Bought this rig earlier this year from a member here on the forum It was a solid deal, and the rig was pretty much exactly as described, no rust to speak of, almost flawless interior, body was probably 95% perfect, and so on. It was located up in Oregon, so had it shipped down to me here in Cali.
I was pleased when i got it, but however, I quickly realized it was a bit tall for what I wanted to do with the spring over and the huge shackles (5.25 inch center to center). After some conversations with Ron at Custom Cruisers in Gilroy, we decided to install shorter shackles (about 3.5"), and swap out the tires and wheel. They were 35 x 12.5 x 15, and I went with 33 x 10.5 x 15 BFG Mud T/A MK2 . The shackles and tires brought the truck down around 2-3" total. Since we were in there, also replaced the shocks with some Bilsteins, the shocks on it were completely blown, and really almost did nothing.
Fresh off the delivery truck, no mods -
New tires, wheels, shocks -
The rear bumper was basically a big ol' piece of U-channel with some shackle mounts welded on, and attached to the frame, this was removed, and again, Ron at CCFJ built me an awesome twin swing out rear bumper/tire carrier/Hi-Lift mount-
Before the Hi-Lift mount was added -
Also, the transmission started to have some, what I thought, were minor issues, it sometimes would not shift into reverse, and at one point it came out of gear on the on ramp coming home, so off to the transmission shop, where the 3rd gear / reverse clutch pack were, well, mostly gone. New pump, torque converter, etc solved that, but pretty good price on the rebuild ($2100).
Next, since I am planning some trips, a good GPS system, something massively adaptable, and I didnt want to break the bank, so after a lot of window shopping, and LOTS of reading, I chose to go with a Garmin GLO GPS receiver, that uses not only our GPS sats, but also the Glonast (Russian) sats. This is connected via bluetooth to my Ipad mounted to a "Joy Factory" carbon fiber mount. The GLO receiver sits on a no-slip pad mount on the dash.-
When its not being used, the mount folds away nicely-
I am running 2 different GPS apps, on is the Garmin Navigon app that stores all the data in the memory of the Ipad (as apposed to wierlessly updating), and when i am off the beatem path, I also run Motion X , which will just plot and save my course, so in the event I get lost, I can just backwards navigate home.
A custom drawer system is in the process of being made for the 62, hope to have that in a few weeks. Next up is to service or replace the window motors and windshield wiper motor, tune up, compression check (hoping for good news there), and some preventative maintenance. My first sort of big trip scheduled is the Overland Expo in May out in Flagstaff, AZ , a few friends and I are going to make the trek out to that, and maybe some other stops along the way.
Aside from the common maintenance, I will most likely be adding a locker next, possibly a roof rack, some lighting, both interior and exterior, a synthetic winch line, and maybe a few other small bits here and there. Going to hit Hollister Hills next weekend to do a little shakedown run.
I was pleased when i got it, but however, I quickly realized it was a bit tall for what I wanted to do with the spring over and the huge shackles (5.25 inch center to center). After some conversations with Ron at Custom Cruisers in Gilroy, we decided to install shorter shackles (about 3.5"), and swap out the tires and wheel. They were 35 x 12.5 x 15, and I went with 33 x 10.5 x 15 BFG Mud T/A MK2 . The shackles and tires brought the truck down around 2-3" total. Since we were in there, also replaced the shocks with some Bilsteins, the shocks on it were completely blown, and really almost did nothing.
Fresh off the delivery truck, no mods -
New tires, wheels, shocks -
The rear bumper was basically a big ol' piece of U-channel with some shackle mounts welded on, and attached to the frame, this was removed, and again, Ron at CCFJ built me an awesome twin swing out rear bumper/tire carrier/Hi-Lift mount-
Before the Hi-Lift mount was added -
Also, the transmission started to have some, what I thought, were minor issues, it sometimes would not shift into reverse, and at one point it came out of gear on the on ramp coming home, so off to the transmission shop, where the 3rd gear / reverse clutch pack were, well, mostly gone. New pump, torque converter, etc solved that, but pretty good price on the rebuild ($2100).
Next, since I am planning some trips, a good GPS system, something massively adaptable, and I didnt want to break the bank, so after a lot of window shopping, and LOTS of reading, I chose to go with a Garmin GLO GPS receiver, that uses not only our GPS sats, but also the Glonast (Russian) sats. This is connected via bluetooth to my Ipad mounted to a "Joy Factory" carbon fiber mount. The GLO receiver sits on a no-slip pad mount on the dash.-
When its not being used, the mount folds away nicely-
I am running 2 different GPS apps, on is the Garmin Navigon app that stores all the data in the memory of the Ipad (as apposed to wierlessly updating), and when i am off the beatem path, I also run Motion X , which will just plot and save my course, so in the event I get lost, I can just backwards navigate home.
A custom drawer system is in the process of being made for the 62, hope to have that in a few weeks. Next up is to service or replace the window motors and windshield wiper motor, tune up, compression check (hoping for good news there), and some preventative maintenance. My first sort of big trip scheduled is the Overland Expo in May out in Flagstaff, AZ , a few friends and I are going to make the trek out to that, and maybe some other stops along the way.
Aside from the common maintenance, I will most likely be adding a locker next, possibly a roof rack, some lighting, both interior and exterior, a synthetic winch line, and maybe a few other small bits here and there. Going to hit Hollister Hills next weekend to do a little shakedown run.
