Black798's 98 limited build thread

[Black798]

[MENTION=116387]Unner[/MENTION] Im not sure if it was the terrain or slight change in altitude or what. Im guessing Montana has more additives in our gas that causes it. I was pretty surprised though that I noticed a pretty big difference with the slight regear to 4.30. I used to really struggle to maintain 80 and would downshift all the time but now at 80 it will pull hills and hold overdrive consistently. It will be interesting to see how the larger rotating mass of the bigger tires changes that, hopefully for the better.

 

[BigFishAllDay]

As far as hells gate it is definitely intimidating, had I of stood around much longer I probably wouldn't have done it.....

Isn't that the truth. Sometimes you just have to jump in the driver seat, line up, and go for it before the nerves get to you.

I think I'm going to take the family out there in April and just run some easy stuff to show them around.

 

[Unner]

[MENTION=116387]Unner[/MENTION] Im not sure if it was the terrain or slight change in altitude or what. Im guessing Montana has more additives in our gas that causes it. I was pretty surprised though that I noticed a pretty big difference with the slight regear to 4.30. I used to really struggle to maintain 80 and would downshift all the time but now at 80 it will pull hills and hold overdrive consistently. It will be interesting to see how the larger rotating mass of the bigger tires changes that, hopefully for the better.

I think for me the difference is running at 75-80 mph out west my rpms are high enough that I can hold speed in 4th with the torque converter locked, versus down here the highest speed limit is 70 mph, and at that speed I almost have to downshift or unlock the torque converter to maintain speed up steep hills.

That's interesting on the gear ratio change. Hopefully it'll offset some of the change from the 285's you've got coming.

Isn't that the truth. Sometimes you just have to jump in the driver seat, line up, and go for it before the nerves get to you.

I think I'm going to take the family out there in April and just run some easy stuff to show them around.

White rim trail is very easy, but a lot of fun and extremely scenic. Might be too late to get any camping reservations though. They go really quick during prime seasons.

 

[Black798]

Isn't that the truth. Sometimes you just have to jump in the driver seat, line up, and go for it before the nerves get to you.

I think I'm going to take the family out there in April and just run some easy stuff to show them around.

Id agree with [MENTION=116387]Unner[/MENTION], I havent run white rim personally but I've seen pictures and it's pretty spectacular. There's also a few really cool routes out in the Lockhart basin area but they aren't very well documented.

That's what I love about Moab, I could spend a year there and not do or see everything.

 

[Unner]

Id agree with [MENTION=116387]Unner[/MENTION], I havent run white rim personally but I've seen pictures and it's pretty spectacular. There's also a few really cool routes out in the Lockhart basin area but they aren't very well documented.

That's what I love about Moab, I could spend a year there and not do or see everything.

White Rim is spectacular. Canyonlands could not be a more appropriate name for that National Park. You'll be driving in a canyon, looking down into another canyon, with a canyon inside of it. My friends with me poked fun at how often I stopped to take a picture, but I couldn't help it. It's breathtaking.

 

[BigFishAllDay]

My youngest is going to be a year old tomorrow, and probably won't tolerate full days strapped into a car seat very well. That will limit us to shorter trails where we can get out and play a lot, but still finish in a half day or less.

I'm thinking stuff like you'd find in Arches, checking out dino tracks and doing little hikes, and fins and things for fun climbs/descents, maybe onion creek for splashing in the water. It will really just be to show them the scenery/sights. A place with a nice pool will go over better than a remote campsite, too. Family trips are a different animal.

 

[Black798]

Understandable. I've taken my younger cousins out with my uncle a few time in Colorado. The youngest is 2. And I don't think we made it more than ten miles without taking a break. It's nice though because it let's you soak it in some more.

If your looking for a nice place to stay in town the Homewood suites that was just built is very nice, that's where my parents stayed this year. Full kitchen in the rooms and a nice pool. Added bonus is they don't give you a hard time about wrenching in the parking lot unlike the best western

 

[Unner]

My youngest is going to be a year old tomorrow, and probably won't tolerate full days strapped into a car seat very well. That will limit us to shorter trails where we can get out and play a lot, but still finish in a half day or less.

I'm thinking stuff like you'd find in Arches, checking out dino tracks and doing little hikes, and fins and things for fun climbs/descents, maybe onion creek for splashing in the water. It will really just be to show them the scenery/sights. A place with a nice pool will go over better than a remote campsite, too. Family trips are a different animal.

Ah, I didn't realize you had a one year old, I only knew of your older daughter. Happy almost birthday to them!

Check out Tower Arch Trail in Arches National Park. It's a pretty short ride, some fun little sections, but nothing crazy, and you can come in off a side road on HWY 191 that takes you into Arches without having to sit through all the lines at the gate and deal with the tourist traffic. Let me know if you want the exact road and I can look at my notes. At the end of the trail there's a small parking area and then a short hike to Tower Arch itself. That sounds more like something that would be up your alley for this trip.

Onion creek is such a fun trail. It's extremely underrated. There's something really fun about splashing through 6-12" of water and throwing it all over the truck. I've been to Moab once. I've ran Onion Creek 4 times. That probably says something about it...

 

[BrianSD_42]

I've got to commend you for all of the pics of Montana. I've never been and it's on my must visit list. When I finally get up there I'll probably be a rental sadly.

Do you ever deal with bears? (still going through the thread). Grizzly's seem like no joke. The bears here in CA aren't very aggressive.

Sorry to see you've had so many issues with your diffs. I guess I've been lucky because I also don't wheel super hard but I've been plenty of trails and never even broke a CV, yet alone a diff.

 

[Black798]

I've got to commend you for all of the pics of Montana. I've never been and it's on my must visit list. When I finally get up there I'll probably be a rental sadly.

Do you ever deal with bears? (still going through the thread). Grizzly's seem like no joke. The bears here in CA aren't very aggressive.

Sorry to see you've had so many issues with your diffs. I guess I've been lucky because I also don't wheel super hard but I've been plenty of trails and never even broke a CV, yet alone a diff.

I have never dealt with bears very much. We've had a black bear family come through the front yard a few times but they are generally pretty solitary and keep to themselves. A few neighbors have had some issues but that was more due to leaving things out carelessly. The only grizzlies I've seen up here have been at the Montana grizzly encounter just down the road from my house. I'm honestly more afraid of the moose and cougars than the bears. The moose are no joke. I had one chase me on horseback for nearly a mile when we first moved here.

I'm surprised I managed to break the diff before the CVs. I've basically come to the conclusion that it was the perfect combination of shock loading and hunting for traction in the snow that did it so there wasn't much I could do since it made no noise to say "hey you broke me". I'll just run this one untill it does the same thing and then throw and arb and some new gears in the original diff

 

[Flemster]

DAMn

First off, props on Hells Gate man, thats on my bucket list. You wheeled the piss out of it this trip! Awesome photos and it was great to meet you man. Glad you had a great trip.

 

[Black798]

It was great getting to finally meet all you guys too. I had a blast with your whole group. I'm honestly surprised the truck held up as well as it did but it for sure is in need of some love. Hope your flexplate issue gets sorted out soon.

 

[BigFishAllDay]

If your looking for a nice place to stay in town the Homewood suites that was just built is very nice, that's where my parents stayed this year. Full kitchen in the rooms and a nice pool. Added bonus is they don't give you a hard time about wrenching in the parking lot unlike the best western

Ah, I didn't realize you had a one year old, I only knew of your older daughter. Happy almost birthday to them!

Check out Tower Arch Trail in Arches National Park. It's a pretty short ride, some fun little sections, but nothing crazy, and you can come in off a side road on HWY 191 that takes you into Arches without having to sit through all the lines at the gate and deal with the tourist traffic. Let me know if you want the exact road and I can look at my notes. At the end of the trail there's a small parking area and then a short hike to Tower Arch itself. That sounds more like something that would be up your alley for this trip.

Onion creek is such a fun trail. It's extremely underrated. There's something really fun about splashing through 6-12" of water and throwing it all over the truck. I've been to Moab once. I've ran Onion Creek 4 times. That probably says something about it...

Thanks for the tips guys. Unner, yeah we have a second now... she had fun today. I have taken that back road out of arches and planned to use it going in next time, but haven't checked out Tower Arch. Sorry for the thread jack, Phoenix.

 

[Black798]

No worries about the thread jack. I'd rather that happen than no one ever reply. Keeps it interesting


Received my tracking number tonight from discount tire. Tires will be delivered on Thursday and either go on Thursday or Friday. Super stoked! Need to get some new tools to properly trim the fenders since I won't be running a body lift.

 

[BigFishAllDay]

I snuck my order in last night and got the tracking number today, too. I understand your excitement.

You shouldn't have to do any fender trimming for 285s with those Ray10s. Those wheels have 4" backspacing, right?

That was always one of their big selling points for me on Ray10s, because an 8" wide wheel with 4" BS is the sweet spot for 285s... same specs on my ProComp 8069s. You will just barely rub the lip of the front fenders at full stuff on stock bumps w/no body lift. Out back you should have no issues. It's a setup that works beautifully. I have a little bit of frame rub at the back of each tire at full lock.

 

[Black798]

I snuck my order in last night and got the tracking number today, too. I understand your excitement.

You shouldn't have to do any fender trimming for 285s with those Ray10s. Those wheels have 4" backspacing, right?

That was always one of their big selling points for me on Ray10s, because an 8" wide wheel with 4" BS is the sweet spot for 285s... same specs on my ProComp 8069s. You will just barely rub the lip of the front fenders at full stuff on stock bumps w/no body lift. Out back you should have no issues. It's a setup that works beautifully. I have a little bit of frame rub at the back of each tire at full lock.

Hopefully I can get away with that, I would much rather not do any trimming than have to hack up the fender and gut the flares. Which obviously makes them weaker like [MENTION=129084]Flemster[/MENTION]'s thats laying somewhere on i-25.

Thats odd you had no rubbing though and another guy I talked to with the 7069 pro comps which spec wise are identical to my ray 10s (8 inch wide,4" BS, -12 offset) rubbed the piss out of his upper fender on full compression. I guess we'll see how it lays out on mine which won't be ideal since I still have stock upper control arms. I'll be adding SPC arms when I rebuild the whole front end later this year but cant afford the downtime currently.

 

[Fishwerks]

Day three or I guess day two actually in Moab we met up with [MENTION=78892]Fishwerks[/MENTION] [MENTION=107971]derpiful[/MENTION] [MENTION=82211]TCMach[/MENTION] [MENTION=129084]Flemster[/MENTION], and a few others to run Poison Spider. I ran this trail last year but didn't fully finish it and knew there were a lot of things I bypassed so I knew there was still plenty to have fun on and this trail has a lot of good scenery.

It was good wheeling with you and your family/friends Phoenix, glad we met up again! It was easy to tell you were more confident behind the wheel and with the capability of your truck this year, well done.

Day 4 we decided to run Hells revenge again so that I could do Hells Gate which I have been wanting to do since last year. I was super disappointed and a little pissed to find out that since last year they paved a ramp and closed off the steep line on the gatekeeper which can now be driven in a Subaru Outback. The whole trend of people "building" things like Subarus and RAV 4s and trying to pass them off as hardcore wheeling rigs and then complaining when they cant do something just irritates me. And after asking the ranger that was in the entrance booth of sand flats about it he said that was basically why they did that. Enough people complained it was too hard or got hurt trying it when they shouldn't. The one nice thing is they did put in an exit which should get rid of any traffic jams.

Now the fun part... Hells Gate... This obstacle is honestly way more intimidating than it is difficult. I would say it's not quite as steep as wipeout hill it's just very important to stay high on the wall and to make sure that your rear tires are placed correctly on the 1st ledge. This is where the majority of people end up flopping. They put their drivers rear tire too far in the hole and then by the time they realize their front tire is airborne it's too late to stop the truck from going over.

I agree with your feelings on the "updated" Hell's Revenge entrance. The exit is a good call because of all the Hummer tours, but I bet it will increase traffic going out that direction since the true exit is getting so beat up.

Well done on Hell's Gate man, I haven't convinced myself to do it yet.

New tires have been ordered. I decided on 285/75/16 Falken Wildpeak AT3Ws. I wanted the width of the 305s but they would have been quite a bit more expensive and I think they would have sat too far out of the fender flares and looked kinda strange. the 285s seemed like a more practical solution that would let me keep as much wheel travel as possible without rubbing. 664 dollars out the door for 4 thanks to the discount tire sale. Maybe Ill go to 305s someday but we'll see

I think the 285s are a good choice, and damn that's a good price. I should have jumped on that sale.

Did Chris happen to share any thoughts on those STT Pros?

Hey Nick, Phoenix covered my general thoughts below. I definitely like the STT Pros. They were fairly quiet when new, have good road manners, balanced easily, and handled the terrain I threw at them just fine. The lateral traction (slow right hand turns for example) on packed snow/ice is definitely not good, but the lock-right in my rear diff makes that problem worse. I've blown through most of the useful tread in less than 25,000 miles too, I was hoping they would last a bit longer but they have worn evenly. I still may buy another set though...I think you were looking for feedback before the Discount Tire Direct sale ended, I'm interested to see what you decided on!

[MENTION=44220]
Chris didn't share any thoughts about the STT Pros with me personally but I saw some posts by him, I think in his build thread, that they were wearing a bit fast and didn't seem to do well in the snow with the rear lockright.

Yes and yes :thumb:

 

[Black798]

It was good wheeling with you and your family/friends Phoenix, glad we met up again! It was easy to tell you were more confident behind the wheel and with the capability of your truck this year, well done.

I agree with your feelings on the "updated" Hell's Revenge entrance. The exit is a good call because of all the Hummer tours, but I bet it will increase traffic going out that direction since the true exit is getting so beat up.

Well done on Hell's Gate man, I haven't convinced myself to do it yet.

It was great getting to wheel with you guys, hope to do it again soon! Already starting to think about my next run to Moab. Do you think you're heading to Jambo this year? Ive been tossing around the idea of heading down to Colorado a couple weeks before that and staying down there through it.

 

[BigFishAllDay]

Thats odd you had no rubbing though and another guy I talked to with the 7069 pro comps which spec wise are identical to my ray 10s (8 inch wide,4" BS, -12 offset) rubbed the piss out of his upper fender on full compression. I guess we'll see how it lays out on mine which won't be ideal since I still have stock upper control arms. I'll be adding SPC arms when I rebuild the whole front end later this year but cant afford the downtime currently.

If you were talking to Hayden ( [MENTION=107971]derpiful[/MENTION] ), he was running 7069s with 1.25" spidertrax, which would explain the fender rub. If not, then ???.

Hey Nick, Phoenix covered my general thoughts below. I definitely like the STT Pros. They were fairly quiet when new, have good road manners, balanced easily, and handled the terrain I threw at them just fine. The lateral traction (slow right hand turns for example) on packed snow/ice is definitely not good, but the lock-right in my rear diff makes that problem worse. I've blown through most of the useful tread in less than 25,000 miles too, I was hoping they would last a bit longer but they have worn evenly. I still may buy another set though...I think you were looking for feedback before the Discount Tire Direct sale ended, I'm interested to see what you decided on!

I ended up buying a set and they are on the way. I spent some time in your build thread that night reading your thoughts on them and it kinda pushed me over the edge. I have wanted to try a more aggressive tire for awhile and the KO2s just don't grip the way I have come to expect after running Duratracs for so long. The snow/ice traction has become less of an issue for me over the years too because I'm not skiing as much with two kiddos... and the fact that it seems it may never snow in NM again.

 

[derpiful]

If you were talking to Hayden ( [MENTION=107971]derpiful[/MENTION] ), he was running 7069s with 1.25" spidertrax, which would explain the fender rub. If not, then ???.

Hmmm, not sure who he was talking to haha

Phoenix- without the wheel spacers I didn't really rub much on the 285s except what Nick mentioned. With the wheel spacers there is definitely more of a problem, but without them, you shouldn't have much of a problem!

I ended up buying a set and they are on the way. I spent some time in your build thread that night reading your thoughts on them and it kinda pushed me over the edge. I have wanted to try a more aggressive tire for awhile and the KO2s just don't grip the way I have come to expect after running Duratracs for so long. The snow/ice traction has become less of an issue for me over the years too because I'm not skiing as much with two kiddos... and the fact that it seems it may never snow in NM again.

I'm excited to see them on your truck! To add to what Chris said... I'm also at a similar point with wear. They're definitely wearing faster than I hoped they would (I have about 23k on mine). I will also agree that snow handling is not very good in them, even unlocked.