Dirtco's Adventure Thread

The narrower axle definitely presents some challenges, which is fine with me, I enjoy figuring that out. The problem is as much as I love dirtcos truck I really don't like how wide the front is so I would need the narrower axle. I understand his reasoning behind it I just don't like the look. Thats, where I was hoping [MENTION=67615]Dirtco[/MENTION] might be able to shed some insight, is if there is practically room to narrow the axle while maintaining useable up travel and flex.

It shouldn't be that bad, it's a ton of work however you do it.

First, my front track width is only 1.25" wider than the rear (which is pretty standard). I am running the TG Tacoma width housing with the Front Range Tacoma brake kit that uses IFS hubs (this adds around 3" to the width). In the rear I am using a TG Tacoma width housing (same width as the 4Runner) but I'm running 1.5" wheel spacers to match the front. I have the Front Range full float kit with all chromoly parts, so I'm not worried about the extra leverage of the spacers for my set up. I'm also running 3.5" backspace 17x9 wheels.

So, in theory, if you bought the same front axle as me but ran standard brakes and solid axle hubs it would be 3" narrower. If you ran 4.5" backspace wheels it would be 5" narrower (but you would have to check brake caliper clearance). Everything I have read says you want the track width to be the same or even slightly more in the front of the vehicles we have. The issue with an A-arm IFS system is as you lift it you loose track width. When I added 1" spacers to correct that issue (back in the day) I felt the vehicle handled better, and I liked it's manners on the trail better too.

As for tire clearance it depends if your going to go links or leafs. In a link suspension the front tire moves forward during compression, so you shouldn't have to trim or cut the firewall (depending on axle placement). But, you might have to trim the front of the fender and front core support. The other thing to remember is Toyota knuckle ball axles have less steering radius than IFS, and when your setting up the steering make sure to install the knuckle ball seals! I killed myself to get everything to clear at full steering lock, just to find out I had nowhere near that turning radius with the seals installed.
 
Day 3

We went to the carwash to clean the oil off Eric’s Jeep, then headed up Gemini Bridges to Metal Masher. Being a Saturday there was some traffic on the trail but not that bad.

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We made good time up to Rock Chucker; both Aaron and Eric gave it a shot but it’s super dug out and they couldn’t climb the final ledge. I didn’t even try with the lack of a transfer case skid plate.

It was a beautiful day!

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We continued on to the overlook where we had lunch and I flew the Phantom around. Then we continued on our way. Aaron wanted to give Widow Maker a try, so Aaron and Eric headed that direction while Rick, Drake and myself ran around the exit of Widow Marker so I could winch them up if needed. Turns out there is a newly installed winch anchor at the top, but it was still a fun detour.

Aaron tried several lines, but it was just too dug out to make it up. You pretty much need a buggy (or at least some sticky tires) to get up. Aaron ended up winching and Eric followed shortly after.

Day 4

It was Sunday and Aaron had to head home, we all got packed up and ready to go. The plan was to run Hell’s Revenge that morning, then head up to Top of the World. Drake decided to ride his trials bike instead of taking the Comanche, so it was just Rick, Eric and myself in vehicles. As we started up the trail we saw a large line of vehicles waiting at the gate to get inside Sand Flats, so we headed directly towards Hell’s Gate.

Rick decided to skip Hell’s Gate (I don’t blame him), so he stayed at the top while Eric and myself dropped down the entrance that leads to the bottom. I’ve always wanted to get aerial footage of how steep it really is, so I broke out the Phantom and got it hovering in a good spot then drove up. At the top I was able to catch Eric driving up, it was an amazing shot! Unfortunately when I got home and looked at the footage it had stopped recording part way through. It was having a lot of magnetic interference being down inside the canyon walls, so that might have been the problem, or the controller might have gotten bumped inside the truck. I’m going to give it another shot next time I’m out there and the trail isn’t so busy.

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And here is a screen shot right before the Phantom stopped recording, Rick is in the blue shirt on the right side of the screen.

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Getting out of the Hell’s Gate/Colorado River Overlook spur proved to be a small challenge with all the traffic (we probably spent 20 minutes waiting for all the vehicles and UTV’s to pass by), but once we got past them we pretty much had the rest of the trail to ourselves. Eric wanted to try Escalator, so we broke out the camera’s and watched the show! He drove it without any assistance, but had to adjust his line a couple times.

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Tip over Challenge

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as always great pics!
I have always wanted to do Hell's Gate...now not so much, steeper than I thought it was ...getting to be a pansy in my old age
 
We finished Hell’s Revenge around 12:30pm and headed into town to get gas and a quick bite to eat before heading up to Top of the World. We found a spot to camp for the night, unloaded some gear and made our way to the trailhead.

The trail up to the over look has just enough optional obstacles to be fun, while still allowing lesser built rigs up the trail (although it is getting more dug out every year). We ran into a lot of traffic coming back down, so our timing worked out pretty good. We were the only group at the top, so we took our time and a bunch of pictures!

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as always great pics!
I have always wanted to do Hell's Gate...now not so much, steeper than I thought it was ...getting to be a pansy in my old age

Thank you!

It's pretty damn steep, it's not that bad driving up it but if you did mess up you would be having a bad day. I sure wouldn't want to back down it!

Also figured out why the Phantom stopped recording, the memory card was full. I had deleted everything off of it before the trip, but there was still history files on it. I had to reformat it and wipe it clean, now I have all my file space back. I went ahead and took care of the GoPro and any extra cards I have too.
 
We had some weather come through the last two weeks, so of course I had to take the 4Runner out and see if I could find some snow!

First trip of the season

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The trail got narrower and there were sagging branches and trees along the trail, but nothing I couldn’t get through.

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One of several high spots on the ridge, the wind and snow was intense for October!

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End of the trail

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And heading back down

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Man I just went thru all of your build. I was already wanting to sell my 2nd gen and build a 3rd, now its even worse lol. Ive read all of your build threads I think. Always quality work.
 
Round 2

A few days later and a different spot. I didn't think I was going to find anything that deep but it was a beautiful day and I had a couple hours to kill off. After getting to the top of the ridge I was greeted to about 12-18" of snow.

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And I even found a deep snow drift to play in!

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Man I just went thru all of your build. I was already wanting to sell my 2nd gen and build a 3rd, now its even worse lol. Ive read all of your build threads I think. Always quality work.

Thank you for taking the time to read through the whole thing! I've had several rigs, but this is the one I'll be keeping for a while. It's super capable, yet comfortable and refined!
 
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Thank you for taking the time to read through the whole thing! I've had several rigs, but this is the one I'll be keeping for a while. It's super capable, yet comfortable and refined!

I don’t blame you. How do you like that front axle so far? I’ve been looking at doing the same thing (axle wise) on mine to get that 64-65 wms.
 
I don’t blame you. How do you like that front axle so far? I’ve been looking at doing the same thing (axle wise) on mine to get that 64-65 wms.

It's a good deal for the price. If your running a link suspension the shape of the front center section can be hard to work around. Most people run the steering tie rod under the steering arms for frame clearance, but the tie rod will hit the housing with standard joints. I had to use an off-set heim joint to clear the housing when the wheels are turned.

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The rear coil springs have been fixed, I bought a set of the OME 850’s. These have the same spring rate as the 861’s but are designed to set about 1.75” taller. Here is a copy and paste from Toytec’s website:

Front Coil Options:
2851 - Stock/Light Load (0-110 lbs) 2" lift
2850 - Heavy load (110-250 lbs) 2" lift
2850J - Extended Height Coils 3" lift (Requires 60070L Shocks) **
2861 - Low height heavy load (110-250 lbs) .25" lift

I also called Accutune and had them work their magic for the front springs. I was running a 16” 250lb lower spring and a 14” 150lb spring, in order to drop the front down an inch I swapped out the upper spring with 14” 125lb spring. This was perfect, I now have a frame height of 24” with 4” of up travel not including the small built in bumpstops (or 23.5” with 3.5” of up travel if I back the truck in the garage).

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Looks awesome, but I bet you won't be happy with 4" uptravel. I'm running that on my buggy and it's fine on the actual trail, but on the fire roads it sux b/c it really slows you down. I think 5" is the minimum I'll be able to live with...but that all depends on your combined spring rate and where you have the front end set up to transition to the primary.
 
Dang man, I've been following your build for a while as a guest, what a great read. Your build turned out super legit. Mine will get there after i relocate to Northern California again. Looking forward to more wheeling pics!
 
This is going to be one hell of a long post, but unfortunately it’s necessary.

I took the 4Runner out snow wheeling on Sunday November 4th to one of my local spots, there was a storm moving in and it seemed like a great way to kill off the afternoon. The road up was super icy, there was a ton of hunter traffic and they really packed down the snow on the road. I put it in 4 wheel drive and continued along until the snow got deep enough that I was officially on my own. As I gained altitude the snow go deeper and the storm intensified, it wasn’t long before it was dumping and visibility was marginal. My idea of a great time!!

I almost made it to the end of trail when the snow got so deep I wasn’t making much progress. I could have aired down some more and finished the last half mile but it didn’t seem worth the effort, so I turned around and started back home. As I came down the mountain the snow let back up, and I called my wife to let her know I was getting close. I was getting pretty close to the main road, and there was a lot of hunters in the area, so I kept my speed down and just enjoyed the surroundings. And that’s when it happened…

There was a left hand turn ahead, I tapped the brakes to slow down a little more and the the ass end started to come around. It was a sheet of ice with an inch of fresh snow on top and there was nothing I could do (earlier in the day I experienced the same thing as I was trying to climb a small hill, it was so slick I slid backwards with my brakes on for probably 75’ before a ditch stopped me). I felt the back of the truck drop off the side of the road, so I closed my eyes and braced myself. I honestly don’t know how many times I rolled, but when I stopped I was upside-down and the passenger side was wrapped around a tree.

For those of you that have not rolled a vehicle it’s incredibly disorientating! My first thought was to turn off the engine, then I had to assess what was going on. I realized my first priority was finding my phone so I could call for help, then getting the hell out of the truck! Luckily I found my phone in all the misc stuff and broken glass, but it did take a while. To get out of the truck I had to move some stuff around, and remove the rear seat headrest to squeeze through the back side window (which was jammed into a log). By this point my adrenaline was though the roof and I climbed to the road as fast as I could. I didn’t have much for cell service so I started walking and was able to call my wife about a 1/4 mile down the road. She and one of our neighbors came up to get me. After getting home I realized I seriously didn’t have a scratch on me!
 
After I had a chance to calm down and make sure I wasn’t injured the truck became the next priority, it was so overwhelming I decided to proceed in small steps. Step one was to recover my belongings and random gear from the truck before it got stolen. I had camera gear, my drone, GPS, and a ton of other stuff in the truck. The following morning I drove another truck up with 100’ of rope. I was really hoping it would look better in the day light, but boy was I wrong!

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I tied off to the truck up on the road and worked my way down to the crash site. I thought that 100’ of road would be plenty, but it barely reached the 4Runner. I climbed back into the wreckage and started collecting all my gear (which was no easy feat with how the 4Runner was setting). My sleeping bag was still in the truck so I filled it with all the random stuff and used that to drag all my belongings up to the road. After a few trips up and down the hill side all that remained was my tool bag, recovery bag, and my GoPro which I was unable to find. By this time I had been in and out of the 4Runner several times and the headliner was getting slick with snow, and was covered in broken glass. I got a flashlight to look for the missing GoPro but when I got in the truck I slid down the entire roof and into the broken windshield (it wasn’t the first time that morning), my nerves had officially had enough so I gave up on the search. I tied the rope to my tool/recovery bags and drug them up the mountain with the truck on the road, then headed home.

About a mile down the road another truck had slid and rolled off the road too.

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Jeremiah, I'm glad you were not physically hurt. Your description was very vivid, priorities spot-on, IMO.

I hit ice before, and it's a damn helpless feeling, like a slow train wreck. I didn't roll though. I did roll before, twice, in FJ40s, simply me being young and inexperienced. I remember holding the roll cage, then letting go so I wouldn't lose any fingers, then holding it again, and letting go. The steering wheel was an arm-breaker... It was scary. No doors or roof.

Glad you found your phone, that it was sufficiently charged, and that you had reception. A ham radio, with the local repeaters programmed is super nice to have too.

Best to you and for what comes next...
 

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