43" tires on a BII

[D'cheat]

Ive been hassling Ballistic for an ETA on my parts. Short of it is they dont know when it will hit my door. Fawk it. I canceled the order. Once the $$ is refunded ill be getting my goodies elsewhere. Sucks. I was Really looking forward to getting their remote reservoir air shocks.

 

[RUTH]

sorry to hear you had to cancel the order.... but just so you know.. i got my doubler put in tonight

 

[D'cheat]

Ya did? Nice How did it go? Any major issues? I have got to get my ass over to you neck of the woods and check your rig out!

 

[Maverick]

Ive been hassling Ballistic for an ETA on my parts. Short of it is they dont know when it will hit my door. Fawk it. I canceled the order. Once the $$ is refunded ill be getting my goodies elsewhere. Sucks. I was Really looking forward to getting their remote reservoir air shocks.

Both times I've ordered from Ballistic I've had issues. Both times I waited weeks for parts. I know of more people that have had the experience I've had than people with good experiences. Their customer service and communication with each other within the business sucks. The quality of their parts is great and are reasonably priced too, but I can't say if they'll ever get my business again.

 

[RUTH]

it went good.. i built it all from scratch except the shaft, had dutchman build that, ill get some pics up, and the crawl ratio works out to be like 124:1 and im happy with that, but now i will deff have to find a HP 60. and you wouldnt have the need for any explorer parts (91) would you ???

 

[D'cheat]

Hehe, ill take the 4.0 from the exploder off your hands

Yeah Maverick, I feel the same way. I like what I have so far from BF. But then again thats just laser cut plate. Anybody with the tools can do that.
I was willing to sit tight for the rest of the parts, but NOBODY *not of rrorc affiliation* could give me an ETA. When I placed the order, I was told a 1 month lead time at most. Over a month later I called, e-mailed and PM'd them with the response of "We are waiting on housings and dont know when you will get your parts". Thats Unacceptable. So, when the nearly $2k gets back into my bank, ill order elsewhere. No biggie. But I was SOOooo hoping to have this truck up and running by now.

 

[RUTH]

ill be keeping the 4.0 and 5spd o and complete wiring harness and fuel system for future projects.. thats if i decide to part it out anyways...

 

[D'cheat]

Update time! Well, BF is REALLY dragging their feet by way of getting my nearly $2,000 back. So, over two months with no parts, and now a month waiting for my monies to get back. I called a few days ago asking wtf is taking so long. I was told back when I canceled my order that it would be 12 days at the most until my refund, and they needed no additional information from me. When I called a few days ago, they said "Oh, we didnt have your credit card info on file to do the refund. So it will be another 12 days." Funny how this didnt come up when you took the monies from my card. Im sorry, but F'ck this. They have lost all recommendation by me in the future.

On top of this, Progress has now come to a halt on the project until further notice. My mother, who lives with me, has just been diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. The DR gives her a year or so to live at the most. We are going to try chemo therapy, in hopes that it will clear up the big C. However, due to the down time associated with the treatment, she will loose her job. And if chemo fails... Well.. So now her additional income will be gone, and all bills will be on me. Thus the toy fund will be diverted to more important stuff like food rent, and the satellite tv.

Its Deja Vous for me. The last truck I was building reached this point of the build (another BII, 351w and unimog 406 axles) before I had to part it out due to her having a stroke and no insurance.

I dont know why the world seems to be against me building another crawler, but its kinda the way it seems to be. Oh well...

If progress is made, Ill post its updates. Until then, this thread is going to be abit on the dead side.

 

[The Jester Race]

Sorry to hear that. Best wishes.

-Jester

 

[D'cheat]

Update time! Seeing that the rig is just sitting, ive been plotting and planning quite abit. So, out goes the 2.9 and 5 speed, and in goes a nice 302. I have a buddy who has had this engine sitting around for quite a while. And I plinked down a cool $100 to take it out of his garage. It turns out that the 302 I bought is a former pro-mod race car engine. He's not to certain as to the numbers that it puts out, but he told me it was a screamer of an engine.
All the really means to me is that I need to disassemble it and check the bearings and rings. I know what a hard life race engines have.
Ill convert it to a stand alone fuel injection system later on in the build.

After MUCH mulling it over, Ive decided to go with an automatic transmission.
There are two reasons for this: One, having to shift when climbing a steep grade can completely **** your line up with the split second of power loss from taping the clutch.
Two: I NEVER want to replace a dead clutch on the trail AGAIN. I cant tell you what a pain in the ass it is when your cold, covered in mud, dont have the proper tools and your in the middle of nowhere.

So I picked up a C6 with a late model Dana 20 t-case for $500 Im happy with the deal.
I also stumbled upon a 32 gallon JeepSpeed spec fuel cell at Summit, marked down from $690 to only $400 due to a few scuffs on the paint. Thats going to have a happy home shortly.

The rear wheel well construction is going along, and I have all the templates ready to go for the front wells. They are being built out of 16ga. cold rolled. Nice and heavy beefy. Ill snap some pictures soon. Thats about it fellas!

 

[The Jester Race]

Awesome, I'm glad this project is back on track.

-Jester

 

[59bisquik]

Sounds like a great plan! Your gonna love the automatic offroad. Just one word of advice, before you get too carried away offroad, find out how vertical it needs to be for the tranny to quit picking up tranny fluid. Mine has to be real vertical, but a couple of times I have lost all gears until I lowered it down a bit. SOme guys run the tranny overful by a quart or two. Just throwing that out there!

 

[D'cheat]

Heh, I had that happen a few times with the c5 in my old BII with 302. Freaked me out the first time, and it nearly caused me to roll the rig. There are a few tricks to keep this form happening. Namely getting a deeper pan with a rear pump pickup.

 

[disciplerocks]

Glad to hear its going again. How's your mother doing?

 

[D'cheat]

Glad to hear its going again. How's your mother doing?

Thanks Not too good, regretfully. She wrapped up her chemo and radiation treatments with only minor complications. Its been a month from the last set, and she just had a series of tests to see just how affective they were. Well, the tumor in her lung has shrunk quite abit, however its not gone. Though it is now small enough to remove via surgery.
Down side is, they have now discovered a large growth on an adrenal gland which is actually on top of your your kidneys. Could be more cancer, more tests need to be had.

Man, when it rains is pours...