Ode to FGT; a refresh story

Big boy

 

Tires are on and alignment done. Drives great. Only rubs on my loose passenger front wheel liner. Zip tie should fix that. Spacers are still on at this point. Might keep them.

 

Today’s shenanigans, camper shell roof rack install. Parts finally arrived after 2 shipment attempts to include all the parts.

 

Bars mocked up

 

Dunzo. Not too hard of a job. Everything looks better with a nice rack.

 

Slap some wings on it and go for a flight!

 

Truck towed great today. 90 miles, relatively flat. OD off, lots of tongue weight as I filled the 55 gallon fresh water tank.


Trans temp monitoring showed the trans has ice in its veins.

 

I'm impressed. That's a much bigger trailer than I would expect to see one of these trucks tow and I'd have fully expected the trans temp to be ~200°F.

 

Much smaller than the trailer I used to tow with this truck

 

Pics?

 

How much bigger is it than the other? Hard to tell

 

New one is 21ft box and 4300#
Other one in the pic is 28ft box and 7200#

 

Do you have a trans cooler or any aftermarket stuff to help with temp? Have you done drain and fills on ATF or running factory fluid?

 

I’ve drained and filled twice since I’ve owned it (every 80k or so it seems). Factory trans cooler and radiator cooler.

 

Tire update:

these things are great so far. Towed the camper down to alligator / dove hunt this weekend. 90miles or so of highway and 2 lane road. Truck was rock solid and rode fine for LTs. Definitely not harsh. Off road was great as well. Drove up steep levees and across plowed fields with deep ruts, gravel roads, sand, but no deep mud. Traction was A+. Never needed 4wd and never slipped a tire. Happy with them so far.

 

Back at the alignment shop. Pulling right, steering wheel slightly off center. Hate having to hold the wheel left to keep it out of the ditch

 

Hopefully they don't tell you it's time for new cam bolts.

 

“Radial tire pull” and some alignment tweaks. Swapped the FR and FL tires.

 

New alignment feels better so far. Does not pull to the right for sure. May be a little bit “wandery” though. I’ll drive it some more and see how it goes.

 

Wandery at hwy speed can often be fixed with more caster. How are the rack bushings?

 

Brand fuckin new poly

 

Got your alignment numbers?

 

Didn’t get the new ones. Had the originals above.

 

Replaced door checks today. Not too bad, a little finicky with getting the new ones in and the check re-installed, but did both sides in less than 45mins.
Doors hold very solid now. No slamming on my calves when I turn around.

Requires door card removal. 3 Phillips screws and 2 torx. Lift and unplug.


Then unbolting the check from the door frame and the door and weaseling it out through the inside door shell. Then you drill out the spot welds and separate the plate from the cup that holds the friction pads.


Then it’s just a matter of swapping the new pads for the old ones. Be sure to note the orientation while removing the old ones.



and voila, your door now holds itself at half and full mast when open with authority. I’m going to look the video up again and get the appropriate lube for it and should be good for awhile. Normally the door would slam shut on this incline

 

Needed a way to secure the bikes in the bed when we are also towing the camper. Decided to make a removable mounting board with fork mounts for the bikes. Measured and cut the board, fitted the mounts and sanded and finished in bedliner. Used a some large self tapping screws to secure, will swap out for riv-nuts in the future to make it easier to remove.

 

I appreciate a custom fixture on a reasonable budget. Reminds me of my fishing pole rack. Well done

 

about $55

 

My T100 had something similar to these two thingies on the front of the bed rail. I never knew what they were for. I had planned to remove them eventually. But I sold the T100 6 months later and bought the other tundra.

 

Today this is a yes. I've lubed between the leafs at the end pads with some PB and it went away. Not sure it's a great log term solution though. What would be the preferred lube for these?