Build LX450: Baja surf trip build

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Edit: I just read your post more carefully. It’s cheaper than regearing the diffs! Plus you get the chance to put in low range gears.

I went to 35 inch tires from 33s and never regeared the axles. I drive a ton in the mountains and the truck felt terrible climbing steep hills at altitude, stuck in the right lane the the semis. These underdrive gears at like installing 4.56 gears in the diffs. Friends have noticed better mileage since the engine is running closer to its best rpm more frequently
 
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so it's kind of an either-or thing not a both? just wondering if it has a bigger effect on say, transmission temps or something.

I definitely like the 3:1 gear change and it's in my grand plan... just had planned on 4.88's or 5.29's in the diffs...
 
You can only go to the equivalent of 4.56 gears if you regear the tase. If that works and you are already opening up the tcase seams easier to add in under drive gears
 
Well I have been working every free moment to get the cruiser ready. Had no time to update this thread. Barely got the truck together but heading down with a 4 inch lift with delta & slee parts, 35s, and a regeared tcase! Thanks so much to all the friends and vendors who helped pull this off. Especially @Shoredreamer !!!

My buddy is riding his bike with my truck as support vehicle. This is how it is riding with every inch crammed with camping, surf, and spear fishing gear

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DanMedeiros said:
Well I have been working every free moment to get the cruiser ready. Had no time to update this thread. Barely got the truck together but heading down with a 4 inch lift with delta & slee parts, 35s, and a regeared tcase! Thanks so much to all the friends and vendors who helped pull this off. Especially @Shoredreamer !!!

My buddy is riding his bike with my truck as support vehicle. This is how it is riding with every inch crammed with camping, surf, and spear fishing gear

View attachment 1910246
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Awesome, have a blast!
 
DanMedeiros said:
Well I have been working every free moment to get the cruiser ready. Had no time to update this thread. Barely got the truck together but heading down with a 4 inch lift with delta & slee parts, 35s, and a regeared tcase! Thanks so much to all the friends and vendors who helped pull this off. Especially @Shoredreamer !!!

My buddy is riding his bike with my truck as support vehicle. This is how it is riding with every inch crammed with camping, surf, and spear fishing gear

View attachment 1910246
Click to expand...

With all the boards on top will you be traveling only the Pacific side?
 
Yewww!! Hell yeah man. Have a great time. Wishing you many cervezas, tacos de pescados, and nice clean lines all the way to the horizon!!
 
Aww, the truck is all grown up now and running good haha. Have a blast Dan, wish I could have made it. Think Tom is gonna be hurting by the time he’s back home.
 
DanMedeiros said:
We plan on driving down the sea of Cortez side and crossing over off road
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If you want to cross on an exciting route do Pole Line Road

Picture from a couple weeks back

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I prefer the Cortez route...even as a lifelong surfer ha. I'm sure you already have heard, afer hurricane Rosa, most the bridges are wiped out. All require bypasses. All part of the adventure though. Just plan on that route taking a couple hours longer than you've anticipated. Wife and I were planning on heading down for a 6 day trip next week...
 
Hi everyone,

Just got back from Baja. We had an amazing time even if we did get almost completely skunked on surf. We did however crush it on the spear fishing! So happy with how dialed the truck was compared to the state of things on my first trip two years ago. Here are a few thoughts on the mods I did prior to the trip and how they worked out.

4-inch lift using Delta/dobinson/ slee compenents.

I put together a pretty random lift. I used the @sleeoffroad heavy and heavy progressive springs, Dobinson upper adjustable arms, OME heavy duty lower rear arms, and @Delta VS panhard bracket and 3-inch radius arms. I also found a custom DC driveshaft in the classifieds for only $350. I kept the same shocks which are 3 inch icon 2.0s. I also used 1-inch wheel spacers for a wider stance

All in all this setup rocked! Before this lift I had .2 degrees caster which made steering feel very flighty. It's hard to say what made the difference since I changed so many things at once but overall the truck feel so much more planted and stable with this setup and 315/75/16 tires. For those of you that have driven it, Hwy 1 in Baja is sketchy as hell with narrow lanes, no shoulders, and seemingly suicidal truckers meeting you with just a couple of inches to spare. That and a grave marker/memorial at every possible curve or trouble spot.

Really impressed with the @Delta VS radius arms. I imagine having new OEM rubber bushings everywhere also helped a lot. The one thing I would do differently is buy adjustable upper rears arms that can be adjusted on the truck (4x overland). Installing these arms was a nightmare!!! It would have been so much simpler to just get them on the truck then have the ability to fine tune.

I also am now craving upgraded shocks. My shocks from @DylanICON are pretty amazing for 2.0 shock bodies but when your hammering washboard and whoops all day trying to keep up with a friend on a moto they fade real quick. When I can afford it and not get murdured by the 👸 def need to upgrade to 2.5s with remote reservoir. Prob get the adjustable icons since the OME BP-51s do not have a longer version like icon does.

Installing the lift was a bitch and would not have happened without advice from @Shoredreamer and @Hyup for some insanely sketchy hi-lift shenanigans to droop my suspension enough to install the rear springs. As it wasI managed to catch laryngitis wrestling all this in in the rain and couldn't really talk the entire trip.

Here are the numbers post alignment and a poser shot of the truck with the new lift on:

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On my first trip my stereo was complete s*** and had engine noise coming through the speakers ar hwy speeds. I also rattled my exhaust offf the frame because I was a noob and never aired down. This trip both issues where massively improved. This summer i big a big/expensive build out of the @NLXTACY quarter panel mount that includes a vial compressor with air chucks on front and rear bumper, a 5 channel amp for bumping base, and solar controller for topping off the Aux Battery. This made the truck so much more livable. That panel is genius! I hope @NLXTACY makes one for the drivers side too.

This summer I also installed @LandCruiserPhil gull wings. These to me are essential gear. Made grabbing gear that i used every day super simple without having to deal with my heavy rear bumper. It's also a convent place to hang LED camping lanterns from

Below are some quick iPhone pics from the truck. Still working on processing all of my real photos from my DSLR. Relax haters... No surf pics will be forthcoming :moon:

Below is a quick shot of San Filipe. FYI Driving Hwy 5 south is WAAAY less hectic than the pacific side. Everyone warned me about the Hwy being washed out. It Was, but the diversion were super easy in a cruiser. I never once locked the center diff :meh:

San Filipe .webp
 
Here is a shot of my buddy @tompreston getting his clutch cable repaired. Major props to Tom on this trip. He rode his DR650 the entire way in very cold/rainy conditions. This was the only mishap. Tom being a marine engineer who works on enormous marine diesels, certainly was capable of fixing this himself, but the local mechanic had the one tiny cable clamp that made it possible. The mechanic seemed pretty grateful for the popup shade from my alucab shadow awning and was even more grateful for cold drinks from the fridge. Though unfortunately drank our last cold mixer (fanta).

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Didn't do that well on the surf but the spear fishing was amazing. Basically any time I wanted lunch it took more time to put on my gear than to actually catch it on the reef. Here is our haul after an hour in the water.

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The orange guys are Garibaldis and are the state fish of CA (protected but legal in Baja) So tasty grille up whole

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Shoredreamer said:
Aww, the truck is all grown up now and running good haha. Have a blast Dan, wish I could have made it. Think Tom is gonna be hurting by the time he’s back home.
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This comment regarding Tom was prescient, was cold a $%^# down there!
 
No, I was deathly ill. I crossed the boarder with a fever of 101 and had laryngitis. I wasn't healthy enough to do do anything but drive and sleep till we reached the pacific side. Supposedly the fishing is even better along the sea of cortez
 
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