2006 GX470 Sport - from Chicago

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Even $600 feels kinda crazy! But we shall see.
 
Less than 2 weeks out from our trip down to North Carolina. Will be doing 3 nights of camping before being at a cabin for a friend's birthday. Will run Back of the Dragon and the regular Dragon once again and hit some easy trails.

Rear pads just ran out, sadly I did not catch it in time to save the passenger rear rotor. So the truck got a pair of pads and rotors in the rear. Have a whole pre trip list. Need to figure out perhaps JB welding my KDSS clamps to the bar as they have shifted and once again chunked my bushings. Will need to replace them, reset the clamps, and maybe see what happens from there.
 
Started to trip prep today.

The whiteline clamps did not hold in place. My sway bar is so rusty. I reset them but unfortunately went through another set of bushings back there, on the KDSS piston side. I wonder if a 460 bar bolts up, I know the thickness is different.

Front driver side wheel hub and outer tie rod both had play. Went ahead and immediately changed out the tie rod and ordered a hub. I will try to replace the hub but I'm not too worried about it if I don't manage to. It's end of quarter at work so a super busy time.

Looks like I really need to get to some suspension maintenance on this thing Lol

Rear seats removed, a little bit of cleaning and a general look over and I think she'll be fine for what's mostly going to be a 1500 mile cruise.
 
Had a pretty uneventful and humbling trip down to the North Carolina in the post hurricane aftermath. Lots of closed stuff. Hard to complain when seeing the local destruction. Supported to operating businesses as we could.
Did camp 2 nights on the way down and hit very moderate/easy trails in Kentucky. Camped in Red River Gorge night 1 and Whitetop Mountain night 2.
Hit back of the dragon and tail of the dragon again and had lots of fun. My Wildpeaks are visibly worn up front from all that, so I did a tire rotation when I returned. Managed to knock the hub out before leaving.

Next on the list:
They're not torn leaking, but they are oozing from the ends, so I want to replace the boots and clamps on my CV axles.
Need to replace the remainder of my tie rods, passenger inner appears to have some play now after this trip.

Going to get one last trip in to Badlands Offroad park in late November. Will probably send the truck as is for that adventure. Going with a friend and their 90s Taco.

Also, very excited to say I've picked up a new vehicle for the family rotation. A 2014 Lexus ES300h. This will make taking the GX off duty a lot easier for some maintenance. God I love that thing. It's the plain yoghurt of transportation but 40+ MPG and silence is very nice.
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First off road park adventure went sort of predictably. Need sliders ASAP. Maybe some better skids as well. Tires didn't do so hot either at their current stage of wear. But man what a BLAST lol

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Not much going on so far this year! The ESh got rear ended and is in the body shop now. I spent probably 2 hours power washing the bottom of the truck on Saturday to prepare it for undercoat. I got a wool wax undercoating kit with their spray gun. First victim and the learner was my wife's 2011 Honda Fit. It works REALLY well. Excited to do the GX.

Need to decide on new tires this year, stuck between another set of Wildpeaks (they were SO good to me and are still performing admirably on the street and snow at over 50k miles)
Vredsteins Pinza AT
And the Yoko Geolanders that are an on road all terrain.
 
Ordered on some JW Off Road sliders for the ole gal. It's also due for both inner and outer tie rods, valve cover gaskets, and power steering lines are seeping. It undercoated most of it. All fun and games until you need to install some sliders. The passenger side was a 40 minute job. I have some 6-7 hours into the driver side... One broken bolt. A lot of KDSS line bending, which is a****** puckering for sure. I had to cut some brackets and probably will need to cut some more. In the end, I can get these hung with 4/7 bolts, but I think my friend will be welding these on as a forever amen. The combination of rusty bolts, rusty lines, poor fitment, heavy sliders, bending lines, and everything being covered in Woolwax, SUCKS. I've got no hate towards JW, as I'm pretty sure there are 2 different KDSS systems for the 470 and it's hard to know where they might change over.

Trying to plan a trip in October to hit New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. In addition to the stuff listed above, it'll need tires this year for sure.

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Had a busy weekend. Replaced inner and outer tie rods and got an alignment. Also replace the rubber sections of the power steering hoses. Valve cover gaskets and driver side slider still on the books for installation. After that, it's a set of tires away from being ready for anything!
 
This thing has mostly been hibernating recently, living life on a battery tender, just comes out for fun stuff and trips. As I had always wanted, the S2000 and the GX get to stay in the garage safe and sound. So glad the ES hybrid joined the family to be a work horse alongside my wife's Honda Fit and my 2003 Bonneville with 254k miles lol

Had a quick camping trip with no real wheeling to escape some heat and camp by the beach at Point Beach in WI. Hauled some wood for a massive fire. Awning gave us a place to hang out during a night time rain storm. No drama.
Did another trip to Gingerman Raceway in MI in it, to spectate a track day and camp for one night. Hauled the bikes on it so the wife and I had a way to cruise around the track. Loaded up with the bikes, coolers, mini fridge and whatever else, the ride sure is plush. Despite their moderately advanced age and over 40k miles, the Wildpeaks sure are doing great for road use. Still surprisingly quiet, no shakes up 85mph and I never honestly go any faster. I think AT4Ws are going to be the next move. I'm kinda stuck between those and the less heavy duty Vredstein Pinzas but the look of the Falkens is so much more badass.

Driver side slider got welded on. It's honestly a mid quality job and I'm not sure I feel good about putting a lot of weight on it. The center leg should have been recessed back a little bit to allow for the bracket the KDSS system sits on. As a result, the slider isn't making full contact to the frame with the rear most leg. Anyways, got it all boogered up and the future plan is to cut out that middle leg and weld everything back up. I've taken a MIG1 course at a local welding shop to me and am taking MIG2 tomorrow. Will be on the look out for cheap welders after that. Still want to try and save my rusty Bonneville. It'll be good practice for when the GX needs some frame patch work. Specifically by the AC drain up front.

UT/AZ/CO trip is likely a dud for this year. Best friend is getting married in October. Maybe I can sneak in a UP or Shawnee sub 1 week trip. Time will tell. I never did get around to the valve cover gaskets but all in due time. Had a failed attempt at trying to get clear rear tail lights from a Chinese seller on eBay. Long story short, just don't.... Lol Even after swapping over everything to the clear housing, I had some real weird stuff going on like all 3 brake lights on full time. Weird, will have to save for a Bell Lexus sale.

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