my rig pretty good. Recently went to 295/70r17's and was planning on bumping them up to the second perch. Just trying to figure out your setup so I can avoid a similar fate.

 

[AssBurns]

2? Holy crap man, what are you putting them though? Are those the Tundra or Taco Billies? What clip? I have the Taco's and beat my rig pretty good. Recently went to 295/70r17's and was planning on bumping them up to the second perch. Just trying to figure out your setup so I can avoid a similar fate.

I guess I'm just driving too hard or something. I do like to drive fast while off-roading so that might be it. Idk
Running the Tundra 5100's. They started on 1st perch then went to 2nd perch for a while, then a few months ago I dropped them back down to the 1st perch. Just don't drive like an animal offroad and they should last for you I hope.

 

[theesotericone]

I guess I'm just driving too hard or something. I do like to drive fast while off-roading so that might be it. Idk
Running the Tundra 5100's. They started on 1st perch then went to 2nd perch for a while, then a few months ago I dropped them back down to the 1st perch. Just don't drive like an animal offroad and they should last for you I hope.

Maybe I'll just get lucky and the Taco Biliies will hold up better? No way am I gonna change my driving style. Either way the rubbing is killing me at full compression so there going up a perch. I might end up trimming the rear outboard fender a bit too. On hard hits the rears contact that area pretty hard. I'll extend the bumps a bit first to try and find a happy medium before I get out the grinder.

Congrats on the new baby BTW.

 

[psraff]

So I think it's time to upgrade to coilovers...

On the Bright Side.... I haven't seen a CV Joint that straight on this forum in YEARS!!!!!

 

[AssBurns]

[MENTION=143526]theesotericone[/MENTION] There is an easy way to eliminate your rubbing issue. Angle Grinder and BFH. [emoji6] If you look at mine, I've chopped almost everything to eliminate rubbing. I still rub the top on the inner rear wheel well and the front of the inner front wheel well. But just barely. Still working on those spots because a BFH didn't quite eliminate the rub at full bump.
[MENTION=28808]psraff[/MENTION] If only they can look like that at normal ride height. Once I can figure out how to lower the rear ride height without losing travel, I will probably lower the front to 1-2" lift. Should make CV boots happy.

 

[BrianSD_42]

Hey man glad to see you're keeping up on the adventures. I saw you went up to the high sierras on a thread in the SoCal section. I'm looking to head up there in a few weeks. Hopefully enough of the snow will have melted for us to pass through. Congrats on the 2nd child btw!