inagural 80 trip

[Ruffin' It]

I've owned it, technically, for about a month and a half but I was finally able to get out and test the "new" 80 series this weekend on Cleghorn trail. WOW is all I can say. Parts of the trail are rated an 8, but I'm not sure which parts since "Moby" didn't break a sweat at any point. We ended up not even bothering to lock the diffs or spot anymore after getting about half way through and realizing neither was needed. We even were able to help a few fellow wheelers who seemed simultanously surprised and thrilled our huge 80 had motored right up the same trail that flipped one of the jeeps in their party. A little Hi-Lift, a winch (Special thanks to Scott Brady btw. His casually dispensed tip during the ExPo Trophy one year about wrapping a strap around a vehicle to right it, instead of attaching it to the low point as they had, worked beautifully) and some elbow grease got it back on it's wheels. I was also able to let Andrea get the hang of driving. An hour and a half later I had to wrestle the wheel back from her! I'm even happier to be able to say I have full confidence in her natural off-roading skills than I am to brag about the obscenely capable rig I bought for pennies on the dollar. Since there was almost no need to stop and get out of the rig, we didn't take as many photos as I would have liked, but here are couple quick pics.

 

[a.mus.ed]

Looking good!





Truck's not bad, either.:ylsmoke:

 

[ERG80]

very cool

 

[Ruffin' It]

Yeah, she qualifies as "functional bling". Sure comes in handy when it comes to taking the focus off whatever stupid mistake I'm making at the time.

:victory::Wow1::victory:

Looking good!





Truck's not bad, either.:ylsmoke:

 

[freshspecbluegt]

Very Nice! I'm pretty new to my 80 as well and had a few "hey that was easier than I thought it was going to be" moments this weekend myself

Ross

 

[adventureduo]

Cleghorn is one of my favorite trails... that first section up to the electrical tower is steep as heck, but pics don't show it justice. Your rig looks good.

 

[gabepari]

Cleghorn?

 

[Ruffin' It]

Yeah, that electrical tower photo doesn't really show well. I tried and I couldn't walk up it (of course that could say as much for my athleticism as the ability of the truck, but we won't dwell on that).

I love Cleghorn too. It can be as hard as you want or as easy as you'd like by using the bypasses. It usually has nice temps from the decent elevation (good for those of us that were raised in snow and don't do well in triple digit temps), has enough traffic to abate worries of being stranded but not so much that you are waiting for others to get through obsticals and there is almost no flat land so heading down hill will almost always get you unstuck. For those that haven't been, it is a must-do in my book; http://www.dirtopia.com/wiki/Cleghorn_Ridge.

 

[redthies]

I am officially jealous of white 80s with 35s! Someday I will own one!!

 

[luk4mud]

What did you use to secure your high lift to the ARB bumper?

 

[Ruffin' It]

That is my custom white-trash mount. I ran a 5" bolt through the underside of the light tabs, through a 3" peice of 1" OD pipe. On top of the pipe sits a 2.5" square washer that the Hi-lift rests on. The Hi-lift is held to the bolt by a big wing nut. It worked pretty well and didn't let the Jack move at all, but mounting it is sort of a pain. I'm not really sure if the light tabs are up to the task of holding it though, does anyone else know?

 

[d0ubledown]

great lookin 80 ruffin'! yep, she'll surprise you and others when out in the trails...nothin but smiles though as im sure you now know.

as for the light tabs, they'll be fine to hold up the hi-lift. as long as youve got some decent hardware in there. i used an old 3" body lift for mine, along with some old body bolts (grade 8) from my 4runner. the nuts that hold the body lift pucks on fit nicely in the holes of the hi-lift. just a big flat washer on top, then another nut to hold it in place. i didnt bother with wing nuts, i just used std 14mm aircraft nuts. i figure if im anywhere where i'll need it, i'll have a 14mm wrench nearby. the base of my lift is somewhat large...the 3" lift just barely clears. here's my setup:

 

[redthies]

Ahhhhh, Good old bc4x4.com ... The antithesis of expo!!!:sombrero:

 

[Ruffin' It]

Body mounts, brilliant. I'll start keeping my eye out for some. I have no doubt that a little flex in the mounting system will help keep everything together a little better in the rough stuff. My set up needed to be tightened about 2/3 of the way through the day.

Thanks for the tip!

great lookin 80 ruffin'! yep, she'll surprise you and others when out in the trails...nothin but smiles though as im sure you now know.

as for the light tabs, they'll be fine to hold up the hi-lift. as long as youve got some decent hardware in there. i used an old 3" body lift for mine, along with some old body bolts (grade 8) from my 4runner. the nuts that hold the body lift pucks on fit nicely in the holes of the hi-lift. just a big flat washer on top, then another nut to hold it in place. i didnt bother with wing nuts, i just used std 14mm aircraft nuts. i figure if im anywhere where i'll need it, i'll have a 14mm wrench nearby. the base of my lift is somewhat large...the 3" lift just barely clears. here's my setup:

View attachment 32644

 

[Ozrockrat]

I'm not really sure if the light tabs are up to the task of holding it though, does anyone else know?

Actually they are aerial mounting tabs ( Linky)and can hold the big HF aerials (or antenna's as I think you call them over here) without a problem. The rubber isolation bushes are a good idea. As the holes are big enough to fit the coaxial antenna bases into you may need to use some type of thick fender type washes to spread the load across the whole surface.



Another alternative is to get a set of hydraulic pipe clamps and bolt those to the cross bar. Weld you mounting bolts on and away you go. Something like these. (Linky )