Builds Building Bubbles the Turbo Super Tourer (3 Viewers)

[Dirty Koala]

Wait, you’re being serious? $50 for that? Holy hell.

That is the going rate…technically $49.88 with my local discount. Retail from a US dealer is about $62 I believe.

 

[MrMikeyG]

Yup, the body grease is insane. I thought there was a post or two hiding in the dark depths of the 80 series thread where someone figured out a "normal" off the shelf alternative to the Toyota stuff. Similar chemically and all that jazz. I've read so many threads on here now, it's hard to remember who had what where. I think that body grease is what the seat gears are packed with from the factory right? Also inside the power mirror motor housing, and maybe lube on the window regulator motors?

 

[Dirty Koala]

Yup, the body grease is insane. I thought there was a post or two hiding in the dark depths of the 80 series thread where someone figured out a "normal" off the shelf alternative to the Toyota stuff. Similar chemically and all that jazz. I've read so many threads on here now, it's hard to remember who had what where. I think that body grease is what the seat gears are packed with from the factory right? Also inside the power mirror motor housing, and maybe lube on the window regulator motors?

Yes same stuff is used in just about all the electrical motors. Don’t need to use much in the CDL actuator, so plenty left for more motor/actuator rebuilds.

 

[Dirty Koala]

I have some serious thread maintenance to catch up on, lots of work on the wagon over the past 2 months or so.

I finished rebuilding the xfer case with 10% underdrive gears, 3.1:1 low range gears, new bearings, seals, sensors, shift motor rebuild, new harness connectors and shift lever linkages.

I pulled the original case out and swapped in the rebuilt one, no dramas there other that getting some of the wire harness connectors off.

As I was wrapping up that project I figured I would try to track down the oil leak that has been staining my driveway, and realized it was coming from the valve cover…feeling pretty excited that it wasn’t the rear main or upper pan arch, I figured I would quickly snug up the VC bolts. A couple were loose on the passenger side, so thought that must be it. As I moved around the VC bolts snugging them up I managed to snap the one right under the EGR…crap.

Off came the intercooler, throttle body and valve cover to extract the broken bolt. I should mention that this happened the afternoon ofthe day before I was leaving to head down to Flagstaff to have my truck in the Delta booth at Overland Expo West…so no pressure. As soon as I got the VC off, I noticed a chunk of gasket missing which is annoying since I replaced that gasket only a year or so ago. I race over to @cruiseroutfit right before close and snag a new gasket…it’s handy having a great cruiser shop 15 mins away!

Spent the rest of the night putting the engine back together, wrapping up at about 1:30am. Last step was to reattach the Meth outlet hose to the intercooler…well I attached it cockeyed and promptly cross threaded the -10AN fitting on my custom intercooler…crap crap crap. Go to bed before I bugger anything else up.

Wake up early, call my local fab shop to call in a favor, I run the intercooler over at 8:30, and by 9:30 my intercooler had a new fitting welded on and I was back in the game. Go home, get the intercooler back in the truck, fill up the gear oil, packed the truck while waiting for @Delta VS to arrive from Boise.

 

[Dirty Koala]

Spent 3 days down at Expo chatting with folks about cool trips and my cruiser builds. The new Delta rack I was rocking and the turbo setup drew a good crowd.

@Outsane was setup with us in the Delta Booth and brought along a one wheel board. On Friday night I was cruising around on it, ton of fun. Saturday morning however I wake up in the swanky Airbnb we were all sharing and something was not right about my left knee….as I am righting this about 5 weeks later, my knee is only just beginning to work properly again, MCL tears and miniscus injuries blow. I think I’ll stay off the one wheels for a while.

Expo was a good time other than the knee, Was great hanging with @Outsane @Snailtrail and @Delta VS all weekend. I even got my camp chair fixed while I was there.

Dave and I found a random place to camp on the way back north after expo.

 

[Outsane]

Great trip! Looking forward to the next one!

 

[Outsane]

Finally the knee is getting better

 

[Dirty Koala]

Finally the knee is getting better

Getting there, 5 more weeks of Physical therapy and I should be good .

 

[Outsane]

Damn!

 

[Dirty Koala]

After getting back home from expo I got stuck into a whole bunch of work. I started out getting my awning mounted up to the new Delta rack…went very smoothly.

I then decided to add a 100ah lithium battery in the back, and do a complete re-wire of the @NLXTACY quarter panel.

In this re-wire, I added a blue seas DC-DC smart charger and appropriate midi fuses to handle charging of the lithium. I also wired in a blue seas solar controller in a way that will allow me to charge all 3 batteries (Main, Backup and House). I swapped out the 6 circuit fuse panel for a dual zone 12 circuit (half always hot, half only hot with ignition on). I picked up a nice weboost setup from @Delta VS and installed the amplifier into the panel. Delta also has these useful brackets for the panel to make wire organization much more satisfying, I used a set of those also during this re-wire.

I also decided to add some fancy simarine monitoring, so installed a large 500amp shunt to measure the total current being drawn from the lithium battery and then a 4x25amp shunt that measures individual device current draws (fridge, weboost, tailgate hatch lights, AUX 12v outlet for my oven). These shunts then connect up to the Pico touch screen that I mounted to the useless cubby on a short ram mount. Totally overkill, but I love the setup.

In a pinch to figure out a way to mount my weboost antenna with the ability to fold it down for trees and when I open the awning , I found an old ram mount in my garage that had a 1/2NPT fitting on it…I also happened to have an old Cummins water temp sensor fitting that had a 1/2NPT fitting. A little drill and tap action and I had a nice solid antenna mount that folds completely out of the way.

A few days ahead of a big trip I got a new CVT Mt Hood tent mounted up into the delta rack…very happy with the whole rack setup.

 

[Outsane]

Looks great!

 

[Dirty Koala]

Since I am running an oil cooler fan, intercooler heat exchange fan, electric intercooler water pump along with a bunch of aux led lights I have noticed that the stock alternator could not keep up with my current draw whenever especially when I turned the 3 LP9’s on. So it was time for another upgrade. I picked up a @Photoman alternator bracket and pulley, a used 150a sequoia alternator and had the unit load tested which proved it was in good working order. Since it was super accessible, I decided to swap out the brushes with new ones before digging into the truck.

I got stuck into the swap this weekend, which was a bit more complicated given all the extra stuff I have under the hood, but wasn’t too much trouble to get the new alternator and bracket into place.

I decided to follow @Photoman approach and removed the blue wire from the fusible link, made 2 new heavier gauge cables and added a 200a mega fuse on that new charge cable.

Got it all back together and did a test with all lights running, now at idle my battery voltage is still about 13.5 volts so definitely an improvement, prior to the swap I would be draining my battery down into the low 12’s as soon as those LP9’s came on.

 

[Dirty Koala]

Ahead of my last big trip I added some warm white and red LED’s to the tailgate hatch. I am really happy with the amount and usability of the light. Lights up the whole back perfectly without blinding you.

 

[Dirty Koala]

About a week ago I got back from an epic trip with @Box Rocket , @96bruizer and a couple other cool blokes not on mud. Round trip it was approximately 1500 miles, most of that on dirt. We all met up in Idaho and then transverse UT from the NW to SW corners, exiting out at the 4 corners monument. The truck handled great with only one issue on day 2 when I lost a front caliper bolt. Adam had a spare bolt, so I through that in and we were trucking again.

We are very fortunate to live in such a great state to get out and enjoy the backcountry.

 

[FMC80]

The picture with all your 80s is badass

 

[Dirty Koala]

You can see that my passenger headlight is filthy in comparison to the drivers…something had to be done about this. Good thing everything on an 80 series is rebuildable, including the headlights.

Once I pulled the headlight out it was apparent why that headlight had filled up with dust, the two rubber lens covers were MIA. I have no idea where they went, but assume they haven’t been on the truck since I have owned it.

I tossed the light in the oven at 175 degrees for about 10 mins, and then carefully with a butter knife prying the glass away from the housing.


After cleaning everything up and removing the old butyl tape, which required multiple trips back into the oven to keep it malleable, I slapped in some new 1/4” 3M windo-weld ribbon tape and put it all back together. Not a hard job, just a bit of a pain cleaning out the old butyl.

 

[FMC80]

Morgan, how are you liking your new RTT? Any feedback to share?

 

[Dirty Koala]

Morgan, how are you liking your new RTT? Any feedback to share?

So far I am really liking the CVT Mt Hood. The size is perfect for the delta rack and I think it compliments the angles of the rack nicely The tent is relatively light (about 150lbs), the mattress is quite comfortable and the build quality is very nice.

I keep the ladder in the ladder bag inside the tent along with 2 sleeping bags, 2 included boot bags and the 3 poles that comes with the tent. 2 spring poles for the awning and one bigger adjustable pole that you can use as a safety to hold the roof up if you have extra heavy stuff loaded on top. I just had a ~35lbs swag on the roof so didn’t need to use that pole at all.

I would recommend the tent, I like it better than the Eezi-Awn stealth I used to have.

 

[FMC80]

So far I am really liking the CVT Mt Hood. The size is perfect for the delta rack and I think it compliments the angles of the rack nicely The tent is relatively light (about 150lbs), the mattress is quite comfortable and the build quality is very nice.

I keep the ladder in the ladder bag inside the tent along with 2 sleeping bags, 2 included boot bags and the 3 poles that comes with the tent. 2 spring poles for the awning and one bigger adjustable pole that you can use as a safety to hold the roof up if you have extra heavy stuff loaded on top. I just had a ~35lbs swag on the roof so didn’t need to use that pole at all.

I would recommend the tent, I like it better than the Eezi-Awn stealth I used to have.

Right on. I’m not in the market yet and I’m unsure if I’ll ever be but seems like something my little ones would like while I’m in a tent on the ground.
Does the weight up top along with your lift make your handling tippy? I have a lot of sway already without a rack, I imagine rack plus tent would exacerbate the instability.

 

[Dirty Koala]

Right on. I’m not in the market yet and I’m unsure if I’ll ever be but seems like something my little ones would like while I’m in a tent on the ground.
Does the weight up top along with your lift make your handling tippy? I have a lot of sway already without a rack, I imagine rack plus tent would exacerbate the instability.

Putting any weight up high is going to increase your center of gravity. This setup that I have is way lighter than the old setup I had on top of the Cummins 80. This one is about 120lbs lighter. I do have a HD rear sway bar which I would highly recommend and really nice suspension, which makes the handling both on an off-road much nicer. That said, on the last trip I rallied this 8100lbs cruiser hard with the tent on top and a double swag and firewood on top of tent load bars. It’s a good setup for what I like to do.