MOBY DICK gets a turn ! (5 Viewers)

[half k cruiser]

The Kenwood actually fits with plenty of room to spare. Was a bit of a pain to get it, and the bracket in there, but worth it. There is enough room around it that I'm not too worried about cooling. I think this is going to be a good entry level mobile radio. Not pictured is a 300w Bestek inverter that I mounted to the DS of the tuffy console and hard wired direct to the Blue Sea fuse box.

 

[half k cruiser]

Finally, after 3 years of ownership I have a working antenna. Built an antenna wrench from something I found at HF.....

 

[half k cruiser]

Replaced the exhaust from the cat back. All is done with the exception I have to fab a mount for the rear. The 4x4 labs bumper interferes with the factory mounting point. I have a new rubber mount coming and I will fab a mount that goes up through the hole in the labs bumper and uses the stock isolation point. The exhaust is the Bosal kit from Rockauto, coated in Rustoleum high heat clear coat, stainless hardware used to connect everything. For $200, if I get a year or two out of it I'm going to be happy.

 

[half k cruiser]

Finally finished up the exhaust. I had to get one last OEM cushion then weld a custom mount up through the labs bumper to factory hanger location.....

 

[2fpower]

So, what is your impression of that exhaust system?

 

[half k cruiser]

So, what is your impression of that exhaust system?

For $200 its a steal. Much quieter then what was on there and the fit was perfect.

 

[half k cruiser]

Finally getting some time to update. Been very busy since the last post on 09.11 , all the work I did paid off though with a very rewarding trip to Colorado. Headed out on Sep 18th with my buddy Travis and his 05 runner. The new head unit and the spotify app on my phone made the drive great. Got plenty of use out of the new mobile 2m as well. A long drive across Western Kansas....

First night in we had a great dinner at Quincy's in Buena Vista. Your options are a filet, or a filet, not bad options. The next morning we hit up Hancock pass with the idea of running up to the Alpine tunnel.

 

[half k cruiser]

Unfortunately you couldn't drive to the Alpine tunnel as the road was closed off a few miles out on either end . We decided we didn't feel like hiking it so we just went on over Tomichi pass....

The first few hundred yards is frighteningly narrow, a problem enhanced by the fact that you cannot see the position of your outside tire. All you can do is stay as close to the inside as possible while listening to your tires knock rocks down the several hundred yard slope. Both of these pictures are taken towards the top where the road has widened considerably.....

After that hair raising adventure it was time for an easy ride over Old Monarch Pass road then a trip back to camp before it got dark....

 

[half k cruiser]

The next day had us up early and over Weston Pass to our next destination. Weston pass is horribly wash boarded btw, and I think it may have introduced an issue to my cruiser that we will come to later in the trip. Once over we headed up Half Moon Gulch. First part of the trail has a very scenic and very shallow water crossing......

The iconic Champion Mill....

 

[half k cruiser]

If you continue past the mill there is a very long and steep climb that will take you up to the Champion Mine. There really isn't much to see up there and we lost an hour at least making the climb and then coming back down. Here is a pick from that portion of the trail....

After that it was on to the other half of the gulch. Here there is a creek crossing followed by a fairly gnarly rock obstacle. The 4runner coming up the easier of the two routes. Its a very deceiving picture and navigating the stock runner through without any damage took plenty of skilled driving on Travis's part. Behind him and to the right is the harder route. I was hesitant to try it even in Moby, but decided to trust its armor and the lockers to pull me through.

Both of us cleared our routes and headed up another mile or so. It was getting later in the afternoon at this point so we decided to start heading back.....

Travis getting some hang time in the runner.......

 

[half k cruiser]

Day two in the books and onward to day three and what would be our final day of wheeling for this trip. My wife had drove out and joined us the previous evening, bringing us pizza for dinner ! We were expecting some friends to stop in for the night, so after breakfast and much deliberation we decided on an easy trip up to Wheeler Lake and back. Man were we ever wrong. The start of the trail head takes you underneath an old mill and gives ample photo opportunities.....

Unfortunately everything after that is an absolute ball buster. Immediately after the mill you run into a series of increasingly difficult rock obstacles. Many of them require some real thought and careful tire placement to navigate without damaging your rig. I was pretty sure Travis was going to smash up his nice 4runner, and I could tell he was thinking the same thing. But, he also wanted to put it through its paces and he pushed that thing much farther than I would have thought it could go.....

End of the road for the runner. This picture doesn't do this obstacle any justice. The approach angle is steep enough that the later decent crushed in my already shortened tailpipe. The combination of wet tires and very steep angle caused the runner to keep slipping off of its line. Even though we could have winched him up if we had to, we decided to park the runner and continue up in my rig.

 

[half k cruiser]

The next few miles is nothing short of aggravating. Its completely strewn with basketball to beach ball sized boulders. Since straddling them generally resulted in a diff strike, most of them had to be driven over, resulting in a very un enjoyable ride....

The very last part of the trail is the worst and my sliders got a good workout when I dropped the rig hard on the cat protection. A lot of it is driver fatigue from being beat around for so long. You start making mistakes in your lines, coupled with the fact that you don't want to get out and look at what your doing. In any case it took the better part of an hour but we finally reached the lake....

The lake itself is nothing to write home about. However, there is an unblocked mine just to the left and behind on this photo. We only went in about 15 feet as we didn't have strong flashlights or a death wish. If you wanted to explore it looks that you could go as far in as you dared to go. Finally the best view, right before the descent....

 

[half k cruiser]

We ran into two young ladies and their one eyed dog on the first part of the descent. Man, the one girl looked like some sort of outdoor fitness model ! We stopped and chatted for a bit, and they said they had hiked the 3.5 miles from the trailhead to that location. I told them I was glad I didn't have to do that and could just drive it instead. We wished them good luck and continued on down.

Shortly after exiting the portion called bowling ball alley I told Travis something didn't sound right on the rig. About 20 yards further down I told him we no longer had any brakes ! Having the pedal all the way to the floor while bumping your way down a steep mountain trail was not my idea of fun. It turns out the funny sound I was hearing was a loose front sway bar. This is where all the time and money spent on that hand brake paid off. I swept the truck out of gear and pulled hard up on the hand brake. We finally got stopped and I let the front slide into an embankment to keep us in place. Travis jumped out and looked under the truck only to notice brake fluid leaking out of the PS front hard line. This sucked as we were on a narrow portion of the trail about 3 miles from the bottom.

I had noticed a small cutout about 30 yards behind us and up-hill. With Travis guiding me I was able to back the truck past it, then popping it in and out of gear while using the hand brake I got it nosed in and stopped before it could slide over the edge. Initial attempts to crimp off the line and use the remaining three brakes didn't work. We had no choice but to pack up and leave the rig there. We made it down to the runner in under and hour. It then took another hour to get the runner back down the obstacles we had come up and to the main road. After that it was a 26 mile drive to NAPA in Fairplay where we were able to piece together the parts and tools we needed for a field repair.

At this point I was both physically and mentally exhausted. I was really not liking our chances of making a repair that night. I was also not wild about leaving my rig at the top of some mountain and having to come back and spend the morning trying to fix it. We decided to at least drive to the trailhead and see what the weather conditions were like.

There was a light rain coming down by the time we got there but we decided to try to make the repair before nightfall. We also decided not to try and take Travis's rig up any further than the mill as it was actually faster to cover ground on foot. So we packed up all the tools, the spare parts, along with two quarts worth of brake fluid and headed for the top. Here is a pic from the rescue mission....

For those that don't know, that's my out of breath face. I also didn't realize Travis was snapping a pic, or I would have done my hair. The elevation up there is even more breathtaking than the view ! Despite that we were able to cover the 3 miles in about 50 minutes.

 

[half k cruiser]

By the time we reached the truck temperatures had started dropping and daylight was becoming limited. I was most concerned about snow or rain hitting and trapping us up there. Neither of us felt like sleeping in a broken rig on top of a mountain so we went to work. It turns out that at some point one of the PS radius arm bolts came out (Weston Pass maybe). This in turn allowed some extra articulation in the front suspension. This combined with the constant flexing up through the back part of Wheeler lake caused the sway bar to rip out of its axle side mount and smash the hard brake line. Travis actually discovered the sway bar issue while I was getting the old hard line removed. After about 45 minutes we had the new line in place, the sway bar removed, and the brakes bled out and working as good as ever. The extra grainy victory photo ....

One final shot before we left the mountain. This was Moby's parking spot for the few hours we spent hiking and tracking down parts. Its also the only place it has ever left me stranded. Even though it wasn't very enjoyable at the time, I'm really glad it happened as I felt very rewarded sitting in camp that night looking at the truck over a cold bottle of beer.....

 

[FZJ80 in KC]

Phenomenal write up half k. What a trip, man!!

 

[half k cruiser]

After the trip I decided it was time to give the truck some much needed repairs to the coachwork. Starting with all of those fender flare holes....

After that I used the stud welder to draw the DS fender back into position. The previous owner, a friend of mine, smashed it into a ditch while driving the truck through a field at night. Its not perfect, but its far better than it was ....

 

[half k cruiser]

My mechanic and I then proceeded to strip all of the armor and lights from the truck.....

At this point the truck was looking like an extra from the set of Mad Max's: Beyond Thunder Dome.

 

[half k cruiser]

Then it was off to the spray booth for final sand and prep.....

Amateur chemistry class ...

A short while later ...

Toyota 045 white, just like it came with from the factory ....

I did manage to get the front bumper back on today. Its quite heavy with the winch in it but I was able to carry it out and stick it to the front rails. Also got the lights back in. Now I just need to hook up the winch wiring, install sliders, then finally the rear bumper and tire carrier. The two bolts that hold the snorkel to the A-pillar mount rusted and snapped off inside of the tube. It is now useless as the design doesn't allow for it to be tapped and re threaded. Oh well, its been a very productive four day.

 

[1MAC]

Freakin' awesome! I would love to shoot ours in the exact same color.

 

[cjmoon]

Nice work. Looks amazing