Some crew cab updates.
For those that missed the Rubicon thread, we made the 2,300 mile trip driving the crew cab all the way there and back without any issues. There are things that need addressed, but nothing that stopped us from getting there, driving the trail, and making it back home.
Here's the cargo rack loaded up for the trip:
Here are a few trail pictures:
The duck checking out the Rubicon sign.
This was a water crossing that I tried to drown the truck in. There's a deep hole if you cross too far to the driver side. Jerks watching from the shore were yelling bad directions at me and it got deep enough the rad fans were spraying water out the hood vents.
Luckily
@Imaginary Friend 1985 got me pointed in the right direction but it's still plenty deep.
On the way there we had to stop at my favorite speed shop and get a picture out front and do a little shopping.
As for the bad, the first issue was airing down the front tires a bit too much. I ended up burping the bead a couple of times which has never happened before. So I ended up airing them up to a little higher pressure. 11psi versus 14psi. Didn't have a problem after going to 14psi.
I hit the front axle and diff cover a lot on this trail, more than I can remember on any other. It was bad enough that
@ashman and I both had to tighten our cover bolts because the bolts had loosened up from the impacts.
You can also see in the picture above, the front shaft got a little love. Also evident in the picture below.
I had 3 problems with body damage. The on the last day I noticed one side of the hood seemed to sitting up higher than it should be. Turned out I had ripped the hood pin out of the core support. Coming down a drop off that required turning and avoiding a tree, I got too close to the tree and dented both driver side doors pretty badly. Luckily no glass was broken and both windows operate normally. The last problem was scaping the passenger side 3+3 badge off.
On the way back home, we took a quick detour to drive on the Bonneville Salt Flats. It was a lot of work to clean the salt of the bottom of the truck once we were home, but it was worth it to say we've been there.
I was only driving 75mph, which is just 5mph higher than I drive on the interstate on the trip there and back. I was thinking more about how I had 8 hours drive left than trying to set a land speed record.
Since we got back I've been working on finishing a project I had to abandon before the Rubicon. I had hoped to get a rear winch installed before the trip, but in my rush I messed up some of the mounting holes and I knew there wasn't time to get it done. It's mounted behind what passes for the rear bumper.
The plate is bolted to the lower angled piece. I knew it was going to be a tight fit, but I had hoped I could lift the winch into place without pulling the lower piece. I didn't quite fit. I still ended up needing to cut notches in the rear bumper area to get it in place.
I added pieces of angle that were also acting as washers. This is because it's the mounting holes for the winch that I had messed up drilling them at 4" on center instead of 4-1/2". I had to make slots in order for it to work. I felt like the angle gave me a little piece of mind with the over large holes.
I would like to say I had intended for the winch controller to fit on the back end of the plate, but that was total luck. The plate only sticks out that far because that was the size of flat plate I had laying around the yard, 12" wide 1/4" plate. One of the reasons I abandoned the project before the Rubicon was because I expected it to be a lot of work to mound the controller somewhere.
It is possible to reach the clutch lever from behind the truck without having to try too hard. My intent is for it to always be engaged and power out the winch line. I'm using the wireless controller to run the winch with a remote.
The winch I'm using is my Tabor 12K that had the burned up winch motor from a coupel of years ago. I found a company selling replacement motors for half the cost of a Warn replacement. I figure it should be good enough for a seldom used rear winch. I'm also using an old synthetic line I had to cut about 15 feet off of because it got too hot and melty on the winch drum. The wireless controller is also an old one I had for the Tabor winch. I wasn't using it anymore because the Warn Evo winch I have up front now came with a wireless controller.
I like having the Tabor winch back on this truck because it has a little sentimental value. My dad had given it to me a few years before he passed. That was when I still had the K5 so it's been with me for a while. In the meantime I've had to replace the tie rods and one end plate, plus a couple of contactors, and then finally the motor.
Now that the winch is in, I can start working on making use of that cutout in the lower piece of the rear bumper and get a receiver hitch installed.
Nicole was waffling about us going this year because of what the fuel was going to cost. I told her we could just about guarantee that gas isn't going to be cheaper in 2024.
