The Little Blue Truck

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Front and rear bumpers are removed. Going to cut the sliders off and do the 1-1.5" body lift Sunday in the rain...under a tarp.

Little man is pushing for it so that helps a lot.
 
HDPE homemade body lift installed. First time I've shut the hood all the way in two years.
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As shown w 36" tires.

37s would be easier on parts but 40s would be way much more badass.... And so I'll debate a bit longer whilst plotting to purchase Racelines.

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So I’m definitely maybe going to take the plunge and get rims and tires for Blue...

Since I’m not going to be bouncing this thing and have bigger axles etc I’m seriously considering 40s

Talk me out of it if I’m delirious.

So what radial tire should I go for? Blue will see probably more trips around town with the kids than trips to the trails anytime soon.

So...

Nitto Trail Grapplers

Goodyear MTR

Or...
 
So I’m definitely maybe going to take the plunge and get rims and tires for Blue...

Since I’m not going to be bouncing this thing and have bigger axles etc I’m seriously considering 40s

Talk me out of it if I’m delirious.

So what radial tire should I go for? Blue will see probably more trips around town with the kids than trips to the trails anytime soon.

So...

Nitto Trail Grapplers

Goodyear MTR

Or...

Check out the Cooper Discoverer STT Pro.
 
Also Maxxis creepy crawler. I’ve seen them work really well and are DOT rated. I’ve been running these 40 MTR cheater tires for a while, they don’t have a whole lot of tread but if your on rocks they’re planted. Ring gears and shafts explode every now and then, but I use all the hamsters I’ve got, clutch drops, etc...


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@BUCKEYE PERFORMANCE INC. did a great job on the tube work and was kind enough to drop it off down the road from me. Still lots of loose ends to work on but all of it is well within my skill set and I’m looking forward to the final leg.

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So I got it home and after a couple hot laps down to the mailbox and back I had a wheel fall off!:eek:


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Apparently my cheap ass wheel spacers backed off the lugs.

In the process it boogers up the hub studs real bad and warped my rotor.

So I promptly bought new stuff and then sat on new rotors and hubs for a month or so.
 
Better the driveway than some back woods trail at 2AM.
 
Over the last couple days (between kids and wife to do lists) I’ve managed to get the hubs on and torqued down correctly with new TG spacers. Directions say to torque again in 25, 50 more then 100 more miles. Hopefully they won’t be an issue moving forward.

I tried and tried to get the IFS hubs off my parts truck and after several trips with several attempts I bailed on that idea and just salvaged the locking part. When the rim spit off before it warped a locking hub too.

Also put the rear sump oil pan on and filled her up with some good oil and a squirt of Lucas for good measure.

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Been sitting on some new 1/4 wall DOM to build a new tie rod (bent it probably 2 yrs ago).

Sent a buddy a text that my steering tube was beefier than his suspension links. Lol

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Next a whipped up a hillbilly alignment.

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Going for a Sunday drive tomorrow and see how it feels.

Going to try and get the front winch mounted soon and see how much it droops the front. There is a lot of stuff going on up there and as much as I don’t want to, the front is probably going up a bit more to give me some more up travel and make room for everything. Probably longer shackles at first but may try some RUF from the parts truck.
 
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New longer shackles up front to help with flex and up travel and to try and keep the tires off then inner fender/floor board under compression.

Aaaaaand some new 40” Maxxis Razr MT radials mounted and balanced on some new Pro Comp steelies.

Still having some death wobble but didn’t get time to put it on the rack and do an alignment today.

hopefully we can align it tomorrow afternoon.
 
Been a while...

well the cut and turn on the fj60 front axle that was built for the piggy bank buggy has way too much caster. Can’t go fast without fear of crashing. So it sat... for a while...

Currently building another housing and buying parts. I’ve got a relatively new TG steering box that’s tapped. Ordered the slick TG ps pump kit but had to go through lowrange to get them to contact TG to get the correct part number (doesn’t exist) for my application since I’ve got an early 3.4 with v belts. Have a lightly used ram (appears to be TG and a new surplus center dam for hydro assist. Plus like 6 ps and hydro lines extra.

going to run ruffstuffs SOA kit for perches which is on the way.

also have a time of the Gucci red bushings for the front. Have second set of springs I’m going to play with while the front is all apart too.

Also upgraded to the 25mm steering pins to use with my already been running billet Marlin HS arms that are OOS.

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Pulling this axle. Got to get better caster angle to be able to ride around on the road. New housing half prepped. Got the big Marlin pins and trunions, tapped box, TG pump and a ram to put on.

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Well…

Fast forward over half a year….

Got my spare front axle housing cut/turned and trussed by my buddy at Pine Cove Design and Fab.

Been sitting on it for a bit. Painted it and a couple weeks ago got a project for a friend finished.

Planned on taking time off between Christmas and New Years anyway. Wanted to wrench and hang with kids.

Funny how plans change…
Spent most of last week in the hospital for my dad and with my sister. Well, long story short, he went to heaven at dawn the day after Christmas. So it gave me motivation and time to be solo and stay up late working on my front axle.

I’m highly motivated to put this turd on its feet i the next couple days.
 
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