Airmonger's LX450 Build

[Airmonger]

Things have been a little crazy this summer since we sold our house and moved, but it has finally started to settle down and I have been able to get out of town a little more lately. Recently the kids and I took a trip to North Idaho. The first night be stayed at the Moose Creek Reservoir near Bovill, ID. It was very pretty and not too crowded for a public campground. I was trying to find a place called "Blue Lagoons," but we were running late after leaving town and I wanted to stop and get camp set up for the kiddos. So we ended up here.



We built a fire.



And enjoyed the view.



The next day we drove up through Clarkia, ID via Merry Creek Rd, St Joseph NF RD 321to the Hobo Ceder Botanical Area and went for a hike.



Before Continuing on to Marble Creek.





And on to my parents cabin on Lake Pend Orielle. (Watch out for the dog photo bomber.)



My mom mentioned there was an Aviation Museum 2 miles away. I had never heard of it before so we loaded up the kids and went for a little drive to find this.



http://www.birdaviationmuseum.com/

Dr. Bird is the oldest certified helicopter instructor at the age of 92. He also invented the respirator and hundreds of other medical devices.

It was a great weekend that allowed me to recharge my batteries. I can't wait to get back out again.

 

[Airmonger]

Rear Suspension Refresh

When I originally installed the OME lift I didn't have drawers, Dual Swing out bumper, roof rack or a trailers. After all those add ons the rear was sagging pretty bad. I decided to upgrade from OME 860's to 864's. Without the trailer I am at 38.5 inches at the rear wheel well and 37 in the front. With the trailer on I am at 38.25 in the rear and 37.75 in front. It should end up being dead even once the springs settle in. I am glad to get rid of the reverse rake on the cruiser and it looks more like a stink bug than ever with the yakima box.

 

[washington taco]

Thats a nice shop! Lex crusier looks good too!

 

[Bretthn]

Great vehicle and pictures from your trips! I see you are running the Cooper ST Maxx. How many miles have you put on them and how do you feel about them after owning them for a while?

 

[Airmonger]

They have been great tires. I have had them for about 2 years and 12,000 miles and haven't had any problems yet. I can't really complain of any loss of performance over h/t tires because there isn much performance in this pig. Road manors are good. Off high has been great.

 

[Airmonger]

Air Cleaner, A/C and new tires?

I have had a oem air cleaner in a box in my garage for the last year and never bothered to swap it out. I finally pulled the old air cleaner(NAPA, not oem) and decided that now was the time. The old one was a little dirty and I had just assumed that it still had a factory cleanable filter. That wasn't the case.


The Toyota version even has fancy cleaning instructions.

I have been having issues with the A/C pump kicking off under load at high rpm. First we decided that the charge was a little low so we added some 134a. That didn't solve the problem and the high side was pretty high. We ended up recovering the refrigerant, pulling a vacuum and recharging the system with new coolant.


We even found a handy little sight gauge. When filling the system with the engine running you should see bubbles washing around in the sight gauge. When the gauge runs clear and the bubbles subside its done.

I also got the bug to get some 35" tires after the 864 springs were installed. There is have someone who has offered to buy my current Cooper ST Maxx 33"s and I found a cooper dealer who has a set of Cooper STT M/T in 315/75/16 that are cheaper than what I bought my maxx's for. Well see. This may lead to some 4.88 gears being installed.

 

[Ghostdog]

Airmonger, great looking rig, well-suited to your needs. Love your pics of Northern Idaho. Been too long since I was there last.

 

[Airmonger]

A long time coming...

Oops....somebody tore all the stupid cladding of this luxury vehicle. Whelp time to rhino line the Bottom.

What color should rhino liner it? Black, tan or grey?

 

[Bretthn]

Been a while.
Can't wait to see the finished result.

 

[LexusAllTerrain]

Looking forward to the 35" nice build!

 

[washington taco]

A dark gray or black.

You up for Skifari this year? By the way your beer was awesome at the Overland Rally!

 

[Airmonger]

Thanks for the input of the color. I think black might look a little weird but it might also be not very noticeable. I want to shredfari. I fully planned on making it last year but it ended up not happening. What's the route this year?

 

[kletzenklueffer]

Some are o.k. with stock gears and 315's, but I didn't like the feeling that I didn't have a low gear, or that the trans was off by one gear set. 4.88's gave my 80 crawlability, restored some torque and it will actually pass without flooring it. Only downside is the lack of speedo correction. Mine is off by 6%, so 60mph indicated is 54mph by the GPS. At 70mph, I'm at about 2900rpms, IIRC.

 

[Airmonger]

I just order 4.88 and they are sitting in the back if the rig along with a knuckle rebuild kit. . I don't like kicking out of overdrive for every .5% grade I hit on the highway either. I was kind of surprised by how well the gears did on my last trail run but I agree. Stock gears and 315s are way under geared.

 

[Airmonger]

I've had 315's since October FYI. I'll post some good side shots once I get the body work done.