Mr. Pickles

If you're really trying to fix it and save a buck with glue, I wonder if you could go over the top of your repair with a couple small strips of fiberglas cloth and resin. You can pick up a small do-it-yourself patch kit pretty cheap at most any auto parts store, and that could provide the reinforcement to hold the glue/epoxy/JB Weld/bubble gum repair you choose to try.

Like above, let up on the gas skinny pedal a bit. Is tune, tire pressure, etc., in good shape? Any aftermarket stuff like aggressive tires, roof rack, etc? Basically the usual mileage questions, and all that comes into play and can chip away. Making sure your truck is in top shape and easing off the go juice can help quite a bit, and if you find it hard, cruise control can be your friend on the highway.

I didn't notice really anything for mileage until mounting some lights. That must have been just enough resistance to notice a difference. But I'm rebuilding my basket double strong with double the lights (4XProComp 100watt), with a new approach to wind and drag. I'm gonna try a clear plexiglas fairing across the front. Similar to what Yakima and Thule offer to help airflow, but clear so my lights can still shine through. Results to follow...

Go for a Yakima or Thule cross bar set-up. I scored my Yak rack on eBay for like $70 (or less) including the bars, towers, and clips. Now I hold the basket on with some Ubolts, which with a lift, you could mount a few far enough toward the middle as to keep thiefs from getting at them.

They're still sitting there? I know it took me forever and a day to send you the tracings, but sheesh! J/K, by the way! I kept the old torn up liners/gap guards, by the way, in case somebody was in need of the outline. I used an SUV cargo mat from Walmart. $9.99, its nice and thick, and 6 months or so now with no problems at all.

HAHAHAHA! I didn't even notice that.

Looks like you're all done now, but if you're struggling with the shaft, follow another version from 88. Grab one end with a bench vice, then clamp on a set of old vice grips on the other end, and pound on said vice grips down to extend the shaft. On the bumper brackets, yeah, they're a joke. After mine worked themselves back loose, I tacked the stock bracket to the frame inside the fenderwells. When I broke the tack welds after some rough running and airtime, well, I made bigger welds.

Weird, mine came apart easy. If it doesn't come apart and is actually a solid part, maybe you could just trim the parts that interfere.

I might be interested (especially since I live within 5 miles and will work within 1 or so). I've got most truck situations under control at home, but there are obviously times where a lift or extra space would help a ton. These would be my major interests- access to equipment the average guy doesn't have at home.

All I gotta say is, here's a quick fix: flat black spray paint. Other than that, these wheels.... Worst. Idea. Ever.

I vote leave them or rip them off. Besides, I bet you'd never be able to actually get them replaced under warranty when they die. There's almost always a hidden clause that can be pulled out.

That IS amazing. A Les Schwab shop that owned up. The Les Schwab's in the general area of southern Puget Sound area of Western WA are a bunch of thieving, lying, good for nothing bastards in my book. They've screwed me as well as others in my family. Hopefully your buddy is OK though. I agree on the know-and-trust aspect of the people that work on your vehicles. If they treat you well, and you treat them well, go back. Trust is hard to gain/earn in the auto biz, and shouldn't be dismissed or assumed.

Applying my growing experience with my rear locker to putting one up front, I'm imagining the truck trying to straighten itself out on every tap of the gas, and pulling the steering wheel from your hands in a turn basically. Is something like that the result of a locked front diff in regular street driving? The rear locker can already be pretty harsh to deal with around town, although I knew it going in and I don't mind. I'd imagine a front locker would be 10-fold worse, as your arms really are directly fighting the engine's torque.

$15K? That's nothing, talk to me when you approach $20K for what still isn't a very highly modded truck. That's a sweet Pathy, but the way, same color as mine so you know I like it. Did you have a hand in that tube bumper, or have it made? Doesn't look like your typical aftermarket toy. Good job, nice truck.

No worries, even with the Pathy kit you'd end up with extra stuff. I've still got leftover nuts, bolts and washers, and I've been using them on other projects for like a year! I believe 2 of those square box shaped pieces should go between the driveline hoop and the mounts at the body, but I'm not sure where the others go. Go about midway down the driveline, and you'll see this hoop- a metal hoop extending down from the body, around the driveline, and back. Actually, after looking at them, they seem to be smaller than the ones in the Pathy kit. Maybe they have another use on the Hardbody, but the Pathy kits uses 2 of those like I mentioned above. The metal tube section should be your fuel filler extension. Simply cut the filler hose a ways below where you fill 'er up, inside the passenger side rear fender. Insert the extension piece, and clamp the hose on either end. The rubber hose would be the power steering line extension, although the alternative and probably easier route is to simply relocate the fluid reservoir slightly down the fenderwell by drilling new holes to bolt it to. I believe the long metal plate with the Z-bend at left-center is a radiator drop bracket. Then there are the other plates/brackets. They don't look too familiar, so I'll let the next guy cover those.

I wonder if you could just source some generic 3" blocks to make up the rest of the kit. Most of the mounts just use long bolts and nuts anyways, nothing too specific there. You already have most of the other "stuff." Oh, and are those odd shaped plate pieces the bumper mounts? Top middle of pic, the parts that are skinny on top and fat at the bottom, with 4 bolt holes. Looks like it, and if so and they work for you, that should be sooo much better than the P.O.S. bracket method the Pathy kit uses.

I think I wet myself. Sweeeeeet

Yeah, but remember that Shrub, Shotgun, and their drilling buddies wish us the best! :secret:

I don't know if a Hardbody kit would fit, but I bet it would. Much of the parts for the trucks are the same, other than leaf vs. coil springs, 2 doors and a bed vs. 4 doors and a roof, etc. But yeah, if your body lift is Pathy-compatible, you should be fine with an autotragic tranny. Many have done the body lift with an auto, just the same as those of us with a manual. For install, search for posts by statikuz, 88pathoffroad, me, and many others for tips.

That's a sweet bumper design, nice and aggressive. Me want, me need. sly

Sorry man, I was waiting for you to PM me with some specifics or something, not to post a follow-up in a different thread after 10pm the night before I left town. We just got back tonight. Maybe next time around, I believe we're heading back down in a month or 2.

Wow, that's quite a feat. Good luck!

The majority of it is 1/2" electical conduit. As for how much it can hold, I haven't tested it just to see, but I'd say quite a bit- surely 100lbs or more at least, depending on how its loaded. I've fit a bunch of camping gear up there with no worries at all, and Mookie used to carry a spare (I believe either a 33 or 35) plus gear, with no issues. It probably also helps that I mount it to a Yakima rack's cross bars with some pretty stout U-bolts. It won't go anywhere, that's for sure. As for wind resistance and mileage, I dodn't really notice much difference with it. There's a bit of wind howl, but nothing excessive. I've had the basket off for about 2 months in favor of a ski rack, and nothing really changed. There was a far greater difference going to a lot of lift and wider tires (but still only 31" tall). Oh, and one final note: conduit is CHEAP! Like $1.50 or so per 8 foot piece.

Ummmm... I doubt it. That would be a big labor bill to randomly change gaskets.

The nuts are inside the body mount. Not welded, they do move around a bit, but not too much. And no, I don't believe you can get to them without cutting, as we had to with mine.