While I had the rig up on the lift I went ahead and replaced all of the rubber transmission and power steering fluid hoses (using Gates 3/8" hose and 90-degree stainless steel fittings - as OEM hoses are $100+ each for some of them). They
looked OK, but we're getting ready to take the GX on a
big road trip and I don't want to chance one failing. It was a bit of a PITA, so no pics.
^Also installed some Ark fender liners. I previously had Yotaliners on the rig, and they were done by Year 2 (pretty dissapointed with the quality from a small shop like that - they might as well have been Amazon Chineseium liners). The Ark liners are super-strudy, thick rubber. We'll see how they hold up but they are way more robust than the Yotaliners or OEM liners when you hold them, and they fit great.
^Sonoran Off Road Fabrication rear LCAs. I had a torn bushing in the OEM replacement LCAs, so I just went with these. They are 1/4" wall DOM with poly bushings, and are offset for more flex. Very nice quality as well and they fit great. I could have built some myself, but I would have needed to get a tubing notcher and spend a day getting them all cut out - so in this case, pre-made was the way to go.
^Keeping the fridge cool in our camper while towing has been a challenge. Usually we run it on propane, but not infrequently it will stop working halfway through a road trip. So, we've lost full fridges of food before. We
could run it on the 12V battery only, but the 50 amp-hour camper battery is borderline for a all-day pull. So, I ran a fused set of 10-ga wires from my underhood bus bar all the way to the back of the rig, and installed an Anderson connector. The camper side then has another Anderson connector (shown here) that goes straight to the camper's battery. I'm hoping we can run the fridge on 12V with most of the power coming from the alternator in the GX. While parked, it will have two AGM batteries to draw power from (both the rig and camper have their own Odyssey group 34 batteries, for 100 amp hours total). It it depletes both batteries while stopped for some reason, we have a Noco jump back in the rig at all times.
^I went to remove the OEM trailer plug to fish the Anderson connector through, and it broke in half. Needless to say but no one had a GX-specific, plug-and-play new trailer plug in stock down here in the sticks. In order to get this fixed today, I ran down to the farm store and picked up a Hopkins plug for Ford/GM/Dodge trucks ($30), and spliced it into the OEM plug harness, so it will plug right into the GX body harness. I also had to modify the bracket to get this to fit - the paint is drying on it now, and I'll install it tomorrow.