MOBY DICK gets a turn !

[cjmoon]

Your comments on the 2.0 shocks are suprising to me. Although early reports where very favorable. I'm glad I ended up with remote res 2.5 front and 2.5 rears as well. King front and radflo rear based on used avalibility.

Your whole trip sounds amazing. Glad you shared.

Have you not done the 7 pin mods and such? Even with the centers diff out 2 wheel front or back should be achievable? I'll be curious 2 see what that issue ends up being

 

[trainrech]

Looked like a lot of fun. We ran the mountain bike version of the trail a few years ago. Rose Garden was a hike-a-bike section for us.

 

[half k cruiser]

Your comments on the 2.0 shocks are suprising to me. Although early reports where very favorable. I'm glad I ended up with remote res 2.5 front and 2.5 rears as well. King front and radflo rear based on used avalibility.

Your whole trip sounds amazing. Glad you shared.

Have you not done the 7 pin mods and such? Even with the centers diff out 2 wheel front or back should be achievable? I'll be curious 2 see what that issue ends up being

Jess, I think for what they are the Fox 2.0's are a good option for the majority of folks. The only place they really don't shine is going through the boulder fields. When we came down the Rose Garden Hill I was dropping off of ledges 2+ft tall and getting fairly off camber. Through the worst sections I never once touched my armor. On the back side of that was a short section of boulder field with basketball size stuff, nothing crazy. I had several armor strikes through that section including a very hard hit on the cat protection. My theory is that the 2.0 is just not big enough to control the side to side momentum of such a large rig under these circumstances. I too will be switching to a 2.5 remote resi in the near future, just haven't decided which ones.

As for the CDL, I do have the pin 7 mod done. The problem is, if your CDL doesn't engage you can end up in a situation where all the power gets transferred to one wheel. I actually had this happen more than once on this trip. The worst one I ended up doing a one wheeled burnout on a section of rock. If the CDL doesn't engage you also lose the use of your lockers as it is one of the parameters in the locker ECU. I can hear the relay behind the dash doing its thing, so I am thinking the issue is probably the solenoid on the transfer case. I will get under there eventually and figure it out.

 

[shoresoccer13]

I have an extra solenoid for the transfer case that I had originally bought to try to get the cdl to engage on the 94 I am parting out was fairly certain that was the issue on it not locking so if that turns out to be what is wrong let me know.

 

[half k cruiser]

I have an extra solenoid for the transfer case that I had originally bought to try to get the cdl to engage on the 94 I am parting out was fairly certain that was the issue on it not locking so if that turns out to be what is wrong let me know.

Thanks buddy. Perhaps I should troubleshoot this thing before Saturdays meeting, just in case !

 

[shoresoccer13]

still in packaging

 

[half k cruiser]

I got tired of having a broken winch cable. So I stopped by Custom Splice in Lawrence today and grabbed a new main line. I decided to go with 80' instead of the 100' the winch originally came with. This will get me down one wrap right from the start, two actually by the time you have a useable amount. So I should be more into the sweet spot of the winch. To compensate I grabbed a 50' extension and a new aluminum fairlead. I was originally going to get a dark grey to be less noticeable but then I decided f%$# it lets do this right and go with safety orange !

Since the hydraulic winch doesn't put off much heat I decided to put the 10' of sheath at the front end of the line. This should allow me to move it around for friction points.

 

[half k cruiser]

Last one to cross the scales at the local elevator. Subtract out 200lbs for the driver and I'm sitting at 5800 exact with no middle or 3rd row seats and my normal around town compliment of stuff.

 

[half k cruiser]

Took the wife's 120 to HME metals the other day since its the only vehicle that currently has a roof rack. I'm not sure what the load rating is on the factory rack, but I had to put towels under the bars to keep them from collapsing. In any case I got it back to the house in one piece so I could begin working on a proper rack for the 80 series.

Some goodies from @reevesci , thanks for the very fast shipping btw !

Here's a shot of the lower portion of the rack before and after all of the bracing is burned in

The whole thing will be covered with expanded metal with the exception of the sunroof cutout

 

[half k cruiser]

A couple shots of the temporary upper perimeter. This is actually a 4 piece experimental design that allows me to adjust the forward and rear rake until I am satisfied. Once I have the look I am going for I can transfer my measurements over and make a 2 piece for the finished product.

Originally I was going with a look similar to the Gobi stealth. However, the more I think about it the more I think I might remove the rear section to allow easier loading of cargo

 

[StucknKS]

Looking great. My rack has the lip all the way around and most of the time I would be more satisfied if there was no lip in the back. As you said it would make loading it much easier. Your advantage would be your ladder though. I always had to climb up on the spare. My lip is much taller too. May be 4".

 

[half k cruiser]

Looking great. My rack has the lip all the way around and most of the time I would be more satisfied if there was no lip in the back. As you said it would make loading it much easier. Your advantage would be your ladder though. I always had to climb up on the spare. My lip is much taller too. May be 4".

I haven't settled on a final height of the top bar yet. Part of me says it really doesn't matter, all aesthetics since everything will be strapped down anyways. I do like having some rake across the front to follow the line of the windshield, once again, for aesthetic reasons. A similar thing could be done at the rear by raking the top rail somewhere between 20-30* for a smooth transition to the end of the rack.

 

[half k cruiser]

I finished up the rack the other day and did a test fit. Everything looks good, obviously being the first one I've built there are things I would change if I did it over. However I am quite happy with the overall design. It got dropped off at the powder coaters this morning. I should see it again in a week. A big thanks to @reevesci for providing technical support for my first build. The high quality mounts and corner brackets are his designs.

 

[half k cruiser]

The rack came back from powder coat today. The folks at HMC in Tonganoxie have my business from here on out. They do some really top notch work. Unfortunately I couldn't get the INNO fairing to work with it. The design of their mounts doesn't work out with my angles. I'm going to have to figure out how to make a clamp for 1" tube that I can attach or weld brackets to. Then I should be able to cut something out of acrylic or HDPE. If anyone has suggestions let me know. Preferably something that's not going to mar the powder coat.

@reevesci thought you might like to see what I threw together. Thanks again for your input.

 

[half k cruiser]

So this week we did a short trip to Arkansas with some good friends of ours. I was able to get a prototype fairing put together on Sunday to at least make the trip. Going without wasn't going to be an option given the size of boxes I was using on the roof rack. I finished it late Sunday evening and bolted it on as soon as the paint was dry. Monday morning we loaded the new rack, and drove the few miles to the Interstate to get things underway. First stop @maxtorque house to grab him, his family, and their 40th anniversary 80 series.

Its about a 5 1/2 hour drive down to NW Arkansas from Lawrence, KS. Both Ben and I had to pull over to re-strap things on our roofs and make minor adjustments. We made it in the early afternoon and met up with our friend Dustin and his father. The next morning we headed out for some light wheeling and sight seeing.

I about got stuck in the mud pit pictured above. The right side is very sticky, heavy clay. Its the second time in Arkansas that I've been thankful for my tire selection.

A couple of shots of the new rack in finished form. Also the new fairing which worked surprisingly well.

Nothing too crazy went on. The rain kept me from taking many photos and the CDL not working meant I was taking it easy and watching everyone else play. Even the rigs with working CDL and lockers were struggling on the rain slicked rocks and many of the trails were so steep as to be inaccessible without winching.

 

[half k cruiser]

After some light wheeling we headed back to camp for lunch. The rain still wasn't letting up, so an outdoor shelter was a welcome reprieve and much better than my idea of stringing a tarp between two trucks.

I've come to the conclusion roads are way different in Arkansas. What most states would consider "trails" are legitimate roadways down there. Much of it even showed up on my Garmin. What would be a "normal" road might include large moguls, water crossings, and rocky uphill climbs. Amazon Prime must have an interesting relationship to the folks living out there.

Day 3 had us packing up and heading out in the early morning. On our way back up to Lawrence we detoured to see the newly opened Johnny Morris Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium at Bass Pro Shops in Springfield, MO.

When I heard what it was going to cost to take my family of 6 through the aquarium I almost turned around and left. However, we had already told the kids we were going and I could tell they were excited. Plus, who knows when we would be back through Springfield ! So I forked over the admission while the lady behind the counter assured us it would take 3 hours to tour the new facility.

I assumed it would only take about 45 minutes to get through, but the place went on forever. In fact we didn't get out until at least the 3 hour mark and that was only because we were hungry and ready to get back on the road. I would easily spend the entry fee again. The aquarium hosts an incredible diversity of fresh water and saltwater fish, alligators, turtles, owls, birds, snakes and everything in between. The scenery and attention to detail rivals that of even the Omaha zoo and in some places its even as elaborate as what you would find at Walt Disney World.

The kids enjoyed crawling around the interactive fish tanks, petting sharks and stingrays and coloring their own fish to drop into the digital fish tank. All in all it was a good way to cap off a short fall trip. 4 hours and lots of rain later we were home and getting everyone ready to go back to school the next morning. As I write this I am in the process of drying and stowing gear. I am always thankful to be able to post pictures and writings after safe and successful trips. I am especially thankful for my friends and family, as well as our unique work schedules. All things that make these adventures possible.

 

[half k cruiser]

Oil changes just got a whole lot easier. The entire fleet is now using the same oil and filters. Curious to see if consumption changes switching to the 30 vs the 40 I had in it.

Mobil 1 claims this stuff is good for 1yr or 20,000 miles. Guess I'm good to go until this time next year.

 

[brockdeck]

Oil changes just got a whole lot easier. The entire fleet is now using the same oil and filters. Curious to see if consumption changes switching to the 30 vs the 40 I had in it. View attachment 1558960 Mobil 1 claims this stuff is good for 1yr or 20,000 miles. Guess I'm good to go until this time next year.

How did the 0W-40 fair and why did you change?

 

[half k cruiser]

How did the 0W-40 fair and why did you change?

I'm pretty sure I had 5w-40 in it before, as I was running Delo and that's fairly standard on their synthetics. I switched to the 0w-30 because its easier to have all 3 vehicles running the same weight and filters. On top of that I no longer buy into the idea that these vehicles need the heavier running weight. The factory tolerances are more than tight enough. If this motor came out of the factory today it would probably have 0w-20 on the filler cap.

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

Our hybrids use the 0-30 but everything i have studied up on says not changing regular will plug oil control rings. I tend to agree since the 1zzfe in my matrix had oil control ring drain hole issues and started burning oil. Toyota changed their recommended oil change to 10k. Dont think i will. I do 5k and change oil quarterly in our daily drivers. Toyota needs to get a vehicle past warranty not to 300k like i do.