EatonKyleH's Build Thread

[the great him]

any updates?

 

[EatonKyleH]

any updates?

Hey man!
Not a whole lot really as far as the rig itself goes. I've just kinda been throwing a picture or two up in the picture thread here and there. I've mostly been clearing out my fender wells and other kinda of boring things. I have been using it a lot though.

I have been on several longer expedition/camping trips to new places in CO and northwest Wyoming recently. I've had my kids (my son and stepdaughter) around on a few this year which has been fun.

I'm horrible about taking a lot of pictures (my phone is off most of the time I venture out) but I have gotten a few worth sharing and a few stories.
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So the rig currently sits like this on the BOSS coilovers and OME 861s with my normal gear.



Very happy with it on and off the road. I've posted a few flex shots on the picture gallery

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But mainly I've been breaking things:
(then fixing them and learning what I can do better in the future)

On a recent trip near South Park (yup South Park) Colorado I decided to camp above treeline in the worst winds and exposed areas I'd ever tried to camp in. The soil was very soft/loose tundra.

I had one of my fancy 4 season tents and thought I'd put it to the test. Staked out every guy line and hunkered down.

Lasted a few hours just fine but then as I was boiling some water the winds ripped every last stake from the ground, threw the tent in the air with my sleeping bag, pad, and 3-liter(full) platypus bladder inside.

It knocked me over as the whole tent rolled several hundred feet down the mountain side into a little stream.

It had a few minor tears in the rainfly but I was able to set it up in its new lower positioning and spend the night.

Called Big Agnes after returning home and they asked me to send them the tent to inspect for repairs.

Just over a week later they sent me a brand new tent body and rainfly free of charge! Super awesome customer service!

I've since studied up on guy line techniques and purchased a few different stake solutions to suit the different soil types I camp on.

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Wyoming.... and airing down to 0-psi.

I headed up for 3 nights outside of Pinedale Wyoming just for some exploring, camping, and fishing. I drove the 6 hours from my home on Thursday night and woke up Friday incredibly ill. But the fun had to continue.

I was driving random trails I'd spotted from the lakes we were visiting. Kinda out of it I heard a loud pop and hiss.



SWEET!!

So whatever I've got the tools and a spare right. I'll just change it out.

I'd been using the Gorilla spline lug nuts that came with the FN wheels since I got them and had taken them on and off a dozen times.

But of course the one time I'm really relying on this key it does this on the first lug nut and before I even got on it hard. I initially thought "Dang those nuts were loose"



This got me a little worked up. I swore at it for awhile but it didn't fix itself.
None of my metric sockets or other tools stood a chance at hooking up enough.

So I hiked out (I was alone at this time). I hitched a ride from the nearest camp ground into the small town of Pinedale to find nobody is going to have a key like I need and anyone that even would have a chance at it isn't open on the weekend.

I went to the local hardware store and bought a 12 point 5/8 deep socket and got a ride back to the campground where I gathered my optimism for a long hike back to the vehicle.

I pounded the 5/8 socket on to the lug nuts and slowly one by one was able to remove them.

The high-lift on my sliders worked great and we were back in business with a smile just barely starting to re-appear.


Trophy time:




I will be switching out all the lugnuts for mini acorn normal non-locking head style now because of this experience...seriously could have been a hell of a lot worse. Special tools this crucial that cannot be found in a small town shouldn't be needed on my rig.

ANYWHOO!!!

Now for some fun pics!
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Driving into Wyoming:



Big Ol' Lake



Hiking around with the Wife and doggers.



Kids along the Poudre river



Water at Fremont Lake (Looks tropical...but freezing Glacier water)

 

[farmerjon]

Wow, quite the story! yes, it could have been a lot worse, you'd be surprised what you CAN find and can't find in small towns... Pinedale the only place you made it to in WY?

Did that wood really puncture your Duratracs? That is incredible.

Very nice pictures, I'm impressed! Beautiful family as well - no greater responsibility and honor than that!

Rig looks clean - keep it up!

 

[EatonKyleH]

Wow, quite the story! yes, it could have been a lot worse, you'd be surprised what you CAN find and can't find in small towns... Pinedale the only place you made it to in WY?

Did that wood really puncture your Duratracs? That is incredible.

Very nice pictures, I'm impressed! Beautiful family as well - no greater responsibility and honor than that!

Rig looks clean - keep it up!

Thanks man! Most of the photo credit goes to my wife and sister in law lol.

My In-laws have a ranch in Farson Wyoming and we visit them up there before heading out once or twice a year. This time the only real town we spent time in was Pinedale although we visited several lakes and locations in and around the Bridger-Teton area. There are a ton of places in Wyoming and Montana that I really want to get over to. Someday soon hopefully!

Ya that broken off stick was barely protruding into the trail beneath some brush and I must have hit it just right. I was going extremely slow and it sliced the sidewall without notice. Really pretty disappointing.

Thanks for the kind words and for checking in!

 

[amalik]

Kyle,

Pretty scary experience there! I'm glad the 5/8 worked.

I assume you have warranty on the flat?

 

[EatonKyleH]

Kyle,

Pretty scary experience there! I'm glad the 5/8 worked.

I assume you have warranty on the flat?

Haha ya I was pretty nervous there for awhile. Luckily I was only about a 2 mile hike out to the nearest campground. Not a hike I would have wanted to do several more times trying things and no one had a vehicle they felt comfortable with on the trail but me.

But had I been out as far as I tend to be or planned to go that day the result would have been pretty awful. Just lucky to have learned this lesson the hard way but not the hardest way lol.

Ya replacing the tire at work was no big deal. I was just bummed to toss out a tire only a few weeks old.

 

[JWaldz]

Wow, that sucks! Glad you had a spare. Sucks about the key. I have the same lug nuts and key. Kind of scared now and wondering if that's a common problem with those keys. Were the lug nuts on really tight or something?

 

[EatonKyleH]

Wow, that sucks! Glad you had a spare. Sucks about the key. I have the same lug nuts and key. Kind of scared now and wondering if that's a common problem with those keys. Were the lug nuts on really tight or something?

The lug nuts were torqued to factory spec. I've used these lug nuts and keys a lot of different times on all sorts of different vehicles and never had a failure of a key like this before.

But of course it happens to me the one time it really counted and I couldn't just go grab another to try.

After pounding the 5/8 socket onto each nut I was able to get the nuts loose and even wiggle the socket back off each nut by hand so even then I didn't need to get the thing super stuck on there to turn them.

It probably won't happen again. But honestly it would have been a whole different story if I could have just used a metric socket and heck if I broke a deep socket could have used a shallow and small extension...a 3/8 drive instead of a 1/2...etc. I just kinda feel like carrying around several keys isn't as versatile as being able to rely on tools and have backups of those tools in the kit I already carry.

Not trying to claim these things are awful and that nobody should use them but I just never really put a thought into how helpless I would become after a single tool failure that could not be replaced by something else either in town or in my tool kit.

Thanks for checking in man!
Your rig is looking killer.

 

[derpiful]

Oh wow, quite the problem you had...! As others said, glad you were able to make that work.

But seriously, how do you even get a stick that big in your sidewall?!

 

[mcaz5]

I was just skimming through your build and I must say you've got quite the rig man! I can't believe I've never read through your build before. Very impressed with everything you've done. Keep up the good work! :thumb3:

 

[JWaldz]

Not trying to claim these things are awful and that nobody should use them but I just never really put a thought into how helpless I would become after a single tool failure that could not be replaced by something else either in town or in my tool kit.

Thanks for checking in man!
Your rig is looking killer.

I agree.. I would be pretty pissed if it that happened to me. Grant it, I carry a decent sized socket kit as well as a good range of deep impact sockets in my truck, but I'd still hate to have this problem. I can see how the key split like that after heavy usage though. It's pretty thin stuff. I don't understand why they couldn't use thicker material that would withstand the abuse from an impact. Not everyone takes off/puts on lug nuts by hand. I can see my milwaukee impact doing the same thing to mine after more usage.

Thanks for the kind works, your rig is coming along great! Beginning to look like mine :thumb:


BTW, what part of CO do you live in? My fiance and I are looking to move out that direction some time next year hopefully. We just need to find a good area to live in, somewhere that's affordable. The cost of living between there and Arkansas are so far apart. A 200k house here would be nice home built in the early 2000's while a 200k home in central CO area would be a small ass house built in the 50's lol. I'd love to live outside of Denver, either west or south of it. I don't want to live in the metropolis. I'm not a huge fan of large city living. Rather have a nice yard and not being able to see my neighbor through his bathroom window taking a crap ya know? haha

 

[NateMob]

I agree.. I would be pretty pissed if it that happened to me. Grant it, I carry a decent sized socket kit as well as a good range of deep impact sockets in my truck, but I'd still hate to have this problem. I can see how the key split like that after heavy usage though. It's pretty thin stuff. I don't understand why they couldn't use thicker material that would withstand the abuse from an impact. Not everyone takes off/puts on lug nuts by hand. I can see my milwaukee impact doing the same thing to mine after more usage.

Thanks for the kind works, your rig is coming along great! Beginning to look like mine :thumb:

The reason they make them so thin and to that length is to fit inside the lug nut recesses on a lot of aftermarket wheels. A lot of wheels are designed with such a tight hole(lol) around the lugs that a standard or even a thin walled socket wont fit in to capture the lug nut. Ive seen several split, one was on its very first use. Its actually the only thing i dont like about my SCS wheels is having to used splined lugs. You should never use an impact with the adaptor, break them loose by hand and do your final tighten by hand using a good torque wrench.

 

[JWaldz]

The reason they make them so thin and to that length is to fit inside the lug nut recesses on a lot of aftermarket wheels. A lot of wheels are designed with such a tight hole(lol) around the lugs that a standard or even a thin walled socket wont fit in to capture the lug nut. Ive seen several split, one was on its very first use. Its actually the only thing i dont like about my SCS wheels is having to used splined lugs. You should never use an impact with the adaptor, break them loose by hand and do your final tighten by hand using a good torque wrench.

I see what you did there... :suspicious:

Well, they should offer a thick walled version of it damnit! Hell, I might just write to gorilla about it.

 

[NateMob]

I see what you did there... :suspicious:

Well, they should offer a thick walled version of it damnit! Hell, I might just write to gorilla about it.

lol, that would be cool if they offered an "HD Version" for people without the tighter holes. :heh:

 

[4Running Daily]

I agree.. I would be pretty pissed if it that happened to me. Grant it, I carry a decent sized socket kit as well as a good range of deep impact sockets in my truck, but I'd still hate to have this problem. I can see how the key split like that after heavy usage though. It's pretty thin stuff. I don't understand why they couldn't use thicker material that would withstand the abuse from an impact. Not everyone takes off/puts on lug nuts by hand. I can see my milwaukee impact doing the same thing to mine after more usage.

Thanks for the kind works, your rig is coming along great! Beginning to look like mine :thumb:


BTW, what part of CO do you live in? My fiance and I are looking to move out that direction some time next year hopefully. We just need to find a good area to live in, somewhere that's affordable. The cost of living between there and Arkansas are so far apart. A 200k house here would be nice home built in the early 2000's while a 200k home in central CO area would be a small ass house built in the 50's lol. I'd love to live outside of Denver, either west or south of it. I don't want to live in the metropolis. I'm not a huge fan of large city living. Rather have a nice yard and not being able to see my neighbor through his bathroom window taking a crap ya know? haha

Evergreen, CO

 

[JWaldz]

Evergreen huh.. I've looked at homes out there. Really nice area. Woodsy like I like, however crazy expensive homes around there. There's like multi million dollar houses out in the middle of nowhere.

 

[EatonKyleH]

Thanks for the kind works, your rig is coming along great! Beginning to look like mine :thumb:


BTW, what part of CO do you live in? My fiance and I are looking to move out that direction some time next year hopefully. We just need to find a good area to live in, somewhere that's affordable. The cost of living between there and Arkansas are so far apart. A 200k house here would be nice home built in the early 2000's while a 200k home in central CO area would be a small ass house built in the 50's lol. I'd love to live outside of Denver, either west or south of it. I don't want to live in the metropolis. I'm not a huge fan of large city living. Rather have a nice yard and not being able to see my neighbor through his bathroom window taking a crap ya know? haha

Haha that's been my plan all along! :behindsofa:

I live right out side of Fort Collins in the town of Eaton (population of about 4000) and I work in Fort Collins.

Its a nice country style kinda thing while still having quick city access which is what I wanted when purchasing this home and its worked out really great.

I have a 1/2 acre lot as do my neighbors (give or take) so its a really nice amount of space.

Anywhoo if you ever have any questions about the area feel free to PM me. I've lived in Denver, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, and now Eaton.

 

[EatonKyleH]

But seriously, how do you even get a stick that big in your sidewall?!

It was a branch of a longer limb laying alongside the trail. After lodging itself in the sidewall the wheel turned another 1/4 turn or so breaking that piece off.

I found it funny looking so I left it in there for a bit.

Then I took it back to camp and BURNED IT SO IT WOULD NEVER KILL AGAIN. It was the only way really.

I was just skimming through your build and I must say you've got quite the rig man! I can't believe I've never read through your build before. Very impressed with everything you've done. Keep up the good work! :thumb3:

Thanks man!

 

[EatonKyleH]

Woke up and decided to cut this thing relentlessly. So I got out the Crazydubman play book and went to town.

Basically I'm running a pretty wide stance with 3.5 backspace 16x8 wheels and 285s. Than on top of that I've gained a lot of up travel from the new suspension.
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As you can see here the fender and bottom part of the flare basically had become my bumpstop.



I could have just cranked the front coilovers up but I have really wanted to keep this thing low and just stuff the tire in the well instead of moving the body and/or tire further from it with more lift or a body lift.

And I still wanted it to look normal.

So here it starts. Flare off and start cutting.



Cut:



Flare cut and reinstalled. (now bolts instead of the plastic clips)

You can see I left a slight lip and this shows where it ends at my front bumper. Just have to sand the edge now.



And bam Looks like nothing happened from the side.



STOKED!

 

[Slow_T4R]

Nice work! Looks legit.