The Tatanka (1 Viewer)

[CruiserReady]

Hi guys, this will be my first post here and I have to say, one of the best things about becoming a part of the LC community was learning that there is still one active forum on the internet. All the other car forums I was on died in like 2013, haha. My family recently picked up a 200 series and an 80 series. This thread will of course focus on the 200 series which the fam has affectionately named Tatanka, the Lakota word for bison because it's a damn tank. It's a 2014 with roughly 120k mi on it, so it's just getting broken in. We are the third owner and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it already had Icon front struts and rear shocks to go with the KO2s it had on it. That's the starting point for this project.

We are currently preparing it for the Rebelle Rally. The Rebelle is a grueling 10 day, 1500mi+ off road navigational rally that happens to be for women. My wife is a staff photographer for the rally so we have to chase the rally, leap frogging the course in order to stay ahead of the rally vehicles. Over the last 3 years our rig requirements for this rally have evolved as figure out what works well and what doesn't.

As many of you already know, there is no such thing as the perfect rig. There are always compromises. Particularly for us, every outing is different, so I try to keep things as modular as I can when considering the build. When I get some time, I'll start writing up some of the prep we're doing, but in the mean time, here is a pic of one of our first trail runs.

 

[CruiserReady]

This will be our 4th year as staff on the Rebelle Rally. A brief overview of what things are like on the rally will help explain some of the considerations for the current build out. The rally is designed to be completed by both stock crossovers and 4x4s, however, there are also some sections that are bypassed by the crossover class. We progress to 5-7 different basecamps over 10 days and generally have to be packed up and on the road by 5:30am in order to get ahead of the rally vehicles and in position to shoot photos. Often times, we are transporting other media or rally personnel, so minimum of 4 seats is necessary. We then spend the day leapfrogging the course in an attempt to stay a head of the rally which can sometimes be quite challenging and require brisk driving over a variety of terrain from rough rocky sections to sand dunes. Our day generally concludes and we arrive at basecamp around sunset where we enjoy awesome food that is prepared for us.

The first year we took our 98 Subaru Forester, and while the Forester held it's own quite well in the smoother stuff, the main worry for me was that the lack of suspension travel can be very unforgiving when encountering washouts and other large terrain features at higher speeds. Dual range is certainly helpful in some areas of the rally and this is the biggest shortcoming of off roading in the Subaru. We also did not go to the dunes that year which likely would have given us trouble. Another issue with the Forester is that it was completely filled to the brim with gear (we learned that we didn't need a lot of it). We therefore only had room for ourselves and no other passengers which was a mild inconvenience at times. Given that we were sleeping in the back we had to unload and re-pack the car every night and every morning which was pretty cumbersome at 4:30 in the morning. We brought a ground tent, but finding a good spot for one is often difficult in the rocky terrain of the desert.

The second year we picked up a Tacoma which we intended to have our roof top tent installed on prior to the rally, but that didn't quite work out. We had a lot more room for cargo and passengers, more suspension to soak up bumps, and dual range making the Tacoma much more suited to the requirements of the rally (stock suspension on the TRD Off Road is still weaksauce at speed and gets floaty around 50mph). That year, we camped in a combo of the truck bed and a ground tent. This had us dealing with the same problem as the first year in the Forester of having to constantly unload and re-pack the truck each day, but the extra space made it a little easier. I consider myself a talented Tetris player, but it's always more difficult when you're in a hurry.

Last year, we ran the Tacoma again, this time with a RTT and some extra storage. This helped streamline the morning routine, but honestly, the RTT wasn't that much easier. Part of this is that we owned the Tacoma as part of our overland rental fleet and therefore had it equipped with a massive 5 person RTT that could accommodate families. The smaller version of the same tent is certainly easier, but the reality is that a wedge tent would have solved most of my gripes with the tent and is still on my list as something I'd like to pick up. I did have one other problem with the tent. While we were in Glamis, I had one of Rivian's engineers riding with me and we were chasing their vehicle. Let me tell you, that things rips! I can't remember how the suspension works, but it's come kind of computer controlled adaptive damper and that thing was just walking away from me on the sand highway. Anyways, in an attempt to keep up I found my self in some large whoops that I couldn't see in the high noon sun and I went to the damn rodeo. The truck behind me got a great view of my spare tire and I felt damn lucky I didn't break anything major. I knew before this that I wanted to go the direction of bypass shocks and long travel, but the wallet didn't agree with that plan. In all that drama, the tent was very close to getting ripped off the roof. It tore several of the bolts out of the aluminum channels on the tent. Luckily I was able slide the tent a few inches to a part of the channel that wasn't torn and tighten it back down.

So now that you have a list of things that didn't work for us, here is an outline of the prep I'm doing for our first year with the 200:

-Removed third row seats
-Currently building a bed platform in rear that folds up allowing usage of middle row seats and maintains storage for photo gear in the rear
-Prinsu roof rack to get our maxxtraxx, extra fuel, and some other gear out of the cabin
-Total Chaos UCA and skid plates (provided by TC as part of their sponsorship of the rally, arms are already installed)
-Adding interior release button for hatch to make it easier to get out in the morning
-Possibly some time of molle panels to help with organization (the center console always seems to become a mess with camera gear, radios, sat phone, snack, etc)

My thinking is that the LC is big enough that I should be able to get everything in it's own place and the bed setup should tear down in 30 seconds or less and allow passengers to ride in back. With no passengers, there would be zero teardown. With the Icon 2.0s and control arms, it should be worlds better than the last two vehicles over bigger bumps. Given that we don't need a kitchen that should save a lot of space that would normally be occupied on a trip.

To add a little complication to things, we'll be going on an elk hunt for 10 days departing 4 days from now. For this trip, I do need my camp kitchen as well as a large ice chest. At this point, the ice chest only seems like it will work on a hitch mounted carrier which I'd rather avoid bringing. We'll see what I can come up with as the sleeping platform/storage area comes together.

Here are a few of my wife's photos of the two LC/LX from last year's Rebelle Rally as well as our Tacoma. You may have already seen some of these if you read Car & Driver or Tread magazines. Enjoy!

 

[bentonrover]

Awesome pics

 

[molanginaeda]

Awesome rig to start. First look at the title lead me think of this and you’re on spot.

The X Elles Team has a magnuson supercharged LX570. So, any plan to supercharged the LC?

 

[CruiserReady]

Awesome rig to start. First look at the title lead me think of this and you’re on spot.
View attachment 2771949

The X Elles Team has a magnuson supercharged LX570. So, any plan to supercharged the LC?

That's likely a no on supercharging. So far the power has been plenty, but the range has been lackluster and I've already got my eyes on one of the LRA auxiliary fuel tanks. I suspect the supercharger would not help much with the range .

 

[CruiserReady]

Here's some photos of the bed platform in progress. One of the problems I encountered is that the with between the wheel wells positions the hatch side of the frame right on top of the anchors I was planning to use to hold it down. Luckily, I was able to use a router to notch the 2x4s to allow the anchors to work with the turnbuckles I bought. I decided to go with a 60/40 split to allow one seat to be up should I desire.

I mentioned modularity in the previous post. Given that I need this setup functional by the end of tomorrow, I'll just be keeping it simple and sliding the front sections to the rear. After returning from this trip, I'll get a little more creative and add some piano hinges to the deck so that it folds up instead.

 

[CruiserReady]

I got the platform finished enough for this trip last night and got the Total Chaos skidplate and belly pan on. I also wired in a button to open the rear hatch from the inside. I'm pretty happy with how it all came out.

One of my goals for the platform was to keep it as light as possible without getting too crazy. I wanted to build it out of aluminum, but I don't currently have a tig welder and metal prices are pretty insane right now. For that reason, the rear frame is built from 2x4s, the deck is half inch plywood and then I added some 1x2s underneath to reinforce the plywood. By feel, the result is that I definitely saved some weight compared to if I had gone with 3/4" plywood. I'm considering taking a hole saw to some of the 2x4s in non structural areas to remove a little more weight, though right now, I would say the whole system is probably pretty close in weight to the 3rd row seats I removed.

I'll be installing my Prinsu roof rack tonight after work.

 

[TeCKis300]

Very cool. Rig built for a purpose. If it chases the Rebelle Rally well, you'll know you've done a good job.

Good call on building that platform in lightweight fashion. From what I can tell, it looks up to the job. Are you going to put edge protectors on the boards to protect the interior as things move and shift?

LRA would be a great addition. Even the small 12.5 does wonders for expanded range.

 

[greynolds]

Depending on whether you decide to stick with the current 2x4 base or not, 8020 style extrusions could be used instead, would be extremely rugged, bolt together, most likely save some weight, and give you all sorts of options for mounting things, including drawer sliders, underneath. I've been contemplating taking this approach to building something similar for my LC, but haven't had a real need for it yet. I had built something along these lines for the G-wagons I had prior to the LC and found it to be extremely handy having 2 levels of storage for stuff on long trips.

 

[CruiserReady]

Very cool. Rig built for a purpose. If it chases the Rebelle Rally well, you'll know you've done a good job.

Good call on building that platform in lightweight fashion. From what I can tell, it looks up to the job. Are you going to put edge protectors on the boards to protect the interior as things move and shift?

LRA would be a great addition. Even the small 12.5 does wonders for expanded range.

I have no doubts this thing will chase the Rebelle with ease.

I carpeted the areas that had potential for contact. Hopefully the turnbuckles keep it in place. I suspect they may loosen up.

Yea, just pricey. In the meantime, some fuel cans will have to do.

 

[CruiserReady]

Depending on whether you decide to stick with the current 2x4 base or not, 8020 style extrusions could be used instead, would be extremely rugged, bolt together, most likely save some weight, and give you all sorts of options for mounting things, including drawer sliders, underneath. I've been contemplating taking this approach to building something similar for my LC, but haven't had a real need for it yet. I had built something along these lines for the G-wagons I had prior to the LC and found it to be extremely handy having 2 levels of storage for stuff on long trips.

Was already looking at this, just wasn't gonna happen in time for the upcoming trips. I agree though, I think it would be great to have the modularity for mounting things. Long term, the plan is to build it out with a wedge tent as well so that I can sleep two in the car and two on the roof while keeping it organized enough for gear for four people for a five day trip. So far the biggest challenge as I try to figure this out is where to mount a fridge or ice chest.

If I had to

If I had to guess, I would say it all currently weighs right around 55-60lbs.

 

[greynolds]

Was already looking at this, just wasn't gonna happen in time for the upcoming trips. I agree though, I think it would be great to have the modularity for mounting things. Long term, the plan is to build it out with a wedge tent as well so that I can sleep two in the car and two on the roof while keeping it organized enough for gear for four people for a five day trip. So far the biggest challenge as I try to figure this out is where to mount a fridge or ice chest.

If I had to

If I had to guess, I would say it all currently weighs right around 55-60lbs.

Yeah, just getting extrusions from 8020 would take time (it took several months to get some for a project I've been working on recently). That current weight really isn't too bad.

 

[CruiserReady]

Yeah, just getting extrusions from 8020 would take time (it took several months to get some for a project I've been working on recently). That current weight really isn't too bad.

Lead time on everything is insane now. I think the biggest thing I would stand to gain with aluminum extrusions is cargo space. The wood is a little bulky in comparison.

 

[CruiserReady]

Here's a pic of the newly installed and still shiny Total Chaos skidplate and belly pan followed by a few detail shots of the platform construction.

 

[CruiserReady]

Loaded and ready to go. I was surprised to find that it's difficult to find rotopax right now. I may have been able to leave the cargo carrier behind if I had gotten the pax in time.

Got on the road yesterday and decided to stop for the night in Cedar City, where I post this as the wife sleeps in a bit.

 

[CruiserReady]

Got a bitchin camp spot at the top of the mountain. Was a bit tight getting here. Had clearances of less than an inch both vertically and horizontally. Definitely need to buff out some pinstripes.

 

[Tex68w]

Lookin' good!

 

[Mark WV]

I just glanced at the title and thought this thread was going to be about airbag recalls……

well executed- nice rig!

 

[CruiserReady]

I just glanced at the title and thought this thread was going to be about airbag recalls……

well executed- nice rig!

Hahaha, I didn't even think about that.

 

[CruiserReady]

Since my last post we returned from our trip to Utah which ended with a nice crease in the front right fender from a tree branch that I didn't see and a ridiculous amount of pinstriping much of which will not buff out.

The trail turned out to be an atv trail, not a 4x4 and was just poorly marked. Some areas of the trail were so narrow you would have to literally push branches out of the way to walk through, much less drive a full sized truck through. Here are a couple pictures from that trail as well as the aftermath.