Builds What did you do with your cruiser today? (1 Viewer)

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Over the last month, lost track of what I already posted:

Swapped in heavy duty rear springs
Modified roof rack to carry 2nd spare, and 2x 20L NATO cans
Scouted hunt area from Soldier Meadows to Summit Lake and back down east of 34
AC failed on scouting trip - in 95 degree weather. The tablet kept shutting down due to heat. I lost a few pounds.
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Had the low pressure AC hose replaced - it had failed internally and looked fine on the outside. $$$ because I didn't have time to deal with it.
Built shelving for the cargo area
More hunt scouting, 34 from Gerlach up to Vya, across to Cedarville, back down 447.
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One very cold night, good thing I had a moving blanket in addition to the sleeping bag.
Warm again during the day.
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Modified roof rack to carry 2 more NATO cans, total 4. That's 20.8 gallons, maybe 130lbs including cans.
Carpeted the cargo shelves.
 
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Carpeted the cargo shelves
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Packed up and set out for the camp 2 days before opening day
Scouted then rested the day before opening
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My buddy shot a rattlesnake and we ate it.
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My son got his Pronghorn on opening day, an instantaneous kill, but not very photogenic. We quartered it, hiked 2 miles back to camp, packed up and were home by midnight.

We had prepared for 6 days of travel and only did 3, so we didn't need most of the food or the 10 gallons of water we had. No road hunting, so we still had 20.8 gallons of gas on the roof. The 8 gallons in frozen water bottles did get used to chill the animal. Drove home very heavy. The curves in Leadville Canyon sneak up on you when you're going downhill in the dark. Managed to not tip over twice, then set the cruise control. Burner traffic was substantial on 447, but didn't really slow us down.

Lessons:
The shelves are a win. Ice lasted a lot longer in the cooler with it up off the floor. Once the cooler and the kitchen were moved out, we had lots of room to organize loose gear and set up our tent cots next to the tailgate.

Packing still takes forever, but with the seats down plus the shelves, most stuff went in plastic totes.

20 gallons on the roof plus a spare makes for tricky handling.

All the weight we carried makes hills challenging at highway speeds.

I'd like a Jumping Jack for this sort of thing, but pulling yet more weight may be an issue.

On Highway 80 from Reno to Fernley, I get about 10.8 mpg.
On gravel roads doing 45, I get up to 14.5 mpg.

Something like 300 miles of dirt and gravel roads over the last month, and the AC was the only casualty.

Good times!
 
Nice report Will. Glad Liam was able to score an antelope. I think when you have outings like that it is OK that the MPG suffers. It is worth it to have space for your gear. Not sure I would have eaten that snake. I usually can eat most anything but that might be pushing it. Now if I was in a survival situation I would b all over that.

On my cruiser I had Dr. Smash weld up two cracks. One over my steering box and one under the frame strut. We are going to put the roll bar to the frame in a couple of places and that should give a little bit of flex support. Also going to put some gusset bars on the roll bar for some anti collapse support. Fortunately the cracks had not gone all the way thru the frame. Had a great run on the Rubicon. Several broken rigs slowed us down but we still made it to the Springs in record time and got our favorite campsite by the river. Fun day! Oh ya and the boomerang shackles worked flawlessly. I thought maybe they would hit the frame but they have full range of motion without making the springs bend at the end or hit the frame. So all in all a great modification and I got my FJ55 springs back. Which is good cause you need to have your :poop: wired to run this trail anymore. No forgiveness for inattention and mistakes or a sloppy rig.
 
Got some more stuff back. The garage is getting full!

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Here's the before.
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I got to see the tub while I was there to pick up the wheels and other stuff. It isn't quite done, but it looks good so far.
 
Got some more stuff back. The garage is getting full!

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Here's the before.
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I got to see the tub while I was there to pick up the wheels and other stuff. It isn't quite done, but it looks good so far.
Did we confirm that Garate Enterprises is shuttered due to Julian having a stroke? If so, where're you taking stuff for powdercoating now?
 
Did we confirm that Garate Enterprises is shuttered due to Julian having a stroke? If so, where're you taking stuff for powdercoating now?

I had left several messages and requests to estimates and drop off dates/times from Garate and not received any callbacks. So I consider them a no option for me. I am now using Wade Powder Coating (formerly Final Finish Powder Coating). They did my wheels for $350 and my chassis for $600 and a ton of misc parts for $600. They are very good with keeping promises and communicate well. I am happy with them.
 
Whew! That's too bad. The prices you posted are literally double what Julian charged for the mountain of work he did for me over the years. He powdercoated my frame for $300 and the wheels for $25 each.

I'd give him boxes of small odds and ends and it always seemed to be between $100 and $120.
 
Whew! That's too bad. The prices you posted are literally double what Julian charged for the mountain of work he did for me over the years. He powdercoated my frame for $300 and the wheels for $25 each.

I'd give him boxes of small odds and ends and it always seemed to be between $100 and $120.

Yeah I'm bummed. Wade is about a 1/4 the price of shops like Advanced Powder Coating though and I think their service and quality is better too. It is what it is. Let me know if you get a better result from Garate than I did. Maybe I'll give them another shot, but at this point I have already jumped the shark (Happy Days reference... Heyyyy!) and done the most expensive stuff.
 
I think I'm just going to get off my butt and buy a powdercoating gun. I already have a curing oven for cerakoting firearms so I just need to confirm that it'll get up to 400 degrees and I'll order a starter kit (I've never used it for anything over 300 degrees).
 
I have been taking a hard look at my 60 and taking notes. She will be going on the FOR SALE listings in the next 6 months or so. Give me time to handle oil pan and fix my paint issues. But that time is coming quickly.
 
Best of luck. Values are all over the map right now.

I couldn't even get an offer on mine so I parked it in the yard and forgot about it all summer and fall.
 
Best of luck. Values are all over the map right now.

I couldn't even get an offer on mine so I parked it in the yard and forgot about it all summer and fall.
Yeah we will see what happens. Not in a super rush to sell her so will probably throw some FOR SALE signs in the windows until next spring. Then get a little more active on the hunt/sell path. Still want to replace oil pan and do a few other things but between $6k-$8k is what the 60 guys are all saying I should be able to pretty easily get. That will afford me at least half of a decent, less than 250k miles 100/LX470. Also threw up a trade posting in the 100 classifieds on here, so we will see.
 
All you have to do is find the right lumbersexual hipster.

But it's a manual transmission, a lumbersexual hipster would look at it and say "What's that thing? That's real phallic looking."
 

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