ridered3
Low Talent Wheelin
Trail fix is a trail fix
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Rock Lizard/Weekend Ultra4(?); blown LS, 40s, tons, bypasses, etc.
- Thread starter snivilous
- Start date
elbekko
Captain Slow
Correct me if I'm wrong (probably am), but if you're trying to stop cracking here, wouldn't it be better to have a "wrap around" gusset that goes on both sides of the tube, instead of putting a sharp stress riser in the middle of the tube?At the end of the day all the nose loads get dumped into either the V-brace or the tubes directly below it, which isn't a lot so big gussets on those will help a lot.
gt1guy
Apparently a racist
Oh, he'll redo them right, after his next race.
chaplinfj60
Well-known member
like a big ass taco.. taco gusset for the win...
snivilous
Well-known member
The tube work I added is the main thing to stop cracking since ideally that stops the tubes going into bending. The gussets are to stop the welds becoming a single point failure.
I don't disagree a wrap around gusset would be better, but A. That's more work than I want to do. And B. The chassis cracked where there was a gusset like this already, and it just cracked around the gusset instead of at the root at the weld. So the gusset still did it's job of bracing the node, it just pushed the failure spot further out and it still failed since the front wasn't trussed.
I'd love to do fancy gussets, but I'm not gonna sit there hole sawing a bunch of tiny tubes or cutting more plate. This is the most band aid of fixes so I can rec wheel it. And hopefully prevent myself from trying to race it again
gt1guy
Apparently a racist
Here's a nice solution for knocking out taco gussets.
blackfishfabrication.com
Saddle Gusset - FREE SHIPPING
Also called "Taco Gussets" these are the lightest, strongest way to beef up a weld node/junction. Heres the kicker: Usually these are only available individually for around $12-$15 each for a 3x3 Saddle Gusset that is generically cut for 45 and 90 degree intersections.... Those really arent...
blackfishfabrication.com
Works well, takes some figuring and eats up length kinda quick.Here's a nice solution for knocking out taco gussets.
Saddle Gusset - FREE SHIPPING
Also called "Taco Gussets" these are the lightest, strongest way to beef up a weld node/junction. Heres the kicker: Usually these are only available individually for around $12-$15 each for a 3x3 Saddle Gusset that is generically cut for 45 and 90 degree intersections.... Those really arent...
snivilous
Well-known member
Nothing too exciting the past week, but may as well throw photos up before I get overrun in the next week.
I talked to an alternator shop and the guy there said my best bet for a higher performance alternator was to get a different one from a later model vehicle instead of rebuilding the one I have. Next week I'll pick that up, it'll be a 200A alternator where as the one now is 105A apparently which explains why the battery seems to constantly be on the brink of dying but is fine in all my other vehicles. The two radiator fans each draw 30A+, plus a big fuel pump, intercooler pump, comms, etc. so not surprising the stock alternator was struggling.
On the other side of the engine, I've had issues with the idler pulley for the power steering bending over so the serpentine belt gets all fucked up. I surfaced the back side of the bracket which was pretty far out and then gusseted the internals more and brace the little post that the pulley seats on.
I'd like to eventually redesign the serpentine routing and get some billet brackets machined, but that's far down the priority list.
While working on the rear end to fix the U-joint and axle yoke, I found more cracks. These were between the top plate and the side plates of the link brackets. The cracking had started at the rear and was working forward along the weld. An interesting failure spot since it would happen from the trailing arms being in tension from the axle getting yanked backwards or during braking. The link bracket is very eccentric from the bottom chassis tube it's mounted to, and obviously that's not very stiff since the downcomer tube and plate are getting loaded up quite a bit trying to stop the link bracket rotating around that tube. In full jank mode, I cut a big trapezoid piece to throw on the back side of the tube and bracket and then two little L shaped gussets. This will reinforce the plate to the link bracket, and also beef up the plate to the downcomer tube which I'm sure would rip off next.
Moving on to the driveshaft, I tried to fix the yoke I had but it seemed really hard and kept eating through drill bits trying to drill it/bolts out, so I went ahead and bought the forged 1350 yoke with U-bolts from Busted Knuckle and also replaced the 1350 U-joint since the old one had been slightly welded to the old yoke.
That wraps up the rear. Moving on it's more or less starting to put everything back together at this point. But first was trying to fit the front coilover reservoirs, which from the new bracing didn't want to route to their home. I pulled the coilovers off and took them apart and dropped the hoses off at Hoses N More to get cut down and some 90deg fittings added on one end. I also cleaned up the driver's side lower spring perch which got nicely chewed up.
The coilovers are just coil carriers right now, but the front end I'd like even stiffer since I have the top bypass tube almost totally closed. Instead of rebuilding the bypasses even stiffer (which are a bitch to bleed by comparison) I'll add some valving to the little 2.0" front coilovers. Have them do a little work, plus I have them apart, and as stated they are a lot easier to bleed than the bypasses.
Other things of note... Power steering pump is in, the hose I bought from Hoses N More didn't end up working since the angles are kind of weird. I ended up going through my hose/fittings bucket and found some combinations that seem to work well and be a bit more relaxed than the previous setup. I also added a few more gussets to the front end, but all the major welding should be done. I have most of the interior body panels back in, I've been punching labels in them so next time it's not assembling a puzzle trying to remember what goes where. The passenger back panel got super fucked when the heim ripped out of the wishbone and ran into it, so that got some fresh tabs and also got ran over by the truck to flatten it back to its previous glory.
Remaining big tasks is get the new alternator, new shock resi hoses and reassemble those, and modify the footwell interior panels to clear the bracing... And a couple small tasks, the transmission cross member bolts that go into the Atlas adapter fell out for the 5th time so maybe get creative figuring out how to hold those in. I ordered some O2 sensor bungs to add the passenger side O2 sensor I've had laying around for 6 months (so far it has been only running off the driver's side O2 for AFR telemetry). And then I have new OEM style rubber exhaust hangars to swap out the absolute retard weird bushing/bolt things I had before.
With any luck it will be going for a test drive next weekend! I also have Tiny the semi truck at a friends house and he's doing a bunch of maintenance/upgrades on it, so I'm really looking forward to going wheeling again! Bunch of upgrades on the buggy and the tow rig, can't wait to drive both again! And after that I will finally do a big cleaning of the shop
I talked to an alternator shop and the guy there said my best bet for a higher performance alternator was to get a different one from a later model vehicle instead of rebuilding the one I have. Next week I'll pick that up, it'll be a 200A alternator where as the one now is 105A apparently which explains why the battery seems to constantly be on the brink of dying but is fine in all my other vehicles. The two radiator fans each draw 30A+, plus a big fuel pump, intercooler pump, comms, etc. so not surprising the stock alternator was struggling.
On the other side of the engine, I've had issues with the idler pulley for the power steering bending over so the serpentine belt gets all fucked up. I surfaced the back side of the bracket which was pretty far out and then gusseted the internals more and brace the little post that the pulley seats on.
I'd like to eventually redesign the serpentine routing and get some billet brackets machined, but that's far down the priority list.
While working on the rear end to fix the U-joint and axle yoke, I found more cracks. These were between the top plate and the side plates of the link brackets. The cracking had started at the rear and was working forward along the weld. An interesting failure spot since it would happen from the trailing arms being in tension from the axle getting yanked backwards or during braking. The link bracket is very eccentric from the bottom chassis tube it's mounted to, and obviously that's not very stiff since the downcomer tube and plate are getting loaded up quite a bit trying to stop the link bracket rotating around that tube. In full jank mode, I cut a big trapezoid piece to throw on the back side of the tube and bracket and then two little L shaped gussets. This will reinforce the plate to the link bracket, and also beef up the plate to the downcomer tube which I'm sure would rip off next.
Moving on to the driveshaft, I tried to fix the yoke I had but it seemed really hard and kept eating through drill bits trying to drill it/bolts out, so I went ahead and bought the forged 1350 yoke with U-bolts from Busted Knuckle and also replaced the 1350 U-joint since the old one had been slightly welded to the old yoke.
That wraps up the rear. Moving on it's more or less starting to put everything back together at this point. But first was trying to fit the front coilover reservoirs, which from the new bracing didn't want to route to their home. I pulled the coilovers off and took them apart and dropped the hoses off at Hoses N More to get cut down and some 90deg fittings added on one end. I also cleaned up the driver's side lower spring perch which got nicely chewed up.
The coilovers are just coil carriers right now, but the front end I'd like even stiffer since I have the top bypass tube almost totally closed. Instead of rebuilding the bypasses even stiffer (which are a bitch to bleed by comparison) I'll add some valving to the little 2.0" front coilovers. Have them do a little work, plus I have them apart, and as stated they are a lot easier to bleed than the bypasses.
Other things of note... Power steering pump is in, the hose I bought from Hoses N More didn't end up working since the angles are kind of weird. I ended up going through my hose/fittings bucket and found some combinations that seem to work well and be a bit more relaxed than the previous setup. I also added a few more gussets to the front end, but all the major welding should be done. I have most of the interior body panels back in, I've been punching labels in them so next time it's not assembling a puzzle trying to remember what goes where. The passenger back panel got super fucked when the heim ripped out of the wishbone and ran into it, so that got some fresh tabs and also got ran over by the truck to flatten it back to its previous glory.
Remaining big tasks is get the new alternator, new shock resi hoses and reassemble those, and modify the footwell interior panels to clear the bracing... And a couple small tasks, the transmission cross member bolts that go into the Atlas adapter fell out for the 5th time so maybe get creative figuring out how to hold those in. I ordered some O2 sensor bungs to add the passenger side O2 sensor I've had laying around for 6 months (so far it has been only running off the driver's side O2 for AFR telemetry). And then I have new OEM style rubber exhaust hangars to swap out the absolute retard weird bushing/bolt things I had before.
With any luck it will be going for a test drive next weekend! I also have Tiny the semi truck at a friends house and he's doing a bunch of maintenance/upgrades on it, so I'm really looking forward to going wheeling again! Bunch of upgrades on the buggy and the tow rig, can't wait to drive both again! And after that I will finally do a big cleaning of the shop
ridered3
Low Talent Wheelin
Enjoy reading through your updates and looking forward to more Tiny updates soon enough.
ridered3
Low Talent Wheelin
snivilous
Well-known member
Got the new shock hoses in. I added a .015" pyramid stack on the compression side of the coilovers (nothing on rebound).
Picked up the new 200A alternator which bolted in.
The output stud was on the outside instead of the back and ended up in a lot nicer spot, before it was cramped next to the oil fill cap.
No photos of the footwell tweaks, but those went pretty fast. My parents were visiting and my dad did the driver's side and I did the passenger side. The passenger side only needed a notch in one of the foot panels, the drivers side wheel well panel got modified a bunch and cut down and another panel made to seal off next to the rear of the engine and turned out pretty nice.
I hadn't fixed the crack on the fender tube yet so welded on that and then overlaid some 2.0" tubing over it.
Some other miscellaneous shit--transmission mount bolts, swapping in another battery, exhaust hangers, passenger sensor O2 sensor added, ECU tweaks, etc. and she was ready for a test drive!
I found the serpentine belt was climbing off the power steering pulley. This had happened before and I figured it was a misalignment issue still even though I had surfaced and reinforced the power steering bracket. I tried some tweaks that didn't do anything, and then realized the whole power steering pulley was out of plane from the rest of the pulleys by 0.110"! I cut a spacer plate out of .120" and put it behind the bracket and that fixed everything! Additionally, the serpentine has always rubbed the chassis slightly, and I figured with pushing the power steering pump forward it was gonna rub worse and I may as well finally fix it while I'm here, I had also been worried about clearancing the chassis before but now that this section has a bunch of reinforcement those worries were put to rest. I notched the chassis tubes and made an insert and welded it in. It's close but the belt now clears everything and all the pulleys look happy for maybe the first time ever!
I did the steering pump and belt fixes Sunday morning, took it for another test drive and everything was acting good so it was time to go wheeling! The semi is still waiting on a pressure manifold that has been delayed so the Tundra did another trip with the buggy.
I met up with some friends and we tooled around Sand Hollow.
Picked up the new 200A alternator which bolted in.
The output stud was on the outside instead of the back and ended up in a lot nicer spot, before it was cramped next to the oil fill cap.
No photos of the footwell tweaks, but those went pretty fast. My parents were visiting and my dad did the driver's side and I did the passenger side. The passenger side only needed a notch in one of the foot panels, the drivers side wheel well panel got modified a bunch and cut down and another panel made to seal off next to the rear of the engine and turned out pretty nice.
I hadn't fixed the crack on the fender tube yet so welded on that and then overlaid some 2.0" tubing over it.
Some other miscellaneous shit--transmission mount bolts, swapping in another battery, exhaust hangers, passenger sensor O2 sensor added, ECU tweaks, etc. and she was ready for a test drive!
I found the serpentine belt was climbing off the power steering pulley. This had happened before and I figured it was a misalignment issue still even though I had surfaced and reinforced the power steering bracket. I tried some tweaks that didn't do anything, and then realized the whole power steering pulley was out of plane from the rest of the pulleys by 0.110"! I cut a spacer plate out of .120" and put it behind the bracket and that fixed everything! Additionally, the serpentine has always rubbed the chassis slightly, and I figured with pushing the power steering pump forward it was gonna rub worse and I may as well finally fix it while I'm here, I had also been worried about clearancing the chassis before but now that this section has a bunch of reinforcement those worries were put to rest. I notched the chassis tubes and made an insert and welded it in. It's close but the belt now clears everything and all the pulleys look happy for maybe the first time ever!
I did the steering pump and belt fixes Sunday morning, took it for another test drive and everything was acting good so it was time to go wheeling! The semi is still waiting on a pressure manifold that has been delayed so the Tundra did another trip with the buggy.
I met up with some friends and we tooled around Sand Hollow.
snivilous
Well-known member
This was the highlight of the trip, going vertical.
Spare coming in handy!
The buggy ran absolutely awesome, no issues the whole time. This is the first time I've had it in the rocks since making a bunch of changes to the steering and brakes earlier this year. The drivetrain worked great, everything was running cool and working great. New gears up front and locker seem happy after going through them. The steering is awesome with the 40+ deg the knuckles are giving me, and I really like the 2-turn orbital. I wonder if a bigger ram would've been smart though since sometimes it can be hard to turn the tires at low rpm. The brakes are a lot better with the F250 master, though in low range at idle on a steep face I sometimes struggle to lock up the tires so need to troubleshoot that a bit more. Neutral is fine, but trying to creep down a steep face and wanting it to be in gear so I can throttle out but then not being able to fully stop it can be annoying. At least with the SHO shifter I have I can quickly move between R/N/D without doing anything special so that certainly eases some of the worries from the brakes struggling--but that is the main thing to try and figure out this week. Everything else was great though! Might back off the front bypass tubes a bit now that the coilovers are doing a little work, but she still rides nice and I continue to be impressed by how flat and capable the chassis is considering what it is.
Besides trying to improve the brakes, one of my mirrors got broken, and my "spare" was the punctured tire from the last race so is totally flat and because of that the rear passenger tire is using the welded together beadlock that normally is used for the spare and it turns out the bead doesn't hold pressure below 15psi so I need to swap the good beadlock and the welded together beadlock, and then find another 40 to throw on the back. I could pull the spare and its mount off entirely, I can pretend like the weight distribution is so much better with the spare, but I think it looks a lot better with the spare (and body panels for that matter) even if pointless for crawling and hurts it at times.
She's back! And running as good as ever!
ridered3
Low Talent Wheelin
Awesome detailed update plus wheeling too!
Chasing down belt alignment issues is the worst.
Chasing down belt alignment issues is the worst.
snivilous
Well-known member
PART 1:
Lots of photos from wheeling this weekend, but first a couple upgrades!
The buggy has always been especially terrible with storage, and after seeing other rigs with little quart holders I got motivated to find some place to store fluids in mine! The passenger side rear panel is one of the few spots that doesn't already have shit stuffed into it, so I drew up a holder and cut it out.
I have some tabs that I welded to the chassis and the holder bolts to so I can easily pull it for access to the shocks. I also have a window cut out so I can access the bypass schrader and top bypass tube. My initial game of tetris (previous photo) I was able to stuff 8 quarts plus the little can of brake fluid. Currently I have 7 quarts of full containers which fits well, 8 is possible but need to open a couple quarts and let the air out to scrunch them down. I think I have 2x ATF, 2x oil, 1.5x brake fluid, 2x power steering, plus a funnel shoved back there. Really stoked for this, since the previous solution was to shove a quart of each fluid in my tool bag, and this takes up zero previously used space for nearly two gallons of fluid! And with a bit more optimization I should be able to get at least 2x more quarts that will sit on the current "roof" of the box. The box is right around 9" tall so a normal quart container just rubs the cap as it slides in so they shouldn't bounce around really, and then the side panel when it bolts on squishes everything slightly too.
Some other tweaks that I don't have photos of: I spent some time testing brake pressures and somehow during that I had both a brake line fail (that didn't seem to be leaking during the last trip?) and then the electric iBooster also somehow shit itself so I stole the one out of the Hilux since it's currently waiting on engine parts and isn't going anywhere any time soon. I extended the brake pedal down by 1.0" which didn't really make a significant brake pressure change but does feel more comfortable since the brake pedal is just a tube so my foot can rotate on it as the pedal swings, so moving the tube down a bit to be more centered on my foot feels nicer. And then last trip I used a little cooler bag the wife gave me, and it fits absolutely perfect between the seats and ECU and radios--that spot had been kind of tricky to figure out how to use it for storage since there's a lot of wiring running through there but that bag will now be the permanent buggy bag for holding food and drinks and stops stuff falling under the seats! The buggy is quickly going from absolutely zero storage to a decent amount!
That's the only tweaks since last week, so time to go wheeling! One of my friends is meeting up with a big group of Toyota guys next week to go wheeling down here, and had been asking about doing Dutchman Draw which I've posted about doing before. I wasn't sure how wise it was of them to try it, so me and some other guys figured we'd go run through it to prerun it for the Toyota guys, and good thing we did! What was tentatively four of us quickly dwindled to just my buggy and the little Samurai from the last trip which was a good Toyota equivalent. I wish there were more of us, I don't doubt we'll be back once the other guys are available, and it is one of my favorite trails around here.
Such a cool and scenic canyon. I like it since it's hard enough to be challenging, has a lot different terrain than the red rock nearby, and since it's a canyon there's no options to bail and "bypasses" are just finding alternate ways around the huge boulders.
I thought the trail was a lot worse than the previous time I had been through, some spots were really washed out though there were tracks from a previous group. This spot the little Samurai struggled pretty hard but eventually made it.
As usual pictures don't show much, but this spot was the determining factor that I didn't think the Toyota bros would want to go through. This was the bypass line and I had trouble for a minute and needed a bit of horsepower to get over, and the Samurai took awhile to find the line. For some Toyota guys that are halfway between our two wheelbases, with a lot higher CG and the same size tires as the Samurai (and people that care about the body) I don't think they could make this spot without winching.
People will get tired of me saying it, but I think this vehicle is so cool and the upgrades this year have been such a huge upgrade! The single biggest upgrade is the steering, being able to crank all the way to the limit of the RCVs at ~42deg is so much more enjoyable than the ~30deg steering angle it had before. It's extremely noticeable compared to before when I would have to backup and four point turn constantly. Good thing I threw that extra tie rod hole in the knuckle design!
Lots of photos from wheeling this weekend, but first a couple upgrades!
The buggy has always been especially terrible with storage, and after seeing other rigs with little quart holders I got motivated to find some place to store fluids in mine! The passenger side rear panel is one of the few spots that doesn't already have shit stuffed into it, so I drew up a holder and cut it out.
I have some tabs that I welded to the chassis and the holder bolts to so I can easily pull it for access to the shocks. I also have a window cut out so I can access the bypass schrader and top bypass tube. My initial game of tetris (previous photo) I was able to stuff 8 quarts plus the little can of brake fluid. Currently I have 7 quarts of full containers which fits well, 8 is possible but need to open a couple quarts and let the air out to scrunch them down. I think I have 2x ATF, 2x oil, 1.5x brake fluid, 2x power steering, plus a funnel shoved back there. Really stoked for this, since the previous solution was to shove a quart of each fluid in my tool bag, and this takes up zero previously used space for nearly two gallons of fluid! And with a bit more optimization I should be able to get at least 2x more quarts that will sit on the current "roof" of the box. The box is right around 9" tall so a normal quart container just rubs the cap as it slides in so they shouldn't bounce around really, and then the side panel when it bolts on squishes everything slightly too.
Some other tweaks that I don't have photos of: I spent some time testing brake pressures and somehow during that I had both a brake line fail (that didn't seem to be leaking during the last trip?) and then the electric iBooster also somehow shit itself so I stole the one out of the Hilux since it's currently waiting on engine parts and isn't going anywhere any time soon. I extended the brake pedal down by 1.0" which didn't really make a significant brake pressure change but does feel more comfortable since the brake pedal is just a tube so my foot can rotate on it as the pedal swings, so moving the tube down a bit to be more centered on my foot feels nicer. And then last trip I used a little cooler bag the wife gave me, and it fits absolutely perfect between the seats and ECU and radios--that spot had been kind of tricky to figure out how to use it for storage since there's a lot of wiring running through there but that bag will now be the permanent buggy bag for holding food and drinks and stops stuff falling under the seats! The buggy is quickly going from absolutely zero storage to a decent amount!
That's the only tweaks since last week, so time to go wheeling! One of my friends is meeting up with a big group of Toyota guys next week to go wheeling down here, and had been asking about doing Dutchman Draw which I've posted about doing before. I wasn't sure how wise it was of them to try it, so me and some other guys figured we'd go run through it to prerun it for the Toyota guys, and good thing we did! What was tentatively four of us quickly dwindled to just my buggy and the little Samurai from the last trip which was a good Toyota equivalent. I wish there were more of us, I don't doubt we'll be back once the other guys are available, and it is one of my favorite trails around here.
Such a cool and scenic canyon. I like it since it's hard enough to be challenging, has a lot different terrain than the red rock nearby, and since it's a canyon there's no options to bail and "bypasses" are just finding alternate ways around the huge boulders.
I thought the trail was a lot worse than the previous time I had been through, some spots were really washed out though there were tracks from a previous group. This spot the little Samurai struggled pretty hard but eventually made it.
As usual pictures don't show much, but this spot was the determining factor that I didn't think the Toyota bros would want to go through. This was the bypass line and I had trouble for a minute and needed a bit of horsepower to get over, and the Samurai took awhile to find the line. For some Toyota guys that are halfway between our two wheelbases, with a lot higher CG and the same size tires as the Samurai (and people that care about the body) I don't think they could make this spot without winching.
People will get tired of me saying it, but I think this vehicle is so cool and the upgrades this year have been such a huge upgrade! The single biggest upgrade is the steering, being able to crank all the way to the limit of the RCVs at ~42deg is so much more enjoyable than the ~30deg steering angle it had before. It's extremely noticeable compared to before when I would have to backup and four point turn constantly. Good thing I threw that extra tie rod hole in the knuckle design!
snivilous
Well-known member
PART 2:
A few miles later and we were at the fork where the trail splits into two canyons, the right fork is (or was a long time ago) easier but probably doubles the trail length. The left fork is significantly shorter but is probably the hardest obstacles of the whole trail and goes from navigating huge boulders to effectively a vehicle width slot canyon and some good size cracks and climbs. Again, very cool terrain and scenery!
The hardest part which luckily has a bypass is a gnarly slot that I'm certainly not ready to attempt and if screwed up you're majorly SOL, but luckily there's a pretty steep and sometimes sketchy bypass around it.
The Samurai was in front of me, and we decided for me to go up first in case he needed help up.
Like last time I was here, the buggy walked up it which is amazing since it certainly looks like one of the most gnarly climbs. But the rocks here have like barncle type knobs on them so actually have a ton of traction and it's continuous stair steps so all the tires have a lot of traction. At least for my wheel base it's easy.
For the little Samurai though, it had the exact wrong wheelbase and struggled just to get up the first step, let alone the remaining four.
The Samurai did make it about halfway up eventually, and then we decided to pull the winch before it got too sketchy. We ran the winch from my buggy under the front axle and backwards and with a little help the Samurai got up the ledge it had issue on and then walked up the rest!
Getting around the crack is a bit of a challenge, if you're much wider than me it might get interesting.
Buggy got a little tippy dropping the front driver tire off that ledge, but if it was 3 wheeling it wasn't by much! The Samurai had both the weakness of not being wide or long, and the advantage of being so short and narrow that he could reposition on that ledge and just point straight down and not worry about doing the off camber step down I did.
After the crack there's another spot that's a little difficult but has a few options. Last year I went through the main line and had a hell of a time with my rear driver's tire getting stuck in an undercut. This year after some walking around I figured I'd try an alternate line which was to bypass the crack/waterfall and just go straight up the hillside, which was pretty anticlimactic and definitely the easier line of the two.
The Samurai went through the center and actually did pretty well since it's so narrow, though did do some extreme three wheeling before getting on the line.
After that was a handful more easy obstacles and we were out and back on the dirt trail along the canyon rim and back to the trucks! The guy with the Samurai was the one fixing up the semi and it was done being worked on, so to top off the day I got to pick it up. Towed the buggy down with the Tundra, and hauled the buggy and towed the Tundra back up with Tiny!
And that wraps up wheeling for this weekend! The buggy did absolutely great and continues to impress me. Since there wasn't a lot of tippy stuff the wife also rode along which is rare; a buggy, the wife, heated seats, music, no issues, and taking Tiny home was just repeated wins for the day!
And I don't think the Toyota bros will be doing this trail, and if they do, my FJ40 won't be going with them!
A few miles later and we were at the fork where the trail splits into two canyons, the right fork is (or was a long time ago) easier but probably doubles the trail length. The left fork is significantly shorter but is probably the hardest obstacles of the whole trail and goes from navigating huge boulders to effectively a vehicle width slot canyon and some good size cracks and climbs. Again, very cool terrain and scenery!
The hardest part which luckily has a bypass is a gnarly slot that I'm certainly not ready to attempt and if screwed up you're majorly SOL, but luckily there's a pretty steep and sometimes sketchy bypass around it.
The Samurai was in front of me, and we decided for me to go up first in case he needed help up.
Like last time I was here, the buggy walked up it which is amazing since it certainly looks like one of the most gnarly climbs. But the rocks here have like barncle type knobs on them so actually have a ton of traction and it's continuous stair steps so all the tires have a lot of traction. At least for my wheel base it's easy.
For the little Samurai though, it had the exact wrong wheelbase and struggled just to get up the first step, let alone the remaining four.
The Samurai did make it about halfway up eventually, and then we decided to pull the winch before it got too sketchy. We ran the winch from my buggy under the front axle and backwards and with a little help the Samurai got up the ledge it had issue on and then walked up the rest!
Getting around the crack is a bit of a challenge, if you're much wider than me it might get interesting.
Buggy got a little tippy dropping the front driver tire off that ledge, but if it was 3 wheeling it wasn't by much! The Samurai had both the weakness of not being wide or long, and the advantage of being so short and narrow that he could reposition on that ledge and just point straight down and not worry about doing the off camber step down I did.
After the crack there's another spot that's a little difficult but has a few options. Last year I went through the main line and had a hell of a time with my rear driver's tire getting stuck in an undercut. This year after some walking around I figured I'd try an alternate line which was to bypass the crack/waterfall and just go straight up the hillside, which was pretty anticlimactic and definitely the easier line of the two.
The Samurai went through the center and actually did pretty well since it's so narrow, though did do some extreme three wheeling before getting on the line.
After that was a handful more easy obstacles and we were out and back on the dirt trail along the canyon rim and back to the trucks! The guy with the Samurai was the one fixing up the semi and it was done being worked on, so to top off the day I got to pick it up. Towed the buggy down with the Tundra, and hauled the buggy and towed the Tundra back up with Tiny!
And that wraps up wheeling for this weekend! The buggy did absolutely great and continues to impress me. Since there wasn't a lot of tippy stuff the wife also rode along which is rare; a buggy, the wife, heated seats, music, no issues, and taking Tiny home was just repeated wins for the day!
And I don't think the Toyota bros will be doing this trail, and if they do, my FJ40 won't be going with them!
'84 Bronco II
El Chingón
Dutchman looks pretty sick, but it is hard to convince folks to leave the red rocks. One of these days I am going to check it out. Canyon Crawling is my favorite 
snivilous
Well-known member
I want to scout through Google Earth and see if there's other similar canyons down here. There's a lot of land between here and the Grand Canyon!Dutchman looks pretty sick, but it is hard to convince folks to leave the red rocks. One of these days I am going to check it out. Canyon Crawling is my favorite
There's a branch at the start of the canyon that I went down once with the SXS but it ended abruptly and only seemed dirt bike accessible, but I wonder if I saw it with the buggy if it would look possible.
ridered3
Low Talent Wheelin
Awesome use of space for fluid storage!
Looks like a mighty good time wheeling!
Looks like a mighty good time wheeling!
ridered3
Low Talent Wheelin
Mighty good low buck tech tip!
snivilous
Well-known member
Some more wheeling yesterday after work
ridered3
Low Talent Wheelin
Looks like a mighty fun time!
snivilous
Well-known member
First up, my buddy sent me all the video clips of when we did Dutchman Draw, which were many, and I threw them together here. Nothing particularly exciting but if you're bored and wanted to see that trail:
Last weeks modifications and improvements were converting the buggy back to trail mode. The last time out the spare tire got absolutely railed and was breaking the studs off that were holding it on, so even though I like the spare on it, I pulled it off. Pulling that much weight that far back I had to lower the rear significantly so I jacked it up and removed a few inches of preload from the coilovers.
That dropped the belly height to ~19", which feels a bit low. That's ~7" of uptravel. We'll see how it feels sitting this low. I also backed off the bypass tubes quite a bit.
The big excitement was getting new tires.
40" sticky Black Label Milestars. I was able to pick them up locally from Woody and paid cash and got a screaming deal. I've always had a stigma with the Milestars, it seemed like only sponsored influencers ran them. But I wanted to get new tires and I wanted stickies, and after reading as much as I could it sounded like they have a new compound and improvements, some WE Rock comp guys are running them without being sponsored, and they're literally 1/3 the price of a sticky Trepador. Worst case if they end up being horrible, I'm out the price of one fancy tire. Or I could buy a dozen Milestars for the price of a set of other tires. I'm also coming from DOT Procomps, so the bar is pretty low of how they need to perform.
I picked them up on Friday, Saturday I took the beadlocks and old tires to some tire stores to get the inner bead popped off (one beadlock I had to take to a second tire store since the first one couldn't get the bead to break). And Sunday was wheeling!
But before that, both rear axle shafts were working their way loose. The driver's side was fully gapped. Locktighted the shit out of the bolts, we'll see if they stay put better but that'll be something I start checking.
Sunday we went back to Chain Reaction again since we didn't have time to finish it last weekend. Right off the bat my buddy rolled, 1st obstacle, 1st attempt!
He ultimately couldn't make it this time, though he was able to last week. It seemed like there was a lot more sand on the rocks this time so he kept sliding off the line.
I wasn't able to make it last time, but this time I did! It took a good bit of working. My buddy puts his driver's tire way high on the shelf and leans the front all the way over and tries to walk through, I haven't been able to get very far doing that but I was able to climb the right side so the driver's tire ends up in the undercut of the shelf, and then somehow was able to get the driver's tire to climb out of the undercut and pull over. This was the first time I've ever been able to do this obstacle so I was very stoked.
Other guy tried a bit more but to no avail and eventually bypassed it (after flopping it one more time).
These two waterfalls I struggled on last time, the one nearest to the camera I tried and couldn't make and felt totally traction limited since it seemed like I was lined up right. This time the buggy walked both of them without issue. The tires made a very considerable difference I could feel all day. Granted, the spare tire is gone, but even stuff as simple as getting the front to pull up a ledge or maneuver around before the rear is lined up and I could feel a big difference from the same spot a week ago. Made it feel like the buggy didn't suck at rock crawling as much as usual!
We finished the rest of Chain Reaction, turned out where we bailed last time is a good spot to bail since there's nothing too exciting after that. But ironically the very end my buddies rear diff decided it didn't want to diff any more so he limped his buggy back to the truck.
I had some Toyota friends that were running trails, so went and tagged along with them in a few spots.
They did the Fallen trail which is easy, but there were a couple side obstacles I was worried about but with some spotting the buggy walked through.
This random obstacle at the very bottom was not one of those though.
I did have some weird fuel pressure issues at the end though. The fuel pump had been making some weird noises the last time out, which was probably the same thing. I pulled the pre-pump fuel filter and that seemed to help but at the end it still wasn't happy if it I gave it full power. I'm wondering if the pickup in the tank is having issues or clogged. I have a hydramat which I know are known to break down, and this one is like 7 years old. I'll pull the post-pump fuel filter too, blow both filters out, and then pull the hydramat and see what's up. It has proper fuel pressure at idle, but when it was first acting up almost any throttle would make the pressure drop a ton so there's a flow issue and the pump noises sound like it's struggling to stay loaded up so something upstream of it is blocked I think.
Otherwise the buggy did absolutely awesome, and I am beyond happy with the performance from the Milestars so far and they are a big step up over what I'm used to.
Last weeks modifications and improvements were converting the buggy back to trail mode. The last time out the spare tire got absolutely railed and was breaking the studs off that were holding it on, so even though I like the spare on it, I pulled it off. Pulling that much weight that far back I had to lower the rear significantly so I jacked it up and removed a few inches of preload from the coilovers.
That dropped the belly height to ~19", which feels a bit low. That's ~7" of uptravel. We'll see how it feels sitting this low. I also backed off the bypass tubes quite a bit.
The big excitement was getting new tires.
40" sticky Black Label Milestars. I was able to pick them up locally from Woody and paid cash and got a screaming deal. I've always had a stigma with the Milestars, it seemed like only sponsored influencers ran them. But I wanted to get new tires and I wanted stickies, and after reading as much as I could it sounded like they have a new compound and improvements, some WE Rock comp guys are running them without being sponsored, and they're literally 1/3 the price of a sticky Trepador. Worst case if they end up being horrible, I'm out the price of one fancy tire. Or I could buy a dozen Milestars for the price of a set of other tires. I'm also coming from DOT Procomps, so the bar is pretty low of how they need to perform.
I picked them up on Friday, Saturday I took the beadlocks and old tires to some tire stores to get the inner bead popped off (one beadlock I had to take to a second tire store since the first one couldn't get the bead to break). And Sunday was wheeling!
But before that, both rear axle shafts were working their way loose. The driver's side was fully gapped. Locktighted the shit out of the bolts, we'll see if they stay put better but that'll be something I start checking.
Sunday we went back to Chain Reaction again since we didn't have time to finish it last weekend. Right off the bat my buddy rolled, 1st obstacle, 1st attempt!
He ultimately couldn't make it this time, though he was able to last week. It seemed like there was a lot more sand on the rocks this time so he kept sliding off the line.
I wasn't able to make it last time, but this time I did! It took a good bit of working. My buddy puts his driver's tire way high on the shelf and leans the front all the way over and tries to walk through, I haven't been able to get very far doing that but I was able to climb the right side so the driver's tire ends up in the undercut of the shelf, and then somehow was able to get the driver's tire to climb out of the undercut and pull over. This was the first time I've ever been able to do this obstacle so I was very stoked.
Other guy tried a bit more but to no avail and eventually bypassed it (after flopping it one more time).
These two waterfalls I struggled on last time, the one nearest to the camera I tried and couldn't make and felt totally traction limited since it seemed like I was lined up right. This time the buggy walked both of them without issue. The tires made a very considerable difference I could feel all day. Granted, the spare tire is gone, but even stuff as simple as getting the front to pull up a ledge or maneuver around before the rear is lined up and I could feel a big difference from the same spot a week ago. Made it feel like the buggy didn't suck at rock crawling as much as usual!
We finished the rest of Chain Reaction, turned out where we bailed last time is a good spot to bail since there's nothing too exciting after that. But ironically the very end my buddies rear diff decided it didn't want to diff any more so he limped his buggy back to the truck.
I had some Toyota friends that were running trails, so went and tagged along with them in a few spots.
They did the Fallen trail which is easy, but there were a couple side obstacles I was worried about but with some spotting the buggy walked through.
This random obstacle at the very bottom was not one of those though.
I did have some weird fuel pressure issues at the end though. The fuel pump had been making some weird noises the last time out, which was probably the same thing. I pulled the pre-pump fuel filter and that seemed to help but at the end it still wasn't happy if it I gave it full power. I'm wondering if the pickup in the tank is having issues or clogged. I have a hydramat which I know are known to break down, and this one is like 7 years old. I'll pull the post-pump fuel filter too, blow both filters out, and then pull the hydramat and see what's up. It has proper fuel pressure at idle, but when it was first acting up almost any throttle would make the pressure drop a ton so there's a flow issue and the pump noises sound like it's struggling to stay loaded up so something upstream of it is blocked I think.
Otherwise the buggy did absolutely awesome, and I am beyond happy with the performance from the Milestars so far and they are a big step up over what I'm used to.
Last edited:
ridered3
Low Talent Wheelin
Glad to read about more seat time and changes to the buggy! Going from any DOT to a stickie is going to be a major improvement.
Was going to reply with this when I read that!
Maybe time to ditch the mat and just have regular pickups or maybe walbros? I've had luck with the walbros on a few 4.0 jeep motors but that's apples to oranges.
Love this buggy and all the tech!
snivilous
Well-known member
I like the Aeromotive pump I have (besides being insanely loud). I would imagine there's a multi pickup setup with check valves that keep it always sucking from a point with fuel?
If that's not a thing then I'll probably get fancy with some baffling so there's a reservoir it's always sucking from, kind of like OEMs with the fuel basket.
I know there’s shit for room, but a surge tank is viable.