RainGoat

Instructions for the Lokka are on the web. I think I watched through some good Australian ones on PCoA.@TowndawgR50 loves his Lokka & says it’s pretty easy to install.

See what I mean - slow! I have a 17” ProComp spare that was my roof spare in the old days (as well as the OEM spare) but I haven’t yet decided on my final tire/wheel size. Given how everything is trial & error here, I figured I better wait until the SFD is actually on to do that. I also have a perfectly good set of Toyo Open Country ATIIs that have served me well. I’m planning on replacing them when I go larger but I don’t feel any sense of urgency. I fully expect a ridiculous transitional period when I’m abnormally raked & on tiny tires but it’s been smashed in the front for nearly 2 years anyway & my wife has zero interest in driving or riding in it so it won’t be much of an aesthetic change. For my final product, I’m leaning towards black ProComp(ish) steelies with the proper backspacing rather than spacers. Of course aluminum is all the smarter up here as it’s not nearly as rocky as the SW here & AL doesn’t corrode. However, steelies are cheap & easy enough to repaint as they wear. My whole truck is slowly creeping towards POR 15 Chassis Black accenting-the satin finish matches up pretty well with all my factory faded black. (Even my mailbox is now Chassis Black-it will be a long term UV/wet weather exposure test case) Tires of course are another area of debate. Likely the largest BFGs that will fit.@TowndawgR50 was advocating for a KO2 & a KM set. I think I’m both too cheap & too lazy to do that. Originally, I was leaning towards the new KM IIIs as this truck will largely be local only & the IIIs are supposed to be both quieter & track better than the IIs (though every review I’ve read was from someone who got them for free so I don’t really trust them). Probably just go with KO2s (unless KO3s show up during my delay). I’ve heard good things about the Falken Wildpeaks but never teally heard why one should get them over KO2s (other than cost I presume).

Is darwinpasta you? Wow, you’ve got a lot of videos!

Slowly chipping away at that swingate retrofit project.

As an FYI, a number of us are getting together this coming weekend as hawairish is coming to town. I thought you guys might be too far out to care but maybe not. Do you want to be kept in the loop when we’re doing stuff? I think right now it’s me, ferrariowner123, Pathy_02 & TownDawgR50. Invites extended to Stpickens, micahfelker, bobsterrific, Mr. Jim @ Cam (can’t remember his NPORA handle).

Ha, Ha, it takes a NWer to understand how true that is though with SE OR, I think@poachr may have you beat.

You can get those Gold Plugs for $19, I have them in 2 vehicles, a Fumato on another & an old Fram Sure Drain (SD-3) for my Path. The quick drains are nice but I worry about them on an off road vehicle if it doesn’t have skids, also, it’s not like undoing a drain plug is hard. I can’t say I’ve ever really seen anything on the magnets but they were only $19. I didn’t even know oil filters might have magnets in them (I’m going to have to look into that-that’s definitely the way to do it-definitely would make a plug redundant). Finally, there are cheap pot metal magnetic plugs out there-don’t get those. The Gold Plug is decent quality.

Just be careful of lateral snatches. Also, making a bridle that runs straight from one to the other has been known to crunch the radiator support

You might want a keeper on them, especially if they end up upside down.

Yep@TowndawgR50 has exactly the same things to say about his LR Spring & Bilstein 5165 experience. He loves their firmness & really notices their resilience in comparison to his 5100s. That’s how he convinced me. However, I’m looking at a 3-4” SFD with a total lift about 4” so neither of your 5165s will work for me. Now I’ve got to get those smarter than me to figure out which ones I need (ahem,@hawairish &@TownDawgR50).

Thanks for posting the parts list. BTW, where did you get the manifold blocks? I want some for my diff breather project but I’m not sure where to find them (or connecting hose for that matter). Have fun on the trails & keep safe from the fires!

BTW, you have an awesome name! Kind of sounds like Jack Reacher. And just to be clear-@hawairish advice totally trumps mine. He has an incredible amount of hands on experience.

The vast majority of people are running 2” suspension lift. 31” Tires no problem. 32” if you use spacers or a 3.75” backspace wheel. This can be done relatively inexpensively & on your own.

I thought I saw that Q70 in the background of one of your shots (Thanks to Infiniti’s mad Q scheme I had to google to confirm that was the old M). Funny how many of us are former Z & current G/Q owners. My first car, 34 years ago was a Z. Not counting my wife’s cars, it’s one of only 4 I’ve ever owned & I still have 2 (& just stopped driving my ‘93 Maxima SE MT a handfull of years ago). Excepting the GTR (& the 350/370Zs, which I’ve never driven but find attractive), I can’t say I’m a fan of current Nissan. I used to consider them 3rd in reliability (behind Honda & Toyota but with the best engines & handling of the 3. Reliability has apparently tanked & I was disappointed with the JX vs our 2nd Gen MDX. I think the Q’s are pretty but I was also disappointed with the Q50s usability & driveability so I went back & got a used G for a ridiculously good deal. Thanks for the detailing tips.

I’m jealous of the excellent weather you two had for your project weekend. It’s cold, grey, wet & miserable here.

I think I’ll wait until you’re here & we can talk it over with[mention=37543]TowndawgR50[/mention] before I buy the shocks. The rack, suspension & swingate are all on my winter ToDo List. Rack is in process. On our garage day,[mention=37543]TowndawgR50[/mention] & I reviewed the minitower concept, I left him a rail & he was going to fashion some. For the swingate, I’m all for reinforcing & I liked the bolt & washer approach the last guy used over the rivnut-that said,[mention=37543]TowndawgR50[/mention] hit his pretty hard this summer & it took it pretty well.

I haven’t used NuFinish before but Consumer Reports tested it & the paste form was the longest lasting (~1year) though they agreed it was a bit plasticky in finish-not their favorite appearance. I don’t care about the appearance as much as the longevity when it comes to my roof - which is what I’m focusing on. I had thought the new synthetics might be the way to go but they apparently look great but go away quickly (less than 3mo). Honestly, I haven’t waxed a car in 18years, possibly 28. This might be the last. I did store your regimen as I might use it on my G.

The air gauge & switch in that drawer is brilliant. That’s a pretty worthless space & putting your air controls where you don’t always have to look at them is perfect. Brilliant idea. Super happy to hear the 5165s worked well with those LR Springs as@TowndawgR50 & I were planning on doing that to my rig. Sounds like I know which ones to use now. Definitely need those other part numbers for the bushings. I’m definitely going to need@TowndawgR50s assistance with that. I want to keep my rear sways but it looks like I can use the OEM links for now but will need to figure out an answer for when we put the SFD in place. I see you kept the AirLifts. Was that just because you were already plumbed for them? Both@TowndawgR50 & I had them but he discarded them with the LR Springs & I was planning on doing the same. The onboard air looks great. I was planning on putting my breather bracket in that location so now I think I will put it elsewhere to leave that space open for that option. Thanks for the pix & write up. Man, that white & black sure looks good!

Read @JoshRichards recent thread. It answers most of your questions.

Looking forward to hearing about those LR Springs & Bilstein 5165s

Okay, let me hijack a little as I’m in a similar situation. I’m particularly wanting to fix & detail the roof before I mount a full length Rola V-Tech Rack over it. 2 problems I’ve encountered: 1) Clear coat is flaking away on roof around rear rain gutter/roof rack rails on one side. Any way to protect that better? I don’t want to spend a bunch & I don’t really care if it looks great as you can barely see it when standing on the ground. I do plan to run this truck another 10+ years & it has to sit outside in the Pacific NW so I’m mainly just thinking about protection. 2) just behind the sunroof is a small area 1-2cm x 1cm where something must have hit it & it went through to the metal-it’s rusted a little. I’ve thought about steel wooling the rust off, using a converter & then factory touch up paint. Any recommendations? Once I fix those things I was going to use a Meguirs clay bar detailer & then simply apply NuFinish Paste wax as it’s supposed to be the longest lasting. Then the rack goes on & I doubt I’ll ever do it again.

For what it’s worth, until I get a front locker, I’m not 100% convinced I’m putting manual hubs on yet myself. I probably will do it but in the wet NW, I really like the AWD with an open center. In packed sand, non-deep snow & wet slick roads where you aren’t going to have to pull yourself down out of stuck, the open center avoids the understeer you get when you lock the center. I switch btwn 2WD & AWD daily here due to all our rain & moss covered roads. If/when I do put on manuals, I’ll pretty much have to keep it locked all the time anyway so the only real advantage I get is the strength of the manuals vs OEM, the existence of which I can only take on others theory. I’m also just a little terrified that if I leave them unlocked my Mom or my wife might drive it & pop it into AWD as they are accustomed to doing when its wet or I might even do it unconsciously due to 16 years & 106K of muscle memory. I wouldn’t get too wound up about doing it right away.

When I lived in PHX, I had a buddy in the Valley, so I’ve done that drive a few times. If you guys are ever putting together a joint UT Path trip & don’t mind a shotgun, let me know. For the past 3 years I’ve been flying down to SLC to meet my Mom for part of her Overlanding trips. SLC is an easy flight & super cheap on AK Air points from SeaTac.

I’m a former Phoenician & you see much rougher as well as longer washboarded roads in the SW. I’m also in the retain the sway bar camp as most of my former travels were overlanding in character. The SW has plenty of long, flattish washboard road, especially up in the high desert. In fact, it was cutting across BLM1025 from Fredonia to Wire Pass & behind the swell in UT where I fell in love with Toyota’s KDSS on my Mom’s T4R. That’s exactly the kind of road we’re talking about. Another infamous one like that is NM57/Navajo SR14 on the way up to Chaco Canyon. Oh yeah, the Mojave Trail West of the Kelso Cima road is an incredibly long run of moguls where you’ll feel the difference for sure. You definitely will be well served by those 5165s.

Congratulations on acquiring such a well built & pretty truck. Also, really sorry to hear about that failure but you certainly know the repair was worthwhile even if a PITA. You are going to be right where I am headed with my truck (not a terrible surprise given I’m consulting heavily with@hawairish &@TowndawgR50 for guidance). Fantastically, you are about to definitively answer a question I’ve had.@TowndawgR50 has been VERY happy with his LR NRC9448s & Bilstein 5165s. So much so that last weekend he convinced me to go with the 5165s over the 5100s or 5125s. He, however, runs a 6” lift, whereas I’m looking at a 3-4” SFD. My research in the next week or so was to figure out the right part# for the 5165 for my rig. Let me know how that one (25-261400) works out because, if it fits & functions properly, I’m ordering mine as soon as I have confirmation from the two of you. Awesome timing & thanks for posting!