Update Time. The day after Christmas I took my brother and we did a 4 day Death Valley run. Through Trona Pinnacles, over the Escape Trail and into Panamint. Up through Goler to Barker Ranch then back out and up to Ballarat, and then through Wildrose to the Charcoal Kilns. Darwin Canyon to Darwin, then up Saline Valley and camped at the Warm Springs. Up Dedeckera Canyon and over Steel Pass and down into the Eureka Dunes, then over Cranshaft Crossing and down to Stovepipe Wells and Mosaic Canyon. Ubehebe Crater, down to Teakettle Junction and Race Track, then out to Beatty NV. Rhyolite, Titus Canyon, Devil's Golf Course, Badwater Basin, West Side Rd, Harry Wade Exit Route, to Saratoga Springs and IBEX Sand Dunes, then out at 127 to Baker and home.
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Coming back from Race Track we came across an Indian family with two blown tires - and none of them knew how to change a tire let alone plug one. Stopped and got them sorted out and on the road again. But, that put me 90 minutes behind where I wanted to be for the night, so I started making up time on the washboard. Usually I have my GF with me who is an awesome spotter - a by-product of her being overly risk averse. But, this time I had my brother who has never done anything like this before nor ever seen any remote terrain. So - I was busy talking to him and didn't see the 3' whoop, that I hit, doing 40, fully loaded. PING - something broke. Crawled under it and had sheared off the driver side rear lower shock bolt. But, the big Eibach Hummer coil spring kept it pretty level but my shock was now hanging down and disconnected.
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I do have an onboard welder, but I figured finding the nut and bolt would be a long shot and it was 4:20pm. So, I determined my best bet was to get to Beatty as close to 5:00pm as I could to find a suitable replacement. In Beatty at the Arco - a fire truck. I asked them if they knew where I could find a shock bolt and they were nice enough to have me follow them to the firehouse wherein I got not just one, but 4 suitable bolts (ahhhh - spares) from their newly arrived generator (the bolts were holding it to the pallet. Grabbed a campsite for the night and deployed the Hi-Lift - all fixed.
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There's the background. Now - I actually did some damage. The shock wasn't quite straight and it bottom seriously hard. As mentioned previously in this thread, when I put in the replacement bumpstops, they are noticeably smaller than the stock ones - well it turns out way too small. They allowed the coils to bind and everythingto fully compress and they still didn't hit. So - had to address that.
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Ended up fabbing in some bumpstop pads attached to the differential - essentially lengthening the bumpstops.
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Also in the rear, I ended up bending the left rear tube and shaft (a 7/8" shaft!!!). So - looking a the actual shock travel determined that the bodies were 1.5" too long so we shortened both of the rear shock bodies and put in new shaft. Also, revalved all of the shocks. Because when I'm fully loaded the Av is substantially heavier than empty, add adjusters to the reservoirs so that I can adjust the compression based on how I'm loaded or the terrain I'm going to be in.
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Next, my rear sway bar lengths were stock and way too short for the height of the truck. So, we fabbed up some adjustable ones. Also with the addition of the RTT, rack, and fridge, the Av has felt a bit "swimmy" so I also added in beefier Eibach anti-sway bars and bushings.
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With all the love for the rear of the Av, have to show some to the front end. Added an Eibach anti-sway bar to the front along with Grade 8 links. My little jumping adventure also revealed that a single limiting strap on the front shocks is not enough to keep them from over-drooping, so added a second Kartek limiting strap to each side. Both front shocks also got fully revalved, though they sucked up the landing quite well - so I did not change the reservoirs to adjustable - yet.
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Finally, I had changed out my LCAs to MOOG Problem Solvers -and ever since I did that I had been noticing that my truck did not turn as sharp as it had with the factory LCAs. Doing a close inspection revealed the Moog arms have an extra piece of metal that catch and prevents the wheels from fully turning. It looks like a big piece of mold flashing. So, ground that off and now the truck turns like it did before.
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That's it for now. I'm on the hunt for either: New seats or someone to rebuild mine.
