CG's Ex in the McNeil Racing Bat Cave

[Hartman]

WOW nice rig!

 

[bmxking5]

Turned out really great Chris. And it came out more level than I expected.

 

[Piaffe]

The truck looks great.

 

[rookieshooter]

That is very tempting idea to do on the outboard shocks. Got me thinking Hmmm

 

[BigDave!!!]

the truck looks great, i really like that front bumper

 

[Premier]

Very nice.

 

[zhanx]

cg i salute you, you when out and paided for it insteand of *****in about it, nice truck man

 

[FAT CAT]

Thanks for the kind words guys! I’m very happy with the way everything came together. I can’t wait to get out & give all the new stuff a workout.

Stic-o, I’ still have some painting and finishing to do. I’m definitely going to steal your tape and paint idea for the holes in the rocker. I don’t know what happened to the little trim pieces after they cut off the chrome part, so I’ll just paint there too.

The bumper had a mount for the CB but they cut it off to run the new side pieces , so I’m just going to use the light mount for now. The exhaust is just a straight tube coming out of the muffler till just before the axle, and then it turns down. I’ll run it like that till I get tired of the noise (I love it now ) or next smog check time, and then run some new tube.

I still need to paint a lot of the underside and make gap guards for the BL. I’m going to take off the plastic strips with the chrome inserts on the doors, and if I can figure out how to remove the chrome from the wheels, I’m going to paint the inside of the wheel black & just leave the fake beadlock ring chrome, as well as the cover and lugs.

Here is the idea in PhotoShop. Let me know what you all think… top one is how it is now…

 

[410Fortune]

I am interested in how it RIDES on the highway/street/corners with those outboard shocks??

 

[95offroadx]

it looks awesome in the bottom pic, but it looks awesome anyways, the bumper is really nice, but the skid plate is kinda big for my taste, but the truck looks awesome!

 

[BigDave!!!]

i like that big skid plate looks really beefy, any smaller wouldnt cover the radiator i dont think

 

[Ken Cooke]

I can’t wait to get out & give all the new stuff a workout.

I'll give you a workout in December when we run the Pole Line Trail again. Suzanne is ready and so am I. That Explorer will be more than welcome to sweep or midgun...She looks really equipped for our extreme Baja trip...

 

[FROADER]

Here is the idea in PhotoShop. Let me know what you all think… top one is how it is now…

I like the black centers. Truck looks good

I'm also curious how the ride is with the shock setup like that.

 

[FAT CAT]

Well, I’ve been running the truck for a couple weeks & except for a couple snafu’s everything is better than I expected.

On the road, the truck rides great. I really notice the difference with the outboard shocks, the ride is as good as or better that it was stock, but the big difference is the stability. The body roll has been greatly reduced; almost gone! It’s kind of weird really, but it seems to lean into the turns now rather than flop to the out side…

I installed 4.88 gears and I’m happy I did. Most of the wheeling I do is slow driving along the beach or out in the desert & I wanted more torque when loaded down with all our gear. On the Hwy. at 70 mph, I run a little under 3,000 rpm’s; this is about the same as I ran with the 3.73’s and the overdrive off. There is a huge difference in power now, before, I could hardly make it up some hills on the hwy. & even had to down shift a few times. Now, the truck just pulls up & over everything with no problems, in 4 low, this thing is a torque monster.

The biggest change has to be the front locker! I can’t believe the difference there is having that thing up there… I wasn’t sure I wanted to loose the auto 4x4 assist, but everything you hear about the difference is true, the front locker let’s you slowly crawl up almost anything you can get clearance on. I could have saved the money for the Ected in the rear and just left the LS back there, because in 2 wheel drive with the brown wire mod, even locked, the back breaks loose on steep dirt hills. But if I leave the Ected off (in LS mode) and just flip the switch to the front, it just pulls like crazy & walks right up! Even if I get stuck halfway up a steep hill and dig a couple nice holes with the back tires, flipping the front locker on pulls me right up & over.

I went out to a local quarry & crawled over a bunch of rocks & was really happy with the front locker performance. Before, I’d really have to gun the engine & ride the brake to get the front tire up on some of the bigger rocks, now with the locker, the front easily pulls itself up.

The truck felt heavy for the first few days till I got used to it. We added a lot of weight with the bumpers, winch, sliders etc… & I could feel it was sprung down a bit. Bumping the Rancho’s up a couple ticks helped take the bounce out of the front. All & all I’m very happy with all the mods. There are a couple issues I need to resolve.

We took out the overload spring and the add-a-leaf in order to get the truck a little lower in the back after the SOA. Now, at full stuff the spring inverts on the stuffed side, works great for articulation, but probably a little rough on the springs. I need to maybe put back in the overload spring or add another leaf that doesn’t have so much arch, or get a new spring pack made… Any ideas???

I also ran into the same problem Dreamr talked about in this thread; http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=128134&highlight=flashing+4+low

The 4 high-4 low lights flash 6 times and the computer goes into safe mode till I restart the truck, then everything works OK for a few miles & the lights start flashing again. I’n Dreamr’s case, he was concerned that it cut out the control trac and locked him out of 4 low. I’m inclined to ignore these lights because with the locker up front, I don’t use the control trac anyway & I can still shift down into 4 low. Even after the lights flash, I can still get 4 low and flipping the brown wire mod switch gives me power to the front, so I don’t know what this is doing… Dreamr did some pretty extensive trouble shooting & still has some issues. I talked to a couple other people that installed new gears and electric lockers & haven’t heard of anyone else with the same problem, so I think it’s an issue with the install on Dreamr’s and mine.

We’ll that’s the good & the bad & now for the ugly (then I’ll shut up before I write a freakin novel here)

It cost about $5,000 to make the latest round of modifications. I put that in not to say “see I can spend a bunch on my car” but rather to show that you can save money if you can do some work yourself. In my case, I know I can’t, it’s not that I’m not competent, it’s that I’m lazy (just being honest). I start out on a lot of projects with the best intentions, but halfway through I lose patience and start slapping on crazy glue and wrapping stuff in duct tape just to move on. I can fix stuff when it breaks, but I like to get help and input from people when making major changes like this.

Lockers & 4.88 gears $1,100.00
Winch $400.00
Bumpers $500.00
Shop time & materials $3,000

I had budgeted $2,000 for the shop but forgot materials (for the sliders, skid plates etc…) and I could have saved a bunch of money if I didn’t make so many changes to the bumpers. But they did great work and I’m happy with the way things turned out.

Some people asked about the rear shock mount tubes; Perry Sr. said they would sell for about $300.00 (tube bender looking better all the time) a set & if anyone is interested, contact him through http://www.perrysfabnfiber.com/

Thanks to GJarrett for the front locker idea and Ray Laboto and JDraper for the skid plate help, ExplorerDMB for the gap guard idea and BUCHVILLEMAN for the bumpers (what I used of them )

Happy Wheeling!

 

[410Fortune]

Front locker is KEY to wheeling for sure! That is if you like to climb stuff, I LOVE my ARB..
Sounds like money well spent congrats!

 

[Ken Cooke]

Front locker is KEY to wheeling for sure! Sounds like money well spent congrats!

X2!

 

[BigDave!!!]

the pics get better and better every time i check this thread out! keep up the good work your truck looks awesome

 

[rookieshooter]

Super Job.....I was wondering how that outboard shock would effect the body roll.

 

[ExplorerJimbo]

i love this truck! it makes me jealouse! i have a quick ? for ya... is that a soa with just a tt in the front? i know you have a bl to... but what kinda lift do you have in the front... just tt?

 

[ExplorerJimbo]

haha nevermind... i just had to read! sorry!