Builds Big Red Toy

[The Phoenician]

my favorite shock hoops are the F250 mounts
Dorman 523-054, sold as a pair, grind off your existing mount rivets, weld these on, done in an hour per side. Minor clearancing of the inner wheel well required. Clean and easy.

Have pics? I have the second turbo sitting right over the wheel well so that may not be as easy. Can I keep the sway bar connecting mounts?

 

[cruisermatt]

Have pics? I have the second turbo sitting right over the wheel well so that may not be as easy. Can I keep the sway bar connecting mounts?

I don't see why you'd have any issue with sway bar mounts, here's pics on my build thread on this page, keep in mind mind are mounted more forwards on the frame (closer to the steering box) because I moved my front axle about 3.5" forwards from stock

Builds - Cruisermatt's FJ62 Build-up

I don’t like how far out those would put the top of the shock, I don’t think those would keep the shock angle positive. Thanks for posting them though.

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[The Phoenician]

Thanks I was imagining hoops hence my concern for the sway bar mounts. These would be prefect for my set up if just a lil shorter. Might need to trim a bit off the bottom so that I don't have to mess with the turbo.

 

[cruisermatt]

Thanks I was imagining hoops hence my concern for the sway bar mounts. These would be prefect for my set up if just a lil shorter. Might need to trim a bit off the bottom so that I don't have to mess with the turbo.

Yep, you can cut/modify them however you want.
I never understood why anyone does the tubular hoops for anything other then coilovers that need a brace over the engine, they’re huge, take a bunch of cab time and have zero advantages

 

[The Phoenician]

I saw these.

12" Shock Tower, 2" Deep - Pair

12" Shock Tower 12" Shock Tower Pair – Heavy-Duty 2.5" Coilover Mounts for Off-Road Suspension Upgrade your off-road suspension with these 12-inch shock towers, designed to fit 2.5" diameter coilover shocks commonly used in a wide range of vehicles. Compatible with most setups using 12" to 14"...

www.ruffstuffspecialties.com

Will have to take measurements when I'm back from camping and see if they will work better than the ford ones for my application.

 

[The Phoenician]

Well, time for a small update. We decided to go camping for about 6 days to Bing Bend Ranch State Park. We've never been to the state park, but have seen the national park. It's a night and day difference between the two. The National park is paved and well maintained so any car can pretty much access it. The State park has practically minimal maintained roads and you'll pinstripe your vehicle on the trails.

We left on Tuesday after work and could only make it to San Angelo which is about 4 hours away before dark. The plan was to set up there for the night, then continue on. The entire trip is roughly 1100 miles not counting trails.

Our night in San Angelo was cold and we got up to everything being frozen. Big Red had trouble starting but was good once it got going.

Saw this guy at the San Angelo Walmart. Had to buy butane because they were out where we were.

The picture doesn't really do it justice, but we had broken the ice off of everything, and the wind was bad.

Big Red gets to fill up with the big boys.

 

[The Phoenician]

We had a later start than planned because of the freeze. About a 7-hour drive later we finally got to the entrance of the park. From the entrance, it took us another 45 miles of trails to get to our campsite. Wasn't exactly easy doing it with a trailer at night.

We met up with a few other cruiser heads and hung out by the fire for the night. The night sky was impressively lit with stars and we even saw a shooting star break up or it was a really low flying satellite. Whatever it was, it was cool.

The next day, we had to figure out how to get to some of the trails and back. Recommend downloading the Gaia GPS app if you don't already have it.

 

[The Phoenician]

 

[The Phoenician]

Due to the storm hitting Texas, we decided to cut the trip short and head back. A decision we made just in time to get home safely. Though I did some ice skating in Big Red and the trailer on some parts

Mr Lincoln's Profile

You can see that Toyota owns this town.

 

[The Phoenician]

It was in the mid-70s and sunny the entire time we were in the park. But once I hit Alpine, the engine temps dropped about 30* in about two minutes.

I have tons of drone footage and about 128 gigs of drive time videos, but due to rolling blackouts, I'll have to post them later after I'm able to go through them.

I managed to drive as fast as 91mph with the fully loaded trailer. Averaged 13 mpg going there, and 17.8 coming back.

 

[The Phoenician]

Forgot to add this one. While towing the fully loaded trailer to the park.

 

[The Phoenician]

This cold weather has me thinking about installing a grid heater back on big red. The old one was removed when the engine was swapped in and I'm not sure if it will clear the hood now. Will be looking for a low-profile one if anyone makes them. Had a hell of a time starting the truck in San Angelo and at home to move it to the back.

 

[boots4]

If you spent lots of time in colder weather I could understand adding a starting aid but if its only on occasion I don't know if I'd go to the hassle.

 

[The Phoenician]

If you spent lots of time in colder weather I could understand adding a starting aid but if its only on occasion I don't know if I'd go to the hassle.

That was my original thought too, hence why I deleted it years ago. But this storm had me dead in the water for a while. In fact, the batteries drained so much, that if I didn't have a solar panel installed I would have had to wait for someone to jump-start me. I rather have and not need than need and not have. Can't have the apocalypse truck stuck in the driveway during the great escape

 

[GLTHFJ60]

A can of ether would suffice in an apocalypse situation. Sure its not great for the engine, but if you're talking apocalypse, who cares.

 

[The Phoenician]

A can of ether would suffice in an apocalypse situation. Sure its not great for the engine, but if you're talking apocalypse, who cares.

Good point, but it just so happened that I didn't think to pack a can for this trip. To be honest this storm kinda caught me off guard.

 

[The Phoenician]

For posterity

 

[dad4x4]

Awesome trip and great pics too.

 

[The Phoenician]

Awesome trip and great pics too.

Thanks. We had to cut it short due to the storm, but it was tons of fun. Looking forward to going back and doing the other trails.

 

[The Phoenician]

Blanchette, aka lil red riding hood is back. Picked her up today. Ran great, her break in period is done and she got an oil change and passed inspection.

Yes, I need to tidy up the garage.