Giant Geoff
Well-known member
Yes, take a break after that big job. If anything, just mount a better rear shock for now.
Great job on the work you did!
The Grand Tracker (Retard TT)
- Thread starter 84projectFORD
- Start date
Great job on the work you did!
84projectFORD
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2022
- Messages
- 293
I don’t know why I forgot to post this here but got her out 2 weeks ago over the weekend. Parker didn’t happen, last minute cancel by a few key people we needed lol. So I drug it down by midget Nate’s and smashed the whoops there. I’m making a fuckton of excuses as to why she was slow in this video but I’m down a good 15-20mph from what it could run though here due to these issues. My waste gate wasn’t setup right and was only hitting 4-5psi vs the 10-11 I normally run, didn’t air down (too excited lol) as a lot of the run up is sand and it was hot as balls so she was getting a little hot trying to plow through sand.
Overall it’s fucking amazing. Fronts too stiff overall even with clickers all the way out which is making the back soft. Took the shocks off and sent back to Accutune since I get a free revalve. I asked for final valve specs but I guess that’s “proprietary” even though I’m probably going to be opening them back up to play with myself. I figured it would just be nice to know what I have in there to play with instead of taking apart, measuring, and all that jazz. Oh well
Overall it’s fucking amazing. Fronts too stiff overall even with clickers all the way out which is making the back soft. Took the shocks off and sent back to Accutune since I get a free revalve. I asked for final valve specs but I guess that’s “proprietary” even though I’m probably going to be opening them back up to play with myself. I figured it would just be nice to know what I have in there to play with instead of taking apart, measuring, and all that jazz. Oh well
proprietary? LMAO.
you paid didnt you? sheesh. I know that "tuning knowledge" is kind of part of their profession.. but still makes me kind of bummed they wouldn't share that with customer. Nothing a few minutes and some dial calipers can't solve! Then you can blast it on social media and tag them.LOL
I will add that Sonny at downsouth was very open and helpful when we were tuning Brodaddy.
you paid didnt you? sheesh. I know that "tuning knowledge" is kind of part of their profession.. but still makes me kind of bummed they wouldn't share that with customer. Nothing a few minutes and some dial calipers can't solve! Then you can blast it on social media and tag them.LOL
I will add that Sonny at downsouth was very open and helpful when we were tuning Brodaddy.
84projectFORD
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2022
- Messages
- 293
Yeah, makes no sense. Not like anything can be hid in there. I don’t really care though. I’ll find out soon enough. They originally were wanting me to do a typical dual rate setup too but explained I would much rather have the longer main spring to help front end pop, higher block height spring rate and better control with valving. I Wanted to take advantage of that 3.75” spring!
84projectFORD
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2022
- Messages
- 293
Alright… let’s see… where the fuck did I leave off…
Got a front driveshaft in it, did rear shoes and drums only to have one of them warped from the get go and try to fuck up my shit. This in turned burned a wheel seal out so I got to do both axle seals and new rear gear oil. Also put a drop put an arm to help with the bad steering it had. The way I mounted the frame it kinda fucked that geometry up till the drop pitman arm went on
Also got rhe shocks back and new valving is definitely softer. I’m still full soft on the clickers and it’s not soft enough but we will get there about that. I was going back and forth on upping the rear valving but with a .020 stack in the 2.0 shocks, 300psi of nitrogen, and an IFP set at 6”, I decided to just lower the crossovers 1”. I’m going to extend the bumps from 2” to 3” though
Once to this point, I’m trying to have this shit box ready for the Cali 300 to prerun with and be backup at remote pit. No time to make a cable shifter work in the cab for 4wd so I external shifter it was. No fucking pics of this master piece but it worked tits. I do have a jd customs shifter and cable here to mount now.
With the tracker buttoned up enough to go (still a leaky trans but 0 fucks given) I had to get my 02 Dmax ready cause my wife could not leave with me at the same time for the race (her truck is the 2020 Dmax). That pos got new pads and rotors all around, new cv boots, new fluids, tcase leak fixed, air bags installed (no overloads on leaf pack), new idler pulley, gauges fixed, new power steering pump because the old one just fuckin pissed shit out pulling in to do finishing touches on it, 5th wheel hitch installed (already had rails), and more shit I’m forgetting. Mind you, this was all done in 2 weekends, 3 weeks before I leave.
Toyhauler, weekend before the race, got bearings repacked only to find all the brake shoes were about fucked off. So scouring through phx, I could only find manual adjusting shoes for my shit, not auto adjusting like I had. Fucking kicked the mill on and make those mother fuckers work. Again, no pics because I’m frusterated as fuck and running out of time. Typical pollack.
Shits loaded and ready for the fuckery that’s about to happen. Fuck off, yes it’s sitting low, bags weren’t aired up yet.
On the way out, 10 min, battery light flashes on and off under heavy boost. I kick it back, light stays out. Fuck it, we are sending it. Get all the way to Blythe without issue because we all decided that going up through yucca is the better way to go (the fuck it was). As we start up towards desert center, truck temps start to climb. It’s 113* out so I kick back to 65 and 4rh gear. Just before Chiraco hill, truck jumps to 240 and I pull off to find the upper turbo coolant hose blew.
Dropped the hauler door and opened up the tracker for tools. Scabbed on a 14 year old piece of air line to get up to midget Nate for some 3/8 high pressure fuel line. Hour of down time later, chat with a CHP officer who can’t believe I’ve fixed the truck and we are off. Pulls Chiraco without issue. Get into Indio and it’s 120* god damn degrees. Truck is running 230 on flat ground, Jesus… hit the turn off for yucca and wound up getting caught at the light at the bottom of the hill. Now I got no run for the hill coming up. 35mph, 3k rpm and 2nd gear, here we go. After pulling both long ass hills, get to the top and go to leave the stop light at the top only to find I have 0 power till 2600rpm and boost comes on. wtf… I top off fuel and inspect shit but nothing obvious. As I drive, I’ve come to the conclusion the wastegate flap has broke off the valley turbo and I’m now basically driving on my s483 big turbo. 0 fucks given at this point and this engine is good for 4500rpm. Sent that mother fucker. 15 miles from Lucerne, fuciing trailer tire goes. 3 year old hartland just blew the fuck out. Never had that before. At this point, I’m about ready to fucking go home. I’m done. I call the wife, tell her to grab the trailers 2nd spare, the Anderson hitch her truck uses and we are using her truck to tow the trailer home. I finally pull into the campsite at 5:30pm. We left at 8:30 am
.
Next day, I can’t wait to beat on the tracker. Got 2 miles out to prerun and smashed a rear brake line. Slapped a vice grip on the brake line and I’m back at it. That sum bitch smashed through that course like it was no big deal. I had so much fun and was cooling along that course passing sxs’s with the a/c blowing ice cold. Absolutely made the trip. Did blow out a body mount but 30 min of welding st camp, she was fixed. The front end is fucking amazing. I can punt that sucker into shit without a worry. To me though, I need to soften it up more. Clickers shouldn’t be full soft all the time and still be too stiff. The ass end worked like a champ. I was slamming her into holes I filled expect to bottom the rear out in and never did. Rear shock temps saw 250-275*, fronts were 200-220. I’m good with that when it was running 40-50mph through shit for 1-2 hours at a time and no breaks. That damn course is rough!
Qualified 3rd in class and 14th overall. Decent spot. On race day, Nate drove and I was co dawg. Mother fucker set a god damn pace on the first lap! Had 5 min on the leader and 10th overall. Then he started getting sick. After the race, we believe he got heat stroke and motion sickness… but I digress, second lap we start checking way up on speed from this. As we are going we are scheming how to get him better. Tried a few things at each pit and they ain’t really working. On 3rd lap, we are way off the pace and now just trying to finish. We lost 4wd and not long after, lost a rear tire. I changed it while Nate tried shutting the car off and seeing if we could reset the 4wd. Nope. Near the end of the first lap, remote pit talked to Killian and found they could add a co driver during the race as it went on. My buddy grabbed a band from Killian and we planned to put him as co dawg while I drop. As we hit main pit at the end of the 3rd lap, car started acting like we lost a rear spring and front end was real loose in the steering. Found the body savers on the outside of the shock that the dual slider rides on had fallen down and jammed the fuck up in the slider. I quickly devised a plan to compress the springs with ratchet straps, pulled the bottom shock eye out of the trailing arm and yanked all that bull shit out. Put it back together without the body saver deal and got back in the car. The guys that looked over the front found the steering rack bolts were loose so they tighten them up and we were off. I went out with a mind set to finish but still wanted to set a decent pace. At rm2, out of no where I loose all steering. We get set off course barely staying on 2 wheels and find the two loose bolts on the rack snapped and left us high and dry. My co dawg ain’t done fighting and asks if I think we can change the rack out there. Fuck yeah we can. The sweeps on the course got a rack from main pit and brought it out to use. We also found a control arm bolt that about peace’s out and got that tighten back up. Hour of down time later, we are back rolling again but now we have 45 min to make remote pit or our day is done. We take back off and try to take it easy but by rm17, the car had enough and broke an inner tie rod. We figured it got damaged when the rack broke and put all the stress on the inner tie rods. Our ass limped off course and those beers we got at camp never tasted so sweet. We all out a valiant effort in.
Sunday was a shit show. Loaded my 02 on my dad’s flat bed (they came out to help) and my mom drove her jeep back. Somehow the goose ball in my wife’s truck was not in her truck so I spent an hour in town looking for one. 400 bucks later from tractor supply, I got one. Headed home and 30 min from search light, fucking blow the RF trailer tire. That was the other 3 year old hartland. The other 2 are 2 years old and different design. Come to find out, tires were getting so hot from the sun and weight in the trailer, they were reaching 125-130psi (110psi rates). I dropped pressure back down and made it home without another blow out.
Absolute trip from hell but also a ton of fun. 5/10 would do again
Got a front driveshaft in it, did rear shoes and drums only to have one of them warped from the get go and try to fuck up my shit. This in turned burned a wheel seal out so I got to do both axle seals and new rear gear oil. Also put a drop put an arm to help with the bad steering it had. The way I mounted the frame it kinda fucked that geometry up till the drop pitman arm went on
Also got rhe shocks back and new valving is definitely softer. I’m still full soft on the clickers and it’s not soft enough but we will get there about that. I was going back and forth on upping the rear valving but with a .020 stack in the 2.0 shocks, 300psi of nitrogen, and an IFP set at 6”, I decided to just lower the crossovers 1”. I’m going to extend the bumps from 2” to 3” though
Once to this point, I’m trying to have this shit box ready for the Cali 300 to prerun with and be backup at remote pit. No time to make a cable shifter work in the cab for 4wd so I external shifter it was. No fucking pics of this master piece but it worked tits. I do have a jd customs shifter and cable here to mount now.
With the tracker buttoned up enough to go (still a leaky trans but 0 fucks given) I had to get my 02 Dmax ready cause my wife could not leave with me at the same time for the race (her truck is the 2020 Dmax). That pos got new pads and rotors all around, new cv boots, new fluids, tcase leak fixed, air bags installed (no overloads on leaf pack), new idler pulley, gauges fixed, new power steering pump because the old one just fuckin pissed shit out pulling in to do finishing touches on it, 5th wheel hitch installed (already had rails), and more shit I’m forgetting. Mind you, this was all done in 2 weekends, 3 weeks before I leave.
Toyhauler, weekend before the race, got bearings repacked only to find all the brake shoes were about fucked off. So scouring through phx, I could only find manual adjusting shoes for my shit, not auto adjusting like I had. Fucking kicked the mill on and make those mother fuckers work. Again, no pics because I’m frusterated as fuck and running out of time. Typical pollack.
Shits loaded and ready for the fuckery that’s about to happen. Fuck off, yes it’s sitting low, bags weren’t aired up yet.
On the way out, 10 min, battery light flashes on and off under heavy boost. I kick it back, light stays out. Fuck it, we are sending it. Get all the way to Blythe without issue because we all decided that going up through yucca is the better way to go (the fuck it was). As we start up towards desert center, truck temps start to climb. It’s 113* out so I kick back to 65 and 4rh gear. Just before Chiraco hill, truck jumps to 240 and I pull off to find the upper turbo coolant hose blew.
Dropped the hauler door and opened up the tracker for tools. Scabbed on a 14 year old piece of air line to get up to midget Nate for some 3/8 high pressure fuel line. Hour of down time later, chat with a CHP officer who can’t believe I’ve fixed the truck and we are off. Pulls Chiraco without issue. Get into Indio and it’s 120* god damn degrees. Truck is running 230 on flat ground, Jesus… hit the turn off for yucca and wound up getting caught at the light at the bottom of the hill. Now I got no run for the hill coming up. 35mph, 3k rpm and 2nd gear, here we go. After pulling both long ass hills, get to the top and go to leave the stop light at the top only to find I have 0 power till 2600rpm and boost comes on. wtf… I top off fuel and inspect shit but nothing obvious. As I drive, I’ve come to the conclusion the wastegate flap has broke off the valley turbo and I’m now basically driving on my s483 big turbo. 0 fucks given at this point and this engine is good for 4500rpm. Sent that mother fucker. 15 miles from Lucerne, fuciing trailer tire goes. 3 year old hartland just blew the fuck out. Never had that before. At this point, I’m about ready to fucking go home. I’m done. I call the wife, tell her to grab the trailers 2nd spare, the Anderson hitch her truck uses and we are using her truck to tow the trailer home. I finally pull into the campsite at 5:30pm. We left at 8:30 am
.Next day, I can’t wait to beat on the tracker. Got 2 miles out to prerun and smashed a rear brake line. Slapped a vice grip on the brake line and I’m back at it. That sum bitch smashed through that course like it was no big deal. I had so much fun and was cooling along that course passing sxs’s with the a/c blowing ice cold. Absolutely made the trip. Did blow out a body mount but 30 min of welding st camp, she was fixed. The front end is fucking amazing. I can punt that sucker into shit without a worry. To me though, I need to soften it up more. Clickers shouldn’t be full soft all the time and still be too stiff. The ass end worked like a champ. I was slamming her into holes I filled expect to bottom the rear out in and never did. Rear shock temps saw 250-275*, fronts were 200-220. I’m good with that when it was running 40-50mph through shit for 1-2 hours at a time and no breaks. That damn course is rough!
Qualified 3rd in class and 14th overall. Decent spot. On race day, Nate drove and I was co dawg. Mother fucker set a god damn pace on the first lap! Had 5 min on the leader and 10th overall. Then he started getting sick. After the race, we believe he got heat stroke and motion sickness… but I digress, second lap we start checking way up on speed from this. As we are going we are scheming how to get him better. Tried a few things at each pit and they ain’t really working. On 3rd lap, we are way off the pace and now just trying to finish. We lost 4wd and not long after, lost a rear tire. I changed it while Nate tried shutting the car off and seeing if we could reset the 4wd. Nope. Near the end of the first lap, remote pit talked to Killian and found they could add a co driver during the race as it went on. My buddy grabbed a band from Killian and we planned to put him as co dawg while I drop. As we hit main pit at the end of the 3rd lap, car started acting like we lost a rear spring and front end was real loose in the steering. Found the body savers on the outside of the shock that the dual slider rides on had fallen down and jammed the fuck up in the slider. I quickly devised a plan to compress the springs with ratchet straps, pulled the bottom shock eye out of the trailing arm and yanked all that bull shit out. Put it back together without the body saver deal and got back in the car. The guys that looked over the front found the steering rack bolts were loose so they tighten them up and we were off. I went out with a mind set to finish but still wanted to set a decent pace. At rm2, out of no where I loose all steering. We get set off course barely staying on 2 wheels and find the two loose bolts on the rack snapped and left us high and dry. My co dawg ain’t done fighting and asks if I think we can change the rack out there. Fuck yeah we can. The sweeps on the course got a rack from main pit and brought it out to use. We also found a control arm bolt that about peace’s out and got that tighten back up. Hour of down time later, we are back rolling again but now we have 45 min to make remote pit or our day is done. We take back off and try to take it easy but by rm17, the car had enough and broke an inner tie rod. We figured it got damaged when the rack broke and put all the stress on the inner tie rods. Our ass limped off course and those beers we got at camp never tasted so sweet. We all out a valiant effort in.
Sunday was a shit show. Loaded my 02 on my dad’s flat bed (they came out to help) and my mom drove her jeep back. Somehow the goose ball in my wife’s truck was not in her truck so I spent an hour in town looking for one. 400 bucks later from tractor supply, I got one. Headed home and 30 min from search light, fucking blow the RF trailer tire. That was the other 3 year old hartland. The other 2 are 2 years old and different design. Come to find out, tires were getting so hot from the sun and weight in the trailer, they were reaching 125-130psi (110psi rates). I dropped pressure back down and made it home without another blow out.
Absolute trip from hell but also a ton of fun. 5/10 would do again
Glad you made it there and back home. I'm trailer tire issue suck and high pressure is shit. Must be why the fancy cars need nitrogen for their tires so pressure doesn't change with temp.
Also I-40 all day. I-10 to the 62 hills are garbage. Plus the lights always get ya.
Also I-40 all day. I-10 to the 62 hills are garbage. Plus the lights always get ya.
SaltyMethods
Well-known member
Awesome play by play. Sounds like torturous fun.
AzPrelander
Member
My guess is some kid used to beat on and drive that truck like a race car… maybe… not like I would know about any of that tho…
84projectFORD
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2022
- Messages
- 293
I wouldn’t say “use to”. I still doMy guess is some kid used to beat on and drive that truck like a race car… maybe… not like I would know about any of that tho…
Midget Nate
Active member
Doesn’t really matter but I find myself with a little freetime. Caught on fire first pit. We lost 4wd early 2nd lap as well as I got sick which somehow only cost 10min. (At the pace we ran in a couple sections you woulda thought we were running a Sunday booze cruise 
.) Still in 2nd place, then lap 3 fell apart with a flat, super sloppy front end, and the shock. Got the boys a rack per safety crew Then the rest is accurate got a couple more things to iron out then I think this misfit crew of blue collar SOBs are going to turn some heads on this deal.
.) Still in 2nd place, then lap 3 fell apart with a flat, super sloppy front end, and the shock. Got the boys a rack per safety crew Then the rest is accurate got a couple more things to iron out then I think this misfit crew of blue collar SOBs are going to turn some heads on this deal.
84projectFORD
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2022
- Messages
- 293
Doesn’t really matter but I find myself with a little freetime. Caught on fire first pit. We lost 4wd early 2nd lap as well as I got sick which somehow only cost 10min. (At the pace we ran in a couple sections you woulda thought we were running a Sunday booze cruise
All I heard was “blah blah blah, I drive like a bitch. James is driving from now on”. Thanks dude!
84projectFORD
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2022
- Messages
- 293
Done some short trips since Barstow. My house to crown king, went out to florence for a crawling adventure with the zuk group and used the shit out of my welder, that was cool. Did have a spark plug die internally. Was fun as hell though because i could finally line this fucker up on obsticals i was afraid would blow front end parts before. Never got to run the power line rd thats all whooped out. Wanted to though
Ran a night run behind pleasant with the kiddos in back. Had a great time till one got motion sick. Didnt help she ate candy all day and not much water since it was her birthday party at school. We turned back half way through but they had a blast on the jumps we hit. Funny how the guy with the least amount of lights has the most suspension and the guy with the most amount of lights has the least suspension
Lastly, went on a 5 day cow elk hunt in western new mexico by Alpine AZ. Never been before and was just my dad and i. Was a muzzleloader hunt, iron sites only. My great uncle has 1600 acres there and gets a couple tags each year to sell or use. He had an extra he gave to us if we wanted it. I said “hell yeah”. Didnt get one but god damn it, got close. Got down to -4 one night and high of 26. All my dad kept saying was “fuck im glad you brought this thing. A rzr would be cold as hell!”. We figured out wed have ro spot the elk in the morning on a hill top and try to cut them off. This meant hauling some ass in the rig sometimes. Was great just to smash over shitty rocky roads at 30-40 and be smooth. Dad was pretty stoked on that too.
Rig needs a little work now. Gained a pretty good engine oil leak. If its where i think its coming from (seam between main girdle and block), its getting water weld over it to plug it. If its not, ill see how to fix it. Tcase still needs to come back out to fix the tcase to adapter leak and LR shock is leaking at the shaft seal. I think its due for a shock shaft and new seal.
Im highly contemplating ditching the 2.0 rear shocks and adding 2.5” shocks to the back. We will see. The 2.0’s actually do great but i fear they wont hold up to the heat if i got a long run of whoops. Going to sell the 2.5 10” stroke coilover saw’s i have and 2.5” 14” stroke 3 tube bypass saw’s i have too. No need for them at this point so may use that towards the rear shocks
Ran a night run behind pleasant with the kiddos in back. Had a great time till one got motion sick. Didnt help she ate candy all day and not much water since it was her birthday party at school. We turned back half way through but they had a blast on the jumps we hit. Funny how the guy with the least amount of lights has the most suspension and the guy with the most amount of lights has the least suspension
Lastly, went on a 5 day cow elk hunt in western new mexico by Alpine AZ. Never been before and was just my dad and i. Was a muzzleloader hunt, iron sites only. My great uncle has 1600 acres there and gets a couple tags each year to sell or use. He had an extra he gave to us if we wanted it. I said “hell yeah”. Didnt get one but god damn it, got close. Got down to -4 one night and high of 26. All my dad kept saying was “fuck im glad you brought this thing. A rzr would be cold as hell!”. We figured out wed have ro spot the elk in the morning on a hill top and try to cut them off. This meant hauling some ass in the rig sometimes. Was great just to smash over shitty rocky roads at 30-40 and be smooth. Dad was pretty stoked on that too.
Rig needs a little work now. Gained a pretty good engine oil leak. If its where i think its coming from (seam between main girdle and block), its getting water weld over it to plug it. If its not, ill see how to fix it. Tcase still needs to come back out to fix the tcase to adapter leak and LR shock is leaking at the shaft seal. I think its due for a shock shaft and new seal.
Im highly contemplating ditching the 2.0 rear shocks and adding 2.5” shocks to the back. We will see. The 2.0’s actually do great but i fear they wont hold up to the heat if i got a long run of whoops. Going to sell the 2.5 10” stroke coilover saw’s i have and 2.5” 14” stroke 3 tube bypass saw’s i have too. No need for them at this point so may use that towards the rear shocks
84projectFORD
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2022
- Messages
- 293
Its like they knew were private property was and would hide there. Fuckers
