Sounds good.....would like to head out and see those trails you were talking about a while ago.....or work on opening that trail some more that we did before.
Time for an update...... the Green Bastard has been holding up well to some abuse and have been having fun with it......shortly before the Fall Camp n Crawl in Shawnigan this year I sold my 35 MTRs and picked up a set of 37 TSL Boggers on beadlocked rims that had been grooved....they performed awesome with the grooving and it was nice to have the beadlocks to be able to run 6-7psi. The Camp n Crawl was awesome and a lot of fun. One thing I did find is that the bigger rims and tires with the low psi and a front locker made for some tough steering at times ===> solution ==> hydro assist !
So a few weeks before Christmas I was good to myself and picked up a hydro assist kit from trailgear. I spent a while reading forums and watching a youtube video about a dozen times on how to properly tap my steering box ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjbJ6479BKo&app=desktop ). I ran into one problem with this as an important seal inside the box had broken on its own and had to be replaced (was a bit difficult to get over Christmas but the Toyota dealer came through :))
One problem that Trailgear points out is possible interference with the ram hitting the ubolt plate with the way they locate the ram......I looked at some other examples and decided to run the ram in the opposite direction (drivers -> pass side), this meant fabricating my own bracket to mount the ram and I fabbed the other mount as well since I didnt want to weld the bracket to the tie rod as per the instructions.
I then noticed that I was going to have some clearance issues with the ridiculous oil pan the 3.0L has.......some heat and a hammer fixed most of that but the front big drop needed to be shaved. Ended up with 3/4L additional oil capacity.....cant be a bad thing.
The 6" stroke ram is more throw than is available on the toyota axle so I had to limit the ram to match my axle......after some measurements to figure out the throw I picked up some plastic Delrin rod that I had a friend help me lathe to create a stop that slides over the internal rod. I tried to do this at home a couple times with a drill with no success, not enough drill control to be straight and the drill bit cuts to quickly especially when stepping up to the bigger sizes. Once this was put in and reassembled it will limit the throw out on the ram.....it is limited in the other direction when it bottoms out and cant go further.......so I matched this up with the steering stops on the axle.....dont want to have the ram push past the stops or trunnion bearing damage or broken steering arm studs will happen in time. Speaking of which I also upgraded to ARP studs for this as well.
Finally I needed to modify my steering pump in order to have the ability to fill the ram at a decent speed......this required removing the inlet on the pump and drilling out the restrictor plate inside.....once that was done I also created a deeper groove on the bypass valve to allow for more pressure before the pump goes into bypass mode.
So I have it all together and I am extremely pleased with the speed and ease of steering these large wheels.....so far I have only test driven around the house but will be taking it wheeling this weekend for a true beat down.......fingers crossed.
Still on as far as I know.....I may be up there Welshy, some friends were coming to visit tomorrow but sounds like they may have to cancel......just waiting to hear.
Sounds good.....would like to head out and see those trails you were talking about a while ago.....or work on opening that trail some more that we did before.
Time for an update...... the Green Bastard has been holding up well to some abuse and have been having fun with it......shortly before the Fall Camp n Crawl in Shawnigan this year I sold my 35 MTRs and picked up a set of 37 TSL Boggers on beadlocked rims that had been grooved....they performed awesome with the grooving and it was nice to have the beadlocks to be able to run 6-7psi. The Camp n Crawl was awesome and a lot of fun. One thing I did find is that the bigger rims and tires with the low psi and a front locker made for some tough steering at times ===> solution ==> hydro assist !
So a few weeks before Christmas I was good to myself and picked up a hydro assist kit from trailgear. I spent a while reading forums and watching a youtube video about a dozen times on how to properly tap my steering box ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjbJ6479BKo&app=desktop ). I ran into one problem with this as an important seal inside the box had broken on its own and had to be replaced (was a bit difficult to get over Christmas but the Toyota dealer came through :))
One problem that Trailgear points out is possible interference with the ram hitting the ubolt plate with the way they locate the ram......I looked at some other examples and decided to run the ram in the opposite direction (drivers -> pass side), this meant fabricating my own bracket to mount the ram and I fabbed the other mount as well since I didnt want to weld the bracket to the tie rod as per the instructions.
I then noticed that I was going to have some clearance issues with the ridiculous oil pan the 3.0L has.......some heat and a hammer fixed most of that but the front big drop needed to be shaved. Ended up with 3/4L additional oil capacity.....cant be a bad thing.
The 6" stroke ram is more throw than is available on the toyota axle so I had to limit the ram to match my axle......after some measurements to figure out the throw I picked up some plastic Delrin rod that I had a friend help me lathe to create a stop that slides over the internal rod. I tried to do this at home a couple times with a drill with no success, not enough drill control to be straight and the drill bit cuts to quickly especially when stepping up to the bigger sizes. Once this was put in and reassembled it will limit the throw out on the ram.....it is limited in the other direction when it bottoms out and cant go further.......so I matched this up with the steering stops on the axle.....dont want to have the ram push past the stops or trunnion bearing damage or broken steering arm studs will happen in time. Speaking of which I also upgraded to ARP studs for this as well.
Finally I needed to modify my steering pump in order to have the ability to fill the ram at a decent speed......this required removing the inlet on the pump and drilling out the restrictor plate inside.....once that was done I also created a deeper groove on the bypass valve to allow for more pressure before the pump goes into bypass mode.
So I have it all together and I am extremely pleased with the speed and ease of steering these large wheels.....so far I have only test driven around the house but will be taking it wheeling this weekend for a true beat down.......fingers crossed.
Still on as far as I know.....I may be up there Welshy, some friends were coming to visit tomorrow but sounds like they may have to cancel......just waiting to hear.
I have been along on runs with them in past and it doesnt matter what you drive.....just out to have fun
There was talk of a BC Jeep Club run that day heading up into Doumont area.....I believe they were meeting at northfield Esso at 10:30 ;)