Lill Mule 89 BII

[shawn.m]

Had a good snow run. Only got stuck once!

everything worked, winch worked good, air compressor worked good

I was at 11-12 psi and broke through the crust going up hill. shoveled a little bit. lowered my tire pressure to 6psi. backed up and got out of it. pretty darn happy with how my driving skills are getting better as I drive the mule more.

only a couple of pics -
once to show as I was pulling a guys Kubota RTV out you can see farther down the hill one of the team ended up completly sideways on the track. Also notice the depth of the snow with water running on both sides of the road.

2nd pic is to show what happens when you break through the crust on the snow- just powder underneath

 

[4x4b2]

dude this is one sick bronco, im really starting to like 2nd gens, what ever happened to that toyota top for the rear?

 

[shawn.m]

dude this is one sick bronco, im really starting to like 2nd gens, what ever happened to that toyota top for the rear?

angles were all off. my wife expressed extreme opposition to it also

that was why put the canvas top on it.

 

[shawn.m]

belltech shackles mounted

ok got the belltech 6400 lift shackles installed. The body is now level as measured by my angle gauge.
No sweat at all. the leaves on the bronco have poly rear bushings as a side note.
Also re torqued the rear leaf spring mount bolts.
Cycled the suspension to make sure first that the rear shocks are long enough with the lift shackles. The shocks are about 1 inch longer than the lowest droop of the leaves
The pinion angle is still good also- pointed right at the rear of the transfer case- maybe a touch up right now. The drive shaft looks like it has plenty of travel also.

It is 12 inches from the top of the spring mount to the frame at full droop. at normal height it is 6.75 inches. Did some quick flexing and stuffed the rear wheels up. Got it to 3.5 inches from the frame with about 2 more inches before the tires hit the inside top of the rear fender wells. I will have to try stuffing it more tomorrow during light to see how much more space I have. After i undo the front sway bar and turn the rear shocks to 1 -loose-

Drove it around and it seemed more balanced. A touch more twitchy but not bad. The headlights work much better now that they are pointed at the road

 

[shawn.m]

measuring for my sliders now. trying to decide on how to mount to the frame in the rear.
need help on this one.

Measured the front wheels - I am at .5 degrees negative /\ at the moment at rest in the garage. Need to get it to like .5 positive camber out \ / . Factory setting is 1- 2 degrees positive. Which I dont like. I would prefer 0 degrees.

Also about 1/4 3/8 toe out. So need to play with that.

 

[Robert_1967]

If I understand correctly, most shops make the front just a touch toe in for better handling, or something like that, of course I could be wrong and just dream't it.




Robert

 

[shawn.m]

toe in and out are almost personal preference.
1/8 toe in keeps wandering down.
Toe out makes it easier to do turns as the outside wheel will be turning more
I prefer 0 toe in - it means that I have to be a bit more active driving but it doesn't wear the tires as much on my mountain roads. I had this done on my other vehicles

alignment is a bit tricky with a 6 inch lift - my suspension moves all over the place because of the springs. Will get really interesting when I put softer springs up front.

 

[shawn.m]

alignment and snow run

so the alignment was pretty good. spent about a hour to get it almost 0 toe in and then more work to make it so that the steering wheel was straight down.

except after all that work it looks like the rear end is cocked a little bit. so it still pulls a little bit to the right
It runs easier down the road - I can coast longer than I used to. so I am close. Need to work a little bit more on the rear axle to see if I can get it straight.

did another snow run today. REALLY REALLY sucky snow. crust on top and then dry powder sugar snow underneath. As long as you were on top of the snow you were ok. break through and then it was shovel time.

Even our most capable rig was breaking through the crust and having to winch constantly.

As we were airing down a guy asked us how far we were going in. Turned out he had stuck his stock 4 runner about 4 miles in the previous night. So gave him a ride in. He was pretty stuck and had broken a front hub also. We tugged him out and got him on his way.

We had to get around him first as the track was real narrow. As I was going around i got sucked into the powder. So I did my first winch out with the new bumper. With all the guys razzing me
No issues. might pull off the rear bumper and reweld that while I am thinking about it.

When we came out and were airing up, I had a minor issue. I unintentionally did the one thing that you cant do with the MV50 air pump. turn it off to check air pressure and then turn it back on. the pressure from the tire goes against the piston and the motor cant over power the pressure.

blew the fuse and then blew my spare when I forgot to pull the leads from the battery. guy behind me finished airing up my tires so I was ok.

also compared my normal air gauge with my new slime air gauge. turns out my good -$7 Milton - air guage is about 3 lbs high compared to my other gauge. checked it against my buddy's gauge and the Slime one was same as my buddies.
So that means that I was running at 11 psi instead of 8. I need to take a picture of how much the x-terrians bulge out - it is incredible

 

[shawn.m]

On Board Air stuff

Picked up a cheap air compressor for $37 at Harbor freight parking lot sale, I got the last one in the store. This gives me the air tank, fittings, pressure gauge, pressure switch and a heavy duty power cord.
Thinking of mounting the MV50 under the hood by the air cleaner and battery. Maybe mount the tank in the back. Will have to play with it to see what I like. Good thing is that the compressor will be matched to the compressor. Might enable me to run a air rachet for getting tires off. Will also help for blasting tires back on.

http://www.harborfreight.com/1-3-hp-3-gallon-100-psi-oilless-air-compressor-97080.html

also bought the air compressor starter kit on sale for $12

http://www.harborfreight.com/20-piece-air-compressor-starter-kit-91860.html

 

[shawn.m]

Top

A buddy gave me a jeep soft top with brackets and tubing. it is not long enough but I might be able to extend the soft windows to the cab line pretty easy. The lines match up much better than the toyota truck topper that I was trying to use before.

maybe get pictures next week

 

[B2Guy]

keep us posted about the top. I need to come up with an idea to get a soft top on mine.

 

[shawn.m]

haven't played with the top yet. did a couple more snow trips in really crudy snow. problem is that I am running 33s' and the rest of the guys are running 35's
which means that the front ttb is pushing lots of snow.
Actually decided to put the B2 up for sale and look for a lifted 4 door explorer or grand Cherokee so that I can fit the family better. Put $3k on it for now

 

[legoms013]

I see it there on craigslist. hah. small world.

 

[shawn.m]

Ran Rubicon

what a amazing trail!

I thought Barret was tough. - it is but not as intense as the Rubicon.

It was really fun to see peoples faces when they realized it was a B2 on the trail. Only other fords I saw on the trail was a beat up ranger with a D44 plus a couple of early broncos . pretty much Yota and Jeeps other wise.

We went in Loon Lake up to Little Sluice turned around and went out Wentworth Springs. Wentworth Springs was really intense - no turn outs, lots of rocks and VERY tight trail.

Will be posting pictures very soon


damage report
peeled the diff cover a little bit. added a couple small dents to the body. The rear bumper really needs to get moved in - was banging off it quite a bit. Plus the rear rocker panels on the bottom.

Driving report
Overall the B2 works amazing 93% of the times. Only it really big rocks does the small tires and gearing show up

In the slick rocks, this thing does AMAZING! the Xterrians aired down to 11psi, grip like nobody's business in the rocks. I was getting traction where all the BFG MTR's were not. Even with the limited slips I was getting traction all over the place. Plus this little thing flexes all over the place. I will post some videos to show the flex.

Only had to winch once where I slid sideways going up a rock face. Droped the rear tire in a deep hole with the bumper on the ground.

I am not sure I would do the trail in this setup again. I would want to put 4.88's in with 35's before I did this trail again. It really needs a little height and lower gears to get slower

It is all relative - run a local trail called Strawberry and its fine. Run a really rocky trail at 3mph and thats too fast. I've gotten pretty good using the clutch and letting it idle along at 800rpm. If I am going to continue to do trails like Rubicon and Barret I need to some improvements.
AND I like running the rocky trails

 

[shawn.m]

First time on the 'Con

lots of fun needs lower gears
start of trip

flex shot

pulling a jeep off a rock that he high centered on

granite bowl the crack to the right

Up the hill

if your moving dont stop till the top

trail spotting

will post videos tomorrow