Topic: BigMike's Big Summer Project: REVIVED!

[Duffil]

Hey man, those KNUCKLE LIGHTS kick some serious butt!
Flip on the Knuckle Lights, turn the wheel right-to-left, and the light follows whereever you go

does that mean if you go left-to-right, that they don't work  



































 

[BigMike [OP]]

Get real good with that AFC, so we can tune the Z powered sandrail.

AFC? Dude I am so over that. I got rid of the AFC like it was a 4.3l 2nd gen 4Runner!

The AFC is for girly men who live up in northern cali

[BigMike [OP]]

tune the Z powered sandrail.

When you say it like that it sounds like you are going to run a Nissan powerplant in there! Dang that sucks, the GZE should be "THE" Z!

[eightyfive]

hey bigmike...if i were to provide all parts, then how much would it cost me for you to swap in a 3rz in my 85?

[ToYocRawleR]

So what are you gonna do about your frame?

[BigMike [OP]]

Oh man, I haven't even posted updated pics about that yet? wow, I repaired it about 3 months ago!

It would appear that I have a LOT of updating to do

[AaronB]

Frame

[freds40]

Your motor good yet? Might be some snow on Bald. Got a few guys going up Saturday. You should come up and test it out.

:Homer Simpson on: "Strap in and feel the Gs" :Homer Simpson off: 

[MiniSimp]

Oh man, I haven't even posted updated pics about that yet? wow, I repaired it about 3 months ago!

It would appear that I have a LOT of updating to do

You haven't really posted since you ripped your pivot blocks & your steering box.

[BigMike [OP]]

I'll be up at Fresno Dome on the 11th

[Fearofrunner]

Hey whos 4 runner is that?



That thing is  !

I'd really like to know how he mounted that spare tire carrier to the  bumper.

[Rainer]

What size tires are those too? They look huge!!!!!! Sick runner

Mark

[Oregon Crawler]

they look like 36x13.50/15 but not sure

[BigMike [OP]]

Did a bunch of work on Sunday getting her ready for TDS this weekend

I installed the newer pivot blocks and redid my lower shock mounts because they were bottoming out.

Here is my new flex without any weight in the bed. I now FINALLY have rear tire-to-fender interference which is a first for me with no weight in the bed. Remember I have a 1" body lift.

At this point, my rear suspension is 98% of what I want it to be.
At this point, my front suspension is 50% of what I want it to be, as in the below picture, the passengers front is totally bottomed out against the shock.

I will take a bunch of pictures from TDS, and hopefully I'll start updating this thread a bit more

[BigMike [OP]]

The 4Runner belongs to BIRDDOG, and I think they are 36" IROCs.

[854RUN]

Looken good Mike . What are you thinking for the front end?

[Duffil]

Did a bunch of work on Sunday getting her ready for TDS this weekend

I installed the newer pivot blocks and redid my lower shock mounts because they were bottoming out.

Here is my new flex without any weight in the bed. I now FINALLY have rear tire-to-fender interference which is a first for me with no weight in the bed. Remember I have a 1" body lift.

At this point, my rear suspension is 98% of what I want it to be.
At this point, my front suspension is 50% of what I want it to be, as in the below picture, the passengers front is totally bottomed out against the shock.

I will take a bunch of pictures from TDS, and hopefully I'll start updating this thread a bit more

Yeah, like we haven't heard that before...

[northtoy]

Awesome rig. The colour suits it.

[rocktoy83]

Sweet flex i'll keep a look out for your toy at TDS

[MiniSimp]

Right on Mike!

[BigMike [OP]]

Looken good Mike . What are you thinking for the front end?

Well its a complicated issue that I have already discussed back on reply #318... Basically, my front suspension's uptravel is limited by the fact that my drag link interferes with my oil pan. So fortunately, unbeknown to me at the time, when I installed 14" shocks on short shock hoops, the shocks became my bumpstops and just happened to limit the uptravel just to where the draglink slightly "touches" the oil pan. Of course I have made some modifications to my pan trying to gain uptravel, but I will not be able to get the full amount of suspension cycling from the front end until I solve the problem as suggested in reply #318 above.

So when I flex out the rear suspension like the above photo, if I go up any higher, it picks the back tire off of the ground. This is partly due to the fact that in that photo, my passengers front is totally bottomed out against my 14" shock. This is good because it 1) saves my engine (which was mounted too low in the first place by me) and 2) it saves the need for clearancing my firewall at this time. Look at the below photo. This was taken during the same flex shot above.

So now that I have gotten my rear suspension to stuff the tires up into the fender well with a 1" body lift, I want the same thing for the front.

In my opinion though, since I always run light loads in the back, its harder to get a rear suspension to work as well as a front suspension. I always see rigs with 4 or 5" or larger lifts stuffing front tires, but I dont so commonly see rear tires being stuffed.

I want to do some work to my front suspension before I run Wrecking Ball in April... I should have plenty of time during spring break (1st week of April) I will make a new drag link with two bends in it, then I will modify my shock hoops and move the shock up about 3 inches or so, and then by that time I will surely need to clearance my cab.

I know flex isnt everything, but I am happy for what my rear suspension does on the forklift.

It will be interesting to see how it works at TDS this weekend. Pictures to follow

[Ramrod]

wow you really did mount you engine REALLY low.  mine is pretty far away

[854RUN]

Sounds good ya i had forgoten about the post a ways back. Sounds like you got your spring brake all filed up with stuff to do, you thing u will ever raise the eng.. an inch or so or just leave it nice and looooow.

[BigMike [OP]]

Well, in an attempt to make updates to my thread here are my photos from TDS last weekend! The bummer is, though, that my camera stopped working for no apparent reason in the morning of the 1st day, so I only got pictures from our short night run and the first canyon we drove Sat. morning.

I was VERY UNIMPRESSED with TDS! It was very poorly organized, the safety check was a joke, and I was not given a trail map, nor was I assigned to any trail runs or even given the option for it. I don't like to think that such a large event like TDS could be poorly organized, so I try to put the blame on the fact that I had never been there before and maybe I should have been with someone who knew the area, but come on, is this really required for an event?? Hence I feel it was VERY poorly setup, and the only thing we found to do was play on a sandy hill and a couple of very short canyons with extremely loose rocks. We drove 9.5 HOURS for that and I could have found better wheeling 1 hour from home.

TDS felt like the SEMA show to me, except it wasn't nearly as awesome, but at least I got to drive my truck around and show it off without needing to have purchased a booth.

There were vendors there, but it really made me wonder just why so many people come out for this event when the wheeling is atrociously poor. However, to offer respect for the event and those who worked hard setting it up, I would like to say that I am a ROCK CRAWLER and not a sand guy, and also that because no one gave me a map of where the "good" trails are, we didn't find any good wheeling at all. I'm sure that if I was with someone who knew the area, then we could have enjoyed it, but I was not fortunate enough to have that luxury, and I feel it is a shame that the TDS event could not provide this seemingly basic info to their paying participating guests.



Sorry, it was just a rant I had about TDS. I did get to meet some people who I have not met before, like the new Team Marlin Crawler who drove our F-Toy to a first place victory two weeks ago.....

Marlin, Bevin, and I left Fresno around 1pm and got to TDS after 10pm Fri night. I met up with 4.3headache and the two of us wheeled from about midnight to 3 am Sat. morning and then went to sleep. Woke up the next morning, Marlin stayed at base camp, and Bevin and I wheeled a bunch of sand and loose rocky areas, and we were so bummed and burned out, that we left the event that night around 9pm Sat. night. We then got home around 6am Sun morning and I went to sleep.

So basically in a 41-hour period, I drove for 19 hours, slept for about 6 hours, and played for about 13 hours, and the other extra time was spent setting and tearing down camp.

My 2007 TDS Experience: 46% Driving on Highway, 14% Sleeping, 32% Low-Grade Wheeling, 8% misc. Wow.

Sorry about that............. I just...........

[BigMike [OP]]

Then to make maters worse, my camera died so I hardly have any pictures thus making 2007 TDS an even less impact on my life

But here ya go Pictures from the trip down

Here we are at Kramer Junction, HW58 & SR395.

Cruising through the Mojave Desert. BTW, I got 19 MPG on the way there drafting behind Bevin and Marlin, and I got 14 MPG on the way back without draft aid. Not bad for a Supercharged 2.7 turning 37" Bias Ply ROCKERS at 70-75 MPH!

Some beautiful snow covered mountains along I15 outside of Hesperia.

At a nice Arco station in the middle of no where around 10pm Fri. night.

[BigMike [OP]]

Of course, knowing that I just installed the new pivot blocks, I specifically wanted to get into a situation where I would be able to put them to the test 8)

And boy oh boy...... Hey MiniSimp, have you gotten a chance to wheel with these newer sets? DUDE!!! I put some antiseize on the bolt when I installed it, and man, I don't know if that is why they work SO MUCH BETTER than the older versions, but just check these pictures out!!

[BigMike [OP]]

Dude, I'll tell you what, these pivot blocks were rocking out all weekend long baby girl!

I have many, many more situations where the pivots were really working hard during the wheeling we did on Sat, but my camera was down so I couldn't capture those pics.

I will be wheeling again in a couple more weeks, so I'll be sure to get more pics then

Here are some more pics from the night wheeling.

Here is 4.3headache atop the sandy hill near base camp, and another shot looking down the hill.

I am not a sand guy at all, but it was fun. However, I believe the only reason why it was fun is because I have a Supercharged 2.7. If I had a carb'd rig still, then I would have hated sand. Sand to me is just boring. Once I've done it once, it just feels the same.. Rock Crawling offers me so much more.

[BigMike [OP]]

One thing for sure is that the Pitbull ROCKERS are not for sand. They dig deep instead of floating. 4.3headache's BFGs did far better, as did Bevin's TrXus MTs the following day.

And lastly, here are the ONLY pictures I have from our wheeling on Sat. This was one of the best areas we found. The rocks just kept falling out and there was no traction at all. Its like trying to wheel up a deep gravel road at a 40% slope, just not fun. Once the rocks moved, then you were just on sand.. Locked up F/R with 37s at 4psi in Triple Low at 510:1 did nothing.

Hopefully, if I return to TDS in the future, I will find a guide who can show me where the good stuff is.

Thanks to the TDS club for setting it up and offering a safe place for us to play with our rigs

See ya
BigMike

[MiniSimp]

And boy oh boy...... Hey MiniSimp, have you gotten a chance to wheel with these newer sets? DUDE!!! I put some antiseize on the bolt when I installed it, and man, I don't know if that is why they work SO MUCH BETTER than the older versions, but just check these pictures out!!

Dude, that is freakin sweet! I'm actually welding mine on today!
 

[iNfErNaL]

Yeah man,this year's TDS sucked IMO.Normally it's held over at Truckhaven and there's actually some decent wheelin' overthere and the notches are ALLWAYS fun.I'm sure you're aware of the situation as to why they weren't able to hold the event at the same place they have for the past 45 years.Sucks to hear you didn't have fun,I didn't either.I actually split right after I saw you and Kyle.If it's held at Ocotillo next year,I won't be attending and If I do it'll be in my daily driver just to go hang out,hell it's only about 1 1/2 hrs for me.I like the way Marlin's truck looks with the red beadlock rings,I saw it over by the Tin Benders' booth and I saw your mom too but she didn't see me.