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PathyGig12’s Build Thread


PathyGig12
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Do you remember the brand?
 
Ive heard some people have issues with the Cardone ones so I’d like to avoid those. The other option is SurTrack, they seem ok but I haven’t heard much about their longevity or suitability for off-roading. Cardone at least uses thermoplastic boots whereas the Surtracks use neoprene 
 
 
I've used the trakmotive cv joints off rock auto and got about 50k miles before the boots ripped, imo that's pretty good for a remanufactured cv joint and also having the CV's at an angle due to the lift

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Just got a reply from MAC. Their entire email was “They are available, we do not know what happened”

 

Wow, very helpful thanks

 

Anyway, I might order from them again or maybe not. The surtracks are about 60 bucks cheaper for a set of two so I’ll probably go with those, just because I hate the idea of supporting a company that literally couldn’t care less.

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20 hours ago, PathyGig12 said:

Do you remember the brand?

 

Ive heard some people have issues with the Cardone ones so I’d like to avoid those. The other option is SurTrack, they seem ok but I haven’t heard much about their longevity or suitability for off-roading. Cardone at least uses thermoplastic boots whereas the Surtracks use neoprene 

 

 

Correction on my part. I did go with cardone as i was in a rush and could get those on  amazon next day in Canada. I will say i believe mine have been problem free but not sure where others have had issues to compare.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Big day coming up this Sunday. 

 

I have a set of SurTrack CVs sitting in the garage now, along with the other front end stuff (control arms, tie rod ends, ball joints, end links). Also picked up a set of end links for the rear to tighten things up because I think the back ones are on their way out too. The CVs look pretty solid to me, Im pretty sure they’ll last at least a few years.

 

I booked the same garage bay that I used for the lift, and my dad will be in town so I’ll have an extra set of hands, which will be nice. Once the new stuff is all in place, we are going to replace the front brakes and bleed the system to get rid of the pedal squishiness its had for a while now. If we have any time left after all of that, I’d like to replace the fluids in the tranny, transfer case, and both diffs. But that might have to wait because we’ll only have 10 hours or so. 
 

As for the bumper and tire carrier, I decided to buy a cheap welder an amazon and give it a go myself. I don’t have much time during the day so I haven’t been able to take it to a shop for the welding, and honestly it would probably be more expensive than buying the welder anyway. Im thinking I can have the bumper done before we go to the shop this Sunday but the carrier gate will probably come after. I picked up a spare 6 spoke LE wheel on eBay for 50 bucks but still no tire yet. Debating whether to get a falken wildpeak at3 so that it motivates me to upgrade the other 4 on the truck because these cheapo mudders are garbage on the highway. Lots of noise and they’re wearing out super quickly

 

Updates to follow

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RtKyeao.jpgrHQORcm.jpg

 

Rear bumper is on..... Well alright, It’s more of an “in progress” pic

 

I welded some pieces of 2x2 tubing to the bumper and inserted them the frame, but I still need to bolt it through. For now it’s just kind of wedged in there until I can get back out to the garage later tonight. I’m hoping my welds are strong enough but I’ll make sure to test it out once I’m done so that it doesn’t fall off in the middle of nowhere while Im trying to unstick myself. I’m also going to be making brackets that attach it to the OEM hitch mounts for extra strength. Not sure when I’ll be able to have those done, but I won’t be doing any pulling until it’s reinforced 
 

Planning to paint the newly exposed sheet metal either dark grey or black, and of course it still needs the tire carrier.

 

In terms of looks, I thought the bumper would be too small, but I kind of dig it. Always possible to extend around the corners with some tubing as well

Edited by PathyGig12
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New front end stuff is in place now. Just needs an alignment. Also bolted the bumper on, but no brackets yet. Tomorrow it’s going to be brakes and rear end links after work, and then the next day hopefully get the fluids done. 

 

Some pics. My dads WD21 was keeping an eye on my six lmao

 

8B14TKD.jpgOnHkwYb.jpgEjjdItd.jpg1b16hfY.jpg

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Tire carrier is coming along now. Needs some fine tuning and I need to clean up my welds quite a bit, but at least it’s taking shape now. I’ll be finished by the end of next week I think. Gotta attach a plate with studs for the tire to mount to, and then paint the whole thing. The pin I bought isn’t ideal but I leaned at least half my weight on it fully extended and it held just fine. I’ll be putting in a rubber ramp to support it while it’s closed. You can see in the last pic that it tilts down a bit because the pin has a tiny bit of play in how it fits, so the ramp will level it out while it’s latched shut. For the latch I’m just going to weld on a spring loaded barrel bolt and put a piece of equally sized tubing on the gate that it will slot into. 
 

You’ll also notice I got the support brackets done for the bumper so now it bolts directly to the OEM hitch and the bumper notches into them to provide extra strength for recovery stuff. They don’t take away any departure angle over the original hitch because they fit in the same profile, but these will also allow for a bit of a sliding surface for the back to safely drop onto if the angle is severe enough to make contact. 
 

I’ve also got 5 Falken wildpeaks inbound to replace the mudders. I’m pretty excited because things are moving very quickly now. Within a month or so I’ll be putting on a coastal off-road bumper up front if all goes to plan.

 

Dont judge my welds too much, I’m working with a 110V stick welder and have never done it before lol

 

QUmvtZU.jpgoRE57vW.jpgjufeORT.jpg

 

XCkgQQQ.jpg79hiR9t.jpg

 

 

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You may want to practice welding a little more and redo those, it barely looks like it's penetrating, if at all. I wouldn't plan on towing or using that for recovery unless you want your bumper in your buddy's windshield 

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1 hour ago, micahfelker said:

You may want to practice welding a little more and redo those, it barely looks like it's penetrating, if at all. I wouldn't plan on towing or using that for recovery unless you want your bumper in your buddy's windshield 

Lol agreed

 

I plan to clean up the welds and go over them again when I have some free time. Like I said it’s just my first attempt. 
 

Its worth noting that the primary means of attachment is still the tubing inserted in the frame and bolted, and I made sure those welds were solid already, so the brackets are really just secondary to offer a little more support. I also just had to get them on there for now, as I was out of time that day, so the full welding will take place once the bumper is removed for painting 

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Needs a bit of tweaking still, but it’s mostly  done at this point. The tire leans slightly backwards, but I’m pretty sure I can use some sort of spacers between the wheel and the mount to adjust this without needing to chop and recut things.
 

The mount for the jerry can is still mid build, it needs some sheet metal to close up the front back and sides, and a locking mechanism to keep it secure, but for now I just used ratchet straps to get an idea of whether it will sit nicely.

 

My welds are not pretty but at least now they’re rock solid. I put my whole weight at the end of the open carrier and had no issues whatsoever. Also took it for a bumpy drive and nothing has moved so far

 

The falkens are mounted now, which means no more highway howling, so I’m feeling pretty damn happy at the moment.
 

uZ0EeOy.jpgYYVRWtX.jpgVh3bOGL.jpgrc2vyKr.jpg

 

 

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7 hours ago, RAW444 said:

Looking good! How does the Pathy take to the extra weight hanging over the back?  

Thanks man. So far the handling hasn’t changed much, if anything it rides less harshly because the springs have more work to do. Cornering is still awesome for a lifted truck, and I don’t notice any significant sagging with the 9447 coils 

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Update time. 
 

So far the carrier and bumper have held up well, but I finally received the original hinge pin that I was planning to use. I recommend never buying from Comp 4x4 because they ignored 3 of my emails over the span of a month and only shipped it after I opened a PayPal dispute. Seriously. Even if it’s a good product, I just can’t recommend them to anyone after that kind of service.

 

Anyway, I’m planning to put it on tomorrow if I have the time. This should make the carrier a little stronger and make sure it’s not wobbly anymore. The current pin has JUST enough play to allow a bit of a rocking motion while it’s closed and latched, which isn’t ideal. 
 

I also just placed my order for the coastal off-road bumper today, which makes me super happy. I’ve been wanting a proper bumper up front for a while now. Should be a fun project to weld up. I went with the “no tubing option” because I figure I can make my own tubing fairly easily

 

One problem I’m trying to track down now is this weird pulsating vibration at around 50-65 mph. It sounds almost like when you drive over rumble strips, but it’s intermittent anywhere between once a second and 2 times a second depending on whether I’m accelerating or decelerating and what speed I’m going. You hear it clearly and can feel the vibration mostly though the steering wheel but a little in the seat as well. It started just after putting on the new tires so naturally I thought it was a balancing issue and had them rebalanced, but nothing changed. So now I’m thinking it’s probably a wheel bearing issue. Maybe it was there for a while but was covered up by how loud and rough the ride was with the mudders? Or Is it possible that driving on those crappy tires for as long as I did could have caused the bearings to be damage? Either way, I’ll look into it further before buying parts, but it seems like that’s pretty much the only thing that could cause it 

Edited by PathyGig12
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21 minutes ago, PathyGig12 said:

Maybe it was there for a while but was covered up by how loud and rough the ride was with the mudders? Or Is it possible that driving on those crappy tires for as long as I did could have caused the bearings to be damage? 

 Thats exactly what happened to me. There was a very loud sound (sounded just like mud tire tread slapping the pavement only a different tone, started at a higher speed, would increase in pitch more dramatically than the tire noise, and would create an oscillating droning as the tire and bearing sound waves would interfere with each other) coming from the driver outer wheel bearing and I had no idea because of those stupid (but useful in mud) tires. 

 

It was glaringly obvious when I got the wheel bearing exposed that it was completely toast. The grease looked like my daughters homemade glitter lip gloss, the rollers had gashes all over them, and there was a blue/purple streak around the outer race where it was getting super hot.

Edited by onespiritbrain
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2 hours ago, spicyheckboi said:

Just curious, when you hear that sound do you feel vibration in your steering wheel as well or is it just the sound to look out for?

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It’s in the steering wheel for sure, but also vibrates the whole front half of the truck from what I can tell. It’s not a U-joint issue because those have been recently replaced, it’s not anything else in the front end because everything’s been replaced except the wheel bearings. I can’t really imagine it’s a diff issue because the front is disengaged with the manual hubs unlocked, and the vibration is not coming from the rear I don’t think. Anything is possible though 

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5 hours ago, onespiritbrain said:

 Thats exactly what happened to me. There was a very loud sound (sounded just like mud tire tread slapping the pavement only a different tone, started at a higher speed, would increase in pitch more dramatically than the tire noise, and would create an oscillating droning as the tire and bearing sound waves would interfere with each other) coming from the driver outer wheel bearing and I had no idea because of those stupid (but useful in mud) tires. 

 

It was glaringly obvious when I got the wheel bearing exposed that it was completely toast. The grease looked like my daughters homemade glitter lip gloss, the rollers had gashes all over them, and there was a blue/purple streak around the outer race where it was getting super hot.

Well damn, now you’ve got me pretty much convinced. I’ll get the truck up on a jack and check for play tomorrow, and maybe open up the hub. I hope I don’t have to do all 4 in the front, but maybe its not such a bad idea to get them all replaced so I’m good for basically the rest of the trucks life

 

its not too expensive, I’m just not very sure of the process even after reading some threads on the subject. Although I will say that this site tends to make everything sound more complicated than it ends up actually being lol

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It’s in the steering wheel for sure, but also vibrates the whole front half of the truck from what I can tell. It’s not a U-joint issue because those have been recently replaced, it’s not anything else in the front end because everything’s been replaced except the wheel bearings. I can’t really imagine it’s a diff issue because the front is disengaged with the manual hubs unlocked, and the vibration is not coming from the rear I don’t think. Anything is possible though 
Yep I have the same symptoms showing up on mine over the past month or so getting worse, when it first started I thought it was just warped rotors which they still could be warped but I definitely am gonna try the bearings too. Gotta take it down that far at some point to do my rotors anyways  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Oh jeez, you’re right a warped rotor might be a possibility as well. We only replaced the pads when we did the last brake job a few weeks ago because the rotors were barely worn at all, so there’s definitely a chance that one of them is warped. But I don’t really notice any pulsating in the pedal while braking, which is usually the main symptom.

 

I’ve also heard that a bad bearing could be connected to rotor warping, so maybe I should do both. 

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Oh jeez, you’re right a warped rotor might be a possibility as well. We only replaced the pads when we did the last brake job a few weeks ago because the rotors were barely worn at all, so there’s definitely a chance that one of them is warped. But I don’t really notice any pulsating in the pedal while braking, which is usually the main symptom.
 
I’ve also heard that a bad bearing could be connected to rotor warping, so maybe I should do both. 
That's what I'm gonna be doing. The alignment shop told me they thought it might be warped last time I got it done maybe month and a half ago but I let it slide because I know my pads are okay, but since you're "in the area" ya know? Either way I'd expect a warped rotor to mess some bearings, so doing both should keep it from happening again I hope. All hoping its the cause of our symptoms lol

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13 minutes ago, spicyheckboi said:

That's what I'm gonna be doing. The alignment shop told me they thought it might be warped last time I got it done maybe month and a half ago but I let it slide because I know my pads are okay, but since you're "in the area" ya know? Either way I'd expect a warped rotor to mess some bearings, so doing both should keep it from happening again I hope. All hoping its the cause of our symptoms lol

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Yeah man I’m definitely hoping it’s not something worse. This should be a fairly easy fix at least.
 

So are we gonna race to see who’s done first? I’ve still gotta get the bearings but I’ve got some brand new bosch rotors sitting in the garage waiting to go lmao

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Yeah man I’m definitely hoping it’s not something worse. This should be a fairly easy fix at least.
 
So are we gonna race to see who’s done first? I’ve still gotta get the bearings but I’ve got some brand new bosch rotors sitting in the garage waiting to go lmao
Lmao same!! I have pads and rotors in a box in my room with a cb radio waiting to go I just need to get the bearings, I just came home and the rears started to squeek now ugh

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