Ginger

[bush]

Slapped a hub in... No pics of that. Put her back on the road and went to Hawk Pride for veterans day.

My Kids first time driving. Daddy was proud.

Later that night, this happened. Was backing down from an obstacle and giving up. . Everybody was belted in and fine. Had her back on her feet again in 45 mins. No video because I was giving up.

Almost on her feet

Damage is done.

Day shot

Rode the rest of the weekend and drove her home 1.5 hours. These Land Cruisers are such impressive machines.

 

[bush]

Got her home and assessed the damage. Headlights blow fuse as soon as they are turned on, roof rack is toast ( sacrificial anyway), front fender in bad shape, couldnt open rear pass door, rear window busted due to roof crushed above it, rear hatch hinges and hatch bent pretty bad.

Its a trail rig, I bought it to beat on so I figured out a plan of attach to get it where it would mostly seal and figure out what to do next.

Knocked the paint off and backed her up beside a tree and busted out the come along and some ubolts to weld to and pull on. First pic is a few pulls into the process.

 

[bush]

Quite a few different pulls later... That will seal. I hope

Beat the rain gutter above the pass door and pulled on it a little too. Also pushed on the window channel form the inside a little with the high lift.

Window went in and has been there since.

Practically good as new.

Didnt seal but some flex seal took care of that

 

[bush]

We did 1 more club ride for Christmas then she goes under the knife for some upgrades. Good times. Blew another hub on my nenmesis ( the waterfall).

 

[White Sheep]

Quite a few different pulls later... That will seal. I hope

View attachment 2664420

Beat the rain gutter above the pass door and pulled on it a little too. Also pushed on the window channel form the inside a little with the high lift.

Window went in and has been there since.
View attachment 2664421


Practically good as new.
View attachment 2664422


Didnt seal but some flex seal took care of that

Asl long as the wits' end is good, you rig will be ok.

Hate to see it. I would cry for sure.

 

[bush]

Starting to catch up now. Hoping to increase the tech and frequency of recent posts.

By mid December i had been wheeling Ginger pretty frequently over the last 4.5 months of ownership. And wheeling her pretty hard. Lingering issues were wheel spin, busting hubs, bending LCAs, performance of the Toyos ( maybe due to wheel spin?), blowing inner axle seals in the front .

Ginger still has stock 4.10 gearing and I have been feeling like just a little more tire would get me past some of the places I had been struggling with so I opened the check book. We set a date for a shakedown ride in March and she went under the knife for a drawn out set of upgrades.

Ordered some nitro 4.88s on Black Friday. Let the check book recover and ordered some wheels and tires January/February. Also ordered chromo inner hub gears. New studs/cones/washers/nuts front and rear, rear wheel bearings, and a list of other sundries.

Tearing the knuckles down for the front center section to come out.

Quite a stack of parts... Pseudo organized.

Had to store some in the parts washer.

Noticed when I took it apart that while I had been checking my nuts... All the studs were finger tight after I took the nuts off. So maybe the phrase should be check your nuts and studs...?

 

[bush]

Center section out. Those seals were VERY leaky...

Gears look good. I am not the kind of guy that measures all the stuff when I am replacing it all. Call me whatever.

Back together. Coast and drive look good. Backlash was where i wanted it to be. Cant remember where it ended up though. I like them a little tight for all new stuff.

 

[bush]

Tires came in while this was happening. Had to store them out back while I was working on the stuff but this was an exciting day.

37x12.5x17 Yokohama Geolandar X-MT

They are meaty and aggressive. I like!!

Ginger was drooling when they showed up. She couldn't wait for new shoes.

These babies have fat lips too.

 

[bush]

Closely inspected everything trying to figure out the leaky seal issue. I have heard of the chromos causing seal leakage but when I took it apart the pass side seal was mangled. This seemed to me to be excessive relative to a seepy seal due to chromos. Then I found these. TOAST.

Looks like they were probably run dry at some point.

 

[bush]

Parts table clearing out for the front... Quite a few late evenings in the shop.

Celebrating the front being back together.

 

[bush]

No real pics of the rear. I will say that the rear hubs had not been apart in quite some time. Grease was pseudo plastic and the cones were a beast to get out. Ended up replacing them all due to the beatdown they took to get them off.

Rear pattern

 

[bush]

Then this guy showed up...

Searched a lot for beadlock wheels. Couldn't bring myself to pay stoopid cash for them and think I found a nice compromise. Talked to the Sidetracked Off Road guy a few times and he made me feel good about taking the chance. These are very nice! Cant wait to se how they hold up.


17x9, 3.75 BS, 24 bolt beadlocks. All aluminum.

9 1/8" to inner part of outer bead. 1/2" thick rings.

Inner hub is 3.75" think. That's a lot of meat.

 

[bush]

Round and round I go.

 

[bush]

Before and after

 

[bush]

Another comparison to the toyos. THis is going to be FUN!!!!

 

[bush]

Had to get Ginger a more appropriate tag. Couldn't fit "and put up wet".

 

[bush]

Flexed her out in my ditch.

Front rubbed at back of wheel well. Some chopping and banging fixed that.

Rear was also bad.

Little trimming at the rear lower corner, pie cuts into wheel well and a BFH fixed all of that.

 

[bush]

Test drive poser pics.

She is a sexy girl.

 

[bush]

Really starting to catch up now.

GSMTR is approaching fast and I have a few things I need to remedy before I go.

Tire carrier
Drawers (because Im taking my girls and need to be able to fit some more goodies and like the organization)
Fridge ( need to get some wiring in there for this baby)
Battery upgrade ( would like to be trouble free with the fridge overnight)
Add modified roof rack so I can carry all the crap I need to carry
extend a rear bumper piece to cover drivers side ( weld some rect tube to frame)



So with the 37s I knew the tire carrier was going to be wonky. There is a significant difference in backspacing versus the 16" steelies so I put one up there for giggles to see how bad it was. And it hangs way out there. I'm not comfortable wit this. Going to need to change.

Took a reference and figured I could just tilt it back toward the window and fix that ridiculus overhang.

I took it off and tried to make what I had work but it resulted in the tire hanging waay too low relative to the bumper. Going to need some steel. Stay tuned.

 

[bush]

So I started on the drawers. I built a set for my hundy and really liked the way it turned out. They are pretty light.

Used square tube for the frame and warpped/used plywood where needed. Mostly 1/2" to keep the weight down.

So I set out to do something similar but using materials I had laying around the house. Challenge accepted.