My FJ upgrades

Tires are on now. One was "out of Round" which is a manufacturer defect, so I returned it. Need to wait a week and reorder it so I don't get the same one, lol.

Also ordered some spacers since the tires are really close to the UCA.


Edit:
Got a shipping notice for the bumper and sliders! 

Dropped off the sliders at the local Line-X to get coated. Should be done today. 1.25" spacers also showed up yesterday to push the wheels out a bit further for more clearance with the UCAs. These 2 items should be installed today after work.

Got the winch mounted to the bumper which was a mess as I had to unspool about 1/2 the cable to reach the nuts. I just need to find a place to mount the control pack since it won't fit in the bumper attached to the winch. I have ZERO space left under the hood. I'm looking at mounting it inside the bumper next to the winch and adding a remote control system.

www.amazon.com/Warn-90287-Wireless-Remote-Truck/dp/B00D2HI32U/ref=pd_bxgy_263_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=124KM8N8QEBNK5RW0ZF9


Edit: Line-X just called and the sliders are ready for pickup.

Sliders are now on. I had to dremel the holes open and they mounted quickly after that.

I also ordered some stuff to mount the winch control box inside the bumper.

Updating original post with changes.


Edit:  Got just an email, spare tire is at Wally World.  Need to pick it up after work.

OK, bumper and winch is finally ON!!

Will update original post.

Sent a pic from the outing with OM to the bumper manufacturer and he threw it on his instagram feed:

http://instagram.com/p/Bcisf1iFxVA

2 weeks ago I got the rack installed (seriously, 4 months waiting to get a good weekend?!) Should have been simple, unbolt, remove, put new rack up, bolt on.

So I had to cut 4 of 12 bolt heads off that held on the old rack... don't ask. Then instead of messing around trying to get the bolts out of the OME brackets, I just replaced four brackets in about 20 minutes and cost $20 for the new brackets. Put on the new rack and bolted in on in about an hour.

Ordered a Hi-lift jack mount and waiting on that for now. This weekend I'll put that on and mount the jerry can holders.

I might even get ambitious and try to wire the side and rear rack lights. ..... maybe

OK, this is not a vehicle update per se, but an outing report.

I went to visit family over the holidays and decided to do 2 days off road with friends/family.

Rausch Creek off road park ( rc4x4.org/ ) was our destination.

Day 1:
A guy posted that he was going out to do green trails (the easiest) and was looking for more. My niece signed us up and we headed out to meet him on Friday. So we go through the paperwork drill getting our memberships and fees, etc. So this silver Pathfinder pulls up next to me (his vehicle). It was easy to spot both of us, we were the only Toyotas in the whole lot (about 50 vehicles). So he gets out and goes in to get his daily pass. My sister is like "Is that the guy we are suppose to meet?", guy has a green mohawk. So I said "He's probably a financial consultant" and get out of the FJ to meet him. Nice guy named Chris who is from lower Jersey. So we head out and I let my niece drive (greens I was ok with, blues I took over). We get out about 30 minutes and he turns onto a blue trail, so I start driving. Then we come around this corner and the trail is marked as green but I look ahead and it's washed out so bad it looked like a waterfall of rocks. Get to the bottom of the trail and it's marked blue. Apparently they were reevaluating the trails that week. We were on this one trail and he stops and looks up another road to see some Wranglers up there having some issues, so we turn up the trail. He stops and sees if they need help, nope they are good so we continue on. Later we stop and I get out to talk to him. I said, "Did you stop to taunt the Jeeps?" He smiles and said "If they were having issues with greens, I figured I would show them Toyotas doing blues" So after 3 hours of bouncing around I get the "I think I'm getting a migraine" from my sister. Well, that's the end of the day so we head home. I thanked Chris for taking us out and showing us around. Seriously nice guy. Props to Chris.

Day 2: We (bro, friend, and his GF) show up and want to go out with the guided trails they were having.
Guy says "You had to preregister and my green group is full up. Sorry"
I say "Cool, I'm here for the blue group."
He looks at his papers and smiles "Lucky you, last spot".

The entire 13 vehicle group was Wranglers, except me an another FJ from NJ. So everyone airs down their tires (I didn't) and we head out. 3 hours later some people had to leave so the whole group heads to the entrance. We sit around for 30 minutes eating lunch and stretching our legs. It was 25 degrees and the fog started rolling in. Head back out with the group and we got on a trail called "Topless for Tatas". It was a cancer awareness dedicated trail and narrow as all hell. I'm watching this FJ in front of my and I swear he scraped a few times. I thought, well I don't need side mirrors in SC since we don't have inspections. I'm waiting for the FJ in front to clear an obstacle and I get out and talk to the people behind me who we ate lunch with during the break. I said "So which one of you is betting that I lose a mirror in here?" He just laughs and looks at his GF, she blushes. So back into my FJ and head out. One set of trees was so close, I had to go up on rocks to tilt the FJ to clear the mirrors. Yea, that tight. So we did 3 more hours then headed in for the day. The guy behind me says "I have 6 hours of GoPro footage and most of it is of you clearing stuff, do you want it?" Hells yea!! I'm going to try to sync up my footage with his and make a vid. They were another group of nice people we met and they were up from NC.

Overall it was a blast. My FJ performed flawlessly that day. The other FJ got caught on a rock and we gave him grief saying he was making FJs look bad. All laughed, the Jeep guys kept telling me to winch him off to add insult to injury. He eventually got off under his own power.

I give Rausch Creek a solid 5 star rating, would wheel there again!!

TL:DR
I went off roading and had fun. Rausch Creek Rocks!!