Superman3043's Build Thread
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superman3043
Senior Member
Thanks brother! I'm pretty excited. Body mounts are already done man.
So I was thinking about letting the wives drive some not too difficult trails. Nothing they can get into too much trouble on, but I think they'd have fun and maybe even want to come out more (or let us spend more monies
) if they really enjoyed it. Thoughts?
superman3043
Senior Member
haha! Buddy from what I've seen in the short time I've know you, SHE owes YOU a few damaged body panels. LOL!
Darklight
New member
Looking good
Looks real good PD! :wink2: Glad everything worked out without the use of the spacers. I originally had mine on in combination of the new wheels but I recently removed them and it looks good without them. I won't be able to make it out with you guys this coming weekend. :cry2: I am planning on a Uwharrie trip with some of the NCFJ guys and hopefully you and Austin on Saturday the 1st Labor Day weekend. I plan on being there all day and it may be my last outing for a while. The little guy is coming very soon
Bobby
Looks real good PD! :wink2: Glad everything worked out without the use of the spacers. I originally had mine on in combination of the new wheels but I recently removed them and it looks good without them. I won't be able to make it out with you guys this coming weekend. :cry2: I am planning on a Uwharrie trip with some of the NCFJ guys and hopefully you and Austin on Saturday the 1st Labor Day weekend. I plan on being there all day and it may be my last outing for a while. The little guy is coming very soon
Bobby
superman3043
Senior Member
Looks real good PD! :wink2: Glad everything worked out without the use of the spacers. I originally had mine on in combination of the new wheels but I recently removed them and it looks good without them. I won't be able to make it out with you guys this coming weekend. :cry2: I am planning on a Uwharrie trip with some of the NCFJ guys and hopefully you and Austin on Saturday the 1st Labor Day weekend. I plan on being there all day and it may be my last outing for a while. The little guy is coming very soon
Bobby
Thanks brother! I'm happy too. I've yet to get in there and see what all needs trimming. I want to do it soon, but I just gotta find the time. I'm seeing that I'm getting some rubbing on my sway bar now. I may just do like you and Austin and chunk the thing. Pretty sure with how stiff my Fox's are running, I'll be good to go without it.
Guess I'm gonna need to see some new pics of yours without spacers now. I really like the look of how mined turned out without them. It's exactly what I wanted.
I heard that you weren't gonna be able to make it. That sucks. Labor day weekend isn't good for me. I've got a thing the 1st and the wife works the whole weekend. Actually now Sunday isn't looking good either because Austin just found out he has a thing. Wife and I were really looking forward to getting out there. We might still try to do something. Wouldn't mind checking out Gulches if we could find somebody else to go with.
Yeah man, not too long now before your son gets here. Excited for you guys!!!
Darklight
New member
PD, I hope you can make it out on Saturday the 1st. Did you install sway bar relocators? This will help with the sway bar rubbing.
With the spacers off on mine they sticks out just pass the fenders. Not as aggresive stance but it still looks good.
We are getting excited too! :thumb3:
With the spacers off on mine they sticks out just pass the fenders. Not as aggresive stance but it still looks good.
We are getting excited too! :thumb3:
superman3043
Senior Member
Yeah I've got relocates, but they do nothing for where the bar rubs the tires. Relocates just push the bar forward to clear the coils. The tires rub the bar where it turns down the frame (for-aft). The front of the tire kisses the bar at full lock. Only spacers or removing the SB will help this.
Darklight
New member
Gotcha on the tires rubbing now. Yeah only spacers will solve that unless you decide on dropping the sway bar completely. I know the springs on the Fox are softer then mine and Austin's OME's. They use a 600 lbs spring for there coils. It shouldn't be a problem but it takes some getting use to for DD. I use to pop mine and on/off all the time when I ran my stock suspension and went on an off road trip. I just do some safe hard left/right turns at about 20mph to see how it handles, then the same at about 30, then 40, then 60 mph. Like you were dodging cones or something. That helped me know what it feels like and how it will handle. 
superman3043
Senior Member
Gulches
Yesterday was our first wheeling trip since the slider, front suspension, and M/T install. Unfortunately our trip to Uwharrie fell through, but the wife and I were itching to get the truck dirty. We'd heard about Gulches ORV Park and decided to check it out and boy are we glad we did. What an awesome time and how fortunate that we are to live equidistant (2 hr ride) from such great places like Uwharrie National Forest and Gulches..
Saturday was spent "clearancing" various items for the new tires. I seem to have done enough for street driving, but would learn that I'd definitely need more for off-roading... The hard way. Here are shots of me at the apartment doing what I could to flex out:
As you can see, the front doesn't do much at all. She's riding pretty stiff. I'm going to remove the sway bar and see if she loosens up a little bit, but I think leaving it in for this trip might have saved me from really tearing something up.
We had a great time at the park. The owner, Skip, was as good as they come and our tour guide, Dean, was just awesome and made sure that we had the best time. He's also the best spotter in the business and got us through some very gnarly stuff. Guess knowing the park like the back of your hand has some advantages. We did about everything we could in an open-open rig. Thanks to these guys and everyone else we met out there. It seems like everyone you meet wheeling always just seem to be the best folks.
On to a couple shots of the truck:
Some nice "posers" with me and my gorgeous better half... "Hi!" Notice my Stormtrooper Tee
A couple all around shots of that location to give you a better idea of how cool of a shot this actually was:
[
And backed down from that ledge:
One more poser:
Couldn't really capture any action shots since I was driving, so a lot of these are just while parked and spectating. Boring I know:
The only "action" shots I got was actually because of a fail. Thought I was videoing the the wife driving across "Suspension Junction" which is an articulation obstacle they have at the top of the park. What I ended up with was a shot of her entering and exiting the obstacle... whoops:
The Runner did amazing! We managed to ride a lot of the park, I'd say 80% or so. Took on a majority of the Blues, a few blacks and even sprinkled in a few easy lines on some double and triple blacks with Dean spotting. Also the Nitto Mud Grapplers performed fantastic! They were tenacious and sucked up any terrain we threw at them with ease. I have however noticed a pretty significant hit on fuel economy after my first real tank of fuel, to the tune of ~-1.5 +/- MPG. Yikes! This tank probably won't be an accurate indicator to average in since a lot of it was spent wheeling.
I did get turned around and ended up somewhere I shouldn't have during my unsupervised exploring. Trail was marked (blue 26A) but not on my map. It was a downhill and ended up with a right side drop down ledge with a tree on that side. So we ended up kissing that tree a little with the "C" pillar on our way down, but no real harm done.
What I learned was I needed to do more fender clearancing up front. A little on the front of the wheel well and a little more on the rear around the body mount. Also, my dream of keeping the rear mud flaps finally came to an end. They had to go. Also it looks like I'm gonna need to look into some bump stop extensions.
Yesterday was our first wheeling trip since the slider, front suspension, and M/T install. Unfortunately our trip to Uwharrie fell through, but the wife and I were itching to get the truck dirty. We'd heard about Gulches ORV Park and decided to check it out and boy are we glad we did. What an awesome time and how fortunate that we are to live equidistant (2 hr ride) from such great places like Uwharrie National Forest and Gulches..
Saturday was spent "clearancing" various items for the new tires. I seem to have done enough for street driving, but would learn that I'd definitely need more for off-roading... The hard way. Here are shots of me at the apartment doing what I could to flex out:
As you can see, the front doesn't do much at all. She's riding pretty stiff. I'm going to remove the sway bar and see if she loosens up a little bit, but I think leaving it in for this trip might have saved me from really tearing something up.
We had a great time at the park. The owner, Skip, was as good as they come and our tour guide, Dean, was just awesome and made sure that we had the best time. He's also the best spotter in the business and got us through some very gnarly stuff. Guess knowing the park like the back of your hand has some advantages. We did about everything we could in an open-open rig. Thanks to these guys and everyone else we met out there. It seems like everyone you meet wheeling always just seem to be the best folks.
On to a couple shots of the truck:
Some nice "posers" with me and my gorgeous better half... "Hi!" Notice my Stormtrooper Tee
A couple all around shots of that location to give you a better idea of how cool of a shot this actually was:
[
And backed down from that ledge:
One more poser:
Couldn't really capture any action shots since I was driving, so a lot of these are just while parked and spectating. Boring I know:
The only "action" shots I got was actually because of a fail. Thought I was videoing the the wife driving across "Suspension Junction" which is an articulation obstacle they have at the top of the park. What I ended up with was a shot of her entering and exiting the obstacle... whoops:
The Runner did amazing! We managed to ride a lot of the park, I'd say 80% or so. Took on a majority of the Blues, a few blacks and even sprinkled in a few easy lines on some double and triple blacks with Dean spotting. Also the Nitto Mud Grapplers performed fantastic! They were tenacious and sucked up any terrain we threw at them with ease. I have however noticed a pretty significant hit on fuel economy after my first real tank of fuel, to the tune of ~-1.5 +/- MPG. Yikes! This tank probably won't be an accurate indicator to average in since a lot of it was spent wheeling.
I did get turned around and ended up somewhere I shouldn't have during my unsupervised exploring. Trail was marked (blue 26A) but not on my map. It was a downhill and ended up with a right side drop down ledge with a tree on that side. So we ended up kissing that tree a little with the "C" pillar on our way down, but no real harm done.
What I learned was I needed to do more fender clearancing up front. A little on the front of the wheel well and a little more on the rear around the body mount. Also, my dream of keeping the rear mud flaps finally came to an end. They had to go. Also it looks like I'm gonna need to look into some bump stop extensions.
Last edited:
superman3043
Senior Member
Gulches continued
We lucked out as the park is not too busy on Sundays (typically), but a couple of "big boys" showed up so we really got to see some cool stuff, meet some great guys, learn a lot, and got to go on some amazing rides. Got to see two extremely different driving styles.
The first buggy (white one) was driven by Miller. A partially paralyzed, soft spoken, super polite gentleman. His rig started life as a Jeep Cherokee and looks to have been bobbed. This shorter wheel base proved to be a real ally in his efforts. It's powered by the stock 4.0 liter straight 6. He was on 44" Maxxis Trepador tires which have to be the most impressive off-road tires I've ever seen. The lugs were so soft that they just pulled him up like fingers. Not too practical for an on-road rig though. He had an air suspension and winches on the front and rear that allowed him to basically reel in his suspension and manipulate his center of gravity how he needed to. Being new to the game it was pretty cool to see. What set this man apart was seat time. This guy was the smoothest finesse driver I'd ever seen. Everything looked effortless. I compared him to playing golf with a scratch golfer. Almost boring. Drive, green, put, put for par and then move on. I WISH I could play "boring" golf. So beautiful!
The pilot of the orange tube buggy was Richie. This was an LS1 powered fire-breathing monster. He hadn't logged anywhere near the seat time as Miller had, and his longer wheelbase and gobs of power on tap, made him a point and shoot, skinny pedal type driver. He was on 44" Super Swampers and even at 8 PSI, these things were hopping around like basketballs. Richie also had his 8th grade daughter with him who also drives the buggy. She was proud to have made her first youtube video that day. Both so fun to watch in their own way.
Miller (front) and Richie (rear)
The wife strapped in getting ready to go up #11 Twisted Intentions:
This is a shot at the base, and of course, you get no idea of how steep this thing is from the picture:
Here's a shot I took from the cockpit after riding Papa Gulch with Richie, which is the nasties trail in the park:
Richie making a new line up the side of TnT Rock Garden:
Richie coming up Shipwreck:
Some shot of a couple that we were riding with in their open-open Cherokee. This guy wheeled the hell out of his rig:
The park got busier as the day progressed. Two JK clubs showed up and they said it ended up being busier that Sunday then the Saturday before. All great people. Even gave us some props for actually wheeling our rig instead of just hauling groceries... Ah, if they only knew how many mall parking lots this thing occupied in it's life... HAHAHA!
We lucked out as the park is not too busy on Sundays (typically), but a couple of "big boys" showed up so we really got to see some cool stuff, meet some great guys, learn a lot, and got to go on some amazing rides. Got to see two extremely different driving styles.
The first buggy (white one) was driven by Miller. A partially paralyzed, soft spoken, super polite gentleman. His rig started life as a Jeep Cherokee and looks to have been bobbed. This shorter wheel base proved to be a real ally in his efforts. It's powered by the stock 4.0 liter straight 6. He was on 44" Maxxis Trepador tires which have to be the most impressive off-road tires I've ever seen. The lugs were so soft that they just pulled him up like fingers. Not too practical for an on-road rig though. He had an air suspension and winches on the front and rear that allowed him to basically reel in his suspension and manipulate his center of gravity how he needed to. Being new to the game it was pretty cool to see. What set this man apart was seat time. This guy was the smoothest finesse driver I'd ever seen. Everything looked effortless. I compared him to playing golf with a scratch golfer. Almost boring. Drive, green, put, put for par and then move on. I WISH I could play "boring" golf. So beautiful!
The pilot of the orange tube buggy was Richie. This was an LS1 powered fire-breathing monster. He hadn't logged anywhere near the seat time as Miller had, and his longer wheelbase and gobs of power on tap, made him a point and shoot, skinny pedal type driver. He was on 44" Super Swampers and even at 8 PSI, these things were hopping around like basketballs. Richie also had his 8th grade daughter with him who also drives the buggy. She was proud to have made her first youtube video that day. Both so fun to watch in their own way.
Miller (front) and Richie (rear)
The wife strapped in getting ready to go up #11 Twisted Intentions:
This is a shot at the base, and of course, you get no idea of how steep this thing is from the picture:
Here's a shot I took from the cockpit after riding Papa Gulch with Richie, which is the nasties trail in the park:
Richie making a new line up the side of TnT Rock Garden:
Richie coming up Shipwreck:
Some shot of a couple that we were riding with in their open-open Cherokee. This guy wheeled the hell out of his rig:
The park got busier as the day progressed. Two JK clubs showed up and they said it ended up being busier that Sunday then the Saturday before. All great people. Even gave us some props for actually wheeling our rig instead of just hauling groceries... Ah, if they only knew how many mall parking lots this thing occupied in it's life... HAHAHA!
superman3043
Senior Member
Gulches videos
Miller going up #3
![273mYDyl_g8](http://<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/273mYDyl_g8?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>)
Miller going up 3D. Had to heat the tires a little for this one:
![Tn7aJy4Lh98](http://<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Tn7aJy4Lh98?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>)
Richie powering up the side of Rock Garden:
![9azp_0dB_vU](http://<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9azp_0dB_vU?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>)
Them both taking the advanced lines on Rock Garden:
![BtioKVaKxJA](http://<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BtioKVaKxJA?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>)
I was hesitant to share this one. Not really a good video and my wife filmed it in portrait. Just a bunch of violent drops and you don't get a good feel for how much of a "pucker" moment this actually was. This is the steep descent they call "Lil' Devil" and it was my first black trail of the day. Oh well, you can laugh at it. You can hear some tire scrubbing in it as well... Good times
![mD_ygj5ONu8](http://<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/mD_ygj5ONu8?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>)
Miller going up #3
Miller going up 3D. Had to heat the tires a little for this one:
Richie powering up the side of Rock Garden:
Them both taking the advanced lines on Rock Garden:
I was hesitant to share this one. Not really a good video and my wife filmed it in portrait. Just a bunch of violent drops and you don't get a good feel for how much of a "pucker" moment this actually was. This is the steep descent they call "Lil' Devil" and it was my first black trail of the day. Oh well, you can laugh at it. You can hear some tire scrubbing in it as well... Good times
superman3043
Senior Member
You definitely missed out bro. That place was so awesome. Wish ya'll could have made it.
I think at least a rear locker is definitely on the list, but it'll probably be next year for that. I had no problem rolling open through most of the stuff and the stuff I didn't run, I'm not sure if just a locker would have given me enough confidence to tackle them.
I thought the trails were tight at Uwharrie... Not compared to some of these.
superman3043
Senior Member
hahaha, no you didn't miss it. I haven't even tried... Mainly because I don't have a spare rim yet, but also because I know for a fact that this size tire won't fit.
Yeah so basically this, coupled with the fact that I haven't bought a hi-lift jack yet means, I'm up sh*t creek in the event of a mishap...
superman3043
Senior Member
Yeah, a tire carrier is on the list but it's pretty low priority. I'm just not a huge fan of the solutions that are on the market currently. I think Crozhawk has one of the most elegant solutions, but other than that nothing really jumps out at me. I'm just not a huge fan of the swing-aways. It just seems to be a pain to have to deal with every time you have to access your cargo area. I get in the back of the truck a whole lot more than I change a flat. I may just end up getting one of those rear hitch tire carriers that just slide into the receiver like those bike racks. Then maybe just bolt it up when we go wheeling but then there is a whole other issue with the TPMS when the tire isn't on the truck. Austin and I discussed designing our own at one point, but those plans have been sort of shelved for the time being. It'd be a whole lot easier if our trucks weren't our daily drivers. He just bought another truck so maybe we can get some down time with his.
I personally (knock on wood) haven't seen issues on the trail with tires, but that's not to say it doesn't happen. It's a very real possibility. Austin has had some cut tires in the past, but I think it was more of a function of him running garbage rubber than anything else. I also try to drive within mine and my vehicles means, and don't push too hard. The goal is to leave in the same condition I got there in, with everything in tact. I drive to the trails and drive home from them, so I don't have the luxury of loading up on a trailer to go home if I break something.
I personally (knock on wood) haven't seen issues on the trail with tires, but that's not to say it doesn't happen. It's a very real possibility. Austin has had some cut tires in the past, but I think it was more of a function of him running garbage rubber than anything else. I also try to drive within mine and my vehicles means, and don't push too hard. The goal is to leave in the same condition I got there in, with everything in tact. I drive to the trails and drive home from them, so I don't have the luxury of loading up on a trailer to go home if I break something.
