SOcalTrail's 2011 Trail Edition Beast Build Thread

[SOcalTRAIL]

Not SOcalTrail T4R related, but I figured I would share some pics of my recent trip anyways in case anyone is interested. My fiance and I were in Peru for 10 days, spent a lot of time in Cusco, Peru and also hiked the Inca trail and visited Machu Picchu - Truly and amazing experience!!!!


Yes.... this is a Guinea Pig - Delicious!



Top of Dead Woman's Pass - 13,700 ft - Inca Trail



Nice Views



On the trail



Machu Picchu in the background



Ruins



Top of Huayanapicchu Mtn



Friend



Cusco, Peru

 

[eddiebx]

Great, now not only do I have to be jealous of your ride, I need to be jealous of your vacations too :dammit:

 

[SOcalTRAIL]

Great, now not only do I have to be jealous of your ride, I need to be jealous of your vacations too :dammit:

HahA

We try to have one good one a year, this trip turned out way below budget fortunately! Peru is CHEAPPPPPPPPPPP I love it! A dinner for 2 at a top Peruvian Steak house that would cost well over $150 here in the states will barely tip over $50 US down there! The essentials are even cheaper!

 

[Antman]

This thread just keeps getting better all the time! Awesome.

 

[mjohns2]

Not SOcalTrail T4R related, but I figured I would share some pics of my recent trip anyways in case anyone is interested. My fiance and I were in Peru for 10 days, spent a lot of time in Cusco, Peru and also hiked the Inca trail and visited Machu Picchu - Truly and amazing experience!!!!


Yes.... this is a Guinea Pig - Delicious!




Well, did it taste like chicken?

 

[DannyLlama]

Beautiful pics, thanks for sharing!!
Wife and I were going to go to Peru, Argentina and one more other country down there a few years ago, didn't pan out, I will live vicariously through your pics opcorn:

Did you guys get to visit any other countries?

 

[SOcalTRAIL]

Not SOcalTrail T4R related, but I figured I would share some pics of my recent trip anyways in case anyone is interested. My fiance and I were in Peru for 10 days, spent a lot of time in Cusco, Peru and also hiked the Inca trail and visited Machu Picchu - Truly and amazing experience!!!!


Yes.... this is a Guinea Pig - Delicious!




Well, did it taste like chicken?

Actually... it reminded me of wild rabbit... except the meat was darker... all in all it wasn't bad... kinda annoying having to pick all the meat off the little bones when your REALLY hungry

Beautiful pics, thanks for sharing!!
Wife and I were going to go to Peru, Argentina and one more other country down there a few years ago, didn't pan out, I will live vicariously through your pics opcorn:

Did you guys get to visit any other countries?

Thanks Danny!

Unfortunately we were pretty tight on time so Peru was the only country we hit - we had 3 days in Cusco before the 4-Day Inca Trail Trek, then 2 days after. I would LOVE to go to Argentina.... that is on my short list of places to go.

The best thing about Peru was the food! The food is without a doubt the best I have ever had.... Alpaca tenderloins now reign supreme in my hierarchy of meat preference. It is so tender and flavorful and those Peruvians sure do know how to cook it up!!! This is making me hungry....

 

[Okki]

Awesome Pics SoCal!

We didn't hike the trail or Huaynapicchu.... Wife was still getting over food poisoning (pina collada ice). I think EVERYONE has that picture! LOL

I made the mistake of trying to eat it with knife and fork!

My wife just shook her head a lot.. :thumb3:
[MENTION=75328]DannyLlama[/MENTION]

hey look.. a llama! LMAO!

Try and make it... it's an awesome country...

Okki

 

[SOcalTRAIL]

HAHAH Danny Llama Clever :high5:

Awesome pics Okki - funny how similar they are - as our guide said, "here is where you take the classic Machu Picchu picture" HAHA

Both my fiance and I got some sort of stomach bug from something down there, it darn near took me out of the race for a day and a half! Not fun, but we both got over it pretty quick.

 

[DannyLlama]

Awesome Pics SoCal!

[MENTION=75328]DannyLlama[/MENTION]

hey look.. a llama! LMAO!

Try and make it... it's an awesome country...

Okki

Awesome! lol
I love LLAMA's, even though it has nothing to do with how the Alias DannyLLama was established, overtime I have been associated with LLAMA's and am comfortable with it lol

Those are some cool looking LLAMA's, the ones here are 3 size. I would love to get my hands on a photo of just a llama from peru, would totally make it my avatar.

HAHAH Danny Llama Clever :high5:

Awesome pics Okki - funny how similar they are - as our guide said, "here is where you take the classic Machu Picchu picture" HAHA

Both my fiance and I got some sort of stomach bug from something down there, it darn near took me out of the race for a day and a half! Not fun, but we both got over it pretty quick.

Moral of the story, make sure to only eat at trusted places?

 

[SOcalTRAIL]

There was a thread a while back in the forum where some of you guys were talking about the Goal Zero stuff. I mentioned I had a cool place to store the Goal Zero Boulder 30 - 30 Watt Solar panel and I totally forgot about it.

Well.... Here it is!

The panel (Discover Solar Power - Buy the Boulder 30 Solar Panel | Goal Zero)
fits absolutely perfectly in the unused space under the slide out tray in the back. I keep my panel back there full time with the Guardian Charge Controller. I have used this combo many times on camping trips and expeditions to keep my batts full after charging stuff, playing music, fridge's, etc. It works great!


Here are the pics:

 

[WarnerD9]

You've got a great set up. Thanks for providing great example and sharing...

 

[mfregeau20]

Wheel Spacers

Quick Question, have you seen or no of any issue's since running the spacers?

I ask because I am looking at options for my rig since the wheels that are on mine that I bought through the dealer(mistake) are 18x9 0 offset. In order to run a larger tire it looks like I am going to have to either get new rims or put in these spacers. I have about 1/4 in gap now between the tire and control arm/spindle spacers would be cheaper then new rims.

Curious if there is any added stress on the front or back adding these 1.5 spacers to the hubs? Not sure if a lot of people are running these or not. 1.5 seems like a lot more then needed but I am new at this soooooo

Thanks in advance.

 

[SOcalTRAIL]

You've got a great set up. Thanks for providing great example and sharing...

Thank you and you are welcome!

Quick Question, have you seen or no of any issue's since running the spacers?

I ask because I am looking at options for my rig since the wheels that are on mine that I bought through the dealer(mistake) are 18x9 0 offset. In order to run a larger tire it looks like I am going to have to either get new rims or put in these spacers. I have about 1/4 in gap now between the tire and control arm/spindle spacers would be cheaper then new rims.

Curious if there is any added stress on the front or back adding these 1.5 spacers to the hubs? Not sure if a lot of people are running these or not. 1.5 seems like a lot more then needed but I am new at this soooooo

Thanks in advance.

I am running the Spidertrax spacers as seen here (1996-Up 4Runner) and have 53,000 miles on the clock with no probs. There was a thread a while back where someone had to replace some wheel bearings, but I am not sure if you could ever pin point a failure like that to wheel spacers. They may contriubte to premauturely wearing out wheel bearings, but so does heavy wheeling, big offset wheels which in theory do the same as spacers, and other things...

I would say go for the spacers, that should solve your issue nicely and give your truck a nice improvement in stance.

Cheers!

 

[mfregeau20]

Thanks Man I appreciate the feed back

 

[SOcalTRAIL]

Aside from being in the middle of the third group buy for my "behind the grill" light brackets, I am closing in on the final stages of my MASSIVE rear bumper / aux fuel tank project.

The bumper itself is now 100% finished, ready to head to the powder coater later this week. The fuel tank spec'd out at 35" x 15" x 5" tall Comes out to 11.36 gallons - call it 11 after the displacement of the pickup tube and sending unit. The metal is all sheared up and bent for the tank, I just have to get my "expert" TIG welder to stick it all together for me. Im pretty excited about having that extra fuel, but more excited about how I have the plumbing all layed out for it. I did an absolute shit ton of research about the sealed fuel system in these trucks and although I never spoke to anyone who added an aux. fuel tank to one of our model runners, I did speak to numerous FJ and Taco guys with MAF aux setups and a couple other brands. Basically the system will be used as a storage tank with a momentary switch on the dash that is hooked up to an inline pump. The pump will deliver fuel from the aux tank and into the OEM filler neck which I will be modifying with a "T" connection. The aux tank vents into the OEM filler neck as well, near the top. Finally, the filling of the aux tank will be done through the OEM filler neck as well.
I imagine there may be some bugs to work out, but I am 100% confident this will work out one way or another, there are hundreds of guys running similar systems on new Tacos and FJ's....

Pics to come later this week!

 

[WarnerD9]

Aside from being in the middle of the third group buy for my "behind the grill" light brackets, I am closing in on the final stages of my MASSIVE rear bumper / aux fuel tank project.

The bumper itself is now 100% finished, ready to head to the powder coater later this week. The fuel tank spec'd out at 35" x 15" x 5" tall Comes out to 11.36 gallons - call it 11 after the displacement of the pickup tube and sending unit. The metal is all sheared up and bent for the tank, I just have to get my "expert" TIG welder to stick it all together for me. Im pretty excited about having that extra fuel, but more excited about how I have the plumbing all layed out for it. I did an absolute shit ton of research about the sealed fuel system in these trucks and although I never spoke to anyone who added an aux. fuel tank to one of our model runners, I did speak to numerous FJ and Taco guys with MAF aux setups and a couple other brands. Basically the system will be used as a storage tank with a momentary switch on the dash that is hooked up to an inline pump. The pump will deliver fuel from the aux tank and into the OEM filler neck which I will be modifying with a "T" connection. The aux tank vents into the OEM filler neck as well, near the top. Finally, the filling of the aux tank will be done through the OEM filler neck as well.
I imagine there may be some bugs to work out, but I am 100% confident this will work out one way or another, there are hundreds of guys running similar systems on new Tacos and FJ's....

Pics to come later this week!

I'm very excited to see how it turns out! Very impressive that you're tackling this on your own. I'm working on a similar set up but hiring out. Excited for the pics and the results...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk 2

 

[SOcalTRAIL]

Rear bumper is back from powder coat! It looks AWESOME!!!! I was in a hurry so no pics. Now it is full speed ahead on getting this aux. gas tank mounted and plumbed in. Exciting!

Nowwwwww… off to do some fishing for the weekend, catch you guys later (pun intended)… :fish2:

 

[Okki]

Rear bumper is back from powder coat! It looks AWESOME!!!! I was in a hurry so no pics. Now it is full speed ahead on getting this aux. gas tank mounted and plumbed in. Exciting!

Nowwwwww… off to do some fishing for the weekend, catch you guys later (pun intended)… :fish2:

THANKS FOR NUTTIN'! Pics or it didn't happen.... bumpers... fuel tanks.. yeah RIGHT! :banana::dance::lmao:

Okki

 

[SOcalTRAIL]

Bumper, all ready for the fuel tank to be mounted up. Fresh from powder coat!