coheed

Took it to a buddy's house to do an alignment on their nice level concrete garage floor. Then I went on the first adventure since the axle swap. I found an aluminum topper about 110 miles away and could only get the length and width measurements out of the dude. I was worried it might be for an S10 and be too short on the truck. I figured if it was, I could just put it on the trailer and no one would notice. I also stopped off at Carolina Sandhills wildlife refuge to tool around a bit in the sand. Not a lot of pictures, but it's a fun little spot, and they also have dispersed camping so I may go back at some point. Well turns out it was a perfect fit for the Manche. It's a custom built one, so at some point someone probably went to Stoney's truck toppers and said they wanted a work cap for their long bed MJ. It's a little taller than the fiberglass one, and has much more volume inside because the "frame" of the fiberglass one protrudes in much more. It's also about 75lbs lighter. It's got panels that open on all 3 sides which is cool, I'll just have to figure out how to put up a removable bug screen. It also has struts like I haven't seen before. They're 2 slip fit pipes with a captured spring in the middle. The back and the passenger side work fine if a bit crusty, but the driver side is rusted shut. Not sure if I'll just clean up the stuff on it, or switch to gas struts. I scrubbed it decently yesterday, but the paint is flaking off of it. I'm gonna take it to a high pressure car wash to see if I can blast off the spray paint and get to the hideous neon green paint underneath

Been meaning to make a thread about turning my grandad's Comanche into a trailer. Due to having issues with his estate I couldn't get a title for it, the typical floor pan and frame rail rust, and having been flipped and crashed a few times with a fairly warped frame I decided turning it into a trailer would be the best way to keep it around. This is truck that he and I would cruise around in the woods, take fishing trips, and do general truck antics in. So, it had and has a lot of sentimental value, and I really didn't want to get rid of it since it was one of the few things he gave me when he passed. This is what it looked like while it sat at my old house for quite a few years. Start by cutting the cab and the body off. I ended cutting off everything except the frame rails about 8-9 inches in front of the back of the cab brace. Next I had to deal with this internal frame brace as I was planning on building a tongue and welding it to the factory frame. I also wanted to take the bracing off the outside of the frame as it was no longer necessary. I just marked where the spot welds were and used a spot weld cutter to remove them. I also cut the back of the cab brace off as the tongue I was building was going to be enough. Next I needed to open the frame rails up a bit. They curve inward at this point just enough that it interfered with me inserting and test fitting the tongue. Next was measuring and tongue test fitting. I built it out of 3"x3/16" c-channel and 2"x1/4" wall square tube. I used them only because it was what I had laying around and I didn't want to pay for any materials aside from welding rod and the coupler/jack. Then I did the final trimming on the frame rails as I had a good bit of excess material. I ended up welding and bolting the tongue to the factory frame. I did a combo of fillet and rosette welds along with 3 grade 8 3/8" bolts on both sides. Don't have any pictures of the welds at the moment. Got some gamblers to match my other truck. The trailer was a huge help when moving houses. I know I looked like Jed Clampett driving down the road, but who cares . The new house only has a little 12x12 shed as compared to the 20x14 I had at the last house, so the trailer has mainly been a storage unit for some things since I moved. It currently has no axle or springs under it as it had the 4.10 d35 that I threw in my other truck. Currently debating whether I want to shell out $400 for a new custom axle with electric brakes or go the junkyard minivan rear axle route and do hydraulic surge brakes.

Personally, I think trucks with matching trailers look awesome. Even better if the wheels match. This was right before I did all the suspension work, and I won't be able to get a good, updated picture until I get a new axle for the trailer. I've thought about taking the windows out and doing the pass through thing, but I don't know if I'm thin or flexible enough for that I'd like to build the trailer out as the camper/sleeping area, so I could go places, drop the trailer if need be and have the truck to explore with. Only problem is my 2.8 is real tired and having a full camping setup and the trailer it's honestly unsafe how slow it is. I'm hoping I can get a 3.4 donor sometime this year and start that.

Yeah, I love old long bed trucks with toppers. There's a OBS 250 crew cab with the 2-tone purple and white paint that rolls around here, and I drool every time I see it. I've got my eye on another one on FB right now. It's an aluminum one with a built-in rack on top. If I get some stuff sold and have the spare cash, I'll probably grab it. I like the idea of having a long bed with a camper top and a matching long bed trailer that also has a camper top on it.

It's just something about a long bed with a camper top that really gets me. Also screwed around in the yard on the trees that power company cleared before I put the top back on. Even with the sway bar still connected, the 4.10 gears and the flex from the leaves makes it so much easier to get up stuff.

I feel like the only tops I've seen where the carpet sits flat and looks good are the newer tops that are completely smooth on the inside, or people who do it to their aluminum tops. How warm does that Mr heater keep the truck? The coldest camping I've done in mine got down to maybe 15, and my insulated pad and sleeping bag were enough to keep me warm. But I've thought about getting one of their little buddies to heat the back.

Both of mine do the same thing. Whatever the factory used to seal them to the bottom metal part has deteriorated over the years. I thought about cleaning out the channel and using windshield urethane to reattach them.

Thanks. Your truck was one of a few that made me fall in love with the long bed and camper top look. I like the swb, but something about the lwb and a topper just gets me. Personally, I think @howeitsdone has the best camping setup though.

Got the factory sway bar put back on with rebuilt JKS disconnects. Bedded the new brakes on the neighborhood street and took it for its first spin back out in the real world. Getting up to speed isn't the awful experience it was with the 3.55s. It loses a lot of steam about 50mph, but that's where most of driving maxes out anyway. The difference of all new brakes front and rear is astounding as well. Before it struggled to lock the rears up in heavy braking. Now it'll lock all four up if I want it to. Next will be getting new hardware for the front bumper and getting the camper top switched back over.

With the way they are made, not easily. I suppose if they go out outside warranty you could open the housing and replace the Leds. The top 2 look like custom sized cob panels, and the reverse one looks like a 3x2 or 4x2 panel. It also looks like the lense is separate for each light instead of being one piece like the factory tails.

Well, new wheel bearing solved the issues. I shouldn't have tried to cheap out and do them later. I went with the Mevotech's from rockauto because they had the best warranty at the time, and they were fairly cheap. Also, replaced the mounting bolts with some Dorman ones. Took it for its first official spin in the neighborhood being "fixed" and.. HOLY CRAP!! The switch from 3.55 to 4.10 is astounding. It feels like a whole different truck acceleration wise. Granted, I only got to third since I live on a small dead-end street, but the difference in get up and go is worth all the effort. I can only imagine how much difference it would make with a 4.0 or a more powerful engine. My rpm at highway speeds is something to keep track of, but Squirrelly Dan doesn't really see much highway anyway. Also installed the Oracle tail lights from the pre-order. Significantly brighter than stock, and my rear harness was already hacked up, so I didn't feel bad changing the connectors.

I don't need anything from them now, there was an issue and I got an automated email about my pre-order. When I emailed them about it I got no response, even after 3 separate emails. More of just an anecdote of how they didn't attempt to communicate with a customer who had just spent a few hundred dollars with them.

From my experience, good luck getting them to reply to anything.

Disclaimer: my truck has been hit on both sides, so the bed is a little warped around both of the tail lights. That said I wouldn't use the fitment on my truck as a testament of how they fit on a straight body. Haven't done the wiring yet cause I just wanted to see how they looked on the truck. They lined up with the mounting points on the truck well, and came with new captured nuts for the body side. They sit pretty flush against the body in both directions. Over all I like them. Only a year warranty, so hopefully they hold up well for a good while.

No reflectors on the rear. No DOT stamp on them or the packaging though, so they aren't claiming to have any.

They do have side reflectors.

No more jacked up than anyone else who has a hardtail

Well, some sour news. I was gone most of July for a trip to Japan, so I had to delay working on Squirrelly Dan. When I got back, I buttoned up the little loose ends, and bled just the rear brakes. Then I took the truck for a test drive up and down the neighborhood. Immediately I knew something was wrong. Even in 4 low it took a good bit of effort to get the truck moving. Once in motion there was a horrible oscillating screech. I originally thought it was the rear brakes, maybe I had over adjusted the brand-new drums and shoes. I pull back in the driveway and notice that the front wheels have a massive amount of positive camber, and it's different on both sides. _ Obviously, something's wrong with the hubs since the ball joints are brand new, and my alignment math can't be that wrong. I am then reminded of Eagle_SX4's thread about swapping in different axles and how they interface with the hubs. The CV axles I installed are billed to fit ZJs, XJs, and MJs, as such they come with an ABS tone ring on them. I didn't think about taking the tone ring off as the back of the hubs/bearing out of my axle was completely flat. Well, they didn't play well with each other. Luckily, it seems the only things that suffered permanent damage are the hubs and the tone rings. These were torqued to 175lbs/ft while rotating the hub. Although I did notice that during installation I couldn't use the provided washers or nuts as they were too thick. Once they were installed there was not enough thread exposed to install the locking cap and cotter pin. Also, when looking at Eagle_SX4's thread they talk about swapping the sealing flange from the old axles onto the new ones. Well, the I.D. of the flange is about 2mm too big to install on the CV axles. Looking at SKF, Timken, and other bearings spec'd for the pre 89 knuckles they have a pressed in seal on the back that seems like it would fit over the end of the CVs. Debating on if I should just order some Mevotechs from Rockauto, as they have the best current warranty policy and I've used some of their components on some the harder to find parts for Toyota's I've owned, or if I should try to get my hands on something local.

Finally received an email at 10 this morning that the lights were ready to ship from the pre-order. I paid my balance, so now we wait

That's a fair point. I forgot brake fluid is non-compressible so the pressure is the same throughout the system. Also, even with the opened valve in hand I'm still not sure how the fluid gets through the valve.

As I mentioned in the thread I made about just bleeding the rear brakes I had a crappy old leveling valve that wasn't really worth keeping. Today I took it to work and cut it open on the bandsaw. I didn't realize the blade guides were loose so the cut was a little crooked, but it's still a pretty decent cross section of the valve and all the bits therein. I'm pretty positive that the little green valve piece is oriented the way I did it in the picture, but someone more knowledgeable of brake valves may correct me. If it is oriented that way it has about 3/32 of back and forth that would change how much pressure is let through. The spring got absolutely destroyed and that was the largest piece I could recover.

It's on the bottom of the carburetor facing the driver's fender. If you undo the steel line coming from the fuel pump on the block, you can unscrew the entire housing the line goes in.

No need man. It's something inquiring minds want to know. I have an old crappy rear valve I could try and slice open on the band saw at work I noticed a lot of debate about the emergency line in my googling and we might be able to figure something out that way? Or would we need to cut the front block open?

I disconnected at the wheel cylinders if that makes a difference. And clamped the rear rubber line while doing all the work so I would lose as little as possible. Is there a way to check if the emergency line has air in it aside from tripping it or doing the factory procedure?

As the title states I'm wondering if I can just bleed my rear brakes without having to do the entire complicated procedure from the FSM. Reason I ask is I just recently bled all of my brakes when I had to replace my rubber lines, then I disconnected just the rear during my axle swap. Hoping to avoid doing all of them again. Edit: I should have mentioned that I do still have the rear prop valve installed, and don't want the extra hassle of removing it at the moment.