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Vanilla Gorrilla blog

Nice pants.
Canyon looks sick. Motivates me to keep working on my axles.

If all those photos are dead horse I can see why it might not be the best trail for 20 people unless everyone is ready to start at 7 am and spend 12-14 hours wheeling before they get home.


My wife says thanks about the pants.

It was an awesome trail. But yeah. Not for our typical reno run group. We have spent 14hours in bronco canyon before during a reno run. But on the same hand we have spent 4 hours there the next year. So its always a toss up. I think it would be good for a special run. Something that needs a tech inspection before hand for a larger group.
 
Then went out and ran dead horse with alan and a few other sick rigs. Was a total blast and easily the hardest trail i have run. Super long and super technical.
Didnt take hardly any pics. Definitely not a large group friendly trail but we finished it in 8 or so hours. 3 miles long though.
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You can take me next time if you want to make it even longer. :)

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Quote:
Originally Posted by 89Mock View Post
Nice pants.
Canyon looks sick. Motivates me to keep working on my axles.

If all those photos are dead horse I can see why it might not be the best trail for 20 people unless everyone is ready to start at 7 am and spend 12-14 hours wheeling before they get home.

My wife says thanks about the pants.

It was an awesome trail. But yeah. Not for our typical reno run group. We have spent 14hours in bronco canyon before during a reno run. But on the same hand we have spent 4 hours there the next year. So its always a toss up. I think it would be good for a special run. Something that needs a tech inspection before hand for a larger group.


According to Alan dead horse is 37s locked front and rear minimum, expect body damage, and it can take anywhere from 6-12 hours or more to run it depending on carnage
 
So did some work on the rig today. Got all my lights wired up and added some new rock lights to the front. Got my grill fogs working again. Got everything wired inside the cab to my center console switches finally. Also finally wired up my winch and added in-cab controls.
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Also nut and bolted the rig and found both my unit bearings were cooked. So i swapped them pretty fast. Took all of 30min. Also added a cross frame brace for my tracbar last week. Got everything tightened up. Hopefully stops the tear in the frame next to the track bar mount long enough for me to get the new chassis ready. Stoked to get some wheeling in this weekend.
 
So did some work on the rig today. Got all my lights wired up and added some new rock lights to the front. Got my grill fogs working again. Got everything wired inside the cab to my center console switches finally. Also finally wired up my winch and added in-cab controls.
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Also nut and bolted the rig and found both my unit bearings were cooked. So i swapped them pretty fast. Took all of 30min. Also added a cross frame brace for my tracbar last week. Got everything tightened up. Hopefully stops the tear in the frame next to the track bar mount long enough for me to get the new chassis ready. Stoked to get some wheeling in this weekend.


Looks good man!


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Well its been a bit. Reno run was awesome. Jeep did great. No problems other than needing to swap out the tps on the first night.
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Leafs ended up being just as trashed as last year. Only had 3” of lift left in on the passenger side and 4.5” on the driver. They are 5.5” re leafs with a 2” shackle. So i pulled them out to swap in some spare 4.5” used units i had laying around and get them warrantied. Come to find out the driver side nut popped loose inside the frame mount. So i found a super strut 1/2” square washer and a front control arm nut and made a replacement to weld back in.
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Then i cut out a square and welded back in the new washer. And painted it.

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Now its got a little bit of china in it. Haha.
I threw in my spare leafs and sending off the re springs to get warrantied this week. We are running slickrock in a few weeks when we go install the fire rings at hermit valley so i wanted to keep it operational.
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Hahaha every rig needs the China stamp of quality somewhere....
You run the manual trans along with a 4 speed atlas correct? Is the super low gearing what's killing the leafs? I'm on the opposite end, 35s auto 4.10 and bastard packs and get very little axle wrap.... It's just insane how fast your leafs die. Really shows the torque of your gearing.

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Hahaha every rig needs the China stamp of quality somewhere....
You run the manual trans along with a 4 speed atlas correct? Is the super low gearing what's killing the leafs? I'm on the opposite end, 35s auto 4.10 and bastard packs and get very little axle wrap.... It's just insane how fast your leafs die. Really shows the torque of your gearing.

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There is a possibility i guess that is whats killing them. But im doing pretty much the same wheeling i did before. I think its the 5 people and a big dog and all the food and camping supplies that does it. Haha

I have a traction bar set up that ill be putting on as soon as i can get it to settle on a ride height for long enough.
 
Weight does effect things... I can't recommend a bastard pack enough honestly... Takes time to tune it the way you want but it would last...

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yeah I kill 1-2 sets of leaves a year. Adding leaves as they sag can make them last longer. Theres no winning just prolonging the packs maybe another season or 2 if youre lucky.

Fire rings look awesome. Thanks for doing all of that
 
That’s a legit fix on the leaf spring but. I am pretty sure green junk just had that pocket sliced open from below, to get a wrench on the nut, for like six years.
 
I'm curious how you cut that square hole in such a confined space...Dremel with a small cut off disc?
 
Went out to gold lake area for the first time yesterday with Alan and fam. Such an amazing area. So much to explore. We are definitely going back soon. Not difficult trails. Stocker friendly. But having a built rig makes getting around so much more comfortable and fast.
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Went out to gold lake area for the first time yesterday with Alan and fam. Such an amazing area. So much to explore. We are definitely going back soon. Not difficult trails. Stocker friendly. But having a built rig makes getting around so much more comfortable and fast.
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That place looks pretty awesome! Definitely have check it out when my rig is a little farther along. Thanks for sharing 👍🏼


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Alright so i finally fixed my power steering leak. Ended up being the oring at the reservoir. Just warranted the whole thing at Oreillys. Got a nice quiet remand pump with new reservoir. All good.

Then i got my warrantied springs and add a leafs so i put them together.
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Then i thew thew them in. They lifted the rear about 4”. But it still leans to the right. Its an 1-3/4” lower on the right side. I might try and throw some extra isolators on top of the front coil and see what it will do. I also moved the axle back one inch.
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Then took it out for a drive with the girls. It definitely leans way more to the right than the left. But i think im ok with it for now.
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Tomorrow i will be starting on the traction bar setup. Hopefully it will help them last longer than a week.
 
Also saw my oil pressure doing weird things. As well as my temp sensor was swinging around a bit. Do they share a ground somewhere. Im going to clean the connectors really well and see if that helps. On the way out of my neighborhood it started backfiring and cutting power. I ran my scanner and it said map pressure was low. I wiggled the connector and the rubber elbow. I cleared the code and it didnt come back. So it might be time to go through all the connections under the hood and clean them out a bit. Then pack them with dielectric grease.
 
if that vacuum line is broken or connection to map is bad, otherwise shoot start checking connections and grounds everywhere. make sure battery terminals are clean and well connected. Make sure a rat did not eat some wiring .
 
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