The EXPO TRON Build

Actually was installed by a good friend of mine while I did the wiring directly to the brain from the accessories. I wish I knew @Grendel but yea he did the wiring inside the truck

 

I fell asleep while drafting it last night.

 

For light tap it into the parking light. The corner bulb off the headlamps. I believe it was purple for mine. Just tap into Posi for that.
Ignition I used an ignition powered source.. I did add a fuse to cigarette lighter.

 

This in Vegas?? haha

 

Nah, we were crushing powerline roads between the Mojave Road and Death Valley.

@n2deep rolled up on the shock in the middle of the trail and asked @dragos28 how the truck was handling.

“Awesome! Still hitting these jumps at 85”

 

hahahah awesome

 

Speaking of VEGAS who is going to the MINT?? @stefan702 We got Spec 4 Passes and will be out there @ 0500 Race Day! Also we should meet up somewhere during contingency

 

Yea buddy!! I work the every evening of the week so that sucks!

 

I heard you're starting to feel alittle flu-ish.....

 

As I type this on a government computer I will probably feel a tad under the weather.

 

Likewise! haha and yes for atleast contingency Friday night. @PLC721 will be in attendance along with some other taco guys

 

are you guys camping or hotel camping in vegas for the mint?

 

8am on Fremont Street???

 

I wish we were camping but since this is our first time, it was recommended we get a hotel.

Plan to leave Phoenix around 4am so more like 9 or 10

 

SPEC 4 is sold out!

 

Well damn aren't you a local?? I thought you'd be expert level in this haha

 

hahaha

 

Coffee and "Mall" Crawlers - February 3, 2018

Lets just say we definitely showed up the "crawlers"... Out of the 15 or so jeeps, we Toyotas were the only ones playing around with the RTI ramp. Guess they were too cool for us It ended up being a good turnout between a couple of us tundras @boardude @GTABurnout @Help and our buddy Rob along with some TacomaWorld members.


I started the party, wish I knew more about A-Trac before this haha prolly would have gone higher













Something here looks pretty small


Rob aka RAGNAROK swooped right in and did it next haha he literally just showed up and started driving up it






Tundra Lineup



Then some crawlers came in, still yota!




Show-stopper! ADS FTMFW and he could have gone further since his back tire was starting to climb

 

^^^^GREAT PICS!!!^^^^ That old bullet ridden, rusty ADS equipped Chevy Suburb wasn't too bad either..heh..heh

 

Thanks man haha yea it was a beast! Fully caged and ready to party....or get shot at I suppose

 

Bunch of Desert Rats you are...

 

Recently took a transfer to a new duty location in Ajo, AZ This means the wife and I could finally move from the Dirty T to Chandler or Gilbert area! We've been planning to move there since we first started dating, but the opportunity finally presented itself. With that said it was time to start packing and see what my new expo leaf pack could handle. I loaded every piece of camping equipment we have into the truck! Of course I would never roll out to any trip with this much gear, but it was fun to see how much (or "little") the truck actually sagged. I'd say this was easily in the 800lb range and sure enough, the pack sagged no more than an inch Valley Spring Service FTW!





and now all packed away in its new home for 6 months

 

You're "kind of" surrounded with a lot of good wheeling areas. Have you been south to the town of WHY and if not why?

 

I have not, but very soon it will be my new stomping ground at work!

 

Fuqn amateur

 

Nice photos all

 

how does your truck ride with empty load and the new leaf pack ?

 

Wow! I gotta take my leaf pack to valley springs. That is some major weight and it barely dropped!
Upping the new packs make you go back to the stock/smaller shackle?
And how does your pro shocks handle with em? Extra height make you loose some down travel?
I just went with the rxt packs.. I know.. I know.. go ahead
But I am really close to pulling the trigger on the second option. Which will put me close to 3” up but able to support 500#
I’m on first option and it gets u happy with just tent rack and tools. 300#ish

At this height are we killing that much down travel from the factory pro shocks?

 

I'll be honest I haven't had the time to do a run with my normal loadout. @PLC721 and I recently ran a pretty long technical trail with my RTT on and it was surprisingly smooth. I did expect alittle more stiff rear end but the RTT does add 175lbs. Now I may be different than most since my "empty load" will always be the bedrack, which weighs minimum 150lbs, and bedslide which may be another 75-100lbs. Even with that empty load daily driving has not changed enough for me to notice.

Alright I probably need more research into this before I answer but for now, my direct response from David at Ekstrom Design aka Coachbuilder, was that the shackles don't negatively affect the longevity of the leaf springs. I personally always thought shackles sped up the process of wear and tear on them, more specifically making them flatten out faster because of the extra stress. I honestly don't know the true answer but I left my +3 shackles on the truck and had Valley Spring continue building the new pack. Only time will tell, and even valley spring said it was case by case basis. Phil over there knows I'm figuring this out so in a couple more months, I'll head back and he'll be able to tell me if the leafs have sagged and if the shackle is good or bad for them.

I am still highly impressed with the Pro shocks. Nothing but good things to say about them, however I will upgrading to extended length ADS rears of some sort, unless I just man up and do the camburg kit to run 12" bypasses. Main reason is I have confirmed the shock is the limiting factor in the down travel as they were obviously designed for a 2-2.5" lift... I'm sitting comfortably at 3.75"-4" lift in the rear with my "empty load"