Builds Mike's 1978 FJ40 Turbo Diesel Refit Project and Cross Country Road Trip!

[toddm]

Thanks for the inspiration!

I like how you mounted the Evaporator under the glove box. I had been planning on tilting mine from right to left instead of front to back. I need to think about that some more.

 

[Godfather90]

Here's a quick update as not much has really changed on the truck.

A pic by a bonfire:

And the latest project that's taking most of my tinker time:

After a few months i was able to do this:

Its a work in progress but its proven useful so far. Here's a quick drone video from out last outing:



Thanks,

Mike

 

[Godfather90]

Here's a few pics from cruiser summit last weekend:

And a video loading the truck up:




And another of the tilt cab:




Thanks,

Mike

 

[Rockymtnreaper]

MIKE! What!!! This is so sick!

 

[Godfather90]

Not much has changed but I've been giving the truck its share of abuse.


Here's some pics from the past weekend:

Mike

 

[Godfather90]

Its been a while... time fly's that's for sure! Here's another brief update.

I've been wheeling the poor thing a whole bunch. At KOH this year I put it on its side being dumb:

Winched it back to its self and got it back over. That was fun to finally use the old 8274:

Somehow this was the only damage. Besides the bruised ego that is! It was sitting on the front tube fender and this corner:

It was very inconvenient to get to all my stuff when the thing was on its side. I guess there are some downfalls to having that tailgate toolbox and all that back there!


My favorite body guy got the welder out and worked some metal magic for me:

Sucks that it looks so much better than the other side now... he always does this to me!

 

[Godfather90]

After that I took the top off and had to use it to do truck stuff while I was working on the Volvo. Now that's a driveline:

After a few topless wheeling trips I found the motivation to finally replace the sliders with some metal bends I had laying around for about 8 years:

This water must have been in there a long time! haha

 

[Godfather90]

I landed a bunch of engineering work in NY so decided to work on the Volvo for a few weeks before loading up the rig up for another epic cross country road trip!

My parents surprised my last minute and decided to tag along. We took 6 weeks this time to make the trip, so here are some highlights.

First stop, Saguaro NP for a few days. We closed the season out there, the park closed the week after we left:

Loved it there! It was beautiful, and there was barely anyone there.

 

[Godfather90]

Payed a little visit to the Pima Air and Space museum (also epic):

Got to check out the big bomb at the Titan Missile Museum (very cool):

Its wild having 120 gallons of fuel but I found a cheap station to the first partial fill just over 12mpg:

Next stop Chiricahua National Monument (spectacular!):

 

[Godfather90]

From our campground there we piled in the cruiser and made our way to Tombstone:

It was pretty gimmicky but still fun. Had a few pints at Big Nose Kates:

Momma gave me the royal treatment all the way across country. It's nice having the whole house while under way!

 

[mattressking]

Hahaha is that your dad 'spotting' you on its side?

 

[Godfather90]

The rig is equipped with an early hill detection system, not unlike the previous powertrain in my cruiser!

Feels like your hauling ass at the helm though!

We stopped at the Catwalk Recreation Area:

Grabbed a good dinner and a few pints before staying the night in Silver City:

 

[Godfather90]

Next we went to City of Rocks in New Mexico which was awesome:

Pulled the Cruiser out and went to the hot springs. Back in time for the sunset:

You can see the Volvo in the background:

 

[Godfather90]

Hahaha is that your dad 'spotting' you on its side?

Haha that's my buddy Jason, he orchestrated the whole incident!

Well its a long story but Tequila had a role as well...

 

[Godfather90]

I think this is one of my favorite campgrounds. Highly recommended!

My mum brought a UV flashlight and these critters were lit up everywhere!

 

[Godfather90]

We took a day trip to see the cliff dwellings:

Hiked to the hot springs there:

Loaded up and off we went back to camp.

There was this giant owl right next to the RV. You can see it in the picture barely. It was hooting all night!

 

[Godfather90]

We loaded up again and headed to White Sands NP:

We camped on Raptor lake there by the park.

 

[Godfather90]

White Sands was awesome .

 

[Godfather90]

Next we loaded up and headed to Alamogordo.

Went to see the big nut:

After that we blasted up the hill and spent a bit of time in Cloudcroft and had a few pints up there.

After that we blasted off to another cool campground at Bottomless Lake:

We took a day trip to Mescalero Sand Dunes:

 

[Godfather90]

We took another day trip to Roswell: