100 Series Family Adventure Rig

Bretthn

Explorer
Going too stick with the AHC or ditch it eventually?

As long as it continues to work with only preventive maintenace then yes I will keep it. I love the way it performs now and have not found a weekness yet. However, the first time a shock or globe needs to be replaced, I will be tearing it out and going with OME springs, differential drop, and torsion bars.
 
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Bretthn

Explorer
Wiring..................

So I started sketching out a plan for the dual battery wiring today. My love of gadgets has won out and I am leaning towards a nice setup with in cab control and the ability to self jump start at the push of a button.
 

cruiseroutfit

Supporting Sponsor: Cruiser Outfitters
As long as it continues to work with only preventive maintenace then yes I will keep it. I love the way it performs now and have not found a weekness yet. However, the first time a shock or globe needs to be replaced, I will be tearing it out and going with OME springs, differential drop, and torsion bars.

Right on, we've pulled quite a few of them off, if you need spares we've got them :D
 

Bretthn

Explorer
Right on, we've pulled quite a few of them off, if you need spares we've got them :D
Thanks! I will definitely keep that in mind.

We are headed to Uwarrie this weekend and should find out how stable the new battery tray is. I was hoping to have the Slee tray installed for the primary battery before then but it doesn't look like it will be here until Tuesday of next week. I am also debating on taking off the running boards before i go. If I leave them on they at least offer a little rocker protection and I dont care if they get beat up. If I take them off I will have more ground clearance... The original plan when i bought the LX was to leave them on until I got sliders but that could be a while. What do you think?
Any recomendations or advise from people who have been to Uwharrie before? Would love to have so others to go with if anyone is interested.
We are leaving out of Greensboro, NC.
 

Bretthn

Explorer
So the running boards are off. Took about a half hour. My wife actually agrees that it looks much better without them. Hopefully she gets sick of stepping up without them and I can convince her that we need some sliders soon.
Before

After



I'll get some better pictures on the trail this weekend.
 

Bretthn

Explorer
First Trip to Uwharrie National Forest

We have never been to Uwharrie before and finally went today. We didn't make the final decision until we woke up this morning. Several people had warned us that it would be extremely crowded this weekend but that was not the case.
We stopped by Eldorado Outpost to get our trail pass for the day, map, and pick up some other trinkets.


page8-1005-full.jpg
The outpost is just up the street from the Forest entrance.

We had lunch and stretched our legs in the parking lot at the trailhead to Falls Dam.

The trails are rated easy, moderate, and difficult and we just did 2 easy and half of a moderate. We drove all of Falls Dam Trail, Wolfs Den Trail, and Part of Dickey Bell. Dickey Bell has a pretty nice climb in the middle that we probably could have made but did not want to risk gashing a stock radial open. It is all loose jagged rock. We will probably not go back until we have better tires and some sliders though we still had fun on this trip without them. It continues to amaze me what the LX470 is capable of in completely stock form. The only thing we did was air down he Michelin LTXs to 25 psi.
There was not a lot of spectacular scenery so we just took a lot of poser shots along the way.



This is where sliders would be nice.


I really liked this shot. It was a cool little one lane bridge about a quarter mile into Dickey Bell.

These shots were cool too with the sun shining through spaces in the tree line and reflecting off all the dust in the air from other cars that were traveling on the road ahead of us.


Before heading back to Eldorado Outpost to grab dinner then head home, we stopped by the Badin Lake Campground boat ramp. Mina, our german shepherd enjoyed it the most.

We took a couple videos that I will try to upload later.
 

Bretthn

Explorer
I would get some better AT tires. Maybe a 285/75R16 (33 x 11.50)?
That has been part of the plan since buying it. Unfortunately it came with a set of Michelin LTXs with about 50% of their tread left and did not feel right swapping out some perfectly good tires without first giving them a shot. After the trip to Uwharrie this weekend and a couple hundred miles of other dirt roads I am convinced that they a pretty damn good tire and worthy of keeping a little longer.


When I do finally swap these out it will be for 285 75R16. The question is which ones. I have had several sets of BFG All Terrains in the past and loved them for tread life. I had a set of Nitto Terra Grapplers on my Jeep WJ and they rode amazing on the pavement and did well in the sand on our trip to the Outer Banks last year. Now I am looking at giving the Cooper Discoverer S/T Maxx a shot when I do replace the LTXs. I have read a lot of reviews on them already but would love to hear more opinions.
DiscovererSTmaxx-adj.jpg
 

FJOE

Regular Dude
You have to eat at Our Daily Bread on King St. (get the chicken salad melt) And Boone Saloon has a good beer selection as well. I went to school up there. Great place. I'm proud to call NC home.
 

Bretthn

Explorer
You have to eat at Our Daily Bread on King St. (get the chicken salad melt) And Boone Saloon has a good beer selection as well. I went to school up there. Great place. I'm proud to call NC home.
We will definitely check these places out on a future trip.

I almost got the Coopers. They are a heavy tire and stiff sidewalls. I bought Kelly TSR instead from Randall Tire. They are aggressive all terrain tire.
http://www.kellytires.com/en-US/tires/safari-tsr
Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
I have hear they are heavy but have not dug into actual weights on them vs others yet. The Kelley TSRs look great on your rig. I think they just might be a little too aggressive of a look for my wifes taste. Same with the DuraTracs. The LX still has to be wife approved :p

Great rig. Love uwharrie
Thanks. We had a great time at Uwharrie and plan to go back.. just after getting more armor and better tires. It would definitely be more fun with sliders and stronger skids.
 

Bretthn

Explorer
Slee Group 21 Battery Tray

So the second battery tray that I made is holding up great, with zero movement. The group 31 that weighs about 80 pounds in the factory location has not moved any either but I was still not comfortable with the fit of factory hold down and the fact that it was meant for a battery of half that weight. I ordered a Slee Battery Upgrade Tray designed specifically for the 100 series Land Cruiser and LX470. It is made to fit a Die Hard Platinum group 31m. I must say that Slee Offroad has some great customer service. I sent an email asking several questions before placing my order and got a nice long response within a couple of days from a person that I believe is the owner. I placed my order by phone and got the same level of service. It arrived packaged well with a complete book of installation instructions which include pictures. They also sent a sticker :wings:

The old plastic tray.


Plastic tray removed.

Slee tray installed. I had to drill one hole.

Completely installed.


The fit and finish on this thing are great. It is a substantial chunk of metal and it holds the battery in place, so I am happy.
 

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