Troupe Family Cruiser

[TTCruiser]

I guess I’ll start a build thread since I’ve been getting more done to my cruiser. I picked up a pretty clean 2000 with 190k miles in June of 2018.
Here it is currently (July 2021)

List of maintenance/modifications I have done:

OEM Radiator
OEM master cylinder/abs unit
OEM CV's
Denso Starter
Denso steering pump and rack
Metal Tech rear adjustable lower control arms
Tough Dog adjustable panhard bar
Trail Tailor rear adjustable upper control arms
Trail Tailor Front Upper control arms
Tough Dog 3" lift
Trail Tailor diff drop
Trail Tailor sway bar links
Trail Tailor recovery points
Slee 1.25 wheel spacers
OEM Heater T's
Huricane Tailgate storage
ARB single compressor
Custom rock sliders
Pro Speed roof rack
Tuff Stuff 43” light bar
Sony headunit
Focal door speakers
PFran Interior LED’s
Speski cargo barrier
Weathertech floor mats
4x4 labs rear bumper kit
ARB air lockers front and rear
nitro 4.88 gears
nitro transfer case crawler gears
custom on board water system
315/75/16 General Grabber x3's

Here it is the day I brought it home.

View attachment 1759057

The tires were bald so I quickly had a set of 285/70/16 General Grabber ATx’s installed. They came highly recommended by my friend who owns a tire shop.

I immediately took it up some of the steepest dirt roads I could find and it did extremely good. Except I got high centered on the running boards so it was time to loose them.

 

[TTCruiser]

After a quick trip to lake Arrowhead on some actual trails, I realized I need sliders, and that the white letters are not going to stay white for long. Any clawing up against rocks and they were permanently turned black. So I had them flipped around during my first tire rotation. And I had a local fabricator make me some sliders. They came out shorter than I expected, so we’ll have to work something out with that. But this is how the truck sits right now.

And here are some shots on some local trails

 

[TTCruiser]

This obstacle right here made me realize, I NEED to lift it to get over this. So I ordered myself a 3” lift with foam cell shocks from Trail Tailor. With diff drop and sway bar links to come soon. Hopefully I’ll be able to find the time to install it within a week or two.

I’m calling this the Family cruiser because of these two

 

[Peabody]

Nice rig and beautiful family! If your experience is anything like mine, you will love the Tough Dog suspension.

Happy trails!

 

[TTCruiser]

Plans for the truck are to upgrade as I need to. It does so well off road as is, I don’t see the need for much else right now. ThoUgh a proper roof rack will be needed for all the stuff we carry for the kids while traveling and camping. Going to pull the trigger on the Bowfin Cruiser rack before our next big trip.

 

[TTCruiser]

Nice rig and beautiful family! If your experience is anything like mine, you will love the Tough Dog suspension.

Happy trails!

Thank you.
I’m sure I will be happy with it from all that I’ve heard about it. I did a lot of research before pulling the trigger.

 

[TTCruiser]

Also, at this point I have baselined all the fluids, done the heater T’s and verified that the front axles and timing belt have been changed already.

 

[ikarus]

Looking great. My kid watches that Youtube channel too haha

 

[TTCruiser]

Looking great. My kid watches that Youtube channel too haha

Haha they love those shows. They learn So much from them I don’t feel too bad letting them watch it for hours on our road trips.

 

[TTCruiser]

Me and a buddy took our trucks up in the hills today just to see what they could do. He had an all stock bronco that had some trouble in a few spots. The cruiser walked up everything I attempted. Very happy with it.

 

[TTCruiser]

I’m proud to say that the truck made it up and over this ledge just fine. The bumper and tow hook scraped a little, but no damage occurred.

 

[D21FJ60]

Love the truck and progression. What are the black things on the seatbacks? Have 2 under 2 and these look like they're very useful.

 

[TTCruiser]

Love the truck and progression. What are the black things on the seatbacks? Have 2 under 2 and these look like they're very useful.

Awesome! They are just seat protectors. They stop the car seat from rubbing the upholstery and stop any food bits from falling through the cracks.

 

[bucfl]

I’m curious how you liking the tires. I have been researching them and they seem great for the price. I have MT’s now and the noise is becoming annoying.

How’s the comfort and noise levels. I’m sure anything is quieter than MT’s.

 

[TTCruiser]

I like them a lot so far! Extremely quiet for this type of tire. I’ve never had MTs on here, so I can’t compare the traction, but they did very good in some steep loose trails I’ve taken them on. Going to be testing them out more in 2 weeks hopefully on some harder trails. I’ll post up my thoughts then.

 

[bucfl]

Thanks please do.

 

[TTCruiser]

I got my lift kit installed. Had some trouble along the way, but @reevesci was very helpful along the way. Very thankful I got the kit from him.
We took the truck up to Santa Clarita to show my wife and our girls what the truck can do. They all loved it.

The tires performed great. I ran them at 18psi the whole time. They seemed to have great traction. Pretty much anything on this trail I pointed it at, it went up.

 

[TTCruiser]

Also, ran into a group of Land cruisers up there. One had some cooling issues. Nicely built rigs. If it was any of you guys, hit me up on here. I’d love to go wheeling with you.

 

[TTCruiser]

Only video we got.

 

[TTCruiser]

Today I made my accessory outlets always on by jumping the relay studs in the fuse box. Then I added switches to the front and back plugs and added a volt meter to the switched power.