84 bj46 long term maintenance, repair and upgrade- making it mine. (1 Viewer)

[JohnnyC]

Love those xzl's ... I'm assuming you got a deal on them and didn't pay $400+ usd for them each lol

 

[peteinjp]

8.25R16XZL 8Ply New Michelin Tires Military Surplus | eBay

I didn't get my tires here but I got them the same price. Now is probably the last chance to get them at a decent price so for anybody that's interested I highly recommend that you snap them up from colony tire. They just imported a bunch of them but it won't last that long.

Slightly taller than the 255 about 1.75 inches more narrow so they fit the truck really perfectly without having lower the bump stop or tighten the steering stops. It's the perfect size in my opinion and the load rating C si not too stiff- but with a reputation for being tough.

I think with the internal beadlocks this combo will be awesome. I did a test run at 5 psi down at the river and they worked great. But what I'm really getting this set up for is the snow season. The long narrow footprint should let me ride on top of the hard pack slush in the end of the winter season.

Pete

 

[peteinjp]

Whoopsie.....

Looks like I'll have to do the rest repair a little earlier than I had planned! Say Johnny, do you think those 3/16 inch quarter panels would have held up to this? I'm thinking of doing thick.

I was able to get on my own now though. The end of muffler was buried into the soft rock and wedged up between the frame and the tire so I couldn't start the engine since it was plugged. I engaged the dif locks and drove out backwards with the starter.

I got a little out of order here in my posting – the next post will be about installing the beadlocks.


Pete

 

[JohnnyC]

Yes the 3/16" sides would have held up fine ... they would have laughed at that rock ... just received scratches

I have done the same thing before on rock ... also a tree

 

[Living in the Past]

Tricky part is going to be forming the factory flare. Were you straddling that and slid down or just on the one side?

 

[peteinjp]

Yep- it's a tricky spot with not much room for error. I took it too far to the right and just slid right down into it.

I'll probably just ditch the flares- I like the flat look better and I don't plan on running wider tires anyway.

 

[Living in the Past]

Yep- it's a tricky spot with not much room for error. I took it too far to the right and just slid right down into it.

I'll probably just ditch the flares- I like the flat look better and I don't plan on running wider tires anyway.

Well when you remove the quarters you can sent the section with the flare to me. There are part of the quarter panel aren't they? My 79 FJ40 has flare now that one is broken. Then all I would need to do is stretch it out to a.mid wheel base and I would be set.

 

[peteinjp]

It’s been a while since I’ve been on mud so I thought it good to check in and let you guys know that the old truck is still being taken care of. I got a new top which was just beautifully crafted by my local guy. He’s retiring soon and none of the younger guys can do this level of work which is really too bad. My truck feels like it’s wearing a bespoke suit- nice tight fit. I went with Stayfast material and it’s very nice stuff. It’s one of the only ones I could find that has tan backing instead of black.

 

[peteinjp]

The inner air locks have been working great and I’ve had no issues adding or releasing air from the tires. I did git a leak after falling into that crack (truck still wearing the bent quarter btw) when some dirt worked it’s way between the bead of the tire and the rim. Though the instruction say to put the tube valve 180deg from the tire valve I think it would work better to put them in the same side. I could barely get a balance and had to use a ton of weights. It looks like my tires are wearing braces....

It turned out the by adding a single crossmember to each of the 7.50 size chains they fit the 8.25 perfectly. This was good news because I wasn’t really in the mood to shell out for a second set of chains leaving the first set unused. SCC sells the crossmembers in sets of 10 for about $100 so I have spares if needed.

We got dumped on and the city decided not to plow for some reason- the roads were a rutted bumpy mess and cars just sliding all over the place- so I had a chance to try out the setup but found that this type of chain wears very quickly on clear roads- I had to add material to them cause surely they would break on my up and coming camping trip.

 

[peteinjp]

Also finally got a compressor installed in the remaining battery tray. Got it done just in time for our yearly snow attack meeting and all I can say is that 6psi with chains on these tires will let you tractor through the white stuff at idle like nobodies business. I was the lead truck for a good portion of the time and some of the guys were surprised to see me just smoothly, non-stop cruise up a hill that they had just been ramming forward a few feet at a time. I learned some new driving techniques this year and really enjoyed the 3 days up on the mountain.

 

[Honger]

It’s been a while since I’ve been on mud so I thought it good to check in and let you guys know that the old truck is still being taken care of. I got a new top which was just beautifully crafted by my local guy. He’s retiring soon and none of the younger guys can do this level of work which is really too bad. My truck feels like it’s wearing a bespoke suit- nice tight fit. I went with Stayfast material and it’s very nice stuff. It’s one of the only ones I could find that has tan backing instead of black. View attachment 1628811View attachment 1628812View attachment 1628813

Top looks gorgeous bro!

 

[peteinjp]

Top looks gorgeous bro!

Thanks man! I thought it came out pretty good. It really looks tight from the inside to. The stayfast material is nice stuff- almost too nice like lipstick on a pig.

Pete

 

[Coolerman]

Shame your top guy is retiring! He could make a fortune making tops for export to the US! That is just beautiful work.

 

[Michael B]

Pete do you have two 40 series or is that a neighbors truck parked next to yours in the snow?

 

[peteinjp]

Shame your top guy is retiring! He could make a fortune making tops for export to the US! That is just beautiful work.

He's not retired yet but he will be soon! His fingers are bent backwards from working all these years. He basically has terminal rheumatism – but he still damn good! Also I think it really helps that he made the top to fit my truck. He had the truck for two weeks. Now he's got me ordering fabric for him from the US for other jobs because the fabric just isn't available in Japan. I'm happy to help.

Pete do you have two 40 series or is that a neighbors truck parked next to yours in the snow?

I actually do have two mid-wheelbase cruisers- but the one in the picture is not mine. It belongs to my friend Yuji who works at Toyota in the engine boring department. It's a good group that turns out for this event every year. Ages range from 19 to somewhere around 70. We basically make our way up to the campground and just getting to the campground itself is can be quite event. One year it took us almost 30 hours of shoveling and winching and just bashing though the snow and in the end we had to turn around and go back in camp at the base of the mountain- we couldn't even make it to the campground.

Usually turns out to be about 20 trucks and we get to the camp we make a long hall with tarps etc. and fire up about three small woodfired camp stoves. A lot of of the people sleep in there but I sleep in my truck because I have the coolant heater with the timer to warm up in the morning and I'm a wimp in the cold! I am after all a Texan.

From the base Camp we have about three or four trails to blaze. It's good fun.

Pete

 

[JohnnyC]

updates ??? Where have u been ?