DirtyComanche

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2y8dSWZ ... ted&search I would love to see a so-called 'tough' toyota truck survive that.

You all must put way too much faith in your spotter. I know mine is :nuts: so I don't pay him too much attention.

The WJ had larger brakes. AFAIK you have to run the WJ knuckles to use them. Which makes life a little harder.

Really? Mine are siped like mad, and I can walk through icy conditions with them that leave every other tire going sideways (at least off-road tire).

Something I can DD but have fun with... Decent power, AWD, and a lower curb weight than stock. So no removing the glass or entire bed. As tempting as it is. Lexan isn't street legal and won't survive wipers. But it'd be tempting for the rear window as it doesn't get abused. The HVAC/Dash can be removed/simplified, or entirely rebuilt, but looking at the stock parts there is little weight to be saved there if I want to keep a reasonable amount of fucntionailty. I should have weighed all the parts I took out of my trail rig. There is glass front fenders and a hood avaliable, AFAIK. They'd be worth a few pounds but would cost a considerable amount. And I haven't done the math on the gear ratio, but I doubt it would be that bad for top speed. I doubt any tires I put on it would be height wise smaller than stock (at least, not by much). 50mph = 80km/h. My MJ with 3.07s and a 5spd would tach about 2400rpm at 130km/h. That'd be like 3600rpm at 130km/h. But I'm not sure just yet. My transmission choice would be part of it...

I was thinking similar things. OTher than I'd use a LWB. In the front I thought I'd use the V8 ZJ coils and hack them until I got about a 2" drop, and maybe about 170lbs rate. And use the ZJ anti-sway if it'll fit (not sure on that one). And probably use the WJ brakes/knuckles if I could get them. Otherwise, I'm not sure. And add a truetrac (have one on the shelf) and 4.56 gears. For the rear I think I'd use one of my isuzu 12Bs. They're lighter than an 8.8, have 4.56s, limited slip, larger than D44 axle shafts and disk brakes. And a sway bar. And probably a 4-link and mount the gas tank differently/elsewhere and use some cut down TJ rear coils. It should be lighter than leaf springs, and maybe better... I was thinking poly bushings for the front suspension too. But, any good ideas on weight reductions? Wheels obviously. Perhaps removing the factory carpet/sound deadening and replacing with dynamat (is it lighter, hmm?) and lighter carpet.

Who has done what? Handling improvements? Braking improvements? Weight savings? All around drive-ability? Just looking for ideas.

Mine doesn't stay in the mount (It can't, raised tcase) so I adjusted it so it'd work that way and called it good.

Your NSS is going.

Nope. In my entire life I've only bought one set of tires new. And they were for my cutlass supreme.

I like the BFG A/Ts. They're a good tire. I think a MT/R in that size might also work well for you - but they make a bit more noise.

I can be really helpful and tell you if you have a GM HEI dist it's the one labelled " - ". :popcorn:

I've seen pics of your rig before... Looks pretty good.

Does it matter? The driver is ultimately responsible - they put the clutch in or hit N/R when it starts to come up, unless they're crazy.

I had a bed liner that easily weighed 120lbs. It was a peice of 1" thick rubber than covered the whole bottom.

Yes, I'd do the weight savings. Lighter vehicles are more fuel effiecent, handle betterm accelerater faster, and are less likely to break parts. But, alloy wheels won't likely be worth 45-50lbs unless you're talking forged aluminum. Even then, I dunno... The stock steelies are quite light (I should throw one on the scale).

I don't know how complete they were at that price.

Some of those guys are nuts... If you look closely, that thing has portal axles. What they're out of I don't remember for sure, either a Mog or a russain machine of similar design.

I thought it was a 904... But maybe that one came with the I6s in the YJs? Dunno, they're both crap.

The stupid part is that it's 'done' except if I decide to final weld the Cs (they're just tacked). I don't have a plan for my front suspension, or the money for the parts quite frankly. And I'm not big on doing the gear setup until most of the welding is done on the housing. I can do more work on the cover, and clean it some more, weld the Cs, and that's it. I need parts to do anything on the rear too. They're on the way, but it'll be a week or so...

Does it put strain on the spotwelds at the front or what? It's like anything else that flaps. Something will crack because of the cyclic stresses. It might not ever present itself as a problem, but I'm just saying...

Have you asked them for a quote? IIRC, they were talking 9g for a steering axle.

Cs back on... Had a slight snag in doing it in that when I measured stickout before removing them, well, I didn't exactly take into account that it wouldn't be the same all the way around. It won't matter. Image Not Found Welded up the cover thingy... And started playing around with the design to make it stronger/more supportive to the housing. I am undecided. I also drilled and tapped the new hole. Image Not Found

Spark plugs are over-rated. I use copper. NGKs instead of champions right now, but only because that's what was in stock at the parts store. They have to be gapped every now and then. Which is alright, you should take them out and have a look at them anyways. IMHO, gapping and heat range has far more effect on performance than plug type.

I had pipe driveshafts. Actually, the rear one is still hanging on the wall I think. They're tough, you can let them spin on a rock for a long time without real damage. I didn't do such a nice job. They almost worked out so they'd be nice and straight, but not quite. So I just kinda threw them together once I realized they wouldn't be close.