December Wheeling

[Rics4rnr]

It was a great day wheeling yesterday with a great group of people. It was really nice meeting some new people I have not wheeled with before @Rmtofast1, @GX DAVE, @Ecliff5 and @PFRELENG. Thanks again to @YotaFun and @Rmtofast1 for helping me replace the CV axle on my 3rd Gen.

It was also nice to seeing @Cass007, @Pacer, @Catskills, @YotaFun, @jamarquardt22, @caz and @VBRoamer.

 

[Catskills]

Like I said on the trail, there is no fun in always taking the lines we know , it looked like a good line and I think if the rear sway bar wasn't on it would have helped a little. What lift is under that truck?

Glad we could be of service!

Dobinson's 4" adjustable lift

 

[GX DAVE]

Hey gang, it was great meeting up w/ everyone yesterday and despite my catastrophic breakage I had a blast!

Ended up having AAA pickup the truck today from Rausch and bring it back to my local mechanic, not cheap considering I only had basic coverage . Needless to say I’ll be upgrading to platinum coverage for 2023.

It’s not confirmed yet but based on our parking lot diagnostic it looks as though I’ve blow the rear diff, so it seems a re gear and rear grizzly locker is in my future…maybe if im a good boy Santa will bring me these for Christmas!

Not exactly sure how long its going to take me to get sorted but I don’t expect to be back on the trail again before spring unfortunately.

@Ecliff5 and I were talking on the way home and initially I was considering shipping the diffs out to Marlin Crawler for the re build but now I’m considering taking them to OTRAMM since its driving distance and I can drop/pick them up myself or at least it would be cheaper to ship them there since its closer to home.

Has anyone here had any experience w/ OTRAMM’s diff rebuild/regear/locker install services? We’ve heard good things but don’t have any first hand experience.

Any inside intel is appreciated!

Looking forward to the next one and hopefully next time it’s smoother sailing!

 

[Cass007]

The map of our route from Saturday. Like @YotaFun said, there was a double back in there to the main lot. A thank you to @YotaFun for helping everyone with the breakdowns throughout the day. It was great seeing everyone again and a special shout out to @VBRoamer, my personal trail guide and spirit animal, he's the best.

As is becoming the norm now, parts will be ordered and repairs made before the next trip out. New tires seem to be not far off as well and that reminds me that I busted off another wheel center cap too. It was the first time out for my wife and she had fun, but was underdressed (for her anyway) for how cold it was outside so she stayed in the truck most of the day.

A thank you to @caz, @Ecliff5 and @PFRELENG for the assist getting me out from where I got stuck on 21. Big tires and lockers don't fix everything.

Glad to hear that @GX DAVE got his truck home OK and everyone else made it home safely as well. Couldn't have asked for a better day for a mid-December run.

As usual, thanks to @Catskills and @Pacer for all the pictures.

 

[Pacer]

As others have mentioned, it was a great day out. Great to see and meet everyone.

@YotaFun is one hell of a wrench

I left my vehicles behind to ride with Catskills and help her get acquainted with her '92 off-road.

I did indeed mash up her ARB pretty good

Seems like most of the trucks out Saturday had them teal green Dobinson's springs under them. Seeing them more and more these days.
I have some in the rear of my 200 and like them a lot.

Kris' truck has not felt comfortable on road since her lift was installed. I've tried many things; adding an adjustable rear pan hard, already has an adjustable front pan hard and Delta bits, adjusting the shocks, removing the rear sway bar, adding this new White Line heavy duty sway bar seems to have solved her on road handling issues, but clearly limits the rear axles ability to droop.

I also swapped her 35" Toyos in favor of my 33" KO3s which again, limited her off-road prowess.
The 3fe and stock gearing was really struggling to move the heavy 35s.

I think with an Aussie locker in the back, her truck will do fine in the future.

 

[YotaFun]

I also swapped her 35" Toyos in favor of my 33" KO3s which again, limited her off-road prowess.
The 3fe and stock gearing was really struggling to move the heavy the 35s.

Any plans to regear and get the 35s back underneath?

 

[Pacer]

Any plans to regear and get the 35s back underneath?

@Catskills ?

 

[Pacer]

@Catskills ?

Oh geez

@shmukster , any feedback on installing those tcase gears?

 

[GX DAVE]

For those of you who are curious, OTRAMM does not do installs on any lockers except for factory style E-lockers!

OK 4wd will only install E or Air lockers no mechanical options and same goes for East Coast Gear Supply*.

*ECGS said they can do the re gear service no problem and also said if my truck was a dedicated trail rig they would do the grizzly locker for me...but since I already told them up front that I still also drive it on the street they essentially refused to do the service for me and instead they were trying to sell me on and LSD or an Air locker...both of which I've already ruled out w/ extensive research....I didn't really appreciate that...so for these reasons I've decided not to go with them either! Im well aware of the benefits of air lockers and drawbacks of mechanical for street driving etc. and I don't need to be sold on an LSD that I don't want...If I could afford to go w/ the air locker I would but its just not in the cards ATM.

Seems I'll be shipping out to Marlin Crawler as originally planned! Hopefully they will have decent turn around time and I'm not twiddling my thumbs for too long!

 

[GX DAVE]

I really would like to hear how @GX DAVE made out as well! Sucked not seeing everyone leave the park . My opinion on what happened is V8/8” rear . Like the 4th gens they use a crush sleeve on the pinion . Over time this lets the pinion back off and get loose . With enough load and wheel spin you get a broken piñon/ring gear . If you keep the 8” diff you’ll want the solid spacer with shims to never worry about it again, or find a 8.2 rear . Otherwise was a great day and great to meet new faces

@Rmtofast1 I appreciate this suggestion, Marlin Crawler does include a solid spacer standard w/ their rear end rebuilds but does not include it standard with the front end rebuilds for some reason, I made sure to add in on to my order w/ them for the front rebuild, thanks for the tip!

 

[YotaFun]

For those of you who are curious, OTRAMM does not do installs on any lockers except for factory style E-lockers!

OK 4wd will only install E or Air lockers no mechanical options and same goes for East Coast Gear Supply*.

*ECGS said they can do the re gear service no problem and also said if my truck was a dedicated trail rig they would do the grizzly locker for me...but since I already told them up front that I still also drive it on the street they essentially refused to do the service for me and instead they were trying to sell me on and LSD or an Air locker...both of which I've already ruled out w/ extensive research....I didn't really appreciate that...so for these reasons I've decided not to go with them either! Im well aware of the benefits of air lockers and drawbacks of mechanical for street driving etc. and I don't need to be sold on an LSD that I don't want...If I could afford to go w/ the air locker I would but its just not in the cards ATM.

Seems I'll be shipping out to Marlin Crawler as originally planned! Hopefully they will have decent turn around time and I'm not twiddling my thumbs for too long!

The reason they may not offer to do the the mechanical lockers is for liability reasons. For a vehicle with a mechanical or spool rear end, the driving characteristics change for on road driving, specifically in inclement weather. While all vehicles experience with a mechanical locker in the rear is different, majority will usually be a little more sketch. hopefully Marlin can at least beef up your existing diffs and you'll be back out on the trails in no time.

 

[GX DAVE]

The reason they may not offer to do the the mechanical lockers is for liability reasons. For a vehicle with a mechanical or spool rear end, the driving characteristics change for on road driving, specifically in inclement weather. While all vehicles experience with a mechanical locker in the rear is different, majority will usually be a little more sketch. hopefully Marlin can at least beef up your existing diffs and you'll be back out on the trails in no time.

Yea I'm sure this is the reason, Marlin doesn't care though probably because it doesn't snow in Fresno lol - I spoke with them and a few of their guys run grizzly's on their daily drivers w/ no complaints. Granted they are not driving in east coast winters but.....whatever....I'll just need to adjust my on road driving style a bit, @PFRELENG actually ran a lunch box locker in the rear on his 1st rig without issues and lived out here at the time so I feel like it will be just fine for my needs. Eventually it will not be my DD anymore and then it wont matter.

 

[SMXSHINGPUMPKINS]

Sorry for the slow reply!

Thank you everyone for another eventful wheeling trip. Especially @YotaFun and @Rmtofast1 for the solid trail fix! I'm not used to having someone else working on my truck. But on a cold December day in a solid mud puddle.... I wasn't complaining! Really appreciate it.. After going through all the pics and videos theres one video you can actually see the exact moment of power steering line popping off the cooler and dumping a ton fluid hahaha. Thanks @Pacer for getting that memory.

Drive home took a little longer than normal for us. Had to stop about 4-5 times to fill my power steering fluid on the side of the highway. It started pouring out lot more on the way home. Jersey roadway design vs a leaking box is not a fair fight.. Needless to say we made it home fine right before the snow.

I called Redhead steering yesterday and told them the box was leaking from the top adjusting nut. They said no problem on warranty and have been super easy to work with so far. I mentioned trying to tighten the adjusting nut on the top before sending it back. They said that would be fine to try first and they would make notes to not void my warranty. So we tried that and the whole stud just turns with the nut. A flat head doesn't hold it in place. So, it's another 350 core charge to send back and then the time to take it all off to swap again.

Looking forward to round two of winter box swap! Hopefully the next box lasts a little longer. Love not having a garage!

We just put a bunch of videos of the carnage from the day in the google album @Catskills shared

Overall awesome time! Thanks again everyone.

Till next time!

 

[FuglyYota]

On the locker issue - I daily drove a ford ranger years ago that had a lock-rite in an 8.8 explorer rear. Put 30k+ miles on it all over Va, Md, NJ, then took it to Cali and kept it another few years. Wheeled it and drove to work, 4 hour trips between LA and Fresno, Fresno to Bay Area, didn’t care. Yes you needed to pay attention in the wet and snow. No, I don’t think it was ever unsafe.

I also have driven a spooled rig on the street/highway an hour and more to trails and daily drove around town for 3 months. Again, drives different, be careful when it’s slippery and I’d do it again.

I personally like a Detroit or similar best because you never need to worry about killing an electric solenoid or popping an air line, etc. To me it’s more predictable and it’s there when you want it. Exception being on the front of a rig that sees 4wd use on the street in awd or 4wd at speed.

Really wish I could have come to this one, looks like a lot of fun was had.

 

[caz]

I'm of the opposite camp. I had a lock-rite for about two weeks. It was loud, popped at the most inappropriate moments, and I hated it.

I swapped back to an open diff until I could afford an arb. Won't run anything but selectable now.

 

[Pacer]

I'll chime in here on the lockers....

I have run an Aussie locker in the back of my 62 forever and barely notice it on the street, it works and is quiet.

I'm just not sure how they do in the rear of an all-wheel drive situation.

Must be plenty of 80 series out there running lunch box lockers, no?

 

[StinkyPig]

I have had aussie lockers on two different rigs. One rear in an FJ40 and on a samurai front and rear. All were loud and unforgiving. I removed them from both trucks and went ARB. This was due to road manors. Honestly they worked fine. I just didn't like them on the street.
Sorry I missed the trip.

 

[SMXSHINGPUMPKINS]

I think I ran the powertrax lunchbox progressive E locker in my rangers 8.8 rear. Never had an issue with the rear axle once I added it. It clicked in turns but wasn't loud. Could barely hear it. If you gave it enough gas in a turn it would lock and tires would chirp. Fun in the snow for a rear wheel drive. Install on a ford axle is a dream compared to toyota. I had to cut part of a spline down on my ring gear and that was the hardest part.

The idea was it was supposed to only be locked when going straight and "progressive" in turns. Granted I added the locker after my moab trip and never really wheeled on it too hard. Street driving for years after that and some beach/ deep sand driving.

I think it all depends on what locker in what rig. I leave the ranger talk in the rangerstation forum where it belongs.

 

[shmukster]

Hey gang, it was great meeting up w/ everyone yesterday and despite my catastrophic breakage I had a blast!

Ended up having AAA pickup the truck today from Rausch and bring it back to my local mechanic, not cheap considering I only had basic coverage . Needless to say I’ll be upgrading to platinum coverage for 2023.

It’s not confirmed yet but based on our parking lot diagnostic it looks as though I’ve blow the rear diff, so it seems a re gear and rear grizzly locker is in my future…maybe if im a good boy Santa will bring me these for Christmas!

Not exactly sure how long its going to take me to get sorted but I don’t expect to be back on the trail again before spring unfortunately.

@Ecliff5 and I were talking on the way home and initially I was considering shipping the diffs out to Marlin Crawler for the re build but now I’m considering taking them to OTRAMM since its driving distance and I can drop/pick them up myself or at least it would be cheaper to ship them there since its closer to home.

Has anyone here had any experience w/ OTRAMM’s diff rebuild/regear/locker install services? We’ve heard good things but don’t have any first hand experience.

Any inside intel is appreciated!

Looking forward to the next one and hopefully next time it’s smoother sailing!

Trust OTRAMM. Quality work. Ryan has all the right tools and knows what he's doing. No reason to go across country for that work.

 

[shmukster]

My 40 runs a Detroit in the rear and an 80 series Elocker up front. Yes the Detroit makes for some unnerving noises at times (like backing out of my garage and turning tightly on a macadam surface). It's a very strong locker. Have had Aussie lockers in several trucks and they are all prone to making unwanted noises. To me if you can't afford anything more expensive than an Aussie and really want to wheel your vehicle they're acceptable.