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03 Dakota "The Hustler"

good to hear man 👍 , and good to hear yer jammin' on the Dak. I am too - dialing in the Sniper and other finishing items. Moab sounds good - maybe in '23!

I love Bud too - we'll see if it sells. If it does, swell, and if not, well that isn't the worst thing either.

Nice crawler hauler! 👍
Sounds good. If your ever in Idaho be sure to hit me up. Also, if you do decide to buggy out Bud, I want dibs on the cab. Lol..
 
...hey you never know what's gonna end up happening in my shop (I gave up trying to figure that out years ago :laughing: ), but yah if we do end up building a big honkin' buggy you indeed have dibs! 🙂 👍 (the buggy idea is extremely enticing)
 
When the truck was put in storage about a year ago, it had a blown rear transfer case. Got it into the shop at the new house, and commenced to repairing it. Picked up a new case when I was In Florida. Way cheaper there. Getting that all rebuilt. And a few other upgrades are being done. Stay tuned for more posts on that.
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Sorry for the slow updates.. we had sold our house in San Diego, and lived in our RV for about a year. We had a new house built in Southern Idaho. Large 2 car garage that my wifes suburban with 7" lift and 35's fits in, and has a 45ft Rv bay thays doubling as a work shop right now. It's been hectic, finishing up the truck as the snow is starting to stick around here. Hopefully have some adventure pictures soon.
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Got a set of 64" Deavers to replace my original Chevy 63's. These should ride a little better. Going to need to redo my shock setup to take advantage of the travel now. Working on a new Power steering reservoir. (Eric if you read this.. sorry. Was able to trade for this at no cost to me. I still want one of your reservoirs). And swapped my 1.5 ram for a 1.75 as my steering was very touchy.. currently bleeding this, and then on to my battery mounts and wiring. Then hopefully some wheeling.
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Sam,
We made our move. I'm closer to you now. Southern Idaho. We are going to have to meet in Moab. Sorry to see ya selling BUD again. I love that truck. Should be getting the Dakota repaired and upgraded soon and be back out wheeling.
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Any deets on that Explorer?
 
Any deets on that Explorer?
Lol.. always the explorer.. it's an old school autofab build. 16" wheels travel 33's, rear cage setup with Bilstein 2.5's poking through, and Deaver race pack in rear. 4.0, cammed, head shaved and Ported, and a Jet chip, and 4.88 gears. It's our back up truck, and probably my daughter's first truck when that time comes.
 
Moving up here to Idaho involves snow wheeling. Having 2 kids requires alot of snow gear that I don't want in the cab, plus sleds. And a cooler. Old bed setup didn't facilitate storage. Started building a bed cage setup and remounted spare, and adding a power Tank setup to it also. 2 pelican cases up top and a mount for my pro eagle jack if I want.
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Love me a crew cab Dakota build so excited to see more updates to this thing. Very cool bed rack/utilization of space.
 
so this little vent thing for power steering, saw a kick ass simple way to do a catch can, Jake Burley FB or Gram had a vid on it. plum this line into on of you engine cage bars and let that bar be your catch can and vent all in the same.

in the second pic with red dots. top dot could be small hole just to vent pressure. middle hole drill tap to except the same push lock ontop of PSC res. and bottom dot drill tap for stupid small plug to drain any fluid.

this is just an example, maybe use the bar on the opposite side of engine bay.



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Didn't Finnegan do that on one of his slapped together turds? Front cage tube was also the reservoir for P/S or something like that.
 
so this little vent thing for power steering, saw a kick ass simple way to do a catch can, Jake Burley FB or Gram had a vid on it. plum this line into on of you engine cage bars and let that bar be your catch can and vent all in the same.

in the second pic with red dots. top dot could be small hole just to vent pressure. middle hole drill tap to except the same push lock ontop of PSC res. and bottom dot drill tap for stupid small plug to drain any fluid.

this is just an example, maybe use the bar on the opposite side of engine bay.



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That's not a very good way to do it. You should keep pressure on your reservoir. Ideally a Radiator style cap. But for now I'm running the psc 6psi valve/breather.
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i did that exact breather and mine would leak like a champ every time i got off camber and put fluid on the cap vent hole. my experience though.
 
i did that exact breather and mine would leak like a champ every time i got off camber and put fluid on the cap vent hole. my experience though.
Not saying this is great. I've had this leak, and am going to do something better. Just haven't figured it out. But I want to keep pressure on the reservoir.
 
Nice rack!

You might want to move the PSC breather so its above the level of the resivior. That way if any fluid gets in the line it might be able to drain back into the resi. The way you have it now its just trapped in that line.

I just use a Mtn Dew can ziptied to the cage and have zero issues, other than my kids asking me why I have a soda can ziptied to the cage.
 
so if you want to get crazy deep into this, Josh at goat built on his build did a very extensive catch can res system. omg good shit. A wolf in Jeeps clothing - Goatbuilt 1200 LJ/TJ Chassis build
My end game is to use a Radial Dynamics Reservoir. Just don't have that much to fund it right now. This was free. And it's better than what I had.

Nice rack!

You might want to move the PSC breather so its above the level of the resivior. That way if any fluid gets in the line it might be able to drain back into the resi. The way you have it now its just trapped in that line.

I just use a Mtn Dew can ziptied to the cage and have zero issues, other than my kids asking me why I have a soda can ziptied to the cage.
Can't move it higher as I don't have hood clearance. Reservoir fitting almost touches as it is.
My Radiator overflow is a spraybottle with holes drilled in it lol...
 
My end game is to use a Radial Dynamics Reservoir. Just don't have that much to fund it right now. This was free. And it's better than what I had.


Can't move it higher as I don't have hood clearance. Reservoir fitting almost touches as it is.
My Radiator overflow is a spraybottle with holes drilled in it lol...
You move the Psc valve thing to the back of the engine compartment. Maybe it would be higher then.
 
Finished the rack tonight. Came out pretty awesome i think.. have room for cooler, crate for kids stuff, 2 fuel cans, and pelican cases have tools in one and recovery gear in the other.
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Looking so good! Curious to see what it ends up weighing.
Before the rack, the truck weighed 6100 with my 6 year old and myself and my gear. Rack weighs about 75-100lbs. Some extra gear added.. probably 62-6300 with nobody in it.
 
Before the rack, the truck weighed 6100 with my 6 year old and myself and my gear. Rack weighs about 75-100lbs. Some extra gear added.. probably 62-6300 with nobody in it.
Very cool and I figured it would end up around the 6k range. I like it for sure.
 
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