Adventures of Lafawnduh: The High Mileage Waptuh

[gascapkevin]

Was able to find a good deal on some lightly used Total Chaos UCAs on Race Dezert Classifieds so I scooped them up.

This was a turning point for Lafawnduh, as I had been holding off on purchasing wheels for as long as possible. Always felt like unless I was getting beadlocks there was no real reason to change out the stock wheels other than Starbucks Drive Thru cred. But with the purchase of these UCA's I now had to get different wheels. Apparently almost all aftermarket UCA's will rub at full lock with stock offset wheels. I had also talked with enough people about the pains of running beadlocks on a daily that it made me realize I was probably gonna have to get some Bro Lock wheels

A few days later a set of 4 Method 305s popped up on Craigslist for a decent price, they had some pretty used 37" tires on them. Realized it was a friend of a friend and started negotiations. Talked with my girlfriend and she agreed not to break up with me if I got fake beadlocks as long as I got real wheels eventually.

The seller tried to tell me to just throw the wheels on with the 37s...

But they were huge and I have some sympathy for my 275k mile transmission

So I got the tires dismounted and sent the wheels to a local powder coater

Disco Purple Baby!


Had to go with something a bit different and stand out from all the black waptuh's with bronze methods lol.



I have not installed the UCA's yet as I decided it was time to do a full refresh on the front end, Lafawnduh deserves it.
So I got bushings and a ball joint for the stock LCA. Also got the SPC Alignment Cam Kit. SVC's Labor Day Sale got me, and I ordered their tie rods. Just waiting for the tie rods to come in and the temp to hopefully drop below 100 to tear apart the front and give it a refresh.

I also installed an Icon Leaf Pack out back, went with the 10% heavier option right away because of the RTT. Much better than stock.

 

[the bodj]

The purple looks so good! That purple is my favorite color so I love seeing it used as accents on trucks.

 

[gascapkevin]

Labor day weekend got to do a little one night camping trip with @troysladeck and the significant others




Managed to find a pretty sweet camp spot


I have gone full overlander and gotten a trasharoo. It's actually pretty nice to have.


also notice how far the RTT has shifted to the right
I have decided it is time to take action and build my own rack with some better mounting solutions that are a bit more vibration proof before the next camping trip. I also think I want to make the rack a little higher than the current setup. It is a bit cumbersome to get stuff from the front of the bed with the current configuration.

Troy spotting me while I squeeze Lafawnduh through a tight spot. Waptuh's are wide lol.


That big rock got me


Oh well, battle scars and a story to tell

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

Looks good man! That second to last pic is bad ass. I ran a Trasharoo on my ranger for years and loved it. I may run another one again if my ammo can trash can doesn't work out on the next trip.

 

[gascapkevin]

Found a spare tire carrier with a plate for mounting an off road jack for a good price on Marketplace so I scooped it up. I had just been running my spare tire ratchet strapped in the bed, and my jack is just chilling behind my drivers seat so I was excited to get it out of the cab and into the bed. It is the 454 Motorsports Delta cage, which is removable so I can still use the bed for truck stuff if I need to.

Beginning the install


Due to the bed crossmember and fuel line this was as far forward as I could get it

I'll probably try to mount ammo cans or some sort of containers in front of the cage to make the space functional.

This is what the underside looks like, as you can see I really didn't have any space to go further forward.


Mounted and ready to go


I ordered a jack mount to bolt to the plate, it should be here in the next week or so.


Took the Co Dawg for a shakedown run

 

[gascapkevin]

so idk if you guys have noticed, but I like using blue tape
Well this past weekend instead of adding blue tape to Lafawnduh, I actually took some off!

I wacked a cactus with my passenger side mirror in February and have been rocking blue tape on it since then. I started looking for a OE replacement right away, but was having trouble finding the waptuh specific mirror. So I dropped a lot of money on off road racing style mirrors because Lafawnduh is a trophy truck and deserves the best.

Blue tape life


New mirrors who dis


Even came with fancy cut outs for a Baja Designs S2!

Gonna be honest with you, my blind spots have never been bigger, but who cares when you look this cool


Took Lafawnduh for a shake down run and was sure to get close to some brush and make sure the new mirrors could take a hit...they can


Even found some water! S/O to @troysladeck for showing me the trail

 

[gascapkevin]

Took a quick weekend trip to Big Bear and managed to get in some dirt and rock miles.

Stopped at Boone Rd to introduce the codawg to Johnson Valley


He said he's ready for KOH


We started out in Johnson Valley and took Rattlesnake Canyon up to Burns Canyon which led us all the way up into Big Bear.

Rattlesnake Canyon started with some fast flowy stuff but that quickly turned into deep sand with lots of chatter, which turned into some tight rocky sections. Was a little sketch in a truck as wide as Lafawnduh, but luckily my girlfriend was a good spotter and got us through everything.

Burns Canyon was a lot more washed out then I had hoped but some cool scenery. Didn't get many pics was just enjoying the afternoon.

Joshua Tree Grove at the end of Rattlesnake Canyon

 

[Cleandezert]

such a great thread. this is what this site is about. Out having fun.

 

[gascapkevin]

such a great thread. this is what this site is about. Out having fun.

Thanks!

 

[sixdee9er]

Ever since I got Lafawnduh, I knew I wanted an RTT. So when I saw CVT was having a big sale on some tents they were discontinuing I jumped on it. I got the small Mt Washington. I wasn't particularly sold on any bed rack though. Most were way too overlandish and expensive. So I got a cheap one off Amazon that would work short term until I figured out what I really wanted.

View attachment 13967

First camping trip with the RTT:
View attachment 13968

First camping trip with my BLGT sticker:
View attachment 13969

The bed rack works fine during on road usage. But it is not cut out for off roading. So I am planning on building my own, with much inspiration taken from Wally's bed rack on his Ranger. He uses his truck and it looks like his GFC hasn't fallen off yet so I'm sold.

Custom rack is for sure the move. I had this built for my f-onehundredandfifty.

Bars for the tent slip in and out of sleeves and clip in. Folds right below the roof line. Plus a yeti rack and tool box.

 

[gascapkevin]

Nice setup!

 

[gascapkevin]

Small update for now. Big writeup eventually

Teaching the young one how to change brakes...and some other stuff


New brakes! And other things

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

Question. Are your coilovers loud? or were they when new? I just put my FOX c/o's on about 2 weeks ago and they "clunk" pretty harshly over small stuff like man holes and asphalt cracks in the road. Over big stuff they are quiet as can be. I'm hoping they just need to settle or "break in". It almost sounds as if something is loose but i triple checked everything. Only thing I'm concerned about is ford and fox wants 408 foot pounds of torque on the lower shock bolt in the LCA. I was only able to get it to around 300lbs. Wondering if maybe there is play there since i didnt get it to 408lbs.

 

[gascapkevin]

Question. Are your coilovers loud? or were they when new? I just put my FOX c/o's on about 2 weeks ago and they "clunk" pretty harshly over small stuff like man holes and asphalt cracks in the road. Over big stuff they are quiet as can be. I'm hoping they just need to settle or "break in". It almost sounds as if something is loose but i triple checked everything. Only thing I'm concerned about is ford and fox wants 408 foot pounds of torque on the lower shock bolt in the LCA. I was only able to get it to around 300lbs. Wondering if maybe there is play there since i didnt get it to 408lbs.

I don't know yet! I just picked the coilovers up used off Race Dezert Classifieds a few weeks ago and had my shock guy look over them. Just got the first side installed and onto the second side tonight. Hopefully will have it all back together this weekend and will let you know then

 

[the bodj]

Question. Are your coilovers loud? or were they when new? I just put my FOX c/o's on about 2 weeks ago and they "clunk" pretty harshly over small stuff like man holes and asphalt cracks in the road. Over big stuff they are quiet as can be. I'm hoping they just need to settle or "break in". It almost sounds as if something is loose but i triple checked everything. Only thing I'm concerned about is ford and fox wants 408 foot pounds of torque on the lower shock bolt in the LCA. I was only able to get it to around 300lbs. Wondering if maybe there is play there since i didnt get it to 408lbs.

Are the bolt holes wallowed out? That's an insane amount of torque. Uniballs are still good?

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

Are the bolt holes wallowed out? That's an insane amount of torque. Uniballs are still good?

No wallowed out holes at all. Shocks are brand new straight from FOX. Yeah I don't understand why they want such high torque on that bolt. Don't mean to thread highjack, carry on.

 

[gascapkevin]

No wallowed out holes at all. Shocks are brand new straight from FOX. Yeah I don't understand why they want such high torque on that bolt. Don't mean to thread highjack, carry on.

Haha all good! This thread is for learning about Gen Juan Waptuhs, whether it be Lafawnduh or Roger
And now I'm curious if mine will clunk too...are clunks just part of driving a trophy truck?

 

[96f-u250]

Im guessing the high torque # is because the LCA and tabs are aluminum, so the tabs wont bend and conform to the lower bushing as easily. Also the bolt is like a 20mm diameter so it can handle it.
Are your lower misalignments tight on the new C/O? Is so, it might just be the noise of going to a uniball vs having a bushing on your struts.

 

[gascapkevin]

If you're keeping track, awhile back I picked up some lightly used Total Chaos UCAs. This simple purchase was the catalyst for a front end refresh that ended up taking way longer than I could have imagined. I figured, if I'm upgrading the UCA I should probably give some love to the stock lower control arm. Bushings and Ball joints were ordered. It took a minute to find what bushings could be used for the lower control arm as most waptuh forums had contradicting information and the majority of the people just replace the whole control arm vs rebuilding. Then I found a deal on some Fox 3.0 Coilovers on Race Dezert too good to pass up.

If you're thinking of replacing the LCA Bushings on your waptuh, here are the part numbers I used: Moog K201188 and Moog K201189.

Got the first side torn down fairly quickly and the LCA off the truck. Then things slowed down.

I tried drilling holes in the rubber of the bushings...don't bother


I tried using the ball joint press to press the bushings out...don't bother


The only way I found that could successfully get the LCA bushings out was to use a 20 ton hydraulic bottle jack press. It's a pain. No pictures were taken, I was too busy being mad at the Lower Control Arm lol.

Parts Installed:
Used Total Chaos UCAs
Used Fox 3.0s
New SVC tie Rods
New LCA bushings and ball joints
New Brake rotors and pads
SPC Alignment Cams



And the most important part: SPC Alignment cams


Finished it up on a Wednesday, got an alignment Thursday, and drove it to San Felipe on Friday. Nothing like a 600+ mile shakedown trip to Mexico.

Made it down with no issues


Our Airbnb was about a mile and a half down a pretty rough dirt road. Was able to carry some high speeds and came up on a fairly big washout faster than I would have liked... my girlfriend and I both grimaced as we headed for it, the 3.0s did their thing and soaked it up incredibly well. My girlfriend looked over at me and said "yep it was worth it." And I agreed. Very impressed with the way the new coilovers soak up big hits. It's finally starting to handle how I imagined it would.

Didn't get to do too much off roading in San Felipe but did manage to visit the Valley of the Giants and stopped by the Chenoweth Legacy Lodge to check out the museum and grab a pina colada


The 3.0s had a pretty significant ride height drop, but I am loving how the front end feels so I didn't want to give them a ton of preload. I got some Blitzkrieg drop shackles which dropped the rear a bit, but it is still sitting too high in the rear. Next step is removing the 10% heavier leaf in my Icon leaf pack and going back to the lighter Icon configuration.

 

[gascapkevin]

Another project I've been pushing aside was finding a place to mount my badlands jack. I picked up a mount from Determined Fabrication and was planning on mounting it on the side of my spare tire carrier.



I mounted it on the side of my spare tire carrier but immediately didn't like it. The Badlands jack is huge and pretty much took up the whole middle portion of my rear window when I looked out my rearview mirror.
Time for plan B. I decided to just mount it to my bed behind my spare tire. It keeps the right side of my bed clear in case I need to throw my pit bike back there. But I knew I didn't want to just bolt it to the bed with some nuts and washers on the bottom side of the bed that could possibly pull through. So I decided to make some "load bars" for lack of a better term that went between the bolts and helped distribute the load. I got the idea from the bars that went on the underside of the bed for my spare tire carrier.

Started out with some scrap metal


Cut the flat plate off the side of the hitch mount, and got some cardboard templates ready


Starting to take shape


Then drill press


And some truck bed liner to finish them off



Installed and covered



The under side


I know it wasn't a crazy project but was cool to me to take some scrap metal from the old hitch I had laying around and turn it into something useful with an angle grinder and a drill press. And super happy with the mount, no rattles to be heard from inside the cab.