Blender, My LX450/FZJ80 + FJ45esk + GM + Land Rover crazy concoction

locrwln

Expedition Leader
Unfortunately, those "fine gentlemen" take a lot of the greatness out of doing the 'Con. When I first started going in the early 90's, it wasn't a problem, but with the advent of cheap powerful stereos systems with "wake board" speakers, now you get to hear everyone's music. :cautious:

The exit from Observation Point is everyone's least favorite part of the trail. Too rough for any speed and not rough enough to be a challenge.

Looks like a great trip and I am glad to hear that the truck worked out so well.

Jack
 

Metcalf

Expedition Leader
Unfortunately, those "fine gentlemen" take a lot of the greatness out of doing the 'Con. When I first started going in the early 90's, it wasn't a problem, but with the advent of cheap powerful stereos systems with "wake board" speakers, now you get to hear everyone's music. :cautious:

The exit from Observation Point is everyone's least favorite part of the trail. Too rough for any speed and not rough enough to be a challenge.

Looks like a great trip and I am glad to hear that the truck worked out so well.

Jack

Yeah, we where more upset about the rather reckless fire during a fire ban and leaving it roaring while you went for a night run.....

We still had fun though.

Truck is working very well. I was really impressed for its first time out. I still have a list as long as my arm of little things I want to tweak, improve, or add. They are never done till they are sold. Anyone want to buy it?
 

bkg

Explorer
Yeah, we where more upset about the rather reckless fire during a fire ban and leaving it roaring while you went for a night run.....

We still had fun though.

Truck is working very well. I was really impressed for its first time out. I still have a list as long as my arm of little things I want to tweak, improve, or add. They are never done till they are sold. Anyone want to buy it?
$3.50 shipped?
 

Metcalf

Expedition Leader
Road trip part B







I was really fortunate to be invited down to the Off Road Expo show in Pamona, California by Milestar Tire to display the #LX45 in their booth. I was a really awesome experience overall, and another bucket list item to check off for me. I have to admit, I was very nervous to have thousands of people, including some BIG industry players look over my little garage build. In the end it went great. I actually got to work into the booth both days and interact with people asking questions about the build. Lots of people where very impressed that I drove it.....now some 1650 miles out to the show.

The return trip back home to Colorado brought the final total for the shakedown run to just over 2400 miles!

Overall, for a first run, I couldn't be happier.

Some more reflection and review of the build from my notes....

The suspension of this thing is a TOTALLY different league from the
flat fender. I hope you get to go for a ride in it to compare to your
TJ. The road manors are really good. It is easy to drive on the
highway at modern 70-80mph speeds with one hand on the wheel and it
doesn't require constant attention. It doesn't seem to wander. There
is no steering wheel shimmy or shake. It doesn't seem to need a front
sway bar. You can toss it around pretty good and exceed most posted
corner speed signs without any issues.

The spring rates seem to be good, even the rear end ( which I thought
was going to be too stiff ). The stance is just about what I would
want. For REALLY big trips with more gear I might even swap in the
taller rear springs. The other really nice thing....it doesn't seem to
bottom out, or at least I can't feel it. I can't tell when the front
foam bumpstops engage either, they just basically 'catch' the axle
without any noise or drama which is so nice. I didn't notice the rear
suspension bottom out either, and it doesn't even have the big foam
stops yet. I think the good shocks really help and probably the best
thing is a decent amount of uptravel. I ended up with ~6" in front and
5" on the rear suspension ( 10.6 front shock travel, 10.1 rear shock
travel ).

In the entire 2400 mile trip I only had one butt-pucker moment on the
road. I was passing a group of motor-homes on a 2-lane highway in the
four corners area. This is basically on the 'res' and the roads are
crap. I was going about 75-85mph during the pass and hit a section of
repaired road with big 'rollers' in the pavement. I think any vehicle
would have gotten tossed around a bit.....getting tossed around a bit
on 40s at 23psi is a bit interesting. It was the only time I
specifically remember needing both hands on the wheel and having to
'try' and drive it through the issue. I think the rollers where big
enough and spaced just right to act basically like big whoops. I'm not
saying I went airborne.....but that is what it felt like....

The tires don't rub.....much....on the body. The rear tires just KISS
the lower edge of the fender when it is twisted all the way up. The
inside of one tire rubs on the bed panel a little....but the other
doesn't. I think it has something to do with how the panhard allows
the suspension to articulate. The front tires don't rub anything that
I could detect lock to lock. This is also with the new wheels which
have a bit more backspacing than I originally built it with. I think
the original wheels would make things even better.

Off road I really like the suspension also. I didn't get to do much
spirited driving yet, the Rubicon isn't really like that, but what
little I did felt really nice. Using all OEM bushings in everything
seemed like a big plus. There isn't any squeaking or clunking in the
suspension as it articulates or hits bumps.

The only real downside to the suspension I have found is how exposed
the rear frame side lower control arms are. They get hit. You can
drive around them to a degree, but you still hit them. I should
probably get them plated in a layer of 1/8-3/16 material in the
critical area. That would be a good winter project.

The vehicle seems to WANT to climb things. I think it is a lot of
things coming together.....suspension geometry, weight bias, lower
overall weight, etc. Overall I really like the vehicle size and
wheelbase. It feels bigger than the flat fender, but not HUGE. I was
the only one in the group to make Soup Bowl on the Rubicon. That felt
really good, especially with no seat time.

...cut....
 

Metcalf

Expedition Leader
Gearing. Overall I am pretty dang happy. I think it could be tweaked a
little, but I think it would be a trade off generally. High range is
really pretty good. It could be a touch lower I think, but I wouldn't
want to drastically change it....maybe something like 5.38 instead of
5.00 would be better on the highway, but honestly I am not sure. It
works pretty well. I do still want to try something like 6-7:1 gearing
in the axles on a build like this at some point, especially with the
6-10 speed transmissions. The new transmission tune feels even better.
I don't think higher gears in the axles would be what I want. I don't
think I would do 4.88s with 40+ tires and a 6L80E at this point. That
is kind of a shame actually, I think the 6L80e really needs about a
2.5-2.7 low range. 2:1 probably isn't deep enough unless you want to
try 6-7:1 in the axles. 3:1 is getting too low where I think the crawl
ratio is getting too short. For future builds this is an interesting
conundrum honestly. You can't get an atlas with 2.5 gearing. My low
range gearing feels REALLY good. It is low enough to have fine
control, but not so low it is pushing you through the brakes all the
time and taking all the magic out of the torque converter. It will be
interesting to get it into different terrain. I have a feeling for
climbs I have to bump, I am going to need to force the transmission to
be able to start in 2nd low. I am a pretty firm believer still,
especially after building this one, that the sweet spot for an
automatic ( with a proper amount of power ) is about 50-55:1 with a
40-42" tire. I am 54:1 in the Lexus. I do notice a bit of torque
'lean', or rather that the chassis is loaded up more, with more
upstream gearing vs downstream gearing. I am only running 4.10s in the
axles. For future builds, I would rather have more gearing in the
axles and less gearing in the transmission and t-case generally. I
think this calms the chassis down when doing dumb stuff. The Lexus
isn't bad, but I can feel it.

Steering. Overall I am happy, but it still needs some tweaking. The
steering wheel feels a bit heavy. I'm not sure if this is a pressue or
flow issue. The steering never seems to run out of force, it turns the
tires whenever you want, even with the tires aired down and the front
diff locked. It just feels a bit heavy. At speed with the engine rpms
up you don't notice it at all. The steering wheel feel on the road at
speed is actually very good. I really like that the steering doesn't
squeak at all. I might have to try some pump mods in the future. The
steering angle capability is also very nice. It turns lock to lock
with 40s. That makes the 112" wheelbase much more maneuverable than I
thought it would be. It is longer no doubt, but I didn't find myself
having to 3 point much if at all.

Lockers. The selectable lockers are ok. I left the center diff locked
99% of the time. I honestly didn't have to use the diff locks as much
as I thought I would. I did start to experiment more with different
combinations of locker use the 2nd day on the Rubicon. In one spot I
even tried a front 'dig' kinda thing to get the front end to slip
down, and that actually seemed to work pretty well. I basically kicked
out the center diff lock and grabbed the ebrake. That seemed to allow
me to force the vehicle to pull more with the front end and slip the
front axle sideways down off a big rock wall when trying to turn at
the same time. I also played with using the front or rear locker only
in mild situations. I still think that front locker only seems to work
better than rear locker only to me. Waiting for the lockers to engage
or disengage was kinda annoying, but it isn't bad. I have the locker
switch icon wired to the fork position switch on the elocker diff. I
can see exactly when the locker changes....and you can hear it click
typically. The toyota elockers actually work pretty well overall. They
seem to lock and unlock ok.

To muse about future builds. For a vehicle that is part time 4wd. I
would lean heavily toward running an automatic front locker with
selectable rear locker like the flatty. That combo just seems to work
better with less driver input required. Add in a t-case and front axle
that would hold up to front front digs. Add in rear left/right cutting
brakes and maybe another trick or two with the brakes. I think the
automatic front locker does a better job at locking and unlocking in
the medium stuff vs the driver having to turn the selectable locker on
and off. This is me just chasing unicorns to a degree. Both combos are
probably equally capable, its just preference about how the vehicle
handles the medium hard stuff.

Power. The 5.3 feels about right, but isn't a silly amount of power.
It is enough to be fun. It is enough to get up any hill on the highway
at extra legal speeds on 40s. That is about 325hp. That is honestly
pretty darn good. I'm not saying that I wouldn't give about 400hp a
try in the next one. I've driven the Summer Camp jeep with 525ish? It
was fun, but I think I got to 1/2 throttle maybe. In this build, I
wouldn't want much more on this chassis.....but I am happy I did a v8.
The low 1st gear in the 6l80e makes it feel like more and really helps
get things moving.

Cooling. I am VERY happy with how the cooling system worked out. I
haven't noticed any issues at all. It runs on thermostat and the
transmission doesn't heat up. I need to set the alarms on the
Aeroforce Interceptor, but I think I can generally forget about it.
That was actually one of the bigger worries for me honestly.

I will probably think of more later.
 

NCFJ

Adventurer
It does my heart good seeing this rig out and about doing what it was designed to do. You should be proud and have a smile glued on your face!
Great build and great build thread! Use the rig well :)
 

givemethewillys

Jonathan Chouinard
Metcalf, great build and awesome trip report! This and rango have to be two of my favorite builds of all time.

Would you mind telling me a bit more about your buddy's old ford? I have a '78 f150 shortbed that I think would look pretty cool with an aussie (think PCOR) tray. I don't want to muck up your thread, so PM is fine if you'd prefer. I'm especially curious about his drive train and suspension choices.

Again, great build, and I'd love to see more pics and video if you have them!
 
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Metcalf

Expedition Leader
Metcalf, great build and awesome trip report! This and range have to be two of my favorite builds of all time.

Would you mind telling me a bit more about your buddy's old ford? I have a '78 f150 shortbed that I think would look pretty cool with an aussie (think PCOR) tray. I don't want to muck up your thread, so PM is fine if you'd prefer. I'm especially curious about his drive train and suspension choices.

Again, great build, and I'd love to see more pics and video if you have them!

The big ol' ford is pretty simple. 351 v8, 4spd granny, np205, D44 front, 9 inch rear. He did 5.38 gears with a spool rear and an auto locker front. Leveling springs in front, cut fenders, shackle flip in back, and a 37" tire. It is very simple, it works pretty dang well. He doesn't care about the body really, so that allows him to go a few more places he shouldn't. It needs lower gearing for rock work, a 2:1 crawler box would be about perfect. He also needs alloy front shafts with good joints and full circle clips.....or an RCV axle set.....or a D60.
 

Metcalf

Expedition Leader
curious only... how was fuel consumption?

13-15mpg at 70-80mph up and down everything pushing a 40" tire at about 23psi ( to keep wear even ).
It is also full time 4wd so all the front end stuff is always turning.
Aerodynamics of a brick.

I built a pretty big tank for it ( about 27 gallons ) and I am happy I did. The big tank gives me an honest 300+ mile range without having to push it.
 
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givemethewillys

Jonathan Chouinard
The Ford sounds very much like my truck: 400m, t18 granny transmission, np205, Dana 44 front and 9" rear. I have the stock 3.50 gears, which actually work pretty well for east coast fire road/highway travel.

I was recently reviewing your "do-it-all dodge" thread in the hopes of replicating your fender mod on the old ford. I would love to be able to fit 37's with no lift and no rubbing. It currently rubs on 33's!
 

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