Adventures of Lafawnduh: The High Mileage Waptuh

[WW_RANGER_X]

Looks good!

That's funny, I just picked up a badlands jack over the weekend. I bought a mount and a cover that should be here this week. The jack is way bigger in person than i imagined for sure.

 

[gascapkevin]

Haven't posted in this thread in a minute. Just been driving it and enjoying it. Here are some snaps from the past few months.

Christmas Eve at the beach


Spectating at the Parker 400...co dawg was loving the sun


Chillin at camp in Johnson Valley this past weekend

 

[2012SVTSC]

Haven't posted in this thread in a minute. Just been driving it and enjoying it. Here are some snaps from the past few months.

Christmas Eve at the beach
View attachment 20453

Spectating at the Parker 400...co dawg was loving the sun
View attachment 20455

Chillin at camp in Johnson Valley this past weekend
View attachment 20456

Truck and pup look good.

 

[philofab]

Where are you at that Tyler is local? I'm in Mohave Valley.

Been on a search for a decent Gen 1 in Oxford White or Race Red. Haven't found the right one yet.

 

[gascapkevin]

Where are you at that Tyler is local? I'm in Mohave Valley.

Been on a search for a decent Gen 1 in Oxford White or Race Red. Haven't found the right one yet.

I am in Havasu, and when I first met Tyler he was living in Havasu as well. But now he is more local to you haha.

 

[Donttellmywiferacing]

The best vantage point for long distance RC crawling
View attachment 13072

At this point it was January, I still hadn't rebuilt the shocks, and I had aspirations of going to KOH.
I had the Schrader valve conversion and seal kit just sitting on my dining room table. I had rebuilt motorcycle forks before, but was scared I was gonna be in over my head with these IBP Fox's. So I swallowed my pride and called a professional. Through a mutual friend I found Hutchins Race Prep. Tyler was local, knowledgeable, and just a cool dude.

I squeezed Lafawnduh into the garage and pulled the shocks off
View attachment 13076

When I pulled the rears I could fully compress the shock and it would stay compressed, no rebound at all lol. I guess it was time for a rebuild.
Tyler said there was almost no fluid in the fronts either.

Night and day difference once I had shocks that actually worked. But honestly, I was still a little disappointed in the performance and am searching for better options.

Option A: Geiser spring on the stock shock, cheapest option but I think I will still want more.

Option B: Stock Length 3.0 Coilover

Option C: Camburg Coilover Bucket that relocates the top mounting point and would allow me to run longer Gen 2 coilovers. But unsure if it's worth the headache of cutting the whole bucket out. (And no welder at this time so would have to pay for the fab work)

Option D: 3.0 Coilover, lower control arm with bypass mounts, and a 2.5 or 3.0 bypass (would also require fab work for the upper bypass mount)

Option X (cover Lafawnduh's ears): Sell the Waptuh and get a TTB Ranger (every time I see a video of Wally's turtle truck I get butterflies)

Trying to stay relatively budget friendly as fully building a Waptuh takes a lot of dough and I think there are better and cheaper trucks to build into full on desert machines. Mike's sleeper Tacoma is a big inspiration as Lafawnduh has to be a swiss army knife truck at this point in my life. I'm still renting and trying to pinch pennies until I can get a house with a garage and 220v power for a welder. So at the moment Lafawnduh pulls desert duty, camping duty, dirt bike and jetski hauling duty, as well as occasional commute to work duty.

Any insights on my existential crisis would be greatly appreciated from the wealth of knowledge here on BLGT. Thanks!

Here's a cool pic to break up all the lame writing
View attachment 13083

I got mine with 3.0 kings and I added ICON leafs and will say the truck works very well for what it is. I don’t think you’d be disappointed with that solution at all.

 

[gascapkevin]

I got mine with 3.0 kings and I added ICON leafs and will say the truck works very well for what it is. I don’t think you’d be disappointed with that solution at all.

Yep I have Fox 3.0s up front now with icon leaf's in the back and the truck does indeed work well

 

[John Reynaga]

I know I’m a little late but congratulations Kevin! Lafawnduh looked good at the wedding!

 

[gascapkevin]

Haha! thanks John!

 

[gascapkevin]

Long time no post!

Installed the oversized Saudi trans cooler. Part number: DL3Z-7A095-B if anyone was curious.



And decided to join the dark side and delete the IWE system. Went with the Dorman option. Also put new CVs in both sides. While I was in the front end I did a little prep, greased everything that needed grease and made sure everything was still tight.


Shop supervisor was working hard


I also decided to put the spare tire back under the bed for some more weight behind the axle. So if anyone wants a 454 motorsports Delta single tire rack let me know


And the co dawg got a co dawg!

 

[gascapkevin]

I had been struggling to find a bed rack that looked good and performed even better. Tuff Stuff overland was having a sale on their bed racks a few months ago and it looked like it was almost exactly what I wanted. It was a universal rack so it had a few more moving parts than I wanted. But all three legs were tied together on the bed and it was tubular not super square and overlandy like most racks.

The big downside was it used a smaller tube and set screws to set the width of the rack.

Here's a pic from their website that shows the normal instalation


With my previous bed rack experience I knew the set screw would probably rattle out the minute I touched a dirt road. I had also been anxious to use my new welder on a project. So I got some 1.5" .120 wall tube and decided to modify the rack.

I took the 1.25" tubing that was supposed to go in the middle and cut it down into 6" sections. Then I drilled out 4 holes and spot welded the smaller tubing into it


Took some measurements of the middle span and cut my 1.5" tubing down to size. I spot welded the middle tubes to the 1.25" slugs as well


Then I welded it all together and sprayed some black alloy armor on it. I was halfway through a can so I was only able to spray the unfinished tubes. I'll pull it off this summer and spray the whole rack one color.

I also got some Wheel Every Weekend mounts during their Black Friday Sale


Got the tent mounted on the rack Friday night and started packing up because Saturday we were headed to Laughlin!

Laughlin or Bust


I was hoping the height of the rack would allow me to put the 110 in the bed of the truck...but the handlebars were hitting the bottom of the tent. So I pulled out the hitch hauler and threw it on. Midway through getting the bike on the hitch hauler I realized I could have just loosened the clamps and rolled the bars lower. Lesson learned, I'll try that next trip.

Raging at the River


After we saw the 6100 race and I fangirled enough about seeing the Isenhouer truck, we headed to camp.
Was able to find a pretty cool spot right along the river.


It got a little chilly right before sunrise but we survived.
It was the little pups first camping trip and she did great. As soon as we put her in the tent she got comfy on our pillows and fell asleep.


Sunday morning as we headed back into town we actually got to see the class 11 bugs going through the moonbumps so we pulled over and watched them from the side of the highway. We saw the Isenhouer bug break down and my wife was teasing me that I needed to run out there and make sure they were ok, but I restrained myself. All in all it was a great weekend.

The rack seemed to hold up great. No movement so far, but I will continue putting it through its paces and see how it does.

 

[the bodj]

This thing is awesome. I'm a big fan of the purple wheels!
As for loading the 110, put it in backwards with the tailgate down if you don't want to mess with the bar mounts.

 

[gascapkevin]

Yep I thought of that too. I just hate driving around with the tailgate down haha

 

[WW_RANGER_X]

That rack is exaclty what im looking for. Wife really wants an RTT. Looks great!

 

[STUDIO305]

Solid move on opting out of the setscrew option...seen many of them work their way out and the RTT mounted atop is what's holding it all together and square.