NW40
Explorer
Hey Ray do you think you could source any of the Desert Grills while your over seas?
Cheers!
I like this idea!
Coyote; aka my 96 D1 5 speed build thread
- Thread starter Ray_G
- Start date
I like this idea!
Ray_G
Explorer
I've been looking for decent condition Saudi grills since arrival for either D1 or Dii's; thus far all that I've found have been pretty busted up-the sun takes a toll on things out here as you might imagine and the plastic on Rovers is no exception. I'll redouble my efforts though along with actually going by the parts/service department; if I can find some they may best come back as part of my household good shipment next summer since I'd be concerned about trying to ship them via USPS out of the Embassy.
Ray_G
Explorer
Spring Break 2016; Part 1
My love affair with Coyote continues as I got back to the US for a week to spend my kiddos spring break with them. Likely the last time I'll have to make short term trip back, its tough not to look forward to the end of the current assignment and a return to a more normalized frequent time with them, not to mention giving my D1 some love-though in truth she needs very little as she illustrates everytime I get home and turn the key.
After the Maxtrax a few weeks back I decided to harvest the D3's Garmin + iPhone magnet mount for Coyote since the D3 will be getting another swapping around of ICE eventually. The only other mod that isn't pictured is the addition of a piece of bent aluminum under the magnet that holds the bottom of the phone level. This isn't for offroading mind you, rather for having it somewhere visible while on the highway.
After a beginning of spring marked by near freezing temps and rain during field hockey, we set out for WV-which meant the occupants that weren't driving promptly crashed out.
Early in the week we spent some time checking out new trails at Twin Mountain, with a significant expansion of land comes significant potential-very much at the initial exploration now, it was still a time to go check stuff out.
And to do the usual climb onto the roof rack to demand pics.
Unsurprisingly given the terrain and how infrequently the logging roads and trails had been used we ended up stuck, pressing little people into service to bring tree straps up the hill after the Maxtrax under the RRC just weren't getting things done given the slope, soil, etc.
The dogs were unimpressed by all of this, but at least safely deposited themselves near the winch point to observe.
With Coyote's MT's at street pressure and the lack of desire to replicate the hill climb after a quick confirmation that the RRC's pass through had made the soil worse not better discretion became the better part of valor and I turned around, a treat in and of itself given the slope which isn't well reflected in the pics.
With sunset coming we returned to the D3 we'd left in the hollow to turn in for the evening.
My love affair with Coyote continues as I got back to the US for a week to spend my kiddos spring break with them. Likely the last time I'll have to make short term trip back, its tough not to look forward to the end of the current assignment and a return to a more normalized frequent time with them, not to mention giving my D1 some love-though in truth she needs very little as she illustrates everytime I get home and turn the key.
After the Maxtrax a few weeks back I decided to harvest the D3's Garmin + iPhone magnet mount for Coyote since the D3 will be getting another swapping around of ICE eventually. The only other mod that isn't pictured is the addition of a piece of bent aluminum under the magnet that holds the bottom of the phone level. This isn't for offroading mind you, rather for having it somewhere visible while on the highway.
After a beginning of spring marked by near freezing temps and rain during field hockey, we set out for WV-which meant the occupants that weren't driving promptly crashed out.
Early in the week we spent some time checking out new trails at Twin Mountain, with a significant expansion of land comes significant potential-very much at the initial exploration now, it was still a time to go check stuff out.
And to do the usual climb onto the roof rack to demand pics.
Unsurprisingly given the terrain and how infrequently the logging roads and trails had been used we ended up stuck, pressing little people into service to bring tree straps up the hill after the Maxtrax under the RRC just weren't getting things done given the slope, soil, etc.
The dogs were unimpressed by all of this, but at least safely deposited themselves near the winch point to observe.
With Coyote's MT's at street pressure and the lack of desire to replicate the hill climb after a quick confirmation that the RRC's pass through had made the soil worse not better discretion became the better part of valor and I turned around, a treat in and of itself given the slope which isn't well reflected in the pics.
With sunset coming we returned to the D3 we'd left in the hollow to turn in for the evening.
Ray_G
Explorer
Spring Break 2016 Part II
Continuation from the week in pictures. Love the views in the mountains
My D3's companion continues to perform very well as a working utility vehicle
The week also saw the return to the range for the kiddos, mostly give the eldest some time on .22's and an introduction to Glocks that her hand size didn't really enjoy (G42, good in terms of single stack but not great without mag extensions). I think she will grow to find that pistols are most useful for carrying to the chow hall, and any serious work is done with a long gun.
The youngest got a cricket so she too was on the range, and did rather well when I got her into the prone-even if she kept fighting me about keeping her damn feet flat.
Good weather saw the chance for a bonfire/cookout
With the inevitable sunset pics of Coyote, Clifford (the D3) and Mojo (Unimog)
The week lined up with a full moon which made for some very bright nights.
A final shot of the truck as she sits now. With the horizon for return to CONUS now visible the list for mods isn't large (true 3" lift, DC front drive shaft) but she'll get some maintenance and restoration love to be sure to ensure that she continues to serve. I may go through an interior refresh too-taking out the carpets and refreshing the panels and seats just to spruce her up-but everytime I think about doing that I realize that she works for a living and it would just be newer stuff to get mud on. So maybe I'll just focus on potentially getting lockers...
Continuation from the week in pictures. Love the views in the mountains
My D3's companion continues to perform very well as a working utility vehicle
The week also saw the return to the range for the kiddos, mostly give the eldest some time on .22's and an introduction to Glocks that her hand size didn't really enjoy (G42, good in terms of single stack but not great without mag extensions). I think she will grow to find that pistols are most useful for carrying to the chow hall, and any serious work is done with a long gun.
The youngest got a cricket so she too was on the range, and did rather well when I got her into the prone-even if she kept fighting me about keeping her damn feet flat.
Good weather saw the chance for a bonfire/cookout
With the inevitable sunset pics of Coyote, Clifford (the D3) and Mojo (Unimog)
The week lined up with a full moon which made for some very bright nights.
A final shot of the truck as she sits now. With the horizon for return to CONUS now visible the list for mods isn't large (true 3" lift, DC front drive shaft) but she'll get some maintenance and restoration love to be sure to ensure that she continues to serve. I may go through an interior refresh too-taking out the carpets and refreshing the panels and seats just to spruce her up-but everytime I think about doing that I realize that she works for a living and it would just be newer stuff to get mud on. So maybe I'll just focus on potentially getting lockers...
Ray_G
Explorer
Seat covers are great, believe they are back for sale under new branding. The canvas has held up well to a lot of abuse over time.
Ray_G
Explorer
A triumphant return to my baby who is back to DD duties until the D3 gets back. Already seeing some light wheeling in WV and also stopping at the local flora and fauna for the most excellent cookies.
A small list of mods and some well deserved attention is on the plate for June/July.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
A small list of mods and some well deserved attention is on the plate for June/July.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Ray_G
Explorer
Nah, it's the SD low but it does hug quite closely. We need to find you one as the coup de grace of your rebuild!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
454
Exploder
ExtraDuty, I'll be in Utah a year from now with my D1 and my clean low SD rack. Meet me in Boulder Town with $1500 and it's yours.
Ray_G
Explorer
Minor milestones & being used as intended
Hit 130k the other night, fittingly enough after I'd grabbed the eldest from camp and we were heading out to WV. The stop lined up with a ~300mi tank of gas, so about 12.8 mpg which given the 255's, rack, and her weight I can't complain about.
Returning to the US also lined up with the opportunity to do some dog sitting. The seat covers are coming handy with the muddy paws, and there is something just natural about a Rover and dogs.
Piled everyone into the truck to check out some of the nearby gravel roads for a bit since it was an interesting weather day.
Hit 130k the other night, fittingly enough after I'd grabbed the eldest from camp and we were heading out to WV. The stop lined up with a ~300mi tank of gas, so about 12.8 mpg which given the 255's, rack, and her weight I can't complain about.
Returning to the US also lined up with the opportunity to do some dog sitting. The seat covers are coming handy with the muddy paws, and there is something just natural about a Rover and dogs.
Piled everyone into the truck to check out some of the nearby gravel roads for a bit since it was an interesting weather day.
Ray_G
Explorer
IFAK headrest mounting
While my D3 used a lot of lesson's learned from Coyote during her build I have also come back to apply the reverse. In particular I was very happy with the BROG headrest panels that allowed me to mount a pair of IFAKs up high where they are visible, accessible, but generally speaking out of the way. Various configurations of the Kexby seat covers over the past few years had ultimately resulted in the front seats being bare mostly to give the kiddos leg room during the long drive to/from WI last summer. The IFAKs had been relocated to up on the cargo barrier but since I'm dog sitting for a couple of weeks and needed more accessible cubic space that got popped out a few days ago with the IFAKs being re-located to the front seat backs.
Since Blue Ridge doesn't do coyote/tan head rest panels (unfortunate BROG if you do troll through here!) I ended up just getting some cheap tan velcro units off Amazon that are for tablets or something that people use to keep kids quiet in their minivans I guess. The tan isn't close to the Kexby khaki but this is a work truck so life will go on. Likewise the velcro was brilliant, except I failed to note that it was the hard side (as is the back of the IFAK), no matter these are light since it's just a tourniquet, pressure bandages, gauze, sheers, etc (i.e. trauma). Like the D3 I went with orange for vis, in this case grabbing two dog collars from tractor supply and modifying them slightly.
Both mounted and back in play.
All part of using some time decompressing to give the old girl some love and re-validate or modify where much progress stopped two years ago when I went off to AD. More on that over the next few days as she gets all the stuff stripped out, inspected, and gets put back in if it hits threshold.
While my D3 used a lot of lesson's learned from Coyote during her build I have also come back to apply the reverse. In particular I was very happy with the BROG headrest panels that allowed me to mount a pair of IFAKs up high where they are visible, accessible, but generally speaking out of the way. Various configurations of the Kexby seat covers over the past few years had ultimately resulted in the front seats being bare mostly to give the kiddos leg room during the long drive to/from WI last summer. The IFAKs had been relocated to up on the cargo barrier but since I'm dog sitting for a couple of weeks and needed more accessible cubic space that got popped out a few days ago with the IFAKs being re-located to the front seat backs.
Since Blue Ridge doesn't do coyote/tan head rest panels (unfortunate BROG if you do troll through here!) I ended up just getting some cheap tan velcro units off Amazon that are for tablets or something that people use to keep kids quiet in their minivans I guess. The tan isn't close to the Kexby khaki but this is a work truck so life will go on. Likewise the velcro was brilliant, except I failed to note that it was the hard side (as is the back of the IFAK), no matter these are light since it's just a tourniquet, pressure bandages, gauze, sheers, etc (i.e. trauma). Like the D3 I went with orange for vis, in this case grabbing two dog collars from tractor supply and modifying them slightly.
Both mounted and back in play.
All part of using some time decompressing to give the old girl some love and re-validate or modify where much progress stopped two years ago when I went off to AD. More on that over the next few days as she gets all the stuff stripped out, inspected, and gets put back in if it hits threshold.