Jono.ful's Backcountry Assault Vehicle

[Jono.ful]

Nitro 4.56 gears and an Eaton Harrop elocker ordered day before yesterday. Setting up diffs is a little beyond my comfort level however, so the 4r goes into the shop to go under the knife next week to get those installed.

The new Elka setup should be here in another couple weeks too :llama:

Who needs a savings account, right?

 

[Jono.ful]

After a minor shipping delay, the truck finally went in yesterday to have the Nitro 4.56 gears and Harrop elocker installed...

Had them replace needle bearing with a solid bushing as well, as the needle bearing is subject to early failure. This one actually doesn't look too bad for having 189,000km on it

They wrapped it up this afternoon and I'm going first thing tomorrow to pick it up and start the break in procedure

 

[4rNCMTNs]

awesome, you will enjoy them. I have both the nitro 4.56 gears and harrop e-locker in the front. It's makes for a fun time for sure.

 

[Jono.ful]

Got up to a few things over the weekend...

Changed my differential fluid after breaking in the new gears, there was a surprising amount of metal particulate, but that's to be expected with new gears I guess. I put in Royal Purple 75w90, and plan to change it again in a couple months just to be sure all the shrapnel is out of the difs.

Also stripped the interior to finish doing the sound deadening finally....

I picked up the material on sale over a year ago, and I'd been putting off the install ever since because I was dreading taking the seats and carpet completely out, but it all went surprisingly smooth. I probably spent about 8 hours over two days on it between removing the interior, laying down the sound deadening, and reinstalling the carpet, trim pieces, and seats.

Also figured it was a good time to febreze the underlay

Cleaned up some old accessory wiring, made some plans for my new 12v setup, and ran the remote panel and power wiring for my new Kenwood TM710G dual band fm. Decided to use a handy little 3d printed mount that I found a design for on thingiverse.com and a 1" ram ball and short arm, which worked out perfectly.

New Elkas are supposed to ship out next week, so fingers crossed!

 

[rageandlove]

Wow. That's a lot for one day. Nice work!

 

[rdruss]

I would dump the Royal Purple and go with a higher quality gear oil. Mobil 1, Castrol, Red Line, Pennzoil, Valvoline and Amsoil of course, ALL tested significantly better in ASTM tests than RP.

 

[Jono.ful]

I would dump the Royal Purple and go with a higher quality gear oil. Mobil 1, Castrol, Red Line, Pennzoil, Valvoline and Amsoil of course, ALL tested significantly better in ASTM tests than RP.

Maybe.

I don't do any towing, and put on mostly highway miles. Royal purple was what was available at the auto parts store in sufficient quantity when I was there, so that's what I ended up with. We'll see what's on sale next time I do it.

 

[Jono.ful]

Loooooong 3 days in the garage.

-new coax and a shorty 18" Comet antenna for the Kenwood tm-d710g
-ditched the old accessory switch setup, moved everything to the center console bottom cubby
-Cruiser Heads 4x4 oem toyota style push buttons to replace the Blue Sea battery switch, as well as fridge power, and future solar setup, and new lower dash panel for them to go in
-in-cab wired winch controls
-deutsch connectors and built a new wiring harness for all the 12v accessories
-two new Optima bluetops
-new Red Arc bcdc1225d charger
-moved the Blue Sea 12 circuit fuse block to the back with the new batteries
-new Blue Sea Safety Hub 150 and a new aluminum panel to support it along with a Blue Sea 7713 remote battery switch

Still have a whack of relays to wire up with the relocated Blue Sea fuse panel, another Blue Sea 7713, reinstall my on board air setup, and a few other bits and pieces.

Photos to come soon...

 

[Jono.ful]

I'm so happy right now....

Next to the old RadKings...

Got them on last night in about two hours without any major issue. Just need to dial up the preload a bit today to get everything level front to back, but the ride is amazing compared to my Radflos. Anyone who is on the fence between brands, or just considering a lift, definitely check out Elka.

 

[Jono.ful]

I've been slowly making progress on my v3 12v setup as time allows. I have all the new relays, fuse holders, and Redarc charger mounted, and moved my Pelfrybilt fuse panel bracket and Blue Sea 5026 fuse panel from under the hood back to its new home in my drawer setup.

Started building the new wiring harness....

The Pelfry bracket and Blue Sea 5026 were replaced under the hood with a new bracket that I made from some aluminum plate and a new Blue Sea Safety Hub 150 which is more capable of running higher amperage accessories using AMI bolt-in style fuses, but still has a few slots for ATC blade fuses too.

Still lots of work to do here to hook everything up to the switches - which I moved from the lower dash panel to the cubby in the bottom of the centre console. I also made the decision to use deutsch connectors on everything so components can be easily removed as need be. Major PITA, but it'll be worth it in the end because she'll be a work of art when it's all done.

 

[Jono.ful]

Drawer fronts, decal collection is coming along nicely. Lots more of the sides that I didn't take a photo of for some reason...

 

[Jono.ful]

So this happened....