SurfPig does Dakar! Part One... (1 Viewer)

[Pighead]

"Pighead!, this is SurfPig! I'm getting off work early today! How 'bout I come over and we put those front springs on? It's not raining"...I look at the sky, I look at the phone..."Who's calling?" I said...
But SurfPig pulls up in my (poor excuse for a) driveway, with all his spring stuff and some beer and we get to work. Then it starts raining. We've got jackstands aplenty and two sets of tools, we get things unbolted pretty quick. But that driver side springpin musta took us an hour to pull out. And we had every big tool we owned spread out under his Pig; 2 pickle forks, my 4 foot prybar, couple of sledges, chisels, everything but the 12 gauge. And we are really getting wet. It's cold, too.
Finally get the old spring off, new Dakar goes on pretty easy. Then we notice that the U-bolt flip-kit is not going to fit with the old bump-stop snubber there where the factory put it..."I'm all out of cut-off wheels" I sez to SurfPig "used the last one trimming fenders after the Pigrun" ..."Aargh!" sez SurfPig..."Let's just put it back together enough so I can drive home" "(Whew)" I say quietly to myself. I was really wet and really cold, SurfPig was wetter and colder. It being my garage, I was able to change outa my wet clothes once or twice. SurfPig was literally dripping wet. But we had one of his new Dakars on the driver side secure with stock U-bolts.
"Maybe this weekend we can finish it up..." he says brightly.
So, he's coming back over in a couple hours, it's not raining, yet, we just might get it done.

 

[Pighead]

couple more pics...

 

[surfpig]

Thanks, Pighead, I had blocked the whole incident out... I took out the angle grinder Wednesday night and fixed things, after emailing back and forth with Steve-O from Man-a-Fre, FJ55 axle is a leetle different from a 40. Today is sunny (no pea soup fog today!) no hypothermia... might even be enjoyable, somewhat.

Oh, they're "Offroad Australia" springs, made by Belton, same manufacturers of the Dakars. FJ Fitty-Five specific.

Thanks for takin' the pics!

nial

 

[Lucy_FJ55]

I was just about to ask if they were really Dakars or what?!

So is this a 2" or 3" kit? Looks fairly complete. What are your thoughts about the quality/construction? Looks good to me from the pics. Always glad to see pig specific stuff-thanks for sharing. Did you order from OZ directly or a U.S. rep?

That reminds me, I have to go pull an engine from my buddy's rolled 40, ASAP, it is sitting in his driveway under about a foot of snow. ARRGHH!

 

[surfpig]

About 2 1/2", they say, I can go 3 if I put the extended shackles back on. Got them from Prarie Dog Parts in Alberta, hand-delivered at Rubithon this past June. Very nice, as far as I can tell.

nial

 

[Pighead]

SurfPig does DollyParton Part B...

Oh, It's a beautiful day in my neighborhood...
A loverly day for a neighbor...
to work on his Pig, In my driveway...
SurfPig shows up tenish...brought the beer.
We had his Pig chocked and jackstanded before the second beer was open.
Learned how to make a two-arm puller into a two-arm pusher and had that spring-pin out in 30 minutes. Half the time it took for us to do it sober!!!
Bolted that Belton up before noon. Passenger side U-bolt flip worked fine.
Extra bonus: unnecesarry wheel spacers discovered and discarded...(Hey, SurfPig what're these?)
He drove it around the block. Pronounced us good. There was great rejoicing.

 

[Pighead]

So, did we fix that lean?
And, you don't want to come up against these two beasts, even in a well-lit alley...

 

[surfpig]

Yes that was kinda fun.
Things went much easier than Monday, several factors were in play: a) sunny, beautiful weather (Monday, shoulda been in my garage, but today HAD to be outdoors. b) done it before, better prepared. c) no deadlines, no pressure. 5) Did we mention the rain?
Tools were laid out like a surgeon's table. We got right to work, got it done, had time to fart around, cleaned up, looked around, said, "Thats it? Alrighty then, buh bye".
And look, they're "Quality Approved (with a real official check mark)"!
Didn't really test drive 'em yet, only a few blocks home from Mr. Pigheads house, but I got a kickass 1/4 mile 4x4 alleyway to negotiate, as well as the challenging 5" step into my garage (I had to do some rockpiling so I could park my Jeep in there...). Tomorrow I'll know better, I'll be able to drive it around a bit. First impressions: nice ride, REAL firm. Maybe 2 bags of sand firm (i've had the rears on for about 6 months now, nice under a load, pretty damn bouncy empty. These are mediums, they sell the soft/medium/stiff option, and since most of what I do is pretty lightweight, I thought mediums would do, mostly just family roadtrips, light to medium 4-wheeling, and a fair amount of utility use. Trying to get that comfort superiority over the 80 series! So, we'll see. It handles nicer, but I had a total of three right turns to make, and never got out of 2nd gear!
Greg, thanks for shooting the pics!
Oh, I did more damage to my body pounding my hubcaps back on than I did changing out that spring...

 

[surfpig]

Handles like a slot car!

not...
Finally got a chance to drive it around a bit... VERY firm ride, probably a combination of the springs and the new shocks. I hauled about a 250 pound load in the back for awhile, smoothed the ride out quite a bit (mind you, I've had the rear ones installed for about 6 months, so they should be somewhat broken in). Drove to Kirkwood yesterday, took the backroads up, highways home. I'll have to say it was rather punishing on bumpy, windy secondary roads, I still need about 200 pounds of sand in the back to damp things out a bit. Handling, and steering, though was a dream! No more turning the wheel and wondering how far it was going to steer this time... at highway speeds cornering was pretty flat, much less sway, and when the rear locker did it's thing it was much more predictable, barely needed any compensation. Can't wait to load her down and go somewhere...

nial