What Did You Do with Your 80 This Weekend? (66 Viewers)

[Dissent]

And all that gear up top works for you?? Really asking.

Yeah, it all works for me. Nothing rattles or buzzes. I usually secure the remote control lighting Pelican case to my Water Brick eye bolts so it doesn't swing on the trail but the eye bolts are in the garage right now while I was working on the wiring in the wall. I do need to declutter it a bit but it's pretty organic throughout the year. I have hoses and wires running up to and along the rack now so it's very permanent now and I'll work out a better organization of the gear in the coming months. Here's the inventory and how it's configured currently.

Front (ty-rap'd)
AC Surge Strip
CTEK 12v Charger

Top (loose)
magnetic LED goose neck light (for kids in 2nd row or car repair in the dark), 3x umbrellas (for camp/trail runs), hoodie, blanket, trail book, Camelback hose, rain jacket, ball cap, rag, toiletries, kitchen towel, tripod camp chair (usually secured by bungee cord)

Rear (bolted on)
4x External LED lights with RAM mounts and l-track fittings
1x Fire Extinguisher

Underneath
Air Mattress pump in MOLLE pouch
Camp lantern (forgot to put away)
Remote Control Lighting Pelican Case (ty-rap'd)

 

[jcardona1]

In a sense. I ordered up the Moto Farkle’s 9.5” diff armor. After trimming it and bending it more precisely (designed for the fj40 axle and not quite the 80 series), I didn’t care for the gap between the bottom piece and the top piece. I trimmed, bent, and sliced a piece of rebar in half and welded it between the two. Then did a whole lot of grinding, flap disking, and wire wheeling to flow the lines down from the top piece to the bottom.

If I were to do it again, and didn’t want to spend the 8 hours or so that I did installing it, I’d just do the bottom piece and call it a day

That sure does look good though. I know you spent a lot of time on that because I had hell of a time just getting it to fit right as-is. Nice work.

 

[TheRareElement]

A pit stop before delivering a "Rescue Remedy" to a buddy stranded in the desert.
- 2x 31x10.5 R 15 Tires
- 3x 20 Liter Scepter MWC's
- 1x Sac of firewood
Then off to the coast for a couple of days of R&R.

 

[RFB]

Yeah, it all works for me. Nothing rattles or buzzes. I usually secure the remote control lighting Pelican case to my Water Brick eye bolts so it doesn't swing on the trail but the eye bolts are in the garage right now while I was working on the wiring in the wall. I do need to declutter it a bit but it's pretty organic throughout the year. I have hoses and wires running up to and along the rack now so it's very permanent now and I'll work out a better organization of the gear in the coming months. Here's the inventory and how it's configured currently.

Front (ty-rap'd)
AC Surge Strip
CTEK 12v Charger

Top (loose)
magnetic LED goose neck light (for kids in 2nd row or car repair in the dark), 3x umbrellas (for camp/trail runs), hoodie, blanket, trail book, Camelback hose, rain jacket, ball cap, rag, toiletries, kitchen towel, tripod camp chair (usually secured by bungee cord)

Rear (bolted on)
4x External LED lights with RAM mounts and l-track fittings
1x Fire Extinguisher

Underneath
Air Mattress pump in MOLLE pouch
Camp lantern (forgot to put away)
Remote Control Lighting Pelican Case (ty-rap'd)

the CTEK worth it??

 

[RFB]

A pit stop before delivering a "Rescue Remedy" to a buddy stranded in the desert.
- 2x 31x10.5 R 15 Tires
- 3x 20 Liter Scepter MWC's
- 1x Sac of firewood
Then off to the coast for a couple of days of R&R.
View attachment 1751596

you gotta tell us, whats the remedy??

 

[TheRareElement]

you gotta tell us, whats the remedy??

Whatever it is, it's got to be on an empty stomach

 

[Qball]

the CTEK worth it??

For the most part YES!

Please remember ctek is NOT a dual battery system, it's a smart auxiliary battery charging system. If you have the Dual model then you can charge from either or both the main electrical system and the solar panel.

Pros:
- It's a smart charger and will stop charging once it detects the battery is fully charged
- You can safely run deep cycle batteries for auxiliary use while having a starter battery for starting/main system
- The auxiliary battery can be a lot further from the main battery, it's designed with RV and trailers in mind, it will boost the voltage and deal with the voltage drop with ease so you don't have run monster cables to the charger
- If you get the Dual model then you don't need a separate solar charger/controll which you must have for solar panel to charger the battery correctly or blow up your battery, solar panels operate at 17-19V not 14v for 12v batteries)
- max input to Ctek is 20 amp so you don't have run huge cables to the unit
- smart charging will ensure long and predictable battery service life of the auxiliary battery


Cons:
- It will NOT link 2 batteries together and IMHO you don't really want to anyways
- 20 amp max charging rate, can't do really fast charge but that's bad for the batteries anyways

Things to watch out for is don't put huge draw items on the auxiliary battery like big light bar and winch....then again you shouldn't anyways because it's auxiliary not main battery.

 

[SUMMIT CRUISERS Jr]

That sure does look good though. I know you spent a lot of time on that because I had hell of a time just getting it to fit right as-is. Nice work.

I appreciate it. I went ahead and emailed them and told them that they may want to update their description in regards to 80 series. I was pretty disgruntled when I spent a day getting it right when I had budgeted a couple hours. Maybe it’s just the camera angle but did you mount your ebrake cable higher up? I should have done that, but just kept everything where I had measured it to be when I took it off.

 

[Dissent]

the CTEK worth it??

I firmly believe it is. I belive it was about $70 on Amazon. I've revitalized 2x batteries (Optima Yellow and Walmart wet cell) with it that I was going to toss. I recommended it to a buddy (who gave me the Optima Yellow Top it revived) and he's been using it quite happily with his new Optima. I originally bought it to help my Sears Diehard Platinum but it only helped it in the short term before it died. I mainly use the CTEK on the weekends but have been using it nightly since there's only 1x cord to plug in. Nice to always have a topped off battery running the fridge 24x7!

 

[Dissent]

For the most part YES!

Please remember ctek is NOT a dual battery system, it's a smart auxiliary battery charging system. If you have the Dual model then you can charge from either or both the main electrical system and the solar panel.

Pros:
- It's a smart charger and will stop charging once it detects the battery is fully charged
- You can safely run deep cycle batteries for auxiliary use while having a starter battery for starting/main system
- The auxiliary battery can be a lot further from the main battery, it's designed with RV and trailers in mind, it will boost the voltage and deal with the voltage drop with ease so you don't have run monster cables to the charger
- If you get the Dual model then you don't need a separate solar charger/controll which you must have for solar panel to charger the battery correctly or blow up your battery, solar panels operate at 17-19V not 14v for 12v batteries)
- max input to Ctek is 20 amp so you don't have run huge cables to the unit
- smart charging will ensure long and predictable battery service life of the auxiliary battery


Cons:
- It will NOT link 2 batteries together and IMHO you don't really want to anyways
- 20 amp max charging rate, can't do really fast charge but that's bad for the batteries anyways

Things to watch out for is don't put huge draw items on the auxiliary battery like big light bar and winch....then again you shouldn't anyways because it's auxiliary not main battery.

Good points @Qball. It is just a battery charger, albeit a smart one that has 8 steps and a recondition mode supporting all types of batteries including wet/AGM/Motorcycle. It can charge a primary or secondary battery but not two batteries (not recommended) at a reasonable rate. This one is not a controller, just a charger. No solar input. Just AC in, DC out to a single battery. I have it ty-rap'd in place because I'm not quite to my parallel battery install. I may not go with a 2nd battery...that's a lot of extra money and I have 100W solar (Morningstar controller) and a NOCO jump pack. So, for now, the CTEK maintains my Sears Diehard Gold wet battery quite well. IF I go with a dual-parallel setup, I'll go with a CTEK or NOCO dual battery charger, or possibly upgrade to the CTEK dual controller/charger which is only a 5 step charger but also acts as a solar controller. If I stay with a single battery, it will be an AGM (Duracell Ultra Deep Cycle/Marine or X2 Power Premium AGM) which the slow charge rate of the CTEK is perfect for (in AGM mode).

 

[Dissent]

Good points @Qball. It is just a battery charger, albeit a smart one that has 8 steps and a recondition mode supporting all types of batteries including wet/AGM/Motorcycle. It can charge a primary or secondary battery but not two batteries (not recommended) at a reasonable rate. This one is not a controller, just a charger. No solar input. Just AC in, DC out to a single battery. I have it ty-rap'd in place because I'm not quite to my parallel battery install. I may not go with a 2nd battery...that's a lot of extra money and I have 100W solar (Morningstar controller) and a NOCO jump pack. So, for now, the CTEK maintains my Sears Diehard Gold wet battery quite well. IF I go with a dual-parallel setup, I'll go with a CTEK or NOCO dual battery charger, or possibly upgrade to the CTEK dual controller/charger which is only a 5 step charger but also acts as a solar controller. If I stay with a single battery, it will be an AGM (Duracell Ultra Deep Cycle/Marine or X2 Power Premium AGM) which the slow charge rate of the CTEK is perfect for (in AGM mode).

Here's the model I have, it's an older one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006G14FK8/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[LS1FJ40]

Cracked open the brakes again and bled out ALL of the old brake fluid out of the system until clear was coming out all four wheels and the LSPV.

Checked torque on all of the lug nuts and the knuckle studs.

I think I’m going to tackle the rear axle in a couple of weekends. I’m feeling adventurous.

 

[SUMMIT CRUISERS Jr]

Cracked open the brakes again and bled out ALL of the old brake fluid out of the system until clear was coming out all four wheels and the LSPV.

Checked torque on all of the lug nuts and the knuckle studs.

I think I’m going to tackle the rear axle in a couple of weekends. I’m feeling adventurous.

Rear axle is super easy compared to the front. I’ve never touched a full floater rear axle before this past week and it was very straight forward. Only thing that was kind of weird was setting the preload and using the locking screws.

 

[Qball]

Good points @Qball. It is just a battery charger, albeit a smart one that has 8 steps and a recondition mode supporting all types of batteries including wet/AGM/Motorcycle. It can charge a primary or secondary battery but not two batteries (not recommended) at a reasonable rate. This one is not a controller, just a charger. No solar input. Just AC in, DC out to a single battery. I have it ty-rap'd in place because I'm not quite to my parallel battery install. I may not go with a 2nd battery...that's a lot of extra money and I have 100W solar (Morningstar controller) and a NOCO jump pack. So, for now, the CTEK maintains my Sears Diehard Gold wet battery quite well. IF I go with a dual-parallel setup, I'll go with a CTEK or NOCO dual battery charger, or possibly upgrade to the CTEK dual controller/charger which is only a 5 step charger but also acts as a solar controller. If I stay with a single battery, it will be an AGM (Duracell Ultra Deep Cycle/Marine or X2 Power Premium AGM) which the slow charge rate of the CTEK is perfect for (in AGM mode).

I have the 250s dual
D250S DUAL

It might be able to charge both batteries with solar and yes it has a built in solar controller, I just wish it has a display. I don’t need it to charge my main battery anyways, I just want to run my fridge and charge my auxiliary battery for the fridge at night.

For me it doesn’t get any simpler or smarter than this unit for second battery setup.

 

[Lumpskie]

Finally finished my Dobinson lift. It's their +2" variable taper springs and their long-travel shocks (4-5" up front and 6-7" in the rear). Obviously, more than 2" of lift were gained. The truck has original springs with 190k miles and measured approx. 19" center of hub in front and 20" center of hub in the rear. Afterwards, 23" up front and 25" in the rear.

I expect they will settle more with miles and once I start adding to the truck.

Still on stock-sized tires, but the 35" MTs are in the garage waiting to be mounted on Monday. WKOR sliders are also waiting to be installed.

View attachment 1749811

View attachment 1749812

View attachment 1749813

Any updated pictures with the 35s on?

 

[cahill]

Got home from a week of camping to find a few fun things in the mail waiting for me. This was an easy quick install that I am excited to use.

 

[retrofive]

Got home from a week of camping to find a few fun things in the mail waiting for me. This was an easy quick install that I am excited to use.

View attachment 1752529

I'd be pissed if I came home and someone had drilled a bunch holes in my dash

Ok, little jelly, I don't have that hole to fill.

 

[Tedward]

That is less useless than the cubby for sure.
I put a ram mount ball phone holder thing in one hole. Works great. Used a little loctite on the stud and its sturdy enough. Like that thing better than the other mounts I've had.

 

[mingles]

In the last 4 weekends my 80 has taken me from a 45 mile canoe trip on the Delaware River in upstate NY, to a week of Boy Scout summer camp in PA, to 1200 miles South to Port St. Joe, FL. Towed a trailer the whole way and hasn’t missed a beat.


Funny experience - today I was in a tackle shop on Cape San Blas in FL when a guy sticks his head in the front door and loudly shouts, “who owns this Land Cruiser?”. “I do” I replied. Still shouting, he says “that thing is FREAKING AWESOME!” and turns and walks out. That’s it, no further conversation . He was gone by the time I got out to the parking lot.


Pursuant to other recent threads, I count the cost in smiles/mile. Well worth it...

 

[91TB78]

Any updated pictures with the 35s on?

I just got the Cooper STT Pros put on tonight. These pics have all the old tires and spare with 35" on it as well, so the back end has settled to about 4" of total lift from hub to fender after the lift.