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Got the truck home, Shop did everything I asked them to, yesterday I saw that the antifriction pads were missing in the rear location of the deck. Ended up getting a sheet of UHMW ( Ultra High Molecular Weight ) polyethylene. It's a very dense very slippery surface , used between the aluminum deck and the steel subcarrier. It was a bit of a chore to cut but I got it cut and placed in the plate. I have enough uhmw to replace all the pads and the strips . Then onto wiring , the deck side marker light have been out since iv owned the truck , so now they are operational, also the upper signal ligh

Got invited to an impromptu tour of Pockwock to Ingramport through some woods and Bowater - figured it would be a good time for a shakedown run - we covered 140km, with 58km off road I also had chance to air up from 8 PSI to ~24 PSI - this pump fills up the 35's really quickly No big issues found. I may need to add a transmission temp gauge to see what it's doing as it was flaring a little when hot - a 2nd trans rad has been added, so I knew there was a cooling issue before I bought it. I'll also need to service the link ends over winter. We'll be scheduling some regular clu

Figured 57/60ths of a high lift was better than none....so i chopped a few inches off mine and made it fit

New glass is in just gotta put the cowl back on

No real updates, being laid up with restrictions sucks, another 4 -6weeks left but figured I'd post to keep the crickets at bay. Still planning on full suspension build. Some good news, my new welder has arrived, although I can't lift it at the moment but it's here ready lol, and the fender flares are here as well. Iv got the time to really look and study my plan of attack for this build.

Alright, pre mvi done, have a list, can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Few more repairs needed and she will be legal, on a side note, coming home from pre mvi, lost power, and the truck was dieing, left me stranded on the road. Engine not picking up fuel, just changed the fuel filter a week ago with a genuine cat filter. Did a couple of roadside checks, blockage all led to the filter, even siphoned fuel up through the feed line and blew back through into the tank, lines were clear. The filter I had removed prior to the cat replacement,was a carquest fuel filter that was on the truck

Now I can run with the ‘Trail Rated’ Jeeps and Chev Z71s, lol.

Here is a pic of the truck leaning, and the broken Torsion bar Was mocking up and taking measurements , figuring out ride height and looking at the angles of everything, here is a slightly higher than ride height guestimate ,it should sit a couple inches lower than how the pic was taken, I was originally planning afront spring shackle like a jeep yj or samurai setup, but after i saw how high it is came up with some rear shackle options that should keep it a bit lower

We had no kids for a day, our off road exploration adventure started at the Radar Base, and went from there. We traveled some trails around there , then we went over to "Grandaddy hill" and went up, then some moretrails from there, turned back on 2 different trails, but will attempt once my truck is Matified to suit. Had a couple of questionable muddy encounters. Lots of crawling, and we tested out my photography skills lol. Here are the pictures from our exploration Date. Damages include the pass side mirror lens fell out, and I lost my car Keys somewhere. Fun day , we got home around 20:00

Accessory bar done. Next job, exhaust....it's slowly sawing through the front driveshaft when 4wd is engaged lol

Scout pics.

Truck has made it to the shop to get work done. Having the Brakes, Throwout Bearing, slave cylinder, starter, main power cable, transfer case and the driveshafts done along with the drivers side floor repaired. Should be good for a bit after this as long as I keep my right foot out of it.

Loose mounted springs on the front axle, stuck tires and wheels on the axle to take some measurements. Also have the new winch for this truck, still need to fab up some mounts for the winch plate.

Some pics of the latest fun.

This shouldn't be much of a build thread, but I bought well built rig. 1998 tracker2.3l suzuki aerio motorFront Trail Gear Rock Assault axle with chromoly axles, trail gear 5.29 diff with ARB lockerRear stock Toyota axle with 5.29 gears and ARB lockerTrail Tough Trail Slayer SAS kitARB twin compressor with 1 Gallon Viair tank4.24 geared transfer case with twin stick Front and rear Trail Tough slip yoke eliminatorsCustom front/rear double cardan driveshaftsTrail Tough 3 speed auto custom adapterNewly rebuilt 3 speed automatic transmission from Rick Roods transmission35x12.50 Goodyear

It's official, I'm full time Towing full time for myself, FireballTowing and recovery! It's crazy leap, especially since I just committed to buying a new er car for Tracey after she flipped the Xterra. But I feel great, like a huge weight was lifted and scared at the same time! If anyone needs a tow, 902-329-3440 , or a heavy objects moved, I delivered a brand new snow blower and more odd non car related items. FireBall Towing and Recovery ! I'm so excited

The "DUKE" got it's new headgasket, along with the rest of the gaskets needed while pulling the head, also did rear shocks, new muffler, intermediate pipe, new tail pipe, new side mirrors, new rear brakes and wheel cylinders, fixed the inoperative wipers, fixed the inop reverse lights, installed really ugly license plate light, swapped tires with the Nissan and gave the Duke it's identity back by installing the proper GMC grille. When removing the head, found a broken head bolt!? Was broke for a while, had bit of rust on it, and found bent pushrods. !? Didn't see anything to cause those issue

Here is two on the hook, not a car but still on the wheel lift, the full side on pic makes the trailer look nose high, but it's just the crown of a small hill, once on flat ground it was level

Another test load, transported this car to filming sets 2 nights in a row.

These are just side markers, and i like them. I want to do the turn signals next, so I'll need an led flasher module. Maybe I'll do the instrument cluster too, because half of it isn't lit due to a bulb or 2 being out.

This is what I really want as it has GPS Speedo .It's spendy, but maybe Christmas Amazon vouchers this year

100% on the road, now working out some equipment details to make it ready to tow

It took a root pass, and 3 more hot passes, so hopefully it's strong enough yes you're right, I'm probably moving the problem. I suspect the PO rock bounced it 1 too many times. Im not hard on gear, so we'll see how it lasts.

Thanks. It helps to have gear and a garage. I just approach these projects in small steps. Posting progress online helps me too....somehow. So, the mount is done. I must have bench pressed this heavy awkward chunk under rig at least 50 times today, im going to be sore in the morning lol. Just waiting for it to cool down before I bolt it in and drill the last 2 holes.

mocked up the trans mount. The 180 is going to need several passes to fill this in

Those joints are like a heim, but different companies make these HD ones - like Barnes 4wd. They have it listed as an "enduro joint". https://www.barnes4wd.com/Enduro-Joint_c_51.html Ballistic fab calls them "ballistic joints" https://www.ballisticfabrication.com/collections/ballistic-joints Pretty sure you've got something like that.

Need an armrest, so i went hunting at Kenny's in the sun. Poked my head in dozens of vehicles, then found the only current gen matrix in the yard with something very close to what I'm looking for. Im going to need to move the air tank, but well worth a $20 tinker....

Got invited to tour of the Range. I had to cut it short after the rock climb as I started to hear some suspension grinding and clunking due to a bad rod end (or 2) It was a shake down run after all

1st mod done

Picked up one of these Warn Epic Sidewinder shackle / hook replacements for the winch yesterday at Princess Auto. They still had a tag on the shelf for $59.56 - even though the sale ended they gave it to me anyway. https://www.warn.com/100635-epic-sidewinder-gunmetal https://www.princessauto.com/en/detail/gunmetal-epic-sidewinder/A-p8915910e I'll get it on the Heep in the coming weeks to replace the rusty hook ... will clean up the front end a bit.

Doesn't need to be exact for me, just need something that will ball park it, +or -5 don't care. I'm not scientific by any means lok Tracey's car is in mph, and tight increments, so it is an interpretation of what 100kmph is haha. The needle was roughly between 60 and 65mph on the car and GPS said 100km, so I'm happy with it. Once I get a feel for what speeds feel like in the truck, ill probably never look at speedometer again, but having not had much seat time and zero reference for speed, can only gauge from guessing, and it won't speed on the highway lol.

Ordered a GPS speedometer as the original speedometer reads wrong, and with the 2 speed rear end throws it out alot including milage. The GPS speedometer is digital and cheap, to track milage on the towtruck I'm going to install a Hubometer, which will fasten to the hub of the wheel, and when the tire turns , it tracks the revolution and is permanent set to the tire size on the truck. Basically an odometer on the wheel. Here are pics of a Hubometer and the GPS speedometer I have ordered.

Nice, in a rough sort of way. ‘67 Chev, 327 V8, manual tranny with floor shifter, GM 14 Bolt rear, 8 lug front. Big Edelbrock carb, 16” rims

The black one, F350 crew cab Long box, he lives in Timberlea I believe, when he isn't in Bayer's lake, he is at the timberlea Tim's, can't remember his name, western crew cab , doesn't use it in the winter, he built it ground up, has a few old fords

Stock openings are wide open for rocks, branches, etc to puncture the rad. This is a metal insert which will provide some level of protection.

Deck is now repaired, Still some dialing in with hyd line routing, but it's functional, had to try it out and loaded the little truck.

Thanks Matt, I think I fianlly got it figured out last night. I dont think i had my wand fully inserted into the machine so most of the gas was leaking past the seals. Now that's fixed, I dont have to be almost touching the work piece to get coverage. Polarity was good btw Welding with gas vs flux is night and day. My technique needs some practice, but I'm super stoked with my little setup I feel some sliders coming lol

Had a little poke around Ellershouse and Bowater yesterday. I don't have a mount for my phone so I didn't do GPS ... I also didn't think to take photos. Getting used to driving the Jeep now vs. what I was used to. First time airing it down and disconnecting the swaybar. I'm getting used to it.

Thanks, it cleaned up pretty good, the interior was a positive point of decisions to purchase this truck, I also have some pics of this truck when it was rebuilt in the 90's. It has an interesting history with alot of sitting around. There is a Toromont Cat reman engine in it, and I don't believe there is much for milage on it, it's showing 150,000kms on it. And I don't think it was a tow truck its entire life, but am not sure of its previous history

Heard it may be going in the shop this week to start the work, excited to get it back!

It’s still like new just a tiny ding. I test flexed it in a big rut before taking it out. It takes a fair bit to flex out the suspension that far so it was easy to avoid until I got a chance to extend them.

Looking forward to hearing more about these trails, and eventually getting out on them in the ‘Burban ! Man, it’s been a long time since she’s been out. Personal sickness, Global Pandemic, domestic partner issues, etc. Shake head!

There is one route of the loop I'm thinking of that is a bit of a winch fest, I'm looking at other possible bypass for it, also it is over grown with some underbrush and some scraggly evergreen, it will be hard on paint, but but is wide enough that it shouldn't inflict any damages. I haven't had this truck through there yet , will need to get the winch mounted. I will probably do some more scouting with my 4 wheeler, it's a little quicker and more nimble to do some scouting. From my house is pretty awesome for trails in the area, can head many directions, from Beaver bank, to ellershouse, to r

Bumper is done. I have to re weld the vertical runs as they are shocking....I cannot weld up hill!! I'm super pleased with how it came out. I'll add a stubby bull bar the height of the market lights later. Burnt it all with my DC stick 7014 rods on my generator. 100ft of 12/3 on a 15amp breaker doesnt work very well lol.

Got the oil changed in the Jeep today and hung my fire extinguisher on the roll cage in the back. The straps are a bit long, but this is a 2 lb extinguisher (I thought it was 3). I suspect a 3 lb would fill out the straps nicely.

727 lbs of refundable steel. The old shop vac canister is chock full and overflowing. Another load to go next week.

Sizing up the mount for the winch , looks like it will be an easy mount, just need to pick up some material, the mount is a warn Brand winch Mount, for what, I have no idea, but here is the sizing up pic. It will be a little closer to the bumper than in these pics

Saved an $80 delivery charge the other day, it was a beautiful day for a drive to the valley! Shows the summer rims. Tires will be okay for street/dirt road. Mud not so much! Picked up a pair of small ‘detail’ parts at PA the other day for the Scout. Will post pics once installed. Also picked up a tow bar w/shackle and a recovery strap, and stored them in the Ranger. Overdue. 4WD ‘truck’ is not much good if ya can’t at least tug something out of a ditch, up a wet grassy lawn at the cottage, etc.

FYI - these are on sale again (ending today!). Picked up a set for the Heep ... will be good for the fam too if we're out doing things I guess.

I like a good paved driveway. Makes maintenance a lot easier ... less risk of rocks through windows with snow blowers / lawn mowers too.