TowndawgR50

On a serious note- Look at how absolutely terrifying this spring compressor in that reference photo is...the threaded rods look distorted and ready to break and kill someone. This new compressor we have been using is very robust and uses a single "acme" style threaded rod that is contained in a hardened case. No back and forth from one side to the other trying to make an even compression of the spring. Its safer, easier and has much more travel per rotation due to the coarse acme thread. Best design Ive seen to date

Bingo! This is probably the source of our issues @RainGoat I also have a towing harness but I tow regularly as well so I'll just put up with it for now. Maybe we might need @ferrariowner123 to help us with custom harnesses. No issue other than the cruise control/turn signal cancel

Yup, the wiring is fine but after installing LED bulbs cruise control gets canceled when the turn signal is used. Not a huge problem but just a little annoying.

Our 2003 Gambler500 rig received the second iteration of the SFD kit this weekend. Prior to this the front end was swapped with @ferrariowner123 's 1996 and the results were great. Fast forward to this past weekend- We held a workshop to iron out processes and familiarize @02_Pathy with the work required to install our kit as he will be performing the install at his place and helping @Stpickens with his truck. Huge thank you to @ferrariowner123 & @02_Pathy as well as the rest of the PNW and SW test groups for their help, participation, patience and the initial work required to make this all happen. For now the Gambler rig still needs mechanical attention and some odds and ends to be ready for the Washington state Gambler 500 event in August but the bulk of the prep and install is done. Its currently setup with our Pines to Spines 4" SFD kit, factory worn out front struts and springs and LR9448 rear springs with the OEM rear shocks. It will receive some replacements for the older suspension components, the current prototype roof mount system for a rack and accessories, a swing gate and some other items but mostly run as is for the event. We are aiming to run this truck through its paces and, pending positive results, start installing the kits on the test group rigs for real world trials soon after.

Thats interesting. I never have to warm them up to grab. Did you break them in? I have the same setup. From rockauto? While I wont get slotted and drilled rotors again because they trap debris when off road they have performed great for me when towing and traversing steep descents. Paid for themselves after the first emergency stop with our trailer.

Powerstop Z36 HD pads. I tow a large trailer and go off road recreationally. They are fantastic pads that have a lot of bite and have worn well. Not much brake dust at all and dont off-gas much when they get a workout like lots of pads will.

https://www.4x4parts.com/

Sounds like a solid plan. Polyurethane bushings are a great upgrade for the R50 platform and provide a lot of bang for your buck. I have changed all rubber bushings on my truck with SuperPro front poly bushings and Chasis Unlimited rear control arm poly bushings with fantastic results. Id reccomend the upgrade to anyone with the budget and time. Thay said- Id argue that the Nolathane products Ive used recently arent the best quality available, but OK if your on a tight budget. The bushings available from AC(SuperPro) and Energy suspension are great quality and worth the additional cost. Energy suspension runs slightly higher on hardness scale(70-80 on the durometer scale) than the Superpro units(50-60, slightly harder than OEM rubber of 40-50). For street driving this may be desirable but translates more vibration and road noise and will increase harshness off road. I feel the SuperPro units have a great balance of polyurethane performance without inducing the standard issues that come with polyurethane since they are only slightly harder than the OEM rubber units. I use my vehicle for towing and off road recreation and the entire suspension package (see my signature) has made for a great dual purpose vehicle.

Probably the easiest, hassle free choice. While it may be repairable a new axle assembly will pop in fairly easily and quickly solving your problem all together. Afterwards by all means take apart the damaged axle and diagnose the problem, fix and keep it as a spare since both driver and passenger sides use the same part. Ive never seen an axle cleanly come apart at the joint like that. They tend to fail at the joint itself and have significant damage as a result so it would be beneficial for everyone to see what happened here.

Based on the image you provided the splined portion of the axle shaft has completely come apart from the flexible joint, which also has a splined portion that remains in the hub, presumably with the outer snap ring in tact. You need open the hub, remove the outer snap ring then remove the flexible joint of the CV axle thats still attached to the back side of the hub. At that point you can assess if the inner snap ring has broken or there is any other damage which resulted in the CV axle coming apart.

I love my O'Reilly lifetime warranty new axles (not remanufactured from old cores). They come fully greased and assembled with the outersnap ring. Before I installed my SFD, I was running 2" spacers and went through 3 CV axles for the price of 1 thanks to the warranty. Two of them due to CV bind and 1 to a ripped boot. They have worked great since fixing the suspension geometry and have seen lots of HD abuse with my 6" setup, a combination of towing and off road use. The lifetime warranty guarantees the axle for as long as you own the vehicle and its as simple as bringing in the old unit and swapping for the replacement. No hassle, no fuss and no shipping. The lifetime warranty from local parts stores on high wear parts is a great investment in my opinion.

I can't comment on AC springs but I tow an 18ft toy hauler and the LR's have proven themselves to be great for that as well as having fantastic performance off road. The tounge weight is pretty high and the trailer itself is 3750lbs unloaded. I have had no need for airlifts since switching over. The ride quality is obviously not entirely dependent on the springs but with my current setup the truck is a great dual purpose vehicle

Currently Running 2" spacers with my LR9448's and no longer need the airlift helper units. They worked well for my rig as a tow vehicle but off roading with them in caused the bags to fail. They don't have a way to re-seat properly when articulating the rear axle so the fragile neck of the bag that goes through the spring perch gets pinched. The rear OME MD's give around 1.75" of lift and the bags worked great with that setup. When the load was enough to cause the OME MD springs to droop the bags brought the truck back up and improved handling. If you need load handling the cost of a set of LR springs around the same as Airlift load helpers ( the airlifts cost around $80 bucks and the springs were about the same to my door from the UK) and will never fail you. The ride is not harsh and they are one of the best upgrades for the R50 for the cost, hands down.

Looks great. Nice work! When did you install a tire carrier? Dont think I've noticed it on your rig until now Edit: just noticed it in the earlier shots. Its factory?

3.4L mod. Not a small job. Good power gain. Check out @deltaR50 build thread.

Keep the strap intact, place the top side on the truck, cut the strap and as the shock slowly extends guide the lower bushing over the axle side mount.

https://www.rocky-road.com/index2.html https://www.4wheelparts.com/p/arb-old-man-emu-coil-spring-2928/_/R-BHWQ-2928 https://www.summitracing.com/parts/emu-2928

Swapped the front ends on @ferrariowner123 1996 and the Pines to Spines 2003 today. He graciously donated the 2003 last year to @hawairish and I with the request that we swap front ends at some point, which he and I knocked out this afternoon. All body parts and lights bolt on with only the hood latch on the 2003 and wiring for the lights on both rigs needing some modification. The 2003 uses 9003 series headlights and has the corner/turn signals combined where the 1996 has separate signals and corner lights and uses a 9004 series headlight. With both rigs present and @ferrariowner123 's electrical knowledge it was a fairly straight forward job to swap and modify the plugs to get everything sorted out. The fender flares do not swap over and have to travel with the appropriate fender but once paint matched shouldn't be too noticeable. All in all a neat project with both rigs fooling you at first glance.

Hey guys- thank you for the questions and comments! As of right now we have had one installment and during that process found the hardware approach needed improvement and we carefully evaluated the installation process. The next vehicle (The Gambler 500 rig or one of our two personal vehicles)should have version 2.0 installed for road&trail tests soon. We have already acquired a domain and hosting for a website but the site is low priority for now. Our main focus is on refining the design of the SFD components and proving they're road & trail worthy

@ferrariowner123I wasnt sure but figured if anyone would know you would. Good work man

@ferrariowner123 might know. He is pretty knowledgeable when it comes to rare factory options. Might be region specific to Brazil.

Nice photos! Looks like a blast! Im really digging the geology you guys have over there. Kind of reminiscent of the High Sierras. I gotta get up there soon! In this one pic it looks like you might be bottoming out on your driver side shock. Hard to tell but you might want to get extended bumpstops to save your shocks from damage due to over-compression.

Finished 1 complete 3" prototype kit as well as a partial 3" prototype kit and sent them off to AZ today. In the process of making this initial batch we've invested a lot of time into fabricating fixtures for the assembly and welding processes. This ensures our kits are consistent and allows us to be much more efficient. Looking forward to the coming weeks as this has been a lot of work and time but the passion for this project only grows daily, doubly so with good weather finally creeping in here and camping season on the horizon!

Same reason I went with a 4" SFD with 6" of total lift. Ground clearance. @RainGoat

One of my two keys did that. I tried a new programmable key from Ace harware and it was problematic. Would intermittently work so I returned it immediately. Is it the only one you have? I have the original two keys and relegated the broken one to spare status.