Builds Less is More - Frank, the ugly 80.

[AussieHJCruza]

OME shocks are made by Monroe here in Adelaide, South Australia. I think the OMEs are up-specced a bit though.

 

[BlueCruiser84]

Check out the battery cables from @Fourrunner. These things are beefy and the terminals are great. I have my winch and Slee headlight harness wired straight to the battery. I don't plan to add anything else. The Voltage guage in the cab reads a bit higher and I don't get drops in it with the turn signals or headlights anymore.

First picture: Positive to starter, Negative to block, and negative to ground.

Second picture: Firewall to head ground strap.

Third picture: Transfer case to Body ground strap.

 

[BlueCruiser84]

OME shocks are made by Monroe here in Adelaide, South Australia. I think the OMEs are up-specced a bit though.

I thought I had read that somewhere. The shocks I used feel a little light for these springs, but it was either spend $80 on shocks or spend $250. Since I'm still figuring things out I opted for the former.

 

[dogfishlake]

X2 on the nice shop. I have been trying to build a shop of my own, but slow going. Got a free small pole barn (tear down), and am trying to finish it and make a shop, it's coming along but lots to go. A lift would be awesome. Great truck, anything can be fixed and it has the right stuff to start with. Good luck!

 

[BlueCruiser84]

A couple shots of the Trail Gear HD steering. Nothing too exciting, but at $240 shipped for four new ends, a beefy tie rod and drag link to replace my bent ones, and a steering stabilizer I couldn't say no. We'll see how long the ends last.

The kit went on easily, but as someone else pointed out recently the kit does not come with the hardware to mount the frame side end of the stabilizer. I knocked the tapered pin out of one end of the OEM stabilizer, cut the ball off, and welded it to a bolt to make the mount for the frame side - obviously I forgot to take pictures of the building process.

 

[BlueCruiser84]

I'm surprised more people don't cut the cross member out of these things. I always felt like the 80 with the rear crossmember, the spare tire and a hitch looked like it was wearing a diaper.

 

[BlueCruiser84]

Snip Snip.

 

[BlueCruiser84]

for the time being I flipped the hitch upside down and after a little massage with a cutoff wheel bolted it in to hold things together while I figure out what I actually want to do back here.

As you can see with the trailer hitch bolted into the appropriate set of holes it sticks out a bit. Good for standing on, but not pleasing to me aesthetically. It's doing the job of keeping things square however and looks much better (to me) than the huge dangle-down that was back there before.

I think I'll end up doing something like this (photo taken from the Rickashay build) with a receiver in the center:

 

[BlueCruiser84]

Thats about where I'm at for now. Still fixing things that break and catching up on maintenance. It's got a weird seat of the pants / whole vehicle shake (nothing violent, just irritating) that comes and goes while cruising down the highway. Maybe tires? s***ty shocks?

I also noticed during my trip that after cruising down the interstate for a couple hours and shutting off the vehicle to get lunch it took a while to restart. By this I mean it cranked a second or two longer than normal. Maybe something electrical getting hot? or a clogged evap system? The fuel tank makes a sucking noise when the cap is removed.

This is her all loaded down for a climbing/camping/bachelor party trip. Her longest drive to date - about 530 miles.

 

[FZJ80 in KC]

You're about ready for a 4x4 Labs rear bumper now!

 

[BlueCruiser84]

I am! but I'm not about to sink a quarter of what I paid for this thing into a bumper!!

 

[mod5csi]

Can you tell us anything about the roof rack? That looks like what I have been wanting for a rack. I don't need a bunch of lights, just a flat surface to hold down our extra camping gear for 6 people.

 

[BlueCruiser84]

I didn't build it. I picked it up from @scottryana . Here is his build thread. Starting at post #123 LX450 where to start!

It's super light. I put it on and off by myself quite a few times because in general I think roofracks are ugly and noisy, but necessary sometimes. It's so noisy that I don't even like having the sunroof down when it's on. The feet are gamiviti and it's made out of aluminum and it beats the piss out of a 200 lb steel basket . That's about all I can tell you.

 

[scottryana]

@mod5csi I had the rack built by a guy in Austin Texas that does a lot of aluminum work for offshore boats. It is a very noisy rack and I found the best way to quiet it down was with those yakima mini wings, but they don't quite fit. The rack is very light weight and it did survive having a pole fall on top of it from when a dog ran out in front of the truck. I know it was bent when I gave it to @BlueCruiser84 I hope he doesn't mind since it was free. haha. I liked the rack and would still have it on my truck if it wasn't for the fact when I was moving across the country the property manager told me the parking garage was 7'6" for my new place when the reality was it was 6'6" and even with a very low rack I still would not fit.

 

[duggy]

Austin or Houston?

 

[FZJ80 in KC]

I am! but I'm not about to sink a quarter of what I paid for this thing into a bumper!!

No kidding...my 4x4 Labs rear doubled the value of my truck...

 

[westafari]

This is her all loaded down for a climbing/camping/bachelor party trip. Her longest drive to date - about 530 miles.

The 80 is looking good with crash pad on the roof! I grew up in Waynesboro and live in Roanoke now, I'm up in Augusta County fairly often if you want to get up for some wheeling or cragging let me know...

 

[mod5csi]

I didn't build it. I picked it up from @scottryana . Here is his build thread. Starting at post #123 LX450 where to start!

It's super light. I put it on and off by myself quite a few times because in general I think roofracks are ugly and noisy, but necessary sometimes. It's so noisy that I don't even like having the sunroof down when it's on. The feet are gamiviti and it's made out of aluminum and it beats the piss out of a 200 lb steel basket . That's about all I can tell you.

Right on. I remember seeing his Come Get My Rack Free post. Glad it's getting used.

I'm local to Gamiviti, I will probably just go with that.

Still, aluminum would be nice.

 

[scottryana]

Houston, sorry.

Austin or Houston?

 

[BlueCruiser84]

@mod5csi I had the rack built by a guy in Austin Texas that does a lot of aluminum work for offshore boats. It is a very noisy rack and I found the best way to quiet it down was with those yakima mini wings, but they don't quite fit. The rack is very light weight and it did survive having a pole fall on top of it from when a dog ran out in front of the truck. I know it was bent when I gave it to @BlueCruiser84 I hope he doesn't mind since it was free. haha. I liked the rack and would still have it on my truck if it wasn't for the fact when I was moving across the country the property manager told me the parking garage was 7'6" for my new place when the reality was it was 6'6" and even with a very low rack I still would not fit.

I had a guy weld it back together. I was wondering how you managed to break it. For the noise I wrapped a bungee cord around the front loop along with those wing things. Works ok, but I would still rather have it off when I'm not using it.