Hello everyone my name is Mike and I’m a cruiseraholic…..
I apologize for not having this up sooner, Labor day planning and execution kinda snuck up on me.
Quick intro before I get to my rig. My forum nick is TCH2FLY; yes I’m a flight instructor. When I was doing a lot of teaching I had that as my vanity plate and started using it in forums. I live in Denver and have been 4-wheeling different rigs for about 22 years. Prior to my midlife career change I was in the automotive industry and my last job was with Toyota. That is the reason I have a good understand of and tremendous faith in their vehicles. Of all the rigs I’ve owned my favorite was my 79 FJ-40 and when it was time to build a family size rig an 80 series was the natural choice. I knew that I wanted a white exterior and cloth seats. My experience told me I needed an FZJ for the additional power and 4whl disc brakes.
I planned on doing 3-4 day family camping trips and moderate to difficult trails but not much in the way of rock crawling (that changed this weekend ). I looked at several trucks and finally found a white 1994 with cloth. It had some ugly aftermarket wheels but the axles were dry and the brakes new. It was exactly what I wanted for much less than I planned to spend. So on to the specifics and mods.
Basic: 1994 FZJ-80 160k…no factory lockers.
Current list of mods (as of July 2010)
Front springs - OME 850-J and 1.5" steel spacers, Rear Ssprings- OME 864. OME "blue" caster bushings.
4.88 gears with ARB lockers, front and rear
315/75-16 Cooper STTs
ARB front bumper/Slee AC skid plate and a 12,000 LB Warn.
Slee sliders and rear bumper.
Safari Snorkle
OEM CDL switch and 7 pin mod.
OEM hand throttle.
Magnaflow muffler and 2 ½" Cat-back exhaust.
Dual batteries… simple isolator set-up.
Slee wiring harness for headlights and Hella 2000s
1200 watt power inverter
[strike]Alpine Stereo with Ipod mounted in console.[/strike] Replaced Alpine HU with Pioneer 2-din DVD (see below)
[strike]8" subwoofer mounted in factory location [/strike] (write-up). Upgraded to 2 -10" in rear storage (see below)
Rear dome lights mounted in speaker opening (write-up).
Rear work light
Rear Gas Can holder.
Snakster manifold cooker
Future mods:
[strike]4:88 gears[/strike] - Done
[strike]Line-X the fender flares[/strike] - Done
Finish my rear storage drawers…these got put aside when I finally made good on a promise to my wife to get a small pop-up trailer so she could cook out of the rain.
On to the pics….
My dual battery set-up. This has been covered a million times but my setup is very basic using only a 120 amp isolator...I used this set-up on every dual system I have run and never had trouble...
Ipod mounting bracket in center console...
Fresh from this weekend:
posing....
some action shots...
and my new toy to keep the happy...
QUESTIONS???COMMENTS??
Thanks for reading!
Updated 1-16-08
"Future mods" now complete (need more future mods )
Recent pics
Link to my rear storage/subwoofer unit with amp and inverter install..
Storage unit (yeah another) with Subwoofers - https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/187777-storage-unit-yeah-another-subwoofers.html
With mods to mount Engel fridge and slider.
Power inverter and amp install
Updated 3-16-09
Replaced Alpine HU with Pioneer 2-din DVD with back-up camera and "belly cam"
Install thread Pioneer AVH-P4000 install
I apologize for not having this up sooner, Labor day planning and execution kinda snuck up on me.
Quick intro before I get to my rig. My forum nick is TCH2FLY; yes I’m a flight instructor. When I was doing a lot of teaching I had that as my vanity plate and started using it in forums. I live in Denver and have been 4-wheeling different rigs for about 22 years. Prior to my midlife career change I was in the automotive industry and my last job was with Toyota. That is the reason I have a good understand of and tremendous faith in their vehicles. Of all the rigs I’ve owned my favorite was my 79 FJ-40 and when it was time to build a family size rig an 80 series was the natural choice. I knew that I wanted a white exterior and cloth seats. My experience told me I needed an FZJ for the additional power and 4whl disc brakes.
I planned on doing 3-4 day family camping trips and moderate to difficult trails but not much in the way of rock crawling (that changed this weekend ). I looked at several trucks and finally found a white 1994 with cloth. It had some ugly aftermarket wheels but the axles were dry and the brakes new. It was exactly what I wanted for much less than I planned to spend. So on to the specifics and mods.
Basic: 1994 FZJ-80 160k…no factory lockers.
Current list of mods (as of July 2010)
Front springs - OME 850-J and 1.5" steel spacers, Rear Ssprings- OME 864. OME "blue" caster bushings.
4.88 gears with ARB lockers, front and rear
315/75-16 Cooper STTs
ARB front bumper/Slee AC skid plate and a 12,000 LB Warn.
Slee sliders and rear bumper.
Safari Snorkle
OEM CDL switch and 7 pin mod.
OEM hand throttle.
Magnaflow muffler and 2 ½" Cat-back exhaust.
Dual batteries… simple isolator set-up.
Slee wiring harness for headlights and Hella 2000s
1200 watt power inverter
[strike]Alpine Stereo with Ipod mounted in console.[/strike] Replaced Alpine HU with Pioneer 2-din DVD (see below)
[strike]8" subwoofer mounted in factory location [/strike] (write-up). Upgraded to 2 -10" in rear storage (see below)
Rear dome lights mounted in speaker opening (write-up).
Rear work light
Rear Gas Can holder.
Snakster manifold cooker
Future mods:
[strike]4:88 gears[/strike] - Done
[strike]Line-X the fender flares[/strike] - Done
Finish my rear storage drawers…these got put aside when I finally made good on a promise to my wife to get a small pop-up trailer so she could cook out of the rain.
On to the pics….
My dual battery set-up. This has been covered a million times but my setup is very basic using only a 120 amp isolator...I used this set-up on every dual system I have run and never had trouble...
Ipod mounting bracket in center console...
Fresh from this weekend:
posing....
some action shots...
and my new toy to keep the happy...
QUESTIONS???COMMENTS??
Thanks for reading!
Updated 1-16-08
"Future mods" now complete (need more future mods )
Recent pics
Link to my rear storage/subwoofer unit with amp and inverter install..
Storage unit (yeah another) with Subwoofers - https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/187777-storage-unit-yeah-another-subwoofers.html
With mods to mount Engel fridge and slider.
Power inverter and amp install
Updated 3-16-09
Replaced Alpine HU with Pioneer 2-din DVD with back-up camera and "belly cam"
Install thread Pioneer AVH-P4000 install
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