Hey guys,
Not gonna go into detail, but I left the community a little while back and want to get back involved again. None of it was all that productive, so I'll just say that the past is in the past and I'm starting with a clean slate.
I certainly haven't been idle since I left, and I've been slowly but methodically building up my Toyota Pickup crawler. The springs were all worn out on the front, and I blew up all the important parts of the front end while running Carnage Canyon in BV, including my ring and pinion and chromoly longfields, so I decided to upgrade to an FJ80 axle and a front 4 link and full hydro steering. I'll probably do a build thread soon, but here are a few pictures of the build (since I know threads are worthless without pictures)....
Setting up the steering
Axle cleaned up, trussed, welded and painted
Bump stops (bought the cans but made all the angle pieces myself)
Fully custom lower control arm crossmember (made all the brackets myself)
Cut the fenders to fit the new location of the axle (10" forward from stock)
My new Hellfire knuckles get a full 50 degrees of steering....nice
Links installed
Coilover towers installed
A bit of flexing....that is 36" from the bottom of the tire to the floor and I think it has more in it
Pretty much how it sits today....still have some work but its nearly ready for the shakedown run
I was expecting it to take a couple months, but its been off the road for over a year now, so I decided to get myself a nearly stock IFS 4runner to get on the trails. Its a "leftovers" build and I only paid $1300 for it, but it will have dual transfer cases soon and I just got my hands on a Blazeland Weld It Yourself long travel kit that modifies the a-arms, so it will have more travel soon too. I also welded the rear axle so its much more capable now. Its gonna be me camping and desert truck, and something I can drive to Moab for a weekend.
Here it is on Red Cone (with a former member Speedwagon and his lifted Brat)...
Its good to be back and I look forward to getting out and wheeling with everyone again. It will be good to see the friends I fell out of contact with and meet some new ones too.