The Rig Runner ...a 2010 E350 5.4 DIY Coil Conversion

[Raul]

Action Video. Yours truly is at 1:10 General Sams
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Good turn around and some nice rigs.

 

[Raul]

Long video. Lots of dash cam. Jump to minute 22 to see the van.

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[Raul]

Weekend trip to Texas Hill Country. Great company, Fun trip. All fun and games until someone breaks a Driveshaft (me). I was able to finish the trails on FWD and drove home with AWD. Now I have a leak on the Transfer case (Maybe the front seal was never intended to drive at 80 mph) and a CV to fix.



Some three wheel action. I may try disconnecting the sway bar next time


Note to self. If the Tacoma in front of you struggles to climb one pass, you may want to take the van through the by-pass.

 

[Raul]

I am back on the road. Finally everything is back to work. It was tough to work with the temperatures just shy of 100F. As I broke the driveshaft it seems that the transfer/transmission joint was stressed and was leaking. Since I had to remove the transfer I decided to tap and thread the mismatched bolt on the flange.
I didn’t want to rely on my handheld skills when drilling on the transmission so I rigged guide. Used the paper gasket as template and cut a 1” thick board and drilled with the drill press.


To my relief, everything lined up alright.



Rebuilding the CV was quite a painful learning curve. I had to disassembled twice because of the centering ball. You have to mate the ball with the pin before putting the u-joint bearings.

When installing the cross member I placed it a little bit lower so now my differential joint is more aligned. On a quick test drive it seems that I have les vibration now. I may still look for some angle shims.

 

[Raul]

Matagorda, Tx. Relaxing after the beach clean up.
First time using the awning on this van. Very windy and it held very well. With the bedlinner the suction cups that hold the poles do not work. I need to design a new way to hold them.

 

[Raul]

Fall Run with TX4WD. Barnwell Mountain Off Road Park. Since TX has very little public land and no real mountain roads, this is the best next thing. Very nice location and great gang. Of course I was not able to play in the complicated trails, but the van always surprises me how far I can push her.










By the end of the day the side step was gone





I had to be pulled from this very same spot. Picture do not show but it was steep, slippery and had big steps to clear. The Bronco had to stop the engine since it was starving for oil and was lost oil pressure.

 

[Raul]

Didn't have the camera wife with me so not a lot of pictures or videos. I got this one, not the nicest spot, but nice to see the possibilities of these vans. I did harder stuff and got to be winched out of the same spot than the Bronco above.

Van Video
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I got stuck right before the big bump where the bronco got stuck

Bronco Video
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[Raul]

Moving ahead with the add-ons. I should post pictures of the finish product by the weekend.

 

[Raul]

Now I can Self-recover whenever I get in trouble.
Winch fit nicely between the bumper and the radiators.

 

[Raul]

Winter break! Having fun on the snow. My friend was guiding me and kept asking me if I wanted to put the chains. No chains, no winch, no lowering pressures.


We only got stuck once, but the horn took care of it.

 

[Raul]

Winter break is over. It was fun. I did have to use the winch. This nice couple got stuck in the snow on their nice F150. I din't have much trouble with on 4x4 and LSD. I think they had LSD as well, but tires made a huge difference.






We also had chance to do some Snowshoeing and spend the first night of the year on a snow cave that we build.

 

[mitchn06]

Your adventures look fun, can I be one of your kids?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Raul]

Well, after sometime thinking about it, I finally did it. ?

 

[CaptainBuilt]

Haha, that's awesome.

Is that a Ranch Hand bumper?

 

[Raul]

Is that a Ranch Hand bumper?

Maybe. It came with the van, the mounting brackets had been relocated, it was probably for an F350 or even a Dodge.

Something like this: https://www.ranchhand.com/front-bumper-fbf991blr.html