Thanks for the welcome.
I have been into what I would consider wheeling for about the last 14 years or so. I started out taking a 2wd Mazda places it shouldn't have been. I picked up a 78 chevy stepside 4wd and had a great time with it just doing the local stuff with 31's. I decided that it was time to get the Jeep that I had wanted since I was 16.
Traded the chevy in on a 90 wrangler. I was initially disappointed with it. The lawyers got rid of any suspension travel. Started with lifting it 2.5 inches and putting 32's on it, put a lockright in the rear axle and it was game on. Did a lot of Northern Nevada desert week long trips, snow wheeling, Rubicon and any other dirt road/goat trail that I could find. Decided that it needed to be bigger, so on went the 4 inch lift and 33's, plus a new Currie built D44 with gears and ARB's front and rear and a 4 to 1 in the t-case. The rockcrawling bug had hit big time. Decided it needed to be bigger, so SOA time and 35's. Was still doing rocks, Rubicon, Fordyce, Moab and driving it all over the desert. Had a brain fart and decided to sell it (big mistake) because I thought I wanted something with more room.
I picked up an 88 4runner v6 with low miles and was just going to drive it. Did a huge week long trip all over north eastern Nevada and was pretty happy. It had a common problem that the early r150's had and would pop out of 1st sometimes on take off. Figured get it rebuilt and put a new clutch in it. Well while the tranny was out, the plasma cutter also came out. Next thing I know, it's got a straight axle in it with a fj80 front third, dual cases, ARB's front and rear, 35's, plus alot of other things. Never really liked it in the desert after that. Worked awesome in the rocks, did Rubicon, Fordyce, Moab and Johnson Valley. Never was as reliable as the Jeep (I know everyone has a problem believing that). Got tired of rockcrawling and sold it.
That lasted a little over a year, bought some sport quads and had a blast, but the exploration bug was biting big time, so I sold those. I had seriously looked at FZJ80's a couple of years ago and felt that it was the next vehicle for me. Then my buddy, Ali bought one and that didn't help the desire. So once everything fell into place the hunt began. I took a couple of months and I finally found one about two months ago. It's a 97 LX 450 that had 97k miles on it with the factory lockers. The PO had installed the CDL switch and did the 7 pin mod and just maintained it. I picked it up and installed some Yokohama Geolander AT 285's on it. I put the Mr. Gasket spacers in the front and the MAF 30mm spacers in the rear, pulled the running boards and mud flaps off and that's where it's at now. I still have to rebuild the front axle and repack the rear bearings. But pretty much loving it.
Can not wait for the weather to clear and then it's time to go see what is down the next road or over the next hill. I have a tendancy to take anything I own off of the beaten path. My wife's MX6 has been over the Lost Coast road in Northern CA and my goldwing has seen some dirt miles getting to fire watch towers in the Sierra's.
Oh and I pretty much suck at the computer thing, so I'm not sure how to attach photos.
Whew! Sorry for the long post.
