Inv4drZm's Build Thread

[williamteichroeb]

nice work!! I've been following your build for the last year or so. I really envy that rear bumper and the detail you put into your build.

A rear bumper is the last item or my big item wish list!!! Hopefully soon, but I don't have the fabrication skills, nor equipment you do, so I'll pay someone to custom fab one up for me.

Cheers,
Will

 

[Terminator03]

Tank is held to frame by two steel straps. You can safely remove the tank skid without dropping the tank, so long as those straps aren’t rusted through.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I agree with [MENTION=114806]CJFONNER[/MENTION], it should be easy to do.

Awesome, thanks for confirming!

 

[Inv4drZm]

Helped build a rear bumper identical to my brother's for another FJ enthusiast and helped weld it on today while she was driving through Kansas on her way to the Moab before summit event. High-clearance and keeps the FJ backup sensors. We'll meet her there and wheel again in a couple days... If anybody is going to the Moab before summit event keep an eye out for me! :tea:





Finished up a few things on mine too, jerry can holder. Looks insane:

 

[Pinmonkey05]

Awesome thread! Inspiration for my Gen4.

 

[truckhigh]

I built my first one out of thin 2" tubing (roughly .080" wall) and most of the movement came from the main arm twisting. Definitely build it from 3/16 or 1/4 wall tubing. I went to a 2x3x3/16 tube for this bumper to be on the safe side. Using taller tubing you can also make the latch stronger (taller), depending on the latch design to reduce movement there too.

Are the 5/8 tab with bronze bushings for the latch? If so I really think there needs to be some sort of compressive force on the latch to hold it in place and not just a pin like I did for my first design. I would recommend the 4xinnovations latch and hinge, I liked them.

awesome thanks i think I'm gonna use some 1/4 trailer hitch tube with 1/4 round tube to a brass bushing. I was gonna compensate for the 2x4 to 2x2 with a triangle under and a door popper spring for noise. I already picked up a spring pop pin and a 1000lb toggle latch. i hope that will do

 

[Pinmonkey05]

do you remember what diameter (mcmaster-carr)pushpin you used?
1/2" x 4-4.5"?

I welded my skid plate crossmember and tire carrier today! I surprised myself, turned out better than I expected. I'm only $250 into the skids and tire carrier.


Push button pin from Mcmaster-Carr works perfectly:



Still need a tap to relocate the license plate onto the swing-out and a couple more lug nuts to mount the wheel LOL. Also need to figure out how to reinforce the plastic bumper tread plate that is floating 1.5" off the crossmember due to my body lift.

 

[theoutbackdream]

Finished up a few things on mine too, jerry can holder. Looks insane:

Man... this pic right here makes me want a 4x4labs rear bumper...

 

[Inv4drZm]

do you remember what diameter (mcmaster-carr)pushpin you used?
1/2" x 4-4.5"?

Sorry, been on vacation the past week.

2.75" usable length, .5" diameter.

McMaster # 93750A713

 

[Inv4drZm]

2018 Moab/Colorado Trip Report

Similar to last year, I join a group of mostly FJ's in Moab, I break stuff, I limp it back home to Kansas and manage to drive it to work the next day.

I think John McClane said it best; "Come out to Moab, we'll get together, have a few laughs..."

All pics are in chronological order.

Day 1
Drive to Moab to a campsite in the La Sal mountains where last year we noticed it was nice and cool. And rainy.





Day 2

Drive an easy mountain trail, Geyser Pass, to test my buddy's homemade transaxle buggy. Unfortunately it broke both driveshafts so it got towed back to it's trailer and for the remainder of the trip they drove their FJ. Finish the rest of Geyser Pass while rain dumps on us.













Looks like Moab is on fire down below. Suckers:



Head down the mountains to do Kane Creek trail, which was an OK trail.














We got hung up on a narrow obstacle that we needed kickout sliders to pivot our way around, and one of the FJ's in our group didn't have kickouts. Not to mention we would need to come back this way to get off the trail so we turned around at this point.







We hit up Milt's Malt's in Moab on our way back to camp, our fourwheeling tradition.

On the way up the mountain to our campsite it starts raining again...

 

[Inv4drZm]

Day 3

Head down the mountain to do Poison Spider, which turned out to be one of my favorite trails in Moab.

Every time I drove by this Blazer I wanted to buy it:











An obstacle called "The Wedgie":







We each took turns 'hooning' it on the short dune section:







Overlook of Moab:





Chirping the tires on the way down:



A little arch looking down into the Colorado River:



Friend's dog Buster:



Raining on Mt. Doom:



Driving back down the Wedgie obstacle, I might have taken a poor line...
Made for some cool pictures though.



I was shoving the brake pedal through the floor while they got me strapped up.





Got a hotel room to stay in which was nice.

 

[Inv4drZm]

Day 4:

Did Gold Bar Rim trail. We had a 2 week old Jeep on 37's along which was fun to watch. The long wheel base coupled with sufficient belly clearance made it so it just reached over and climbed every obstacle. It gave me some ideas for my 4Runner.







This was a tough waterfall obstacle, my brother's loop got smashed sliding down it. The back passenger tires lifts off the ground at this point:







Another nice overlook:



More rain in the La Sals:



We went up the waterfall obstacle on our way back, and I was the only one without a locker. I had flashbacks of last year's trip so after trying a couple lines and not feeling close at all I decided to request a strap. I barely needed it, apparently I was a lot closer to making it up than I felt. They stacked the rocks better at the base and everybody else made it up, the Jeep didn't even lift a tire.





A sweet pic even though someone's in the way:



A nice new dent and some scrapes:





Clearancing the rear bumper lead to a new major rub spot that I didn't prep before the trip.



Couple more scrapes:



Apparently it rained in Moab the entire day, and the last leg of the way back, we encountered a bizzare sight, a flash flood blocking our trail!



You can see the beginning of the flood a short ways down the wash, meaning if we were a minute faster we would have made it past no-problem.







Not only did the flood block in front of us, it also blocked the route behind us from where we just came, so it's timing was exactly perfect to strand our small group. We waited a short hour under someone's slick Alu-Cab Shadow Awning for the water to subside then drove through.

 

[Inv4drZm]

We braved the waters. Of course we sent the Jeep guy first...

Click on the next 2 pictures to view their video. If anybody knows how to embed videos from Flickr please PM me.







Once past the waters we raced through the windy dirt road up to the mountain:



Had enough of it raining every night, so we moved our camp down to the sand flats area. It only spit for a minute while setting up the tent.



Noticed quite a bit of rubbing like this, under the tail lights and on both sides of the hatch.



The weld around the left spindle that is holding my spare tire started to crack, which is my fault because I only welded the spindle to the top skin of the bumper even though the spindle goes through the skin and touches the base sheet of the bumper. I forgot to weld the base of the spindle and wrongly assumed it would survive a short while. I unbolted the tire carrier attachment and the spare rode in my hatch the rest of the trip.



Doesn't fit quite like she used to. A little droopy:





Day 5:

Did Moab Rim trail, by far the most hardcore trail I've ever been on. The first section is entirely off-camber on a cliff overlooking the Colorado river.



Strapped me up a massive obstacle yet again. Hey, I would like to drive home this year in my 4Runner, can you blame me?









This was about the point where an FJ'er popped his 33" ST Maxx at 18psi going up a tricky obstacle and scraped his SCS wheel pretty good. Large gash in the sidewall from a little too much skinny pedal. We helped swap to his spare while he was part-way up the ledge. No pics? Boooo, I know.





Getting tippy with a wheel off the ground:



More rain on Mt. Doom?

 

[Inv4drZm]

Going back down the same off-camber obstacles.









Assessing the damages, I mean trail trophies, back at camp



Like a snow camo wrap:



Camped in Sand Flats again.

Day 6:

Decided to take a break from the hardcore trail life and lead a group of mostly inexperienced FJ'ers though Hell's revenge.

A guy and his family with a built Jeep from Texas showed up in the trail head parking lot, we offered for him to tag along so he joined our group. A couple other Jeeps mingled in our pack throughout the day. Fourwheeling in Moab during the summer means nobody is on the 4x4 trails. Nobody. Except on this trail we met a few tour jeeps and some side by sides, must be a popular trail.

It was unusual being the most experienced wheelers in our pack for once. Only a few sweaty obstacles compared to yesterday's non-stop hell.





Darn side by sides racing around!



Hell's Gate obstacle.



The 'Blue Beast' made it up just fine. Next time I might do it.











The Jeep attempting one of the huge hot tubs:





Not enough horsepower methinks. Made it about halfway up. He did make it out of Mickey's Hot Tub later on which was impressive. My 4Runner cried a little.





Back at the AC'd hotel room was very nice.

 

[Inv4drZm]

Day 7

Headed back to Buena Vista, CO area to hit up Chinaman's Gulch which is supposed to be a pretty cool trail.

Aired up to normal pressures, was running 15 psi the entire time in Moab which smoothed everything out on the trail.



Airing back down at the trail head.



Not even to the first obstacle, when my brother, while helping spot me up, notices I have a split CV boot. NOOOOOOOO!

I noticed the ribs have been rubbing for a while on that boot, never did anything about it... who knew it would rub through in Colorado? My bad.... Lesson learned.





Turned around and headed back to the trail head.



Couldn't find a slip-on universal CV boot at a couple auto-parts stores but they had a normal outer CV boot for my truck on their shelf so I bought that. Drove to a friend's cabin and installed the boot by cutting it, slipping it over, and zip tying the ends. I noticed my rear driver side door rubs my slider when I open it, must have bent the slider up a hair slamming down on it. Add it to the list of things to fix.



I hit a boulder pretty hard here, hardly a scratch.



It might work?



Day 8

The extra boot fell off before the CO springs area, but I managed to drive it home to KS without losing much grease.



Day 9

Drive the 4Runner to work

Day 10, Today

A good machinist buddy at work told me once I get old like him, I wouldn't remember these trips if nothing went wrong.

 

[YetiX]

Looks like an awesome trip man!! You definitely are wheelin it hard. Well done.

 

[vonguido]

looks like it was a great trip, some day I will make it out that way and do Moab and CO wheeling

 

[Inv4drZm]

Bought a set of used CV's from a member on this forum for a great price, and ordered the tools and materials to rebuild the leaking boots. Going with All Pro and SDHQ boots, should be pretty fly. I'm reinstalling the diff drop I uninstalled a month ago if I can't get the upgraded boots to stop rubbing. Maybe if I kept the diff drop on I wouldn't have blown my boots on the trail in Colorado? I try not to think about that. The only question is if I should machine down the cup on the CV and make sure they will never bind. Got a lathe at work that would make it too easy.

Bought a used set of LCAs off Ebay and will be rebuilding with Energy Suspension poly joints and Moog greasable ball joints. Bought front wheel bearing assemblies from Bumper2Bumper Automotive on the forums. It would be a good time to weld on my spindle gussets I've been holding on to for years.

Should be a better than new IFS, and hold me over until long travel. Just trying to avoid my truck breaking on the trail 500+ miles away from home for the 3rd time. :redbrick:

Pics to come of course.

 

[BackOff]

You will have to take a spare axle to take with you next trip.

Super photo bomb! (glad I am not on dial-up internet)
I love it, great pics, looks like you had fun.

 

[Inv4drZm]

You will have to take a spare axle to take with you next trip.

Super photo bomb! (glad I am not on dial-up internet)
I love it, great pics, looks like you had fun.

I did have a spare cheapo CV and all the tools. Didn't really want to change it on the trail, though if we could have gotten it done in an hour we might have had enough time to drive through Chinaman's Gulch. We wouldn't have had any spare CV's after that on a pretty difficult trail, kind of the mentality 1 is none and 2 is one. I could have made it through the trail without any fixes, I just had to drive it home the next day and you don't want to run out of axle grease at 80mph I would imagine.

Glad you like the pics, they are fun to go over in the winter time to remind myself why I do this.

 

[bjornberg]

Looks like you had a good time on your trip! Fun seeing those pictures. Let me know if you're around CO and come meet you at the trail!