Build Deer Slayer - KCJAZ's Build/Re-Build Thread

[kcjaz]

Currently here:

It won’t budge. I’ve watched a video and all the guy did was pry it out with a couple pry bars. I can’t find a position that my bars get any leverage. I may go and find a slide hammer.

 

[kcjaz]

Joy. Hit it with a little PB Blaster and figured out I could pry against the tin dust cover and it will just slide off.

Aftermarket bump stop in the way but easy to remove.

Unfortunately the new seal I have appears to be the wrong one. The old seal, seems to be in perfect shape. I did find a piece of non-magnetic hard debris that may have been the issue. I’ll post in the other thread with more detail.

 

[hoser]

If leaking out of both sides, check for clogged breather.

 

[kcjaz]

If leaking out of both sides, check for clogged breather.

Yes indeed. I had that on the rear. Didn’t think about here so thanks for the reminder.

 

[kcjaz]

I may be thinking of my 3rd gen 4runner, but the seals need to be at a certain depth, you can push them in too far and they will leak. The FSM should have the correct depth.

I’ve got the cruiser patch seal installed tool. You can’t over insert the seal using it.

 

[kcjaz]

I hope to finish up the CV reinstall and hopefully have none leaking CVs. When I drained the front differential, the oil looked pretty bad for less than a year and only about 7K miles. I told a sample and sent it to Blackstone. Got the analysis back today. Not great. Hopefully I haven’t trashed the diff too bad.

 

[kcjaz]

Continuing with my prep for Moab, at the suggestion if @bloc I went to take a UOA sample from the rear differential to compare with the UOA I did on the front. Since there was only 7200 miles on the gear oil, I wasn’t going to change the rear. Glad I looked at it, not glad what I found:

The gears (4.88s) have been in for 3+ years. During the component swap fest from my totaled rig to my current one (2 years ago), we moved the entire rear axle. I have been noticing a slight whine/whistle when coasting that started about the same we moved the axle and other stuff. Note sure it’s coming from the rear differential. Note sure what to do here other than button it up and roll on. Maybe I’ll take a short road trip and check the oil again. I don’t really want to be in the middle of the San Rafael and have my rear differential go out.

 

[kcjaz]

As I wait to get into the shop to have my diff looked at I’ve been working on a few other things:

I got the MM 3 SatGear mount for the Starlink this weekend and installed it. It required moving a load bar and drilling some holes, but the mounting system will be permanently on the rack and the MM3 has a semi quick disconnect to pull the starling off as needed.

I also figured out a way to mount Slee’s ARB Jack mount to my Dissent spare tire swing out:

I think I’ll either spray paint the brackets and the slotted square tube black or get them powder coated or something. I’m ditching the high lift.

 

[kcjaz]

Annual bath day for the cruiser. I keep the Rhinohide panels on all the time and they are doing there job keeping the paint nice and shiny. There are some scratches on the Rhino panels that would have been into the paint. The ceramic coat also holding up well and really makes washing easy. Just soap and rinse.

 

[kcjaz]

Spent the last day and a half doing miscellaneous odds and ends getting the rig ready for Moab. I ran into one hiccup in that I discovered my rear locker is not working after I had the pinion bearings replaced so back to the shop she goes. Pretty sure they crimped the copper tube inside the housing that goes to the locker. Everything else is working. I confirmed I’m getting air to the diff housing when I pull the tube off so it’s not the solenoid or compressor or a plugged line or a leak or any of that. Worst case is I have to do Moab without a rear locker. Not the end of the world, though I’ll probably want to locker at the Top of the World.

So the list of things I did is:

1. Modified and moved where I’m out the max tracks on my roof rack because of the Starlink.

2. Reinstalled all the bud built skids which includes chasing all the threads and reapplying anti seize. had several mounting bolts that actually got bent from hits. Replaced those.

3. After lots of gear oils research, for right or wrong I moved up to 85W-140 in the front diff to match what the shop and put in the rear. I did as much Internet research as I can stand on the topic there’s no definitive answer for the question “what oil should I use?” In the end I went with the recommendation of ECGS and the shop that replaced my pinion bearings. We’ll see.

4. Ground down the rear, diff plug protection, ring that the shop welded for me when they did the bearings and painted it to look pretty.

5. My Bud Built rear shock mount guards are really getting beat up. Also the shock mounts themselves are getting bent. I have fixed this before and blamed the ARB shocks for not having a sleeve in the eyelet that lack of sleeve weakens the amount pin, but I’m now convinced it’s the guard itself. That’s putting the force on the pin to bend it. I took a die grinder to the access hole so I could get a socket on the mounting bolts. If I need to if I had to replace a shock on the trail, I couldn’t have done it unless I took my grinder with me. Kind of hard to see in the picture, but the one with the socket on it shows the angle of the pen I’m gonna have to really fix this, but hopefully I can put that off till this fall.

6. My TrekBoxx second row platforms will not be here till the end of April so I made a temporary sleep platform nothing fancy, but I think it’ll work just fine for Moab.

 

[HSTexan]

Was getting the half-width cargo barrier a special order request? I'd love to be able to do something similar and utilize the passenger side to sleep when it's just me

 

[kcjaz]

Was getting the half-width cargo barrier a special order request? I'd love to be able to do something similar and utilize the passenger side to sleep when it's just me

Not sure it’s really a special request. He makes a platform for both sides. I actually ordered both. Not sure how I’m gonna use it or which one but it gives me options. He has quite a lead time though. I ordered mid February and it’d be the end of April or maybe middle of April when I get them.

I probably should’ve tried my homemade platform first before I ordered the real deal just to make sure that I’m gonna actually like sleeping in the truck what you see in the pictures about $25 worth of material and about half a day to figure out how to do it.

 

[HSTexan]

Not sure it’s really a special request. He makes a platform for both sides. I actually ordered both. Not sure how I’m gonna use it or which one but it gives me options. He has quite a lead time though. I ordered mid February and it’d be the end of April or maybe middle of April when I get them.

I probably should’ve tried my homemade platform first before I ordered the real deal just to make sure that I’m gonna actually like sleeping in the truck what you see in the pictures about $25 worth of material and about half a day to figure out how to do it.

Sorry, I didn't mean the second row platform I meant the cargo barrier ("headache rack") I only see the full width one available on his site

 

[kcjaz]

Sorry, I didn't mean the second row platform I meant the cargo barrier ("headache rack") I only see the full width one available on his site

View attachment 4114784

Yeah, he’s done it before so he has the design but it isn’t shown on his web site.

 

[kcjaz]

Just got back from a 2400 mile, 8 day, overlanding trip to Moab and back with my buddy Jerry. After Cruise Moab this year we wanted to do Rim Rocker back but parts of it were not open so we meandered back a different way and planned we just got back from. Unfortunately, I’ve got all of Kansas and the Front Range in my way before the fun stuff, do there was about 1200 miles of highway but we managed to stay on dirt in Colorado and Utah. We did about 900 miles on dirt roads and trails. Here’s the list of the major trails/dirst roads. We took a lot of back dirt roads to avoid payment and a lot of side spurs looking for camping sites that I’m not listing.

Medano Pass
Stony Pass
HWY 2
Mineral Creek
Rim Rocker
Owl Creek Pass
Tin Cup
Pony Park Road
Leadville Southeast
Birdseye Gulch
Mosquito Pass
High Park Road
West Beaver Creek Road
Beaver creek Road
North Empire Road (251)

While my temporary sleep plateform worked great for the CM trip, I replaced it with the real deal TrekBoxx platform and I must say it’s the cat’s meow.

It’s so nice having your “tent” and sleeping bag always set up. I access the sleep platform from the drivers seat. I can change clothes, give myself a dude wipe bath, put on my jammies while sitting in the drivers seat and then just dive into my sleeping bag. Once there, I can plug in my devices to charge because my Ecoflow Delta 2 is right there and the TrekBoxx drivers platform is a great night stand.

I was a bit worried that it might get a bit warm sleeping in the truck so I bought this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GJL63XQJ?tag=ihco-20

It has a little remote and it states charged forever on low fan speed. I put it up to 75% speed one night and still had 68% battery left. Recharging is USBC.

 

[kcjaz]

My general camping setup is getting dialed in. I really love the TrekBoxx set up. Sorry if I sound like a TrekBoxx fanboy but I am. For the record, I am not sponsored in any way though if @TrekboxX is reading this, I’m open to sponsorship….

The induction burner is pretty convenient. It stows in the slide out and is easier and lets messy than my propane burner/grill. Here, I’m using both.

 

[kcjaz]

Had some really awesome camp sites:

Met some CDT through hikers who were 1000 miles in on there 3000 mile hike. Talked to them for a while and gave them some snacks. One guy from Germany enjoyed a KC BrewCo Helles Larger.

We gave this guy a ride down to Silverton for his resupply. It was cool just talking to him on the way down. 22 years old and taking the time now to do the CDT. 22 year old me would have never done that and would have been judgy on those who would. I’ve learned better since. He had never wheeled before and was a little nervous going down Stony Pass. Just a totally awesome experience for me.

I highly recommend talking to through hikers when you see them. Offer them food. Particularly junk food with carbs, sugar and salt. I think Im going to plane a “trail angle” trip where I will set up camp at key spots and cook brats/burgers and whatever for hikers. I had a friend of mine do this and his strories are great.

 

[kcjaz]

I will do my post trip inspection but I don’t think I broke anything. My Ecoflow charger had a couple instances of not wanting to work due to low starter battery voltage. I had it set to 13V so it won’t pull any power from the starter and his has work since I installed it. I need to check my AGM starter and figure out why it’s going below that not. I was at 12.7 v a couple mornings.

I did do this:

I hit a tree branch going down a side path that got too narrow for a 200 looking for a camping spot. The armor saved me from a pretty good gouge down the side.

My modified rear lower shock mounts worked well and these were waiting for me my when I got back home:

 

[kcjaz]

Washed the exterior and removed the Rhinohide panels. It’s really hard to see in the pic, but there’s a crease down the side of the quarter pound actually starts on the door and can be filled on the gas compartment door without the rhino Hyde panel. This would’ve been a really deep gouge to shiny metal I think in a much sharper crease.

 

[kcjaz]

Started the King install today. Not too difficult for the rear. The only issue I had was that I initially used two thick washers between the lower shock mount and the King bushing:

This caused the shock to not be in proper alignment and the top bushings to not totally seat on the top mounting surface at full extension. The shock body was also too close to the the sway bar link bracket (there was only 1/8” clearance). I deleted the watchers and used a thin 3/4” bushing.

This made everything line up much better.

The King reservoir bracket works with my Timbren bump stop bracket without any issues. Final install on passenger side:

The BP51 all rubber bushings are not compatible with the through bolt lower mount mod. If the shock bushing doesn’t have an issuer sleeve you can’t torque the bolt very much and all the clamp force is on the rubber bushing flanges. Here is what the BP51 bushings looked like after 2400 miles (~900 of which was off road).

The Kings are a significant upgrade over the BP51s. The lower bushing not only has a metal sleeve, but it’s also about 1/4” wall thickness.

Can’t wait to see how they feel.