Builds One World, One LX Build Thread (1 Viewer)

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Looks great boss! Might copy yours step by step since fridge is going in 2nd row now. will have to build something to level out fridge with the drawer but waiting on fridge dimensions to figure that out. if I modify anything, it will be to the front so that I can anchor the 2nd-row fridge drawer to it. If you have any ideas on how you’d build something for the 2nd row id love to hear your thoughts!
 
Looks great boss! Might copy yours step by step since fridge is going in 2nd row now. will have to build something to level out fridge with the drawer but waiting on fridge dimensions to figure that out. if I modify anything, it will be to the front so that I can anchor the 2nd-row fridge drawer to it. If you have any ideas on how you’d build something for the 2nd row id love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks. Much appreciated.

When you say "level out the fridge with the drawer", are you thinking that you want the top of the fridge to be flush with the top of the drawers?

Have you looked at eatSleepWoof's thread. It might help with visualizing as he just installed a fridge in the second row:


If you have some rough dimensions that you are aiming for on the fridge, I am happy to throw up some rough sketches.
 
When you say "level out the fridge with the drawer", are you thinking that you want the top of the fridge to be flush with the top of the drawers?

Have you looked at eatSleepWoof's thread. It might help with visualizing as he just installed a fridge in the second row:


If you have some rough dimensions that you are aiming for on the fridge, I am happy to throw up some rough sketches.

Yes, exactly! I will raise the rear if needed. Fridge will likely be a IceCo VL60 or VL65.

And thank you for saving me a search to find the build thread as well, I was going to look today.

Thanks again brother! Your time is very much appreciated.
 
Every summer, my wife and her friends have an expedition of some kind. Previous years, they have done the mountaineering route of Whitney, climbed half-dome, and last year hiked Rae Lakes Loop in Kings Canyon. This year, they planned a guided climb of Mt Shasta. Unfortunately, like most things, the trip got cancelled. The plus side is that we had a whole week blocked off on our calendars and nothing to do.

Turns out we were able to snag a reservation to enter Yosemite which allowed us to drive through the park over Tioga Pass, so we decided to hit the east side of the Sierras. The plan was to base ourselves near Mammoth Lakes for a couple of days and then head up to Coyote Flat for the remainder of our time.

Driving through Yosemite was amazing. They are only issuing 50 permits per day so there were very few people in the park. We drove the entire length of Tioga Pass without another car in front or behind us. Excellent!

The first day, the wife and kids wanted to chill. I wanted to do some exploring and maybe catch some trout, so I set off on my own. I decided to check out the area around Lundy Lake since I had never been up there and I heard there were some decent trails and also some decent fishing. The road in to the lake is paved, but there are all kinds of trails and FS roads in the area. There were a few people camped at the campground on the drive up the paved road, but I was all alone at the lake itself.

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Have you ever sat down on a rock next to a lake in broad daylight, cast out your line, and suddenly had the feeling that you were not alone?

Well, I did, and I looked down and saw this next to me:

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Crazy!!

After spending some time at the lake, I found a little used trail that climbed up for some great views of Mono Lake

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Every summer, my wife and her friends have an expedition of some kind. Previous years, they have done the mountaineering route of Whitney, climbed half-dome, and last year hiked Rae Lakes Loop in Kings Canyon. This year, they planned a guided climb of Mt Shasta. Unfortunately, like most things, the trip got cancelled. The plus side is that we had a whole week blocked off on our calendars and nothing to do.

Turns out we were able to snag a reservation to enter Yosemite which allowed us to drive through the park over Tioga Pass, so we decided to hit the east side of the Sierras. The plan was to base ourselves near Mammoth Lakes for a couple of days and then head up to Coyote Flat for the remainder of our time.

Driving through Yosemite was amazing. They are only issuing 50 permits per day so there were very few people in the park. We drove the entire length of Tioga Pass without another car in front or behind us. Excellent!

The first day, the wife and kids wanted to chill. I wanted to do some exploring and maybe catch some trout, so I set off on my own. I decided to check out the area around Lundy Lake since I had never been up there and I heard there were some decent trails and also some decent fishing. The road in to the lake is paved, but there are all kinds of trails and FS roads in the area. There were a few people camped at the campground on the drive up the paved road, but I was all alone at the lake itself.

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Have you ever sat down on a rock next to a lake in broad daylight, cast out your line, and suddenly had the feeling that you were not alone?

Well, I did, and I looked down and saw this next to me:

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Crazy!!

After spending some time at the lake, I found a little used trail that climbed up for some great views of Mono Lake

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Very cool, heading there this weekend to do some backpacking in Hetchy Hetchy area
 
Driving through Yosemite was amazing. They are only issuing 50 permits per day so there were very few people in the park
This must be something to see. I lived in Merced for a couple years and went up very frequently for weekend backpacking and a few longer trips. Off season etc. But to be one of 250 or less total visitors in a day would be a unique experience.
 
I headed back down 395 to do some exploring around June Lakes Loop. There are great trails all over the place. In fact, you can supposedly go all the way from Lee Vining to Bishop without hitting pavement. I haven't looked into that, but it sounds fun.

There were definitely more people around June Lake. It seemed like all the campgrounds around the loop were open and completely full. It was in the upper 80s, so there were a lot of people on the beaches. Still not as busy as it might normally be though, so it was easy to get away from the crowds.

I posted these already in the LX570 thread, but I was on a trail and found a sweet spot where I was able to get some good articulation and compression. I have been eager to determine whether I would experience any rubbing in rougher terrain than we had been on yet. While the terrain wasn't exactly difficult, there were a lot of winter washouts and a few deep moguls on all the roads I was on. This one provided a nice test of the tire fitment:

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It was great to see what the truck is capable of and I had a lot of confidence after a day of playing. This was good, because we were heading out the next day to very difficult terrain in a very remote area. I had no worries though. I love this truck!
 
Very cool, heading there this weekend to do some backpacking in Hetchy Hetchy area

As few people there were in the more popular areas, I bet there will be nobody at Hetch Hetchy.

This must be something to see. I lived in Merced for a couple years and went up very frequently for weekend backpacking and a few longer trips. Off season etc. But to be one of 250 or less total visitors in a day would be a unique experience.

Yeah, turns out the math is not that simple. Each pass is good for 7 days, which was good for us since we were able to go and come back on one pass, but any given day may have more or less people in the park. Still, it was pretty crazy. There were a few people at the popular stops and of course the Valley had the most crowds, but even the parking lot at the Village Store was maybe 1/3 full. There were stops along the river where there were no people and normally there would be hundreds.
 
Nearly two months after I moved to ICON Vector 5s with 285/75/17 KO2s and had Slee sliders installed, and weeks after the addition of a new fridge and drawer system, we finally got the opportunity to actually take a trip and field test everything. The plan was to spend a few nights up in the high country of ElDorado National Forest, run some trails, and maybe do some fishing. The primary objective though, was to just exist in the mountains. If all I did was lay in a hammock drinking beer and breathing fresh air, that was fine with me.

ElDorado NF is a vast and diverse forest spanning the low rolling hills east of the Central Valley all the way to the crest of the Sierra Nevada with 12k foot peaks. It covers approximately everything south of the middle fork of the American River and north of the Mokelumne River. There are 2 major highways traversing it west and east and none running north and south.

Despite the massive size, it can actually be kind of difficult to find solitude there. I suppose this is, in part, due to the proximity to the Bay Area, Sacramento, and the larger towns in the Central Valley. There are tons of FS roads criss-crossing the forest, and it is possible to go out and not see anybody for a couple of days, but you are almost never out of earshot of other people.

There are two exceptions to this though, and that are the two designated wilderness areas, Desolation and Mokelumne. While it doesn’t pertain to off-roading, if you are interested in being alone, either of these places would do.

Our initial plan was to do a trail called Squaw Ridge that skirts along the boundary of Mokelumne Wilderness at 9000 ft elevation and then drops down to Lower Bear River Reservoir.

It was risky because these high mountain areas are usually under snow sometimes late into June, but with the low snowfall over the winter and the unusually warm weather, we thought it might work out, but it was not to be. Snow drifts blocked the road just off the highway near Carson Pass. We couldn’t even make it 50 yards and it was pretty late in the evening. We just decided to head down the mountain a little ways and fine somewhere isolated. No Biggie.

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How does it drive with the Icons and bigger sidewall KO2s vs. the 20s and lower profile KO2s?
 
but I was on a trail and found a sweet spot where I was able to get some good articulation and compression.


😍 how much room did you have to spare? I've been wondering if my 34.8"s will fit like this
 
How does it drive with the Icons and bigger sidewall KO2s vs. the 20s and lower profile KO2s?

It’s like night and day. I hated how the 20s rode and while putting the 285/55/20s on helped, it still had issues.

Now the ride is very nice and it eats up bumps like candy. Obviously the handling is a little squishier on the highway, but that is to be expected. I keep it in sport mode all the time and is the sweet spot.

Interestingly, it doesn’t seem to roll or dive as much as with the 20s which seems paradoxical to me.

Off-road handling is even more profound. It just feels like I get the right amount of feedback and not nearly as much fatigue after a day of driving trails.
 
😍 how much room did you have to spare? I've been wondering if my 34.8"s will fit like this

The rear was fine and had room to spare, though I don’t know if the suspension had anything left to give.

The front was a different story. I didn’t get a shot of the front, but it still had some travel left. Even so, if I had to do a full lock turn as it was, I may have scraped the liner.

At least I thought so, but later in the trip up at Coyote Flat, there were some times where I thought it would scrape and didn’t.

I am at 33” so....
 
Did you have spacers on with the stock wheels?

The -25 offset of your current wheels paired with that sized tire is probably why you're perceiving better stability.
 
Warning: This is a long trip report. You have been warned....

Coyote Flat is a vast, expansive, open plateau, sitting at 10,000 ft elevation and framed approximately by the high crest of the Sierra Nevadas on the west, the Baker Creek drainage to the south, and the Coyote Creek drainage to the north. To the east is a precipitous slope, broken up only by rocky canyons, down to the Owens Valley, a full 6000 ft below. The distance, as the crow flies, from Coyote Creek to Baker Creek is 6 miles or more across the flat. This area is massive and I have been eager to go here for a long time.

And what an area it is. Truthfully, Coyote Flat is exactly why we bought our truck and have spent so much time and money to dial it in. Not Coyote Flat specifically, but the idea of Coyote Flat. I love wilderness and solitude. I spent the first 40 years of my life carrying overstuffed backpacks 20 miles into places like John Muir Wilderness. Unfortunately I have the knees to show for it. But with the right vehicle, a place like Coyote Flat provides lots of isolation and reasonably easy trail access to the John Muir Wilderness, with all of its towering peaks, alpine lakes full of trout, and wildlife galore.

In fact, Coyote Flat provides the wilderness experience without any hiking at all of you don't feel inclined. You can drive up to lakes. meadows, and nearly to the top of High Sierra summits. You can also access old mines, mountain springs, and even an old government airstrip that was used for secret research in the 40s. A sort of pre "area 51" facility. Some people say that adventurous types will land on the strip, hike a mile to do some fishing, and take off again. All before lunch.

For most of us though, the only options in are four wheels (or two wheels, or two feet). The drive in is long. There are steep, dusty switchbacks, rocky canyons, and open terrain. Honestly, it is a perfect match for the 200 series. Some blowhards will tell you that it isn't hard and they made it up in their mother's 1972 Cadillac DeVille. It is true that you might see a stock F150 or Grand Cherokee up there. But while we were up there, we encountered a guy in an old 4runner with 37 inch M/T tires who had ripped a hole in his sidewall. He was part of a group that had split up because two Jeeps in their original party had to abandon the trip because they had chosen the wrong line and broken something. Frankly, I am not sure what you would do if you had issues and couldn't affect a field repair up there.

One thing is true. If you go up in P rated tires, you are in for a long day. This trail eats tires for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert.

Still, its a trail that has a little bit of everything and that's what makes it fun. It is not rack crawling, but there are plenty of rock gardens. There are a couple of water crossings. There are some sandy sections. A few muddy sections, and some long, straight, flat sections that are clear enough to get a good head of steam on. That is until you see that hidden, sharp, volcanic rock at the last minute...

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As I mentioned, Coyote Flat is a massive area. Once you get to the flat proper, there are essentially endless options for exploring and camping. There is the main road, Coyote Valley Rd, but then there are secondary roads going all over. Some go to old mining claims, some go further into the mountains to alpine lakes, and some just go to nice campsites.

There are no developed campgrounds up here, but there are enough dispersed camping sites that hundreds of people could be camping up here and you would never know it.

Our destination was Baker Creek which is at the southern end of the flat and up in the wilderness a bit. There is an intersection at some point where you make a left to cross the flat. After driving for what seems like eternity on the flat, you encounter a few other intersections, and eventually start climbing into the forested mountainside to the south and west of the flat. The trail to Baker Creek is more difficult terrain than the main road, and a few sections require careful selection of your lines. A spotter really helps in some places. But the reward is an amazing area for camping. There are trails that lead right into the John Muir Wilderness and some great fishing at Baker Lake and Thunder and Lightning Lake. Baker Creek flows year round and provides a great water source. It is very clean but still requires filtration.

Not a bad neighborhood:

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We saw dozens of shooting stars at night. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera and tripod. I learned my lesson though, because on the second night, we got an incredible view of Saturn with the rings clearly visible with the naked eye. Ugh!

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Sunrise coming up over the Baker Creek drainage. You can see the massive meadow to the right:

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