Featured 100: Travis351

[Travis351]

Hi all,

It is tough to follow the many great rigs that have been built on this forum, but to keep the Featured 100 dream alive and pay tribute to those who preceded me, thus making my build possible, here is a rig in progress way down south at the lofty elevation of 8’ above sea level.

Procurement:

About a year before finding ih8mud.com, I blindly shopped for an 80 series for the first half of 2005 with a budget of 16k. I drove a bunch of them and loved them all, but I was holding out for one with at least a rear locker.

I met a used car dealer advertising on eBay from the mainland that showed me a few 80’s and kept up searching for a locked 80. One day in April of 05, he calls with a 1999 UZJ100 with 80,000 miles and a price tag of $24,000. It belonged to a doctor’s wife and had the rear locker and all the records. So I drove my modded out 1988 YJ Sahara with a POS aftermarket fuel injection kit that never worked right. (Cold starts required popping the hood and working the vacuum with my thumb over a hose, o2 sensors were on switches…don’t ask) To my benefit, the owner of that particular dealership told my salesman not to let me leave with that Jeep again. Lucky me! I left that place with a ridiculously clean 100 for a mere 16k back in April 2005 and that even included the disposal of the Heep!

 

[Travis351]

Primary Purpose:

I bought the truck primarily to deliver Magazines, more specifically 1200lbs. of magazines to 200 distribution points throughout the Florida Keys. For the first 2 years I loaded that thing until it rested on its bump stops and trudged up and down the Keys with my paper payload. It was perfect for this job as long as I missed the speed bumps and never had to swerve to miss something.

Secondary Purpose:

Get ready for another trip to Moab in a Cruiser instead of a Jeep and write off most of the modifications along the way.

Repairs:

I blew out the $1500 brake booster, not once, but twice in the same month early in 2006 around 120k. I did not loose my brakes like some of the others that went through this failure; I simply had the red BRAKE light illuminated and took it to the dealer. The install and quality of the first replacement was sub par and it only lasted about 260 miles. The second replacement has been holding strong and is on a “parts for life program” so I hope to never have to buy another one of those.

Front passenger side oxygen sensor needed replaced around 160k.

Everything else has been PM.

Mods:

The TJM-T3 bumper came first. I was dining at a local outside eatery and happened to notice a 500 series BMW crash into my front bumper. “Crash,” apologized and told me to send him an estimate. I promptly got an estimate for the repair and sent the driver a bill for $482.50 and sent that along with a little extra cash on over to Sleeoffroad for the bumper. Install was easily done in the driveway.

 

[Travis351]

Then I lucked into one of Mel’s Car Top Tents which turned into my home for a few months. No more 5 hour commute to work. Affordable housing in the Keys is tough to come by, but my little “penthouse” served me well.

 

[Travis351]

BFG 285/75/16 tires came next. No big deal here. Buy 3 get one free deal from 4wheel parts, installed at a truck stop on the way to a trip to Morris Mountain in Alabama for 30 bucks. Cheapest set of 33” tires I ever bought! 35,000 miles on them so far and they still look new. I couldn’t be happier with them.

 

[Travis351]

Enter Snook’s Featured write up and the first issue of Overland Journal. Now I had to have on board water so I could hose down the news racks that contained the very magazines that I was paid to deliver. It also came in very handy on many camping trips and rinses after backing too deep into the saltwater launching boats. It also is good for refilling water bottles on the fly and scareing away stupid tailgaters.

I installed a removable 21 gallon water tank from eBay behind the front row of seats with a Surflow washdown pump from West Marine. No heater yet, but it gets hot enough for a shower if you park the truck in the sun in my neck of the woods.

 

[Travis351]

Finally, I laid out the plastic for the lift. I chose the Heavy kit from Slee. What a difference it made in payload. No more hitting bump stops and swaying around the highway like a smuggler. After drooling over bull’s build thread for a year, I was able to install the kit practically in my sleep. Installing the lift myself, was a savings of $880. Thanks again! Buy your silver star guys, this forum is fantastic.

 

[Travis351]

Short on Cash and ready for a trial ride, we welded up a set of sliders for a little more confidence out on the trail.

 

[Travis351]

This is a photo from my second trip to Big Cypress State Park, one of the only ORV areas in South FL. Not challenging at all, but pretty remote for South FL.

 

[Travis351]

Shakedown mission with fellow mudder Soberman001 in his 2004 after both of us lifted. Notice all of the weeds that came out of the chassis. We got into deeper water than we expected out there and it turned out that the UZJ100 is a great lawnmower in the everglades.

 

[Travis351]

MorrisMountain. I found out that the Hundy is quite the off road sleeper car in the southeast. Everyone laughs at you for even thinking of driving it off pavement and it has consistently out performed more modded rigs with much less drama.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2I_ueG1_KWs

 

[spressomon]

Enter Snook’s Featured write up and the first issue of Overland Journal. Now I had to have on board water so I could hose down the news racks that contained the very magazines that I was paid to deliver. It also came in very handy on many camping trips and rinses after backing too deep into the saltwater launching boats.

I installed a removable 21 gallon water tank behind the front row of seats with a Surflow washdown pump from West Marine. No heater yet, but it gets hot enough for a shower if you park the truck in the sun in my neck of the woods.

I also have a '99...however your seat back pockets are much nicer. Mine are the goofy netting material that snags...weird two '99's with different looking front seats!

Nice write up...I like your described use of your RTT!

 

[Travis351]

I think that is all that I have done so far.

Future plans are:

Install Dual Batteries
Add Extra 12 volt circuit
Engel Fridge
Mount a smaller water tank somewhere and move the pump.
Better CB antenna mount in the rear.
Find a woman that wants to tag along.
Cruise Moab

Again, thanks to all of the other Featured 100's and this forum, because without it, I would still be riding stock. I might have a little more money in the bank, but I am told that I can't take it with me.

 

[Travis351]

I also have a '99...however your seat back pockets are much nicer. Mine are the goofy netting material that snags...weird two '99's with different looking front seats!

Nice write up...I like your described use of your RTT!

Funny you mentioned that, I noticed your netted ones and was a little jealous. Of course I am more jealous of the other things you added to your rig. IE: Back bumper, heat exchanger, winch...etc, etc. I always thought mine were too tight, but as time goes by, that is probably a good thing.

I wasn't kidding about the tent being home for a while. The steelership put the kybosh on that one and I finally found a house to call base camp. Good news was that the tent was paid for by Toyota after they trashed it. Mel sent me some new hinges and a cover for free. I re-attached the ladder and it is as good as new.

 

[hoser]

The seat pockets aren't like the LX either. Do you think your seats were reupholstered? Nice write-up.

 

[Travis351]

The seat pockets aren't like the LX either. Do you think your seats were reupholstered? Nice write-up.

I wish I could tell you that I hated the mesh ones and sewed those bad boys right in there myself, but I can't! I am now going to be known as the guy with the nice front row seat pockets.

The seats look like the originals to me. A woman drove this thing all by herself for its first 80k. All of the seats looked brand new except for the driver seat. She also did all the maintenance at the dealer and there is nothing on those reports about swapping seats.

 

[hoser]

I will guess your LC originally came with cloth seats and then were reupholstered in leather by the dealer. I compared your center headreast and the bottom seams are sewed differently than the LX as well. Not evidence in itself but just what I noticed. Do you have pictures of the door panels?

 

[Travis351]

I found a couple more photos to share.

The first one is a lousy sunset shot taken from my office heading north out of Big Pine Key on the Bahia Honda Bridge.

The Second is one of my favorite weekly stops.

The third one is another shot for those who really want a good look at my custom, one of a kind, seat-back pockets.

 

[Travis351]

I will guess your LC originally came with cloth seats and then were reupholstered in leather by the dealer. I compared your center headreast and the bottom seams are sewed differently than the LX as well. Not evidence in itself but just what I noticed. Do you have pictures of the door panels?

Check above...I have nothing better than that in stock, but could take some tomorrow in the daylight.

 

[hoser]

Ah, luv the Keys. It's like traveling to a different country but really, you're still in the US. No need for door panel pics. No biggee.

 

[SINCITY100]

It looks like you are well on your way to Cruiser Heaven.. keep up the great work !!

Terrific feature Travis, I think you and your 100 were made for each other, but
just remember that addictions can be very expensive

I`m looking forward to seeing your future mods !