Yeatzee's DWB 02 XLT build - Page 49

yeatzee · #**721** 03-01-2015, 08:21 PM

Me and the gf went on a California City trip this weekend with some DR people. Lots of fun, but didn't get out unscathed like last time. Explorer roof rack DNF'd, snapping causing the basket to bang around the ratchet straps to loosen and fall off, and the tire to smack the hell out of the basket.

The whole "extended" center section is warped so It'll take some work to straighten everything. As for a solution Im not really sure. Im thinking I am going to try and figure out which explorer rails are the strongest and run two of them under the tire to help with the weight. For extreme desert trips like this I guess I'll just have to keep it in the bed.

Also I believe my alternator DNF'd as well but I wont know until the morning.

ShaneOMac · #**722** 03-01-2015, 09:28 PM

Did the 5.5 do well like last time? Looks like a fun trip. Wish I could've gone. I want to really bad tho once I revlave my shocks

yeatzee · #**723** 03-02-2015, 02:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShaneOMac

Did the 5.5 do well like last time? Looks like a fun trip. Wish I could've gone. I want to really bad tho once I revlave my shocks

No. Where the 5.5 does its impressing is when things get fast. It handles stuff surprisingly well when you can get some speed so you more or less skip over the woops and it handles decent sized stuff fairly well. When you cant get any running speed the 5.5 kits biggest issue is the secondary bounce that happens on big hits, where your speed was just enough to get you in a bad spot between/in woops and the front end hits and rebounds. Its not fun, so for slow stuff I have to go extra slow whereas the LT trucks are soft enough to just roll through it without any issue. The 2.5" burg coils are meant for going faster, they work better with some speed and are to rough for slow stuff. Im not familiar with shock valving and I've never been in a 2.0 upgrade truck to know if its even possible to help solve that since the spring I'd imagine is likely easily overpowering a little 2.0x8" shock. I could be wrong but from what I've seen and experienced personally the only thing I can do and be happy is either go full LT and skip MT because it'd be more or less the same thing as now just a little better, or go the route Im most intrigued by which is a SFA on coilovers. Since I am starting to do more expedition stuff than pure prerunning, having a multi-purpose rig that is setup to handle the woops but still crawl would be my ideal.

yeatzee · #**724** 03-11-2015, 02:33 AM

Cal city one weekend, Ocotillo wells the next for my 21st.

Found an awesome place to set up camp for the night

Super sick spot, completely secluded in a non-common place for people to go so we werent ever bothered.

had about $20 worth of fresh carne asada, best I've ever had!

Took some night pictures

In the morning we packed everything up and hit the trails, here at the top of the mountain above Devils slide.

Jeep was running a little hot... just jeep things

Desert trip after desert trip for us!

Then went down a new trail for us, campbell wash. It turned out to be a pretty amazing trail with surprisingly enough some mud

stopped on an opening in the trail and set up camp for lunch

and then continued on until we found a nice mud hole on the trail. It was easily passable but considering we werent expecting any mud it was sort of a treat and we wanted to try it. My buddy being 4wd he opted to go first and test the waters so to speak.... it didn't end well for him. It turned out to be basically quick sand and he sunk until he was completely stuck, no getting out. We pulled out the recovery strap and unfortunately it was to short for me to get any good running start without sliding into the mud hole with him. Still I gave it hell and managed to snap the end of the strap leaving us stranded. My sister and I ended up driving to the end of the trail hoping to run into someone or find a way out but the exit is extremely subtle and the apparent exit isn't actually one at all. Fearing I might get stuck by following this sketchy trail to the road we opted to turn around and go all the way back to gas domes about a 30 minutes drive back the way we came. Finally got there and found a guy with a winch and convinced him to come help, and on the way back to the trail we ran into 3 other guys that wanted to help.

He was buried

A JK with a 10k lb winch tried pulling him out and it literally just dragged the JK towards the XJ, the stuck jeep didn't budge. Then they had a dakota anchor the JK and tried again, this time successfully getting him out of the mud pit.

ouch

Cleaned off his windows/mirrors/headlights as best as possible and geared up to continue down the trail, and with the help of these kind people we knew how to exit the trail properly onto the freeway.

Bumper got a bit messed up driving very fast back down the trail to find people before the jeep sunk any more or took on more water.. oh well going to power wash and try to fix it tomorrow.

Finally after the long ordeal of several hours being hopelessly stuck we made it to pavement and aired up using my compressor... which subsequently broke on the last tire. The hose popped, I contacted amazon even though its past the "return window" and they sent me a new one free of charge with a return label for my old one. Amazon ftw!

And this is how the truck looks right now

and the jeep lol

Fordzilla80 · #**725** 03-11-2015, 11:07 AM

Looks like y'all had a fun time. Sucks about the bumper. Did your tire catch it?

camodown · #**726** 03-11-2015, 11:22 AM

Good times.

stephen · #**727** 03-11-2015, 08:19 PM

Haha. Looks like my trips. My wheeling buddy has a white jeep like that. And that guy sunk his in a river last week just like that. Jeeps. lol.

yeatzee · #**728** 07-21-2015, 06:27 PM

Sorry don't really ever come on here anymore

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fordzilla80

Looks like y'all had a fun time. Sucks about the bumper. Did your tire catch it?

Yeah, tire only rubs once in a while but I was going pretty fast while turning at bump so it caught it and pulled it off a bit. Easy fix

Quote:

Originally Posted by camodown

Good times.

Absolutely!

Quote:

Originally Posted by stephen

Haha. Looks like my trips. My wheeling buddy has a white jeep like that. And that guy sunk his in a river last week just like that. Jeeps. lol.

Its a jeep thing I guess.

I haven't driven the truck much because of school but I got the roof rack back up, got two sets of explorer roof rails as well to help strengthen the setup. I haven't found the right u-bolts to mount the second set yet so its only got one on right now. Tire is just mounted for the offroad trip. I also got two new tires installed so all 4 and my spare are matching MTR's with 80+% tread.

Went for a little trip with some friends while they were staying down in Temecula. The rain made it nice and muddy, the weather was fantastic.

My friend took some cool videos so hopefully he'll send them to me soon and I'll post em.

yeatzee · #**729** 02-16-2016, 12:58 PM

Haven't been on here in a while, and haven't taken the truck out in just as long haha. I lived in Europe for 3 months, got engaged, and started working immediately when i got back, and then started classes so i've been super busy but I finally got around to giving the truck a little love and installing some new uniballs and getting her aligned for a desert trip. Managed to get stuck three times in Campbell wash due to the soft sand tight quarters but it was a great problem free Ocotillo trip.

Top of the mountain above Devil's slide

Tons of sand in Campbell wash, last time I went down the trail it was muddy with a lot less sand.

Came in to hot and nearly slid into the wall and then preceded to sink

Recovery strap ftw

Nice lunch spot in Campbell wash, one of my favorite places in Ocotillo because nobody ever goes there so its nice and quiet

And then the exit, which I got stuck twice at thanks to the soft sand and clay underneath. Oh well, thats offroading. Would love to pick up some maxtrax, I could totally see how they'd be invaluable here.

stephen · #**730** 02-16-2016, 02:11 PM

You're a brave man doing all that sand with a 2wd. What's your rearend like? Open or l/s? That trip looks like a ton of fun though.

trailbikerider · #**731** 02-16-2016, 03:30 PM

Yup no way I'd attempt even half of that without a 4wd haha.

UltraHDGames · #**732** 02-20-2016, 11:25 PM

Just went through this and wow this is a nice truck, makes me want a limited slip and a basket more then ever, keep up the great work man

yeatzee · #**733** 02-22-2016, 12:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stephen

You're a brave man doing all that sand with a 2wd. What's your rearend like? Open or l/s? That trip looks like a ton of fun though.

l/s w/ 4.56 gears. My main problem was not airing down enough, I couldn't make it up that last hill to save my life until I finally aired down to around 13.

Quote:

Originally Posted by trailbikerider

Yup no way I'd attempt even half of that without a 4wd haha.

It helps having good tires, L/S, a shovel, and a friend with a recovery strap just incase. My truck performs much better with some speed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by UltraHDGames

Just went through this and wow this is a nice truck, makes me want a limited slip and a basket more then ever, keep up the great work man

Thanks! Open diffs are a drag, I know a locker is definitely in my future because L/S's are pretty unreliable in the flexy soft stuff like in these pictures. The basket is great, normally I have stuff up there for trips but even empty I think it makes the truck look a lot beefier.

Cptspock01 · #**734** 02-22-2016, 02:07 PM

Always loved this truck. Even got the old ranger video you made in my truck to listen to while cruising