over 2 months.. guess I should update this thing.
Well, most of the past couple months has been spent with our son who was born 6/21 but I have managed to sneak some time in on the Explorer. Haven't gotten the steering assist done yet mainly because I can't decide what to do with these boat anchors and all the ruffstuff boxes behind them
Bought a complete 1990 F350 for $600 off of a facebook post for the kingpin D60 and FF 10.25. Plan as of now is to clean them up, gear to 5.13, lock front and rear, maybe 35 spline outers for the 60 and hopefully by the time that's done figure out what I am putting them under.
I'm indecisive if any of you have not picked up on that through this build thread... lol
I did manage to get the beadlocks and 38" TSL SXs on. First time mounting a tire by myself by hand and I chose to do so on the heaviest tire I could find. Just me, a bowl of soapy water, 2 pry bars and a bum shoulder, but hey, it worked!
The issue now was that I knew I was going to rub. It wasn't really a question of if, more like how bad. A few years ago (like 10 atually) I picked up a set of color matching fenders and a hood for this piece of junk and had a friend who is more steady handed with a cut off wheel enlarge the wheel openings for me so off to the storage shed I went to grab them. The rear, well, in the spur of the moment I grabbed the grinder and a cut off wheel and cut up to the seam and gently folded the quarters in. We will revisit that in a minute...
Two days later I was off with a group of friends to Hatfield McCoy's new OHV trails at Bearwallow. The tires did great, only one slight problem.. the passenger rear rock rail and a piece of the inner wheel well wreaked havoc on the tire. So when I got home It was time for some more clearancing and more bump stopppage.
Took it on a test run last night when a local group asked me to lead them through some old mine property, no rubs so I'm happy.
Driving on the road with the 38s is a chore.. almost zero power going up hills so this thing definitely will be trailered to trails not in my backyard. On the trail I could use some more low range gearing, so we're back to that discussion again.
I have had those for a few years now, done a few deeper than I like water crossings on the Mojave Trail (don't like submerging axles), and had no issues, and no contamination of the grease.
