MattJakobs Build Thread-2001 Stellar Blue Pearl

[MattJakobs]

Congrats on the internship.

I've been thinking about gusseting the spindles as well. I don't know if you have to pull the spindle or wheel bearing to do them though. I haven't looked into it that much.

Where are you planning on going this summer?

Congrats on the internship

Thanks man, I'm hoping that the Monday-Friday scheduling will give me more time to get away and go wheel and camp a little more.

I haven't looked into the job that much either. I'm planned on doing it when I do new LCA bushings. The 4Runner will be down and out during that process so whatever is included in doing the spindle gussets, I'll be taking my time regardless.

Zach wants to try and do Rausch Creek before he heads back to California in July so that's a must. I'd also like to squeeze in Uwharrie again, and do Potts Mountain before the end of summer.

For some camping/no wheeling trips, I'll be in the Outer Banks a ton if you're still interested in camping there. Maybe Portsmouth Island too, which is a little further South towards you.

You have any trips planned this summer?

 

[Unner]

Thanks man, I'm hoping that the Monday-Friday scheduling will give me more time to get away and go wheel and camp a little more.

I haven't looked into the job that much either. I'm planned on doing it when I do new LCA bushings. The 4Runner will be down and out during that process so whatever is included in doing the spindle gussets, I'll be taking my time regardless.

Zach wants to try and do Rausch Creek before he heads back to California in July so that's a must. I'd also like to squeeze in Uwharrie again, and do Potts Mountain before the end of summer.

For some camping/no wheeling trips, I'll be in the Outer Banks a ton if you're still interested in camping there. Maybe Portsmouth Island too, which is a little further South towards you.

You have any trips planned this summer?

No big trips planned this summer. I'd like to do the Georgia Traverse, and maybe some stuff in the Smoky Mountain areas where it's hopefully a little cooler and comfortable for camping. There's a few places in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia I'd like to check out also.

I'm hoping things will calm down for me here in a couple months and I can start making more trips on the weekends. I still want to make it to the Outer Banks sometime, since I'm in Alabama now it's more like 12-14 hours so it would be a pretty good haul. If I do make it out there I'll let you know though, you can show me all the good spots.

 

[MattJakobs]

Cali Fab Links

Last month I ordered some new lower rear links and link mounts from Cali Fab and I finally got around to installing them since I'm done with school for the year. My stock links weren't in the worst shape but they had been dragged on a few rocks and the bushings were pretty shot so I went ahead and ordered these. I went with their premium links with johnny joints. I'm very impressed with the pure beef of these things. I also picked up a set of their 1/4" mounts but those haven't been welded into place yet.
I plan on doing uppers sometime this summer but CaliFab doesn't make uppers so they didn't get ordered with these.
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[MattJakobs]

Cinco de Mayo Trip

For Cinco de Mayo this past weekend, [MENTION=80933]4x4runner2002[/MENTION], another, and I headed down to Corolla in North Carolina to make some food and relax on the beach. We spent all day on the beach, saw some wild horses, and had a good time.

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[Clark27]

Great build thread! How are you liking the awning? I see you have the ARB2500 and I saw one on CL recently for 250 and am thinking about picking it up to use on short trips/camping. :beer:

 

[MattJakobs]

Great build thread! How are you liking the awning? I see you have the ARB2500 and I saw one on CL recently for 250 and am thinking about picking it up to use on short trips/camping. :beer:

Thanks man!

I really like the awning but I don’t use it as much as I wish I did. On days like this, it’s perfect because we parked and just hang out around the vehicle all day. Often I associate my camping with wheeling so it doesn’t really get set up much because I would have to set it up and pack it up multiple times. It’s pretty easy to set up though, possible with one person but much easier with two.

As far as pricing, I’d check out AutoAnything. I got mine on a group buy from there but they often send me emails about 20+% off everything on their site (excluding certain things but this is in there IIRC) and they offer free shipping.

 

[Clark27]

Thanks man!

I really like the awning but I don’t use it as much as I wish I did. On days like this, it’s perfect because we parked and just hang out around the vehicle all day. Often I associate my camping with wheeling so it doesn’t really get set up much because I would have to set it up and pack it up multiple times. It’s pretty easy to set up though, possible with one person but much easier with two.

As far as pricing, I’d check out AutoAnything. I got mine on a group buy from there but they often send me emails about 20+% off everything on their site (excluding certain things but this is in there IIRC) and they offer free shipping.

Thanks for the reply man, good to hear some feedback. I tried a 20% off coupon from AutoAnything the other day and it said it was excluded from the deal but I might chat with them and see what they say. The free shipping alone is a huge offer. I almost went CVT since they were 15% off but 90 bucks to ship is tough to stomach.

 

[hhackmann]

Nice build. Thanks for sharing.

 

[MattJakobs]

Thanks for the reply man, good to hear some feedback. I tried a 20% off coupon from AutoAnything the other day and it said it was excluded from the deal but I might chat with them and see what they say. The free shipping alone is a huge offer. I almost went CVT since they were 15% off but 90 bucks to ship is tough to stomach.

I may have a line on one. Shooting you a PM

Nice build. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for checking it out!

 

[MattJakobs]

Potts Mountain- May 18th-20th

This past weekend, [MENTION=80933]4x4runner2002[/MENTION] and I headed to Potts Mountain in the western region of Virginia. The weather forecast showed rain all weekend but we decided to head that way anyways. We got into camp late Friday night and it was pouring but by the time we woke up Saturday, the weather had started to clear up some so we headed to the lower half of the trail. The conditions were better than expected as the ground was relatively tacky. We completely most of the trail Saturday-even though the weather started to turn after around 4 o'clock that afternoon. This was my first time here and it was a ton of fun. Some of the most difficult stuff I've wheeled and I had a blast, I'm hoping to get some more time out here in the near future.
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[Road Bull]

Holy cow, those are some gnarly drops on that trail. That would have me guessing that I missed a turn somewhere. :suspicious: Any hard landings on that one? The pic with you resting on your slider about to drop in on that ledge looks rough.

 

[MattJakobs]

Damage Report

Have a little extra damage to report from this past trip. Busted a headlight and corner light, ripped off my license plate and ruined the mount for it, and hit a rock above my rear driverside tire. Nothing too bad considering how difficult some of the stuff was and how unfavorable the conditions were at some points on the trail. I'm not terribly bummed on the headlight as I've wanted to do a retrofit so this will give me some more motivation. I also think I can hit out the dent on the front fender flare, above the corner light. Sometime in the next week or so, I'll also take a look at removing the inner plastic behind the dent on the rear quarter panel. The flares are already rattle canned so cleaning that up shouldn't be too difficult either.
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[MattJakobs]

Holy cow, those are some gnarly drops on that trail. That would have me guessing that I missed a turn somewhere. :suspicious: Any hard landings on that one? The pic with you resting on your slider about to drop in on that ledge looks rough.

Some of those were on the "easy" lines too. We walked up to some obstacles for the bypasses we took and I couldn't see how some of the lines were even make-able-regardless of vehicle.
No real hard landings, but a lot of dragging on armor. I can say that all of my armor does need new paint, especially my sliders.
and the picture of me resting on my slider was actually where I dented my rear body panel (see above). There's a rock hiding behind that tree that I nicked on the way down.

 

[Twitchstyle13]

The runner is looking good bud

 

[Road Bull]

Yeah, having the same rear bumper set up, I've stared at that rear license mount and thought that would be the first thing to go if I get into a departure angle situation. It might be worth looking into if you can redo the position of the license to be slightly higher up on the fuel carrier by building or fabbing some sort of bracket. Trail damage sucks, but considering where you were, I think you got off easy. LOL.

 

[Tyler James Inc]

Dude!! That ledge drop is huge! [emoji43]
Is that where you ripped your plate off too?!
Rig is looking great man. I really like it [emoji1360]

 

[MattJakobs]

The runner is looking good bud

Thanks Chris. Slowly coming together. Have a few more projects planned for this summer too...

Yeah, having the same rear bumper set up, I've stared at that rear license mount and thought that would be the first thing to go if I get into a departure angle situation. It might be worth looking into if you can redo the position of the license to be slightly higher up on the fuel carrier by building or fabbing some sort of bracket. Trail damage sucks, but considering where you were, I think you got off easy. LOL.

The rear license plate mount was definitely the first thing to go. The two supports to the Jerry can holder aren’t the beefy by any means. I’ve got a few ideas to redo the swing out with the tire mounted higher and slightly angled, add 5 more gallons of gas for a total of 10, and to find a better mounting spot for the license plate. Not sure if/when all this will get done but I do need to find a better solution for my license plate since it’s currently held on with zip ties

Trail damage does suck but it makes me happy I rattle canned all my armor. This trip is the first one that I’ve actually used the upper half of my sliders to keep my off rocks. And after a nice bath to the 4Runner, I think the dent will come out nicely.

Dude!! That ledge drop is huge! [emoji43]
Is that where you ripped your plate off too?!
Rig is looking great man. I really like it [emoji1360]

Yes, that’s where it was ripped off. I checked out the bottom of the Jerry can holder and I was very surprised to see that there were no scratches along that. The license plate is mounted maybe 1 1/2” off of that so I must’ve barely knicked my license plate but I got it enough.

And thanks man! I’ve got most of the major stuff done, now I’m focusing on going back and doing all the little details that I missed or I want to redo since I better understand how to execute them.

 

[Scramble]

haha, crazy! Scarier when wet too. I dont know what worse the woods or the beach! :bigok:

 

[Twitchstyle13]

Matt we need to plan a trip this summer it’s been to long since I have wheeled

 

[MattJakobs]

haha, crazy! Scarier when wet too. I dont know what worse the woods or the beach! :bigok:

The wet didn’t really effect us much at all, besides making spotting a little less pleasant. At the beginning of the trail, there’s a series of steep switch backs. The rain from the night before actually made the ground tacky and that helped settle us a lot. Some of the rocks were slippery but not overly, I think I only slid off a rock once, and it wasn’t on a technical section so we got pretty lucky.

Matt we need to plan a trip this summer it’s been to long since I have wheeled

I’m down. I know I’m running Flagpole with a TacomaWorld group the weekend of June 9th and that’s all I have scheduled thus far and you’re more than welcome to tag along. Not much of a wheeling trip but at least there’s some camping involved. If any other trips arise, I’ll shoot you a text.